How to Hire a Sales Manager: 7-Step Process, Tools & Tactics

Hiring the wrong sales manager can cost your business far more than just salary. It can negatively impact revenue targets, team morale, and sales strategies, and damage client relationships. Yet, many companies still hire based on past titles and gut feeling alone.

In today’s competitive job market, top sales leadership talent gets hired quickly. You can’t afford to take a risk on this high-impact role.

This practical hiring guide is designed for founders, sales directors, and HR leaders. From defining the role to sourcing, assessing, and onboarding, here’s how to hire a Sales Manager the right way.

7 Proven Steps to Hire a Sales Manager

A structured hiring process helps reduce costly turnover and ensures you're building a high-performing sales team. Here’s a 7-step roadmap on how to hire a sales manager used by top recruiters.

1. Define Your Hiring Needs and Set a Budget

Before posting a job, get clear on what you want your sales manager to achieve. Is this role focused on expanding market share, increasing revenue, or building and training a sales team?

Define:

• Sales scope (e.g., B2B, B2C, enterprise accounts).
• Market or territory responsibility.
• Sales process expectations (pipeline management, forecasting, CRM usage).

Once requirements are clear, set a realistic budget that covers:

• Salary, benchmarked using tools like Glassdoor and PayScale.
• Commission structure and performance bonuses.

Stat: In the U.S., a sales manager earns an average of $75,848, but those leading large teams in high-growth industries can earn well over $120,000.

2. Write the Perfect Job Description and Post It Online

In your Sales Manager job description, clarify if you want a hunter to find new business, a farmer to grow accounts, or someone who can do both. Focus on measurable results, not just daily activities.

A high-performing JD includes:

• Specific job title (e.g., “Regional B2B Sales Manager – SaaS”).
• Role purpose and key KPIs (revenue targets, conversion rates, pipeline growth).
• Daily/weekly responsibilities by sales stage.
• Must-have skills (e.g., negotiation, CRM expertise) and tools (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot).
• Benefits, salary range, and work setup (remote/hybrid/onsite).

For maximum reach, post on:

• Skima AI (AI-powered distribution to top job boards)
• LinkedIn
• Industry-specific boards like Sales Heads or Sales Gravy
• Your company's careers page

Stat: Nearly 70% of employers find they receive more applications when salary ranges are listed in job descriptions.

3. Source Sales Leaders and Parse Resumes.

To hire the best sales manager, don’t wait for applications to come in. Proactive sourcing can find top performers who are already achieving great results elsewhere.

Here’s how to find qualified sales management talent:

• Search your internal candidate database in seconds using AI tools like Skima AI.
• Talk to your sales reps, account executives, or trusted contacts about referrals. They usually know high performers who want new growth opportunities.
• Explore LinkedIn for professionals who excel in sales leadership. Focus on those with a history of achieving quotas and relevant industry experience. This is one of the best way to hire a sales manager.
• Engage with communities like Sales Hacker, Modern Sales Pros, or LinkedIn groups. These are spots where top sales talent come together.

Once you’ve gathered resumes, use Skima AI’s resume parser to convert them into a structured, searchable format. It extracts key details such as skills, experience, content details, socials, job titles, etc.

4. Screen Applications and Shortlist the Best Profiles

After turning raw resumes into structured data, reviewing each sales manager profile can take a lot of time. Skima AI Search quickly filters candidates to match your job criteria. It ranks them with a score from 1 to 100. It also tells you the reasons why a particular candidate is a good fit.

When screening manually, consider factors beyond the years in sales leadership. Prioritize measurable impact and leadership qualities. The best sales managers motivate their teams, achieve revenue targets, and adapt to market changes.

Prioritize candidates who can:

• Consistently exceed sales quotas and deliver revenue growth.
• Build and lead high-performing teams with low turnover rates.
• Demonstrate success in your industry or a similar target market.
• Use data-driven decision-making to refine sales strategies.

Insight: The average recruiter spends 23 hours screening resumes for a single hire. AI scoring tools like Skima AI cut this down to minutes, without missing top performers.

5. Conduct Structured Interviews to Assess Leadership

Now that you’ve shortlisted the best candidates for the sales manager job, use Skima AI campaigns to automate personalized outreach through email, LinkedIn, and SMS. Let them know they have made it to the next step, that is interviews. This makes the candidate experience faster and more engaging.

