Job brief template for business roles fill in, then start the search

The template: copy and fill in

Keep it to one page. Write in plain words and in outcomes, not in a list of duties copied from an old ad.

• Role and team: title, department, who the person reports to, who reports to them
• Purpose of the role: one or two sentences on why it exists now and what problem it solves
• Outcomes for the first 90 days: three to five results you can check at the end of probation
• Main responsibilities: five to seven lines, in order of time spent
• Must-have: the few skills and experience without which the person cannot do the job from the first months
• Nice-to-have: useful but trainable, never a reason to reject an otherwise strong candidate
• Languages and markets: working languages needed for clients and team, markets the person covers
• Decision makers: who interviews, who gives an opinion, who makes the final decision
• Budget as a range for the full package, checked against the role page and the Salary Index, plus what is open to discuss
• Interview steps with dates: first call, work sample, final meeting, reference calls, offer
• Work sample: the one task every finalist does, the time limit and the criteria you will score
• Start date, location and working pattern (office, hybrid, travel)

Worked example: key account manager

A trading company in Dubai with a few large B2B clients wants to stop the founder handling every renewal.

• Role and team: key account manager, sales team, reports to the managing director, no direct reports
• Purpose: own the relationship with the largest existing clients so that renewals and upsell no longer depend on the founder
• 90-day outcomes: has met every key client with the founder and then alone; account plans written for each; renewals for the quarter prepared on time; CRM records complete and current
• Responsibilities: regular client reviews, renewals and pricing proposals within agreed limits, coordination with operations on delivery issues, upsell of related products, forecasting in the CRM
• Must-have: several years managing B2B accounts with renewals; written and spoken English at client level; disciplined CRM use
• Nice-to-have: experience in the same product category; Arabic or Russian for part of the client base
• Decision makers: managing director decides; head of operations gives an opinion on teamwork
• Budget: a range for base and variable pay, checked against the key account manager and sales manager pages and the Salary Index
• Interview steps: first call; work sample; final meeting with the managing director; two reference calls; written offer within a few days
• Work sample: a role-play of a difficult renewal where the client asks for a discount, then a short written account plan for one anonymised client; scored on listening, commercial judgement and clarity

Must-have versus nice-to-have

Most slow searches have too many must-haves. Every extra must-have shrinks the market and rarely predicts success.

• Test each must-have with one question: would you really reject an excellent candidate who lacks it?
• Industry experience is often nice-to-have; the ability to do the work (sell, model, build, manage) is the must-have
• Write languages as a working requirement ("Russian-speaking, fluent Russian for client calls"), never as nationality
• Separate what can be learned in the first months (your product, your systems) from what cannot (judgement, discipline, client manner)

Common brief mistakes

These are the mistakes that most often add weeks to a search or lead to the wrong hire.

• A list of duties without outcomes, so nobody can say what good looks like
• No budget or a budget that was never compared with the market
• Decision makers not named, so a new person appears at the final stage with a different view
• No work sample planned, so finalists are compared on impressions
• Several roles in one brief: sales, account management and marketing for one person
• A copied job ad from another company instead of a description of your situation
• Interview dates not booked, so feedback takes weeks and finalists accept other offers

From brief to search

Once the brief is agreed by the people who decide, the rest of the process becomes faster and fairer.

• Use the purpose and outcomes as the opening of the job description candidates see
• Use must-haves as the screening criteria and nice-to-haves only to rank similar candidates
• Use the work sample criteria to score finalists the same way
• Review the brief once after the first candidates: if nobody meets the must-haves, the brief or the budget needs adjusting, not the candidates

How we help

TLNT is a hiring consultancy. We help employers write the job brief in a short call, check the budget against the market, design the work sample, then find and assess candidates against the criteria agreed at the start. You make the hiring decision and agree the terms with the candidate yourself; the person is employed directly by your company, the employer sponsors the visa and we give you a step-by-step checklist.

Our fee is fixed for each role and agreed before the search starts. A 10% prepayment of the fee starts the search, the rest is due once the person has started work. If it does not work out, we find a replacement free of charge; the period is set in the contract. Consulting and CRM projects are priced after a free review.