Picture this: your sales team is underperforming, quotas are being missed, and leadership calls in the enablement team to "fix" the sellers. Sound familiar? Here's the uncomfortable truth that most companies don't want to hear - the problem isn't with your training programs. The real issue starts much earlier in the process, during recruitment itself.
According to Matt Schalsey, CEO & Founder at Perfect Hire and former Sales Enablement Leader at companies like ZoomInfo, Chorus.ai, and Chili Piper:
"Most recruiters make the same mistake: They focus on filling seats, not roles."
This fundamental misunderstanding creates a cascade of problems that enablement teams are then expected to solve - but can't.
In this article, we will analyze why bad hires happen, how the recruitment process sets up both sellers and companies for failure, and most importantly, how to fix it by treating recruiters like the sales professionals they actually are.
The enablement trap is a vicious cycle that many companies fall into without realizing it. When sellers perform badly, enablement gets called to "fix" them.
Resources are poured into training programs, coaching sessions, and skill development initiatives. But here's what Matt discovered during his years in enablement: sometimes these sellers simply aren't the right fit for the role in the first place.
This creates several cascading problems:
The root cause? As Matt explains, "Bad interviews equal bad hires." Too many companies rely on generic questions and unprepared interview panels. The result is that you end up hiring someone's best story, not their true fit for the role.
Having worked in sales enablement at high-growth companies, Matt brings a unique perspective to the recruitment challenge. He's seen firsthand how poor hiring decisions create problems that no amount of training can solve.
"You can't enable someone who fundamentally doesn't belong in the role," he notes.
This insight led to a breakthrough realization: recruiters are essentially sellers, and they should be treated as such. Think about it - recruiters are selling your company to potential candidates, qualifying prospects (candidates), and closing deals (getting offers accepted). Yet most companies don't provide recruiters with the same level of training, tools, and support they give their sales teams.
Matt's revolutionary approach involves applying sales enablement principles to recruitment. Here's how the parallels work:
Resumes = Lead list: Just like sales reps work through qualified leads, recruiters should work through qualified candidate profiles
Interviews = Demos: Each interview stage should be as structured and purposeful as a sales demo
Offer accepted = Deal closed: Getting a candidate to accept is the recruitment equivalent of closing a deal
Start date = Implementation: The transition from offer acceptance to first day mirrors software implementation
Retention = Renewal: Long-term employee success is like customer renewal
This framework transforms how you think about recruitment and reveals why so many hiring processes fail.
Just as sales teams have structured pipelines with clear stages and criteria, recruitment needs the same level of organization. Matt recommends implementing:
Instead of generic questions, develop specific questions that align with each stage of your hiring process. First-round interviews might focus on basic qualifications and cultural fit, while later stages dive deeper into role-specific competencies.
Every interview should have clear themes like grit, leadership potential, or company values. This ensures comprehensive evaluation and prevents important areas from being overlooked.
Reduce friction and improve decision-making by requiring clear go/no-go decisions at each stage. This prevents candidates from advancing when they shouldn't and saves everyone time.
This is where Matt's approach gets particularly innovative.
"We do sales kickoffs where it's engaging, it's fun, cool opportunities, but when we do that for HR?" he asks.
The answer is usually “never” - and that's a massive missed opportunity.
Matt suggests creating department-specific training kickoffs where recruiters can:
Just like sales reps practice objection handling, recruiters should practice candidate qualification and assessment techniques.
The best candidates have multiple options. Recruiters need to be able to sell your company effectively to win top talent.
Create formal certification programs that ensure recruiters understand the roles they're hiring for and the skills needed for success.
Matt shared a compelling example from his consulting work. One company held a company-wide offsite with 250-500 employees during which they created department-specific training kickoffs. Enablement partnered with Learning & Development to ensure every team got specialized training tailored to their needs.
The result? Only three employees left in two years - an incredibly low turnover rate that demonstrates the power of getting hiring right from the start.
Here's where most companies get it wrong. Traditional recruiting metrics focus on speed and volume - how quickly can you fill open positions and how many hires can you make? But Matt argues for a different approach:
"Recruiters should also be rewarded on longevity whether or not they hit that goal or target."
The metrics that actually matter include:
A recruiter who fills 10 positions with people who stay for years is infinitely more valuable than one who fills 20 positions with people who leave within months.
Quality should be measured by how well new hires perform in their roles, not just whether positions get filled.
How quickly do new hires start contributing meaningfully? This metric reveals whether you're hiring people who are truly qualified for the role.
Once you've hired the right people, you still need to develop their skills effectively. Tools like SellMeThisPen AI can help new hires practice scenarios, get real-time feedback, and improve their performance without burning valuable leads.
The key insight is that both recruitment and enablement need to be strategic, structured, and focused on the right outcomes. Just as AI sales coaching helps sellers practice the right things in the right way, proper recruitment practices help you identify and hire the right people from the start.
The enablement trap is real, but it's avoidable. By recognizing that bad hires start with recruitment, not training, companies can address the root cause rather than just treating symptoms. Matt Schalsey's approach of treating recruiters like sales professionals provides a practical framework for improvement.
The three key strategies - building structured hiring pipelines, creating recruiter training programs, and measuring the right metrics - can transform your recruitment outcomes. Remember, it's far more cost-effective to hire the right person once than to hire the wrong person multiple times while hoping enablement can fix the mismatch.
When recruitment and enablement work together strategically, focusing on quality over quantity and long-term success over short-term fixes, companies can build truly high-performing teams that drive sustainable revenue growth.
In this episode of SellMeThisPen Podcast, Michael and Matt discuss the critical connection between recruitment and sales enablement, why most companies focus on filling seats instead of roles, and how treating recruiters like sales professionals can dramatically improve hiring outcomes and reduce turnover.
Matt Schalsey is the CEO & Founder at Perfect Hire and an award-winning GTM advisor. He previously served as Sales Enablement Leader at high-growth companies including ZoomInfo, Chorus.ai, and Chili Piper, giving him unique insights into how poor hiring decisions create problems that no amount of training can solve.
