They decide against a written bar that existed before the person joined, and they decide early. The mechanism is a ramp scorecard with dated gates, so the conversation is never about whether you like the person. Well-run teams look at leading indicators against the cohort median rather than at bookings, which means they usually know by month three and act by month four or five, well inside the typical four to five month ramp. They also separate the two questions honestly: is the rep failing or is the territory failing, because a team with 39 percent total attrition and two thirds of it involuntary does not have a people problem, it has a hiring profile problem.
4 resources, 4 link-checked.
365 B2B companies surveyed on ramp, tenure, attrition, activity and comp. When you want to know whether your ramp is slow or your attrition is normal, this is the reference everyone quotes.
From The Bridge Group Report, 20 min read
Open blog.bridgegroupinc.com →The number that should scare you into reading it: 70 percent of first VP of Sales hires do not make it. Ten named mistakes, including hiring someone who has quietly stopped wanting to sell, and what a mishire costs you in months.
On SaaStr by Jason Lemkin 35 min listen
Open saastr.com →The source of the hiring scorecard: outcomes and competencies written before you meet anyone, then structured interviews against only those. It is the single fix for founders who interview on gut feel.
From ghSMART by Geoff Smart and Randy Street Book
Open ghsmart.com →Names the two ways founders get the timing wrong, scaling too early and scaling too late, and walks the progression from founder selling to pods to a real team. Useful precisely when you are deciding whether it is time.
From Founding Sales by Peter Kazanjy 35 min read
How hiring and ramping gtm people reads from a different seat.
The same ground, over in Co-founders, team & legal, our Starting Up track.
