Shabbir Bhanpurawala’s Post

urgent hiring #LeadGeneration #LeadGeneration

SaaS Sales Jobs requiring 5+ years of SaaS experience is a mistake You need problem experts, not SaaS experts You need people who build rapport and deeply understand your customer You need active listeners who ask great questions You need people your customers trust You need grit and coachability Remember, you can teach anyone to demo a product or explain the benefits of a feature, but the ability to be inquisitive, listen, position, and move a deal step by step based on new information and relationships built, now that's much harder to teach. If you are actively hiring for an entry or mid-level role, reconsider that 3-5+ years SaaS Sales requirement as some of the best sellers I have worked with or met have less SaaS sales experience. Look at their Sales experience holistically, how they won deals, how they moved the pipeline forward, and how they grew in a business. #sales #hiring

If you're a founder just starting to build a sales team, avoid the "closer trap." Large SaaS companies can afford to have specialized "assembly-line" sales roles like SDRs and BDRs. They generate leads and set up appointments for their closers. But you? You need a full-cycle rep who will do it all: → Find new leads → Nurture the relationship → Schedule Discovery meetings → Lead consistently successful Discoveries → Present winning proposals → Oversee the projects → Get you paid. Hiring someone who can only close deals won't cut it. The last thing you want is to hire a rep to expand your customer base who isn't equipped to live up to that expectation. It wouldn't be fair to either of you. #SystematicSelling

#hiring for a Group Sales Manager (IC) Benefits ✅ Great opportunity to join as enterprise seller #2. ✅ Quota attainment = $100k Comms, uncapped. ✅ Great brand backing and an untapped market. ✅ Mostly remote with some hybrid/flexible work. Your skills & experience ✅ Individual contributor in enterprise sales. ✅ Experience in marketing/ martech/ loyalty. ✅ Talk to and sell to senior marketers all day. ✅ Selling martech is in your wheelhouse. ✅ Collab with tech teams on bespoke solutions. ✅ Understand API integrations & App builds. ✅ Understand the partnerships side of things. Your key responsibilities  ✅ Biz dev for Aus top loyalty/benefits program. ✅ Responsible for exceeding sales targets. ✅ Responsible for achieving sales KPIs. ✅ Sales activity in line with KPI expectations. ✅ Manage CRM updates for calls, meetings, etc. ✅ Generate/manage new/existing relationships. ✅ Timely and accurate reporting of your pipeline. ✅ Attend weekly WIPs with your manager. 💸 $120k-$130k plus Super + $100k Comms, uncapped. You know what to do! --JB #hiring #jobinterviews #careers #partnerships #sales

Why hiring sales superstars kept a Founder stuck at 10 M revenue & how he got UNstuck. A Founder reached out to me absolutely frazzled about his non-existent pipeline. The Founder had scaled from $0 - $10 M fast on a Founder-led sales model. His next goal was $15 M. The plan? Hiring top performing 4 AEs from big names like Salesforce and AWS. After 9 months, not one rep had closed a deal. They barely even had a pipeline. Why? ✔️ None had sold a product without big brand recognition. ✔️ None knew how to build a sales process from scratch. ✔️ They didn’t have the skills to create something from nothing. The Founder thought he was hiring "the best." Each of the reps had performed well throughout their career in big SaaS brands. Unfortunately, none had ever worked in anything resembling a start-up or bootstrapped environment. They knew how to follow processes, but struggled to build them. They were excellent at leveraging a robust tech stack, but were afloat without it. They were good reps, but not for the role the Founder hired them in. We were able to work together to build repeatable processes to better support the sales team, but the Founder lost an entire year of pipeline creation & revenue. 📌 The TL:DR for Founders & Sales Leaders? PLEASE (I beg you) have realistic & clear expectations for your sellers. - If a seller has never built a strategy or created processes from scratch before, don't assume they know how. - If you're hiring an entry-level SDR, don't expect them to have sales copywriting skills on day 1. - If you hire for logos on a resume without being honest about skill sets you’re doomed to experience similar frustrations as this Founder. ✨ How can Founders & Sales Leaders set up reps for more success from day 1?

