should you trust them?

should you trust them?

if i’ve learned anything in my decade+ of recruiting, it’s that trust is king.

trust in the hiring manager. their vision. their leadership.

trust in the candidate. their ability. their success.

trust in the product. that is works. that customers want it.

if you don’t have trust, then what do you have?

so when i’m onboarding a new client or talking to a candidate, i’m constantly evaluating them to see whether or not i can actually trust them or if there’s something beneath the surface that i’m missing.

so… how do you do it?

hiring managers:

when you’re evaluating candidates you want to look at 3 things

1) their past: do they have a proven track record they can speak to?

what you’re looking for here is two fold. you’re looking for data that can validate that they’ve been successful in their role ($ % #) and an ability to articulate how they were successful. It’s one thing to be able to claim that you were 200% to quota, it’s another thing to be able to go into detail about what that meant and how it happened. any great rep will get excited to talk about their best months, quarters or years. if they’re unable or uninterested in double tapping, i’d not only question if the numbers were real, but i’d question their interest in my opportunity. you don’t just want data, you want the ability to validate it.

after data, listen for tone and word choice. how are they talking about failure? do they take ownership or place blame? are they talking about former leaders the way you’d hope they’d talk about you? do you feel good about how they speak about their former teams or uncomfortable? there’s plenty of room for grace but it’s the #1 reason i pass on candidates and for good reason.

2) their presence: are they someone you want to work with or avoid?

are you enjoying the conversation? does it feel easy to get sidetracked into a personable conversation? did the call fly by and you not ever think, “get me outta here”?

you don’t just want to work with top performers, you want to work with people who you enjoy spending 30% of your life with. if you’d rather not spend time with them, you probably shouldn’t hire them. but… be careful because this absolutely goes both ways. i rarely see candidates get passed for being jerks but i often have candidates pass after a first call because of how the interviewer presented themselves.

3) their intentions: are they chasing selfish ambition or are they joining your team?

this ties a bit into the first two, but ultimately do you feel like they’re going to stick around or bail if things get hard? are they leaving their current role because they had a bad month or are they looking for the right long term play? be generous with your assumptions here. ask yourself, “what would i do in their shoes” but at the end of the day if they’re chasing greener pastures you’ll lose them in no time to someone else fake turf and by then you’ll be glad they left.

candidates:

who you work with is just as important as what you sell or who you sell it to. a great manager can turn an ok opp into a dream job, and a bad manager can turn a once-in-a-lifetime opp into a living hell that sets you back.

so how do you know if you can trust your leader?

their past: do they have a track record you’d want for yourself?

if they seem more bouncy than you’d prefer to be, be cautious. if you look at their background and feel nervous to trust their expertise/experience, be cautious. there’s plenty of room for nuance here but at the end of the day, you have to be confident in their background and proven success.

their presence: do you trust yourself to listen to their leadership?

if they called you out, would feel empowered or shut down? do you have a leadership style you work best with? do you trust your ability to let them lead you? sometimes it’s not about them, it’s about you (and that’s ok) but the key is to recognize/admit it.

my all time favorite hiring manager is a gem to work with even when he says things you don’t want to hear. green flag, my friends.

their honesty: do they know their shit stinks?

do they talk about failures like it’s their fault or someone else’s? when you ask about team performance, how do they talk about it? are they transparent or defensive?

at the end of the day evaluating a hiring manager is tough to do without putting them on their heels. so, the key is to ask for permission before you get blunt.

“i have a few questions around ________, when would be a good time to talk through it?”

team performance, managing reps out, promotion path, quota attainment, etc. if you’re “interviewing” them you better be mindful or you’ll get that rejection letter before you end the call.

TLDR:

at the end of the day, any good work relationship is built on trust and if you don’t have trust, you ain’t got jack.

open role: founding ae

• ai startup built for ecomm businesses

• just closed a $25m seed round

• $2m in arr, 100% founder-led

• looking for 3 founding aes

interested? apply here

active candidate: mid-market ae

• series b with $50m in funding and $20m in arr

• selling to technical leaders at sub 2,000 employee orgs

• 2,000+ customers with an ACV in the $50k range

• looking to hire their 11th ae, 5th mid market rep

want to chat with them? email me

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