SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2021

We’ve talked a ton on SaaStr over the years on how to make sure your VP of Sales and top hires really work out. We can pretty much summarize a lot of it into the following: Your VP of Sales should have lots of experience selling at your average ACV. for that type of sale. That they are the right ones. Ask who they are.

Sales Recruiting 334

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 334

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 332

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 332

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. Brand, Brand, Brand.

Sales Recruiting 361

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 361

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 CTO Hire AI Sales Recruiting 443

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. You have a micro-brand. The toughest hire.

Sales Hiring 364

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 364

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 279

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Branding 279

SaaStr

APRIL 16, 2021

Just make sure at least 50% of their energy goes into promoting the company, and not just their personal brand. Support and partner with sales. Own brand & brand positioning. Having a CMO that is present, that is visible, is great for recruiting and much more. CMO is a tough job. The half-life is short.

Sales Recruiting 338

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Branding Product Marketing 338

FastSpring

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

In this post, we’re featuring our Recruiting Manager, Elizabeth Faddis! Priority projects are focused on enhancing the company’s recruiting strategy, processes, and programs to deliver on current and future talent needs. You recently started your Recruiting Manager role at FastSpring, how are you liking it so far?

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Management Technical Review 121

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 299

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Sales 299

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

A CRO owns and directs the strategy over a company’s revenue cycle, but there’s not a set standard for operational or management decisions: in addition to sales and sales development, they might be responsible for customer success, lead generation and pipelines, and even marketing and brand development.

Sales Hiring 305

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 305

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2023

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. But the founders and CEOs need to attract even more types of managers, earlier, in SaaS. You’ll probably hire the wrong first VP of Sales. Everyone is.

Part-Time VPE 300

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Sales Recruiting VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) 300

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2021

I thought it would be worth drilling down deeper into each of them, and sharing the learnings and mistakes: 1/ Spending less time fixing things, more time recruiting senior folks to own them. No one spends enough time recruiting as it is, after $1m ARR or so. Yes, you can manage the sales team yourself. You can do this.

Part-Time VPE 299

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 299

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 363

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Compensation 363

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

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

The companies that create the SVPs you’ll need, especially in Sales and Marketing, are still mostly based in the SF Bay Area. Just in the past few weeks, 3 top, brand-name CMOs I know joined $10m+ ARR start-ups HQ’d in Berlin, in Atlanta, and in Colorado. With SMBs, you can hack it a bit more. are all here.

Sales Hiring 349

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Scaling 349

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

Dig deeper on a lot of titles during recruiting. 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. Corporate Marketers know how to expand your brand. A “VP of Revenue” for a VP of Sales job.

Sales Hiring 328

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Growth Hacking Product Marketing 328

SaaStr

JUNE 24, 2022

Your best sales reps can close so much more than your average rep. Move the bottom 10% out and give the best leads to your top performer, and watch sales go up 20%. The best VPs of Sales design comp plans so the team never wants to leave. You should be striving for zero voluntary attrition on your sales team.

Sales Recruiting 287

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Customer Success 287

Tom Tunguz

MAY 31, 2021

The third impact is damage to the employer brand. The management team at the time of the sale to Google collaborated for 5 years without turnover. Regardless, the shared culture and consistency of the team was a strength for the business, and ultimately a competitive advantage in execution time, culture, and employee brand.

Sales Hiring 192

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Startup Branding 192

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?

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Sales Recruiting Scale Compensation Business Model 240

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

From $1m in ARR, and Then Forever After: Recruiting Great VPs. Later, once you have a brand, you’ll be competing with Hot Startups nipping at your heals for top 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? This challenge never ends.

Sales Recruiting 290

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 290

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2023

Recruit diverse leaders The goal of hiring a revenue leader is to put gasoline on finding product market fit success. Employees are the brand Every employee at your organization is the brand. How they conduct themselves, engage, market the brand, and set a tone, reflect on the brand.

Sales Recruiting 264

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 264

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 297

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 297

SaaStr

MARCH 3, 2020

Brendon introduces his playbook to hiring the first VP of Sales from his experiences as VP of Sales at LinkedIn, EchoSign, Talkdesk and more. Learn the dos and don’ts to make the correct hire the first time and not rush into hiring the wrong VP of Sales, which can cost the company months or even years. Roughly 90%.

