SDR Prospecting Exercise
Review how a candidate researches a company, prepares relevant outreach, and identifies qualification questions.
Hire GTM TalentHire GTM Talent with Skills-Based Evidence
Define the right roles. Identify the skills that matter. Make informed hiring decisions.
Building a successful go-to-market team starts with understanding what each role needs to accomplish. Whether you're hiring your first Account Executive, expanding your sales development team, or strengthening customer success capabilities, identifying the right competencies is an important part of the hiring process. EnableU helps organizations connect GTM role requirements, skills-based evaluation, and candidate evidence through a structured hiring approach supported by HiringIQ. Move beyond job titles and generic requirements. Start with the work your GTM professionals need to perform.
Role scorecard
Founding AE
Northstar Analytics
CompetencyEvidence
DiscoveryDiscovery simulation
Account planningSample account plan
Opportunity qualificationOpportunity review exercise
CommunicationStructured interview
Role Clarity
Hire for the Work That Matters
A strong GTM hiring process starts with role clarity.
Sales and GTM positions vary across organizations. An Account Executive joining an early-stage company may need to build new sales practices, while an AE at an established organization may focus on executing a defined sales process. Similarly, an SDR responsible for outbound prospecting requires different skills from a Customer Success Manager managing adoption and renewals. Hiring decisions become more meaningful when employers define the outcomes, responsibilities, and capabilities associated with the actual position.
- Define clear responsibilities and expected outcomes.
- Identify relevant skills and competency requirements.
- Align hiring criteria with your GTM strategy.
- Establish consistent candidate evaluation methods.
- Review demonstrated skills and supporting evidence.
- Identify where additional evaluation may be needed.
- Support transparent, human-led hiring decisions.
A structured GTM hiring approach helps you
GTM Roles
Find the Right Talent for Your GTM Roles
Role focus
Account Executives
Hire professionals who can manage customer conversations and sales opportunities.
Define the competencies required for discovery, account planning, stakeholder engagement, opportunity qualification, and deal execution. For a founding Account Executive, consider additional responsibilities such as developing repeatable sales practices and working in an evolving business environment.
How It Works
How Skills-Based GTM Hiring Works
- 01
Define the Role and Expected Outcomes
Identify the purpose of the position and the results the employee is expected to deliver. Consider your organization's GTM strategy, customers, sales motion, and current team structure.
Outcome: A clear definition of the role and its responsibilities.
- 02
Identify Required Competencies
Define the skills, behaviors, and knowledge relevant to successful job performance. Distinguish essential requirements from capabilities that may be developed after hiring.
Outcome: A structured competency profile.
- 03
Build a Role Scorecard
Organize responsibilities, skills, proficiency expectations, and evaluation criteria into a consistent format. Use the scorecard to guide the hiring process.
Outcome: A role-specific evaluation framework.
- 04
Evaluate Job-Relevant Evidence
Review information that helps demonstrate relevant candidate capabilities. Where supported, use structured interviews, assessments, or job-related simulations to gather additional evidence.
Outcome: A clearer understanding of demonstrated capabilities and areas requiring further review.
- 05
Make an Informed Hiring Decision
Review the evidence using the approved criteria, consider relevant context and missing information, and involve the appropriate hiring stakeholders. Assessment results should inform—not replace—human judgment.
Outcome: A documented, human-led hiring decision.
Role Scorecard
Build a Role Scorecard Before You Start Hiring
Turn hiring expectations into clear evaluation criteria.
A GTM role scorecard defines what the position requires and how relevant capabilities will be reviewed. It provides hiring managers and talent teams with a consistent reference throughout the candidate evaluation process.
A useful scorecard reflects the actual responsibilities of the role rather than relying on a universal candidate-scoring formula.
- Job title and business context
- Expected role outcomes
- Key responsibilities
- Required GTM competencies
- Proficiency expectations
- Job-related assessment criteria
- Relevant evidence requirements
- Hiring manager review notes
Example Scorecard
Example: Hiring Your First Account Executive
Define what success looks like before reviewing applicants.
The following is a fictional example illustrating a GTM role scorecard.
Company
Northstar Analytics — fictional Series A SaaS company
Position
Founding Account Executive
Business context
The company is transitioning from founder-led selling and wants its first AE to manage sales opportunities while helping establish consistent execution practices.
Expected role outcomes
- Conduct effective discovery conversations.
- Qualify potential customer opportunities.
- Develop and maintain relevant account plans.
- Manage stakeholder interactions.
- Support the development of repeatable sales practices.
