Preparing for your first sales hire: A checklist for Founders
Check these items off BEFORE you make that first sales hire
Hi friends - I’m back! And this week, I want to give you a checklist to follow BEFORE you make that first sales hire. Trust me, it will increase your odds of success 5x.
Before I jump into that juicy content…
Did you know I regularly host educational sessions or masterclasses? 🎓️
Yep - for VCs, accelerators, MBA programs, and any other groups looking to level up.
Here are some of the topics I’ve presented -
GTM Fundamentals for startups
Founder Led Sales & Marketing 101
How to transition out of Founder-Led Sales (successfully)
How to run effective outbound at scale
Boost inbounds by building your personal brand
How to structure and activate strategic partnerships
…to name a few. These sessions are generally 1 hr and have been reported as being very ‘practical, tactical, and actionable.’ 🙂
Feel free to reach out if your team, portfolio, or community could benefit from a session like this.
Ok, let’s get into it!
Your first sales hire checklist
Why preparation is critical
First, let’s discuss why preparation is critical—I repeat, CRITICAL—to the success of your first hire.
Most founders are pretty good sellers, even without any training, because of their industry expertise, passion, and personal interest and investment* in the outcome.
No W2 will ever care about your business and success the same way you do. Period, full stop.
That AND most* salespeople you can recruit don’t know your industry, product, or customers as intimately as you do. So, they can’t sell or win the same way you do.
Salespeople are also not magicians.
They are more like skilled captains. You are the navigator. 🚢
I recently binged the series The Last Ship, so maybe that’s why ship analogies are top of mind 😆
I asked good ole’ Google for some help articulating my point here -
So, the founder is a navigator who determines the course and provides the ‘necessary directions to reach the destination’.
And the salesperson is the captain, following the navigator’s instructions to maintain the planned course. 💡
Yet, too many of y’all are unfairly expecting the salesperson to be the navigator AND the captain…with no map and no compass. It won’t end well.
How to prepare for success
Make sure you can check off 80% of this checklist -
If you don’t have 80% of that before they start…they may not be successful at all…and if they are able to figure it out anyway, I guarantee it will take them longer to deliver results for you than it otherwise would have.
Lost time, lost momentum…lost runway. No bueno.
Some related content
Hope that helps! See ya next week. 👋
With love and gratitude -
If you want to learn more about working with me directly…
For B2B startups I serve as a Fractional GTM executive or advisor. Learn more about-
When you’re ready, let’s connect to discuss your specific growth goals and challenges.
Subscribe for weekly education, ideas, and frameworks
In this newsletter I share the exact tips, playbooks, and GTM multi-vitamins I’ve used to help 30+ B2B startups scale their revenue 150-590% YoY.
Thanks for reading GTM for Startups by Jess! This post is public so feel free to share it.