Sabrinathsaleswitch

Companies that are "Near Product-Market Fit" - how to best vet?

I'm talking to a couple companies that have maybe 40-60 customers and are looking to hire a 2nd/3rd AE respectively to aggressively sell and hit product market fit. They're being fiscally responsible from what I can tell (low burn rate/nearly profitable already) and not hiring a slew of AEs. I have done this before, but not in tech, want to assess my risk levels.

-What should I look out for?

-What are essential questions to ask?

-Expectations to set?

-Tell me your horror or success stories!

👥 Hiring

📠 Startup

7 comments

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oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

Is the solution proprietary?
Who is your #1 competitor?
Any overlap in the product?
Who are your marquis clients?
How did they buy it? POC? Pilot? SaaS plug n play?
How did you find them? Did they find you?

You’ll start to smell issues if they exist with answers to these. Nothing worse than watching a big deal vanish because someone already has it built, it’s a better mousetrap, and they’ll sell it for less to keep market share.

I still have scars. I’m not crying. Really.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

What does your gut say? Does it put you in a better place than you are now? What’s the history of the founders? Are they trying for an early exit or in it for the long haul?

Sabrinathsaleswitch

Good Citizen

Role was eliminated; my former company did a few rounds of mass layoffs so a job is better. Will ask about long-term outlook. It feels too early to tell.

DataCorrupter

Politicker

Account Executive

Tons of stuff you can ask:

If faced with enough customer feedback, how quickly can they roll out new features or functions?

What is the company’s competitive advantage in the market? What does it do that it's competitors don't?

Tell me about the company’s ICP (ideal customer profile)? If they know this early, that's usually a sign they've tapped into something good. If not, that's ok, but then read question 1 again.

What % of closed deals are from leads? Product market fit means that these people are already searching for it.

AND how much time are the other AEs spending time prospecting? Is it low, and if so, is that good because they're so busy closing? Or is high because so few people are getting back to them/interested?

Quota? I've heard some conventional metrics say that this is what sales ops/leadership expects 3 reps to close between them. Not an exact science, but gives you an idea of what their revenue goals are if things go well/fine. Not the biggest thing to consider early, but good to consider.

Hope this helps.

Sabrinathsaleswitch

Good Citizen

Thanks @DataCorruptersuper helpful! It's a founding AE role. No inbound really so heavy outbound. Newer head of sales. They're highly invested in product and turning this out/around. I don't see the biggest competition advantage. Numerous products = various ICP so they really don't know.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

40-60 customers only =still a start-up I believe.
Recommend you to ask for a good base since SUPs are a bit risky!

CPTAmerica

Opinionated

President/CRO

How are you defining PMF? If they have 50ish paying customers that's already been proven (assuming B2B), now it's about scalability and profitability.

Ask their growth plans. What would be next in your career there if you help them achieve what they're trying to do. See if you can get equity.

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Sabrinathsaleswitch

Companies that are "Near Product-Market Fit" - how to best vet?

7 comments

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