BRENDON CASSIDYVPS HACKERRANK, TALKESK, ECHOSIGN, LINKEDIN

SAM BLONDVPS ZENEFITS

EMMANUELLE SKALAVPS INFLUITIVE

HOW TO HIRE A GREAT (FIRST) VP OF SALES

THE FIRST “VP SALES” PROBABLY HAS TO BE YOUYou Have to Sell It Yourself First. And Then Hire 2+ Reps.

The First “VP Sales” Probably Has to Be YouYou Have to Sell It Yourself First. And Then Hire 2+ Reps.

You You + 2 Reps Hire VP Sales

Hire ASAP Once you Have a Repeatable Process

• Before a repeatable process = exercise in frustration

• But just as importantly – if you wait even one month afteryou have Initial Traction – you are wasting time

• Wasted time = wasted leads & lost 2nd order revenue,delay in getting to Scale

TOO LATE IS—ALMOST—AS BAD AS TOO EARLY

Note Which One Comes Last

TOP 5 THINGS A SAAS VP OF SALES REALLY DOES

• #1 Recruiting the Team • You’re 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

Source: Boston Search Group 2011 http://bit.ly/v2Sbgi

• A mediocre VPS is a cost center. Feels very expensive.

• But a Great VPS is Accretive

• Key: Great VPS Raises Revenue Per Lead

CHANGE YOUR THINKING: A GREAT VPS IS ACCRETIVE

WAYS YOUR VPS WILL INCREASE REVENUE PER LEAD

• Ask.

• Close.

• Hire.

• Sale.

• Position.

• Go Upmarket.

• Better.

• Fun.

For the Most $$$ Per Lead.

Closing is an Art – and a Science.

Better / Different Than You.

More Reps, More Quickly.

Give Prospects Right Context.

Drive to Highest Practical Deal Size

Great VPS Makes Your Product Better.

Great VPS Makes Your Product Better.

Hint: You Don’t Need New Prospects or Customers.

• Upgrade the Team to Proven Closers. ASAP.

• Get the Most Out of the Inherited Team – And Get Rid of the Ones That Aren’t Working.

• Get Outbound Going.

• Close Faster & Better.

• Know How to Compete and Win.

PLAYBOOK TO MATERIALLY INCREASE SALES IN 60-90 DAYS

• You Should Know Subjectively In Just a Few Months—Just 50% of The Way Through Your Average Sales Cycle

• Numbers Should Increase in 1 Sales Cycle—with Keen Focus on Revenue Per Lead

• First Few Hires Should be Clear Upgrades—and made quickly + seemingly effortlessly

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU’VE MADE A MISTAKE

The Costs of a Bad Hire▪ Leads Doubled in Year of Hell

▪ Yes, We Grew. But, Revenue Per Lead Declined.

▪ Whose Fault?

• Leads Doubled in Year of Hell

• Yes, We Grew. But, Revenue Per Lead Declined.

• Whose Fault?

THE COSTS OF A BAD HIRE

Hire 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

• Wastes Precious Leads, Wastes Time, Loss of Second-Order Revenue

• You’ll Lose a Year – At the Worst Possible Time • A Bad Hire is Often Made Just

as Things AreTaking Off

THE TOUGHEST HIRE OF ALL IN SAAS

YOUR VPS IS ALSO FEEDING SECOND-ORDER REVENUE

Wrong Hire = No Second Order Revenue, Not Just Suboptimal Sales That Year

• Hard to Get Stage Perfectly Right in Early Days

• Few Truly Scale Across > 1.5 Stages. Hence, Most SaaS Cos. End Up with Multiple VPS

DIFFERENT STAGES OF VPS. OFTEN, A DIFFERENT HIRE.

Hire ASAP Once you Have a Repeatable Process

• Sold at Next Year’s Target ACV – Controls for a Lot of Variables

• Sold at Next Revenue Stage (ARR)

• Similar Competitive Selling Background

• Outbound vs. Inbound Ratio

• First 3 People You’d Bring With You

• Less Important: Domain Expertise

KEY SCREENINGS FOR VPS

• It May Be Tempting to Hire a Placeholder VPS – especially if You Haven’t Done It Before

• But You’ll End Up With a Crummy Team, and Lost Opportunities.

• Start Early. Start Now.

SO, AS HARD AS IT IS—YOU CAN’T SETTLE

• Great Sales Teams Have Low Turnover—They Want to Stay Together

• Great Sales Teams Feed on Themselves

• Great Sales Teams Energize the Rest of the Company

• You Just Need a Great VPS to Bring it All Together

WHEN IT’S GOOD—IT’S REALLY GOOD