Its time to hire a VP of Sales! Whether it’s your first time hiring for this pivotal role or your company is poised for growth and seeking an upgrade, finding the right person can be a daunting process. It’s understandable if you’re wrestling with how to identify the perfect individual and craft interview questions that unearth the essential qualities and experiences required. So, what specifically are you asking them to do?
Ask yourself this question first:
What does a successfully scaled sales organization have that ours doesn’t?
For nearly 8 out of 10 companies between $2-10M in revenue, the key to scaling lies in establishing a solid sales foundation with a professionally tuned sales strategy and the playbooks to execute it. While many companies have a Go-To-Market (GTM) plan and various selling activities, it’s often unclear what’s working, how to ramp up success, and the reasons behind why some methods click. To be among the 13% of B2B tech companies that scale to over $10m, it’s crucial to have a documented sales strategy and accompanying selling playbooks in place, along with generating enough pipeline through targeted marketing activities. The question is, are you asking your VP candidate to build this foundation for you, and if so, are they qualified to do so?
For nearly 8 out of 10 companies between $2-10M in revenue, the key to scaling lies in establishing a solid sales foundation with a professionally tuned sales strategy and the playbooks to execute it. While many companies have a Go-To-Market (GTM) plan and various selling activities, it’s often unclear what’s working, how to ramp up success, and the reasons behind why some methods click. To be among the 13% of B2B tech companies that scale to over $10m, it’s crucial to have a documented sales strategy and accompanying selling playbooks in place, along with generating enough pipeline through targeted marketing activities. The question is, are you asking your VP candidate to build this foundation for you, and if so, are they qualified to do so?
The Critical Interview Question for Your VP of Sales Candidates
Question: What do you believe is the first thing you will need to do to help us reach our sales goals?
Answer: Seek responses stressing the need to first collaborate with the executive team to improve the sales strategy and create better selling playbooks. Remember, the goal is to boost sales, perhaps even doubling or tripling them, necessitating enhancements to the current strategy and process, if not a complete overhaul. If a candidate doesn’t mention this, they might not meet your expectations. If they do, inquire further about how they’ve executed these duties in past roles and request concrete examples in subsequent discussions.
Request specifics in these areas:
- Company Sales Strategy: Ask your candidates to demonstrate how the sales strategy evolved before and after their involvement and how their enhancements led to closed deals.
- Sales Foundation: Request to see practical selling playbooks developed in alignment with the aforementioned strategy. Confirm that your candidate built the playbooks themselves.
The Critical Interview Question for Your VP of Sales Candidates
Question: What do you believe is the first thing you will need to do to help us reach our sales goals?
Answer: Seek responses stressing the need to first collaborate with the executive team to improve the sales strategy and create better selling playbooks. Remember, the goal is to boost sales, perhaps even doubling or tripling them, necessitating enhancements to the current strategy and process, if not a complete overhaul. If a candidate doesn’t mention this, they might not meet your expectations. If they do, inquire further about how they’ve executed these duties in past roles and request concrete examples in subsequent discussions.
Request specifics in these areas:
- Company Sales Strategy: Ask your candidates to demonstrate how the sales strategy evolved before and after their involvement and how their enhancements led to closed deals.
- Sales Foundation: Request to see practical selling playbooks developed in alignment with the aforementioned strategy. Confirm that your candidate built the playbooks themselves.
The hard truth about hiring a VP of Sales
Many CEOs believe they can hire a sales leader capable of delivering a revenue plan with a 2X+ growth rate. However, most sales leaders lack the experience or patience necessary to craft a winning sales strategy and playbook. Here’s why:
- Sales leaders typically ascend to their positions based on a track record of successful selling and mentoring, rather than through expertise in analyzing Go-to-Market (GTM) strategies and translating them into effective sales plans and playbooks. Often, their success is found in larger, more established companies where these foundational components are already in place.
- Traditional sales leadership compensation plans do not incentivize Vice Presidents of Sales to build ground-up sales infrastructures. Sales VPs are motivated to close deals quickly and earn commissions immediately. The most effective sales leaders seek out companies with solid sales foundations and playbooks already in place, often inquiring about them during the interview process.
The truth is, designing and implementing a winning sales strategy and process ultimately falls on the CEO’s shoulders. However, many CEOs may lack the necessary expertise in this area. Therefore, my advice is to seek assistance from experts in building solid sales foundations, get the job done, and then proceed to hire a sales leader so that they can hit the ground running.
