SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

They are all avoidable : #1: Stepping Out of Sales Ok really this is mistake #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5. I see way too many founders, in the transition from founder-led sales to their first (or second) VP of Sales, look to get that time back. Instead, how they spend time in sales changes. And so sales goes down.

Sales Hiring 317

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Scaling 317

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Whether you’re just starting out in SaaS or have a successful SaaS startup, founders and startup teams can learn a lot from those who have found success in the industry through its ups and downs. In this Ask Me Anything Part 1, Lemkin answers the questions: Many VCs talk about funding, yet you’re so focused on sales.

Outsourcing Services 291

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 291

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Hiring a VP of Sales isn’t new, but the conversations have evolved as the world has. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive.

Sales Hiring 162

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 162

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 265

Merchant Services Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 265

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

Sales reps were hosting 4-6 calls daily but most of these calls were early demos or top-of-funnel discovery calls Sales was closing really small deals on one end while talking to really large companies with hundreds of thousands of people on the other. As a startup, it’s tempting to try and do everything.

Scale 278

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 278

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 4, 2015

The prevailing wisdom for hiring the first VP of Sales is roughly $1M in ARR, or whenever the company has figured out some repeatable sales process. The rationale behind this advice is, at this point, the company needs someone to build recruit, incentivize, coach and manage the team that will grow to acquire more and more business.

Sales Hiring 100

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Startup 100

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Chuck is the co-founder of Blueprint Expansion , a GTM roles recruiting firm that has helped over 50 VC-backed companies make amazing Sales, Marketing, & Customer Success hires. By using the power of AI to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase.

Sales Hiring 127

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing SMB 127

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

SEPTEMBER 7, 2019

Anyone that doesn’t want to add new skills won’t work out in a startup < 200 employees or so. A VP of Sales that has only done inbound? Or add an SMB team. . It’s OK for an AE to be a bit worried when you hire her boss, your first VP of Sales. All true VPs know recruiting is job #1. A “player”.

Sales Hiring 196

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale SMB 196

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. In his opinion, the hiring process is a preview of their sales technique.

Sales Hiring 183

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors 183

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 17, 2024

The challenges and rewards of founding and growing a startup for nine years. 15:41) Scaling Twitter’s ad business and managing hyper-growth. (26:54) 26:54) The existential dread of being a startup founder. (37:56) 45:40) Debunking the myth of sacrificing personal life for startup success. (49:07) Youre not alone.

Scale 103

Scale Engineering Acquisition Scaling 103

Sales Hacker

JUNE 27, 2019

I typically see this happen for one main reason: Startups often think (consciously or subconsciously) that scaling or building a sales team is as simple as “getting bodies in the door yesterday.”. The reality is not all salespeople are created equal (and neither are startups). Nothing could be further from the truth!

Sales Hiring 72

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Outsourcing Services 72

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

One of the biggest decisions you can make when setting up your sales team is whether to focus primarily on inside or outside sales. They seem to be completely at odds, with one focused on clients with a high acquisition cost and high ACV (annual account value), the other focused on a high sales velocity. Hiring guide.

Sales Hiring 100

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Payment Methods 100

Sales Hacker

APRIL 21, 2020

When I first wrote this article, we were in a very different place, with unemployment at an all-time low and sales hiring a top priority. Part two of this scorecard series will help you create a sales interview scorecard to land that sales role you’ve been dreaming about. Sales chops. What sales system do we use?

Sales Hiring 125

Sales Hiring Interviewing Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 125

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 21, 2019

This week on the Sales Hacker podcast , we talk to Bill Binch , Chief Revenue Officer for Pendo and a former sales executive at Marketo who, over close to 10 years, helped guide the company through multiple phases of growth including both an IPO and an acquisition. . The challenges of managing a global team. What You’ll Learn.

Scale 18

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scaling 18

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 15, 2017

With the rise of AI, new sales technology and automation at the forefront of the sales echo chamber these days, we thought we’d take a moment to bring it back to BASICS – that’s why we’ve rounded up this complete glossary of sales terms and definitions to help you remember where it all started.

Scale 105

Scale Payment Methods Sales Recruiting SaaS Payments 105

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

First company was Greenfield startup to IPO. So I went down the hall, met with the head of marketing, and I discovered a lot about in bound SaaS, about SMB, the importance of building this machine as I call it now that generates all these lovely leads. Then I went over to the sales department. We schedule a demo in the same day.

Scale 187

Scale SMB VP of Engineering Leadership 187

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2021

Then we needed to hire a sales guy who had experience selling to enterprise. We got the guy who ran enterprise sales at Rackspace. This is my third startup. Nikos : In your case, I understand your company also shifted slightly on the market, like from SMB to bigger customers. Dan : We’d start it with sales.

Sales Hiring 264

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Development Team Review CTO Hire 264

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

When it comes to launching sales teams in hyper-growth startups, few people have walked the walk as much as Maggie Hott. She “stumbled” into it, as she told us, first as one of the earliest sales hires of Eventbrite, where she stayed for four years, and then into Slack in early 2015 as the first sales rep in the Bay Area.

Scale 118

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 118

Andreessen Horowitz

APRIL 23, 2024

At a16z’s recent Connect/Fintech event, a16z Partner Alex Immerman sat down for a broad conversation with Immad Akhund , co-founder and CEO of banking startup Mercury , and René Lacerte, founder and CEO of financial services company BILL. Both of you sell into SMBs, which is a notoriously difficult segment.

