Hiring your first sales rep as a founder, with no recruiter.
Updated 26 October 2026
Your first sales hire matters more than most, and you have no recruiter to help. Write down what the rep must do in the first 90 days, let every applicant be read against that, and give the best ones a spoken first round that tests how they sell. You then spend your own time only on the final three or four.
Why is the first sales hire so hard for a founder?
Until now you have done the selling yourself. You know the product and the customer better than anyone, but you have not hired a rep before. A sales job post brings many applicants, and people who interview well are not always people who sell well. Meanwhile, every evening spent on 15 minute calls with people who were never a fit is an evening away from the business.
What should you decide before you post the job?
- Who they will sell to: small businesses, consumers or larger companies.
- What the first 90 days look like: calls made, meetings booked, deals closed.
- Whether they will find their own leads or work the ones you give them.
- What you will pay, including any commission, written down before the first interview.
Put these in the job description. Every applicant is then scored against the same picture, and so is every interview.
How does the week run?
- Set up the role with your job description and the areas to test, such as prospecting, handling objections and closing.
- Upload the applications. Each CV is scored from 0 to 100 against your description, with the reasons written out.
- Invite the ones above your bar by email. They answer a spoken interview in their browser, with follow-up questions based on their answers.
- Read the reports, with scores, reasoning, the transcript and a recording when available.
- Meet your top three or four yourself. Ask them to sell you your own product.
What should the first round test?
| Area | Example question | What a strong answer shows |
|---|---|---|
| Prospecting | How did you find new customers in your last job? Walk me through a week. | A real routine with numbers, not luck. |
| Objections | A buyer says your price is too high. What do you say? | A question before an answer, and value before discount. |
| Closing | Tell me about a deal you closed that nearly fell apart. | What went wrong, what they did and the result. |
| Targets | What was your quota last year, and what did you hit? | Exact numbers and an honest explanation. |
| Fit for an early company | What would you do in a week with no leads given to you? | Self-started work, not waiting for direction. |
There are more in sales interview questions.
What does it cost?
The free plan gives you 10 interview credits a month and 100 resumes processed a month, with no card needed. That is often enough for one sales hire. If you get more applicants, Pro is 99 dollars a month for 200 interview credits, billed monthly, so you can stop after the hire. See pricing.
Where does it not fit?
A spoken first round shows how someone talks about selling. It does not replace a role play with you or a reference from a past manager. If you already know a strong candidate from your network, talk to them directly.
Frequently asked questions
Other resources
- AI interviews for founders hiring their first team.
- AI interviews for sales hiring.
- Sales interview questions for a first-round interview, with scoring.
- Ai interviewer
- Pricing
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- How a solo recruiter screens 200 applicants for one client role.