"Clare at Aaron Wallis was brilliant from the start. She discussed an opportunity with me, kept me updated throughout the process, and went above and beyond to help. By far the most proactive recruiter I’ve worked with in a long time, thanks to her support, I’ve landed my next role and couldn’t be more grateful."

Sarah Kendall

Clare Gillard, Senior Consultant working for Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment

Competency Interview Template

Page Overview:

At Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment, we help employers conduct more objective and effective competency-based interviews by offering a ready-to-use Competency Interview Template. Built for roles like Head of Sales, this template highlights critical competencies, such as performance versus targets, strategic sales development, coaching, conflict management, and resilience, and includes both scoring and weighting guidance to reflect what matters most. You'll find instructions for tailoring questions using the STAR method, designing a consistent scoring matrix (e.g., 1, 1.5, 2 weightings), and ensuring decisions are evidence-based rather than gut-driven. Use this tool to elevate your interview accuracy, fairness, and hiring quality.

To help you devise your own Competency interviewing template and scoring mechanism, we have linked to an example template.

How to Use

This example template is for a Head of Sales role, so it emphasises required competencies such as:

    • Performance against Targets
    • Strategic Sales Development
    • Delivering Training and Upskilling Team Members
    • Team Development, Coaching and Mentoring
    • Conflict Management
    • Change Management
    • Leading from the Front
    • Measuring and Controlling Progress
    • Resilience and Tenacity
    • Download the Competency Interview Template

You will see that it details a scoring and weighting mechanism.  For this Head of Sales role, it was deemed that 'Performance against Targets' was more important than 'Delivering Training and Upskilling Team Members'.  Therefore, the candidate would score double for this particular Competency.  Using 'weighting' when scoring helps ensure that the best candidate scores highly against an average applicant.

We suggest 'keeping it simple' by having a weighting system of 1 (or zero weighting), 1.5, or 2. 

Using the Competency Interview Template

Use our Competency Interview Guide to create your own competencies. 

It may also be useful to use our suggested Competency Interview Questions Guide to help create your own questions. 

Remember, though, that creating competency interview questions is relatively easy by following the STAR Interviewing method.  Consider a reasonably good question that will tease out evidence of the required Competency. 

For instance, if the Competency is  'Building and Managing a Pipeline', the question could be:

"Talk me through how you built your pipeline in your last role?" 

Then use laddering questions to probe and extract the details such as:

    • What was your annual target?
    • What was your average order value?
    • What was your pipeline-to-close ratio?
    • How did you measure your pipeline?
    • How did you ensure that your pipeline was at the required level to ensure you met your sales target?
    • What did you do if your measurement method was saying that you weren't on target?
    • Was there ever a time that you weren't on target?
    • What happened?
    • What action did you take?
    • What was the outcome of this intervention?
    • What did you learn from this?

Scoring a Competency Interview

Scoring should be objective and based upon the evidence provided by the candidate against each Competency.  Strictly speaking, you should design a scoresheet so that all of the interviewing panel members are following the same scoring mechanism.

Using the Competency of 'Building and Managing a Pipeline', the scoring mechanism could be:

Did not meet min. requirement (1 point)

    • Did not demonstrate any practical ability to build or manage a pipeline. They approached meeting targets in an unstructured manner and did not follow a process.

Met Required Level of Competency (3 points)

    • Demonstrated the ability to build and maintain a pipeline. Utilises systems and processes to measure the pipeline, ensuring it meets the required business levels to achieve the target.

Above Required Competency (4 points)

    • Demonstrated above-average ability to build and develop a pipeline. Gave examples of interventions that they put into place to ensure that targets were exceeded.  Built dates into tasks and had an effective process and system to track their pipeline.  Their system prioritised business and had a mechanism to forecast effectively.

Mastery at Competency (5 points)

    • Demonstrated exceptional capability in managing a pipeline to meet every expectation and target consistently.  Effectively communicated their systems and processes to break down their target into milestones and priorities.  Provided evidence of effective forecasting and several methods they use to rebuild a pipeline.

NB Having a scoring mechanism of 1,3,4, and 5 means that the better candidates will score significantly higher and lessen the risk of all candidates having comparable scores.  

