Hitting The Hiring Jackpot

Alex shares some of the challenges with hiring a sales team, which can leave you hoping for a winning hand.

Scaling the sales organisation can feel like playing at a high-stakes poker table - do you opt for what might seem like a safe play and go for experienced hires who are expected to be ‘rock stars’ or take the gamble on inexperienced people who may prove to be the next ‘rising star’?

The safer bet seems to point towards hiring Rock Stars, after all they should have;

• Skills, Contacts & Credibility - Human & social capital with reputational sales advantages
• Hiring Pull - Delegation of hiring authority to allow founders to leverage their own time
• Stability - Reduce the risk of having to upgrade the sales team in the long run

‘High-growth companies change so much every quarter! That amount of change isn’t normal and people can’t be trained for it unless they’ve been in another start up or scale up company’ -Barry Nalls - Founder, President & CEO, Vybranz

But winning at the table isn’t that straightforward (as otherwise everyone would be doing it) and Rock Stars bring with them demands and baggage;

• Bigger paychecks - Increasing the ‘burn rate’ and potential for ‘deferred salaries’ if sales promises are not kept leading to the  creation a destabilizing ‘pressure cooker’ work environment.
• Culture - Founders will have less control over the culture they want to create, with less experienced hires being more open to the founders blueprint.

And Rising Stars who may have a greater hunger, who find it easier to master new skills, who can grow with the business can also be demanding;

• Time - Inexperienced sales people will need much tendering and nurturing before they can proactively contribute to hitting the number and will demand more of your time, diluting your energy and focus.
• Unknown Emotional Stability - When things go wrong (and they will) how will they cope? What cultural impact will this have on the rest of the business? Will they have the resilience to recover?

So, where do you place your bets? 

Sales hiring needs to be aligned with the business's stage of development and its available means & resources, but (spoiler alert) there is no easy answer.

Founders must expect their hiring needs to change in the fast-paced world of scale-ups, as they cannot afford to become set in their ways and must be able to predict when a choice that seemed wise at the time might need to be reconsidered because the company has reached a new stage of growth.

Many a founder has been left staring at their hand, not knowing whether to hold, fold, or twist on a new sales hire - or as Lemmy put it:

"The only card I need is the Ace of Spades….and don’t forget the Joker"