SaaStr

NOVEMBER 22, 2021

I've never seen a great VP of Sales hide from a miss. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) November 22, 2021. We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr over the years about how to hire a great VP of Sales — and how to course-correct if you’ve made a miss hire. Nothing gets better in 1 sales cycle. Sales is tough.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Marketing 248

SaaStr

AUGUST 29, 2023

So I was on a group Zoom with a number of CROs and VPs of Sales the other day and a consistent theme came up: everyone was surprised how high OTEs (On Target Earnings) had held up in the current environment. In 2021, they might have gotten their bonus for closing say $500k in bookings. Look, it just makes sense. Today they care.

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Sales Recruiting Venture Capital Enterprise Sales 206

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2021

— Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) June 22, 2021. The other day I saw a VP of Sales flame out and resign with no notice from a SaaS company doing $10m ARR growing quickly. So I thought it might be helpful to brush off the topic of alignment between Sales and Marketing by updating a classic post on the topic. Sales Tactics.

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Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring Revenue 300

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

They discuss Sam’s learnings at Founders Fund, what the 2024 playbook looks like, hiring and motivating sales teams, and a handful of audience questions. For folks in SaaS, what got confusing in 2021 is that growth blew up so much in SaaS that the venture bar got lower. On the sales side, people hired way too much.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 260

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2023

The best VPs of Sales I’ve hired were Directors of Sales before. Maybe once you have a full recruiting team, they can parse some of these. The truth is, most of us got … a bit desperate in hiring in the Boom.Growth was everywhere in 2021, but talent wasn’t. And recruiters all told us we had to settle.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Startup 270

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 16, 2019

And according to Gartner , by the time 2021 hits, the software industry will have grown another $113 billion. So if scaling your sales organization is a priority in 2020, here are the things you need to be aware of to make sure you do so successfully. Hiring sales leaders will get harder. What makes them want to choose you?

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Trends 53

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 5, 2023

It Was 114x in 2021. SaaStr 630: Sales-led vs. Product-led? SaaStr 629: CRO Confidential: Sales Recruitment in 2023 For Candidates and Hiring Managers With Flexport’s Ben Braverman   3. That’s Still Growing. A Top Unforced Error: Alienating Your Investors Top Podcasts This Week: 1.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Venture Capital 199

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

Dig deeper on a lot of titles during recruiting. A "VP of Revenue" often knows nothing about inside sales or building a sales team. A "CRO" often doesn't want to do sales anymore. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 22, 2021. A “VP of Revenue” for a VP of Sales job.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Growth Hacking Product Marketing 281

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

The companies that create the SVPs you’ll need, especially in Sales and Marketing, are still mostly based in the SF Bay Area. Top execs are looking for new spots in 2021. As crazy as things are now, we’ll almost certainly see a return to some sort of pre-Covid like normalcy by the second half of 2021. are all here.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Scaling 309

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2021

Still, an overall deep-dive on lessons learned the second and third time around: Not Easier : Recruiting – Not Easier. You might think after (goodness) the best part of 20 years of working in tech, 18 as an executive or CEO, and 13 as a founder … I’d be pretty good at recruiting at this point. I’m not.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 326

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2022

But I saw most of the startups I work with cut corners in the Boom Times of 2020 and 2021 just to keep up with hiring. Even the very best VPs of Sales I know admitted to lowering the bar a bit on their sales teams, when I quietly pushed them. A related post here: How To Get Better at Recruiting. (We We All Need To).

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Startup 262

SaaStr

APRIL 16, 2021

— Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) April 15, 2021. Support and partner with sales. Having a CMO that is present, that is visible, is great for recruiting and much more. Just make sure at least 50% of their energy goes into promoting the company, and not just their personal brand. CMO is a tough job. The half-life is short.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Branding Product Marketing 280

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 30, 2020

B2B sales is always changing, but nothing could’ve quite prepared us for the wild ride that 2020 ended up being. While most of us have settled into the new normal and the challenges that come with it, sales leaders are looking ahead with uncertainty. Best Sales Statistics to Know in 2021. Short on time?

