SaaStr

AUGUST 31, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How does a First Time Founder Identify 10x Hires? How do you hire a great CTO, a great VP of Product, a great VP of Sales … if you’ve never worked with one? There’s a reason almost every founder you talk to had a mis-hire for their first head of sales. It’s hard.

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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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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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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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SaaStr

JULY 12, 2022

One of the first what How to Hire a Great VP of Sales at the New York Enterprise Tech Meet-Up (thank you to John Lehr and Work-Bench for setting this up). The Number One Thing You Can Do to Accelerate Your Business Post-Initial Traction is Hiring a Great VP of Sales. I don’t know anything about sales.

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SaaStr

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

In SaaS, #1 most common misfire, with a bullet, is the VP/head of sales. It goes something like “You’ve Got to Get Past the Carcass of Your First VP of Sales” or “It’s The Second VP of Sales When You Really Start Selling” or variants thereof. Because in SaaS start-ups, it seems like the majority of first VP Sales fail.

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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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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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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.

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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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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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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

JULY 3, 2023

Dear SaaStr: When Should You Hire Your First Demand Generation Marketer in SaaS? A deep dive on that and why here: I Hired My VP of Marketing at $20k MRR. In a recurring revenue model, you want to make every accretive hire you can. Or just hiring a junior marketer to start to save a few dollars. Even when you hire a VP.

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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?

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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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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?

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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.

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SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2021

But it’s time to call out One Simple Hack to getting sales going in your SaaS start-up, in the early-ish days. For at least your first few reps: hire someone >> you << personally would buy >> your product << from. Do not hire someone because of their “experience in sales”, per se.

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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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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?

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SaaStr

MAY 12, 2022

The biggest mistake you can make as a founder when you hire your first VP of Sales is stepping out of sales. It only works with the very best VPs of Sales. Every other first VP of Sales needs you doing at least half of what you were doing before. A founder hires a Pretty Good First VP of Sales.

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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.

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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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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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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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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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Predictable Revenue

JANUARY 4, 2023

Daniele Di Nunzio joins Collin Stewart on this episode of the Predictable Revenue podcast to discuss how to hire SDRs and AEs and what to look for in your first sales hire. The post The #1 priority for a VP Sales that most people get wrong (hiring) appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

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Predictable Revenue

APRIL 19, 2022

Successful sales development hiring begins with attracting the right candidates. These templates will help you write compelling job descriptions for common sales roles. The post Sales Development Hiring: Job Description Templates for SDRs and Sales Managers appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

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Predictable Revenue

APRIL 18, 2022

Successful sales development hiring begins with attracting the right candidates. These templates will help you write compelling job descriptions for common sales roles. The post Sales Development Hiring: Job Description Templates for SDRs and Sales Managers appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

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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.

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SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2021

There’s an exercise I’ve been through with many founders that are just getting to Initial Traction, say $1m-$2m in ARR or so, sometimes less, where I map out their future hiring. They are often a bit shocked at how many people they are going to need to hire as they cross $10m ARR. Talkdesk inside sales team at $10m ARR.

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SaaStr

JULY 13, 2022

Q: Dear SaaStr: What Were The First Five Hires You Made After Product-Market Fit? My first 5 hires at Adobe Sign / EchoSign, beyond the core founding+ team, once we had paying customers and first, if early, product-marketing fit: #1: Full-time sales rep at $8k-ish MRR. I Should have hired two. I hired at $20k MRR.

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Predictable Revenue

MAY 23, 2022

One of the most common startup questions is when to begin hiring SDRs. The answer comes down to product market fit, and whether you’re in a product or sales motion. The post When’s the Right Time to Start Hiring SDRs? appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

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SaaStr

JULY 17, 2022

Q: Dear SaaStr: When Should a Startup Hire its First Sales Person, and What Should Their Profile Look Like? Try to close at least 10–20 customers yourself first, before you hire a sales rep. Then, hire a sales rep to help you. Then, hire a sales rep to help you. A bit more here. More here.

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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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SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2021

We’ve talked a lot about hiring a great VP of Sales at SaaStr, and I’ve relinked to some of the most popular posts below. But after 5+ years of SaaStr.com, I think we can almost boil it all down to 2 things to look for when you make the hire — and 2 things not to look for as much. That takes years to learn.

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