SaaStr

JANUARY 31, 2021

The time is probably going to come when you have to build a sales team in SaaS. It may be X months down the road, once you close a few deals of large enough size ($x,000 ACV) to justify hiring a sales rep. Hiring your first sales person. But most of you haven’t built or led an inside sales team before.

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Sales Hiring Scale Sales Enterprise 315

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.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Marketing 325

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

We all saw the Cloudflare sales rep on social media not work out. It reminded me of a golden rule it took me years and years to figure out: If a new hire doesn’t work out, it’s always 100% your fault What do I mean? Did the hire really meet the bar? Did you test the hire for real before they started?

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Sales Hiring Social Media Interviewing Education 248

Predictable Revenue

JANUARY 17, 2023

Learn how to transition from founder-led sales to making your first hire, including the four outbound funnels your sales team should focus on. The post From Founder-Led Sales to Hiring Your First AE appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

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Sales Hiring Sales Revenue Development 257

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. Don’t make this hire. 50% of what a VP of Sales really does is recruiting.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 223

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What are the signs that an enterprise SaaS startup is ready to scale by hiring more sales people? For a higher-velocity, in-bound driven SaaS product, most sales reps will have trouble processing more than 50 or so truly qualified leads a month. Before $10m ARR or so, more qualified leads = more sales.

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Sales Hiring Scale Scaling Sales 263

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023

Ah, hiring those first 1 or 2 sales reps. So often, they are mis-hires. But when you get that Sales Magician — they really can be a game changer. If that’s you, hiring your first few sales reps, here are our Top 10 SaaStr Posts on Hiring Your First Few Sales Reps: #1.

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Sales Hiring Scale Sales Startup 219

SaaStr

DECEMBER 7, 2023

Dear SaaStr: When Should I Expect New Sales Hires to Be On Target? sales cycles. You should know well before that if you are managing her or him — you’ll usually know by half a sales cycle. More here: Dear SaaStr: How Long Should You Give a New Sales Rep? At least by 1.5 appeared first on SaaStr.

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SaaStr

JANUARY 6, 2021

Finding the perfect VP of Sales position can be daunting, especially in the middle of a global pandemic. Candidates need to find opportunities that not only fit their sales experience and stretch goals, but also companies that are coming out of the pandemic with momentum. Who is looking to hire a VP of Sales in January / Q1?

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Sales Hiring Scale Payment Solutions Payments 317

SaaStr

OCTOBER 23, 2021

………………… Hiring a VP of Sales in a startup is an incredibly hard thing. Even if you hire the right person there is no guarantee your startup is going to make it. Understands and has experience running a sales org at your sales velocity (i.e. And just stop. And rethink this.

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Sales Hiring Scale Development Team Review Sales 311

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2024

How Do You Sift Out the Bitter and Broken Individuals When Hiring? If it’s a role you’ve never hired, find someone great at it and have them do your final interview. For sales, product, or customer success, the best question you could ask is, “What would you do your first couple of weeks?” Don’t hire those people to lead.

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Sales Hiring Scale Marketing Interviewing 202

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

Ah the VP of Sales. The toughest hire. The first post is What a Great VP of Sales Actually Does. So you expect the right things, and hire your rockstar at the right time to do the right things. 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.

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Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 363

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

But we’re lapping tougher times for many, and for many others, it’s just plain time to hire again. So many Cloud and SaaS leaders kept hiring flat for the past 12-18 months, and yet still grew. That works for a while, but you end up with not enough headcount if you do freeze hiring but still want to grow.

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Sales Hiring Headcount Scale Cloud 278

Predictable Revenue

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Sales leaders are navigating a complex landscape marked by uncertainty and rapid changes. The post Elevating Sales Hiring Practices with Dan Fantasia appeared first on Predictable Revenue. Dan Fantasia, touches on these challenges.

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Sales Hiring Sales Revenue Development 130

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. But you are the CEO.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 315

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 don’t let reps go that fail in one sales cycle.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Branding 259

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2023

On the hiring side, it often seemed like you just couldn’t hire anyone. Everyone was hiring everyone, anyone, back in mid-2021. We hired job hoppers that never stayed anywhere for more than 18 months for leadership roles. The post Lowering the Hiring (And Investing) Bar Didn’t Work appeared first on SaaStr.

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SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

Q: Dear SaaStr: What Are The Top 3 Criteria for Hiring Your First Head of Sales? We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about hiring that first VP of Sales. Training is a critical part of sales management. The post Dear SaaStr: What Are The Top 3 Criteria for Hiring Your First Head of Sales?

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Sales Hiring Sales Pricing Management 296

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2022

Dear SaaStr: How Many More Junior Marketers Should you Hire Before Hiring a VP of Marketing? In fact, one of the 10 most unforced errors I see founders make is hire someone too junior to get marketing going. If you are say $500k in ARR, you can’t hire a CMO that needs a team of 15-20 around her/him. But owned it?

Sales Hiring 282

Sales Hiring Marketing Revenue Sales 282

Predictable Revenue

OCTOBER 28, 2021

Nadja Brow, founder of The Doyenne Agency, joined us to explain why hiring a sales trainer instead of a sales manager will help you scale your sales organization faster. The post Why Hiring a Sales Trainer Will Help You Scale Faster appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Sales Hiring 265

Sales Hiring Scale Scaling Sales 265

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2022

Ok we’ve talked a bit more on SaaStr over the years on how to hire a Great VP of Sales , but hiring a Great VP of Marketing is just as important. Maybe in some ways more so, in that you can generally hire a great VP of Marketing earlier. Do you make the hire now? Not just in sales. What do I mean?

