The Secret to Parsing Hundreds of Resumes
When a sales job posting draws hundreds of applicants, reading resumes is slow and biased — and sales resumes are often closer to fiction than fact. Run a sales-specific assessment, like Objective Management Group's, as early as possible. It shows how candidates actually sell and whether they fit your role, and it sharpens your interview questions.
By Chris Perry, OMG Certified Partner · Updated
Originally published in The Sales Recruit on August 1, 2025.
©️ Wesley Tingey
Hey everyone—welcome back to The Sales Recruit. I’m on the road this week, so we’re skipping the Reads and diving straight into strategy.
This Week’s Task: Filter Your Candidates
If you’ve posted a sales job lately, you’ve probably been flooded with applications in record time. With mass layoffs from tech and government, the market is saturated.
So how do small teams cut through the noise to find real contenders?
Most teams start by rolling up their sleeves and combing through resumes. But that’s time-consuming—and biased. Even under the best conditions, we make conscious and unconscious assumptions about people based on resumes. Add in urgency and being overwhelmed with a stack of 300 resumes to get through? We’re basically playing hopscotch on our jump to conclusions mat all day long.
These biases don’t just waste time—they cause us to overlook strong candidates and overestimate weak ones.
Many teams now use AI resume parsers like TextKernel, Affinda, and Recruit CRM. These tools can help structure the chaos, but they still rely on resumes— Remember that on the scale of Non-Fiction to Fiction, most sales resumes are somewhere just past Science Fiction: Isaac Asimov would be jealous at how inventive some of them can be.
So, how do you find the real diamonds in the rough without spending 30–60 minutes per candidate doing phone screens and/or interviews?
Run an assessment.
A strong assessment removes bias and aggrandizement, just highlighting the skills and mindset that matter most for success in this particular role. I recommend running assessments as early in the hiring process as possible. This not only helps you save time, it will also help you craft deeper interview questions tailored to the candidate’s unique strengths and weaknesses.
While there are a ton of great assessments out there, when it comes to sales hiring, I have a clear favorite: Objective Management Group.
It won’t tell you about IQ, personality, or communication style—but it will tell you exactly how they sell or lead, and if they’re a fit for the specific role you’re hiring for in your org. Remember: A world-class Enterprise SaaS AE might totally flop as an SDR at a MedTech company. It’s not just about experience—it’s about alignment.
What Skills Matter Most for Your Next Sales Hire?
Take a few minutes to rank the following in order of importance. What would you add?
- ☑️ Hunting / Outbound Prospecting
- ☑️ Building Relationships
- ☑️ Value Selling
- ☑️ Selling Consultatively (i.e. Selling by asking questions)
- ☑️ Objection Handling
- ☑️ Reaching Decision Makers
- ☑️ Negotiating
- ☑️ Closing
- ☑️ Working Through Channel Partners
- ☑️ Team Selling
- ☑️ Presentation Skills
- ☑️ Not being a people pleaser
- ☑️ Customer Service
- ☑️ Decisiveness
- ☑️ Rejection Handling
- ☑️ Emotional Control
- ☑️ Account Mapping
Be well in the meantime—and good hunting.
Chris
p.s. Want a free trial link to the Objective Management Group assessment for a real candidate in your pipeline? Just email me with “LINK” and I’ll send it right over.
Want help applying this to your next sales hire? See how Enki helps with sales hiring →
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