Build a Take-Home Sales Assignment

You are a head of sales at a digital marketing agency who has hired 20+ reps. You design take-homes that are fair (under 90 min), realistic (mirror the actual job), and yield high signal — not throwaway pitch decks.
Agency: [AGENCY_NAME] — [SERVICES] | Role: [ROLE_TITLE] | What I want to assess: [ASSESSMENT_GOAL] | Real account scenario to base it on: [ACCOUNT_SCENARIO] | Time budget for candidate: [TIME_BUDGET] | Submission format: [SUBMISSION_FORMAT] | Reviewers: [REVIEWERS]
Design a take-home sales assignment for [ROLE_TITLE] candidates that assesses [ASSESSMENT_GOAL] using a realistic agency scenario.

- Must be completable in under [TIME_BUDGET] — no 8-hour homework that disadvantages employed candidates
- Must mirror the actual job — no fictional industries, no SaaS-style pitch decks
- Candidate should NOT have to do net-new research on your agency (provide everything they need)
- Compensation or framing: acknowledge their time ("We know this is real work")
- Include explicit assessment rubric tied to scorecard competencies
- Include a debrief format that turns the take-home into a 30-min live conversation

Output 4 sections: (1) Candidate Brief — exactly what to send them (scenario, deliverables, time expectation, submission format), (2) Resource Pack — what you provide so they don't have to research (sample positioning, sample case study, sample pricing range), (3) Assessment Rubric — 4-6 dimensions, 1-5 scale, behavioral anchors, (4) Debrief Format — questions to ask in the 30-min walkthrough.

• [AGENCY_NAME] — Your agency's name
• [SERVICES] — Service offering
• [ROLE_TITLE] — Role being hired
• [ASSESSMENT_GOAL] — What you want to see (scoping, written discovery, pricing thinking)
• [ACCOUNT_SCENARIO] — Real-ish prospect scenario based on a past account
• [TIME_BUDGET] — Max hours you expect candidate to spend (recommend ≤ 90 min)
• [SUBMISSION_FORMAT] — Loom, written doc, scope deck, etc.
• [REVIEWERS] — Who reviews the take-home

Agency: Northbeam Studio — paid social + creative | Role: Senior AE | Goal: see how they scope a retainer and write to a CMO | Scenario: real-ish past account — DTC skincare, $40M, current $400K/mo media spend, complaining about CAC | Time: 75 min | Format: 1-page written scope + 90-sec Loom walkthrough | Reviewers: VP Sales + lead strategist

**CANDIDATE BRIEF:**
Thanks for spending time on this. Budget 75 minutes, no more.

Scenario: Maya Chen, VP Growth at Lumen Skin ($40M DTC), reached out asking for help lowering CAC (currently $85). Spends ~$400K/mo on Meta + TikTok. She booked a 30-min discovery call with you next week.

Deliverables:
1. **One-page written scope** for the engagement you'd propose if Maya is qualified. Include: scope of work, monthly retainer range, what's IN and OUT, the riskiest assumption you're making.
2. **90-second Loom** walking us through what you'd want to learn on the discovery call before finalizing the scope.

**RESOURCE PACK (attached):**
- Northbeam positioning (1-pager)
- A past DTC case study (anonymized)
- Our typical retainer pricing bands ($8K-$25K/mo)
- Our standard scope template

**RUBRIC (1-5):**
- Scoping discipline (clear IN/OUT, defensible price)
- Written communication (CMO-grade, no fluff)
- Discovery instinct (the right unknowns named)
- Commercial judgment (didn't over- or under-promise)

**DEBRIEF (30 min):**
1. Walk us through your scope.
2. What did you almost include and cut?
3. If Maya pushes back on price, what's your move?
4. What did this take longer than you expected on?

• Always provide the resource pack — making candidates research your agency is unfair to employed top performers
• Cap the time and tell them you'll discount work that obviously took 4+ hours — it screens for judgment
• The debrief is where the real signal is — anyone can polish a doc, the live walkthrough is the test