Fintech B2B Sales Hiring: Why it's so hard and how to get it right

Introduction

Have you ever hired a salesperson who crushed the interview, looked perfect on paper  and then couldn't close a single deal in your market? It's one of the most common and most expensive mistakes in fintech.

And the real cost goes way beyond their salary. Think about the deals that went cold, the client relationships that got damaged, and the six-to-twelve months of ramp time you'll never get back. It adds up fast.

The good news? Most of these hiring mistakes are preventable. In this guide, we'll walk you through what makes fintech sales hiring so tricky, the patterns we've learned to spot after placing sales talent across Europe, and a step-by-step framework you can start using right away.

So what makes fintech sales different?

Here's the thing: B2B fintech sales isn't just a harder version of regular B2B sales. It's a fundamentally different person.

They must understand transaction flows, risk, compliance, KYC/KYB, and industry actors; navigate multiple stakeholders and build trust over longer, consultative sales cycles.

And then there's the network factor. In fintech, deals often happen through personal relationships, partnerships, and referrals. A salesperson who's starting from zero in the space will need a lot more time to start producing results – and in today's competitive market, that ramp time can really hurt.

These competencies exceed what typical sales training delivers and can’t be developed overnight.

Three things that need to line up (and rarely do)

We've placed a lot of sales talent in fintech companies across different markets, and we've noticed a clear pattern. For a hire to actually work out, three things need to come together at the same time. When even one is missing, things get slow, expensive, or just don't work.

Candidate quality. Real, verifiable B2B sales experience. We're talking closed deals, pipelines they actually built and owned, and results they can back up with numbers.

Industry fit. They need to know fintech, payments, or something closely related. That means understanding PSPs, EMIs, crypto processors, KYC/KYB, compliance – and the specific nuances of the markets you're targeting.

Company clarity. This one's on you. A structured hiring process, a clear picture of what the role looks like, and alignment on what success means in the first 90 days.

As our recruitment partner Mariam Mamulia likes to say: "Many companies struggle because they either lack a defined process or attempt to hire without truly knowing what they need."

That third point is honestly the one we see missing most often. Companies pour resources into sourcing great candidates, then lose them because the internal process is messy, slow, or inconsistent. The framework we share below is designed to help you fix exactly that.

How to spot the right candidates (and the wrong ones)

Here's what we've learned to look for and what should raise a red flag.

What strong candidates look like

The best fintech sales candidates don't just tell you they're good – they show you. Here's what to look for:

• They've done their homework. Before the interview even starts, they've researched your company, your competitors, and your market.
• They bring real numbers. They can walk you through specific deals they closed:  how many leads they generated, conversion rates, deal sizes, revenue contribution.
• They've owned the full sales cycle. From cold outreach all the way through to close, not just warming up leads someone else created.
• They speak fintech naturally. Transaction flows, compliance, risk – it's not something they're reading off a cheat sheet.
• They think beyond the current deal. They understand relationship economics – how one client engagement can open doors to five more.

What should worry you

• Job-hopping with nothing to show for it. Bouncing between roles every 3–6 months without a single result? In fintech, where sales cycles are long, that's a serious red flag.
• Showing up unprepared. If someone doesn't know your market or the key players before the interview, that's a preview of how they'll prepare for client meetings.
• Vague answers when you ask for numbers. "I was one of the top performers" sounds nice, but if they can't tell you their clear numbers, there's usually a reason they're keeping things fuzzy.
• Leading with compensation. When someone's first questions are all about base salary and bonuses before showing any real interest in the product or the opportunity, the role is just a paycheck to them.

As Mariam Mamulia points out, the candidates who interview well but underperform on the job tend to share several of these patterns. The more structured your evaluation, the easier they are to catch early.

How to structure your Fintech Sales hiring process

Alright, here's where we get into the good part – the actual framework you can use to make better hires. We've broken it into four steps.

Step 1: Define what you actually need before you start

Before you post a job or reach out to a single candidate, sit down with your team and get aligned on what success actually looks like in this role.

