51–60 of 67 posts
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I was advised: * 20% of first year revenue on a cold call (deeded to be generous) * 7% of first year revenue on warm lead (incoming from website) * 2.5% of year revenue on a renewal
Interesting, thanks. With or without base salary though?
This is in the UK so expect the US to be higher.
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In the U.S. & around the world sales pro's earn multi-six & 7-figure incomes (Read: more than most physicians, attorneys, engineers, etc.), yet most founders fail to recognize their import. For example, startups regularly task a co-founder or, gulp, initial admin hire to engage a prospect list or subset thereof. It is an enormous mistake that yields suboptimal adherence to best-practice and crucially, a flawed data s…
I completely agree that an excellent sales person is worth their weight in gold. Right now I don't know any. I would love to meet some. I'm based in London but I was in the US for the last 4 years. Moved back because of with the visa situation it was just easier.
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I completely agree that an excellent sales person is worth their weight in gold. Right now I don't know any. I would love to meet some. I'm based in London but I was in the US for the last 4 years. Moved back because of with the visa situation it was just easier.
B2B enterprise sales is all about networks and contacts. A late 20s MBA will have none of these. You need someone who can work their existing extensive network as well as cold call, and get you in the door in front of real budget holding decision makers. I've worked on rates & FX trading systems in London for 20 years and know several guys like that who all do commission and equity points comp deals. PM me via contac…
-fresh MBA -no existing network -hesitant to join -wants to moonlight All bad signs but you seem to think he would be a good person to work with so ultimately you have to decide. It sounds like what you need is 1 or 2 rich angels who have the connections to get your first few contracts, or an old guy like 50+ with actual connections and sales experience. (Pay him commissions.) Ideally you should be able to land your…
I know the industry fairly well but I have never done sales before. Mostly out bound calling / research where I've been the investor. I know potential clients or can get intros through my network. I have three advisers who I brought on in a semi-formal capacity. Two are senior investment managers and one is a serial entrepreneur having started companies in the same area. I speak to them maybe 1-2 a month to get advic…
They're your network not his.
CEO is sales to employees, investors, customers etc.
your always going to have to sell to big clients and help out your sales people.
He is not a cofounder, he is (potentially) employee #1. Cofounders don't get brought on to do sales. Employees do. Treat him like a good salesman- give all kinds of incentive payments (commissions, bonuses) contingent on sales performance, but be very shy with the equity. Plan on firing him as a default unless he exceeds expectations quickly. Equity corresponds to risk and skin in the game, and it sounds like he has…
I agree. It sounds like you are asking this because he seems like he's almost the perfect fit, but you know he isn't and you want us to tell you he is not so you can feel better about it. I've been there, having an almost perfect fit immediately available is the easy path, otherwise you have to hunt and do dirty work and it can take awhile and you want someone you know well and you want it now, that is understandable…
I mostly agree with you but the above point is very cynical. The skilled salesperson that OP needs may well recognize that they want to take the company from 0-10MM in sales per year, but that they may be unable to help take the company from 10MM-100MM a year in sales. In that case, knowing that you are likely to need to leave a company you helped build, asking for equity makes sense.
A "co-founder" with what sounds like ZERO experience that is shy to do sales and get his hands dirty is almost certainly going to be a failure.
These type of people are a dime a dozen and it sounds like you want to bring him in just cuz you like his personality. BIG MISTAKE.
If you ask me, bring in another technical guy and/or pay someone to help you with some market validation via sales (or do it yourself)
Trust me on this (you probably won't).. i've learned this the hard way. I've been a solo founder three times in both successful (30k customers) and unsuccessful startups.
If he's holding back, then don't take him as a cofounder. He doesn't believe in the idea or the team enough. You can still give him an employee deal, e.g. salary + up to 5% or so.
That being said, there is a reason that salespeople are traditionally paid on a commission basis. Is there a reason you want to ignore that convention and, instead, detach compensation from being directly tied to each sale? This seems like an odd move, particularly when the prospective co-founder does not see himself as a salesperson.
You can grant equity on a non-time-based vesting schedule (i.e. performance-based vesting based on sales performance), if you are not ready to start paying cash or want to grant equity for some other reason.
But this person is simply untested in this role and you will not know in a couple of months whether he should have a significant equity stake in your company. So, traditional time-based vesting (and particularly with a magnitude of shares like that that would typically go to a co-founder) is a choice you are likely to regret.
I guess if you’re interested, reply by comment and we’ll figure out the rest?
Anybody who doesn't see themselves as a sales person is simply NOT a sales person ! True sales professionals are proud to be professional and are motivated to be successful selling an excellent product. I presume that you MVP demonstrates that your product is truly excellent.