Typical startup sales consulting takes the form of high cost analysis and planning services.

PROBLEM: These consulting firms typically do not get into the trenches and sell with you. This leaves their high cost advice - very often - lacking impact and relevance.

OUR SOLUTION: We tie consulting and service together, to close the loop; giving you a beneficial sales strategy, and a sales process to execute it. This is strategic because what every founder needs is some more time to handle everything, so we take the edge off in terms of sales bandwidth. However we do this with a plan and process guiding our work, so we aren’t just “bodies” doing work, we are aiming to achieve specific goals and to do that by working smarter, not harder.

Typical lead gen agencies will ask you for an extensive playbook on how you’re currently selling your solutions. They also tend to isolate within a particular departmental contributor role (get meetings/sales development), handle meetings (Account Executive work), or partnerships lead gen (partnerships management).

PROBLEM: Most startups aren’t prepared to provide this formalized sales process/revenue strategy document, and the lead gen agency is only as good as the most current process that works, plus a little talent. You might as well try and sell yourself and you’d have similar success to the lead gen agency. The siloed nature of their work creates a disconnect between execution and an overall strategy. Basically, you’d need a great consultant, the lead gen agency, an account executive contact, etc. to get pieced together in order for the sales org to be complete, and we’d be surprised if you can cover that cost for less than $15k / m if you’re dealing with actual businesses versus a variety of revenue operations talent you stumble on.

The other issue is that, even if they offer performance-based pay, if they don’t see sales after a time, they have no reason to keep working for free. Don’t get seduced by free work on the front end, pay for something specific that you need.

OUR SOLUTION: We build a strategy, then we test through actual, industry-standard sales efforts, then we assess and improve revenue strategy, and execute the sales process again. Building the foundation that allows you to benefit from agencies in the future.

It seems to make sense to hire someone with lots of experience from an industry that is close to or matches the market your product is in, and hire them full-time, right?

It’s a gamble actually.

For one, you don’t really need a high-experience stakeholder with a big title until your business is at a higher revenue, and with a larger team.

High experience players will often struggle in a startup environment; the pay won’t be quite enough, the benefits won’t be quite right (or even be offered), the sales tools won’t be there (or not enough of them), the sales process won’t be defined. It’ll feel like a losing battle to them, coming from a more corporate background.

Another reason it’s a gamble is that anyone who has a lot of experience in sales is more accustomed to seeing commission. People work in sales for the upside of their successful performance. Early-stage companies don’t know where their money is ACTUALLY going to come from yet.

High-cost, high-experience sales hires will usually be gone after a year at a startup. There just are EASIER options for them.

Instead, you can start with the SSIC startup sales solution, or a custom support package based on your existing resources, then consider full or part-time hires.

Startups don’t have great options for scaling sales in the early-stage; that’s why we exist.

“Well Mr. Sales Partner for Founders, what about a cheaper sales hire, without much experience, who’s hungry for a growth opportunity? That’ll probably work right?”

It’s also a gamble in reality.

Low experience means more management, less independent contribution to your sales goals, less ability to handle the pressure of a startup. In early-stage sales, leadership can get antsy and start leaning on the sales rep hard because their unrealistic sales goals aren’t getting hit as fast as the investors want. A low experience contact will hold out with this stress for a time, but likely leave because they’ll get overwhelmed and not know how to manage expectations with their boss.

First of all, you have to admit that any sales goals in the early-stage are ideas, not necessarily attainable based on proven performance. Very little sales process has been executed, so there’s little-to-no data that sales goals are based on. Another reason you don’t want to over-commit to sales early.

Low experience reps still cost quite a bit. Hiring them too soon, before you have a grasp of what sales is like for your company, is setting yourself up for more challenges than are necessary. You might think they take pressure off you, but they may INCREASE your workload.

Having no process before hiring a rep is risky. It shows them no one has sold much at your company, or even tried to follow a typical sales flow, potentially. It shows they will have to create all their own process to succeed, which sometimes is not a sales rep’s strength. Some pros are creators AND operators, others are just creators OR operators. All sales reps want to make more money over time through their efforts.

Start with a base process by going through the SSIC startup sales program, then consider hiring staff full or part-time.

COOL IDEA: you might never need a full-time sales organization. Contractors or a fractional service just might get you to the exit you want.

“What about virtual assistants? VAs are a cheap option that can help us execute sales activity, right?

Yes actually. But is the cheap option the best option?

VAs are dedicated. They have a great work opportunity based on where they live. Cheap for us is high-paid for them. If they are well-vetted by the company you work with to place VAs, they usually will show up. However, sometimes you get a “dud” VA that is not responsible.

More food for thought; US-based businesses are overwhelmed with offshore resources calling in as scammers, low-cost sales staff, etc.

The US market isn’t particularly in favor of this sales experience. Can you find a great VA who’s a “killer” in sales, and has really good English-speaking skills that buyers can understand? YEAH! You certainly can. It’s just not that easy to find.

The most typical VA experience:

lots of management, lots of explaining, great order-takers and hard workers, great for many things, just not the best fit for mid-market or high-dollar B2B sales in our experience.

If you find one that’s really good, let us know where you found them by all means! We’d love to partner with that placement agency and hook other founders up.

Here’s an example of when all-commission can work:

Stryker owns its market for hospital beds. Their straight sales reps are almost entirely all-commission. The reason why? Because making great money is just a matter of time for them, it’s not a matter of beating competition, they just service demand. Nobody is really competing with Stryker, and if they do, Stryker will probably buy that company.

In early-stage sales, where you aren’t the market leader, you have to pay more up front with reps. They don’t have a reason to trust in commissions early on. Because of this, you need them to have a reason to get up and work on sales for you, otherwise you’ll just get inconsistent focus, and poor results. You want bandwidth, but to keep the upside of your business exit later on? Pay your reps well.

When you’re trying to bring on a sales rep, with compensation, you have to understand, a sales rep can work anywhere in sales. People work in sales because there’s an upside to performance, it’s not just base pay with no upside. If they don’t see commission in a reasonable timeframe, why stick around?

They need to be paid WELL for their time if they are going to sink their attention into your company early on, and not see a lot of commission on the front-end.

This compensation philosophy is built into the SSIC startup sales model. The cost is matched to the risk to the sales team, and the pay structure is matched to the startup’s position financially and in terms of its maturity in its market.

DID YOU KNOW? The all-commission sales rep takes the absolute highest amount of risk out of anyone investing in a startup. CRAZY right? That’s why startups always offer this like a knee-jerk reaction, and why so many startup sales pros are gone in a few months. It’s not a fair game.

The investors, the business owner, they have equity/other options. The all-commission rep? Nothing but what happens after a deal is won. If a founder is unwilling to take more risk for their startup, it’s an orange-to-red flag that their business idea is at risk of failing.

The easy option is to stay fractional and figure out sales little by little before you hire someone. Work with us!