Hiring a Sales Rep? Here's How to Get Through 200 Interviews in a Day.
Not with AI. Not with a recruiter.
To get one rock star salesman, you need at least 100 applicants. That's the math. Not 10. Not 20. A hundred. Most moving company owners hear that number and immediately think it's impossible. It's not. You just need to know where to find them and how to filter them without losing your mind.
The traditional way is to post a job ad, collect resumes, read through them one by one, schedule interviews, sit through 30 or 40 conversations, and hope one of them turns out to be good. That process takes two weeks and burns you out before you even make a hire.
There's a better way. And it starts before you even post the job.
Where to Find 100+ Applicants
You need volume. There are four sources and you should use all of them every time you hire.
Job Ad Platforms
Indeed, ZipRecruiter, the usual suspects. Spend money here. This is where your bulk comes from.
Post the role, share it from your personal profile, and ask your team to share it too. LinkedIn reaches people who aren't actively looking but might be interested.
Social Media
Run an ad on Instagram and Facebook that you're hiring. These platforms let you target by location, age, and interests for very little money. A $50 boosted post reaches thousands of people in your area who would never see a job board listing.
Your Internal Email List
This is the secret weapon. Every person who has ever applied to your company goes on this list. Over the years, it grows to thousands. When you hire, email all of them.
How to build that internal list
Everyone who ever applies for one of your jobs lands on this list. Every single applicant, whether you hired them or not. On top of that, every time you hire someone, on their first day ask them to name at least 5 people they believe are talented and smart. Collect those names, emails, and phone numbers. Add them to the list. Do this with every single hire, every year. Your list grows to thousands of contacts. When you're hiring, send one email: "We're hiring. Apply or recommend someone who'd be a great fit." Your best candidates will come from this source.
Your Job Ad Should Not Be Boring
Most moving company job ads read like they were written by a robot. Professional tone, serious language, corporate bullet points. Nobody gets excited reading that. Use humor. Show personality. Make it sound like a place someone would actually want to work at.
If you can't write it yourself, hire someone on Fiverr to punch it up. A $50 investment in a job ad that actually stands out is worth more than a $500 ad budget behind a boring post.
Your website and social media are hiring tools too
Your website isn't just for customers. It's for your future employees. Have a page dedicated to careers. Showcase what you do, your culture, your team. And your social media feed should always have at least one visible post about employees having fun. This helps with hiring and it helps with acquiring clients too. People want to work with companies that treat their people well.
The Problem With Resumes
On the job ad, ask for a CV. Don't experiment here. Stick to what's already the norm. People expect to submit a resume. Let them.
But here's the truth about resumes. You're basically judging whether a person knows how to write a CV. That has nothing to do with being a rock star salesman. The best closer you'll ever hire might have the worst resume you've ever seen. And the person with the polished LinkedIn profile might not be able to sell water in a desert.
On top of that, you can interview maybe 30 or 40 people in person. Even that is a massive waste of time. So what do you do?
The VideoAsk Process
When you receive an application, send every single applicant an email with the next step. No exceptions. Explain that the first round is a one-way interview through a platform called VideoAsk.
Not everyone will do it. You'll get somewhere between 50% and 70% completion rate. That's fine. While you wait, go back and read the CVs. Pick your top 10 to 15 candidates based on the resumes. If any of them haven't submitted the VideoAsk yet, call them on the phone, explain the process, and ask them to complete it. You're squeezing every last drop out of that lemon.
How to Set Up Your VideoAsk
On the home screen, record a short intro video. State your mission, your vision, and who you are as a company. Then give them options with buttons:
More About the Position
A short video explaining the role, what the day looks like, and what you expect.
How the Selection Process Works
Explain the steps so they know what to expect. Transparency builds trust.
Our Story / Meet the Team
A quick video showing the culture, the people, and what makes your company different.
Get Started
This is where they answer your questions. 4 to 5 questions, recorded with audio. Let them re-record as many times as they want.
Audio only. Not video. This matters.
Your goal at this stage is to hear their voice. That's it. Asking for video creates a barrier. People get nervous, they worry about how they look, and your completion rate drops. Stick with audio answers. Enable re-recording so they can try again until they're happy with it. You want as many submissions as possible. Don't put up walls.
What to Ask
Ask 4 to 5 questions. They should be hard enough to show you who can think on their feet, but fun and engaging enough that the person enjoys answering them. Don't ask boring interview questions. Ask things that reveal personality, problem-solving ability, and how they communicate under pressure.
That's it. Submissions start coming in.
"You don't need to listen to every answer. You usually know within the first question if someone has it or not."
200 Interviews in 3 Hours
You don't need to go through every question for every applicant. Listen to the first answer. If it's not there, move on. You can get through 200 submissions in less than 3 hours. Pick your top 15.
Schedule each of those 15 for a 30-minute online interview. This is where you dig deeper. Ask follow-up questions, test how they think on camera, see if the energy matches what you heard in the audio. From those 15, pick your top 5 and bring them into the office.
Your hiring process just went from two weeks of hell to one day of work. And you'd be surprised how many people you would have overlooked based on a bad resume who turn out to have amazing talent for selling. Those are the ones usually overlooked on the job market. When you give them a chance, they prove you right.
Think about the 99% who didn't get the job
This hiring process is your chance to build a reputation. Think about the 99 people who didn't get hired. What was their experience? If they went through your VideoAsk, watched your intro videos, heard your mission, and felt like they were treated with respect, they're going to talk about it. They're going to remember you. And next time you send that email list a note saying you're hiring a dispatcher, they're going to get excited and recommend someone.
Most people who start working at big tech companies realize it's nothing really special. It's just that everyone else's hiring process is so bad that these companies look amazing by comparison. They built employer brands that create a frenzy. You can do the same thing in your market. Give people an experience worth talking about, and your reputation as an employer starts building itself.
Bonus: VideoAsk isn't just for hiring
Once you have VideoAsk set up, use it to collect video testimonials from your customers. Send them a link after a completed move, ask them to record a quick 30-second review. It's not easy to get people to do it. Most won't. But the ones who do give you authentic video testimonials for your website and social media that are worth every penny of effort.
Mistakes to Avoid
Don't skip the CV and go straight to VideoAsk.
People expect to submit a resume. Let them. Use the CV as a secondary filter, not a replacement.
Don't ask for video answers.
Audio only at this stage. Video is a barrier that kills your completion rate.
Don't over-produce your intro videos.
Record them on your phone. Make it natural. It doesn't have to be perfect. Polished corporate videos feel fake. Real feels real.
Do call your top CV picks who haven't submitted yet.
Some great candidates need a nudge. A quick phone call explaining the process can be the difference between missing your best hire and finding them.
- You need 100+ applicants to find one great salesperson. Use job platforms, LinkedIn, social media, and your internal email list.
- Build an internal list by asking every new hire for 5 talented people they know. This list becomes your best source over time.
- Make your job ad fun and show personality. Boring ads attract boring candidates.
- Collect CVs first, then send every applicant to VideoAsk for audio-only answers to 4 or 5 questions.
- You can screen 200 applicants in under 3 hours. Pick your top 5 and bring them in.
The people you almost missed
The best salesperson you'll ever hire probably has a terrible resume. They got overlooked at every other company because nobody bothered to hear them speak. When you build a process that lets people show you who they are instead of what they can type on a page, you find talent everyone else missed. And when you give those people a shot, they don't forget it.