Why Phone Screens Matter in Playbook Adoption with Todd Gorell

2025-02-20

Hiring great salespeople is not as tough as you might think… And the key to this is a great phone screen (aka: Discovery call). Here is why the discovery call is so important. First, People are the most truthful in their first conversation because they have invested very little time or emotional bandwidth. Second, interviewees are not expecting a level of diligence early on so they are not as guarded with the information given. This allows us to gather accurate data to truly understand if a person is positioned right for our unique company based on the candidate’s desire and level of performance. Guest Bio

Hiring great salespeople is not as tough as you might think… And the key to this is a great phone screen (aka: Discovery call).

Here is why the discovery call is so important. First, People are the most truthful in their first conversation because they have invested very little time or emotional bandwidth.

Second, interviewees are not expecting a level of diligence early on so they are not as guarded with the information given.

This allows us to gather accurate data to truly understand if a person is positioned right for our unique company based on the candidate’s desire and level of performance.

Guest Bio

Todd Gorell is the Chief Growth Officer of The Pavement Group. Where Todd is responsible for driving revenue and team growth for the most advanced, dynamic, and market-diverse facilities maintenance company in history.

With over 15 years of sales executive experience, Todd has built and led teams, developed new business segments, and fostered customer relationships across various

industries. Scaling the business 10x in the past 4 years!

Problem:

Story: Hired a very senior person who did not want to be part of the team.
Tended to go rogue. Loan Wolf salesperson
He was a Polished interviewer, with a good resume.
Did not need help, and didn't want anyone to tell him how to do the job.
His show
- At a customer meeting, got drunk at a work meeting
- Did not close the deal
- Fired the next day
Hiring people who are not coachable
- Seasoned people are not adaptable to your playbook
- Fit Culture

Rick’s Nuggets

Quickly understanding where the person will thrive
- Vision for the ideal company, type of work, size & Role
Evidence of past performance (key indicator of future performance)

How do we solve the problem?

Do not have a difficult time hiring people at all
Create a lot of attention through content a lot of people reaching out
Divide and Conquer
Two people interview - compare notes after both interviews are completed.
*** Phone screen- live sales situation
Follow a script (conversational)
*Comfortable talking about money
- What do you need to make? Get right to it
*Asking smart questions back
- Are they positioning themselves to sell us… good at asking questions
*Are they excuse-makers
- Why are things working/not working
Questions
- What was the last book you read
- What do you do for fun
- Why Questions
Culture- Core values
- Hire, fire, review based on core values
- 10x the company since 2020

Rick’s Nuggets

“If you could create your next opportunity from scratch, what would it look like for you?”
- What would the company look like?
- What work would you be doing?
- Why is this important to you?

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!