The Top 5 Things You Need To Do After You Hire First Salesperson At Your Startup

The Top 5 Things You Need To Do After You Hire First Salesperson At Your Startup

After the initial 5 or so customers and exhausting your personal network, and having product market fit, you are likely to look outside and hire your first sales person. Here are the top 5 things you need to do before, during and after you hire that individual.

1. Ensure you have set the right expectations for yourself, cofounders and the new sales person. If the sales process is long, dont expect the sales person to make it any faster initially. If you have no leads to start them off, dont expect them to bring a pipeline and if your customers are expecting a POC and trial before they are willing to consider purchase, dont expect the sales person to be able to close a sale before they experiment. You should also have the expectation that the sales person will take 2 times your average sales cycle to build their sales pipeline. So if your average deal takes 3 months, expect them to take 6 months to get their pipeline “filled“.

I am often surprised at how much entrepreneurs and cofounders expect from a new sales person, if they have not been able to close an opportunity themselves. They often assume that since the sales person is a “professional” they will make magic happen. That’s highly unlikely.

2. Document and help the new person understand the sales process as well as you can. A blow-by-blow account of every activity in the sales process is better than a top level set of steps.

This step is very useful to also understand what you need to provide in terms of sales tools, marketing materials and collateral, to the sales person to make them successful during the sales process. If the 2nd meeting requires a demo, have it ready. If the best way a customer is convinced is to do a POC (Proof Of Concept), then have a checklist of things the customer needs to have ready for a POC.

3. Help your sales person fill up their pipeline in the first 30-60 days. Remove all distractions that your new sales person has by ensuring that they are not responsible for “strategy”, “blogging”, “SEO”, “fund raising”, or any other thing that makes them less productive. Their sole aim should be to sell and to do that they need to build their pipeline.

The last thing you need to do is to have the sales person’s time filled with non-selling activities. They will likely want to help and get excited with all the other value added activity, but that’s the thing you dont need from them. A not so great sales person will likely bring up all these items towards the end of the quarter when they did not make their quota as excuses.

4. Go on the first 5-10 sales calls yourself to help them learn the ropes. If you have hired an inside sales person, make them a “listener” in the first 3 calls, then be an active listener in the next 3 and finally a passive listener in the next 3 calls.

It is important for you to understand if the sales process is different if a founder goes to meet prospects versus a sales person. It is also important to gauge the sales person’s ability to handle objections, prospect questions and also understand the politics of the customers’ organization. It also helps for them to hear you pitch your product, or vision or benefits.

5. Segment the right prospects based on your current customers to ensure they dont chase the difficult or slow to convert prospects. Until the first few deals happen, the sales person will be on edge and they will get frustrated if they make no progress. If they are good, they will likely leave on their own, and you will have to start all over again.

Give them hard qualification criteria on who makes the ideal customer – if that is an early adopter, then you need to define their budget, behavior, title, size, industry, and be as clear as possible. There are not too many early adopters, so I highly recommend you only give them less than 10-25 prospects (cold or warm) to start with to give them confidence and help you build conviction that they can sell this.

Note: The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views held by Inc42, its creators or employees. Inc42 is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by guest bloggers.

You have reached your limit of free stories
Become An Inc42 Plus Member

Become a Startup Insider in 2024 with Inc42 Plus. Join our exclusive community of 10,000+ founders, investors & operators and stay ahead in India’s startup & business economy.

2 YEAR PLAN
₹19999
₹7999
₹333/Month
Unlock 60% OFF
Cancel Anytime
1 YEAR PLAN
₹9999
₹4999
₹416/Month
Unlock 50% OFF
Cancel Anytime
Already A Member?
Discover Startups & Business Models

Unleash your potential by exploring unlimited articles, trackers, and playbooks. Identify the hottest startup deals, supercharge your innovation projects, and stay updated with expert curation.

The Top 5 Things You Need To Do After You Hire First Salesperson At Your Startup-Inc42 Media
How-To’s on Starting & Scaling Up

Empower yourself with comprehensive playbooks, expert analysis, and invaluable insights. Learn to validate ideas, acquire customers, secure funding, and navigate the journey to startup success.

The Top 5 Things You Need To Do After You Hire First Salesperson At Your Startup-Inc42 Media
Identify Trends & New Markets

Access 75+ in-depth reports on frontier industries. Gain exclusive market intelligence, understand market landscapes, and decode emerging trends to make informed decisions.

The Top 5 Things You Need To Do After You Hire First Salesperson At Your Startup-Inc42 Media
Track & Decode the Investment Landscape

Stay ahead with startup and funding trackers. Analyse investment strategies, profile successful investors, and keep track of upcoming funds, accelerators, and more.

The Top 5 Things You Need To Do After You Hire First Salesperson At Your Startup-Inc42 Media
The Top 5 Things You Need To Do After You Hire First Salesperson At Your Startup-Inc42 Media
You’re in Good company