Get Someone Who Can Sell · Edition 1 · Published by Revenue Hire · March 31, 2026
The short version: AI now writes resumes that look perfect, so the resume can no longer tell you who can actually sell. The truth comes out on the phone screen. Three things ChatGPT can’t fake: a rep who can recite their real numbers from memory, who can walk you through a deal they lost and what they learned from it, and who asks questions that prove they did their homework. Based on screening about 2,000 salespeople a year.
Every morning I sit in a huddle with my recruiting team. We go through the previous day’s phone screens. Who was good. Who was bad. Who was a waste of time.
Here’s what keeps coming up.
The resume looks incredible. Polished. Strong numbers. Impressive accomplishments. A rock star on paper. Then we get them on the phone and it’s a completely different person. They can’t talk about their numbers. They can barely remember what’s on their own resume. They can’t explain how they closed those deals. The presence is terrible. The rapport is terrible. They’re boring.
What we see on the screen has nothing to do with who shows up on the call.
And it’s getting worse. More and more resumes are ChatGPT resumes. They look perfect because a machine wrote them. But once the candidate starts answering real questions, it falls apart fast.
There are two kinds of fake resumes right now
The first kind is the polished fake. Great formatting. Quantified results. Strong bullet points. These candidates are good at using AI to manufacture a version of themselves that doesn’t exist. They look like A players until you test them.
The second kind is the lazy fake. These resumes have literally been run through ChatGPT with the placeholders still in. X’s and Y’s where the numbers should be. The AI gave them a template that said “insert your quota here” and they didn’t even bother. They submitted the resume with the blanks still showing.
So now you’ve got sales leaders reviewing a stack of resumes where half are too good to be true and the other half didn’t even try. And somewhere in that stack is one real person who actually did the work.
Good luck finding them.
Why this matters more than you think
Before ChatGPT, a bad salesperson usually had a bad resume. The numbers weren’t there. The formatting was sloppy. The experience didn’t add up. You could filter them out in 30 seconds and move on.
Now AI does the work for them. A mediocre candidate can produce a resume that looks like a top performer wrote it. Which means more of those candidates are getting past your resume screen and onto the phone. Which means your team is spending more time interviewing duds than ever before.
The filter that used to protect you is broken. The resume no longer does the job it used to do.
My team screens about 2,000 salespeople a year. We’re on the phone with candidates every single day. And the gap between what the resume says and what the person can actually do has never been wider.
One of my clients told me this before they hired us: “We can’t tell who’s real anymore.” They’re not alone. Every sales leader I talk to right now is saying the same thing.
Three things I look for that ChatGPT can’t fake
- They can walk you through their numbers without looking anything up. Not “I was a top performer.” What was your quota? What did you close? What was your average deal size? What was your win rate? If they can’t rattle these off from memory, they didn’t live those numbers. They copied them.
- They tell you about a deal they lost and what they learned. Every real salesperson has a loss that stings. They remember the company name. They remember what went wrong. They remember what they changed after. If they only talk about wins, they’re performing. Not selling.
- They ask you questions that show they did their homework. Not “what’s the culture like?” Real questions. “I noticed you expanded into the Southeast last quarter. Is that where this role is focused?” That’s curiosity. That’s preparation. That’s what a real salesperson does before every meeting.
The resume used to be the starting point. Now it’s the least useful part of hiring a salesperson.
The phone screen is where the truth comes out. And if you’re not testing for these three things, you’re hiring the resume, not the person.
I see this every week. The best candidate on paper is almost never the best candidate on the phone. And the person who gets hired is usually the one who talked about a real deal, with real numbers, and asked a question that made me think.
That’s what I’m seeing from screening 2,000 salespeople a year. If this was useful, share it with someone who’s hiring right now. They probably need it.
Happy Hiring!
Olga Pechnenko
Founder, Revenue Hire
Host, Get Someone Who Can Sell
P.S. What are you seeing on your end? Are the resumes getting faker? Reply and tell me. I read every response.
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