Most hiring failures start before the interview.

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Resumes look good, candidates are lined up, and interviews are scheduled. Feels like you’re in good shape, right?

By the time a candidate is sitting across the table from you, you're already playing the hand you dealt yourself.

Wrong sales profile, misalignment on comp, or lack of clarity on what “success” actually looks like in this role. None of this is the candidate’s fault; it’s an internal miss. If decisions aren’t made at the beginning of the search, the interview process will fall flat.

We’ve seen this play out across hundreds of searches: the companies that consistently land top performers aren’t necessarily the better option or better interviewers. They’re just showing up more prepared and selling the opportunity.

There are already a dozen decisions that should've been made before ever starting the search. And most companies skip them.

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4 ways searches go sideways before the first interview:

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1. Nobody can answer the question “Why would an A-Player leave for this role?” A-players don’t make lateral moves.

• The best candidates aren’t applying to your role, which means you have to have something to sell to them. They’re happy, making great money, and their employer will counter the second they put in a notice. What makes your role enticing to someone who’s crushing it where they’re at?

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2. No internal alignment on what “success” looks like in the role.

• “We need a strong enterprise seller with 5 years of experience” isn’t a solid enough profile. What should their current book look like? Are you hiring someone to build or someone who thrives in structure? Do you need a hunter or a farmer? Both? If the profile isn’t clear, you end up interviewing the wrong people and wasting weeks filling the role.

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3. The comp plan isn’t competitive enough for the candidate you actually want.

• You’re targeting candidates making $180k OTE, meanwhile, your role is offering $130k and calling it a “growth opportunity.”

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4. The search is reactive instead of proactive.

• You wouldn’t hire a hunter and then expect them to wait around for inbound leads. Why do we do that with hiring? Posting a job and filtering 250 applicants won’t get you the type of top talent you want for the role.

Your interview process still matters. But you need a solid funnel bringing in candidates who are the right match for the role in order to end up with one at the end.

Because the reality is that you can run a flawless interview process and still end up with someone who’s not a fit for the role.

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💡 TL;DR

Hiring success is decided before the first interview. If you get the foundation right, everything downstream gets easier. Better candidates to interview, faster hiring process, and a stronger new hire to onboard.