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Revenue 125

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2022

Fast forward 1 year, 8 digital events, and 2 shots later, we announced in May 2021 that SaaStr Annual 2021 was on ! Founders were able to recruit on-site. total attendees, e.g., a CEO + a VP of Sales and a VP of Customer Success, or two Co-Founders, or CEO + CTO, etc. VPs were able to recruit and make new hires.

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Scale Sales Recruiting CTO Hire New CTO 283

SaaStr

AUGUST 11, 2021

— Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) August 11, 2021. A ways back at SaaStr, we did a post “If Your VP Sales Isn’t Going to Work Out — You’ll Know in 30 Days” At first, so many VPs of Sales I know hated the post. A great VP can’t always double sales in a month or two. They can’t recruit.

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Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring Scaling 278

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2022

Investments I've made that didn't work out: – Momentum investment – CEO a bit of bulls**t artist – CEO good at sales but weak product team / CTO. Some sales-y, some very technical. CEO good at sales, but CTO not that great. — Jason 2022 SaaStr Annual Sep 13-15 Lemkin (@jasonlk) October 28, 2021.

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Investment Sales Recruiting CTO Startup 271

FastSpring

MARCH 8, 2021

Having more women in technology will help close the gender gap and creates more female mentorship opportunities.” – Elizabeth Faddis – Recruitment Manager. You were hired because that manager and team believe you are the right person for the job. Elisabeth Faddis, Recruitment Manager.

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Technical Review Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Leadership 148

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 21, 2020

“The prevailing go-to-market structure for SaaS companies in the last decade is through an inside sales team. Virtually all inside sales teams were forced to go remote in mid-March and haven’t been back in the office since. Teams are starting to ramp back up, and the next chapter of inside sales is a little wild.

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SaaS Payments Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions 96

SaaStr

MAY 2, 2021

“A Step by Step Guide to Build a Marketing Strategy to Take You to the First $100M with Snowflake” An A+ session from SaaStr Build 2021. #5. “Recruiting Your Sales Team with Brex Chief Sales Officer Sam Blond” Brex was just valued at $7B just 4 years after founding.

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Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Scaling 143

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2021

As we gear up for 2021 SaaStr Annual, I wanted to highlight some of my very favorite Annual sessions from the past you may have missed. They talked about product adoption, sales alignment, freemium models and lessons they have learned throughout their successful SaaS careers. Jyoti Bansal: Let’s switch topics to sales.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale VP of Engineering 250

OPEXEngine

APRIL 8, 2021

What Are the Most Significant Factors Impacting the Business Environment for Your Company in 2021? Fundamental shifts in customer buying, big changes in workforce expectations, and rapid movement in the competitor landscape are what SaaS companies expect to have the most impact on business in 2021. It’s not Covid (at least directly).

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting SaaS Business 59

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 19, 2022

As the president of Sales Xceleration, a firm specializing in assessing and implementing sales strategy , sales processes, and sales execution to drive growth, I’ve seen how job hopping can affect otherwise stable sales teams. million workers left their jobs in 2021 — 70% of them voluntarily.

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Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting Compensation 83

SaaStr

MAY 5, 2021

— Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) May 4, 2021. 50% of the job of a real VP is recruiting. Sales — for a VPS. You may still need to spend just as much time in sales when you hire a great VP of Sales — but you shouldn’t have to own it as much. – does the team believe?

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Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Metrics 188

BetterCloud

DECEMBER 17, 2020

But it’s also a good time to build a different type of list: Your enterprise’s 2021 SaaS sprawl management checklist. Without knowing and monitoring for potential SaaS app account creep, your SaaS environment becomes a risky, expensive, and unmanageable clutter. Without actively managing them, the dangers mount.

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Sales Recruiting Management SaaS Government 52

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 12, 2022

And in the Boom Times of 2021 and such, VCs took a lot more risk across the board. I’m 100% OK taking a lot of risk here because I know I can help them recruit a local team as much as necessary or desired. Which is expensive, can take tons of sales reps, and isn’t done through the software / network effects per se.

Scale 339

Scale Sales Recruiting Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 339

OpenView Labs

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

In 2021 the ‘ Rule of 40’ died, according to our latest 2021 Financial & Operating Benchmarks report that launched last week. . ARR business to be top quartile in 2021 they now need to be growing at 300% or faster. The game has changed when it comes to recruiting. Today growth appears to be all that matters.