When inviting them, outline the interview format and key areas of evaluation. Skip the generic “tell me about yourself” questions. Focus on specific, role-related scenarios. These will show how candidates think and lead.

You can include:

• How would you design a 90-day sales plan to meet quarterly targets?
• What’s your approach to motivating an underperforming sales team member?
• Can you share a time when you turned around a declining sales pipeline?

Assess with:

• A mock territory plan showing projected revenue and strategies.
• Role-play: handling an objection from a high-value prospect.
• Review of past sales metrics, with explanations of tactics behind the results.

Stat: The Harvard Business Review found that structured interviews predict job success twice as well as informal ones.

6. Check References and Send a Competitive Job Offer

Before you finalize your Sales Manager hire, verify their references. This ensures their leadership style, sales results, and how they handle pressure to meet targets.

Ask former employers or colleagues about:

• Revenue impact: Did they consistently meet or exceed sales quotas?
• Team leadership: How well did they mentor and motivate sales reps?
• Client relationships: Did they build long-term, high-value partnerships?
• Problem-solving: How did they handle underperforming territories or difficult negotiations?

If the feedback aligns with your expectations, prepare a strong offer that includes:

• Salary: Base pay + performance-based incentives (e.g., commission structures or quarterly bonuses).
• Clear growth path: Opportunities for promotion or larger territories.
• Tools and resources: CRM access, travel budgets, or marketing support.
• Defined KPIs and onboarding plan: So they know exactly how success will be measured from day one.

7. Onboard Your New Sales Manager Effectively

Once your sales manager accepts the offer, your focus should shift to setting them up for success from day one. An effective onboarding process allows them to understand your sales strategy, company culture, and revenue goals.

Onboard checklist:

• Grant access to CRM, sales analytics, pricing sheets, contract templates, and past pipeline reports.
• Share the sales playbook: ideal customer profiles, objection-handling scripts, and demo decks.
• Introduce key stakeholders: marketing, customer success, product, finance, and top clients/accounts.
• Assign a buddy or mentor (senior AE or sales ops) for shadowing and day-to-day support.
• Schedule ride-along/shadowing sessions with top reps and customer calls.
• Set clear KPIs and reporting cadence (weekly pipeline reviews, monthly forecasts).
• Provide tools training (Salesforce/HubSpot, Gong, Outreach) and admin setup.
• Set clear goals for the first 30, 60, and 90 days.

Stat: Employees who go through a formal onboarding process reach full productivity 50% faster, according to SHRM.

Now that you know how to hire a sales manager, the real challenge is picking the one who will excel in your sales environment. Well-crafted interview questions are key to going beyond resumes and revealing a sales manager’s real potential.

10 Interview Questions to Ask a Sales Manager

When you ask the right questions, it helps you spot sales leadership that performs. Avoid generic questions like “sell me this pen." Structured behavioral questions bring insights. Here’s how to dig deep into sales leader potential:

1. Leadership & Coaching

• How do you handle a consistently underperforming team member?
• Tell me about a time you coached someone who then exceeded targets.

2. Strategy & Execution

• Walk me through how you’d build a 90-day sales plan for a new territory.
• How do you use data to refine your sales process?

3. Crisis Management

• Describe a time your team missed a quota. What did you do?
• Have you ever had to fire someone? How did you handle it?

4. Relationship Building & Communication

• How do you maintain relationships with key stakeholders during tough negotiations?
• How do you collaborate with marketing or customer success to hit goals?

5. Adaptability & Market Insight

• Tell me about a time you had to change your strategy due to market shifts.
• What’s your approach to staying updated on industry trends and competitors?

Stat: Structured interviews predict job performance almost three times better than unstructured ones. They have validity scores of 0.44 compared to 0.33.

After you ask the right questions and find a candidate's strengths, look for warning signs. These signs can hurt their chances of success. Even the most confident answers in an interview can hide problems. Spotting these issues early helps you avoid costly hiring mistakes.

8 Red Flags to Check When Hiring a Sales Manager

Impressive sales manager resumes and confident interviews might catch your attention. But they may hide warning signs that could affect long-term success. Here are 8 red flags to look for when hiring a sales manager:

1. Vague or Unverifiable Metrics

If a candidate uses fuzzy terms like “big growth” without numbers, probe deeper. Strong sales leaders cite specific KPIs (revenue%, quota attainment, deal size, churn improvement).