Golden Rules of Designing a Competency Interview

    • Take the time to plan your competency interview structure effectively. 
    • Invite direct input from the hiring managers.
    • Choose the weighting and scoring mechanism carefully.
    • Try to keep the competencies to no more than eight, as each Competency will be circa ten minutes of interview time.
    • Make notes, lots of them, and keep them.
    • Always be able to clearly articulate why candidates were unsuccessful based on the interview's evidence and not on 'gut feeling' or 'opinion'.

We hope that you find this guide and competency interview helpful template and that it helps you to make the best possible hiring decisions.

Cultural Fit Interviewing

Download the Competency Interview Template

Competency Interview Template

Date published: 4th August 2025

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Rob Scott - Aaron Wallis

by Rob Scott

Managing Director

Rob Scott, Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment, Author Photo

About the author

Rob Scott

Rob is the Managing Director of Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment, a national recruitment agency specialising in sourcing sales and marketing staff for businesses across a broad range of commercial sectors. Before setting up Aaron Wallis, Rob spent ten years at a specialist Sales and Marketing recruitment division of a £0.5BN recruitment group, leaving in 2007 as Marketing & Sales Director to establish Aaron Wallis.
 
With over 24 years of experience in sales recruitment, Rob is a History graduate with an MBA (Merit) and a PgCert in Management Practice.  In 2007, 2009 and 2013 Rob conducted the most extensive surveys of sales professionals in the UK and is a trusted authority in the sales industry. From guiding employers through the recruitment process to helping candidates find their dream job, Rob's advice has been quoted in leading publications such as Business Insider and The Independent, as well as OnRec, which host The Online Recruitment Awards every year.

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Giles Phillips is a rare find in the minefield of sales recruitment; an honest and thoughtful recruiter who considers the needs of both the client AND the candidate to create perfect role matches. I look forward to working with him again in the future.

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Rob is a true recruitment professional that goes the extra mile that I have never experienced from any other recruitment agency before. If you need sales people call Rob or someone in his team, as they really are experts in sales recruitment.

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I just wanted to thank you for your help with our recruitment process which went very smoothly and has – we hope – found us just the person for the job!

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I have used Aaron Wallis to fill a number of our Sales Development Manager roles and I have found them to provide a very professional service. I will use their services again in future recruitment campaigns.

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Director, Education Support

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Director, Blakedown Sport & Play Ltd

Rob’s knowledge of the recruitment industry and his thoughts and how to make it better for his clients have always been eye opening. I would recommend Rob to anybody who is looking for a professional, knowledgeable and flexible recruitment specialist.

CEO, Friday Ad Online Services

In an industry where people over promise and under deliver, Rob and his teams have consistently provided a high-quality service. It is great to deal with someone that has an excellent understanding of UK industry, and a passion for sales.

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I could not suggest anything I would like you to do better. The service you provided materially exceeded my expectations. I would especially like to commend Simon Bonner; he is easily the best recruitment consultant I have ever dealt with. I particularly valued his advice and guidance throughout the recruitment process. 

UK Sales Manager, BTS Holdings Limited 

Understood the type of person we were looking for and good follow ups - not too frequent.

Managing Director, bigHead Bonding Fasteners Ltd

Since joining DSGi, Rob has been a supplier of permanent staff and has performed to an extremely high standard, successfully filling 98% of roles he has worked on. If anyone is looking for a good sales and marketing based consultancy with an informal yet professional approach, I would recommend Rob.

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I can't fault Sam or AW! Sam was a pleasure to work with and provided great support from the start. Sam always provided me with timely updates when required and provided outstanding candidates!

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Thank you for your dedicated help during the recruitment process - we came to you after unsuccessfully searching elsewhere, and hired, not one, but two! Quick response times, and a really personal approach, without being pushy.

Managing Director, Accora Ltd

George is a rare find in the world of recruitment - communicative without being pushy or over-bearing. He listens and understands what the customer needs as gets to know the business to ensure he provides fully competent candidates who fit.

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HR Assistant, Fischer Connectors Ltd

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The staff at Aaron Wallis were fantastic. Throughout the process, they maintained excellent communication and I always knew where I stood.

M. Owusu, Candidate

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S. Akers, Candidate

George is a fantastic recruitment agent and provides a great service. It was a pleasure I thoroughly recommend George to anyone.

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