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

The Myth of Giving VP of Sales More Time: Expose the Truth #business #businessstrategy #investing

5 Dec 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:46

Jason M. Lemkin argues that the common advice to "give the VP of Sales more time" is usually bad practice. While a VP of sales may not double revenue in 30–90 days, leaders must see clear signs of progress within a single sales cycle—such as a couple of strong hires, measurable improvement on core sales metrics, closing a stalled large deal, and offloading tasks from the founder—otherwise the hire is unlikely to succeed.

Chapters

And this is resonant on so many pieces of Saster content over the years. But trust me, the number two bit of terrible advice that you will get and that some of you will give is give the VP of sales more time. It never works folks. It never works. You cannot always expect a great VP of sales to double sales in 30 days or 60 days or 90 days. So it does happen. But what you've got to see is progress. In one sales cycle you've got to see a couple good hires brought in. You've got to see improvement on some metrics. You've got to see like a big dealer two that was hanging out there brought in and closed. You've got to see things taken off your plate. If in a sales cycle things are not improving on several core metrics in sales, they never will. They never will. The best VPs of sales and I know a lot of folks don't want to hear this and disagree with it but it's true.