Inflection Group’s Post

Imagine trying to build a sports car but never having a race car driver on your team. That’s what it’s like scaling sales without a Fractional Chief Sales Officer (CSO). In the fast-paced world of B2B SaaS, hiring a Fractional CSO gives you an EXPERT who’s been there, done that. Here’s why it’s a game changer: 1) Instant Expertise: You get access to years of sales knowledge without the overhead of a full-time hire. 2) Tailored Strategy: They analyze your sales process, pinpoint weaknesses, and create a plan that drives results. 3) Rapid Ramp-Up: They can jump in and start implementing changes right away—no time wasted. 4) Better Results, Faster: With a dedicated expert, you’re not just selling; you’re building relationships that lead to long-term growth. 5) Focused Attention: Your sales team gets the mentorship needed to perform at their best, supercharging motivation and performance. If you're looking to scale your sales team effectively, consider bringing in a Fractional CSO like Mehul Fanawala. What’s holding you back from making that leap? #B2BSaaS #FractionalChiefSalesOfficer #FractionalCSO #TheCluelessCompany

Extracting value from a partnership ecosystem isn't as simple as just hiring a Channel Partner Manager. Imagine this: You want to break into a new industry, region, and/or product line and so you hire a Channel Partner Manager to go find and build partnerships that will help meet that end. You comp that person based on the revenue that those chosen partners source and influence, But the sales team doesn't know how to speak to that industry, And doesn't have the subject matter expertise to establish credibility; Your marketing team hasn't tested the market for message/market fit; And there are no incentives for either team to have them prioritize the new initiatives. If this is you, then you might not be setting up the new Partner Manager for success. They'll be spending most (if not all) of their time researching the market, crafting messaging, creating campaigns, and more... All while trying to convince sales and marketing teams to prioritize the new partners they're focused on building, In parallel to going out and evangelizing their business to those new prospective partners. That doesn't sound like it's going to be very successful does it? Instead, hire Channel Partner Managers to do just that - 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲 - not build. Their jobs should be to grow existing relationships that have been proven to be successful. Which is why comping on their associated revenue makes sense. TLDR: Partnership folks can't succeed in silos. Incentivize the rest of the org to help grow those partnerships as well and you'll see them sky rocket much faster. #strategicpartnerships

Transitioning from founder-led sales is easy. Founders: My 5 steps to building your first sales team. 1. Create your GTM motion 2. Clearly define your ICPs and target personas 3. Master founder led sales 4. Build your first sales playbook (document everything) 5. Hire excellent founding sales people I speak to a lot of SaaS founders who have been doing sales themselves and want to quickly hire a sales person or sales team. But transitioning from founder-led sales isn’t as easy as just hiring a salesperson and pointing them in the vague direction of prospects. It needs process. And expertise in knowing who to hire and and when. The key point I always reiterate is, don’t starting hiring until you’ve completed the first 4 steps. You’ll just increase the likelihood of mishiring and all of the opportunity cost that comes with it. #sales #founders p.s the transition is only easy when you do these well!

The bar for not failing as a sales leader is higher than ever 😬 Why? Here's at least what I've heard from +100 VPs of Sales/CS & CROs in 2024: - "Hands down, harder than ever to get customers to part with $$$" - "I'm far more accountable to my budget + forecast" - "My team feels the volatility and it's hard to keep everyone positive" - "The playbooks / process that won for years changed overnight" With so much uncertainty, I thought it'd be helpful to bring together 3 of the most impactful sales leaders I know to hear their perspective on battling these headwinds... and how to build a high-performing Sales teams in 2024! 📈 First, Jim Lambe, a supportive mentor and incredible impressive resume leading sales orgs teams at Google, Stripe and NetApp! Next, Tahirih Skolnik, quickly moving from Seller --> Manager --> Head of Sales over the past 10 years, building teams from scratch at Square, Figma, and now Anrok! Rounding us out, Pat Morrell a super sharp CRO growing the team at Aiwyn who has a founder-mindset and deep experience in the startup world. This is a crew you want to learn from! Check out the comments to RSVP.... if you can't make it, we'll share the recording too 🎥

VC in a B2B SaaS startup doing 0-1? ➡ Answer these for the Founder 1️⃣ PMF What do I need to know to start and succeed at founder-led sales? How many deals should I close before I know I have a playbook? Which channel should I focus on in early days - outbound or inbound? 2️⃣ Early sales team What kind of sales team should be in place before I hire a VP? What does a good sales rep look like in early days? Signals that I did not hire the right reps? How should I set targets for the reps? 3️⃣ VP sales How long before I consider hiring my first VP of sales? Should the VP be the first hire in sales team outside the founder? How to hire a great or possibly a good one? Founder doing 0-1 ➡ Select your VC based on these answers #knowyourVC #successmindset #0to1

When an agency/service industry founder of a small company hires an expansive sales/BD head. Often, the technical founders are clueless about marketing and business development, and they end up hiring a BD/sales head to grow their small business. This mostly turns out to be a blunder; the overpaid BD head not only puts a heavy burden on the small financial resources of the company but also demoralizes the founder for future hiring. Founders should realize that they are the best salesperson for their business as they know it inside and out and can make on-the-spot decisions. Initially, founders should focus on lead generation and try to close deals personally. This will help them create an in-house business development structure. Once the BD department is sustainable, then they can think of hiring a business head, but with a contracted delivery plan. #you #should #be #on #the #driving #seat

