The Ultimate Guide to Hiring a Sales Manager: A Step-by-Step Process for Business Owners

Winning sales teams rarely arise by accident or luck; they are built by hiring well and developing your salespeople. For most business owners, this starts with the most critical hire: a sales manager who understands how to use a proven process to build a high-performance team. But let’s be honest—for many owners, this hire feels like a gamble. You know your growth is stuck, you’re stretched too thin managing sales yourself, or you’ve been burned by a bad hire in the past. It’s a high-stakes decision that can either unlock your company’s potential or set it back by months, if not years. This guide is designed to take the guesswork out of that decision. We’ll turn the gamble into a strategic investment by providing a proven, step-by-step process that covers everything from the high-level strategy to the tactical details of finding, vetting, and hiring the right sales leader for your business. As always, if you need support or are seeking a Fractional Sales Manager, book a time with us, and we’ll do our best to help.

Understanding the Stakes of Hiring a Sales Manager

Before diving into the “how,” it’s crucial to understand the high cost of getting this wrong. Hiring a sales manager isn’t just about filling a seat; it’s about entrusting a core function of your business to someone new. When it goes wrong, the damage is felt across the entire organization.

The High Cost of Getting It Wrong: Pitfalls of a Bad Hire

• Financial Impact: A bad hire can cost you six months of salary ($60K – $100K) with nothing to show for it. If you’re not ready with a clear job description and compensation plan, a candidate with credentials might negotiate an inflated salary, only to leave in less than six months for a better offer. On the other hand, an underqualified person will cost you lost sales, lost trust from the team, and you could even lose a valuable salesperson. Don’t settle; it will cost you more than waiting for the right person.
• Time Drain: Hiring the wrong or underqualified manager will drain your time with onboarding. You might spend three to six months trying to get this person up to speed. In contrast, the right person will know how to find what they need after a short orientation, freeing you up to deal with fewer issues while they build more revenue and a growing pipeline.
  • Ask yourself: “How long can your business wait for results before it stings?”
• Team Damage: There is a ripple effect amongst the sales team when you hire the wrong manager. A weak team will be led astray, and a stronger team will stop listening and wait this bad decision out. Your team doesn’t have to like the new manager, but they must respect them. If respect is missing and the manager stays too long, you risk losing your most promising reps.
  • Ask yourself: “Imagine your best rep under a weak leader, would they thrive or drift?”

Common Traps Business Owners Fall Into

• The “Player-Coach” Fallback: In most small businesses, one of the better salespeople is often “crowned” as the sales manager. In actuality, this Player-Coach is responsible for carrying a sales quota while also coaching others. The problem is that the skills to teach different sales personalities and to lead a group are quite different than being a great seller. In my early thirties, I was in this position. I soon discovered I had no patience for teaching the nuances that came naturally to me, and my first stint as a Player-Coach ended in about two weeks.
• Impatience & Familiarity: Rather than setting up a good hiring process, it’s easy to act too fast in a market with few qualified candidates. Hiring a friend or a current salesperson seems less risky because you know them, but you don’t know if they can actually manage a team.
  • Ask yourself: “Familiarity doesn’t always equal capability, so are you on a less risky path?”
• Promoting for the Wrong Reasons: Often, a top salesperson is promoted because they want the title or more money, and you’re afraid they might leave if they don’t get it. This is a recipe for failure.

If your situation favors a lower cost and a greater upside by hiring the “right” sales manager, you’ll need to define details. There is a world of managers to choose from, so you’ll need to show well to attract the candidate that’s right for your company. If this is your first time hiring an experienced sales leader, it’s wise to understand what they bring to the table. Doing so will help you develop the right expectations for your new sales manager.

Defining Your Ideal Sales Leader

Before you can find the right person, you must define what “right” looks like for your business. This means moving beyond a simple title and building a clear picture of the leader you need.

The Philosophy: What is a True Sales Manager?

In a growing business, a true sales manager sees the team structure, strategy, and processes needed to meet revenue goals. They build a department where future team members can succeed. They don’t just teach others how to sell; they build the structure (the right people), strategy (the go-to-market plan), and processes (repeatable actions) that lay the groundwork for scalable success. The sales manager you want to hire uses their vision to inspire and their grit to coach and challenge their team to win.

The Checklist: 7 Core Qualities of a Great Sales Manager

1. Proven Leadership (Vision & Grit): Have they successfully led a sales team responsible for hitting a goal?
2. Management Skills (Structure & Accountability): Have they organized a department (structure, process, systems) and established accountability to support people’s growth?
3. Coaching Ability: Do they have testimonials or other proof that their coaching improves others’ skills and performance?
4. Team-Minded Focus: Have they built team success with most members meeting their goals? Be cautious if their past teams were only successful due to the presence of one superstar.
5. Cultural Fit & Leadership: Team alignment matters. Before you hire, it’s crucial to understand their values and the sales culture they will build fits into your company culture and core values. “Will their energy and values lift your crew or clash?”
6. Technical Ability (CRM, Data): How skilled are they with modern sales tools? “How tech-driven is your sales game?”
7. Industry Experience: Leadership and management skills often take precedence, but if you need a manager to build strategic alliances or participate in the sales process, this becomes more important.

The Strategic Decision: Full-Time, Fractional or Internal?

Finally, consider the model that fits your current stage.

