SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

So we’ve spent a ton of time over the years on SaaS talking about hiring a great VP of Sales. Not only because it really matters, but because hiring the wrong VP of Sales can set you back a year — or longer. Way too many folks give managers a pass here that never understand the product. Sales is hard.

Sales Hiring 221

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 221

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 20, 2020

Success in sales requires the right skills and a competitive, driven, and personable nature. However, scoring a great sales role takes more than just being confident in your own skills and nature. You have to convince a management team of those things as well. Start Acing Your Interview Before You Even Start.

Sales Recruiting 76

Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales 76

OPEXEngine

APRIL 12, 2022

The other day a founder asked me about interviewing because a candidate had described me as “a great interviewer,” and she wanted to know why. I find interviewing and recruiting difficult, have made plenty of mistakes over the years, and the consequences of those mistakes are invariably painful. Use work test samples.

Sales Recruiting 40

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Interviewing Finance 40

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

That result alone should encourage rethinking of AE interviewing. It formed the basis for a career at HubSpot predicated on consistent quantitative analysis to scale the go-to-market, which he detailed in the Sales Acceleration Formula in 2015. I think it’s still one of the best books on how to repeatably scale sales teams.

Sales Hiring 345

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Marketing 345

OpenView Labs

APRIL 29, 2021

Recruiting top talent is the common denominator across all scaling startups. Nine out of 10 founders and CEOs I connect with are involved in recruiting on a weekly, if not daily, basis. Many of them are learning on the fly and trying to juggle being CEO and Chief People Officer/Lead Recruiter/Brand Evangelist all at once.

Sales Recruiting 81

Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale 81

User Pilot

AUGUST 21, 2023

In this ultimate list of product manager interview questions, we have tried to simplify the process of hiring great product managers. Product management encompasses the entire SaaS lifecycle from ideation to launch and everything that follows. What to look for in product managers? Communication skills. Leadership.

Interviewing 88

Interviewing Underperforming Technical Team Management Sales Hiring 88

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 2, 2015

Specifically, she champions a metrics-based approach for developing world class recruiting teams. Because of her position, Maia has observed recruiting patterns in hundreds of companies, and has developed best practices for startups. Maia reports these five strategic recruiting metrics to the executive team each quarter.

Sales Recruiting 113

Sales Recruiting Startup Sales Hiring Data Analysis 113

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

Director+ of Sales at Slack / Zoom / DropBox / Pick Your Brand Name SaaS Company. Because it’s not ARR growth or even an IPO alone that determines if a VP of Sales him or herself is great. And there were probably 100+ RVPs of Sales at that point. Because often, the managers were given a team, or a lot of it.

Sales Recruiting 293

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Interviewing 293

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2020

We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to make that critical hire: the VP Sales. You’ll end up with a crummy sales team under a mis-hire. We’ve posted a script to use when interviewing a VP Sales. And lessons learned on what a VP Sales really does. Job #1 is Recruiting. It all clicks.

Sales Recruiting 293

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Engineering 293

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. Nailing the interview process: Here’s one way to nail the interview process once the interview is landed: 1. Have the 1st interview. At Demandbase, data wins every time.

Interviewing 87

Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 87

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

You might never have considered a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) because it’s not been a common role until very recently, and because you might not have the kind of revenue that needs its own manager. If you’re a company that has a 100% sales-driven business model, it makes sense to hire a big-deal revenue person. Is a CRO right for you?

Sales Hiring 228

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 228

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Chuck is the co-founder of Blueprint Expansion , a GTM roles recruiting firm that has helped over 50 VC-backed companies make amazing Sales, Marketing, & Customer Success hires. By using the power of AI to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase.

Sales Hiring 103

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing SMB 103

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. On the sales side, people hired way too much. More salespeople do not equal more sales. Sam just finished 18 months at Founders Fund after joining in mid-to-late 2022.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 246

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 6, 2020

The number one thing I grade candidates on is how well did they run their sales process on me? If you’re a job candidate in sales, you should be managing your job application process just like you’d run your sales process with a potential customer. Again, I’m running this like a sales process.

Sales Recruiting 70

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Consulting 70

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 26, 2019

” Prioritizing women is sales and other business sectors continues to be a challenge for businesses, but recruiting women of color—that’s a greater challenge yet. Key Issues in Hiring Saleswomen of Color: Women in sales is challenging. Having women in sales is important. Women in Sales: It’s Challenging.

Sales Recruiting 55

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Company Culture 55

Sales Hacker

JUNE 10, 2021

There’s one thing recruiters are unanimous about. It’s that sales representatives are one of the toughest positions to hire for. The demand for sales reps is one of the highest of any job. Our recruitment team at EASI has gotten really good at this. Sales courses are largely absent from college curricula.

Sales Hiring 103

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 103

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.

Sales Hiring 80

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting B2B 80

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.

Sales Recruiting 312

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 312

Totango

OCTOBER 20, 2022

Hiring team members with the right customer success manager skills is critical for the effectiveness of your CS team and strategy. Here we’ve identified the 13 most essential qualities to consider when hiring a CS manager. What Is a Customer Success Manager (CSM)? What Is a Customer Success Manager (CSM)?

Sales Hiring 90

Sales Hiring Customer Success Sales Recruiting Technical Review 90

OpenView Labs

JULY 20, 2020

Interviewing is hard , and interviewing candidates for sales roles can be doubly so. Sales requires a mix of left- and right-brained qualities, and accurately evaluating a candidate’s skills is a challenge for hiring managers. Why is effective interviewing so important? 50% were promoted at that company*.

