Dear SaaStr: As a CEO New to Sales, How Can I Get Better at Closing Deals?

Dear SaaStr: How Can I Get Better at Closing Deals?

If it’s very early, hire 1 or ideally 2 sales reps who you’d personally buy from.  You’ll all learn from each other how to close better, and faster.

If you are past $1m ARR or so: hire an “stretch” but experienced VP of Sales that has managed at least a small team at your price point.

It may sound like a non-answer, but it isn’t. Because most founders are good at the “middle” of the sales process. We are great at talking to customers. We know the product cold, and can tailor a solution to meet the prospect’s needs better than anyone.  But we don’t really know how to do demand gen, or outbound, or create urgency, or ask for the money, or any of that at all or all that well.  90%+ of founders just aren’t great closers. Sometimes, we’re even pretty bad closers. Because we don’t want to blow the deal. We get worried if we push too hard, we break the relationship.

But one reason a strong VP of Sales has such an immediate impact is she’ll do just two things:

• Thoughtfully push the deal to close this month / this quarter;
• For the most amount of revenue;
• And this is key — without blowing the deal.

If your VP of Sales just does this herself, and trains her team how to do this … you get an almost 50%-100% bump in revenue right there. More deals close, faster, for more revenue.

For now, then, don’t agonize over it. Instead, first hire 2 good sales reps. If they have a few years of experience, they may be better here than you. Get them hitting quota. Then, you’re ready to have a repeatable sales process. Go hire your VP of Sales after that.

And watch your Revenue Per Lead double.

more here: https://www.saastr.com/how-my-vp…

(note: an updated SaaStr Classic answer)