Page 46 - The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million - PDFDrive.com

Low pace. I fear the SVP of sales will struggle to adjust to the high-energy,
cut-corners pace required in an early-stage start-up environment.

“When faced with the first sales hire decision, many founders put the most
weight on senior leadership experience and industry domain knowledge.
Don't fall into this trap.”

The #1 salesperson (candidate 2) is a step up from the SVP of sales but is not
advisable in my opinion. The only situation in which I like the #1 salesperson is
one in which the founder/CEO of the company has a sales management
background and is willing to invest the time to properly coach this hire. In this
case, the #1 salesperson can succeed.

Here are the pros of the #1 salesperson:

Industry knowledge. Similar to the SVP of sales, the #1 salesperson really
knows the buyer you are targeting. The slight difference here is the #1
salesperson's knowledge of the buyer will be much more relevant to the front
line. The #1 salesperson will have great instincts around how to connect with
the buyer, how to speak the buyer's language, how to find the buyer's current
priorities, and so forth.

World-class sales fundamentals. The #1 salesperson is a true salesman.
Anyone who achieves top ranking at a large company can be expected to
bring a lot of natural sales abilities, a strong work ethic, and a competitive
spirit.

Here are the cons of the #1 salesperson:

Ability to succeed in an unstructured environment. When the #1 salesperson
joined his current employer, he sat through weeks of training. He was
presented with a pitch deck. He was educated on the sales methodology. He
was armed with sales tools to streamline his processes. At a start-up, the first
sales hire will need to develop all of these resources from scratch. I am not
sure the #1 salesperson is equipped to do so.

Lacks leadership experience. Of the candidates, the #1 salesperson is the
only one with no leadership experience. Your ideal first sales hire should
lead to many more hires. It would be nice if he had the abilities to both
execute the first phase of customer acquisition and build out the initial team.

I like the sales manager (candidate 4). She's not the ideal fit for the role but I