What kind of sales motion are you hiring for? Outbound prospecting into new markets is a completely different job than managing and growing existing enterprise accounts.

Which markets and products are in scope? Someone who's great at selling payment processing to European e-commerce merchants isn't necessarily the right fit for selling compliance tools to crypto exchanges.

What does success look like over time? And we mean concrete milestones, not vague goals. Get alignment on what success looks like in 3, 6 and 12 months.  

Writing these milestones out might feel like extra work,  but it forces the kind of internal conversation that prevents misaligned expectations down the road.

Step 2. Run structured interviews – and take them seriously

Every candidate should be assessed against the same criteria. Use scenario-based questions and real case walk-throughs, ask about specific deal outcomes, not general experience. Validate fintech and product knowledge directly, rather than assuming it exists because it's on the CV.

The goal is to see beyond a polished interview performance and get to actual functional skill. Companies that rely on gut instinct or unstructured conversations are the ones who end up rehiring for the same role six months later.

If you want to go further and explore specific questions you can ask during the interview, take a look at our guide on how to hire B2B Fintech Sales talent. There we created a list of targeted, high-signal questions to identify top performers and avoid costly mis-hires.

Step 3: Compete seriously as an employer

Here's something a lot of companies forget: top sales candidates are evaluating you just as much as you're evaluating them. And if your process is slow or disorganized, you'll lose the best people before you ever make an offer.

Your hiring process needs to reflect a company that is organised, moves quickly, and has a clear growth story. That means fast feedback between stages, honest communication about the role and its challenges, and a compelling narrative about career trajectory – not just a competitive base salary.

Step 4: Make the first 90 days count

Hiring the right person is a big win. But if the onboarding experience is a mess, even a great hire can feel lost. Here's a simple structure that works.

Week 1-2: Let them learn before they sell. Give your new hire time to go deep on the product, sit in on real client calls, understand the competitive landscape, and meet the people they'll be working with. This foundation pays off quickly.

Week 3-4: Ease them into real conversations. Have them start doing outreach and joining client meetings, but with backup. Co-selling with a founder or senior team member gives them real-world experience while protecting client relationships. Plus, the feedback cycle is incredibly valuable.

Month 2: Give them ownership with check-ins. By now they should be running their own pipeline. Set up weekly reviews so you can track progress and course-correct if needed. If someone is clearly off-track by week six, that's worth a conversation now (not in three months).

Month 3: Expect results. By the end of 90 days, your hire should have a real pipeline, be handling client conversations independently, and ideally have proposals or early deals in play. If those milestones aren't being hit, have an honest conversation. Catching problems early is always better (and cheaper) than waiting.

Final thoughts

Hiring B2B fintech sales professionals is difficult, because the required skill set is highly specific and a wrong hire costs you way more than just a salary.

When candidate quality, industry knowledge, and hiring clarity align, sales performance becomes predictable. When they don’t, roles remain open, revenue is delayed, and hiring becomes costly.

To get it right, you must look past the polished CV and hunt for "fintech natives" who own their numbers and understand the complexity of the ecosystem. But remember, even the best talent will fail without a clear process and a solid onboarding roadmap.

Success in sales hiring comes down to three things: define exactly what you need, interview for verifiable proof, and compete for top talent with a professional, high-speed process.

How we can help

At Evotym, we help fintech companies across Europe hire sales talent the right way. We work with you to define the right profile, find candidates who actually match it, and assess whether they can perform in the real world (not just in an interview room).

We know fintech, payments, and crypto hiring inside out. And our approach is built on the same framework we've shared in this guide: clear success profiles, structured evaluation, and speed that doesn't sacrifice quality.

If you're building a sales team and want to get it right the first time, let's talk. Fill out the form and we’ll contact you shortly.  

Want to go even deeper? Download our complete guide to hiring B2B fintech sales talent - packed with interview templates, evaluation scorecards, and the success profile framework we use with our clients.