Hey Everyone,
Over the past few weeks, Iāve had more conversations with entrepreneurs and early-stage companies looking to make their first (or second) sales hire than ever before.
So Iāve taken the email I usually send them and (with some editing) turned it into a post.
I hope you enjoy it - and if you find value in it, please share!
Ben
What to Look For In an Early Sales Hire š
An early sales role is not an easy position to fill.
If youāre looking for a first sales hire, you are likely moving from a founder or early employee-led sales model to one that can scale. This means a tremendous amount of knowledge transfer and trust needs to be established early. It also means that many founders (or the previous āperson who does salesā) donāt know what to look for as they interview candidates unless they come from a sales background.
Iāve been an early sales leader numerous times; here's what I look for in the first few hires to my team. I hope it helps.
Strong Sales Fundamentals
I usually start with fundamentals on a screener call. I ask the candidates to do a quick discovery call with me for 15 minutes where they're the "product" they're selling.
What I look for:
They ask questions about your need, who makes the hiring decision, why you haven't hired yet, what you're looking for, etc. Honestly, they won't have time to cover everything. The important thing is that they don't just start talking about themselves and instead ask you about your challenges and process. Essentially they're learning the rules of your road and how to create urgency and sell you.
They summarize/clarify what you said.
They clarify the next steps "We'll talk again on [specific day and time]."
Generally, getting two or three of these is a good sign. You'll get a candidate who nails it every once in a while.
And speaking of urgencyā¦.
Curiosity
Curiosity is the biggest trait for any early sales hire. Iāll ask something to the effect of, "Let's start with what questions you have for me. I'm an open book."
What I look for:
They ask you material questions about the business. Things like āwhatās working now?ā, ādo you have an ideal customer and why?ā etc.
You answer, and they ask clarifying questions.
If you're lucky, they start helping you out and provide some expertise. It should feel like you're talking shop with a fellow entrepreneur.
A bad answer to this question is āI donāt have any questions.ā Another bad response is brown nosing disguised as a question, āYouāve grown so much in the past year whatās that like?ā - Iāll tell you what itās like, exciting and hard - can you make it less hard?
Self-Accountability
This one is specific to early-stage companies that donāt have robust training and onboarding processes. You need someone who can be autonomous and trusted. To evaluate self-accountability, Iāll ask, "What's something that you wanted to improve, personally or professionally? Walk me through how you did it."
What I look for:
They use data to improve.
They seek outside expertise.
They create social accountability.
They understood that the process was as important as the outcome (this is pretty rare to see).
For what it's worth, other traits are important in early sales teams (coachability, collaboration, work ethic), but these are generally where I start with the first few hires.
Other factors matter
For what it's worth, other traits are important in early sales teams (coachability, collaboration, work ethic), but the skills and traits listed above are where I start with the first (or first few) hires.