Stop Hiring "A-Players" (And What to Hire Instead)
By Shawn Hamilton, M.S., DBA(c) Shawn Hamilton is a leading sales leadership advisor and doctoral researcher at the University of Houston, specializing in Sales Leadership.
Stop Hiring "A-Players" (And What to Hire Instead)
Ask any sales leader what their biggest challenge is, and they'll say "hiring." Ask them who they're looking for, and they'll invariably say, "I just need an A-Player."
They are hunting for a unicorn: a "self-starter," a "hunter," a "natural" who can hit the ground running, needs no ramp-up, and will just magically close deals.
This strategy—what I call "unicorn hunting"—is a lottery ticket, not a business model. It's passive, expensive, and fundamentally unscalable. Worse, it’s based on a myth. Great salespeople are not found; they are built.
The Myth of Innate Talent
The obsession with "A-Players" is rooted in a "fixed mindset." This is the belief that talent is a rare, innate gift. Leaders who believe this see their job as acquiring talent, not developing it. When a rep fails, they blame the rep ("bad hire") instead of the system ("bad coaching").
But what if the most important trait isn't what a rep already knows? What if it's how fast they can learn?
The single most valuable attribute in a new sales hire is not their experience, their resume, or their existing skill. It is their coachability.
Coachability is a blend of humility, curiosity, and what Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck (2006) calls a "growth mindset." It is the active willingness to seek, accept, and immediately apply feedback to improve performance.
A rep with high coachability and a 7/10 skill set will, within six months, outperform a rep with a 10/10 skill set and low coachability. The first rep sees a ceiling and actively raises it; the second rep believes they are at the ceiling and defends it.
Why "Coachability" Is a Force Multiplier
A team of coachable reps gives a leader leverage. You can introduce new playbooks, pivot strategies, and refine messaging, and the team adapts.
A team of uncoachable "A-Players" (like the "Lone Wolves" we discussed in Week 9) will resist you. They'll argue, scoff, and default to "their way." A coachable team allows you to build a scalable sales engine. An uncoachable team holds your strategy hostage.
Actionable Takeaways: How to Hire for Coachability
You can't discover coachability from a resume. You have to test for it in the interview.
Use a Role-Play Feedback Test. This is the #1 way to hire for coachability. Have the candidate do a 5-minute mock discovery call. Give them one piece of critical, constructive feedback. (e.g., "That was good, but you accepted their first answer. I want you to ask a second-level 'why' question."). Then, say: "Great. Let's do it again, right now."
What to look for: Do they get defensive? Do they argue? Or do they thank you, absorb the feedback, and immediately try to apply it? Their reaction to the feedback is the entire test.
Ask "Growth" vs. "Glory" Questions.
Stop asking: "Tell me about your biggest deal." (This invites a glory story).
Start asking: "Tell me about a deal you lost. What, specifically, did you learn from it, and what did you permanently change about your process afterward?" (Listen for humble self-assessment, not blame).
Listen for "Learning" Language. In their answers, do they talk about books they've read, podcasts they listen to, or mentors they seek out? Or do they talk as if they have all the answers? A-Players believe they are the best; coachable reps are driven to become the best.
Stop hunting for unicorns. Start building a stable of thoroughbreds. The best sales leader isn't the one who can find the most A-Players; it's the one who can build them.
References
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
