OpenView Labs

APRIL 29, 2021

OpenView, Work-Bench , Primary Venture Partners , and Lerer Hippeau just hosted the fourth and final session of SaaS Growth Camp—a series for the firms’ portfolio companies tailored to the complex ideas behind SaaS growth and go-to-market strategies. Recruiting top talent is the common denominator across all scaling startups.

Sales Recruiting 81

Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale 81

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

At SaaStr Miami, former Founder’s Fund Partner and CRO of Brex Sam Blond — host of the SaaStr CRO Confidential Podcast — sat down with SaaStr CEO and founder Jason Lemkin for a fireside chat about finding success as a SaaS company in 2024. On the sales side, people hired way too much. More salespeople do not equal more sales.

Sales Hiring 254

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 254

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 301

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Interviewing 301

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 2, 2015

Last night, SaaS Office Hours at Redpoint welcomed Maia Josebachvilli , the VP of People and Strategy of Greenhouse. Specifically, she champions a metrics-based approach for developing world class recruiting teams. Maia reports these five strategic recruiting metrics to the executive team each quarter.

Sales Recruiting 111

Sales Recruiting Startup Sales Hiring Data Analysis 111

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2021

Flock Safety’s Founder and CEO, Garrett Langley, and its VP of Growth, Alex Latraverse, know a bit about sales. Enough to go from 0 to 100 sales reps in about 18 months — and they’re looking to be well beyond 100 by the end of this month. Flock Safety is a hardware-enabled SaaS company dedicated to stopping crime.

Sales Recruiting 176

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 176

SaaStr

OCTOBER 28, 2022

Conversations about the state of the SaaS market in 2022 are everywhere, and it can seem overwhelming for entrepreneurs and business leaders to make sense of everything. In the first session of the eye-opening CRO Confidential series, SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin interviews Founders Fund Partner Sam Blond about the current economic climate.

Sales Recruiting 200

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Leadership Interviewing 200

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 295

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Engineering 295

SaaStr

MAY 29, 2022

So we’ve talked so much over the years on SaaStr on how to hire a great VP of Sales, the difference they’ll make, and how the level-up comes quickly. And VPs of Sales do, too. Don’t hire a VP of Sales that isn’t truly comfortable selling to your buyer persona, especially in B2D and fintech. Be careful.

Sales Hiring 254

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 254

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2022

If there really is a slowdown (and I’m not sure will be in SaaS), folks will have to work harder. So I’m not yet convinced times are really tougher for SaaS companies. But buyers are still buying more SaaS than ever, far more than just last year and far, far more than even 2 years ago. — Jason BeKind Lemkin #????????????

Sales Hiring 257

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Startup 257

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 72

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Consulting 72

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. How would you manage a team that works across time zones and remotely?

Interviewing 98

Interviewing Underperforming Technical Team Management Sales Hiring 98

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2021

I’ve also invested in 24+ next-generation SaaS companies, mostly successes, and had a chance to watch and learn from them as well, with a new lens. The skills I’ve learned are 90%+ transferrable to this generation of SaaS companies. Sales — Not Easier. I know how sales works much, much better.

Sales Recruiting 314

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 314

SaaStr

JUNE 24, 2022

We’ve recently been posting polls on SaaStr’s LinkedIn account to get a feel for what SaaS companies are doing in the current environment. In the video below, he discusses the results and where he thinks SaaS companies are on track or need improvement. #1. This is particularly important for a VP of Sales.

Sales Recruiting 212

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Customer Success 212

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2021

Q: What are the top 20 pieces of advice for building a successful SaaS startup? Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Great at sales. It just takes that long in SaaS and B2B, nine times out of ten.

Sales Hiring 306

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Engineering 306

Incredo

APRIL 8, 2020

And SaaS companies aren’t exceptions. 2 Company: InternX , University Recruiting Platform InternX created a constantly updating list of hiring companies who are still looking for new employees during the coronavirus. They also decided to shift their focus to providing virtual fairs.

Sales Recruiting 269

Sales Recruiting Travel SaaS Sales Hiring 269

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 77

Sales Hiring Interviewing Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting 77

User Pilot

JULY 27, 2023

Confused about trying to understand SaaS roles? SaaS companies have many moving parts, and it can be difficult to determine who does what. TL;DR SaaS, or “Software as a Service,” is a business model that delivers centrally hosted software to subscribers over the internet. What is a SaaS business model?

Sales Hiring 98

Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 98

User Pilot

NOVEMBER 5, 2023

We also give you a bunch of tips on how to implement it in your SaaS. 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. What is customer value management? Let’s dive in, shall we?

Management 105

Management Scale Customer Lifetime Value SaaS 105

SaaStr

JANUARY 21, 2021

We’ve talked a lot about hiring a VP, Sales. It’s just such a critical accelerate-or-decelerate decision for a post-Initial Traction SaaS company. We’ve talked about the 48 Different Types of VP Sales , What a VP Sales Really Does , and a Script to Use When Interviewing a VP Sales.

