Hiring a Top 10% VP Sales that Actually Fits Your Business

A VP of Sales is the single most important hire your organization will make at an early stage.

Hiring a VP of sales at any stage of growth is an extremely delicate process. One that comes with a high degree of nuance, broad range of backgrounds, and a lot of room for error. Statistically less work out than the ones that do...

Making the right hire here can save you years on your growth path, align you directly with the right ICPs, increase revenue by multi-millions in ARR, and increase you valuation by 10x that. The wrong hire can send all of that in the wrong direction and waste precious time in scaling your business and capitalizing on current market demand.

Tough part about this in a market like today (one that is heavily recruited, competitive, and moves at rapid pace) is that, while you need to be extremely diligent and selective, your process needs to be fast as possible to not lose top prospects (we're talking 4-5 weeks max).

While it's very case-by-case and circumstantial to each organization, there are a few key things that every CEO and VC should qualify the right hire here on.

1. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 - What are your leadership methodologies, what structures of organizations have you led, and what are the quantifiable metrics associated with growth in those organizations you've led?

• Look at the type of business someone had led. What did it look like when they started, and then again when it ended?

• Depending on your stage, what is your goal? Add processes that never existed before? Advance and grow current process and team to the next level?

2. 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 (𝐐𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐚/𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡) - What is the direct, quantifiable success you've seen in previous leadership engagements? What specific actions lead to increased revenue?

• This is all about the facts. You want someone that can confidently put a dollar sign on the impact they've had on previous businesses. That's the beauty of hiring experienced sales people - it's black and white on who got the job done, and who didn’t.

• The numbers you want to see will depend on stage, market segmentation, customers, product, etc - but, have an idea of what you want to achieve (12-24 months out) and align as close as you can to that. 

3. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭/𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 - Have you sold into the same/similar market? Do you know their buyer persona? Sales cycles? Procurement challenges? Etc.

• This is all about seeing who can position the 'value' of your product and understand your customers as quickly as possible.

• This is why people hire from competitors. It is the quickest ramp to understanding clients, where to find them, speaking their 'language', understanding your tech, and presenting that value proposition in their sales motions. The further you deviate, the more time you should expect for them to become and expert in your field. 

You need to know what you're looking for before you start - so you can make this as swift and smooth as possible when it's time to go! And while there are a number of other qualifiers and nuances to making a successful hire here, with these 3 points as a benchmark for starting your search - I'm confident you'll come out with a successful hire that isn't just good, but is good for YOUR business.