SaaStr

JUNE 23, 2020

In SaaS, it is recruiting your VPs and management team : SaaS products mostly don’t sell themselves. You can hack managing and finding 1–3 reps yourself, but after that, you really need a VP of Sales. Upsell and retention is an art, science and craft. Q: What’s the number one challenge for scale-up founders?

Part-Time VPE 309

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Fractional VPE Sales Recruiting 309

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. Let’s use net dollar or net revenue retention as an example. Otherwise, they’re probably not VPs of Sales or Marketing.

Sales Recruiting 304

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Engineering 304

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 6, 2022

SaaStr 603: SaaStr CRO Confidential Presents the Ultimate Guide to Sales Compensation, Quotas and Recruiting with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin. SaaStr 602: Secrets To Combining PLG and Enterprise Sales with Grammarly CEO Brad Hoover. ?. How to Build a Super High-Retention Sales Team | Twilio SVP & GM Alice Katwan.

Sales Recruiting 297

Sales Recruiting Compensation Cloud Retention 297

SaaStr

OCTOBER 28, 2022

However, don’t this doesn’t mean that your sales teams shouldn’t bring in more revenue –– quite the opposite. Blond says, “You are going to need to figure out how to drive more revenue per sales rep if you are a lower-margin business.”. The 2022 Economic Climate, Barriers to Growth, and Recruitment.

Sales Recruiting 263

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Leadership Interviewing 263

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2024

In SaaS, once you have even a few million in ARR, the #1 challenge is recruiting top-tier VPs and building a truly top-tier management team: SaaS products mostly don’t sell themselves. You can hack managing and finding 1–3 reps yourself, but after that, you really need a VP of Sales. She can be your CTO forever.

Scale 279

Scale Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Fractional VPE 279

SaaStr

MARCH 19, 2021

A head of sales that doesn’t recruit at least one strong rep in the first 90 days. A head of customer success that doesn’t own churn, or net revenue retention in the first 90 days. A VP of Sales that has never done outbound, if they don’t take it on fairly early — they never really will.

Sales Recruiting 349

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring SMB Engineering 349

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

SaaStr

MAY 20, 2020

You will be able to do a secondary sale of some of your shares if you continue to do well. 120%+ net revenue retention at $10m ARR with happy customers will drive you there. Recruiting is hard. Don’t worry so much. Also, once you cross $20m-$30m or so, new acquirers will get interested, even if they seem unlikely today.

Sales Recruiting 331

Sales Recruiting Cloud Retention Revenue 331

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 5, 2022

These companies are characterized by being product-led; in other words, conversion, retention, and growth are led by the product itself. Going from sales-led to PLG is doable, but it is not easy. Sales-led organizations struggle to adapt to a PLG mindset.”. Let’s use sales-led organizations as a comparison point.

Sales Recruiting 290

Sales Recruiting Business Pricing Churn 290

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. It’s important to track the number of leads in the conversion rates to sales generated by sales.

Metrics 250

Metrics Sales Recruiting Startup Headcount 250

SaaStr

OCTOBER 12, 2020

You can also totally change your sales team. If you want to say, increase net retention from 100% to 105% this quarter, make that a Top 3 goal and talk about it every single week. In a way, this is the same point as #1, almost — except you can recruit even more of the team here. There are only 40-50 hours in a sales week.

Sales Recruiting 351

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Churn Onboarding 351

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. This will drive up your net retention, drive down your churn, and drive up NPS. Not in April. Not by June. Get it Done.

Part-Time VPE 328

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 328

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 20, 2022

Strong sales reps are the lifeblood of your business and how you choose to invest in them matters. For frontline sales managers, attributes like competency, quality of work, ease of execution, and length of contribution indicate reps’ overall job success, but you can’t rely on those inputs to tell you if they are personally satisfied.

Sales Recruiting 116

Sales Recruiting Scale Retention Sales 116

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 12, 2019

A little over a year ago, I got the opportunity to start a new team within our sales organization – a team of Relationship Managers dedicated to growing our current customers at scale. The opportunity emerged out of a shift in how we practice sales. Starting a new sales team is not unlike doing improv.

Sales Hiring 171

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team Scale 171

Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

This has more to do with retention issues and less to do with raising new capital. You were the shoulder I would go and cry on anytime I would have some sort of executive-level problem or executive recruiting problem. We’re coming at it from the lens of not being recruiters. Retaining great talent in a tight market.

Sales Recruiting 89

Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team 89

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Storyblok started with a leadership-first hiring plan and a recruitment strategy that involved the following: A test to know how candidates handle different tasks and their expertise level. Their first step to achieving this was hiring a sales leader to build a sales team. Partner: investing in different partnership channels.

Scale 245

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scaling 245

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 263

Merchant Services Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 263

Clouded Judgement

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Signal can come from many places (sales team notes, customer support tickets, etc) IT Incident Management: Similar to the security alert example. Group related incidents or tickets by severity to help prioritize.

Systems Review 144

Systems Review Cloud AI Artificial Intelligence 144

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 235

Sales Recruiting Scale Underperforming Technical Team Pricing 235

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

In this episode of the Sales Hacker Podcast, we have Hakim Myers , Business Recruiter at Nextdoor , where he recruits for people, finance, and legal functions for startups. Join us for a revealing conversation on sales and talent from the perspective of a recruiter in an executive search firm. powered by Sounder.

