How to hire commission only sales reps

I've recruited over 1,000 salespeople and built 43+ sales teams in my career.

And the question I get more than any other is this:

"How do I hire commission only salespeople?"

Everyone loves the idea. No base salary. No risk. They eat what they kill.

But most founders get it completely backwards. They go hunting for a "rockstar closer" before they've done the work that makes a rockstar want to say yes.

Here's the exact process.

Step 1: Get your numbers straight before you post anything

A commission only rep is making a bet on you. So you need to show them the math.

Before you write a single job post, you need real data on three things:

1. Deal flow. How many leads come in per week?

2. Calls booked. How many of those turn into booked calls?

3. Closing rate. What percentage close, and at what ticket?

If you can't answer those with real numbers, you don't have a sales job. You have a hope. And good closers can smell hope from a mile away. They've been burned by it before.

One more filter before you move on: if you can't sell your offer yourself, you can't train someone else to sell it. Full stop. You need to have closed deals personally before you hand the phone to anyone. Otherwise you have nothing to onboard them with, no objection patterns, no winning talk track, nothing.

Step 2: Fill the funnel

Once you have the numbers and the proof, treat hiring exactly like marketing. Because that's what it is.

Run it on two tracks:

Paid ads. Yes, you can run recruitment ads the same way you run client ads.

Third party channels. Facebook groups for sales pros, Upwork, and any community where hungry closers hang out.

Your job post is a sales letter. The product is the opportunity. Lead with the numbers from Step 1: the lead flow, the ticket size, what a rep realistically earns in month one and month six.

Step 3: Kill the resume. Ask for a 60 second video.

Keep the application stupidly simple. One short form and one 60 second video.

A resume tells you what someone wants you to believe. A 60 second video tells you what they can actually do. Selling themselves on camera IS the job audition.

Here's what I look for:

1. Can they sell themselves? If they can't sell the easiest product in the world (themselves), they can't sell yours.

2. Do they represent your brand? How they show up on that video is how they'll show up on your sales calls.

3. Did they cut the fluff? The good ones open with past performance. Numbers, quotas, results. In the first ten seconds.

4. Did they reference your posting specifically? Generic videos mean they're spraying and praying. You want someone who actually read the offer and wanted THIS job.

The banana trick. Bury a secret word at the bottom of your job post. Something like "Banana." Tell them to open their video with it.

Anyone who skips it gets deleted without watching. Sounds brutal, but attention to detail on the application predicts attention to detail with your leads. This one filter will save you hours.

Step 4: The alignment call

Video passers get a phone call. And this call is not about skills. You already saw the skills.

This call is about alignment.

Think about what's actually happening here. This person is trusting their livelihood to you. You're trusting your business, your brand, and your pipeline to them. If that trust isn't mutual and obvious on this call, no comp plan will fix it later.

I ask about their goals, their situation, what they need to earn, and what they're running from in their last role. Then I tell them the truth about the opportunity, including the hard parts.

Step 5: The 30 day trial

If you like them, set a clear 30 day trial with a specific goal. Not vibes. A number.

X calls taken. Y deals closed. Z revenue. Written down, agreed on, tracked.

And here's the part most founders miss:

Your job in the first 30 days is to get them paid as fast as humanly possible.

Feed them your warmest leads first. Get them a close in week one if you can. A commission only rep who gets a check in the first two weeks becomes a believer. A rep who goes 30 days without a payday becomes a former employee.

Momentum is everything. Manufacture it early.

The bottom line

Commission only hiring works when you stop looking for someone to save your business and start building an opportunity that great closers compete for.

Numbers first. Proof second. Then a hiring funnel, a video filter, an alignment call, and a fast first payday.

That's the playbook.

Talk soon,

Dez