Hiring your first sales rep
Part 1 of the 3-part "Renaissance Rep" series
Part One > 📌 You are here.
The Renaissance was a time of true discovery. It was a transitional movement in Europe between medieval and modern times beginning in the 14th century lasting into the 17th century, and marked by a rebirth of the arts and literature and the beginnings of modern science.
Initially coined by Mark Leslie and Charles Holloway in The Sales Learning Curve, a renaissance rep is someone who can sell (and speak) to clients without a playbook.
As you build your company, you know you need to start selling your product, but you may not be 100% sure about what you’re selling. Your product will likely continue to evolve as you get feedback from customers.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with many startup founders to help build their Go-to-Market teams and develop their initial Go-to-Market game plans. I’ve also been fortunate to have experienced first-hand what it’s like to be a renaissance rep in a new department at an established company, and it was one of the most stressful and impactful experiences of my life.
The most common mistake companies make is hiring tons of salespeople to “storm the island” without having clarity around product market fit. If you take the “storm the island” approach too early you end up burning cash, time, and energy.
In reality, what you need is a handful of reps who could land on the island with only a knife and begin formulating a strong plan for how to be successful. These initial renaissance reps are generalists who have an entrepreneurial mindset and can easily adapt to changing conditions.
In Part I of this series I’ll go over what to look for when hiring a renaissance rep along with how to best set up your interview process.
Hiring
The first thing to remember is that you can’t outsource your Go-to-Market motion. As the founder/leader, you need to be heavily involved in every aspect of the client discovery process.
During the interview, be transparent. You should be clear about where your business is now, so nobody is surprised on their first day on the job.
Options for structuring your initial GTM team
Option 1 - Hire 2-3 sales development representatives (SDRs) to funnel leads to the founder so he/she can close them. In essence, the founder is the renaissance rep. As you iron out your process and have the SDRs listen in on calls, you will eventually promote one of the reps to a closing role after they prove themselves. This approach breaks up the sales process and forces founders to speak with prospects and hear their pain points directly
Option 2 - Hire 2-3 full-cycle account executives (AEs) to run the entire process and collaborate with you as everyone learns at the same time. Full-cycle means these AEs are running the entire sales process from prospecting and closing to customer success
In the early days of a company Renaissance Reps own prospecting (SDR), closing (AE), and customer success (CSM)
Many founders will want someone with a brand name on their resume. The core thing to remember is that as companies grow each department gets more siloed and the definition of what each role does becomes more narrow with less and less cross-functional work required at the individual contributor level.
A salesperson at “insert big tech company name here” doesn’t need to think about where their pipeline is going to come from, what marketing materials they’re going to use, what tools they’ll use day-to-day, what product they’re selling, how to process deals, etc. The product and process are simply more defined at bigger companies.
If you bring these types of sales reps into an early stage business there is a higher percentage chance they’ll be overwhelmed. You shouldn’t immediately discredit these profiles, but they’re likely not the default profile you should target when building your sales team.
What SHOULD you be looking for:
Grit. This is harder to find on a resume and will more-than-likely be discovered through a pre-screen call. Things like side hustles and doing things outside of the job description in previous roles are good traits to look for
Startup experience. When an individual experiences what “controlled chaos” really looks like, they likely won’t be surprised by the lack of the structure that will inevitably hit them again in another startup
Jack of all trades. The ability to be resourceful and not need an established tech sales stack is key. These first reps will use a spreadsheet, their cell phone, gmail, and maybe one tool like Apollo, Hunter or HubSpot for email outreach
Excitement. They’re ready to run toward the fire after you tell them about your vision
Accountability. They own their day-to-day success. They don’t point fingers at other departments when something goes wrong
Thick Skinned. They’re able to hear your feedback and internalize it to improve themselves and future outcomes
Persuasive. For early or late stage companies, the best salespeople are able to challenge prospects to think differently about existing assumptions they may have
Patient. Your business will likely pivot. It’s important that you and your first sales reps understand this and aren’t frustrated by the eventual pivots that will happen
Recruiting process
Recruiting comes down to quality and speed. Before you start the interview process, have a meeting with your leadership team to agree on candidate must-haves and recommended questions your recruiters should dive into before moving a candidate to the second round with another member of your team. You can pivot along the way but if you don’t have an idea of what you’re looking for before you start, your hiring process will flounder.
The average speed-to-hire is 38 days for a tech sales role. This is unacceptable for most companies where growth is essential. I recommend 4 interview rounds with the last two interviews happening the same day. Your goal should be to get the entire process completed in 10 business days.
A simple interview process should be structured like this:
First interview. This is generally with a recruiter who confirms basic must-haves and interest in the company/product (30min).
Some example of must-haves include:
Day-to-day metrics alignment
Years of experience
Industry knowledge
Comfort with estimated deal size and velocity
Salary alignment
Relevant previous experiences or display of grit
Company/product interest
Second interview. This is with the future direct manager, sales consultant, or co-founder (30-45min). BONUS READ: Getting the most from a first-round interview (with handout)
Third interview. This is with a cross-functional member of the team to test culture fit and allow the rep to ask questions about the business of someone outside the immediate leadership team (30-45min)
Fourth interview. is a presentation about their existing or previous products with all co-founders. The presentation is 25 minutes with the rest being a Q&A.
References/back channel. Collect 2-3 references and make the calls.
Offer. 20% of candidates reject an offer, so approach this final stage with care to give yourself the best chance of winning. Make a call to let the candidate know they have the offer and congratulate them. Be prepared to talk through why the candidate should accept it because of what you learned about them during the interview process.
Shameless self promotion
Leap recruits tech sales talent and pays Go-to-Market leaders to provide our clients with impartial feedback before the interview process begins. We send our clients pre-vetted candidates and help replace at least one interview round from their process.
Click here to schedule a demo with a member of the Leap team.