A sales CV is a marketing document written by a professional marketer of themselves. That is not cynicism, it is the job description. So the CV tells you where someone has been, and almost nothing about how they sell.
Start by defining performance
Before assessing anyone, write down what good looks like at month six and month twelve in this specific role. Pipeline created, deals closed, activity into the right accounts, retention, whatever fits. Every assessment stage should test something on that list.
Interrogate the numbers consistently
Ask every candidate the same set:
- What was your quota, and what did you attain, for each of the last three periods?
- Where did your pipeline come from: inbound, outbound, partner or existing accounts?
- What was your average deal size and cycle length?
- How did you rank in your team, and how big was the team?
Vagueness is data. So is a candidate who quotes team performance when asked about their own.
Observe, do not just discuss
Replace one interview with a live discovery exercise against a realistic scenario. Brief the candidate properly beforehand, because you are testing preparation and conversation quality, not their ability to be ambushed.
Score four things: question quality, listening ratio, ability to follow a thread, and the accuracy of their summary at the end. Written scores from two interviewers, compared afterwards.
Ask for a short written follow-up
A one-page follow-up after the exercise tells you more about commercial thinking than most second interviews. Look for whether they captured the buyer's actual problem, whether they proposed a sensible next step, and whether they wrote like a human.
Reference properly
Ask managers three questions: what did they need most coaching on, how did they respond to it, and would you hire them again in a different market. The middle question is the useful one.
Avoid the two common failure modes
The first is hiring on presence. Confident, articulate candidates interview well and this is a genuine skill, but it is not the same as closing ability. The second is hiring on pedigree. A logo on a CV tells you the business sold well; it does not tell you the individual did.
Structure, consistency and written scoring fix both.