Consider Maria, a founder of a tech startup who initially had no sales background.
She was hesitant, just like many others, technical background, never been in sales or never built a sales team.
Maria today: CRO and co-founder of a 5M ARR scaleup. She has worked with me for 6 months and now managing and scaling her sales team like a pro.
Most founders I talk with every week are like Maria.
They arrive at my calls with fear in their eyes because they think building their first sales team is like climbing Mount Everest.
The reality is different.
With a clear system, anyone, even founders with no commercial background, can build their first sales team successfully.
First, we need to understand who we are and what we are selling.
No, we don’t need the “why”. That’s a different book. 😅
This is one of the first questions you need to answer.
Are we selling 1K, 10K, or 100K deals?
Are we in SMB, Mid-Market, or Enterprise?
Understanding these tiers, which categorize businesses based on their size and revenue, can help you identify the right sales approach and resources needed. (Read more about tiering in my blog post here.)
This matters a lot more than most founders think.
Different deal sizes require different sales profiles.
Who are we actually selling to? Restaurants, lawyers, or C-level executives in large corporations?
One-person businesses or companies with thousands of employees?
This question helps you understand what kind of salesperson you really need.
Do you need someone with experience selling into a specific industry, like legal or enterprise tech?
Or can a strong generalist do the job?
It also helps you decide whether you need people in the field or whether everything can be handled remotely.
Are we fully inbound or outbound?
Salespeople, much like politicians 🤣 tend to sit at two extremes.
Those who thrive in outbound, and those who really don’t.
No one will ever tell you, “I hate outbound” during an interview.
Still, very few people genuinely enjoy cold calling every day for years.
To uncover whether a candidate is comfortable with outbound sales, consider asking specific interview questions.
For example, you could ask,
"Can you share an experience where you successfully initiated and closed a deal through cold calling? What strategies did you use?"
These questions can help you feel a candidate's true comfort and experience with outbound.
If your motion is mainly inbound, that’s usually an easier role to fill.
If your motion is heavily outbound, you need to be aware of it and hire accordingly.
Knowing your motion helps you ask better interview questions and avoid mismatches later on.
Now that we’ve asked the right questions, we can start looking for the right profiles.
The first thing you should do is not post a job ad on LinkedIn. ⛔
At LinkedIn, all the managers spend time sourcing talent every week, even when they are not hiring immediately.
They don’t wait until they are desperate. They are constantly building a pipeline.
You should do the same. Always Be Hiring. (ABH 🙂)
If you can’t afford a recruiter license, get Sales Navigator and start there.
Then reach out directly from your founder profile.
Keep it simple and human.
“Hey Matteo, I’m building my first sales team, and I’m looking for our founding AE. Your profile stood out because of A, B, and C. Would you be open to a coffee next week?”
Reach out to 10 to 15 candidates per week.
You’ll probably get 2 or 3 good conversations.
Once you have the right candidates, the real work starts.
At Inscaler, our hiring system includes pre-screening, screening, chronological interviews, role plays, and a structured onboarding to help people ramp up fast.
A structured onboarding process last 4 weeks and starts from product, going into role plays and assessment before getting your person on the phone.
Your first sales hire sets the standard for everyone who comes after. This is not something to rush.
If you need help hiring or setting this up, you can check out our website and book a free assessment with Matteo.
During the assessment, you'll receive personalized advice tailored to your needs and actionable next steps to build and scale your sales team effectively.
Thanks for reading this far.
See you next week.
