SaaStr

OCTOBER 3, 2023

It’s so, so easy to stand out in recruiting if you’ve actually done your homework. Invest those extra cycles. Sometimes the bar is shockingly low, even for leadership roles” — David Fallarme, VPM, Spotdraft “One time, a candidate had created a free trial account on our SaaS tool, plus trials on competitors.

Interviewing 216

Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Consulting 216

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Storyblok started with a leadership-first hiring plan and a recruitment strategy that involved the following: A test to know how candidates handle different tasks and their expertise level. Their first step to achieving this was hiring a sales leader to build a sales team. Self-service.

Scale 186

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scaling 186

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

A CRO owns and directs the strategy over a company’s revenue cycle, but there’s not a set standard for operational or management decisions: in addition to sales and sales development, they might be responsible for customer success, lead generation and pipelines, and even marketing and brand development. Is a CRO right for you?

Sales Hiring 228

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 228

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

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2021

I thought it would be worth drilling down deeper into each of them, and sharing the learnings and mistakes: 1/ Spending less time fixing things, more time recruiting senior folks to own them. No one spends enough time recruiting as it is, after $1m ARR or so. Yes, you can manage the sales team yourself. You can do this.

Part-Time VPE 258

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 258

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2021

They talked about product adoption, sales alignment, freemium models and lessons they have learned throughout their successful SaaS careers. As two CEO who love the art of sales and scaling, this one really was special. 20 VCs do come to me to invest in the company now. Jyoti Bansal: Let’s switch topics to sales.

Sales Recruiting 242

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale VP of Engineering 242

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 20, 2022

Strong sales reps are the lifeblood of your business and how you choose to invest in them matters. For frontline sales managers, attributes like competency, quality of work, ease of execution, and length of contribution indicate reps’ overall job success, but you can’t rely on those inputs to tell you if they are personally satisfied.

Sales Recruiting 98

Sales Recruiting Scale Retention Sales 98

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2020

A few factors that contribute to high-performing sales teams: High quota attainment. The best startups invest in their sales teams and work hard so most of the reps hit and exceed quota. Turning over a sales team is very hard on the organization. A great VP of Sales is worth her weight in gold.

Sales Hiring 310

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Compensation 310

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2021

And then, I would have invested more wisely in Year 1 especially. Not Hiring 2-3 Sales Reps to Start. More on that here: When You Hire Your First Sales Rep — Just Make Sure You Hire Two. I should have invested a little more in sales reps, more quickly, one we had some initial traction (see above).

Sales Recruiting 263

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale SaaS 263

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

Sales reps were hosting 4-6 calls daily but most of these calls were early demos or top-of-funnel discovery calls Sales was closing really small deals on one end while talking to really large companies with hundreds of thousands of people on the other. Define your ICP as early as you can and segment your sales team accordingly.

Scale 218

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 218

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 8, 2020

According to First Round’s 2019 State of Startups report , sales leadership is the most difficult hire to make. And with sales being a top priority for founders…. …along with it getting harder to recruit top-quality talent… Image: State of Startups. See, hiring and sales aren’t dissimilar.

Sales Hiring 81

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 81

Mucker Capital

APRIL 2, 2024

In this Mucker Growth session, Mike Genstil with ValueCore delves into the concept of value selling and its application in enterprise sales. As a founder, ideally you want your sellers, marketers, and product leaders aligned in transforming product features into value-based messages to accelerate sales cycles and secure corporate deals.

Sales Recruiting 52

Sales Recruiting Technical Review Enterprise Cybersecurity 52

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 28, 2022

And for Intercom’s VP of Sales EMEA, Sanj Bhayro , scaling is just what you need to invest in to ensure growth becomes as constant and linear as it can be. Sanj has plenty of experience scaling sales teams at growing businesses, and that’s precisely why, as of November of last year, he‘s overseeing EMEA sales at Intercom.

Scale 210

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting 210

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 12, 2019

A little over a year ago, I got the opportunity to start a new team within our sales organization – a team of Relationship Managers dedicated to growing our current customers at scale. The opportunity emerged out of a shift in how we practice sales. Starting a new sales team is not unlike doing improv.

Sales Hiring 171

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team Scale 171

InsightSquared

MAY 15, 2019

It’s one of my favorite questions to ask a fellow professional in sales operations. Insurance sales rep. Account Manager. Sales Operations is Still Developing. Sales operations as a profession is growing, yet it is a comparatively new function in businesses. Sales Ops is Many Disciplines in One.

Sales Recruiting 110

Sales Recruiting Scale Technical Review Sales 110

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

David Sacks: SaaS Background and Investments. In 2008, he founded Yammer, an enterprise software company that David grew to 500 employees and $60 million in sales. David Sacks has invested in over 20 unicorn companies, including Airbnb, Bird, ClickUp, Facebook, Slack, and Uber. Head of Sales. VP Sales (45 Employees).

CTO Hire 237

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO 237

InsightSquared

MARCH 6, 2018

Sales operations has been around for quite some time, but lately the function has been gaining momentum. Instead of behind-the-scenes sales support, sales ops now acts as a strategic partner for sales VPs and leadership. Start building out your sales operations department by hiring someone to own your CRM.

Sales Recruiting 119

Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring Sales 119

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. Sales organizations experienced 58% higher voluntary turnover in 2021 than in 2020.

