I run a tiny sales office, so I am the only one doing the hiring, and I have other strengths. Hiring is, of course, different from one of them.

When I had a sales manager, who had now moved on to a different role in the company, the candidate would come to us through an application on indeed. The candidate would then meet the sales manager, who would conduct the first interview and then move the candidate to the assessment stage (online employee assessment). The sales manager would then send them my way (for those with a qualified assessment), I would interview them, and if I liked them, I would have the sales manager contact the candidate and offer the position to them.

This process worked well, and I found several excellent candidates I hired.

Now that my sales manager is no longer in this role, I manage everything.

The current process is the candidate comes in from indeed after passing a few pre-screener questions. I then send the candidate an assessment through Indeed, and 40% of the candidates take it. Then I forward an interview request, again an email through indeed, and 30% of the candidates agree.

When I get the candidate in an online meeting, I ask them questions to understand the candidate's sales abilities. I share the scope of work and remuneration and open the floor for some questions. If I like the candidate, I offer the job immediately (I think this is the problem, being too quick out of the gate) and ask what type of notice they require to give their current employer. At this point, I let the candidate know that I would send them an email requesting contact info to draft an agreement, but I have yet to hear from them again.

1. Is there a service that could hire to act as my intermediary, what my sales manager used to do?
2. If there is no intermediary service I can hire, what am I doing incorrectly? How can I improve my hiring process to get a better buy-in?
3. Is there an accurate model of hiring that I could learn from?