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rss_feedSaaStr ·Jason Lemkin ·26.07.2021 open_in_new

Dear SaaStr: Should a Startup Founder Handle Sales Themself When First Getting Started?

#Founder-Led Sales #Go To Market #Sales Leadership
auto_awesomeКраткое саммари

Джейсон Лемкин (Jason Lemkin) из SaaStr отвечает на вопрос, должен ли основатель стартапа сам заниматься продажами на старте: да, в 95% случаев. Оптимальная последовательность построения воспроизводимого механизма продаж такова: CEO/основатель сам закрывает первые 10–20 клиентов, чтобы понять, что работает; затем нанимает сразу двух (а не одного) sales-представителей под управлением CEO, чтобы можно было проводить A/B-тесты; примерно тогда же берёт Head of Demand Gen для привлечения и улучшения работы с лидами; и только когда два репа стабильно выполняют план, нанимает VP of Sales для масштабирования. Если же основатель безнадёжно плох в продажах, можно нанять продавца ещё до первых 10 клиентов, но это очень рискованно, ведь без собственного опыта закрытия сделок невозможно понять, кого нанимать. Лемкин также предупреждает, что самая большая ошибка — полностью устраняться из продаж после найма первого VP of Sales: это срабатывает лишь с лучшими из них.

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Dear SaaStr: Should a Startup Founder Handle Sales Themself When First Getting Started?

by | Blog Posts, Early, Leadership, Q&A, Sales

Dear SaaStr: Should a Startup Founder Handle Sales Themself When First Getting Started?

The answer is yes – 95% of the time.

The “best” sequence for building a repeatable sales engine is roughly:

  • The CEO/founder should close at least the first 10 (or 20 or whatever) customers. That way, she knows. She knows the process, what works, what doesn’t. It’s OK if you are “terrible” at it. What matters is that somehow, someway, you still get those 10 >paying< customers closed.
  • Then, hire first 2 reps. Not just 1. To reproduce what CEO did, managed by CEO. If you only hire 1, you can’t run an A/B test and really learn what works at the rep level.
  • Ideally, hire your Head of Demand Gen around now. Even though you may not have that much revenue or that many leads, he will help you get more leads and maximize the experience of the leads you do have.
  • Then, once you have 2 reps that can hit quota (even a modest quota) — you are ready for a VP of Sales. Because her job isn’t to figure out how to sell your product. It’s to scale a tiny engine into something bigger. To hire reps 3–300. To go bigger, stronger, faster. But not to figure out if you really have a repeatable sales process.

    • This is the “best” process because it’s the fastest and most efficient.

    But, sometimes a founder is >so< terrible at sales, so awful at it, that literally, it’s hopeless.

    In that case, hire someone to do sales for you before you’ve even closed 10 customers yourself.

    But it’s super risky.

    How can you figure out who to hire, if you can’t even close 10 customers yourself? Really … you can’t.

    The biggest mistake you can make as a founder when you hire your first VP of Sales is stepping out of sales

    I see this again, and again

    It only works with the very best VPs of Sales

    Every other first VP of Sales needs you doing at least half of what you were doing before

    — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) March 25, 2024

    1 Comment

  • Casey Schorr
    Casey Schorr on September 26, 2016 at 2:56 pm

    Jason, two questions:
    1. When you say “hire your head of demand gen” … is this generally head of marketing in your eyes, or would a head of Sales Development qualify if you’re focusing primarily on outbound? Or does it just depend if the leads are generated primarily via inbound/ outbound? I assume this person is a notch below “VP” level and is actually generating demand (leads) themselves, correct?
    2. If the founder has enough bandwidth to close deals and you can only make one hire to start scaling up sales, would you first hire the closer (rep 1 and 2) or hire a sales development rep and have the SDR pass off to the founder to close? I’m thinking hire SDR and/or Head of Demand Gen first, since it’s easier and cheaper than hiring a closer?

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