Sales Hiring 232

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire Scale 232

SaaStr

JULY 29, 2021

Someone great at something core you aren’t: Sales, Engineering, Marketing. Great at sales. If you hire someone to do the first sales, you’ll never understand it yourself. When you go to hire your first sales rep, hire 2. 50% of the job for a VP is recruiting. At least, not until you have a brand. More here.

Sales Hiring 317

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Engineering 317

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2022

This requires effort from your entire organization, and Handshake VP, Employer Partnerships Jessica Peluso outlines some changes that you can make to your brand, and your application, interview, and offer process that will help find the talent you are trying to attract and hire. Below is the transcript of Jessica’s session.

Sales Hiring 264

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 264

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. A great customer logo slide is like a bank account. Great brands attract other great brands.

Sales Recruiting 247

Sales Recruiting Banking Branding Software 247

SaaStr

MAY 16, 2024

Wade Foster, founder and CEO of Zapier, runs a category-creating brand that makes all your tech work together seamlessly – no coding required. They used the competitive advantage of recruiting out of the Midwest, where they knew the markets and the people better. As a manager, you have to do things differently.

Sales Recruiting 298

Sales Recruiting AI Search B2B Sales Hiring 298

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2024

Once you cross $5m-$10m in ARR, then usually: You have a brand. At least, you have a mini-brand in your niche. And that brand generates leads organically, and fairly low-cost leads. Efficiency goes down in other places (sales efficiency usually, marketing efficiency often). This helps a lot. You have redundancy.

Scale 281

Scale Sales Recruiting Scaling Branding 281

SaaStr

APRIL 7, 2021

Often folks they convince to once again be a VP of Eng or VP of Sales. The ones that will benefit from taking a risk on a less-proven team and brand. The sales leader that did well, but their startup still didn’t quite make it. A 50/50 mix is ideal in general for management (half promoted, half hired from outside).

Part-Time VPE 285

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire 285

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 20, 2020

Success in sales requires the right skills and a competitive, driven, and personable nature. However, scoring a great sales role takes more than just being confident in your own skills and nature. You have to convince a management team of those things as well. 1) Know whom you’ll be talking to — Sales is all about relationships.

Sales Recruiting 89

Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales 89

SaaStr

DECEMBER 28, 2019

Enough with the excuses for not having hired your real VP of Sales, or that VP of Engineering, or whatever. Hire a real recruiter. Hire more sales reps in the areas where they are profitable. But in 2017, brands matter more than ever. Invest in Your Brand and Customer Marketing. Not in April. Not by June.

Part-Time VPE 328

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 328

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 9, 2019

The question facing founders recruiting marketers is: which is the most important to prioritize? Marketing expertise falls into three segments: product marketing, demand generation, and brand marketing. Brand marketers are the third type of marketer who develops the market’s awareness of a company.

Scale 255

Scale Startup Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 255

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

They have a good incentive to recruit almost as hard as you do, and network a lot to help you. A true brand name VC on your board or cap table can help attract top VPs and other candidates. Everyone is attracted to brands. They get better at this the longer they work with you. A Few Good Hires / Potential Hires. That can help.

Sales Hiring 293

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Investment Acquisition 293

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

379: From how many reps to hire, to compensation models, here are the top 10 mistakes founders make when hiring their first sales teams and how to avoid them. Announcer: In today’s SaaStr Insider, SaaStr CEO and founder, Jason Lemkin, shared the top 10 mistakes founders make when hiring their first sales team.

Sales Hiring 240

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 240

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 8, 2024

GTMnow is the media brand of GTMfund – sharing go-to-market advice from the top 1% of revenue operators including the 350 executives behind the fund, news, and our viewpoints from working with hundreds of portfolio companies. They put a face to your brand and underscore a commitment to the customer’s success.

Scale 111

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring AI Search 111

SaaStr

OCTOBER 12, 2020

You can also totally change your sales team. This isn’t easier, but 9 times out of 10, it sure is easier than finding brand new customers. In a way, this is the same point as #1, almost — except you can recruit even more of the team here. The sales team can call back every single prospect, not just the good ones.

Sales Recruiting 351

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Churn Onboarding 351

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 7, 2018

To have built a brand. To recruit 100 people. To answer these questions, the team must look beyond this today’s one-on-ones and this month’s engineering milestones this quarter’s sales pipeline. And in twelve months? To have raised capital. To have developed a longer term product roadmap.

Scale 256

Scale Scaling Sales Recruiting Startup 256