Before hiring an external VP of Sales, evaluate internal candidates like your current director or head of sales who already deliver results. A mis-fit external hire can lock you into a year-long commitment that damages growth and culture.
Chapters
Step 5: Look for in-house solutions. So as I've been in this business longer and longer, you know, certainly there is a mindset for a startup or a founder or CEO to just make the hire, right? Like, hey, you may not have the perfect candidate, you may not have anyone that you would hire on your best day, but just make the hire and hire fast, fire fast, et cetera, et cetera. But reality is that could actually cause a lot of harm and damage to the company, the least of which is you're gonna potentially commit a year to somebody that shouldn't be your VP of Sales. But you can also take a director of sales or head of sales in the company that maybe is doing great work for you. Maybe you don't think they are the future of sales leadership in your company. Maybe you're not sure if they can become a VP of sales yet. But the reality is, if you have, if you have something working, and the reality is, is if you're going to hire a VP of sales, something probably is working. You've found some formula, some product market fit, some growth. To justify making that hire, look long and hard at that internal candidate and say, is that a better person to lead us in the short term than make a hire out of expediency, make a hire that's a stretch, a stretch fit for you. And I would pursue that track in parallel to everything else you do. And I think it's often bringing in a VP of Sales that's a non-fit topping, head of sales, maybe your founding head of sales or director of sales, often ends up having negative impact on the company. So—
