Article · ~6 min read

Dear SaaStr: How Do I Make Sure My First 1-2 Sales Reps Are Strong?

Jason Lemkin · SaaStr Free Intermediate

A concrete checklist for the first closer hire: close 10 to 20 yourself first, hire scrappy over pedigreed, and expect a deal within one sales cycle. The 'would you buy from this person' test is the one most founders skip.

  • Close 10 to 20 deals yourself before hiring your first AE.
  • Interview 30 plus candidates, and screen for problem solvers and product obsessives over pure closers.
  • A good AE should pay for themselves in 3 to 4 months and close inside one sales cycle.
  • A candidate who asks what systems and processes exist is a bad fit for an early-stage team.
Open on saastr.com ↗

It answers 3 questions

  1. I am the first GTM hire at a startup. What is my job really, and how do I not get fired in 12 months?
  2. When do I stop selling myself and hire the first person, and what kind of person should that be?
  3. What separates a great VP of Sales from a merely good one?

Read with it

  1. Names both failure modes of the founder-to-first-hire handoff, holding on too long and letting go too early, with input from... First Round Review Article · ~20 min read This GTM Leader Crowdsources Early Lessons From Stripe, Figma and More Meka Asonye
  2. The mistake is not the hire, it is stepping out of sales afterwards, which Lemkin reckons about two thirds of founders do and... SaaStr Article · short read The #1 Mistake I See Founders Make When They Hire Their First VP of Sales Jason Lemkin
  3. Podcast · ~85 min Building a world-class sales org Jason Lemkin
  4. Taylor is good on the part reps own but rarely get credit for: feeding what you hear on calls back into positioning and... In Depth (First Round Review) Podcast · ~60 min "Everyone wants a silver bullet": selling lessons from Sam Taylor of Dropbox, Quip and now Loom Sam Taylor
  5. The most systematic treatment of recurring revenue as an engineered system rather than a set of departments, with 250+... Winning by Design Book · 556 pages Revenue Architecture Jacco van der Kooij
  6. Compares direct sales, channel and marketing-led entry for an Indian company going abroad, and makes the case that the US may... Inc42 Article · ~12 min read Indian SaaS And The Art Of Going From Local To Global Sandeep Chawda
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →