Eddie Reynolds’ Post

Sales is often perceived as a cutthroat industry. It doesn't have to be... When we shift the focus from selling to problem-solving, the entire dynamic changes 🤔 Sales in SaaS isn't about persuading customers to purchase your products; it's about identifying their pain points and offering a solution that provides real value. As salespeople, your job is not just selling software – but it's about selling solutions. This reframing of the sales process also extends to recruiting. When hiring for sales roles, it's essential to look beyond a candidate's ability to sell and take their empathy, problem-solving abilities and understanding of customer needs into account. So next time you're recruiting for a sales role or trying to sell your software, remember - it's not about making the sale, it's about solving the problem 🎯

Sales management teams are the reason why companies don’t grow.. Yup, I said it. Sales management’s answer to increasing sales is hire more people and make more calls. Well, that has resulted in single digit growth for many? There is a way to be relevant at scale. Interested? Please schedule a chat.

Top sales leaders don't hire salespeople. But wait, isn't that their job? Let's rethink what makes a stellar sales team. Forget the smooth talkers and cold-call kings. Your next sales superstar might be... a former teacher? Here's why: 🔎 Ex-journalists ask the right questions and uncover hidden needs 🧠 Former psychologists read people and build deep connections ⚽ Retired athletes bring discipline and thrive under pressure The best sales pros don't come pre-packaged. They're built, not bought. Look for raw ingredients: empathy, grit, curiosity. The rest? You can teach. Your job isn't to find sales pros. It's to spot potential and mold it. Think of your sales org as a farm team, not an all-star lineup. Remember, in a world of AI and automation, uniquely human skills win deals. So, who's the most "unsalesy" person you've hired lately? Your quota (and your customers) might be in for a pleasant surprise.

Hiring a sales team without a solid sales foundation can lead to chaos and turnover. It's crucial to prioritize building a strong sales infrastructure to avoid unnecessary costs and setbacks. Save money and ensure long-term success by focusing on establishing a robust sales foundation before expanding your team. #Sales #BusinessStrategy #InfrastructureDevelopment

Can a great sales rep sell any SaaS product? You'd think so, but in my experience, not really. I've come to learn that, at least in SaaS, salespeople can be: 1) Good at Outbound, but not so much Inbound. Or vice-versa. Take a rep that's sold only in a high inbound lead environment, and drop them in one with no leads, and they fail. 2) Good only when selling with a brand to back them, but not so much without. This is so important. I learned this years ago when I was recruiting from big brands like Stripe, PayPal and Square. The playbook is so different when you're #1 or #2 in an established market. Because the prospects already sort of know what they're looking for. 3) Good when selling - but only where they have a lot of processes and support. Many reps from larger SaaS companies, especially mid-size or larger ACVs, melt when they have to do their own demos, answer tougher questions, lack the right collateral, can't have a sales engineer on every call, etc 4) Good at selling products similar to what they know, but struggle to sell more complicated or vertically-focused products. Most reps find it challenging to transition into a more challenging or complicated selling environment. Whenever possible, hire reps who have sold something harder and more complicated than your own product.

Founders try to outsource sales WAY too early I get it, it’s hard and you think someone else could execute it better. 95% of the time you won’t find someone else to sell better than you as the founder. If you’re <$500k ARR and 30 customers you’re probably too early. Instead, take the time to flush out as much repeatability in your GTM motion, Then playbook everything you can to finding, setting and closing deals. When you can sit down with an AE who’s never seen a company in the pre-product market fit stage (most haven’t) and clearly outline the last 5 deals that looked generally the same as a GTM motion... Then maybe, maybe it’s time to look at hiring a sales rep.

More sales people are investing in their personal brands. Is ‘marketing’ yourself a distraction from your sales job? The majority of sales reps are lurking in the shadows 👀 🦇 Those brave enough to use LinkedIn to 'engage' with buyers… Can become exceptional at: - Starting Conversations (get buyers talking) - Relationship Building (long term approach) - Staying Relevant (convert insights into meetings) Any sales rep that can hit quota & market themselves… Should be a ‘North Star’ hire, IMO. The ability to market yourself is an advantage… *Not a distraction.

"Transitioning from founder-led sales to a hired sales team is often a difficult process. Failure rates are high with new sales hires, and many of the lessons have to be learned over and over again. Once product-market fit is achieved and the business is working, the next step is to hire a process-oriented sales assistant to take all the lessons learned, document them, and start mapping out the sales process. With this in place, then it’s time to hire a sales leader to build a team focused on running a scalable process and delivering results." https://lnkd.in/gfZHq3je

If left to their own, the average sales rep will: 👉 Mainly chase hot inbound leads 🔇 Won't call back leads that look "meh" 🦥 Will be slow to respond to less exciting deals ☎️ Won't do much outbound ✂️ Will overdiscount to close a deal So it's hard to "macro-manage" a sales team. A lot doesn't get done. Once you have a strong VP of Sales (and some true Rev Ops), a lot of process will be added. And frankly, micro-management. SLAs. Calls per day. Actions per day. Reviewing Gongs and Zooms and calls. Until then, it's tough at the founder-led stage. You either have to force yourself to micro-manage more here. Or accept that a lot won't get done. Or at least not how you'd want it to.

Another great post by Jason M. Lemkin! In my 20+ year experience at and advising early (sub $5-10m) startups, this is dead on. One of the worst things I’ve come across is a founder/CEO trying to manage the sales team. Even if they can sell the product themselves, leading a team to do so is a different animal. Yet the first VP hire is often a train wreck. Why? The CEO gets dazzled by someone with big company success, who can’t sell without all the stuff that comes with the big company. Hire someone with similar stage experience, not just similar domain experience. That’s also why a marketing leader should be in place BEFORE the sales leader, so they can identify ICPs, figure out product market fit and use cases, build out sales enablement tools, and build a repeatable demand engine.