Pro Tip: Ask for proof of CRM reports, dashboards, or P&L impacts.

2. High Team Turnover in Past Roles

Frequent rep turnover under their leadership is a warning. Good managers retain and develop talent.

Pro Tip: Ask about retention rates, promotion examples, and why reps left. If answers are vague or defensive, dig further.

3. Blame-First Mindset

Leaders who always blame the product, marketing, or “bad leads” rarely own process failures.

Pro Tip: Look for answers that include diagnosis, corrective steps, and measurable outcomes. Ownership matters more than excuses.

4. Weak Coaching Examples

If they can’t describe a concrete coaching moment that improved a rep’s performance, that’s a problem.

Pro Tip: Effective managers have repeatable coaching frameworks and clear examples of growth they drove.

5. Overreliance on Personal Relationships

Relying too much on personal connections with certain clients is risky. This approach isn't scalable.

Pro Tip: Ask how they institutionalize relationships so deals don’t vanish if they leave.

6. Resistance to CRM or Data Tools

If they ignore CRM hygiene, forecasting discipline, or analytics, take note. This is a red flag.

Pro Tip: Modern sales leadership depends on pipeline metrics, win rates, and data-driven experiments.

7. No Structured Hiring or Onboarding Plan

Managers who can’t explain how they hire, train, and ramp reps often struggle to scale a team.

Pro Tip: Ask for a 30–60–90 day onboarding plan and examples of successful ramps. Lack of structure usually yields slow productivity and higher churn.

8. Dodging Tough Questions About Failures

Top leaders answer failure questions with clarity. If a candidate dodges "what went wrong" or gives vague answers, they might lack self-awareness or a growth mindset.

Stat: Hiring the wrong person can cost about 30% of that person’s first-year earnings.

Once you’ve identified what not to hire, the next step is understanding the costs involved and finding ways to reduce them while keeping quality high.

Cost of Hiring a Sales Manager & How to Reduce It

In our research, we have not found the exact cost of hiring a sales manager. However, the average cost of hiring an employee often ranges between $4,000 and $20,000+, depending on the role, tools, and approach.

You can use an all-in-one hiring platform to cut this cost significantly. Best of all, it won’t affect the quality of your candidates.

Here’s how Skima AI helps you reduce unnecessary expenses when hiring a Sales Manager:

• Eliminates individual job board listings with one click, auto-distributing AI-optimized listings across high-visibility sales and leadership job boards.
• Saves 30-40 hours per hire through automated resume screening and shortlisting, focusing on sales leadership experience and industry expertise.
• Replaces costly leadership assessments with built-in skill tests tailored to sales strategy, negotiation, and team management.
• Reduces dependency on expensive recruitment agencies by automating sourcing, outreach, and passive candidate engagement.
• Includes a built-in ATS and analytics, cutting the need for multiple costly HR tools.
• Integrates with your existing CRM and sales tech stack, ensuring a smooth transition for the new hire.

Skima AI helps you hire faster and cheaper. You can save thousands on each hire. Plus, you’ll find a top-notch Sales Manager who boosts revenue growth.

Legal Requirements for Hiring Employees

Hiring in the U.S. involves key federal and state-level legal criteria that every employer must follow. Below are the six essential requirements:

1. Get an Employer Identification Number (EIN)

All businesses with employees must obtain an EIN from the IRS. This unique 9-digit tax identification number is required for payroll and tax reporting. You can apply for it online for free through IRS.gov.

2. Verify Work Eligibility using Form I‑9

Every employer in the U.S. must fill out Form I-9 for each new hire. This form confirms the employee's identity and their legal authorization to work.  
Both employee and employer portions are mandatory, and Section 2 must be completed within three business days of the start date.

3. Report New Hires to the State

When you hire staff, federal law says you must report all new hires or rehires within 20 days. You need to send this information to the state’s “Directory of New Hires." This supports child support enforcement and unemployment systems.

4. Comply with Federal and State Labor Laws

Employers must adhere to:

• The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) governs minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping.
• Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) protections.
• OSHA rules for workplace safety apply especially if you have five or more employees in the private sector.

5. Post Required Labor Law Notices

U.S. employers must display federal and state labor law posters in a visible workplace location. Posters include rights under wage, safety, and anti-discrimination laws. The Department of Labor provides these for free.