Sales Hiring 158

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Point of Sale Sales 158

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

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 133

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Social Media 133

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 224

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 224

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 95

VP of Engineering Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 95

User Pilot

DECEMBER 6, 2023

Start implementing a dogfooding program by recruiting users from across the organization, especially those not involved in the product development. Use surveys , interviews, session recordings, and product analytics to gather insights. Book the demo to see how you can use it for dogfooding in your SaaS.

Software Development 98

Software Development Sales Recruiting Development Software Review 98

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

Valuize Consulting

DECEMBER 7, 2021

Stephen is a Customer Success Executive in the SaaS industry, specializing in customer renewals and relationships, with 20+ years of organizational development experience. Is it going to come from the Sales and Marketing budget, or General Administrative budget? A: “We typically see organizations falling within seven categories.

VP of Engineering 98

VP of Engineering Customer Success Sales Hiring Interviewing 98

The Angel VC

APRIL 1, 2017

At the excellent SaaStr Annual 2016 conference about a year ago, a very experienced SaaS CEO said on stage that an internal recruiter can be a startup CEO’s secret superpower. Being willing to invest in an internal recruiter or talent manager (or more broadly, an HR person) early on requires pretty big balls a lot of confidence.

Sales Hiring 168

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Software Review 168

Baremetrics

NOVEMBER 25, 2021

Your marketing and sales budgets, and the personnel assigned to those teams, will also rise. Interview stakeholders 2. A longer lead time for recruitment means higher quality recruits. You can create your hiring plan by considering the following steps: Interview stakeholders. Table of Contents. Assess your team 3.

Sales Hiring 97

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Finance Forecasting 97

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 30, 2023

The first goal of sales at a startup isn’t to bring in revenue — it’s to get customer feedback. I’ve used our sales process to iterate our way to product market-fit and wanted to share what I’ve learned along the way. Use sales conversations as a tool to get product feedback. So how do you get there?

Sales Recruiting 90

Sales Recruiting Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring 90

Point Nine Land

OCTOBER 23, 2023

P9 Panel on Hiring Sales Leaders — Founders Summit 2023 “You are going to fire your first sales manager!” — A lesson too many founders learn the hard way. The Founder isn’t willing to be the first salesperson Many of the best founders we work with don’t have a sales background and are either product or engineering focused.

Sales Hiring 125

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Advisors Technical Cofounder 125

Totango

OCTOBER 20, 2022

In some companies, customer success managers may play an active role in the sales process, helping sales representatives elicit customer goals and persuade buyers of product benefits. At other companies, CS managers may be assigned to follow up on sales during the customer onboarding phase. Persuasion Skills.

Sales Hiring 93

Sales Hiring Customer Success Sales Recruiting Technical Review 93

Sales Hacker

MAY 16, 2019

Nothing really stood out until I stumbled across a “Director of Sales and Client Relations” role with a company called Jammony. Director of Sales and love what I do. How can you get started in sales? Keep reading as I share my story and offer some tips that could help you get your 1st (or next) sales role. Today, I’m Sr.

Sales Hiring 94

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 94

User Pilot

APRIL 19, 2024

You will learn effective techniques for collecting and analyzing data , with practical tips on applying your findings to benefit your SaaS. These choices can make or break your SaaS company. Interviews. Interviews : Have one-on-one conversations to gather detailed information from individuals in your target audience.

Market Research 52

Market Research Sales Recruiting Marketing Underperforming Technical Team 52

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

Wiza’s accuracy-obsessed B2B contact database offers 99% coverage of LinkedIn profiles as well as a powerful Chrome extension that enables you to access contact data while browsing LinkedIn profiles and when exporting from Sales Nav. During interviews, it’s easy for disappointment to creep in at this stage. That’s sales.

Sales Recruiting 67

Sales Recruiting AI Search AI B2B 67

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

It’s an approach that’s served him well along the road to building the HubSpot sales team, where he was CRO for nine years. That experience led to his bestselling book, The Sales Acceleration Formula. I just don’t think sales have anything to do with product-market fit. A data-driven framework for scaling.

Scale 226

Scale Scaling Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 226

SaaStr

JUNE 3, 2020

It’s 2020 and SaaS buyers are more skeptical and suspicious, more disbelieving, more unconvinced than they were in 2019. The SaaS Trust Crisis is making it harder to market and sell software and services than ever before. And what I’d like to talk to you about today is the SaaS Trust crisis we’re seeing.

Software Review 185

Software Review Scale Technical Review SaaS 185

Natalia Luneva

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

How he founded Sales playbook. I founded SalesPlaybook after getting frustrated by the lack or absence of sales support for startup founders. A lot of these companies have never done outbound sales and they don’t have a repeatable process in place and they haven’t really nailed down their ideal customer profile.

Sales Recruiting 52

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 52