Magnus Sandstrom and Debbie Wiss are senior partners at Swing Search, specializing in go-to-market roles at director, VP, and head levels for nearly 20 years. They joined Village Global partner Lindsay Pettingill to discuss the mistakes founders make when hiring their first sales and marketing talent, and how to get it right.
Takeaways:
- Don't go too senior too early. Look for someone who can see around corners, not over mountains. Senior hires want teams and foundations. You need someone doing outbound calls and chasing deals.
- Don't try to solve product-market fit with a go-to-market hire. Talk to customers first. If you're pre-PMF, it's too soon to hire sales.
- You'll never leave sales. Even $100M+ CEOs are on sales calls. Accept this reality and get good at it rather than trying to hand it off.
- Strong sellers know their metrics to the decimal. "112.2% quota attainment" reveals discipline and ambition. "Around 100%" is a red flag.
- Hire two founding AEs, not one. They work in the trenches together while competing. If one doesn't work out, you still have revenue coming in.
- Marketing is more complex than sales. Define whether you need product marketing, demand gen, or brand. Wanting someone analytical and creative is unicorn territory.
- You can't delegate what you can't document. Write down your processes before expecting new hires to execute them.
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