Mark Roberge, the former CMO of Hubspot, is credited with what is now a widely circulated piece of advice — hire two sales reps instead of one and run an A/B test to understand if you’ve just hired bad reps or whether you have bigger issues and need to tune up your sales process/product further. While a second sales rep costs money, getting a false negative by hiring only one, underperforming sales rep can cost you much more.
Here are a few additional do’s and don’ts on making your first sales hire that we’ve learned the hard way:
1. Don’t hire a senior leader as your first sales hire
“We just hired the senior sales leader from our largest public competitor!”
This might sound like a big coup and we’re guilty of this mistake ourselves, not just in our sales orgs, but in other departments too. A senior sales leader though likely hasn’t been in the field selling now for several years. Your first sales hire needs to be someone who is actively in-market on the frontlines right now. Don’t look for a manager, or someone who can scale to become a manager — look only for qualities that show they can close sales for you today.
2. Look for startup experience
When you don’t have a big brand behind you, the sales process is very different and more difficult than when you do have a big brand behind you. Be wary of big company hires and look for candidates that have proven they thrive in an organizations without resources or structure. And that they’ve demonstrated they can use a figure-it-out mentality to close sales.
3. Don’t hire someone you wouldn’t buy the product from yourself
Trust your gut and don’t fall in love with a resume. If you wouldn’t buy your product from the person, then don’t hire them. Resumes and impressive sales track records are not useful reference points if your own evaluation say you’re not a buyer. In fact, Jason Lemkin, a widely respected sales leader and founder of EchoSign and SaaSTR, thinks this is the most important quality in your first sales rep.
4. Hire someone with actual sales experience
Another common mistake we see is CEOs flexing employees from other departments into sales roles or hiring generalists that “can do sales too.” Don’t do this! Hire someone with at least 2-3 years of direct sales experience. Your first sales hire is not the time to train someone on how to sell. You’ll have plenty of time for that later.
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