Hey, Scott from The Sales Mastermind here. Today’s edition only takes 4 minutes.
Successful founders start with "Founder Led Sales" (FLS) and soon need their first sales hire.
As every business is different, there are options. Eventually, you'll need them all; today, we cover the best for moving beyond pure FLS.
Recommendations:
- Sales Admin
- Order Taker
- Hunter
Honorable Mentions:
- Farmer
- Developer
Sales Admin
Sales Admin is a catch-all term for an early hire who supports the founder without really "selling." They do administrative work towards the beginning of your buyer's journey to free up the founder's time.
Example tasks include
- Manage the inbox and calendar
- Basic written outbound on Linkedin, email, text, etc
- Administer systems such as the CRM or outbound tooling
Why hire a Sales Admin
A fair bit of overlap exists between a Sales Admin and an executive assistant. This role is affordable; they are often junior and can be offshore.
Sales Admins are a stepping stone to free the founder's time without the investment or risk of another selling hire.
Why not
This isn't a direct selling role. It is hard to link effort to a change in revenue.
Sales Admins are junior; they need direction and support. There is a low ceiling before they are out of their depth. Tasks such as follow-up emails or negotiations are beyond them.
Beware
I have seen many founders hire a Sales Admin and expect the world. Often, founders want to offload all the paperwork.
In an extreme example, a sales admin booked meetings with inbound leads, the founder ran the call, and the sales admin sent follow-up emails (cc'ing the founder). The buyers were confused. Confusion kills any momentum. Sales fell off a cliff.
Success Metric
Founder time saved, revenue growth
Order Taker (Closer)
Order Takers are a role where the company generates inbound leads. Then, Order Takers follow a heavily prescribed process to close the deal. Order Takers only follow the process; they don't go off-script or innovate.
Being able to run sales with Order Takers is the holy grail of a small-business-focused sales organization. If you can make hiring Order Takers work, your company can scale like crazy.
Example tasks include
- Run sales calls
- Follow a sales process
- Close deals that want to buy
Why hire an Order Taker
Order Takers are everywhere. Most sellers are taking orders. So, you have a large pool to pick the best candidate. Order Takers are more straightforward to manage as they're typically less ambitious than Hunters while performing a similar role.
Why not
Order Takers are passive and let the deal come to them. Before considering an Order Taker, ensure you have a reliable marketing function generating enough leads. A simple rule of thumb is a minimum of 20, ideally 40, new leads per Order Taker per month.
Assuming you have the leads, Order Takers thrive with limited competition, a straightforward buying process, a painkiller product (not a vitamin), and systems allowing them to be semi-passive. If any of this is not true, Order Takers will struggle.
Beware
I once believed that if a product requires sellers, with all the costs of hiring humans, you should only hire Hunters.
However, many products targeting small customers need sellers because their buyers expect to speak to a human or only specific buyers are qualified. My first sales job at MINDBODY (a wellness booking software for micro and small businesses) required sellers for these reasons. Sure, the best were hunters. But most of the 500 (?) sellers were Order Takers.
Success Metric
Revenue from Inbound Leads, Close % of qualified inbound leads
Hunter (Closer)
Hunters are precisely what most founders think of when they think "seller." They take a complete sales cycle approach by prospecting leads, pitching the product, and closing the deal. All the while reinvigorating the sales process to suit their style.
Large or complex sales cycles require Hunters as there are too many moving parts to structure a process, excluding Order Takers.
Example tasks include
- Complete cycle sales (prospecting to revenue)
- Creating their pitch and process
- Updating your pitch and process
Why hire a Hunter
The default is to find a Hunter, especially if you don't fit the description of somewhere an Order Taker will thrive.
At their best, Hunters take the limited process and structure of a nascent sales process and make it work. They simply find a way.
Why not
Hunters are expensive because they are worth it. They are money-motivated and know their worth. Hunters want to win; if it is too hard for them to start closing, they will leave.
They can be a real handful, as they'll do anything to get the job done, which can come back to bite a founder unless managed properly. Only some people can handle managing a Hunter.
True Hunters are exceedingly rare. Most will already have great jobs. You have to invest the time to find, woo, train, and help them succeed.
Beware
Hunting involves a lot of rejection. Humans are hardwired to avoid rejection. If you mix Hunting (net new) and Farming (looking after and expanding current customers), like our ancestors, your Hunters will lose their edge and default to Farming tasks.
Success Metric
Net New Revenue, # of Net New Customers
Honorary Mentions
I'll summarize two other hires that I recommend NOT starting with.
Farmer
Farmers work with current customers to expand their spend. They have similar personalities to the Order Taker. They work only with existing customers.
Don't start with a Farmer
Effective Farmers need a significant customer base and something to upsell or cross-sell. Most early-stage businesses, especially single-product businesses, need more customers and a process to upsell or cross-sell before hiring a Farmer.
Developer
Developers generates leads via outbound prospecting. They only generate leads and only from outbound activities. Inbound lead qualification would be a Sales Admin.
Don't start with a Developer
Most founders don't need more leads; they need a better close rate. And if you need more leads, hire marketing agencies before hiring in-house.
Assuming you've proven cold outbound with agencies, MAYBE you bring it in-house. By then, you'd have hired a Hunter or Order Taker.
Lastly, always hire two if you start with Order Takers or Hunters. Jason Lemkin of SaaStr explains why here: When You Hire Your First Sales Rep — Just Make Sure You Hire Two
I'd love your input - hit reply and tell me who you hired first or who you're thinking about hiring.
Or let me know what you think! it to a friend
Until next week,
Scott Cowley
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