• External Full-Time: Pros: Brings new ideas and high-level experience. Cons: High cost; the role might not be challenging enough if your team is small, which could lead to an early departure.
• External Part-Time (Fractional): Pros: Brings the same high-level experience at a lower cost. Cons: Slower pace; not on-site. (For a deeper look into this model, our book on Part-Time Sales Management offers a comprehensive guide.)
• Internal Seller/Coach: Pros: Familiarity and lower initial cost. Cons: Often lacks the experience to lead and manage, which can reduce their own production and fail to lift the team.

A 6-Stage Process to Hire the Right Manager

Once you know why you’re hiring and what you’re looking for, you need a disciplined process to find them. The following six-stage process is essential for filtering candidates effectively and identifying a true high-performer.

Stage 1: Document Your Expectations

This seems simple, but it’s the most critical foundation. Far too often, interviewing starts before expectations are written down, leading to a vague process.

1. Create the Detailed Job Description: Include the title, who they report to, 3-5 key responsibilities, duties, and clear ramping and quarterly expectations.
2. Define Candidate Requirements: Document the specific experience and expertise required. Be thoughtful about education—make sure a degree is truly needed before making it a requirement, or you might miss out on great people.
3. Document the Compensation Structure: What is the annual goal? What is a fair OTE (On-Target Earnings) for this role? Determine the best mix of salary, commission, and bonus, and describe how and when payments will be received.
4. Build the Hiring Scorecard/Template: Sales success at other companies is not a sure-fire indicator of success at yours. Use a quality full-person assessment (we use Wiley’s Profiles International PXT Select) to create a benchmark for the personality, thinking style, and interests that fit your company culture and the specific role.
   • Ask yourself: “What’s non-negotiable for your sales leader?”

Stage 2: Create a Compelling Advertisement (Not a Job Post)

Your ad is a marketing tool. To attract the best people, you need to sell the opportunity, not just list duties.

• Be specific, share the compensation range, and don’t be shy about your company’s desirable qualities.
• Open with your company’s core values, culture, and vision. Tell a story instead of just listing attributes. For example, “Our people like helping each other and will go above and beyond if it helps the team.” This describes the environment, attracting candidates who value it.

Stage 3: Set Up an Online Qualifying Survey

We use hiring boards like LinkedIn or Indeed to reach candidates, but we use an online survey as the first step of our interview process. This weeds out auto-robot applicants and those unwilling to invest time. It also shows us how well they write—a critical skill in today’s sales world. We use Zoho Survey, but any form tool works. Your survey should include:

• Contact information.
• 10-15 qualifying questions to gain insight into how they’ve handled specific scenarios.
• An opportunity for them to ask you questions.
• A simple upload for their Cover Letter and Resume.

Stage 4: Create a Central Hiring Page on Your Website

To control the process, funnel all applicants to one place: a dedicated hiring page on your own website. Post the full job description here, and at the bottom, include the link to your online survey. DO NOT accept applications through the job boards themselves. This approach communicates that your company is organized and professional. Your hiring page should include:

1. Job Title
2. Full Job Description
3. Qualifying Criteria
4. Compensation Described
5. How to Apply Instructions
6. Link to the Online Survey

Stage 5: Post on Job Boards and Share with Your Network

Now, you’re ready to go to market.

• Select the best job boards for your role (LinkedIn is often best for professional roles).
• Post the advertisement you created and ensure all instructions direct candidates to APPLY ON YOUR COMPANY WEBPAGE.
• Share the link to your hiring page with employees, vendors, and customers to increase visibility and attract top talent.
  • Ask yourself: “Where have you overlooked talent before—online or in your circle?”

Stage 6: Review, Interview, and Make a Selection

1. Review & Filter: First, review the survey responses and cover letters to decide who to interview. Respond to all candidate questions from the survey within one business day to prove your integrity.
2. Send Interview Invitations: Send invitations to the candidates you want to interview, allowing them to schedule themselves using an app like Calendly. This is another test of their willingness to follow a process and use technology.
3. Conduct Structured Interviews: Be prepared with a set of questions you will ask every candidate, along with specific questions tailored to their resume. Keep the interview to a time limit to stay on purpose.
4. Send Assessments: Decide which candidates will move to the final round (1-4 max) and send them the hiring assessment you prepared in Stage 1.
5. Conduct Final Interviews: Hold a final interview with the top candidates, potentially including other leaders from your team.
6. Make the Offer: Present a verbal offer to your ideal candidate, expecting a verbal acceptance in return. Confirm the start date.
7. Formalize and Onboard: Present a formal offer letter that includes the job description, start date, and compensation plan. Finally, conduct your onboarding plan when they start.

Conclusion: Lower Your Risk, Raise Your Results

And there you have it. Hiring a sales manager is high-stakes. If you need to hire, don’t put it off, but don’t rush into it unprepared. You know the old saying, “You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results.” A disciplined approach is more work, but it’s the surest way to get a different, better result. The right process—and the right partner—lowers the risk. If your team consists of fewer than ten sales representatives and you want to eliminate the guesswork, consider hiring a fractional manager through Sales Manager Now. We provide cost-effective, fully qualified sales managers to businesses that need expert leadership without the full-time cost. We’ve vetted your sales manager and will provide a clear path of work we’ll be performing.  Take one step today—what’s it going to be? If you need an expert partner to lead your sales team, see how Sales Manager Now delivers.