7 things a hiring manager checks before they call you back
I read every application to our sales seat. Most of them fail for the same few reasons, and almost none of those reasons are about experience. Here's what I check, in order.
1Your headline
The first thing I open is your LinkedIn, and the first thing I read is the line under your name. If it lists past job titles, I learn where you've been. If it says what you sell and to whom, I learn what you'd do for me.
Ignored: "Server at Bella's | Looking for new opportunities." Called back: "SDR for consumer brands · I write cold emails that lead with finished work."
2Whether the first line is about us
On a phone I see your subject and one line. If that line is about you, I usually move on. If it's about something specific at our company, I open it.
"I'm passionate about sales" gets skipped. "I noticed your pricing page hides the annual plan" gets opened.
3A link I can open
Everyone says they're hard-working and coachable. Almost nobody sends something I can look at. One link to a teardown, a mock page or a recorded mock call puts you ahead of most of the pile.
A 90-second Loom walking through our onboarding emails, with three fixes, beats a two-page résumé.
4Numbers you can defend
Sales managers ask follow-up questions about every number. A small number you can explain beats a big one you can't. Made-up numbers end interviews fast.
"Sold the dessert special to about a third of my tables, tracked on the POS for a month" is better than "exceeded sales goals."
5That you know what we sell
If your message could be sent to any company, it reads like a mass email. Naming one product, one customer type or one recent launch shows you did ten minutes of homework.
One sentence about our newest product is enough. Three paragraphs about our mission is too much.
6How you follow up
Most people follow up with "just bumping this." The ones I remember send something new the second time: another idea, a fix, a question about something they noticed.
Day 3: a second idea. Day 7: a short question. Then stop. Persistence that adds something reads as sales skill.
7Whether you've seen what good outreach looks like
The applicants who get a call on the first try have seen a lot of good messages and a lot of bad ones. They know what to cut. Most people have never seen one side by side.
10 teardowns: the message that gets ignored, the work-first version, and the fix
Five job applications and five sales prospects. Each one ends with a "your turn" prompt so you build your own version the same day.
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30-day money-back guarantee. The companies in the Vault are made up; the patterns are the ones hiring managers and founders really see.