You can scale your SaaS customer success organization in a fairly predictable manner. The trick is to scale just slightly ahead of revenue, and to get creative to solve your most pressing problems. Here are some considerations and a few sample org charts to show you how. The 1st example is the most simple approach […]
Recruiting
50 SaaS Sales VP Interview Questions I Always Ask
Yes, I really ask every single one of these when I interview candidates for sales leadership. Last week I posted some thoughts about what a new sales leader should focus on in their first 90 days. Since then a couple of people reached out and asked me to share my favorite interview questions for a […]
A SaaS Startup Sales Team Org Chart Example
I get a lot of questions from startup founders, as well as new sales team leaders, about how to organize the SaaS sales team, and what roles are needed to fill at key stages. The answer is surprisingly simple and pretty ‘textbook’. Maybe not so surprising is how few SaaS sales teams follow that textbook […]
How to Hire Between the Lines for Your SaaS Stage
I’m taking a quick side road from my marketing art & science articles of the last couple of weeks. I’ll get back to that series shortly, but this week I have to speak to hiring SaaS talent for the stage of your company. Why? Because I’m in the midst of two scenarios with Beacon9 clients […]
My Favorite Sales Engineer Interview Questions
There are only three things that matter when hiring a sales engineer. Culture fit, ability to understand your product & sales process, and their ability to demo. Everything comes down to these essentials. Here is how I screen for all three. Culture I’ll keep this one brief. You need to make sure your candidate can […]
When Is It Time To Scale The Sales Team?
Sometimes founders scale their sales team too early, and too quickly. Like, before the first sale. Or after a few sales, but no demand gen machine, no clear ideal customer profile, and barely a sketch of a sales process. I think founders need to make the first sales, and lead the startup sales team, until that becomes […]
A Surefire Way to Hire The Best Candidates
I’ve spent the week helping a few clients interview for some key new hires. I’ve kissed some frogs, and found a few princes (or princesses, as the case may be). And there is one way I can quickly tell the difference between the duds and the superstars. I base my hiring decisions on the quality […]
Repeatable Processes for Hiring the Best Sales Reps
Hiring the best sales reps for your SaaS company starts with a repeatable process. Here’s a quick overview of how to get started.
Execution Separates Great SaaS Ideas from Great SaaS Businesses
If you’re a $1M+ annual recurring revenue SaaS company, you probably had a pretty great idea. You also likely had at least a passable strategy to get to that first milestone of success. And you must have had some semblance of a product. But the odds remain very low that your $1M+ ARR will scale […]
SaaS Startup Hiring Mistakes, and How to Avoid Them
Hiring mistakes are inevitable, especially when you are scaling fast and trying to fill many open positions at once. Here are a few of the most common startup hiring mistakes I’ve seen and some thoughts on how to avoid them. Hiring people who aren’t passionate about your category and/or SaaS. When SaaS was just getting […]
