SaaStr

JUNE 26, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What’s the Best Way to Get Ahead in SaaS Sales? It is important to decide which of 3 life tracks you want to be on: Super-successful sales rep / individual contributor. Successful sales manager. I.e., become a VP of Sales someday. Leverage “sales” to become a founder, business owner , etc.

Sales Recruiting 258

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales SMB 258

TechEmpower SaaS

MARCH 4, 2024

Key Functions with High Impact Generative AI is revolutionizing sales by enabling dynamic pricing and personalized customer interactions, boosting conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Post-sale, AI analyzes customer data to improve service and loyalty, making it a cornerstone of modern sales methodologies.

Generative AI 443

Generative AI AI CTO Hire Sales Recruiting 443

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2024

In the latest episode of CRO Confidential, host Sam Blond, partner at Founders Fund and former CRO at Brex, sits down with Ashley Kelly, VP of Global Sales Development at Rippling. For context – Ashley had previously helped Sam scale Brex’s outbound sales from $2M to over $300M in ARR as Senior Director of SDR.

Sales Hiring 287

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Outbound Sales Team 287

SaaStr

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. At his first board meeting, he kept talking over the VP of Marketing. 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 Recruiting 306

Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring Revenue 306

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

This chart holds the secret to successful hiring of go-to-market teams. A stack rank of attributes within HubSpot account executive candidates that correlate to quota attainment. The pushier the account executive, the worse the result. I think it’s still one of the best books on how to repeatably scale sales teams.

Sales Hiring 343

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Marketing 343

Kellblog

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

Emboldened by this seeming endorsement, I dashed off what turned into a lengthy email on interviewing and recruiting, a topic about which I am passionate not because I think I am good it, but because I think I am not. Thoughts on The Recruiting Process. Remember it’s a mutual sales process. Consider a try-and-buy.

Sales Recruiting 109

Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Hiring Finance 109

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Hiring a VP of Sales isn’t new, but the conversations have evolved as the world has. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive.

Sales Hiring 152

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 152

SaaStr

AUGUST 14, 2020

A mistake many founders make is hiring a VP of Sales who has many strengths — but not at sales per se. A VP of Sales who is smart, polished, and worked at the right place, in a management-level position. That can talk about quota attainment and sales operations and scaling and number. you might ask.

Sales Recruiting 363

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 363

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to hire a Great VP of Sales. And we’ll keep talking about it — so long as 70% of first-time VPs of Sales don’t make it 1 year. I wanted to take a moment to explore the flip-side … a guide to why first-time VPs of Sales that finally get their shot — fail.

Sales Hiring 358

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Headcount 358

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 22, 2021

I've never seen a great VP of Sales hide from a miss. 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. Every great VP of Sales has 1 or 2 folks that wants to follow them from their last role. Nothing gets better in 1 sales cycle.

Sales Recruiting 280

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Marketing 280

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2021

One of the starkest differences I see between First Timers in SaaS and Second Timers is when they hire their VP of Marketing. They often hire a VP of Demand Gen Marketing even before they have their first paying customers. It’s not quite as terrible as waiting too long for a VP of Sales. Second Timers know.

Sales Hiring 351

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Marketing 351

SaaStr

AUGUST 12, 2021

Q: What are the top 3 biggest concerns in managing a first sales team? A few of the top ones: Recruiting. Top sales people want to work for a great VP of Sales. If you don’t have one, it’s very hard to attract top sales reps. All sales execs want to make a lot of money :). Paying the best ones well.

Sales Recruiting 276

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Onboarding 276

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. The three things that led to ramping up sales at Flock Safety were: Achieving product-market fit.

Sales Recruiting 195

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 195

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 282

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 282

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

In SaaS, once you have even a few million in ARR, the #1 challenge is recruiting top-tier VPs and building a truly top-tier management team: SaaS products mostly don’t sell themselves. You can hack managing and finding 1–3 reps yourself, but after that, you really need a VP of Sales. Marketing is also an art and science.

Scale 268

Scale Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Fractional VPE 268

SaaStr

JULY 12, 2021

Q: What are some common blind spots and mistakes startups make when hiring for and building out a sales team? Some of the top blind spots founders and even VPs of Sales make: #1. You hire a sales rep to sell before you can prove you can do it yourself. You hire a VP of Sales to sell before you prove you can do it yourself.

Sales Hiring 269

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Branding 269

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

JULY 11, 2023

How do you win with a high-velocity sales strategy in a fast-moving, competitive market? In a special session of Workshop Wednesday, Gorgias Founder & CEO Romain Lapeyre and Gorgias VP of Sales & Partnerships Aasif Osmany share their learnings, advice, and hacks for optimizing your sales process. Mid-Market?

Sales Hiring 189

Sales Hiring SMB Sales Recruiting Payment Methods 189

SaaStr

MARCH 25, 2023

So one recent survey we did really brought out a healthy debate: does your VP of Sales really need to be a product expert? Many of the comments said it was more important a VP of Sales understand process and leadership more than the product itself. They often melt. I say, you just gotta know the product. Not just with buzzwords.

