From Seth Godin’s post Who should you hire?
There is a fundamental shift in rules from manual-based work (where you follow instructions and an increase in productivity means doing the steps faster) to project-based work (where the instructions are unknown, and visualizing outcomes and then getting things done is what counts.)
And yet, we’re still trying to hire people who have shown an ability to follow instructions.
A great point from him especially in terms of hiring strong salespeople. “Project-based work” has been more common in sales since salespeople tend to have some freedom, or latitude, to achieve results. Sales is typically the easiest position to measure success. If a salesperson is above quota, they are an entrepreneur. If he or she is below quota, they are grist for the sales manager’s mill.
I would categorize sales as results-based work. The salesperson has to interact with a wide variety of individuals and creatively qualify them for a solution, if any.
If your sales hiring process involves ranking candidates based primarily on their ability to regurgitate talking points from their resume, you are greatly limiting your ability to hire results-based salespeople.