TechEmpower SaaS

DECEMBER 11, 2023

While the appearance matters, remember you are hiring the development firm primarily for its development skills, not its graphic design skills. Is there a project manager? An account manager? While beneficial, some project managers hinder effective communication. Communication: Evaluate their communication style.

Software Development 443

Software Development Development Software Review Software 443

Sales Hacker

MAY 20, 2020

One way for companies to avoid layoffs is to hire from within and look for individuals they can take from non-revenue-generating roles and move them into revenue-generating roles like Sales. . This keeps your high performers on staff while focusing resources on what will help you survive a tough economy, namely a stronger sales force.

Sales Hiring 112

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Sales Enablement 112

SaaStr

APRIL 8, 2024

But … but: A sales rep that can’t hit quota in a few months = cash drain. They have to tilt the curve on retention. I.e., hiring just to fill an org chart drains all the cash – fast. Mediocre hires drain all the cash, often in just a few months. You gotta move on. The best engineers are so cheap. The rest?

Sales Hiring 191

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Venture Capital 191

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

You can hack managing and finding 1–3 reps yourself, but after that, you really need a VP of Sales. Upsell and retention is an art, science and craft. Or churn will increase, NPS will stagnate and decline, and upsell and revenue retention will be a fraction of what it could be. It’s the people.

Scale 246

Scale Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Fractional VPE 246

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 Skills Are Required for a Customer Success Manager? Persuasion Skills.

Sales Hiring 91

Sales Hiring Customer Success Sales Recruiting Technical Review 91

OpenView Labs

AUGUST 19, 2021

Sales recruiting is broken. The sad truth is that VP of Sales are turning over within 19 months —and that timeline is shrinking. . Not only that, the market has heated way back up and the VP of Sales is one of the most sought after roles. What is the hardest executive hire you’ve made? Therein lies the dilemma.

Sales Hiring 82

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Startup 82

Neil Patel

OCTOBER 25, 2020

But should you build your own in-house marketing team or hire an agency partner? When you hire an agency, you are not just hiring one person. You are hiring a whole team and their network, which can sometimes be ten or more people. You won’t have to build out a management structure for that department either.

Sales Hiring 145

Sales Hiring Outsourcing Services Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting 145

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

Ten years ago, customer success was described in relation to other functions like support or account management. Annual contract value (ACV) builds companies, but net revenue retention sustains them. Who should be your first customer success hire? There are several factors to consider with your first hire.

Sales Hiring 236

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scaling Construction 236

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Go-to-Market matters because sales and marketing spend remain the biggest proportion of SaaS spend, so honing in on that spend to build an engine and drive growth is paramount. Because founder-led sales worked really well for most of the early stages, but you eventually start running out of juice around $15M ARR.

Scale 229

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Outsourced Development 229

SaaStr

APRIL 7, 2020

In the early days of SaaStr, we wrote a bunch of posts that were controversial at the time, but later, most sales leaders eventually agreed with. That you know even in 1 sales cycle if a VP of Sales is going to work out. As soon as you hear a VP of Sales start to blame her/his own reports for missing a number, it’s over.

Sales Hiring 269

Sales Hiring Sales Retention Churn 269

SaaStr

MAY 20, 2024

But if your churn and retention numbers aren’t at least mid-pack for your category, don’t let it lurk. Will marketers really buy your product if sales execs do? Not Addressing Deteriorating Sales Performance Things just change in sales. Sometimes, it’s just hiring too many reps, too quickly.

Trends 282

Trends Scale Sales Hiring Venture Capital 282

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2023

Ode to the $100,000,000 Exit Dear SaaStr: Should You Hire Someone That Seems Good … But Always Job Hops? SaaStr 639: Scaling a SaaS Sales Team While Building Culture with Figma VP of Sales Scott Pugh   3. SaaStr 639: Scaling a SaaS Sales Team While Building Culture with Figma VP of Sales Scott Pugh   3.

