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Sonja Hastings

Sonja Hastings is a senior software sales recruiter at Optimal Sales Search. She has spent 22 years recruiting high-performing sales, marketing, and customer success talent for software and technology companies across the U.S., with more than 12,000 sales professionals interviewed. She specializes in mid-to-senior GTM roles.

What Actually Predicts Sales Hiring Success

Rethinking Your Hiring Logic

Why do we hire the people we do? Human psychology and science help explain our hiring decisions. Many of today’s hiring managers have had little to no training when it comes to hiring sales talent.

Therefore, sales managers rely heavily on the interview process and collective opinion to build sales teams. Trial and error has also been an employable strategy for the few companies that can afford it. This strategy calls for hiring as many salespeople as possible, assessing performance, and cutting the bottom 50%. -Read More-

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December 27, 2025

Three Filters That Cut Your Sales Bad-Hire Rate

Hiring the Right Salespeople is Powerful

Gallup reports companies increase profitability by 30% when companies pick top employees.

So what happens when you pick the wrong employees?

Mis-hires are expensive, embarrassing, and potential career killers. According to the Corporate Executive Board survey on hiring executives, one out of five hires is a mistake. Yes, you read that correctly. One out of five, or 20%.

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September 30, 2025