5 Considerations When Making Your First Sales Hire

If you are a startup founder it is likely that you are not only the top sales person at your organization, but probably also the only one. As you’re likely well aware, this is not a sustainable model for growth. The obvious alternative is to hire your first sales team member.  But where do you start?  What skills and qualifications should they have?  How should they be compensated and incentivized?  What will  training look like?  Does it make sense to only hire one?  How will they get leads?  What is the sales process when they find a qualified candidate?  What is the best way to support this resource with marketing?

These are just a few questions that are most likely on your mind when considering hiring on a sales team member. If they aren’t, don’t even think about taking out an ad for this position; you are doomed to fail.  I have seen so many job ads that advertise for entry level sales reps making anywhere from zero to $300,000 a year.   I have seen ads that are hiring for a Chief Revenue Officer that require 2-5 years of lead generation experience.  So stop and reassess and make sure you have a plan in place to help this person become successful without wasting a lot of money on this in the process.   Below are the top 5 things to consider before you hire your first sales rep.

Job Description and Role Clarity

There is nothing more frustrating to a new hire than not knowing exactly what is required of them.  How many or how often sales activities are to be completed.  Where do their responsibilities start and stop? Are they focusing on just lead generation?  Are they taking deals from cold call to close? Do they need to escalate deals that reach a certain size to you?  Make sure you have a clear idea of exactly what this person does with their time each day and you will have the best chance of success with this role

Sales Process

So many startups hire a sales resource without first crystallizing their sales process.  What is the progression from cold lead to closed deal and how many stops are there along the way?  What is required to move the opportunity from one stage to the next?  How many of those requirements can be automated in some way?

Marketing Support

To truly maximize the impact of your limited sales resources there are vast pool of sales enablement tools that help to do more with less.  At the very least, using technologies such as SalesLoft, Cirrus Insight, or Outreach to automate email and call sequences will help to keep your sales resource on task and maximize their reach by automating 80% of their emails using mass personalized multi-channel prospecting.

Compensation

You have built your models and projected the value of bringing on a sales resource and feel like you are ready to pull the trigger on this hire.  Now comes the compensation piece.  Fixed base pay plus variable commission is by far the most common structure and most sales people require this model.  It may seem attractive to look for a commission only resource, but it is important to consider that the quality of the candidates you will attract to that type of structure may not meet your needs. Similarly I have seen startup founders offer obscene base pays or equity packages to try and attract a best in class candidate but you again need to ask yourself, why is a best in class candidate wanting to take a risk on an unknown startup.  It doesn’t make a lot of sense. One option is to try lowering your risk by outsourcing this role to one of the many outsourced sales organizations such as Acquirent, LeadJen, or Engaged Prospect.  Outsourcing this role will speed up the time to proficiency as well as allow you the flexibility to “test drive” your messaging, glean market insight, and allow you the flexibility to turn it off if its not working.  Most outsourced firms will also give you the option to hire the sales rep on directly as well at the completion of your trial.

Training/Coaching

Having a firm training and coaching plan before you bring on a resource is imperative.  Consider on-boarding, product and industry training, CRM and Systems training, Sales and presentation training just for starters.  Additionally, you should think about ongoing coaching and how much of your time this will take. In my experience, coaching is one of the biggest factors that will determine success.

This list is not definitive. There are many other considerations to make when hiring your first sales rep. To discuss further or to learn how JA Elhardt Consulting can help you navigate the pitfalls of this  important business decision please reach out to us here.