SaaStr

JANUARY 21, 2020

Justin Welsh, former SVP of Sales at PatientPop explains how he started in SaaS in 2009 as the second sales hire at Zocdoc. Justin used Sales Culture to grow a successful PatientPop team to 140 employees and 55 million in revenue. Justin Welsh | SVP Sales @ PatientPop. I was a local sales manager or regional manager.

Sales Recruiting 316

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 316

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

It formed the basis for a career at HubSpot predicated on consistent quantitative analysis to scale the go-to-market, which he detailed in the Sales Acceleration Formula in 2015. I think it’s still one of the best books on how to repeatably scale sales teams. What would the chart above look like for your sales team?

Sales Hiring 336

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Marketing 336

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

What are the top 10 mistakes founders are still making today when hiring their VP of Sales? In this post, we’ll delve into the common pitfalls founders encounter when hiring a VP of Sales. 1: You Can’t Stay Founder-Led Sales Forever. . #1: 1: You Can’t Stay Founder-Led Sales Forever. This one is newer.

Sales Hiring 307

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Technical Review 307

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2021

Still, an overall deep-dive on lessons learned the second and third time around: Not Easier : Recruiting – Not Easier. You might think after (goodness) the best part of 20 years of working in tech, 18 as an executive or CEO, and 13 as a founder … I’d be pretty good at recruiting at this point. I’m not.

Sales Recruiting 361

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 361

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.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 363

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 2, 2015

Specifically, she champions a metrics-based approach for developing world class recruiting teams. Because of her position, Maia has observed recruiting patterns in hundreds of companies, and has developed best practices for startups. Maia reports these five strategic recruiting metrics to the executive team each quarter.

Sales Recruiting 113

Sales Recruiting Startup Sales Hiring Data Analysis 113

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2024

Dedicated Slack Channel For Every Metric From the early days at Secureframe, they have had a dedicated Slack channel for every metric: every net new sale, every expansion, every churn, and every expense. But the reality is, if you’re scaling from $1M to $20M in ARR, you’re going to need to become best friends with your executive recruiters.”

Sales Recruiting 303

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Engineering 303

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. They have low attrition.

Sales Hiring 362

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Compensation 362

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

She’s written extensively on the topic and co-authored a book The Customer Success Economy. How you should you go about recruiting the right person? Today, she advises and invests in companies on these topics and others. Allison is an incredible builder of teams. How does the role work with the CEO? If so, at what stage?

Scale 299

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Customer Success 299

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 110

Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Hiring Finance 110

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. More power to you.

Sales Hiring 290

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE VP of Engineering Sales Recruiting 290

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? Many functions simply need more bodies to keep up with larger bookings goals, and inefficiencies come from that, especially in sales-driven models.

Sales Recruiting 290

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 290

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 235

Sales Recruiting Scale Compensation Business Model 235

Tom Tunguz

MAY 15, 2017

How much revenue do you want to book for your SaaS startup next quarter? It’s another thing altogether to have the sales team staffed to close that amount of business. The bookings capacity of the business is the amount of business a sales team should book in a certain period. So does recruiting time.

Sales Hiring 124

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 124

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2022

Sales growth slowly declines as she struggles to bring in enough reps. Take say 100 leads a month spread across 2 great reps, then bring in a new VP of Sales that hires 4 weak reps. Your new bookings can plummet 50% almost overnight. More here: Should You Fire an OK-but-Not-Great VP of Sales? Then, manage a small team.

Sales Recruiting 255

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Churn 255

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2021

“Give the VP of Sales More Time” This is always terrible advice. If a VP of Sales can’t improve things in one sales cycle or less — she never will. In one sales cycle, or less. “The Leads are There, the Problem is the Sales Team.” And you are better off without her.

Part-Time VPE 348

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 348

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2020

Each quarter, the bookings plan starts at $0 again. To want a head of sales operations and a director of sales to help carry the load not later … but on Day 1. To not have to manage any customers yourself in customer success, and instead be a strategist. Because SaaS is hard. as you race past $10m+ in ARR.

Sales Hiring 281

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting SaaS 281

SaaStr

AUGUST 29, 2023

So I was on a group Zoom with a number of CROs and VPs of Sales the other day and a consistent theme came up: everyone was surprised how high OTEs (On Target Earnings) had held up in the current environment. In 2021, they might have gotten their bonus for closing say $500k in bookings. Look, it just makes sense. Today they care.

Sales Recruiting 245

Sales Recruiting Venture Capital Enterprise Sales 245

Tom Tunguz

MAY 28, 2019

In 2013, Scott Berkun authored a book called The Year Without Pants. After I read the book, I wrote : In the coming years, video conferencing and online meetings will become much more prevalent as stories like the ones Scott shares are told and retold. They are are among the best engineers to recruit to the team and the first to join.

Sales Recruiting 258

Sales Recruiting Startup Sales Hiring Engineering 258

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

Every prospect championing a software purchase will be asked by the opponents of the sale and decision-makers : “Who else is using the software?” And the best way to fight the inertia in sales is to equip your champions. That’s worth much more than cash and larger bookings in the early days.

