Jason Thompson has spent his career in painting and home services and has recruited hundreds of sales reps. His process works for painters, project managers, salespeople, and leaders alike.
Most painting company owners hire the way they put out fires. Someone quits, the season is coming, and they need a person in the seat. That is usually where turnover starts. Jason Thompson started as a College Pro franchisee in 2007, later became College Pro’s U.S. recruiting manager, and now directs recruiting for home service companies. He told Haakon Hansen on Aleph Ventures TV that the companies that hire well aren’t doing anything complicated. They are organized before they start.
Here is his process. He says it applies whether you are hiring a painter or installer, a project manager, a sales rep, or the person who will lead the whole business.
“If you go out to start looking for a position and you don’t know what you want to pay somebody … it’s really tough to start figuring that out throughout the process.”
Jason says that lack of clarity leads to winging it, and winging it leads to people leaving. His firm starts every search with an intake meeting that settles the details first:
Timing matters too. Jason believes it is always a good time to hire, because good people are always out there if you do the work to find them. But for sales roles, he pushes painting companies to hire in the first quarter so the new rep is in place by about March, with a full runway to hit a sales goal for the year.
Most candidates read job descriptions on their phones, so Jason keeps them short and in bullet points. A description needs enough to show someone what they are getting into, but not so much that they think they already know everything.
The first step after that is a phone screen, and Jason uses a script. If you are talking to 20 people for one position, he wants a very similar conversation with all 20. Before candidates enter the process, map the rest — remote or in person, a ride-along or office visit, who is involved — and have an offer letter ready at the end. As he put it, time kills deals.
Whatever the role, Jason’s team looks at values first. Then core traits: can they control their emotions in pursuit of a goal, are they detail oriented, can they lead themselves and others, do they set goals, do they have grit. Experience comes after that.
“I think they’re too worried about experience, somebody having done the exact same job before.”
What owners miss instead are soft skills, which is why he recommends several steps rather than one interview. Across those steps, watch whether they show up on time consistently, follow the system you give them, make eye contact, and put effort into their resume. Haakon added that, at Aleph’s companies, hiring a salesperson who has sold painting before is now the exception, because they know what they are looking for. Some of the best owners he works with, Jason says, also ask: would I enjoy having dinner with this person?
Jason says the most commonly missed step in an interview is preparing for it: reading the resume and past notes, looking at social media, and writing questions ahead of time.
“Show me your prep and I’ll tell you how the event’s going to go without even seeing the event.”
Candidates are trained to say what they think you want to hear, so the next job is building rapport. Jason uses the acronym FORM — family, occupation, recreation, and money — as topics to get to know someone before the real interview starts. How long have you been in the painting industry? What do you like to do outside of work? The key, he says, is to make it a two-way street. Share two or three easy things about yourself, or it starts to feel like an interrogation.
Then ask open-ended questions instead of leading ones. “What do you enjoy doing outside of work?” opens a conversation; “Do you play sports?” gets a yes or no. Everyone gives surface answers at first, so listen and probe with follow-up questions until you get past them.
Jason’s team tracks its recruiting funnel. By his numbers, 100 direct messages typically bring back 30 to 40 interested candidates; 25 to 30 get scheduled for phone interviews and 20 to 25 show up; 15 to 20 move to a video application; about four reach a behavioral interview; and one is hired.
Knowing the funnel guards against two mistakes. If you think you have found the one after two or three calls, keep talking to candidates for a little longer — he has seen a better person turn up a week or two later. And if you have spoken with 20 good candidates and none fit, something is off, maybe the pay or the messaging, and the data will show you where.
You can outsource parts of hiring, Jason says, but the owner has to own the job details, the pay, and the final decision on who joins the team. Owners also need to own the new hire’s experience. That doesn’t mean doing all the training personally, but it does mean having the right people in place to do it. In his experience, a great sales rep with a good attitude who is thrown into the field without training and coaching will run into trouble.
Haakon’s caution: anyone can show up well for two weeks. A 90-day onboarding plan lets you see how someone handles a sick day, a rain day, a holiday week. Jason agrees, and says fit runs both ways.
“It’s got to be just as much about them as it is about us and our position.”
In the first 90 days you won’t know what a new rep will sell for the year. But you can see whether they show up on time, keep a good attitude, and handle what is in their control. If they do, he says, the rest will probably figure itself out.
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