The short answer
The product knowledge takes two weeks to teach; the willingness to make the eightieth call of the day after seventy-nine did not go anywhere takes a personality. Hire on evidence of sustained phone work and coachability, interview by having them actually call you, and expect the first ninety days to cost more than they produce.
Brokers hiring their first rep tend to screen for industry experience, which is the most abundant and least predictive signal available. Someone who has worked an MCA floor may bring habits you will spend longer unlearning than teaching.
Screen for these
- Sustained phone volume in a previous role, whatever the industry.
- Evidence of coachability — a specific example of changing how they worked because of feedback.
- Comfort with rejection that is demonstrated rather than claimed.
- Basic numeracy. They will explain factor rates, remittances and total payback to merchants.
- Enough curiosity to ask what the product actually is.
The first ninety days
| Period | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Weeks 1–2 | Product, compliance, CRM. Listening to live calls |
| Weeks 3–4 | Dialling with supervision. First conversations |
| Weeks 5–8 | Full cadence, reviewed daily. Perhaps a first deal |
| Weeks 9–12 | Independent. Judge them from here, not before |
Judging a rep on month one is judging them on the ramp. The useful early signals are process compliance and dial counts, not funded deals — a rep who does the work will produce deals, and one who is producing deals without doing the work is producing them from the easy records and will stall.
Set the pay so the ramp survives
A commission-only new hire has to fund a deal quickly or leave, which is a filter for luck rather than ability. A base through the ramp period, with commission from day one, gets you the rep who was going to be good in month four rather than the one who happened to catch a fast deal in month one.