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Sales Hiring Growth Hacking B2C SMB 269

SaaStr

DECEMBER 11, 2021

We’ve talked about how all the Second Timers are hiring in customer success way early , ahead of sales, ahead of revenue. To hire in customer success. First, let’s make a rule, a compact, and a commitment: You Must Hire your First Customer Success Manager as a “Single Digit” Hire.

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Sales Hiring Customer Success Headcount Churn 269

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

IME, rough order to make hires in: VPM: $0.2m He asked which to hire first. If you have a few nickels in the bank, and you somehow find a great VP a half stage or even full stage early, just hire her. Hiring is so hard as it is. Make the hire now. ARR VPS: $1-$1.5m More here: [link].

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Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale 363

SaaStr

APRIL 12, 2021

The biggest mistake folks make when they go to hire a VP of Sales is hiring a top AE that's never really built a team. But it does not remotely prepare you to be a VP of Sales on its own. They are pretty good and each worth a read: If You are Going to Hire a Stretch VP — Do It Early.

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Sales Hiring PayPal Growth Hacking Startup 317

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Our VC Is Encouraging Us to Hire Aggressively and Increase the Burn Rate. Most of the first-time founders I’ve invested in aren’t “spending enough” in that they are a bit too slow to make accretive hires. The best version of this advice is to help founders learn where to make certain hires faster.

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Sales Hiring Venture Capital Investment Customer Success 181

SaaStr

MAY 9, 2021

The toughest hire of all is probably your VP of Sales. When is too early to make the hire? When do you know that you’ve made a mis-hire? How far can you stretch to make the hire? What’s fair to expect from a VP of Sales, and what isn’t? What trade-offs should you make? What are the right interview questions?

Sales Hiring 267

Sales Hiring Sales Interviewing 267

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

Then, once you know how to do it yourself, you hire 2 sales reps. More on that here: When You Hire Your First Sales Rep — Just Make Sure You Hire Two | SaaStr. After you have 2 reps hitting quota, you hire a head of sales. A related post here: Should Your VP Sales Start Off as a Player-Coach?

Sales Hiring 250

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Management 250

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

In the “old” days, there was a rough rule that as soon as you are bringing on more than 1–2 reps a quarter, you needed to hire a director of sales ops. That at that point, at a minimum, there would be too much administrative work for your VP of Sales to handle it herself. One manager can only really manage 8 AEs.

Sales Hiring 217

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 217

SaaStr

JANUARY 19, 2024

He made many great leadership points, but one in particular rattles around my head a lot and I think deserves its own post: You usually won’t know if you’ve made a 10x hire … when you make the hire. But I didn’t know they were truly 10x hires. Hire the very, very people you can. They more often rise up. months later.

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Sales Hiring CTO Hire New CTO CTO 214

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

That you absolutely, positively, have to only hire “Rockstars” in your startups. If you don’t think you need a great VP of Sales, Product, Marketing, Customer Success, and Engineering — then all that all that means is you’ve never worked with a great one. So I’d hire earlier here rather than wait.

Sales Hiring 267

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Recruiting 267

Predictable Revenue

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Collin sat down with Mia Murphy from Tontine.ai, to discuss her transformative journey through the sales landscape. The post What Founders Must Do Before Their First Sales Hire with Mia Murphy appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Sales Hiring 130

Sales Hiring Sales Revenue Development 130

SaaStr

OCTOBER 1, 2022

What almost never works, somewhat surprisingly, is hiring a Director of Outbound as your first outbound hire. And especially, a new VP of Sales comes in without real outbound experience. So they naturally look for a leader to start, a Director of Outbound that has built and managed an outbound team before.

Sales Hiring 237

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Startup 237

SaaStr

MAY 30, 2023

Hiring has way slowed down, but many folks are still hiring, albeit at a reduced rate. 56% of you aren’t hiring, or barely hiring. But a good chunk of you are still hiring, albeit in moderation. Many did layoffs and capped hiring to get radically more efficient — and it worked.

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Sales Hiring Headcount Engineering Revenue 226

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

A "VP of Revenue" often knows nothing about inside sales or building a sales team. A "CRO" often doesn't want to do sales anymore. Ok this is a seemingly simple post but if you are hiring your first or second batch of VPs it will really, really save you some time. Marketing is adjacent to sales.

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Predictable Revenue

NOVEMBER 22, 2021

If you’re looking to create consistent revenue for your organization, a quality outbound sales team is precisely what your business needs to continue its path to growth and success. The post 10 Signs It’s Time To Hire An Outbound Sales Team appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

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Outbound Sales Team Sales Hiring Sales Revenue 237

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Hiring a VP of Sales isn’t new, but the conversations have evolved as the world has. SaaStr’s own Jason Lemkin shares the top 10 mistakes he sees during the hiring process during Workshop Wednesday, held every Wednesday at 10 a.m. The last 18 months have seen the biggest changes in the VP of Sales in his SaaS career.

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