If you are <3M ARR and <50 people, you should never hire a full-time Head of Sales. Here's why 👇 ➟ You are probably founder-led and have many things to fix before building a repeatable sales process and scale. ↳ Your full-time Head of Sales will just take 6-9 months to get things going. --- ➟ It will cost you too much compared to the scale of your organisation. You are probably not paying anyone more than 100 K in basic salary yearly, almost double in tax. ↳Well, can you afford 12K per month in personnel costs for 1 person for multiple months before seeing a return? --- ➟ You need the foundations first. To get traction and a strong PMF, you must build a proven sales process and playbook. You also need recurrent closing and a pipeline with strong conversions to build from there. ↳ Outbound, coaching, sales process, CRM - all these things must work well from the beginning. --- 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? My team & I. Fractional executives who build and scale sales teams for early-stage startups. We have helped 40+ startups across Italy, Spain, Germany, Ireland, and the US build and scale their first sales team. --- We are operators embedded within your company. We are your co-pilot for the beginning. Your team will never feel we are fractional. They think of us as we are always there --- Don't go from 0 to 100 in one go. 𝗚𝗼 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹. Send me a DM if you need help.

So you’re about to hire and/or fire your SDR manager… You're not alone. Many sales teams find themselves going through this process every 12 to 18 months. This can be a challenging transition, often driven by the previous manager's inability to fill the pipeline or the hope that the new hire will bring about a change. Most sales leaders understand that achieving revenue targets hinges on having a robust pipeline. For many teams, this means relying on a quality SDR team to fill the pipeline for AEs, allowing them to focus on closing deals. Unfortunately, for the majority of sales teams, this isn't the reality. It’s unlikely that hiring a new manager will be the solution to your pipeline woes. The next manager is NOT going to be the magic bullet needed to generate enough pipeline to hit your revenue targets. This isn't due to the manager's profile or their tenure at other organizations but because they are often set up for failure. Sales leaders recognize the importance of this role but often lack the time or willingness to be deeply involved in the strategy behind effective pipeline generation. As a result, they hire someone to fill this gap, leaving the new SDR manager with dual responsibilities: managing the team and developing a strategic approach from scratch. This situation forces the new SDR manager to either focus solely on supporting their team or abandon team support to design new processes, workflows, tools, cadences, and refine the ICP. Expecting a frontline manager to handle both management and strategy creation is a recipe for failure. A practical solution is to hire a frontline manager to support the team's daily operations and a director or consultant to design and implement an effective pipeline generation strategy tailored to your needs. This approach allows the manager to focus on team management while optimizing performance through a well-thought-out process. Now the cost is going to be substantially different if you bring on a director versus a consultant, but in either case you give the SDR team and especially their manager a chance to succeed. #salesdevelopment #salesprocess #sdrmanager #sdr #salesefficiency

📢 Ready to level up your sales team? Here's the inside scoop on building a powerhouse squad: 1️⃣ The Hustler (Aquisitor/SDR/BDR): These are your front-line warriors, always on the hunt for new leads and hungry to book demos. They lay the groundwork for the deal-closing maestros and won't take no for an answer. We call them Acquisitors. 2️⃣ The Rainmaker (Account Executive/Innovator/Closer): Meet the deal-closing maestro. They're solution-oriented wizards, always finding the perfect offerings to meet every need. Armed with innovation and lightning speed, they seal the deal with finesse. Objections? Challenges? They tackle them head-on and turn them into opportunities. 💼💡 3️⃣ The Relationship Builder (Conservator/Retainer/Account Manager): These folks are the glue that keeps your clients coming back for more. They're masters at nurturing long-term partnerships and turning clients into raving fans. 📢 And your sales manager? They're the mastermind behind it all, weaving strategy and vision into every move. Remember, don't just hire a sales manager because you need someone to fill a spot or to be a booker! You need a leader who can take your team to the next level. #SalesMastery #TeamBuilding #MillionaireMindset 📈✨ And with Hero Society by your side, leveraging psychographic science, you'll pinpoint these sales champions with precision. Say goodbye to guesswork and hello to sales success! 🚀🔍

Chris, I just got an amazing job as a Chief Commercial Officer. However, I have only ever been in Sales. Is there a book I can read? Belive it or not, I have had several conversations like this in the last month alone. My response is always the same. Nope, there is no book that one can read that will lead you through all of the many and varied responsibilities of a CCO. A CCO is typically responsible for Sales, Marketing, Sales Operations, Product Management, and more. And in the MedTech world the role is even more complicated as these are highly regulated products. One false move like off-label marketing and things can seriously blow-up. Generally, I advise someone in this predicament to get solid advisors. Talk with others that are willing to share their knowledge. Be a sponge! And don't be afraid to ask for help! Or, you could go the Homer route and just push a button at random. If you're looking for talent that knows what buttons to push, contact Due North! #marketingrecruiter #salesrecruiting #medtechrecruiter #hightechrecruiter