The 48 Types of VP Sales. Make Deadly Sure You Hire the Right One.

So this is the third in our series.  The first post is What a Great VP of Sales Actually Does.  So you expect the right things and hire your rockstar at the right time to do the right things.  The second post is a script for you to use (and modify as you see fit) – 10 Great Questions to Ask a VP Sales Candidate.  So you hire someone that really did it, and can do it — not a pretender.

OK, so you’re ready to make the hire.   You know what to expect.  And now you’ve got your script to help ferret out the posers.

Now — who do you hire?  Just so you know, there are 48 Different Types of VP Sales.  If you want it to work — make sure your top candidate is the right type for your SaaS company.

First, let’s look at 4 stages of ARR and the 4 types of VP Sales that match those stages.  Because the #1 mistake is hiring someone for the wrong stage, with the wrong stage experience:

The Evangelist.  The Evangelist is someone that is generally very smart and passionate about your product (already understands it in the first meeting) and is very customer-centric.  The Evangelist can immediately go out and just start selling your product to anyone they can get a meeting with and can chat the ear off any inbound prospects.  The Evangelist can seem like just what you need to hire if you’ve never hired a VP Sales.  You’ll like the Evangelist.  A lot.  So does everyone on your team.  The problem with The Evangelist?  He or she has never actually built or scaled a sales team before.  They know how to think creatively and cross-functionally.  They’re fun to work with.  But 9 times out of 10, this is a waste of a hire and your time unless it’s super early.  Because you have to be the evangelist, along with the first 1-2 reps you hire.  Look for these skills in your first reps.  But after that, as your first VP of Sales — you need someone that can scale and really build a team.  Not just be engaging and know the product cold.

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