Payment Services 80

Payment Services Benchmarks SaaS Payments Merchant Services 80

OPEXEngine

JANUARY 13, 2021

If 2020 is remembered as the year of COVID-19, we also think 2021 will be remembered as the year of change. Putting aside everything else, let’s just focus on what’s changing in SaaS in 2021. That doesn’t mean that 2020 wasn’t hard to manage through, but overall as a sector, SaaS companies grew revenue and valuations skyrocketed.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring SaaS Benchmarks 52

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

It will be in March this year for one year in 2020, before we go back to February for 2021 on. With power, snacks, and more, we’ll have lounges just for Founders; just for Sales + Marketing professionals; just for Builders (Dev + Product), and just for VCs to issue term sheets. Recruiting Fair. 4,000+ CEOs. 1,000+ VCs.

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New CTO Sales Recruiting CTO Coach Scale 261

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

Requests for proposals (RFPs) generate a whopping average of 35% of annual sales revenue , according to Loopio’s 2021 RFP Response Benchmarks and Trends Report. The new research, which surveyed 650+ teams, found that despite economic uncertainty over the past year, RFPs are expected to be an integral part of sales growth in 2021.

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Sales Recruiting Software Review Technical Review Systems Review 65

OpenView Labs

MARCH 8, 2021

B2B sales involves one business selling its product to another business. Those with experience in both B2B and B2C sales know that B2B is a lot tougher—the deals are bigger, there’s often more than one decision-maker, and the competition is intense. For all those reasons, hiring and management must be on point.

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Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting B2B 80

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

In 2021, 42% of founders were kept up at night by concerns about hiring the best talent. And the primary burden of your product and GTM execution can fall on an effective technical leader and proven sales executive. Accelerate hiring of internal recruiters. Growth is king in 2021 and likely will be again in 2022.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Startup 82

Chart Mogul

OCTOBER 15, 2021

The decision to sponsor and attend SaaStr Annual 2021 with thousands of in-person participants was challenging to make this year. SaaStr 2021 was the most successful SaaStr we’ve had to date. pic.twitter.com/V3rHuhwWYV — Nick Franklin (@Nick_Franklin) September 30, 2021. ?????? SaaS is a tightly-knit community.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Travel Compensation 52

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Recruiters are still reporting it as a challenging time to fill roles, with both employers and candidates being more gun shy than previously. We will be hosting monthly digital events, kicking off the series with none other than Lars Nilsson who coined the phrase account-based sales development himself. That’s it, that’s all.

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Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 91

Point Nine Land

APRIL 9, 2021

What does it take to raise capital, in B2B marketplaces, in 2021? Having invested in 9 B2B marketplaces and gathered data from 20+ different investors, here are our findings on what it takes to raise money in 2021 for B2B marketplaces. What does it take to raise capital, in B2B marketplaces, in 2021? Proven ability to recruit.

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Marketplace as a Service Payments B2B SaaS Payments 59

Valuize Consulting

DECEMBER 7, 2021

Is it going to come from the Sales and Marketing budget, or General Administrative budget? In 2021, standard segmentation shifted to 4 tiers, signaling an industry-wide switch to digital engagement. Where does Sales, Support, Training & Education play and what does the handoff look like? leverage Training & Development.

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VP of Engineering Customer Success Sales Hiring Interviewing 98

OpenView Labs

APRIL 13, 2021

She transitioned into a solution engineer, a role that sits at the crossroads of sales and product, which gave her the opportunity to do more of what she loved: discussing business challenges and crafting corresponding technology solutions. How do you get design to work with sales, or engineering to work with customer success?

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Sales Recruiting Management Engineering Leadership 60

OpenView Labs

OCTOBER 26, 2021

Average seed round in 2021: $5.6M. The exciting thing about prototypes is that large-scale experiments can be built through open-source projects , which companies like Netflix and Linkedin will do as a strategic way of recruiting top talent. . Why startup founders should treat fundraising like a sales funnel. Phase 1: Idea.

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Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Marketing 82