The Good News and The Bad News With You In Sales

Founders, I’ve got some good news, some bad news, some worse news, some even worse news, and a way to start fixing all of it.

➡️The good news: Your company is doing well with all the sales YOU’RE making.

➡️The bad news: You’re making most, if not all, of the sales. ➡️ The worse news: Being the salesperson is taking 20% to 50% of your time, which is taking time away from your other CEO responsibilities. So, you get the idea (or maybe your board insists) to hire a Sales VP.

➡️The even worse news: You run with that idea. You search for a Sales VP to take over sales, plan on spending $200k+ in the first six months and haven’t done anything to make sure they are successful in taking over sales.

You might think this is crazy, but I see smart founder-led sellers doing this all the time. They don't even consider a Fractional Sales Leader to help bridge the gap.

➡️The way out: Of course you need to start reducing your time running sales and closing most of the deals. But there’s a better, more strategic way to go. One that which will save you a ton of money and accomplish your goals.

Document everything you’ve done to make all those sales – AKA A Sales Playbook. Go through every step of every sale you, as the founder has made over the last 12 months. 1. Where did the customer come from? 2. Which emails did you send? 3. How many calls did you have with the prospect before they bought? 4. Who and how many people were involved with making the decision to purchase? 5. What did they all have in common? (Your ICP)

Put all of these into your Sales Playbook. If you don’t have one, start today.

You’ll never be completely out of sales. You still want to be involved in the big deals that would benefit from your involvement. But you cannot live there and grow your company.

Once you start documenting, you can start hiring. With revenues between $1 million and $10 million, it doesn't have to be a VP, either.

First, hire a couple salespeople and see how well they can follow your sales playbook.

Keep tweaking. Keep adding. Keep coaching. Start building a foundation.

Your goal: Get to only spending 10% of your time in sales. Then you will have fixed your growth problem. Then you can go back to doing what you set out to do in the first place – growing a great company.