How to Hire High-Performing Salespeople: What You’re Missing

Hiring for sales roles has never been easy, and right now it’s even harder to find the right talent. The buyers are expecting more, the sales process requires more.

Many businesses are realizing - or SHOULD realize - that their traditional hiring practices are not working anymore.

Let’s break down what sales leaders(Yeah, that’s you!) are missing when they post job ads, how it’s hurting their teams, and what needs to change.

The State of Sales Hiring Today

According to Gartner’s 2024 research:

• 72% of sellers feel overwhelmed by the number of skills required to excel in their roles.

• 50% of sellers struggle with the amount of technology needed to do their jobs.

• Over 85% of sellers want leaders to better identify and articulate the required skills for success.

Yet, when analyzing over 100,000 job descriptions for sales roles, here’s the shocking discovery:

Less than 15% of job ads mention critical sales skills like mentalizing, tactical flexibility, or AI partnership—all of which are crucial for success in today’s B2B environment.

What Are High-Performing Sellers Doing Differently?

The best salespeople excel in three key areas:

1. Mentalizing:

• This is about understanding buyers on a deeper level—decoding emotions, anticipating needs, and actively listening.

• Sellers with strong mentalizing skills are almost 3x more likely to meet quota than their peers.

• This is also about storytelling and being able to pull a buying committee into that story. Painting a picture and getting people engaged in a future vision is crucial.

2. Tactical Flexibility:

• High-performing sellers adapt to dynamic buyer needs, experimenting with strategies in real time. Being fast on your feet mentally comes from a deep knowledge of the ICP’s challenges, the industry, and your buyer’s situation, needs, and personalities.

• Those with tactical flexibility are 3.4x more likely to meet or exceed quotas.

3. AI Partnership:

• Today’s top sellers know how to leverage AI for tasks like data analysis, personalized outreach, and prompt engineering. It’s not only about the tech, it’s about understanding what tech to use when, and HOW.

• This requires a vast amount of curiosity and a need to learn fast.

• Proficiency in AI usage makes sellers 3.7x more likely to succeed.

Why Your Job Ads Are Falling Short

Most sales job ads still focus on “old” sales skills—communication, persuasion, and CRM familiarity. These are basic hygienic factors in sales, not what will get you to the top 1%.

• Only 10% of ads mention adaptability.

• Fewer than 5% include AI-related skills.

• Almost none address critical capabilities like situational versatility or empathizing with buyers.

By hiring without these competencies in mind, you’re setting your sales team up to fail.

What to Include in Your Job Descriptions

To attract high-performing sellers, your job ads need to prioritize:

1. Buyer-Centric Skills:

• Highlight mentalizing as a key competency, including active listening and cognitive decoding.

• Emphasize the ability to build trust and uncover unspoken buyer needs.

2. Adaptability:

• Mention tactical flexibility and the need to thrive in dynamic sales environments.

• Look for learning agility and the ability to adjust strategies based on buyer feedback.

3. Tech-Savvy Collaboration:

• Include AI-related skills, such as prompt engineering and using data insights to prioritize opportunities. The sales

4. Outcome-Oriented Mindset:

• Focus on results-driven behaviors, like aligning with ICP and maximizing buyer value over simple volume.

How to Build a Winning Team

Hiring isn’t just about writing better job ads. It’s about creating a process that identifies and nurtures talent with the skills your organization needs.

Steps to Take:

1. Revamp Your Screening Process:

• Introduce situational assessments to test mentalizing and tactical flexibility.

• Ask candidates how they’ve used technology to enhance their sales performance.

2. Invest in Onboarding and Development:

• According to Gartner, 84% of sales skills are lost within 90 days without reinforcement.

• Create ongoing training programs focused on role-specific competencies.

3. Embed Skills into Your Culture:

• Make mentalizing, tactical flexibility, and AI partnership non-negotiable parts of your sales process.

• Reward these behaviors through incentives and performance reviews.

The ROI of Hiring for the Future

Sellers who excel in these three key areas—mentalizing, tactical flexibility, and AI partnership—don’t just hit their quotas; they transform sales organizations.

• Teams with high-performing sellers are 2.5x more likely to exceed revenue targets.

• These sellers also contribute to 3.5x higher customer retention rates, driving long-term success.

Final Thoughts

Today is not just about hiring people who can sell. It’s about hiring people who can solve problems, adapt to change, and collaborate with AI. If you’re still relying on outdated job descriptions and traditional hiring practices, you’re missing out on the talent that will future-proof your organization.

So, ask yourself:

• Are your job ads targeting the right skills?

• Are you equipping your team to succeed in a complex sales environment?

• And most importantly, are you ready to invest in the future of your salesforce?

If you’re not, your competitors will.

Ps. Just for fun, here is a Salesforce ad for an AE…

If you wanna dive into Gartner research - find it here.

Connect with Michael Katz to learn more about the research!

Listen to this great pod Portrait of the high-performing seller to learn more.

But most of all - review ALL your ads right now, revamp your onboarding and your training, and get to work.

Connect on Linkedin if you want help! 👇🏻