Sales executive Jennifer Lawrence discusses rigorous candidate vetting and the necessity of informal backchannel reference checks before making job offers.
Insight
Lawrence: Hire a VP of Sales at $8M to $10M ARR
“Like, I have an opinion. It should be between eight to 10 in ARR. If you want a really solid VP of sales, they're gonna want to come in. They don't want it to be too scrappy, and they don't want it to be too far ahead”
Insight
Lawrence: Sales organizations should target 50% to 70% quota attainment
“Culture of success is when lots of reps are hitting their number. I've got a number in my head, you know, we want to have between 50 to 70% of reps hitting their number.”
Insight
Lawrence: Walk away from top candidates who play coy at offer stage
“And even if you get up until the very end, where you have an A player, and they've just done great, and you're so excited, and you're at the offer stage, and they start playing coy, just walk away. Like, it just isn't worth it.”
Insight
Lawrence: Startups should hire sales reps before hiring a VP of Sales
“I mean, no. I would have reps first to show that your stuff works, that customers are interested, that prospects are interested. You're gonna find a couple amazing reps, and you're a startup, and you're gonna hire for aptitude at first. So, I would start with …”
Insight
Lawrence: Startups should hire sales reps before creating playbooks
“I mean, I don't think it's important. I'm a big fan of being a doer, like, action. I'm not a big fan of, like, lots of meetings and plannings and PowerPoints and playbooks, because by the time you put all that together, like, your business has changed, right? …”
Insight
Lawrence: Startups must hire sales leaders who build playbooks, not just execute them
“When you're in startup mode, startup going to growth, and even growth mode going to scale, you want to find someone who knows how to actually figure things out. Not execute on a playbook that's been given to them.”