How to assess sales candidates before you hire

What goes wrong without a work sample

• Interview chemistry dominates over demonstrated deal judgment under buyer pushback.
• Each interviewer invents a different bar for "good enough" on the same requisition.
• Candidates never see what was assessed or how long evidence is kept.
• SDR, AE, and CSM seats get scored on one generic script that matches none of them.

A defensible assessment loop

• Lock a job brief, rubric version, and must-pass gates into a hiring contract before day one.
• Share a general apply link or individual consent links; no employee account required.
• Run HIRESDR, HIREAE, or HIRECS against that frozen contract.
• Review competency bands, ask Klara evidence-only questions, record a human decision.
• Send a candidate-safe results link that never trains employee capability averages.

Assessment design failures

A defensible assessment loop

1. Freeze the contract. Job brief, rubric version, and must-pass gates lock before candidates start.
2. Consent first. General apply or individual consent links. No employee account required.
3. Run seat-true work samples. HIRESDR, HIREAE, or HIRECS against the frozen contract.
4. Human decision, candidate-safe report. Band competencies, record rationale, send a results link that never trains employee averages.