The Interview That Wasn’t About the Job

This is the Minute Business Riff (MBR). Quick takes. Big swings. Leadership riffs you can read in less time than it takes to scroll LinkedIn aimlessly.

One minute. One idea. That’s it.

Today’s word count: 303

It took me 1 min 08s to read this.

A founder once told me about his best sales hire.

Not a 10x closer. Not a SaaS vet with a Presidents Club shelf.
Just a guy named Eli, applying for an AE role.

No fancy logos. No polished talk track.

Here’s what made it interesting:

The interview didn’t start with “Walk me through your quota history.”
Didn’t touch on Salesforce dashboards or objection handling.

Instead, the founder opened with: “Tell me about something you built that no one asked you to.”

Eli lit up.

He talked about how, during his last job, he noticed that follow-ups were falling through the cracks.
Reps were ghosting leads - not because they were lazy, but because the CRM was a mess.

So on his own time, Eli built a mini follow-up tracker in Google Sheets.
Color-coded, pre-loaded with talk tracks, set up reminders via slack.

He didn’t pitch it. He just used it. Then started quietly sharing it with other reps.

In 3 months, their team-wide follow-up rate jumped by 28%.

No one asked him to do it.
He just saw the problem - and solved it.

The founder didn’t finish the interview.
He just said, “You’re hired.”

Fast forward: Eli became the top rep.
He didn’t just hit quota - he made quota easier for everyone else.
He tweaked emails, tested pitches, tracked conversion drop-offs without being told to.

Not because it was on the job description - but because he couldn’t not.

That’s what separates average salespeople from lethal ones.

They don’t just run plays. They build better ones.

Tactical Takeaway:

Want to find your next game-changer on your team?

Ask this in the interview:

“What’s something you built or fixed that no one asked you to?”

That’s how you spot the difference between someone who follows the playbook…
And someone who rewrites it.

Think this was a banger? Think I’m full of it?

Either way, hit reply and drop some truth bombs.

I read every email 😁

Great leaders are made in minutes. Not meetings.