6. Obtain Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Most states, including California and Florida, require workers’ compensation coverage when you have employees. This insurance helps pay for medical expenses and lost wages from work-related injuries. It also protects you from liability lawsuits.

3 Best Hiring Software Top Hiring Teams Use

Top recruiters use intelligent hiring platforms to automate tasks, match candidates, and make smarter decisions. Below are three top-rated tools widely trusted by the best hiring teams in the U.S.

1. Skima AI

Skima AI is an end-to-end AI hiring software built for recruiters who value data-driven, high-quality hiring at scale. Its in-house AI models help you streamline job posting, talent sourcing, resume parsing, candidate matching, personalized outreach, and analytics.

Plus, it is designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing ATS, payroll, VMS systems, and more. Skima AI enables teams to hire faster without sacrificing quality or increasing the learning curve.

Key Features of Skima AI:

• One-click multi-board job posting
• Accurate AI Resume Parsing
• Powerful AI Search (Trained on millions of resumes)
• AI Matching Score & Reasoning
• Custom AI Matching Models
• Local Database Search (talent rediscovery)
• Talent pipeline management
• Branded Careers Page
• Seamless Integrations to ATS, LinkedIn, Job Board, Chrome, etc.
• Enterprise Grade Security & Compliance (SOC 2)
• Advanced Analytics & Reporting
• Dedicated Infrastructure Options (Cloud, On-premises, Hybrid)

Skima AI's Impact: Teams using Skima AI report up to 40% faster hiring cycles and 2x higher-quality applicants, based on internal case studies.

2. Greenhouse

Greenhouse is a leading ATS and recruitment software. It centralises all hiring stages, from sourcing and structured interviews to onboarding and analytics.

The platform includes AI-powered tools, custom workflows, and numerous integrations. These features help companies streamline hiring and enhance decisions with data-driven insights.

Key Features of Greenhouse:

• AI-Powered Recruiting
• Talent Sourcing & CRM
• Structured Interview Management
• Diversity & Inclusion Tools
• Reporting & Analytics
• Onboarding & Candidate Experience
• Integrations

3. Lever

Lever combines an ATS with a CRM, helping hiring teams nurture passive talent just as effectively as active applicants. Its intuitive UI and automation features make it easy for recruiters and hiring managers to stay in sync.

Moreover, businesses can customize workflows to improve collaboration and decision-making. This leads to quality hires and cost savings over time.

Key Features of Lever:

• Applicant Tracking System centralizes all candidate data.
• AI Interview Intelligence provides structured interview guides.
• Recruitment analytics, such as time-to-hire, offer acceptance rates, etc.
• Recruitment tasks automation, like candidate outreach, scheduling, etc.

Summary - Start Hiring Smart Today

Hiring the right sales manager is one of the most critical decisions you can make. The right hire will drive revenue, inspire the team, and shape your sales culture for long-term success. Many companies still have issues with unclear hiring criteria. They often make quick decisions, resulting in costly mis-hires.

From defining the job, evaluating their leadership skills, and ensuring their success, this hiring guide explained how to hire a sales manager. Now, you have clear strategies and tools to make confident, data-driven hiring decisions.

The right system can improve team performance. It can also shorten time-to-hire and help you reach sales targets faster. Skima AI helps you achieve this with recruiter-focused, AI-powered automation. Start your 14-day free trial today.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the average sales manager salary?

The average sales manager salary ranges between $85,000–$120,000 annually, depending on industry, experience, and location. Skima AI’s salary benchmarking tool helps recruiters set competitive offers.

2. What are the essential sales manager skills recruiters should look for?

Key sales manager skills include leadership, communication, data-driven decision-making, negotiation, and CRM expertise. Skima AI’s skills-matching feature quickly identifies candidates with the right mix for your sales goals.

3. What are common sales manager duties and responsibilities?

Sales manager duties and responsibilities include setting sales targets, coaching teams, monitoring performance, forecasting revenue, and building client relationships. Effective managers also collaborate with marketing to align sales strategies.

4. What is the minimum sales manager qualification required?

Most sales manager roles require a bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, or a related field, plus proven sales experience. Advanced roles may prefer candidates with an MBA or equivalent certifications.

5. What is the role of sales manager in business growth?

The role of sales manager is to lead sales teams, drive revenue, and maintain client relationships. With Skima AI, recruiters find leaders who align with long-term growth strategies.