Sales Hiring 79

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting Compensation 79

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

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

Enough to invest, but not enough to go crazy with. More on that here and a great video discussion below: You’ll probably be ready for your first VP of Sales by $1m in ARR. Ideally, have your VP of Sales on board in time to hire reps 3-300. You’ll need a VP of Engineering by $8m-$10m ARR. ARR VPS: $1-$1.5m

Part-Time VPE 363

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale 363

SaaStr

JANUARY 15, 2021

You might also include developers on sales calls from time to time — it makes everyone feel heard. The CEO of Dominoes recruited his Head of Technology personally, telling him that his realm was the most critical thing Dominoes was going to do in the next decade. 3 Assign problems, not tasks. 4 Provide executive enthusiasm.

Sales Recruiting 159

Sales Recruiting Development Software Review Management 159

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 52

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Social Media 52

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2021

I probably will pass on investing in you if I don’t know you want money. We recently did a New New in Venture event and I asked the question of many top VCs including David Sacks, Keith Rabois, Aileen Lee and more. “Give the VP of Sales More Time” This is always terrible advice. In one sales cycle, or less.

Part-Time VPE 289

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 289

Kellblog

JULY 17, 2022

Some early-stage startups actually need to focus on both, ending up with a dreaded two-phase sales cycle: first convince the customer to buy one, and then the customer starts a formal evaluation process where you need to convince them to buy yours. (Try Invest enough to look good and keep up with the Joneses. But not a penny more.

Branding 132

Branding Startup Software Sales Recruiting 132

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 9, 2019

To invest in you when there’s no logical reason to. Manage People. This is one of the best things you can do, because 50% of the job of a CEO is recruiting a team, leading a team, empowering a team, convincing a team. Manage anyone you can, even if it’s not perfect. Being a CEO is tough. To do the impossible.

Sales Hiring 278

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting AWS Churn 278

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 8, 2021

Elements of Successful Global Sales Expansion. “Be So, let’s look at four keys to a successful global sales expansion. Make Investments Across the Board, and Make a Plan for the Resources You Have. Global expansion requires strong business partners in all functions, and committed investment across the board.

Sales Hiring 82

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Technical Review 82

User Pilot

NOVEMBER 23, 2023

Why do product managers need them? That’s what Dave Martin , a product leadership coach, has talked about in his talk at this year’s Product Drive Summit hosted by Userpilot. Leadership and investors often challenge them because they can’t see anything tangible that they’re paying for. Ready to dive in to learn more?

Scale 105

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting Software Review 105

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. Better interviewing = better sales teams. How not to interview for sales.

Interviewing 73

Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 73

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

Companies were growing their sales organizations and bringing in more revenue. Companies everywhere have frozen their hiring and laid off workers — with sales reps often among the first to go. I’ll be honest: as the leader of a sales-focused recruiting company, this has been tough for me and my team.

Sales Hiring 94

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 94

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2020

403: Sam Taylor is the VP of Sales and Success @ Loom, the startup that helps you get your message across by making it easy to record instantly shareable videos. As for Sam, prior to Loom, Sam spent over 4 years at Salesforce following their acquisition of Quip, a startup Salesforce acquired for $750M where Sam was also the 1st sales leader.

Scale 171

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 171

Valuize Consulting

DECEMBER 7, 2021

In the subscription economy, there’s no debate about whether or not to invest in Customer Success (CS); 70% of rapidly growing businesses say that Customer Success is extremely important ( Hubspot , 2017). When it comes to budget, organizations often haven’t established where the investment is coming from to fund the CS team.

VP of Engineering 98

VP of Engineering Customer Success Sales Hiring Interviewing 98

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 26, 2021

In this episode of the Sales Hacker Podcast, we have Kerry Hudson , VP of Commercial Sales at Conga , a sales leader in the high tech space across multiple verticals. Join us for a timely conversation about producing high performing sales organizations with a focus on people, process, and customers. powered by Sounder.

Scale 95

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Leadership 95

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

The Angel VC

DECEMBER 12, 2018

While this is generally true for most companies, it’s particularly true for SaaS businesses, which invest heavily in product development, sales, and marketing upfront and get payments from customers over a delayed period of time, usually several years. The main reason is that your customer acquisition costs are highly front-loaded.

Sales Recruiting 106

Sales Recruiting SaaS Payments Sales Hiring Scale 106

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 13, 2021

Although Linda started her career in sales, she has spent the past twelve years scaling post-sales teams and moving hyper-growth companies like Zendesk, Slack, and now Gong upmarket into the enterprise realm. Since then, you’ve spent over 12 years in post-sales leadership. Dee: Fantastic.

Scale 177

Scale Customer Success Strategy Sales Hiring 177

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 2, 2019

This week on the Sales Hacker podcast, we speak with Mary Rogul , a VP Sales Consultant, who’s currently an Enterprise Sales Advisor at Crayon. Fresh out of college, Mary started out in accounting, but it didn’t take long before she began a 20-year sales career that led her through Monster.com, HubSpot, and several others.

Scale 52

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales 52

Sales Hacker

JUNE 9, 2020

This week on the Sales Hacker podcast, we speak with Barrett Boston , Chief Revenue Officer at TriNet. The finance world wasn’t scratching the itch, though, so he decided that he just had to be in sales. The finance world wasn’t scratching the itch, though, so he decided that he just had to be in sales.

Leadership 78

Leadership Scale Sales Recruiting VP of Engineering 78