Are you finding it harder to attract the best talent for your senior sales roles? Ever wondered why that might be? The fact is that really good sales people don’t buy the promises any more.
I can point you to plenty of people who made the move from a secure management position in an established company to a leadership position in a start-up. Sadly, for most of them, the dream they were sold failed to materialise. They quickly found that the aggressive sales targets were impossible without serious investment in a team that could generate revenue quickly. Two problems there – getting the people in the first place and convincing them the OTE is achievable.
Most CEO’s will have mapped out a 3-5 year growth plan supported (and expected) by the VC’s. The VP Sales remuneration package is then based on these figures. But the potential candidates now know the chances of them getting to year 3, when there’s the potential to hit target, is slim and this has indeed been factored into the VC plan. A few stock options may vest but what will they be worth?
They also know it’s likely the second (or third) appointment might be the one’s to be successful. This costs the company no more in the long term (and they might just get lucky with exceptional early success). The initial candidates are the one’s to lose out – both financially and reputationally so fewer are willing to take the risk.
Here at MBConsulting Services we think we’ve got the ideal solution. We can be installed as your first VP Sales on a contract basis where we work with the leadership team to set the goals, produce the go-to-market strategy and begin the execution against that. Once we see results emerging we can start to develop hiring plans and succession planning. All this achieved with little risk and no disappointment.
