When should we hire a VP of Sales? 🤔

I just hired my first VP of Sales last week! It was based on expansion goals and revenue milestones

VP of Sales is always the most important and painful one. But good shot can make you king.

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For many, the right moment to hire a VP of Sales comes when the current sales team needs strong leadership to scale further. Have you found that bringing in a VP accelerates growth, or are there other factors to consider first? 🌱👥

Paillor is an employee support and automation platform that integrates knowledge bases, SaaS automation, and help desk functionalities with AI to handle all types of employee queries or support requests across Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Chrome in one place.

Timing the hire right can be tricky. Bringing on a VP of Sales too early might strain resources, while waiting too long could slow growth. How do you balance these considerations in your company?

Market expansion goals can also drive this decision. If you're looking to enter new markets, a VP of Sales with experience in expansion can be invaluable. Have you hired for this role when planning a major market push? 🌍🚀

IMO, hard to say in general. When your managers need guidance that you cannot give or do not have the time to give, that'd be a good time to think about hiring a VP. Or if you're making a big directional change and you have the perfect VP candidate who can lead the change management. It really depends.

Company culture fit is crucial for any leadership role. How important do you think cultural alignment is when hiring a VP of Sales? Can a strong cultural fit outweigh experience? 🤝💼

Customer base size can be a deciding factor too. If you're rapidly acquiring new clients, a VP of Sales can help manage and streamline this growth. At what customer count do you think a VP becomes essential? 👫📞

I think the best answer for this is when your product achieves Product-Market fit. This means you can kick things up a notch on sales. Also, I'll be launching my FIRST product here on Product Hunt next week. It would be amazing if you could follow my launch 💚 https://www.producthunt.com/prod...

You should think about hiring a Sales Leader, like a Head of Sales or VP of Sales, once you have a few salespeople who are already making sales. Hiring a Sales Leader too early can be tricky. Early on, it’s usually up to the co-founders and sales reps to figure out how to sell the product. A VP of Sales won’t shine if there’s nothing to build or scale yet. And founders can get frustrated when the VP of Sales is still figuring out how to sell the product and not bringing in cash regularly.

Simply put-the founders of any start up have to know and accept what they are best at and deliver that expertise exponentially for the business to launch and gain market acceptance. With that said, hiring a VP of sales should come at the point of realization that “we need an expert who can perform at our level, at our pace, and as an extension of us-the founders”. Why? Because it’s not your skillset and your organization is primed for scaling. Go get your person.

As a general rule of thumb, it's often good to hire a VP of Sales once you have around 10 sales reps and are doing at least $10M in ARR. But it really depends on your specific business model, target market, and growth goals. 🎯 If you're in a complex enterprise sales cycle, you may need that senior sales leadership earlier. If you're targeting SMBs with a more transactional sales model, you might be able to scale further before bringing in a VP. The key is to hire ahead of your needs so the VP has time to build the right sales playbook, hire and train reps, and put the right process and tools in place to hit your revenue targets. 📈 Don't wait until growth has stalled to make the hire. Get that sales leader in early enough to stay ahead of the curve! 💪 That's my $0.02 based on what I've seen work (and not work) across a variety of startups. Curious to hear others' experiences!

you definitely need a sale team