Article · short read

The #1 Mistake I See Founders Make When They Hire Their First VP of Sales

Jason Lemkin · SaaStr Free Intermediate

The mistake is not the hire, it is stepping out of sales afterwards, which Lemkin reckons about two thirds of founders do and which backfires almost every time. Six specific reasons your presence still matters, plus where to redirect your hours instead.

  • 66 percent of founders step back from sales after hiring a VP of Sales, and it backfires 95 percent of the time.
  • Getting the first VP of Sales wrong sets you back a year and burns half your cash.
  • Only hire the VP after two individual reps are really closing and hitting quota.
  • Plan to spend the same hours on sales after the hire, just redirected to bigger deals and relationships.
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It answers 5 questions

  1. Founder-led sales sounds terrifying. Why can I not just hire a salesperson?
  2. When do I stop selling myself and hire the first person, and what kind of person should that be?
  3. When do I hire SDRs, and how many AEs can one SDR feed?
  4. When do I hire a VP of Sales, and what happens to me after I do?
  5. What separates a great VP of Sales from a merely good one?

Read with it

  1. Podcast · ~85 min Building a world-class sales org Jason Lemkin
  2. A concrete checklist for the first closer hire: close 10 to 20 yourself first, hire scrappy over pedigreed, and expect a deal... SaaStr Article · ~6 min read Dear SaaStr: How Do I Make Sure My First 1-2 Sales Reps Are Strong? Jason Lemkin
  3. A four phase model for handing off sales, with a clear warning that most of the damage comes from adding closers too early.... aprildunford.com Article · short read Evolving From Founder Selling To A Sales Team April Dunford
  4. It makes the point most first-time founders miss, that early on you are selling the founders and the promise that you... Y Combinator Startup Library Video · Talk The Sales Playbook for Founders Tom Blomfield
  5. 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
  6. This is where the SDR and AE split came from, and the summary gives you the whole model without the book. The rule that no AE... Predictable Revenue Article · ~15 min read 15-Minute Summary of Predictable Revenue Aaron Ross
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