Why is building a sales team from scratch important?

Why is building a sales team from scratch important?

Building a sales team from scratch is crucial for businesses aiming to scale and increase revenue. It ensures a customized approach aligned with the company's goals and values, fostering a strong foundation for long-term success. Olivia Herron explores this topic in-depth in our podcast recap, providing valuable insights and strategies.

What to establish before bringing someone into a sales role

During their discussion, Olivia and Rajiv talk about what makes a great first sales hire. In many cases, it’s someone that has strong sales acumen who also knows how to create sales processes.

Sometimes, new hires are coming into an organization with an established playbook that’s open for adaptation and change – other times, it’s a blank slate, but Olivia stresses that founders need to have a few things figured out prior to hiring a salesperson or a team of them:

  1. What are the key pain points we’re solving?
  2. Who is our ICP (ideal customer persona)?
  3. What conversations have we been having and how can we refine them?

Don’t bring people on with the anticipation that they’ll be closing deals right away. Productivity metrics are always a great measure of success in those early sales roles so down the line, you know that processes have been put in place for your sales team to execute on.

Product knowledge vs. industry knowledge: Which should come first?

Olivia and Rajiv have an interesting debate about which knowledge set is most important for your early sales team: Deep product knowledge and use cases, or industry knowledge about the market? Rajiv argues the latter is more important than the former, but Olivia argues they’re equally important and debating which one comes first depends on the organization.

“Really deeply understanding the industry and being able to drive discovery is really important, and you can only do that if you really understand the industry. The product knowledge can and should follow, but you want to be in a situation where you can answer questions about the product,” Olivia says. “You want to establish yourself as an authority in that process, and that authority should come with your product in mind.”

Check out The GOAT to Market Podcast featuring SamCart GM of Innovation, Olivia Herron

In addition to her sales hiring process, Olivia shares a wealth of knowledge on understanding your customer, tying that understanding back to your product, and knowing where your fit in the market is. Salespeople as well as product experts, marketing professionals, and anyone in the startup world can benefit from her advice.