How to Recruit and Build an A+ Sales Team in 2025

Building an A+ sales team starts with a clear plan and disciplined execution. You can’t afford to make a bad hire in a competitive market, so your hiring process needs to be built to attract sales talent, not just fill job vacancies.

The difference between business success and missed targets often lies in the recruitment process, and success here requires a repeatable sales hiring strategy, not guesswork.

This guide breaks down how to recruit, evaluate, and retain high-performing team members.

Let’s build a team that actually hits the numbers.

Why Do You Need a Great Sales Team?

A great sales team drives revenue.

That’s the obvious part.

But more importantly, they align with your business goals and help you scale the right way. High-performing team members shorten your sales process, close faster, and create repeatable systems.

They don’t just sell—they qualify potential candidates for the pipeline and weed out weak leads. A strong team also improves job satisfaction for everyone around them. They reduce the load on marketing tools and support staff by doing their job well.

Your recruiting efforts are only worth it if the team produces results. Hire poorly, and your employee retention rates drop. Hire well, and your top performers become individual contributors who can train the next round of sales talent.

In short, your sales team is one of the key ingredients for long-term success. So how do you build one?

7 Steps to Recruit and Build an A+ Sales Team

1. Define Key Roles Based on Your Sales Process

Before you start hiring, you need to understand your sales process from end to end.

That means breaking it down into distinct stages—lead generation, qualification, nurturing, closing, and post-sale follow-up. Each stage requires different strengths. SDRs handle cold outreach and need excellent interpersonal skills and persistence. Account executives close deals and must deal with a range of complex objections. Account managers focus on retention and upselling, which demands trust and long-term thinking. The graphic below highlights these key sales roles:

Once your sales process is clearly mapped, it’s time to identify the key roles that drive each step.

This prevents overlap, eliminates confusion, and means every individual contributor is held accountable for their part in revenue growth. Too often, businesses hire generalists with vague job descriptions, only to find they don’t match the real-world demands of the role. 

Defining your sales structure early makes it easier to spot qualified candidates and align hiring with your business goals. It's the difference between recruiting potential talent and just filling job vacancies.

2. Audit Your Current Team for Gaps in Interpersonal Skills and Performance

Before hiring new sales talent, start by auditing the team you already have.

Examine real performance data — closed deals, conversion rates, time-to-close — and look for where the bottlenecks are. If your team is strong on outreach but weak on closing, that’s a signal you may need more experienced closers. If deals consistently stall mid-funnel, you may be missing someone with strong consultative skills. This data-driven approach keeps you from hiring based on gut feeling or resume polish.

Don’t overlook interpersonal skills and cultural fit.

A study from LinkedIn shows that 69% of U.S. executives plan to prioritize hiring candidates with soft skills. In sales, poor communication or low emotional intelligence can sink deals fast. Review how current team members interact with leads and colleagues. Are they collaborative? Do they actively listen, or talk over prospects? Use those real behaviors — not assumptions — to define what your next hire needs to bring to the table.

3. Build a Hiring Process That Tests for Career Goals, Not Just Quotas

Too many hiring managers focus on past quotas and overlook a candidate’s long-term fit. In reality, it needs to be a balance.

Yes, previous experience matters — but it doesn’t predict loyalty or future success on your team. To build a high-performing team, your hiring process should include questions that reveal career goals, personal motivations, and what candidates want over the next 2–3 years.

Ask things like: “What role do you see yourself in a year from now?” or “What kind of team culture helps you do your best work?” These answers help shed light on whether they’re aligned with your company culture or just chasing a paycheck.

According to Gallup, 52% of voluntarily exiting employees said their organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving — most citing lack of growth opportunities. That means it’s not just about money or titles. By understanding a candidate’s career aspirations early in the interview process, you reduce the risk of short-term hires who churn fast. 

Remember that you’re not hiring for 12 months, you’re hiring for business success and professional development.

4. Incorporate Trial Periods Into Your Recruitment Process

Resumes and interviews can only show you so much.

To truly evaluate potential hires, it’s best to incorporate a trial period into your recruitment process. This could be a short-term paid project, a live sales simulation, or a contract-to-hire arrangement. The goal is to see how the candidate performs under real conditions—handling objections, communicating with leads, and navigating your tools and team dynamics. It’s about watching how they think and execute, not just how they talk about past wins.

The graphic below shows what the candidate evaluation process looks like:

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the cost of a bad hire can equal 30% of that employee’s first-year earnings. That’s a huge hit to your budget and your team’s momentum. A trial gives both sides clarity and helps you learn if this person align with your sales process, company culture, and business goals. It’s a low-risk step that often leads to smarter, more confident hiring decisions.

5. Treat Interview Scheduling and Candidate Engagement Like Sales

Your interview process is part of your employer brand — treat it like a sales funnel. Here’s how it might look:

Just like a lead, a candidate needs to be qualified, nurtured, and closed. Delayed interview scheduling or unclear communication sends the wrong message, especially to in-demand technical talent and experienced sales talent. These candidates have options. 

If you don’t move fast and stay engaged, they’ll drop out and go elsewhere. Set expectations early, confirm availability quickly, and maintain momentum throughout the process. Speed matters more than you think.

The average time to hire is 44 days—but top candidates are off the market in just 10. That means if your recruiting efforts are slow, you’re only choosing from whoever’s left. Candidate engagement isn’t a soft metric—it’s a reflection of how serious you are about building a high-performing team. Treat every touchpoint like it counts, because it does.

6. Activate an Employee Referral Program With a 6-Month Talent Guarantee

Employee referrals are one of the fastest and most reliable ways to find qualified candidates.