Example competency scorecard
| Competency | Expected capability | Suggested evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Explore customer challenges and business impact | Discovery simulation |
| Account planning | Identify stakeholders and account priorities | Sample account plan |
| Opportunity qualification | Recognize relevant qualification information | Opportunity review exercise |
| Communication | Explain relevant value clearly | Structured interview |
| Adaptability | Work effectively with developing processes | Job-related scenario |
Sample Evaluation Activity
The candidate is presented with a fictional prospect account and asked to prepare a short discovery approach. A reviewer examines whether the candidate can identify relevant customer questions, consider business impact, and establish a reasonable next step. The assessment should identify both demonstrated evidence and unanswered questions.
Human Review: The hiring manager evaluates the results against the defined role requirements before making a hiring decision.
This example is illustrative. It does not represent an actual candidate assessment or validated hiring prediction.
Evidence
Evaluate Skills Through Relevant Evidence
Look beyond resumes and generic interview questions.
Relevant work samples and structured evaluation activities can provide additional information about how a candidate approaches job-related tasks.
Account Executive Discovery Simulation
Explore how a candidate asks questions, investigates business challenges, and agrees on next steps.
Customer Success Renewal Scenario
Consider how a candidate approaches customer concerns, stakeholder communication, and renewal preparation.
Sales Engineer Technical Discovery
Review how a candidate explores requirements and communicates technical information in a customer context.
Assessment methods should be relevant to the role, accessible to eligible candidates, and reviewed using defined criteria.
HiringIQ
Bring Greater Consistency to Your Hiring Process with HiringIQ
Connect role definition with candidate evaluation.
EnableU HiringIQ is designed around job-relevant GTM role definition and explained candidate evidence.
GTM Role Definition
Develop role requirements around actual responsibilities, outcomes, and competencies.
Competency-Based Evaluation
Define assessment criteria that reflect the capabilities relevant to each position.
Structured Interviews and Simulations
Explore job-related evaluation methods using supported assessment workflows.
Explained Candidate Evidence
Review available evidence and understand which competencies have been demonstrated and where information remains incomplete.
Human-Led Decisions
Keep appropriate hiring stakeholders involved in reviewing results and making final decisions.
Hiring Readiness
Know When You're Ready to Hire
Hiring the right person also means hiring for the right responsibilities.
Before opening a new GTM position, consider whether the organization has established the context needed for the role.
GTM Hiring Readiness Checklist
- Is the purpose of the role clearly defined?
- Do we understand the target customers and sales motion?
- Have we established expected responsibilities and outcomes?
- Are the required competencies documented?
- Is there a suitable evaluation process?
- Do hiring managers agree on the assessment criteria?
- Have onboarding and development responsibilities been considered?
For early-stage companies, hiring readiness may also depend on whether the founder has established enough evidence about customer needs and the sales process to define the new employee's work.
Connected Strategy
Connect Your Hiring Strategy with Sales Excellence
Define the people your GTM strategy needs.
EnableU Sales Excellence includes Talent and Competency Architecture, one of its eight GTM standards. This framework helps organizations identify role outcomes, competency expectations, and the evidence relevant to hiring and development. By connecting your GTM strategy with workforce requirements, you can define hiring criteria that reflect your business context. HiringIQ provides the related pathway for structured role evaluation and candidate evidence review.
Staffing Partners
Supporting Sales Staffing and Recruitment Firms
Bring a skills-based approach to client GTM hiring.
Sales staffing firms and recruitment consultants often work with clients whose roles, sales motions, and competency requirements differ. EnableU's planned staffing pathway helps firms explore role scorecards, structured assessment criteria, and relevant candidate evidence for client hiring requirements. Client permissions, assessment access, available sourcing features, and commercial arrangements should be defined before deployment.
Responsible Hiring
Responsible and Transparent Candidate Evaluation
Use relevant evidence. Preserve human judgment.
Candidate evaluation involves personal information and decisions that can significantly affect people's careers. Hiring processes should define the purpose of assessments, provide suitable accessibility and accommodations, and explain how candidate information is collected and reviewed.
Job-Relevant Criteria
Base evaluation requirements on the responsibilities and capabilities associated with the actual position.
Candidate Consent and Privacy
Use appropriate permissions for collecting, storing, reviewing, and sharing candidate information.
Assessment Transparency
Explain what is assessed, what the evidence supports, and where uncertainty remains.
Human Review
Ensure hiring decisions are made by responsible people using relevant evidence and applicable organizational policies.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
GTM talent includes professionals working in sales development, business development, account management, customer success, sales engineering, sales leadership, and related revenue functions.
Hire for the Skills Your GTM Team Needs
Start with a clear role definition, establish relevant competency requirements, and build a more structured hiring process. Explore how EnableU HiringIQ can support your GTM hiring journey.
Define
Scorecard
Evidence
Decide
