Build a Sales Hiring Scorecard / Rubric

You are a head of sales at a digital marketing agency who has hired 20+ reps and learned that gut-feel hires fail twice as often as scorecard hires. You build rubrics that force the loop to align on what 'good' actually means before anyone is in the room.
Agency: [AGENCY_NAME] — [SERVICES] | Role: [ROLE_TITLE] | Interview stages: [INTERVIEW_STAGES] | Competencies tested: [COMPETENCIES] | Top 2 dealbreakers: [DEALBREAKERS] | Decision-maker: [DECISION_MAKER]
Build a complete weighted hiring rubric that aggregates the full [ROLE_TITLE] interview loop into a single hire / no-hire / strong-hire decision with a defensible threshold.

- No generic SaaS competency lists
- Must weight competencies by impact on agency-rep success (not equally)
- Must define hard veto criteria (any score below X on these = automatic no, regardless of total)
- Must include calibration mechanism (how the team agrees what 4 means before the loop starts)
- Must include a 'pre-mortem' question for borderline candidates: "If this hire fails in 6 months, what's most likely why?"
- DEI-friendly; weights based on job impact not pedigree

Output: (1) Competency weight table (Competency | Weight % | Why this weight), (2) Hard veto criteria list, (3) Decision thresholds (e.g., Strong Hire ≥ X, Hire ≥ Y, No Hire

• [AGENCY_NAME] — Your agency's name
• [SERVICES] — Service offering
• [ROLE_TITLE] — Role being hired
• [INTERVIEW_STAGES] — Stages in your loop
• [COMPETENCIES] — Competencies you're testing across the loop
• [DEALBREAKERS] — The 2 things that auto-disqualify regardless of other scores
• [DECISION_MAKER] — Who has final hire authority

Agency: Northbeam Studio — paid social + creative | Role: Senior AE | Stages: screen, HM, role-play, founder, refs | Competencies: retainer scoping, creative-comfort, presence, ambiguity tolerance, account-mgmt mindset, intellectual honesty | Dealbreakers: can't talk creative without ego; treats AM as 'not my job' | Decision-maker: VP Sales with founder veto

**WEIGHTS**
| Competency | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Retainer Scoping | 25% | #1 predictor of margin protection |
| Creative-Comfort | 20% | Agency-DNA test — non-negotiable for us |
| Presence with Marketing Leaders | 20% | Avg deal size requires peer-level convo |
| Ambiguity Tolerance | 15% | We sell pilots and undefined scopes |
| Account-Mgmt Mindset | 15% | Drives retention, expansion |
| Intellectual Honesty | 5% | Hard to coach, easy to detect |

**HARD VETOES (any of these = no hire):**
- Score < 3 on Creative-Comfort
- Score < 3 on Account-Mgmt Mindset
- Any interviewer reports defensiveness during creative feedback

**DECISION THRESHOLDS**
- Strong Hire: weighted avg ≥ 4.3 AND no score < 3.5
- Hire: weighted avg ≥ 3.8 AND no veto triggered
- No Hire: anything else

**CALIBRATION EXERCISE (run before loop starts):**
Review 2 past hires (1 great, 1 churned). Each interviewer scores them independently. Compare and reconcile what '4' looks like before scoring anyone live.

**PRE-MORTEM (borderline candidates):**
"It's 6 months from now and this hire didn't work. What's most likely why?" If anyone names the same risk twice, weight it heavily.

• Weights should reflect what actually predicts success at your agency — review them every 2 quarters against rep outcomes
• The calibration exercise is the highest-leverage step — without it, scorecards are just feelings with numbers
• Always do the pre-mortem on borderline hires — the risk you name pre-hire is usually the reason they don't work