Interviewing 73

Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 73

SaaStr

JUNE 24, 2022

Your best sales reps can close so much more than your average rep. Move the bottom 10% out and give the best leads to your top performer, and watch sales go up 20%. The best VPs of Sales design comp plans so the team never wants to leave. The best VPs of Sales design comp plans so the team never wants to leave.

Sales Recruiting 205

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Customer Success 205

Sales Hacker

JUNE 17, 2020

According to statistics from our sales professional user base here at RepVue , only 46.7% of sales professionals globally are achieving quota. And it’s even fewer in software sales organizations. And that’s not where hiring managers should be spending their time during the candidate evaluation process. Not so fast.

Sales Hiring 80

Sales Hiring Interviewing Sales Recruiting Sales 80

User Pilot

NOVEMBER 5, 2023

What’s customer value management? TL;DR Customer Value Management (CVM) is a business process that focuses on analyzing customer needs , building outstanding products that satisfy them, and enabling users to realize their value. This allows them to drive account expansion and product growth. What are its stages?

Management 96

Management Scale Customer Lifetime Value SaaS 96

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 22, 2020

If you think sales is a simple job, I have a few hundred professional connections who would like a word with you. By mastering your sales interview questions. As a longtime recruiting leader, I’ve worked with countless hiring managers looking to fill sales roles , and I’ve had a firsthand look at their interview process.

Sales Hiring 76

Sales Hiring Interviewing Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting 76

Sales Hacker

MARCH 30, 2023

If you’re new to sales (or don’t have an economics degree), decoding the sales compensation plan on offer can make your head spin. There are 3 key questions you must ask your hiring manager or recruiter when offered a sales role to maximize your earnings and career potential. Variable OTE. Quota attainment.

Compensation 74

Compensation Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 74

Buffer Resources

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

I’ve never created LinkedIn content with the “goal” of lead generation or immediate-term sales. Another cool example I really like is Tito Bohrt — he stands out with the pseudo, “ Sales Mad Scientist ” — which demonstrates confidence and a unique identity online.

Sales Recruiting 127

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Social Media 127

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

As he told me a few days ago, he has observed the lack of sales management and sales execution skills as one of the most consistent deficiencies limiting the potential of early stage SaaS companies. Sales execution deficiency manifests itself at roughly the same time as product market fit.

Sales Hiring 184

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Compensation 184

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

If you’re looking to move up the ladder into a sales leadership role, your resume is key to getting your foot in the door. I’m the founder of iCareerSolutions, a 20x award-winning resume-writing company, specializing in executive and C-suite level resumes that get my clients high-level interviews. Manage pipeline.

Leadership 76

Leadership Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales 76

Sales Hacker

MAY 6, 2021

What’s the difference between a VP of Sales and a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)? The VP of Sales. Great VPs of sales have gravitas and tact, command the room and hold their end of the table regardless of who is on the other side. Singular focus on sales. As the title would hint at, the VP of Sales should focus on sales.

VP of Engineering 93

VP of Engineering Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 93

User Pilot

DECEMBER 6, 2023

What does it have to do with product management or product design? The term comes from a commercial and was first used in the software context by a Microsoft manager in 1988. Start implementing a dogfooding program by recruiting users from across the organization, especially those not involved in the product development.

Software Development 92

Software Development Sales Recruiting Development Software Review 92

Sales Hacker

APRIL 21, 2020

When I first wrote this article, we were in a very different place, with unemployment at an all-time low and sales hiring a top priority. You’ll be able to download the interview scorecard template that I use with my clients. Can you ever be sure you’re hiring the right salesperson? Man oh man, how the world has changed so quickly!

Sales Hiring 93

Sales Hiring Interviewing Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 93

Sales Hacker

APRIL 18, 2023

Table of contents Joel’s background: 80% interview rate, 0 sales experience Burn your resume! Here’s why Statistics: Video pitches vs. resumes How to make a video pitch Video pitch + follow-up cadence Real success stories Hone your mindset My story: How I landed an 80% interview rate with 0 sales experience It was early 2020.

Sales Recruiting 78

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Interviewing Sales 78

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

Mark Roberge , SaaStr fan-favorite and Co-Founder and Managing Director of Stage 2 Capital brought together some of the top CROs in SaaS during the SaaStr Annual to share some of their greatest learnings and pivotal moments leading some of the Cloud 100 SaaS companies. From a GTM execution standpoint, they weren’t focused.

Scale 218

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 218

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

You might have a few account executives and a sales leader in place; maybe some revenue and a handful of customers. The sales team costs real money, and the question before the company is: how do you know what quota plan to assign to the account executives? Stage 1: Management by Objectives.

Compensation 158

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 158

Valuize Consulting

DECEMBER 7, 2021

Is it going to come from the Sales and Marketing budget, or General Administrative budget? Where does Sales, Support, Training & Education play and what does the handoff look like? Your charters must dictate how you hire as the skill sets you recruit need to align with, and complement, your charters.

VP of Engineering 98

VP of Engineering Customer Success Sales Hiring Interviewing 98

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

Whether you need to hire dozens of sales reps in the next few months or you’re a scrappy startup and need your first three sales hires, building a business will nearly always involve hiring for sales. Although hiring is the hardest job we have to do as sales leaders, it’s certainly one of the most important tasks to get right.

Sales Hiring 139

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Enablement 139

OpenView Labs

JANUARY 31, 2022

Make a clear plan for your interview process . A strong interview process plan goes deeper than simply who candidates will interview with. . Before you even start interviewing you should have: A projection of how long the full interview process takes to complete (stay competitive by making it happen in three weeks or less).

Sales Hiring 60

Sales Hiring Interviewing Sales Recruiting SMB 60