Scale 265

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 265

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

Ah the VP of Sales. The first post is What a Great VP of Sales Actually Does. The second post is a script for you to use (and modify as you see fit) – 10 Great Questions to Ask a VP Sales Candidate. Just so you know, there are 48 Different Types of VP Sales. Corporate Marketing). The toughest hire.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 363

SaaStr

AUGUST 28, 2020

I know we’ve hit a number of these points individually before on SaaStr, but after getting asked about the top mistakes hiring your first sales team so many times over the years, I thought it would be worthwhile to assemble a Top 10 List. Yes, you may be terrible at sales. It’s sales, after all. Here’s my Top 10 list: #1.

Sales Hiring 328

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 328

SaaStr

JUNE 15, 2023

Dear SaaStr: Is a Big Market Really Better than a Niche Market? A big market is better than a small / niche market. Small markets are often, though not always, less crowded. If that’s the case, sometimes starting there and then expanding into a larger market segment can work out well. What Should I Expect?

Sales Recruiting 237

Sales Recruiting Marketing Sales Hiring Market Segmentation 237

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2020

Founder-led sales generally stops scaling around $1m-$2m ARR. A sign to hire a real sales leader. Over the years at SaaStr we’ve talked a lot about hiring a great VP of Sales, when it works, when it does, and how it moves the needle. To stick with founder-led sales longer than most folks do, i.e. past $1.5m-$2m ARR or so.

Sales Hiring 316

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 316

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

But building a sales compensation plan that both aligns your sales team’s compensation with your customers’ objectives and recruits top salespeople can be incredibly difficult in usage-based pricing. Determine where your sales team makes your customers more successful In usage-based pricing, value = usage.

Compensation 98

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Systems Review 98

SaaStr

JULY 27, 2021

Q: What are the most common challenges of a VP of marketing transitioning into a Chief Revenue officer CRO role? Way, way too many senior marketers think CRO is “the next step” for them. But here’s what happens: They don’t know how to recruit an A+ sales team. Recruiting 4, 5, 20, 50 great AEs is not the same at all.

Sales Recruiting 312

Sales Recruiting Trends Sales Hiring Growth Marketing 312

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2023

We’ve discussed most before individually, but let me throw ’em together: It may well take 24 months to get to true product-market fit and Initial Traction. You have to love, or at least commit to, recruiting constantly. If you’re not willing to constantly recruit cross-functionality … you’ll never attract the talent.

Part-Time VPE 257

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) 257

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

Brendon Cassidy, my VP of Sales wrote a version of this piece a while back. I though an updated version of this would be good for founders thinking about hiring a VP of Sales … VPs of Sales themselves … and VPs-to-be to read — Jason, ed. … 10 Rules to Being a VP of Sales in a Startup.

Sales Hiring 294

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 294

Kellblog

MARCH 17, 2020

Rephrasing Lewis Carroll, “if you don’t know what you’re recruiting for, any candidate looks great.” ” I liken executive recruiters to Realtors. If you don’t give a Realtor specific guidance on what you want to see, they’ll show you whatever’s on the market. Nice to Have.

Sales Recruiting 77

Sales Recruiting Sales Enablement Startup Pricing 77

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2023

Not becoming a better recruiter. I recruited a great VP of Sales, a strong VP of Marketing, a great VP of Product (now COO at Gong), and a great VP of Customer Success. But I was a sequential recruiter. I should have been recruiting more great folks, more often. And most of the team was great.

Part-Time VPE 233

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting CTO Scale 233

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 marketing side, people got ‘lazy’ under the guise of, “Let’s increase our paid online ad spend and turn that dial up and spend more.”

Sales Hiring 287

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 287

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 spent the last year working to find product-market fit for my startup, Dock. 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.

Sales Recruiting 88

Sales Recruiting Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring 88

SaaStr

AUGUST 30, 2022

Great product, driven team, good early product-market fit, great vision. But after that, it starts to break down when you have to recruit a true management team, and in many cases, additional capital. They’ll know … Who can best recruit a management team? Check, check, check and check. My learning?

Sales Recruiting 262

Sales Recruiting Technical Cofounder Scale Investment 262

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

From $1m in ARR, and Then Forever After: Recruiting Great VPs. You need to learn to become great at recruiting. Why is my sales team less efficient at $20m ARR than at $2m in ARR? Why does my marketing team need 15 people? This challenge never ends. It never ends. And tenacious at it. And to always be doing it.

Sales Recruiting 276

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 276

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. However, don’t this doesn’t mean that your sales teams shouldn’t bring in more revenue –– quite the opposite.

Sales Recruiting 239

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Leadership Interviewing 239

SaaStr

JUNE 17, 2023

The toughest part in the end is always recruiting. Recruiting. Over time, that’s recruiting more and more senior folks, so the target changes. You’ll have to be recruiting new ones all the time. That means you are constantly recruiting. Dear SaaStr: How Should I Design My First Sales Rep Compensation Plan?

Sales Recruiting 206

Sales Recruiting Scale Compensation Business Model 206

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 16, 2019

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. Marketing and candidate experience will be table stakes. Hiring sales leaders will get harder. So giving them a reason to choose you will be essential next year.

Sales Recruiting 53

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Trends 53

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