Payments 110

Payments Forecasting Payment Services Sales Hiring 110

Kellblog

NOVEMBER 6, 2022

Weak sales productivity , measured either relative to the company’s model or industry averages (median $675K) [2]. High sales turnover. Pivot the company , making a major change in strategy or sales model. Let’s do only enterprise accounts and account-based marketing (ABM). Let’s go product-led growth (PLG).

Sales Hiring 140

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Marketing Scale 140

OpenView Labs

JUNE 17, 2019

And unfortunately, on more than one occasion, I’ve seen this FOMO cause them to lose remarkable salespeople and sales leaders that were previously beyond excited to work with them. The truth is, A+ candidates will always have options… they are investments that make startups money and they know it. hire them immediately.

Sales Recruiting 53

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 53

Andreessen Horowitz

OCTOBER 16, 2023

One of the toughest challenges for founders — and especially technical founders who are used to focusing so much on product features over sales — is striking “product-market fit”. So in that shift from product-market fit to product-market-SALES fit, how much should you optimize your go-to-market for product… and even the other way around?

Product Marketing 78

Product Marketing Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting 78

Sales Hacker

JUNE 9, 2020

This week on the Sales Hacker podcast, we speak with Barrett Boston , Chief Revenue Officer at TriNet. The finance world wasn’t scratching the itch, though, so he decided that he just had to be in sales. The finance world wasn’t scratching the itch, though, so he decided that he just had to be in sales.

Leadership 105

Leadership Scale Sales Recruiting VP of Engineering 105

OpenView Labs

AUGUST 5, 2019

On paper, the segmented sales model that many SaaS businesses use seems great – who wouldn’t want to copy the success of Salesforce? But there’s a trend I’m seeing that’s making me wonder whether this segmented sales model is actually good for us. The sales process is like a machine. Incentivize the right behaviors.

Sales Hiring 41

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales AWS 41

Sales Hacker

APRIL 16, 2018

In this inaugural episode of the Sales Hacker podcast, we talk with Kiva Kolstein , Chief Revenue Officer at AlphaSense. . In Today’s Episode: How to map your career from individual contributor to manager. Subscribe to the Sales Hacker Podcast. 3) Kiva’s sales story [3:02]. Sales Hacker Podcast—Sponsored by Node.

Sales Hiring 44

Sales Hiring Management Scale Sales Recruiting 44

The Marketing & Growth Hacking Publication

APRIL 8, 2019

Internal Team: Hire your own Sales Development Rep (SDR) team that is 100% dedicated to outbound prospecting. If you have the management capacity to hire and train someone, this is ideal. Cons: Can be slower to find and train a great SDR, requires more management bandwidth. Optional: Recruiting fees.

Outsourcing Services 40

Outsourcing Services Outsourced Development Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting 40

Ramp Ventures

JANUARY 2, 2017

This is all the more true for startups that have a brand and customer base to build. “If you are a startup, content marketing can be the way you differentiate your business and engender trust with your customers and prospects. Let’s assume that as a startup you only have a small pot of cash to play with.

Content Marketing 40

Content Marketing Outsourcing Services Marketing Social Media 40

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

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Women in sales often have a polarizing experience. In the Sales Hacker video series Aha Moments , I asked 10 women: “What is one ‘aha moment’ you’ve had in your sales career?”. The conversations that followed were so authentic and encouraging that we decided to expand this conversation to other badass women in the sales world.

Scale 137

Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring VP of Engineering 137

SaaStr

MARCH 10, 2020

That was the most over the top entrance that the sales leader for a company that moves boxes around the world has ever gotten. So we did about 442 million in sales last year. The top 25 freight forwarders combined to do 100 billion a year in sales. Rely on your success, know you are doing something right and scale faster.

Scale 275

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scaling 275

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2022

As SaaStr Europa 2022 drew to a close, attendees took one more opportunity to ask Jason questions about topics like how to navigate the current market, the future of work, playing in a crowded space, and hiring your first VP of Sales. It was funny for Henry to say he segmented his sales team at 80 million in ARR. Transcript.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Scaling 246

SaaStr

JULY 30, 2020

356: Pete Kazanjy is the Co-Founder @ Atrium, the startup providing proactive, always-on insights for sales operations, managers, and leaders. Alongside Atrium, Pete is also the Founder of Modern Sales Pros, a community of 15,000 focused on sales operations and sales management. Stop asking questions.

Part-Time VPE 288

Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring 288

Unbounce

JUNE 16, 2020

especially for SMB SaaS startups. For example, ActiveCampaign’s reseller program offers beefier discounts to partners as they grow, letting them set their own pricing and pocket the difference: ActiveCampaign’s reseller program offers deeper discounts on pricing as more sales are made, creating an incentive to go big.

Outsourcing Services 131

Outsourcing Services Sales Recruiting Scale SaaS 131

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2020

403: Sam Taylor is the VP of Sales and Success @ Loom, the startup that helps you get your message across by making it easy to record instantly shareable videos. Before Quip, Sam spent an incredible 3 years at Dropbox where he was the first enterprise sales rep in the entire company. Should you hire 2 at a time?

Scale 252

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 252

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2020

And so, she can, and Anthony just finished up basically going from the first sales hire at Gainsight at almost 100 million in revenue and has just retired. Maria : It’s like saying, “Hey, you want a sales rep to carry 10 times the quota they do today. You can’t, you have to invest in that sales infrastructure.”

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting 246

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 29, 2021

Ever since he was hired as the Director of EMEA Sales at BrowserStack , a web and mobile testing platform that lets developers test their websites and mobile applications across browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices, he had to completely rethink how to successfully onboard hundreds of salespeople just as everyone was going remote.

Sales Hiring 223

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 223