Scale 201

Scale Sales Hiring CTO Hire Startup 201

SaaStr

MARCH 11, 2021

Congratulations on finally hiring your VP of Sales! There are 3 general options: Your VP of Sales is responsible for net new revenue only. Post-sales, other than upsell which adds to net new revenue for this year, is someone else’s job. Your VP of Sales is responsible for the ARR target for the end of the year.

Sales Hiring 264

Sales Hiring Metrics Sales Churn 264

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2024

But as a rule: Top engineers will all be given retention packages, extra money / RSUs / options designed to keep them for 2-4 years. Then, either: They’ll want to keep everyone for a while; or They won’t see the value in keeping much of sales, marketing, finance, etc. All engineers and product people will want to be kept.

Startup 216

Startup Sales Hiring Finance Acquisition 216

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic brought seismic change to sales teams around the globe. The dependence on the in-person sales office sharply declined, and remote workforces took their place during the height of the crisis. Yet with encouraging news about the vaccine, SaaS leaders are looking beyond the pandemic to the future of sales.

Sales Hiring 140

Sales Hiring Sales Retention Customer Support 140

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 17, 2023

One company that has unlocked the secret to solid retention and revenue expansion is Brex , an easy-to-use corporate cards and spend management software in an integrated global solution. Staff a Team That Can Cover a Portfolio of Accounts. Assign reps to look after a specific group of accounts.

Retention 205

Retention Revenue Startup Sales Hiring 205

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

A retention campaign that paints a commercial relationship as a personal one will always be awkward at best and at worst will create ill will. Here’s three better ways to create retention campaigns that feel genuine and actually work: Focus on how your product helps. Identify and solve the problems that caused churn.

Retention 282

Retention Sales Hiring Churn Onboarding 282

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 24, 2021

The SaaS sales model seems so well-established, as hundreds of founders build their businesses and raise funding. Mark Roberge, Founder of Stage 2 Capital and Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, shares insights from his years of experience into common SaaS sales missteps and how you can avoid them.

Sales Hiring 186

Sales Hiring Scale Compensation Sales 186

SaaStr

APRIL 5, 2022

My partial list: Hiring “too low” to save money. Why not just hire a manager for $80k, who can work with whatever budget you assign? The problem here is that instead of hiring an accretive resource, you hire a cost center than can’t deliver sales/leads/upsells. Settling on a VP hire. But not before.

Scale 239

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 239

Sales Hacker

APRIL 19, 2022

In this article, I’ll outline the principles of compensation design , how to build sales compensation plans , and include resources to set OTEs and quotas that keep your reps happy and hungry for more. Why Sales Comp Planning is Key to Rep Retention. Who should be responsible for sales compensation planning?

Compensation 90

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Retention 90

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Hiring a global team to achieve the vision What do you do when your company’s location limits your access to talent? You spread your hiring net and draw in as much talent as possible. Their first step to achieving this was hiring a sales leader to build a sales team. Self-service.

Scale 191

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scaling 191

SaaStr

APRIL 8, 2023

Over the years, we’ve done just an incredible number of deep dives, AMAs, and more with many of the best CROs and VPs of Sales in SaaS!

Scale 248

Scale Sales Hiring SMB SaaS 248

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2022

41% of you have sales do some customer onboarding, not just CS or other specialists. Should sales just disappear once the contract is signed? #5. On average, you got a 33%+ boost in revenue when you hired your first VP of Sales. Hire a great VP of Sales, and revenue goes up. So yes, it always works.

Sales Hiring 283

Sales Hiring Pricing Scale Interviewing 283

SaaStr

APRIL 2, 2023

I walk them through this when I hire them. There are many stories of legendary exec hires. I hired the person with a great resume but who didn’t get our business, culture, or community. Lesson: Many times, I thought, “I need to hire for the role I’ll need 4 years from now.” Of course, sometimes that is indeed true.

