Industry experience is the most overrated line on a sales résumé.

"We need someone who knows our industry."

Every founder says it. Almost none of them can explain why.

What they mean is that they don't want to spend time teaching the product. Fair. But the product takes six weeks to learn, and the things that actually decide whether a rep succeeds can't be taught in six years.

What industry experience usually gets you

Someone who has been selling the same thing, the same way, to the same people, for a long time. They come with habits. Some of those habits are yours to unlearn now. They come with a rolodex that is mostly people who already said no to them somewhere else. And they come with a price, because "industry experience" is the line on the résumé that justifies the ask.

What they often don't come with is the willingness to make ninety cold calls a day, because they haven't had to in years.

What we actually score for

Every candidate we interview gets the same scorecard. Industry experience isn't on it.

Coachability. Tell them something they did wrong in a role play and watch what happens. Do they argue, or do they try it the new way on the next attempt?

Work ethic. Not the word. The evidence. What did they do when the last job got hard? Ask for the specific week.

Resilience. Sales is rejection all day. Ask about the worst month they ever had and what they did on the Monday after it.

Phone presence. Can they hold a conversation with a stranger without reading? Put them on a mock call in the second interview. It's the only test that predicts anything.

The trade you're actually making

A coachable rep with no industry background will know your product in six weeks and be booking meetings by week eight, because they'll do what the script says while they learn.

An industry veteran who won't be coached will know your product on day one and still be "working their network" in month four.

Hire the first one. Teach them the industry. It's the cheapest part of the job.