Your current team members already know people in the industry—former colleagues, classmates, or connections with similar sales DNA. Tapping into that network gives you access to potential talent that may not be actively job hunting but would jump at the right opportunity. Referrals tend to have better cultural fit, ramp faster, and stay longer than cold hires.

The graphic below highlights some of the benefits of referral-based hiring:

To protect quality, add a 6-month talent guarantee to your employee referral program. This means referral bonuses are only paid out if the new hire sticks and performs. It’s a simple way to reinforce accountability and filter for real matches. 

According to Jobvite, referred candidates are hired 55% faster than those from job boards and have higher retention rates. This makes referral programs one of the most effective tools in your recruiting efforts, especially in a competitive market where time to hire matters.

7. Optimize for Remote Employee and International Employees from Day One

If you're only hiring locally, you're limiting your access to top sales talent.

Remote employee models and international hiring let you source from a broader, more diverse pool of potential candidates. This is especially important when building a high-performing team that can scale with global demand. By removing geographic barriers, you increase your odds of finding individuals who fit well with your sales process, company culture, and long-term success goals.

Below, you’ll see some pros and cons of remote hiring:

According to McKinsey, 87% of employees who are offered remote work choose to take it. That preference directly impacts job satisfaction and employee retention rates. If your recruitment process isn't remote-ready — from interview scheduling to onboarding — you’re turning away top-tier talent before they even apply. Embracing remote and international employees isn’t just a perk — it’s a competitive advantage.

8. Create Marketing Collateral That Speaks to Potential Candidates

Top-tier sales talent evaluates you just as much as you evaluate them.

A generic job post won’t attract candidates who are already thriving elsewhere. You need to show — not just tell — what sets your team apart. Create a dedicated careers page or microsite that highlights your company culture, sales process, and team dynamics. Include testimonials, day-in-the-life videos, and role-specific content that speaks directly to potential hires. This collateral gives them a clear picture of what it’s like to work with you and why it’s worth their attention.

Done right, this kind of content has a real impact.

Companies with a poor employer brand face a 10% higher cost-per-hire and 28% higher employee turnover rates. It’s not just for show—it’s part of your recruiting efforts. Think of it as preselling the opportunity to serious candidates. The better your pitch, the better your pipeline.

In the image below you can see a few ways to attract and engage candidates this way.

9. Set Clear Criteria for What “A+” Means in Your Context

If you can’t define what “A+” looks like, you won’t be able to hire it.

Vague terms like “top performer” or “go-getter” create confusion during the hiring process and lead to inconsistent evaluations. Instead, establish clear benchmarks — quota expectations, sales cycle familiarity, pipeline ownership, and required interpersonal skills. 

For example, should your hires be able to close six-figure deals, or handle high-volume SMB sales? Are they expected to manage international employees or coordinate with remote employee teams? Clarity drives better outcomes.

Research has found that structured interviews are the single best selection procedure in hiring. When every stakeholder is aligned on what “A+” means, feedback becomes consistent, faster decisions are made, and you’re less likely to overlook great potential candidates just because they don’t match someone’s personal preference. This is how you hire A+ talent—on purpose, not by accident.

The image here shows the benefits of an aligned hiring process:

10. Build Long-Term Pipelines with Passive Talent

Some of the best salespeople aren’t on job boards — they’re already employed and performing.

That’s why building long-term pipelines with passive talent is critical. These are potential hires who may not be looking today but would consider the right opportunity down the line. Use newsletters, gated content, and personalized outreach to keep them warm. Include value-driven updates, team wins, and behind-the-scenes looks into your company culture. When a relevant role opens, they already know who you are—and why it’s worth talking.

If you’re only sourcing from active applicants, you’re missing most of the market. A proactive pipeline reduces time-to-fill, improves candidate engagement, and makes your recruiting efforts more strategic—especially in a competitive market. The image below shows some ways to attract and engage passive CIO talent:

Common Challenges When Hiring and Building a Sales Team

Building the right sales team is not an easy task. It takes trial, error, skill, and patience. Mistakes are common. Let’s take a look at some of the most common challenges businesses run into here, as well as how you can avoid them.

1. Hiring for Resume Over Fit

Too many businesses focus on flashy titles and big-name companies in a candidate’s previous experience. But without alignment on career aspirations and company culture, you’re buying potential turnover.

Avoid this by digging into long-term goals and using reference checks to validate soft skills, instead of relying purely on numbers.

2. Rushing the Recruitment Process

Speed is important—but skipping steps leads to bad hires. No trial periods, weak screening, and vague expectations often result in misaligned sales talent.

Make sure to build in project-based assessments, structured interviews, and role clarity before making an offer.

3. Ignoring Internal Red Flags

Hiring while ignoring unresolved issues — like unclear compensation plans or poor onboarding — damages your ability to retain qualified candidates. You might hire well but lose people due to bad infrastructure. Fix internal systems first, then scale the team.

4. Failing to Adapt to a Competitive Market

Sales hiring today isn’t local or linear. If your recruiting efforts don’t support remote employee options or international employees, you’ll miss top-tier talent. Remember to adopt global sourcing and flexible models early to stay competitive.

5. No Clear Plan for Professional Growth

Without pathways for advancement or skill development, even your best people will leave. A high-performing team expects training, mentorship, and opportunities for upward mobility. To avoid falling into this trap, tie your hiring process to professional development plans from day one.

Where’s Next From Here?

What separates average sales teams from A+ sales teams? It’s not just luck, or even raw talent — it’s a hiring process built for precision and long-term success.

You need qualified candidates who align with your sales process and business goals. You need structure, speed, and the ability to spot potential talent before your competitors do.

One bad hire can wreck your momentum, while one high-performing team member can change your growth trajectory.

Building an A+ sales team won’t happen overnight, but with the right approach and the right principles in place, it’s possible for everyone.