SaaStr

MAY 31, 2021

I’ve also invested in 24+ next-generation SaaS companies, mostly successes, and had a chance to watch and learn from them as well, with a new lens. And paying a little more for a lot more experience can be one of the top investments you’ll ever make. Sales — Not Easier. I’m not. Perhaps, I am worse.

Sales Recruiting 361

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 361

SaaStr

APRIL 18, 2021

Continuous Recruiting? Great cultures will create low-turn-over environments — and ones that will self-perpetuate and recruit others to join. Great cultures will create low-turn-over environments — and ones that will self-perpetuate and recruit others to join. Especially in your sales team. Continuous recruiting.

Sales Recruiting 286

Sales Recruiting Branding Investment Sales 286

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. They never invest the time after they start, either. 50% of what a VP of Sales really does is recruiting.

Sales Hiring 296

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 296

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. Invest in People You want to keep the bar high on talent, especially in hypergrowth, and not just in the early stages.

Sales Recruiting 292

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Engineering 292

SaaStr

JULY 21, 2020

Your investors and others will learn a lot more hearing about sales from your VP of Sales, your CTO co-founder … and not you. This also will make you appear to be a much stronger manager. Especially, don’t try to talk over your weakest VPs and managers. Just assume none of your investors invest again.

Sales Recruiting 363

Sales Recruiting New CTO Scale CTO 363

SaaStr

AUGUST 30, 2022

On the investing side of life, the toughest meeting of all for me at least is probably the Right Co-Founder, Wrong CEO start-up. But after that, it starts to break down when you have to recruit a true management team, and in many cases, additional capital. They’ll know … Who can best recruit a management team?

Sales Recruiting 269

Sales Recruiting Technical Cofounder Scale Investment 269

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 298

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Technical Review 298

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. Is a CRO right for you?

Sales Hiring 293

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Revenue 293

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2021

I thought it might be helpful to assemble a checklist of 22 reasons I almost immediately pass on investing in start-ups that are still interesting. If I wouldn’t work for you … then I can’t help you recruit folks that will. You’re in sales. Recruit the VPs? Others bet on traction. And/or Late.

Sales Recruiting 339

Sales Recruiting Scale AWS Investment 339

SaaStr

JUNE 21, 2023

They hired their first VP of Sales with a wonderful pedigree and experience at some of the hottest startups. because they needed to rebuild the sales team. They rebuilt the sales team and closed some big deals. VCs can be fickle about what they fund, but if you have revenue, you have more leeway for when you take an investment.

Sales Recruiting 286

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Pricing 286

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. Now, I just invest in SasS companies. SaaStr is Turning 10!

Sales Hiring 278

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE VP of Engineering Sales Recruiting 278

SaaStr

MAY 1, 2021

Who can help me find that first VP of Sales? A lot of folks will want to invest in the next round of their startups. This does help with recruiting and partnerships. Many employees really do want to join one they see a well-regarded and popular VC has invested in. Let’s say a VC invests $3m into your start-up.

Sales Recruiting 306

Sales Recruiting Venture Capital Sales Hiring Investment 306

SaaStr

AUGUST 8, 2023

So there’s a sort of org chart you’ll probably end up with at least twice as you start scaling in SaaS: The “Headless” Sales Org. It’s a bunch of sales reps without anyone to manage them other than … you. But if you end up not hiring a VP of Sales at that perfect moment in time (and most don’t), you’ll end up headless.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 246

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.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Compensation 363

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

Today, she advises and invests in companies on these topics and others. How you should you go about recruiting the right person? Throughout her time there, she scaled the SaaS company from $1M ARR to pre- IPO, along the way, creating the category of customer success software, and paving the way for Gainsight’s $1.1B

Scale 300

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Customer Success 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 286

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 286

SaaStr

JULY 18, 2023

The most successful entrepreneurs I’ve invested in (6+ unicorns, 3 billion+ exits) are very different in many ways. Some engineers by training, others in sales or product originally. But a few uniting characteristics of the very best: Relentless Recruiters. You have to be constantly recruiting the best. No Excuses.

Sales Recruiting 246

Sales Recruiting Scale Scaling Engineering 246

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 240

Sales Recruiting Scale Compensation Business Model 240

SaaStr

OCTOBER 5, 2020

There’s a common thinking that sales teams should be relatively high churn. That the bottom 15-20% of the sales team almost has to churn each year, because it’s survival of the fittest. At Salesforce, at Box, the bottom end of the sales team churns out each year. First, do sales reps really compete with each other?

Scale 286

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 286

SaaStr

JANUARY 8, 2022

Scaling your sales team can be one of the hardest things to do in SaaS. What’s the best way to help your sales team navigate today’s changing markets and changing priorities? And what’s the right time to fill crucial sales leadership roles? 1 Buyers Expect Personalization in Outbound Sales. So now what?