You are an underperformer. Strong quota attainment is hugely important in GTM recruiting. Every interview I have with a sales rep I qualify it. It's one of the biggest barometers of someone's ability. But is it? Sales Rep 1: Averaged 100 -150% last 4 years Sales Rep 2: Averaged 60 -100% last 4 years We are all hiring rep number 1 right? Here's what you don't see: Sales Rep 1: AE at a Major Enterprise Software Vendor Manages an industry they dominate in Prospects know them before they call Territory is 50% existing customers An SDR does all their outbound Gets constant inbound leads Sales Rep 2: AE in a 'first on ground' role for a SaaS startup Firm has no brand awareness in the region Cold territory with zero customers No SDR team. 100% outbound Zero marketing budget No inbound leads This isn't a post to call out those in established firms. Both of these reps are high-performers. But it's a good reminder that numbers only tell half the story. Make sure you dig deeper before discounting someone. Give people a chance. #technologysales #saasrecruitment #gotomarket

Finding someone like this is lightning in a bottle. Generally speaking, if you find people like this with even just the proper conviction in any role, they’re worth more than what you intended on paying for the role. That ownership, that drive, that fundamental difference is what can 3x, 5x, or 10x what an average person would achieve. Act accordingly with the right talent, incredibly hard to find always. Probably the worst reason for you to ever let them go? - Comp #sales #saas #linkedin #hiring #operations #revenue #marketing

When hiring for Sales at an early stage SaaS startup, you need to look for the sales reps/leaders who have already been through the wringer. That’s the only way to know if they’ll survive the wringer you’re about to put them through. You don’t have enablement in place. They can’t lean on brand recognition. They’re going to be cold calling into a market that has never seen your logo. Someone from Big Tech supported by a killer marketing engine, full tech stack, and bustling SDR team will be down for the count in their first quarter at a Series A or B org.  

The most underrated role on Go-To-Market teams: Revenue Operations A great Rev Ops leader gives your revenue team leverage. I waited too long to hire for this role, instead choosing to do the job off the side of my desk. I was being lazy. I didn’t fully understand what “sales operations” or “revenue operations” meant. I hadn’t taken the time to sit down and write out the job description. But once I found the right person, it was like the world opened before my eyes. Our Rev Ops leader was my partner in running the revenue team. They were involved at the strategic level and at the tactical level. They knew where all the bodies were buried. So what does Rev Ops do? I’ll do my best to list some of the key responsibilities: - build the revenue model - weekly sales forecast - select, implement, and maintain the tech stack (CRM, sales engagement tools, etc) - design sales compensation plan - run the sales compensation report monthly - own the TAM data in the CRM (super important!!) - analyze sales team performance - manage lead distribution The list goes on. If you have 3 or more sales people on your team and you are planning to scale, hire a Rev ops leader ASAP. Who is your favorite Rev ops leader? Tag them!

While hiring sales reps, “You are looking for people who can think on the fly”. Don't look for people with the ability to answer “what & how” questions. That can be taught at any point. While hiring, focus on your rep’s stamina & creativity to solve different problems. Here’re 3 more pitfalls to avoid when growing & scaling a sales team: 1) Not preparing your team while transitioning from founder-led sales: As a founder, you know your customers inside out, but your team might not. Moving away from founder-led sales means ensuring your top reps develop a strong business acumen. Help them develop business acumen with questions like: - What is the lifestyle of this person (your ideal persona)? - Why might they get fired? - What kinds of meetings are they in? What kind of pressure do they deal with? - Where do they go for advice? Teach your reps to learn how to read fundraising announcements & quarterly earnings reports to understand the financials of a business. Ask them to pick up on the language that your persona uses to talk about their business. 2) Thinking that more sales headcount = more revenue More headcount doesn't guarantee higher revenue. Focus on strong pipeline support first. Don't rush to expand the AE team. Adding too soon can actually reduce revenue. It shifts leads from seasoned reps to newer, less effective ones. 3) Trying to grow outbound without marketing support Alignment is key. This includes the website, call decks, & talk tracks. Running ABM campaigns & product marketing efforts need combined efforts. Growing outbound alone is costly. It doesn't work without strong win rates and ACV. #saleshiring #sales #founderledsales #growth