Mark Roberge scored every hire against a list of traits and then went back and checked which ones correlated with performance. Five held up: coachability, curiosity, intelligence, work ethic and prior success. The interesting result is what did not: the classic sales traits, closing skill, objection handling and aggressiveness, were negatively correlated. The lesson is not to copy his five, because the winning profile is specific to your product and buyer. The lesson is the method: write down what you scored people on, then two years later check it against who actually produced, and rewrite the profile. Almost nobody does this.
3 hand-picked resources, 3 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
Why we picked it Roberge's hiring formula in short form: the five traits that actually correlated with performance at HubSpot, and the finding that classic closing and aggressiveness correlated negatively. Read this before you read the book.
From Freshworks 12 min read
Open freshworks.com →Why we picked it The source of the hiring scorecard: outcomes and competencies written before you meet anyone, then structured interviews against only those. It is the single fix for founders who interview on gut feel.
From ghSMART by Geoff Smart and Randy Street Book
Open ghsmart.com →Why we picked it The most detailed free writeup of an actual sales hiring process: the profile, artifact-based screening before you spend live time, the mock pitch stage, and what to pay. Free to read online, no signup.
From Founding Sales by Peter Kazanjy 50 min read
Open foundingsales.com →How hiring and ramping gtm people reads from a different seat.
The same ground, over in Co-founders, team & legal, our Starting Up track.