Sales Recruiting 203

Sales Recruiting Banking Branding Software 203

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 18, 2019

The template is broken into six sections: People, Bookings & Revenue, Cash, Sales, Marketing, Customer Success. This section covers employee satisfaction, headcount, and recruiting metrics. Bookings and Revenue illuminates the company’s performance in closing new business (bookings) and recurring revenue.

Metrics 205

Metrics Sales Recruiting Startup Headcount 205

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. Recruiting is easier, but the things that don’t change are customers don’t care.

Sales Recruiting 264

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale VP of Engineering 264

Sales Hacker

MARCH 2, 2020

As a lifelong learner, I turn to books whenever I want to expand my thinking or improve my performance. And for leveling up your sales skills, nothing beats a good sales book. So what are the best sales books for helping you reach peak performance? Books that made the cut: Are on my own bookshelf.

Scale 143

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 143

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2019

I actually worked in sales for five and a half years and that’s probably why I have tended to gravitate to B2B marketing. Worked as an AE and then a sales manager. Decided to go to business school, did that for a little bit and then came out in management consulting, a company. So, they’re a B2B piece.

Sales Recruiting 228

Sales Recruiting Scale Underperforming Technical Team Pricing 228

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. Sign up for free.

Sales Hiring 203

Sales Hiring SMB Sales Recruiting Payment Methods 203

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 217

Sales Recruiting Development Software Review Management 217

Incredo

APRIL 8, 2020

2 Company: InternX , University Recruiting Platform InternX created a constantly updating list of hiring companies who are still looking for new employees during the coronavirus. They also decided to shift their focus to providing virtual fairs. In response, The Cut launched a gift card donation program for the barbers community.

Sales Recruiting 269

Sales Recruiting Travel SaaS Sales Hiring 269

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 29, 2019

Have you ever wondered how other sales professionals are tackling their roles? Today, we’re pulling back the curtain on the day-to-day for a sales recruiting firm owner, and for that, we talked to Amy Volas. What You Sell/Quick Pitch: Taking the cringe out of sales recruiting for startups. Structuring their days?

Sales Recruiting 63

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 63

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

You might have a few account executives and a sales leader in place; maybe some revenue and a handful of customers. The sales team costs real money, and the question before the company is: how do you know what quota plan to assign to the account executives? Stage 1: Management by Objectives.

Compensation 150

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 150

Incredo

MARCH 11, 2020

Having no content at all will mean your website doesn’t serve any real purpose than to just recruit members. Content attracts users from organic search as well. HOW TO ALIGN SALES AND MARKETING TEAMS TO ACHIEVE TOTAL BUYER ENGAGEMENT. DOWNLOAD YOUR E-BOOK.

Strategy 257

Strategy Social Media Sales Recruiting Marketing 257

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

Maria and Anthony present the CEO and CMO playbook of how the CEO and CMO can partner with other members of the team to grow sales and marketing. I know we’re going to hear about your book. Maria : I mean, I’ve talked to over 60 recruiters. Want to see more content like this? Join us at SaaStr Annual 2020.

Scale 267

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team 267

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 1, 2016

There are two main ways of building a SaaS sales team: top down or bottoms up. Top down SaaS sales organizations start with a VP of Sales who often hires senior account executives. Bottoms up sales teams hire the first account manager and promote from within. Which is better? OTE, $k 125 175 250.

Sales Recruiting 100

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales SaaS 100

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 30, 2018

Welcome to Sales Hacker’s first-ever Influential Women in Sales list! In this exclusive list, we wanted to honor not just female leaders that promote their own sales platform (no shame in that!) They say “You can’t be what you can’t see,” and the sales floor is no exception.

Sales Recruiting 111

Sales Recruiting VP of Engineering Scale Sales Hiring 111

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2019

The Playbook to Building a Thriving Sales Culture with Fmr. PatientPop SVP of Sales Justin Welsh. The Playbook to Hiring Your First VP of Sales and Not Screwing it Up… with Cassidy Ventures Founder Brendon Cassidy, the first VP of Sales at LinkedIn, Talkdesk and EchoSign. BOOK A BRAINDATE.

Scale 168

Scale Sales Recruiting Scaling Sales Hiring 168

SaaStr

JULY 1, 2020

An open discussion with Sam Blond, CSO at Brex, and Kristen Habacht, VPS at Atlassian, about adjusting their sales process during Covid-19. Kristen Habacht runs EDR sales at Atlassian, which I got a check today, $40 billion-$50 billion company. She manages a huge global team. Four, people in the sale? Jason Lemkin: None.

Merchant Services 244

Merchant Services Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 244

SaaStock

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

See our agenda and book tickets here. Ultrasite is a global website builder, Chinafy is a tool for making websites China-compatible, and Connect is their collaborative content management platform for brands. Talkpush is a conversational recruiting CRM that allows employers and job seekers to connect in new ways across the globe.

SaaS Payments 225

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Merchant Services Payment Methods 225

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 21, 2018

Whether you’re at an early-stage startup that’s just made its first sales hires, or part of a fast-moving sales team in a large organization, the key to success often comes down to efficiency. Then, the sales team went to work. When making a sales hire, Max pays attention to the way candidates approach getting the job.

Sales Hiring 183

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors 183