Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

The Hidden Dilemma of Growth: Limited Promotion Opportunities

18 Nov 2023 · 1 min

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Jason M. Lemkin discusses a dilemma in fast-growing sales organizations: rapid hiring can paradoxically reduce promotion opportunities. While early-stage teams can promote top performers (e.g., SDR→AE, AE→manager), high growth creates many peers and too few slots, making promotions scarce despite demand. The piece warns against reps leaving for marginally worse offers and emphasizes promotion as the main valid reason to leave a great team.

Chapters

It's so risky to leave and go somewhere else for less money with a worse boss. The only reason a great rep should leave if you have a great sales team is for a promotion. And eventually you will find if you grow fast enough, there just isn't enough room. Everyone wants to be promoted if you're growing quickly, everyone wants to go from SDR to ae, and many folks will want to go from AE to manager or director. And at some point, ironically, the faster you grow, the less room you have on the promotion chart because you're hiring so many people. And in the beginning you'll find, wow, I'll just promote my best SDR to ae. And that works great when you're slowing. But what do you do when you have 20 grade strs like you run out of slots.