£84,000 wasted. That’s what a founder said to me after he realised that he’d made a complete error hiring a so-called rock star salesperson.
Only to find that after six months, very little pipeline had been built. Nothing had been converted. And the founder was still doing just as much of the selling as he was before this rock star joined him.
Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence. I’ve heard it on numerous occasions, and it’s unfortunate because it’s a big waste of money, a big waste of time, and both people end up feeling disgruntled.
The so-called rock star salesperson probably could have been a rock star had they come into a business that had a commercial layer built, or at least the beginnings of one, ready for them to develop on top of.
Knowing when to bring in your first sales hire, in founder-led B2B startups, is arguably the most critical component for getting you from the first rung of the ladder up to the second. But there are ways to mitigate this risk and improve the chances of success. Below, I’m going to talk through some of those realisations in the hope it helps you avoid making the same mistakes.
So when is the right time to hire your first salesperson? You don’t want to hire too early, you don’t want to hire too late, and you don’t want to hire the wrong person.
Too early revolves around nothing being repeatable that already exists in your business. There’s nothing to hand to them. They join, they flounder, and the results speak for themselves: negligible pipeline and very little in revenue.
The too late scenario is when the founder has burnt out first, and the business is already stalled by the time help arrives. Again, this is related to not having documented, repeatable systems in place.
And finally, the trap. A lot of founders think they have to hire a “mini-me”, somebody with the same depth of knowledge around the product as the founder. That simply isn’t true. Structured training and industry knowledge will help to educate, but fundamentally, knowing and understanding how to run a sales cycle, how to run a sales process, and how to close are ultimately more important than being an industry expert on a particular product or service. This is particularly true if you’re breaking new ground with a unique offering to the market.
What makes a first hire succeed is rarely product knowledge, as I’ve mentioned. It’s not about having depth. Product knowledge isn’t the differentiator most founders assume it is. It’s having a ramp plan. Real onboarding, not a sink-or-swim comparison to the founder’s own close rate.
Remember, the founder is a unique beast. He or she will know the product inside out, but they may not truly understand how to build scalable and repeatable sales processes. The selling, not the knowing.
So many successful salespeople I know, and have worked with and coached and trained, don’t necessarily know the product inside out from day one. But they know how to sell. And that is the whole difference here. It’s about understanding and appreciating the art of sales, and the depth of product knowledge comes second.
What we’re looking to build with this new hire is revenue and predictability of that revenue that can survive whilst you take a week off, or two weeks off. Founder-dependent revenue is a liability to any business looking to acquire or investment.
Here’s what I want to leave you with from this.
If you hired a salesperson tomorrow, is there anything repeatable to hand them, or would they be starting from scratch?
If you took two weeks off right now, what would happen to your pipeline?
Are you looking for a mini-me, or are you looking for somebody who knows how to sell?
If you’re a founder in a B2B startup weighing up your first sales hire, and you want the commercial layer ready before they walk in the door, I’d love to have that conversation. Just reply to this email.
Simon