Sales Recruiting 106

Sales Recruiting Retention Scale Sales Hiring 106

SaaStr

MARCH 18, 2022

Mapistry recruited a diverse pool by inviting both legacy customers and new customers. . New customers add value to your CABs with their fresh experience with your sales cycle and onboarding processes. Beneficial relationships between you and your customers help achieve high retention rates. A forum to influence the product.

Sales Recruiting 246

Sales Recruiting Enterprise Onboarding Investment 246

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 3, 2017

Every startup’s sales commission plan is different. But it’s key to understand the theory and the benchmark data that governs the creation of sales commission plans to create a good one for your business. Sales compensation is communicated in OTE, On Target Earnings. Before we begin, let’s define a few terms.

Sales Recruiting 160

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Data Sales 160

SaaStr

JULY 1, 2021

I want to come be your VP of sales and, you’re going to meet me for the first time. Spencer : For me, the key things for a VP of sales is, “OK, tell me about your best reps. We’re trying to recruit someone that’s way above our weight class, so that we can actually scale. You hire a search firm.

VP of Engineering 299

VP of Engineering Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 299

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

It’s an approach that’s served him well along the road to building the HubSpot sales team, where he was CRO for nine years. That experience led to his bestselling book, The Sales Acceleration Formula. I just don’t think sales have anything to do with product-market fit. A data-driven framework for scaling.

Scale 226

Scale Scaling Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 226

Sales Hacker

MAY 6, 2021

What’s the difference between a VP of Sales and a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)? The VP of Sales. Great VPs of sales have gravitas and tact, command the room and hold their end of the table regardless of who is on the other side. Singular focus on sales. As the title would hint at, the VP of Sales should focus on sales.

VP of Engineering 120

VP of Engineering Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 120

Sales Hacker

APRIL 30, 2020

What’s your approach when hiring sales reps? Companies often hire sales reps who have knowledge of, or even a passion for, the brand’s product or industry — which is great because it gives you a team of “walking brochures” who can spout off all the benefits of your product. The best training for new sales hires.

Sales Hiring 119

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Underperforming Technical Team 119

Sales Hacker

APRIL 19, 2022

In this article, I’ll outline the principles of compensation design , how to build sales compensation plans , and include resources to set OTEs and quotas that keep your reps happy and hungry for more. Why Sales Comp Planning is Key to Rep Retention. Who should be responsible for sales compensation planning?

Compensation 98

Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Retention 98

ChurnZero

NOVEMBER 26, 2024

This is a guest article by Swati Garg , founder and CEO, Melo Associates , and Lindsay Lynch , senior recruitment consultant, Melo Associates , a recruitment firm focused on customer success hiring for SaaS and tech companies nationwide. For instance, owning customer retention signifies direct responsibility for renewal rates.

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Sales Recruiting Customer Success Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hacker

MAY 20, 2020

One way for companies to avoid layoffs is to hire from within and look for individuals they can take from non-revenue-generating roles and move them into revenue-generating roles like Sales. . This keeps your high performers on staff while focusing resources on what will help you survive a tough economy, namely a stronger sales force.

Sales Hiring 130

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Sales Enablement 130

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 16, 2019

So if scaling your sales organization is a priority in 2020, here are the things you need to be aware of to make sure you do so successfully. In my experience both as a salesperson and as a recruiter, it’s primarily been four things: They want the work they’re doing to matter to them. Hiring sales leaders will get harder.

Sales Recruiting 53

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Trends 53

Chart Mogul

JANUARY 9, 2025

So read on, and hopefully, your SaaS sales journey will be less about trial and error and more about steady progress toward success. Whats important to note is that each model targets a distinct customer persona and, therefore, has a unique approach to the customer journeyfrom brand awareness to sales and, ultimately, conversion.

Scale 52

Scale Sales Hiring Startup Sales Recruiting 52

User Pilot

MAY 20, 2024

Wondering how to improve customer retention? The article shares 20 actionable customer retention strategies for your SaaS! TL;DR Customer retention is your ability to keep users using the product. Without retention, a SaaS business doesn’t have a predictable revenue stream necessary for growth.

Retention 105

Retention Strategy Sales Recruiting Scale 105

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

InsightSquared

MAY 15, 2019

It’s one of my favorite questions to ask a fellow professional in sales operations. Insurance sales rep. Account Manager. Sales Operations is Still Developing. Sales operations as a profession is growing, yet it is a comparatively new function in businesses. Sales Ops is Many Disciplines in One.

Sales Recruiting 110

Sales Recruiting Scale Technical Review Sales 110

Sales Hacker

JULY 25, 2022

Here’s the thing about driving a car — and about running a sales org: Bumps in the road are inevitable. One of the best ways to ensure every part of your engine is running smoothly is to build sales performance dashboards for everyone on your team. What is a sales performance dashboard? What is a sales performance dashboard?

Sales Recruiting 116

Sales Recruiting Engineering Revenue Sales Enablement 116

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 7, 2019

But never in a manager. . An NPS goal or a net retention goal. A VP of Sales that has only done inbound? This makes perfect sense in BigCos and with junior hires, but in start-ups, if a VP/Director/Manager is too threatened by a new hire / new role, something isn’t going to work out here. A number of leads. A “player”.

Sales Hiring 191

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale SMB 191

SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2019

Awesome revenue growth on the X axis, awesome revenue retention on the Y. Hundred percent revenue retention, 200% revenue growth. Option A is we can go have awesome revenue retention, 100% revenue retention, but mediocre growth. Option B is awesome revenue growth, 200%, but mediocre revenue retention, 70%.

Scale 265

Scale Sales Hiring Revenue VP of Engineering 265