The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

SaaStr 356: When To Hire Your First Sales Reps, What To Look For In Those Hires, What Good Sales Rep Onboarding Looks Like, Leading Indicators of Sales Rep Success and more with Pete Kazanjy, Co-Founder @ Atrium

Jul 28, 2020

Pete Kazanjy, Co-Founder of Atrium and author of Founding Sales, discusses when to hire first sales reps, onboarding strategies, leading sales indicators, and common hiring mistakes. He emphasizes founder involvement in early sales and the importance of structuring effective comp plans. Tracking leading indicators for sales rep performance and the evolution of sales practices towards specialization are key topics.

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Introduction

00:00 • 3min

Journey into the SaaS World

03:14 • 5min

Founder's Role in Early Sales and Scaling the Sales Team

08:14 • 14min

Monitoring Leading Indicators for Sales Rep Performance

22:32 • 8min

Specialization and Evolution of Sales Practices

30:06 • 9min

Warm Farewell and Sponsor Ads for Lucidchart, Ahrefs, and Cross-Border Solutions

38:46 • 3min

Pete Kazanjy is the Co-Founder @ Atrium, the startup providing proactive, always-on insights for sales operations, managers, and leaders. Stop asking questions. Start getting answers. Alongside Atrium, Pete is also the Founder of Modern Sales Pros, a community of 15,000 focused on sales operations and sales management. Pete is also the author of Founding Sales, the canonical writing on early-stage startup sales. Prior to founding Atrium, Pete founded TalentBin, culminating in their exit to Monster Worldwide in February 2014. Finally, before TalentBin, Pete founded Honestly.com building the world's first professional reputation clearinghouse and raising funding from CRV and First Round in the process.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

How Pete made his way into the world of SaaS and how he came to be one of the leading figures on sales operations and management that he is today?
Why do founders have to sell the product themselves at the start? When is the right time to hire their first sales reps? What profiles should founders look for in these first reps? What are the most common mistakes founders make when hiring their first reps? How should they structure their comp plans?
How do the best onboard their sales reps? What can be done to minimise ramp time of new reps? How is the documentation used most effectively? How can sales calls be used for new rep onboarding? How does Pete think about optimising payback period on a per rep basis?
What are the leading indicators that a sales rep is successful? What are the core metrics founders should measure to determine the effectiveness of their reps and sales teams? How does this differ between SMB and enterprise? What are the challenges with enterprise given the long sales cycles?

Pete's 60 Second SaaStr:

Hardest element of Pete's role today with Atrium?
What would Pete most like to change in the world of SaaS?
What sales leader does Pete most respect and why?

Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-356-with-atrium-co-founder-pete-kazanjy/

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