Sneak Preview: SaaStr at Dreamforce; When to Hire (and Fire) Your VP of Sales
-
Upload
stormventures -
Category
Business
-
view
110 -
download
0
description
Transcript of Sneak Preview: SaaStr at Dreamforce; When to Hire (and Fire) Your VP of Sales
When to Hire (and Fire) Your First VP of SalesWhen to Hire (and Fire) Your First VP of SalesOr Why Up to 70% of First VP Sales Don’t Make It 12 Months
Jason M. Lemkin, Managing Director, Storm Ventures; Founder/CEO – EchoSign/Adobe
@jasonlk
SUPER SNEAK P
REVIEW
Jason M. LemkinJason M. LemkinJason M. Lemkin,
Managing Director, Storm Ventures; Founder/CEO –
EchoSign/Adobe
@jasonlk
Jason M. Lemkin,
Managing Director, Storm Ventures; Founder/CEO –
EchoSign/Adobe
@jasonlk
The First “VP Sales” Probably Has to Be You
You Have to Sell It Yourself First. And Then Hire 2+ Reps.
You You + 2 Reps Hire VP Sales
Ideally, Have 2 Reps Doing Well Before Hire VPS
Otherwise, You Won’t Know Yourself
Don’t Want VPS Starting From Scratch• Too Expensive, Too Confusing
• You’ll Hire Wrong Type of VPS
A/B Test Will Also Help You Learn
Top 5 Things a SaaS VP of Sales Really Does
Note Which One Comes Last #1 Recruiting the Team
• Your going to need a team, and a good one. Quickly.
• Player-Coach sounds great but at best, will be quickly obsolete as a role.
#2 Backfilling and Helping His/Her Sales Team
#3 Sales Tactics
#4 Sales Strategy
#5 Creating and Selling Deals Him/Herself
The Toughest Hire of All in SaaS When
• Too Early: Manager, Not a Magician
• Too Late: Can Take 20 Months!
Who• Been There, Done That – Almost Impossible
• Too “Heavy” a Hire? Or One Without the
Full Experience?
Why• To Take Things To the Next Level; To Scale
• But Usually NOT to Get Sales Going
The Toughest Hire of All in SaaSHire Wrong, and You’re Set Back a Year
A Bad Hire Can Be Far Worse Than No Hire at All – It’s True
A Bad Hire Isn’t Just Hard Costs – It Involves Huge Soft Costs As Well• A B-level VP Sales Hires a B-/C+ Team Under Him/Her
• Revenue Per Lead can actually go down dramatically under a mediocre VPS
• Wastes Precious Leads, Wastes Time, Loss of Second-Order Revenue
A Bad Hire is Often Made Just as Things Are Taking Off• So Most Costly Time at All to Make a Mistake
For the Rest and the Discussion …Come See The SaaStr Presentation At Dreamforce!!