Hey friends,
A few months ago, I worked with a founder who wanted to hire their first GTM person.
By the time we spoke and we started the engagement, he had already hired a Go-To-Market Associate.
This person was expected to handle prospecting, closing, onboarding, some marketing, and product feedback.
Three months later, he was making impressive slide decks and running a strong product feedback process.
Honestly, it was good work.
But no one was actually calling. There was no pipeline at all. It was 0.
The founder was still the only one prospecting, selling, and closing deals, while the new hire focused on "making great slides".
It was just another strategist.
Go-To-Market Associate, founder associate, GTM generalist.
Most mornings when I check LinkedIn, I see three or four of these roles posted by pre-seed companies.
I read these posts because I want to understand what founders believe they’re getting.
I get the logic behind it.
When your team is only few people, you can’t afford to hire specialists.
Hiring one person to handle prospecting, product, admin, and onboarding seems like a smart investment.
“I need somebody like me” - the founders think.
But what I notice is what happens after the job post goes live and the candidates start applying.
A generic job description attracts people who like working as generalists: they enjoy the thinking side of sales - messaging, frameworks, and branding.
That’s the kind of work they genuinely want.
They don’t want to get their hands dirty; they prefer to work from the sidelines.
I'm not sure why but there is some sort of twisted thinking in their mind:
“I earned this because I studied at Bocconi for five years.”
Hmm…not sure about that?!
In sales (or maybe, in any job?) , it’s the reps that make you good.
There’s a long-standing debate about generalists versus specialists, and I don’t think it’s the same for every role.
But in sales, in early-stage startups, it’s pretty clear to me.
The more cold calls you make, the better you get at them. That’s how a good SDR becomes a good AE.
The more renewals you handle, the better you get at retention, and that’s how you eventually become a strong Key Account Manager.
Your skills grow because you repeat the same actions for months.
Day in, day out.
A generalist never gets that kind of experience.
When they want to hire the person, I don’t argue about the job title.
I change what the role actually involves.
For almost every pre-Series A company I work with, that main task is prospecting. Cold calls, social selling, and data enrichment. No matter what the title says on LinkedIn, it’s really an SDR role.
I run a role-play exercise for this type of hire. I have them make a few cold calls on the spot or do a quick exercise to see how comfortable they are with calling and qualifying leads. I also try to test their tone of voice in emails and their proficiency with AI.
I always ask questions to see if they understand what the day-to-day job is like. I ask what they enjoy doing and what they expect to be doing in the role. If they talk (too much) about strategy and building, but not about selling or making calls, well…
Those come back later, once there is pipeline to onboard. If you have a few clients, you can still manage yourself, and that’s a good thing. We can add these functions later on after we have established an outbound process and found ICP.
That metric is qualified conversations booked per week. If the person struggle to hit the number then move up and give them the KPI: cold calls attempted or first contacts.
I understand that those roles sound cool but internally, in the job description and for the first 90 days, treat it as an SDR role.
You don’t need another strategist. You don’t need another founder.
You need someone who can learn, execute, and improve a sales process they’ve never done before.
All with limited information and limited time.
That’s the person you should hire.
That’s the gem you’ve been looking for.
Thanks for reading this far. See you all next week!
