A short talk by Jason M. Lemkin arguing that most companies should hire a "stretch" VP of Sales—someone promoted from director/senior director roles—rather than an experienced VP for their first head of sales role. Lemkin emphasizes that stretch hires drive growth and equity opportunities but can fail if they cannot recruit and develop strong directors/managers underneath them.
For 95 out of a hundred of us, our first head of sales should be a stretch VP of sales. And what that means is usually they were a director before that or a senior director or sort of a vp. Okay? But you should be cautious about hiring your first VP of sales for their first third VP of sales gig. They're not willing to do the job anymore. You need a stretch. And it's, it's worth it for their career growth. It's worth it for their personal growth. It's worth it for the equity, right? So you're going to hire a stretch. That's a, that's an important tip right there. But then you're going to be a little worried. How, how long, how far can Lenny go? How far can. Because is, you know, I love Lenny, but he was a director for two years before this, and this is his first role, and he did so good last year. But I'm worried Lenny's going to break, right? I'm worried Lenny's going to break. And related to this point, the simple answer is Lenny will break if. If he can't source those directors under him. You can scale forever as a sales leader if you can hire better managers under you. And it's true of any functional area.
