Essay · 12 min read

Playbook: When & how to hire your first salesperson

Michael Girdley Free Intermediate

A practicing operator's version of our own bar: Girdley says you need a proven, repeatable process and something like 15 customers closed yourself before you hire, tracked against a simple sales scorecard of conversion rate, deal value, and cycle length. He also makes the case for hiring a junior rep over a manager first, which is a decision most founders get backwards.

• Build a sales scorecard (conversion rate, deal size, cycle length) before you hire, so you know what good looks like
• Hire a salesperson first, not a sales manager, unless you are building a team under them immediately
• Don't expect a new hire to match your own conversion rate right away, budget for a ramp