How to Build Your Sales Team

The Startup Help Desk

In this episode we answer questions about building your sales team. Many startups sell their product via sales people, and building your sales team is one of the most important things you will do. We are here to help! In this episode we answer questions including:

• How do I hire my first salesperson?
• What is a sales commission plan?
• How do I know if a salesperson is doing well?

All of these questions were submitted by listeners just like you. You can submit questions for us to answer on our website TheStartupHelpdesk.com or on X/Twitter @thestartuphd - we'd love to hear from you!
Your hosts:

• Sean Byrnes: General Partner, Near Horizon www.nearhorizon.vc
• Ash Rust: Managing Partner, Sterling Road www.sterlingroad.com
• Nic Meliones: CEO, Navi www.heynavi.com

Reminder: this is not legal advice or investment advice.
Q1: How do I hire my first salesperson?
To source candidates, consider various hiring platforms, such as Craigslist, Indeed, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, and Wellfound. Your network may have fantastic candidates. Ask fellow founders and investors. Check on people you have worked with previously.

To filter and evaluate candidates, start with a project, such as a PowerPoint sales pitch. Filter further via phone interviews, ultimately leading to an onsite.

Ash sparked some serious debate with his recommendation on the final phase of the hiring process! To combat the high attrition rate in sales and to hedge against attrition, he suggested making 3 hires per sales role that you want to fill.

Your first sales person (or three!) will contribute to your startup culture. Set up this new hire for success. Before you hire your first salesperson, make sure you can clearly articulate a few key aspects of your business, such as:

• The problem you solve.
• Your customer profile.
• How your product solves their problem.
• Why current customers value your product.

If you do not know the answers to these questions, you are setting this first sales hire up for failure.

Q2: What is a sales commission plan?
Sales people get paid two ways: salary & commissions. A sales commission plan describes the income a sales person makes based on performance.

A simple example of a sales commission plan is to pay a sales person a % of the deal value that they close (i.e. 10% of all deals).

Companies like sales commission plans because they allow the business to both incentivize and reward performance. A good sales commission plan clearly ties performance to important areas of growth for the business.

The plan you choose is important because it provides specific incentives! Do you want your sales people chasing really big deals? Or should they prioritize a larger volume of little deals? Your sales commission plan can influence priorities.

Q3: How do I know if a salesperson is doing well?
It is hard to distill progress vs. noise. There are steps you can take to add more objectivity to your evaluation process. They should:

• Immediately shadow you in all deals.
• Master your pitch in their first week or two.
• Book lots of calls: ideally 10 a week.
• Not focus their energy on a small number of marquee leads.
• Use and update the existing sales playbook vs. going in a new direction.
• Generate their own pipeline within a month.
• Own their own deals after a month.
• Move deals forward in their first quarter.

If your sales cycle is less than 45 days, they should close their first deal in their first quarter.

Sales people need to be ROI positive, so they should pay for themselves fairly quickly.