Planetary and Vedic Yagyas Bring Positive Impacts in Life
When to Hire Your First VP of Sales and Avoid Common Mistakes
1. When to Hire (and Fire) Your First
VP of Sales
Or Why Up to 70% of First VP Sales Don’t Make
It 12 Months
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Jason M. Lemkin, Managing Director, Storm Ventures; Founder/CEO – EchoSign/Adobe
@jasonlk
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2. Jason M. Lemkin
Jason M. Lemkin,
Managing Director, Storm Ventures;
Founder/CEO – EchoSign/Adobe
@jasonlk
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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
7. The Toughest Hire of All in SaaS
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 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
8. For the Rest and the Discussion …
Come See The SaaStr Presentation At Dreamforce!!