Scale 269

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scaling 269

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 278

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Scale 278

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 226

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO Hire Scale 226

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2020

When I catch up with founders on the march from $1m to $10m in ARR, the number one topic has always shifted to recruiting. Where do i find a great VP of Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Product, Customer Success, etc.? Some times, it seems like simply building a management team is all you have time for. jasonlk) July 10, 2020.

Sales Recruiting 363

Sales Recruiting Management Engineering Customer Success 363

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2022

I really appreciate you coming to talk about how to attract, hire, and build a more diverse sales team in your organization. So I’ve been building top-producing sales teams for a really, really long time. So over the years, I’ve watched many sales leaders go out and say, “Brian’s my top producer.

Sales Hiring 258

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 258

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2021

And then, I would have invested more wisely in Year 1 especially. Not Hiring 2-3 Sales Reps to Start. More on that here: When You Hire Your First Sales Rep — Just Make Sure You Hire Two. I should have invested a little more in sales reps, more quickly, one we had some initial traction (see above).

Sales Recruiting 269

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale SaaS 269

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. A bit more here. Great at engineering. More here.

Sales Hiring 306

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Engineering 306

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2023

Recruit diverse leaders The goal of hiring a revenue leader is to put gasoline on finding product market fit success. So the playbook for Colin during that time was tuned to one goal: hire and scale a sales team that could listen to those customers and put together a value proposition with a complimentary tone that customers were reacting to.

Sales Recruiting 258

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Branding 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. A great customer logo slide is like a bank account. Logos confer credibility.

Sales Recruiting 247

Sales Recruiting Banking Branding Software 247

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

Enough to invest, but not enough to go crazy with. More on that here and a great video discussion below: You’ll probably be ready for your first VP of Sales by $1m in ARR. Ideally, have your VP of Sales on board in time to hire reps 3-300. You’ll need a VP of Engineering by $8m-$10m ARR. ARR VPS: $1-$1.5m

Part-Time VPE 363

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale 363

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2023

For part one of this Ask Me Anything session, Jason covers everything you need to know about hiring your first VP of Sales, what he really thinks about AI, what the future of lead generation in 2024 looks like, and much more. Lead generation tools do change, but the basic motions of sales and marketing haven’t changed much.

Scale 278

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting AI 278

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

With power, snacks, and more, we’ll have lounges just for Founders; just for Sales + Marketing professionals; just for Builders (Dev + Product), and just for VCs to issue term sheets. Recruiting Fair. Outside of SaaStr Square park, we’re adding the first-ever SaaStr Recruiting Fair. It could be you!! You never know!

New CTO 329

New CTO Sales Recruiting CTO Coach Scale 329

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

Think about it — who else is so invested in your long-term success? If they’ve bought 7%, 10%, 20% of your company (with no exit on the horizon) … they’re pretty invested personally. They have a good incentive to recruit almost as hard as you do, and network a lot to help you. Your VCs are. More Money.

Sales Hiring 281

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Investment Acquisition 281

SaaStr

MAY 21, 2023

My #1 Best Hack for VC Fundraising Only 7% of You Have Really Gotten Outsourced SDRs to Work 11 Signs To Predict If a Venture Investment Will or Won’t Work Out Top Podcasts This Week: 1. SaaStr 658: SaaStr CRO Confidential: Omni Founder Colin Zima on the Power of Leveraging Your Network for Sales and Recruiting  5.

Sales Recruiting 246

Sales Recruiting Startup Investment SaaS 246

SaaStr

JANUARY 18, 2023

It’s the most common objection you’ll get in SaaS sales … Not Right Now. It can’t strategically improve sales software, financial software, quoting software, recruiting software, QA processes, call center software, etc. And when you hire a real, great VP of Sales. Truly qualified leads and prospects. I Don’t Have Budget.

Sales Recruiting 306

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Technical Review Software Review 306

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

The backup of 2020 was great, 2021 comes in and somehow we have 600 unicorns and everyone can burn 500 million a year or have huge sales teams. But the meta point is this, if you’re recruiting in 2024, beware of the “Lost Generation” candidate and persona you may come across. This starts to get tough.

Sales Recruiting 306

Sales Recruiting Trends Sales Hiring Software Review 306

SaaStr

DECEMBER 4, 2023

So backstage at SaaStr Annual this year, and in a number of other conversations since, I’ve had a chance to get a few quiet moments with maybe two dozen top CROs and VPs of Sales. Yes, macro issues come up, and how they have to sell to more stakeholders now, and sales cycles are longer. But the best long ago adapted.

Sales Recruiting 291

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Onboarding Sales 291

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2021

I probably will pass on investing in you if I don’t know you want money. We recently did a New New in Venture event and I asked the question of many top VCs including David Sacks, Keith Rabois, Aileen Lee and more. “Give the VP of Sales More Time” This is always terrible advice. In one sales cycle, or less.

Part-Time VPE 347

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 347