Hiring my first ever sales person. What should I be lookout for?
Any particular things to look at in the interview?
Ace
Hiring a sales person!
17
--Passion
--Hustle
--Grit
--Consistent quota attainment
--Self-governance and comfort with autonomy
Someone who has been a team lead or has built sales from the ground up.
--High EQ.
--Hustle
--Grit
--Consistent quota attainment
--Self-governance and comfort with autonomy
Someone who has been a team lead or has built sales from the ground up.
--High EQ.
This helps a lot. Thank you so much @poweredbycaffeine
Hire two - see here: https://www.saastr.com/when-you-hire-your-first-sales-rep-just-make-sure-you-hire-two/
this only applies if its the first sales person at your company. Others have outlined traits to look for in an interview, the only other things I would add:
1) If you are a smaller company, dig for someone that is comfortable defining their own process. You cant take someone from salesforce that has been given a playbook on how to win and expect them to write their own at your company. So look for someone with really relevant experience at a similar sized company.
this only applies if its the first sales person at your company. Others have outlined traits to look for in an interview, the only other things I would add:
1) If you are a smaller company, dig for someone that is comfortable defining their own process. You cant take someone from salesforce that has been given a playbook on how to win and expect them to write their own at your company. So look for someone with really relevant experience at a similar sized company.
This helps a lot! Thanks a lot @UrAssIsSaaS
No worries, good luck with your search! How big is your company?
Not big. 2 fulltime and bunch part time but we are growing raised money so looking to hire fulltime now
Nice - hire 2 salespeople if you can then for the reasons outlined above. I havent founded a company before but have built a sales team from 0 and having 1 person doesnt give you the data points you need to know what works and what doesnt
Follow up - We are active in 2 countries. Can I hire in 1 country each?
Good question that Im not qualified to answer, but I dont see why not. Just make sure you account for the variables that are unique to each market when evaluating performance
Makes sense! Thank you so much again
They should be at least 6 feet tall
a willingness to eat caviar... if it was up to @paddy 😂
Consistency
So look at their past quotas?
1) Grind/Grit
2) Business acumen : how businesses buy
3) anything else you can think of that you cannot "teach"
4) Have an on-boarding process that addresses their perceived gaps + things that you've rules a things "you can teach"
2) Business acumen : how businesses buy
3) anything else you can think of that you cannot "teach"
4) Have an on-boarding process that addresses their perceived gaps + things that you've rules a things "you can teach"
Appreciate it! Thank you so much
On a real note, I'd always look for the intangibles. How have they reflected the core abilities to be successful in a high stress/pressure role and how have they dealt with it in the past in their other roles
Any questions I should ask to gauge this?
You have to be able to define and know what intangibles you want and feel that you can sharpen and those they already have strengths in. Most questions that seem to draw them out are the situational type questions... what would you do if X, or how did you do when Y...
Ooh that helps. Gives me some ideas. Thanks a lot!
I've been a first sales hire multiple times in my career. There are many elements that make someone a good fit for that kind of opportunity, but it's very important to note that just because someone has a track record of crushing quota at a larger company does NOT make them a good fit to be your first sales hire.
You want to onboard someone who essentially has a 'founder sales' approach to selling. i.e. they are less focused on closing anyone/everyone they talk to, and more focused on helping people make a good, educated decision, and in some cases even steering interested buyers away from your product if they sense that prospect would be a bad/unhappy customer. They also have to be willing and happy to DEMO to anyone, regardless of fit; their role is to be an evangelist and promoter of a new product. Have to be able to take the long view of "even though this account is disqualified from the get go, this person now knows what we do, which may bear fruit when they leave the company, or they may tell others about us"
This is just a fundamentally different mindset than your average top performer at later stage company.
basically, the early stages of a startup, you can't really afford to A) land bad fit customers who churn/badmouth your company, B) run a very 'sales process' heavy sales process, rather than make it easy for people to find out what you do in a low key fashion, while giving them a good brand association for the long term.
Hope this helps! tl;dr i would target someone who has excelled as an early sales hire before, and test for this mindset
You want to onboard someone who essentially has a 'founder sales' approach to selling. i.e. they are less focused on closing anyone/everyone they talk to, and more focused on helping people make a good, educated decision, and in some cases even steering interested buyers away from your product if they sense that prospect would be a bad/unhappy customer. They also have to be willing and happy to DEMO to anyone, regardless of fit; their role is to be an evangelist and promoter of a new product. Have to be able to take the long view of "even though this account is disqualified from the get go, this person now knows what we do, which may bear fruit when they leave the company, or they may tell others about us"
This is just a fundamentally different mindset than your average top performer at later stage company.
basically, the early stages of a startup, you can't really afford to A) land bad fit customers who churn/badmouth your company, B) run a very 'sales process' heavy sales process, rather than make it easy for people to find out what you do in a low key fashion, while giving them a good brand association for the long term.
Hope this helps! tl;dr i would target someone who has excelled as an early sales hire before, and test for this mindset
This really helps a lot. Thank you so much. Gave me a perspective from the other side of the table for sure
Coachable, willing to implement feedback
Implement feedback is really important! Lot of people miss it
Mainly Hungry to take calls and close deals,rest is still important but would come in a second level IMO!!!
Communication skills
Interview is a way for them to sell themselves to you. That's half of sales is being the rep they'd rather work with.... (The other half is having a product that is useful (solve problems) and easy to use)
Interview is a way for them to sell themselves to you. That's half of sales is being the rep they'd rather work with.... (The other half is having a product that is useful (solve problems) and easy to use)
And what should I look for during the interview? Sorry new at this
1. Motivation
2. Adaptability
3. Intelligence
4. Work ethic
How do you gauge these things? Any particular questions to ask?
How's it going? Long time no speak 😎
Related posts
Members only
30 comments