Sales Hiring 260

Sales Hiring Scale Scaling Customer Success 260

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2023

If you’ve raised venture capital, you know net revenue retention is important. The framework above is a lean canvas to help you understand your customers’ needs post-sale. Chances are: You’ve hired your first Head of Sales, and you’re probably about to see a lot of growth on the sales side. Everything!

Scale 164

Scale Sales Hiring Customer Success Scaling 164

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

The magic of a SaaS model is: Very high logo retention. Net dollar retention is ideally over 120%. The public markets love this trifecta of 90% logo retention, 80% gross margins, and 120% net revenue retention. Companies are waiting too long to hire a CFO or VP of Finance. Over 90% stay each year.

Sales Hiring 224

Sales Hiring Headcount Finance Technical Review 224

Valuize Consulting

JUNE 9, 2022

If you answered yes to any or all of the above questions, then you urgently need to hire a senior-level Customer Success Operations Leader. The goal of your Customer Success Operations function is to improve the efficiency of your team, tools and processes to ensure maximum net dollar retention. They Optimize The Customer Lifecycle.

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale Leadership 52

CloseSaaS

MARCH 5, 2018

I often talk about sales hiring with B2B startup founders who are beginning to see success. Their retention rates are okay and they have early signs of revenue growth. They've developed their product to a point where the few customers they have keep using it regularly.

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring Startup Sales B2B 52

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2022

If you’re only investing in sales and marketing, you’re missing a huge revenue opportunity. Customer Success isn’t just for established leaders; it also helps growth-stage companies compound their growth through retention, upsell and expansion. The 3 key metrics for Customer Success are GRR, NRR, and logo retention.

Customer Success 220

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale Leadership 220

OpenView Labs

JANUARY 31, 2022

You are looking for tips on how to hire top talent, so now what? . Just a few bullet points with a basic overview of what the hire is responsible for can come easily. This is especially effective with hiring top talent for executive and leadership hires. . Prepare your materials . Find your ‘target profile’ .

Sales Hiring 60

Sales Hiring Interviewing Sales Recruiting SMB 60

OpenView Labs

MARCH 27, 2020

When I first wrote this for OpenView, we were in a place where unemployment was at an all-time low and hiring was top of mind. Whether your company has paused hiring, is still hiring or will be in the future, having the right people for your business and stage will always be a priority.

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring Enterprise Underperforming Technical Team Scale 52

OpenView Labs

MARCH 24, 2021

Without fail, every week I speak to 5–10 startup founders who are dealing with one of these two painful situations: They’re going through the process of parting ways with the wrong VP of Sales or the wrong enterprise salespeople. For either one, the bottom line is that the cost of a bad hire is significant.

Sales Hiring 56

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Company Culture Interviewing 56

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

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

You Have to Train Sales Reps 3–10. You have to start formal sales training by rep #3. Hire Early. Customer success teams are critical for SaaS companies as they own the customer relationship from start to finish, managing up to 75% of revenue through renewals and upsells. And you can start very small. Or they fail.

Sales Hiring 225

Sales Hiring Technical Advisors Compensation Outsourced Development 225

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. And this is exactly why you hired them! Singular focus on sales.

VP of Engineering 97

VP of Engineering Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 97

Sales Hacker

JUNE 12, 2024

Elizabeth Pemmerl currently serves as GitHub’s Chief Revenue Officer, where she oversees all facets of the company’s go-to-market strategy and customer engagement, including sales, support, and operations. Insights on hiring, retention, and the power of promoting from within. It’s flexible, scalable ABM built for you.

Engineering 102

Engineering Sales Hiring Revenue AI 102

SaaStr

JULY 13, 2022

First, you hire your sales team. Finally, growth occurs when sales, product, and marketing can come together. Mistake 2: Hiring with urgency. Founders often hire sales teams with urgency, even in a volatile market, resulting in hires who may not be successful salespeople for your organization.

Scale 216

Scale Sales Hiring Revenue Marketplace as a Service 216