Episode 06: How Scotty Freeman identifies top sales talent (before anyone else does)

Most founders think sales hiring is hard because the talent pool is thin. Scotty Freeman (Apprento) thinks the real problem runs deeper — we don't know what we're hiring for, we fall for the person who talks the most, and we rush through the parts that matter most. As co-founder of Apprento, New Zealand's leading sales acceleration platform, Scotty has spent 20 years building, breaking, and rebuilding the sales talent lifecycle. In this episode, he unpacks what actually predicts sales performance (it's not experience), why onboarding is where most companies quietly fail their new hires, how AI is reshaping both the rep's role and the sales leader's, and why the SDR isn't dead, just misused. Timestamps 00:00 Intro and who is Scotty Freeman 01:48 How Scotty fell into sales (and the stat that'll surprise you) 04:18 Co-founding a business with 13 people 05:43 What Apprento actually is and how the model works 09:16 The SDR hiring boom and why the unit economics never made sense 10:02 How to hire your first salesperson: advice for founders 11:03 What to look for in an SDR when experience is off the table 14:09 Raw aptitude testing and the Five Eyes framework 19:46 Reference checks: why happy ears kill good hires 21:34 Onboarding: why most companies fail their new hires in month one 24:19 The origin story of Grow (AI sales coaching) 28:15 How AI is widening the gap between great and average sales leaders 32:50 How AI is changing who you hire 34:51 Will AI kill SDRs? 37:26 Quickfire round