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So you’ve successfully gotten your startup off the ground. Although the staff of an early-stage startup might look different for everyone, adding a salesperson to your squad is an excellent first step if you want to grow your sales and bring in new customers. Therefore, you’ll need to determine when your business is ready for its first salesperson.

While there isn’t a hard and fast answer for when you should hire your first salesperson, you can use some typical business milestones to determine if you’re ready for this next stage.

Identify your current situation

Before getting started, ask yourself the following questions:

How have sales performed up until now? If your current sales process isn’t sustainable, you may need to hire a sales leader sooner rather than later.

Can you realistically afford to pay a sales representative to join your startup? Great salespeople are always in demand, and the more talented they are, the more it will cost to bring them on.

How involved in the current sales process are you as the founder? No matter how passionate you are about sales, you’ll eventually need to take a step back and focus on more CEO-centric responsibilities.

When should you hire your first Salesperson?

It’s recommended for companies to meet the following milestones before looking to hire their first salesperson:

Have a Sales Process in Place

Before adding a salesperson to your team, there should be a sales process in place for them to adhere to when following up on leads. Your first salesperson should be equipped with an outline of tasks and actions to guide them.

This sales process should include components like:

• Rundown of the company and product
• Potential call scripts and email templates
• Essential tasks at each stage of the sales process
• How to handle objections
• Ideal customer personas
• Buyer personas

After creating your initial sales process, you’re ready to welcome in a salesperson who can tweak it as your company grows.

Have a Solid Base of Clientele

Do you have a solid base of clientele that you’ve won? We recommend that you only start looking to hiring a sales rep once you’ve secured at least ten clients.

Why?

There are two main reasons for this: (1) This number proves that people are willing to buy your product and (2) You understand how to sell your product to people. This is especially important for those part of a B2B startup. Your ability to bring at least ten clients on board clearly shows a demand for your product that will continue after you hire your first sales rep.

Understand the Product Market

Since you’ve proven that you can win clients, this means that you have an understanding of how your product fits into the current market. When pitching your product, you’re quick to differentiate it from similar products on the market, and you know why clients choose you over the competition.

At this point, you should be an expert on your product and understand just what it is that tips the decision-making process for clients to buy your product. If not, take the time to identify and fix any objections from your clients. It may be that your pricing is too high or your product is too difficult to understand. Whatever the case, before training a salesperson to counteract possible issues, you’ll need to have a handle on them yourself.

Have a Lead Generation Strategy

A lead generation strategy that consistently brings in new business indicates that the time to hire a sales rep is now. Especially if this volume of new leads is starting to pull you away from other essential duties - you know, like running your startup?

Bringing on a sales rep who spends their entire day on cold leads isn’t an intelligent use of funds. When you have a mix of cold and warm leads for your salesperson to follow up on, you give them the chance to aid deals along and close them entirely. Even if your sales rep is a one-person show, they’ll be much more productive when you set them up for success.

How to Hire the Right Salesperson

Now that you know you need a sales rep for your company, how can you go about hiring the right person? Here are a few tips on how to put yourself in the best position to land a top-tier sales rep.

Determine the role and responsibilities

When hiring your first salesperson, you need to determine how experienced you need this person to be. If you would like them to completely champion the sales process and build a strategy you might need a senior leader such as a VP of Sales. On the other hand, if you want an individual contributor who is a beast on the sales floor, a sales representative would do you fine.

Create a Great Job Ad

All great positions start with great job listings. Your job posting is your first line of defense when screening candidates for your sales rep position. Give the possible candidates some insight into what your current sales team does every day. Don’t be afraid to mention some of the company perks and benefits packages, as these can help you stand out from other companies.

Make sure that your job description clearly outlines what is expected of the sales professional while maintaining a level of realism. You are hiring them to improve your sales process, not change the world. Your job posting should reflect that.

The Org is a great platform to post a job advertisement because it shows candidates exactly where they will sit in the organization and what impact they can have. Additionally, The Org promotes your position to an audience of job hunters who are already interested in the tech and startup space. View our jobs platform here.

Have a Solid Organizational Chart

An organizational chart brings countless benefits to any company, but it is an invaluable tool when it comes to new hires. Talent looking to join your company wants to know where they will fit into the business and who they’ll be working alongside. Organizational charts promote equality, show possible advancement in the company, and create an easy-to-follow growth formula. A new sales rep will know what is expected of them and how to build a team of subsequent hires.

As your company grows and takes on more sales reps, updating your organizational chart will come naturally. Read more: How to Hire Better Talent by Using a Public Org Chart

To see how your organization will flourish from an organizational chart, click below to sign up for the Org.