Five questions before your first sales hire

Most founders hire their first salesperson to fix pipeline. Then the new rep spends their first three months working out who to sell to.

Answering five questions before the hire saves most of that time.

1. Where did your last 10 customers actually come from?

Look at how each deal really started, not what the CRM says. Introductions, inbound, events, outbound. In most early companies one channel did most of the work, and that is the one worth building first.

2. What did they have in common?

Look at size, role and timing. "Raised a seed round two months before they bought" is a far better filter than "B2B software, 10 to 50 people."

3. What made them say yes?

Pull the exact words customers used on the calls where they decided to buy. That is your messaging, written by your buyers.

4. Can someone other than you run the first conversation?

If deals only close when the founder is on the call, a new rep will not fix that yet. Run a few first calls with someone else leading before you hire.

5. Can you list 200 more companies just like them?

If you cannot build the list, your rep cannot either. A short list of named accounts is what lets a new hire start working in week one.

Where to start

Answer these first, and your first rep starts with a playbook instead of a blank page. For the full checklist of what to put in place before day one, read Before you hire your first AE.

If you would like help with any of it, we work with founders to find what is already working and build the channel that repeats it. Book a call and we can talk it through.