Play #008 Building Your Sales Team

Welcome to the Play #008 of the Founders GTM Playbook Newsletter. Each week I will bring you one GTM play that is tested through scaling multiple 7-figure B2B businesses that you can put into action to scale your business.

In today's issue, I want to talk about building your sales team. This is something experienced sales leaders and founders struggle with. Knowing when to hire and who to hire is no easy task. I personally have interviewed hundreds of salespeople as well as hired and trained over 100 sales reps. I have made plenty of mistakes and learned a lot along the way. I want to share some things that have worked as well as some tips from a pro that has interviewed thousands and hired over 500 salespeople, my mentor, Nigel Green.

1. Timing Matters

Make sure that it is the right time for you to hire. What I mean by this is to be sure you are ready as a company to set the new hires up for success. One common mistake I see is that companies either hire before they even have a proper sales process or tech stack in place. This will make it very difficult for a new hire to be successful. The other thing that can be a big mistake is hiring a sales leader too soon. I do not believe that hiring a sales leader should be one of the first sales hires. You are better off building a small sales team first and getting a fractional sales leader if you are not able to lead the sales team.

2. Don't Rush The Process

Usually when people are ready to make the first or even the next sales hire it is because they have new revenue targets and in a lot of cases are already behind. This can force people to think they need to hire fast. One wrong hire can set you back and even put you out of business and that is why it's important to follow a process and not rush the process.

3. Go Beyond The Resume

Reviewing the resume is an important part of the process but I have found that I can learn way more about the person through their LinkedIn profile and a quick thirty-minute call. You only want to have the call with people that stand out as you can't have a call with everyone. On the call, you want to get to know the person, not their skills or their job experience. Ask them some rapid-fire questions to see how they handle it and if they answer honestly.

4. Personality Matters

You have probably heard that you need to hire on culture fit but few people really know how to do that. Just because they like the same sports team, they were referred to by a friend or you would enjoy a drink with them does not mean they are a good fit. You can get a good sense by using HumanticAI of their DISC and Big Five personalities. You can also use a tool like predictive Index to build the profile you need and have them take a test to see if they are a good fit.

There is a lot more to hiring well but this should give you some things to think about and if you are in a place where you are ready to hire either your first or next sales hire I would recommend Nigel's course

See you again next week

-Collin Mitchell