Penelope Talbot-Kelly’s Post

I've worked with over 60 B2B SaaS and service companies over the past 3 years. Here is something unexpected that can stunt your growth... Not hiring more people. Founders can get jittery about hiring when things are working well. They fall into the trap of over-optimizing with their team and ignore that they need to hire more people and scale. Sometimes the answer is as simple as hiring.

Startwave is like hiring an outbound account executive for 5% of the cost. Founders can get campaigns set up in 5 minutes. Enables startups to develop known pipeline metrics before making the first (expensive) sales hire. Then once you grow enough to hand off outbound, it will be with proven copy, talk track, and benchmarks.

I feel really fortunate that we had 1,000+ applicants for the AE role at Pocus. Hiring for this role is probably one of the hardest for every early-stage founder. I did a retro to see if there were any patterns in the hires we eventually made and thought I’d share the learnings for reps actively applying for AE roles at startups. 4 tips for applying to sales roles at a startup: 1️⃣ Prove you’re creative, hungry, and scrappy. There will be very little tooling or process in place when you join an early startup, so you need to prove you’re ready to hustle and get creative to be successful in the role. Show how you’ve been scrappy in the past and how you’ll apply that to this new job. Even if you don’t have the exact right experience, prove you have high slope and willingness to put in the work to get there fast. 2️⃣ Show your sales techniques in non-obvious ways. In sales, you need to get in front of the right stakeholders and deliver a message that stands out. Do the same when getting in front of the company you’re applying to. I was much more likely to respond to creative inbound that included loom videos, past performance reviews, thoughts on the Pocus business, etc., instead of simply a “I’m interested in this job”. 3️⃣ Demonstrate that you’re a team player. This is a non-negotiable for a small team. There can’t be any politics or drama when you need to work cross-functionally and move FAST constantly. You’ll need to wear many hats in every role - maybe an SDR / marketing / sales ops - on top of your day job as an AE. Prove that you WANT to do work cross-functionally and share examples of times you’ve excelled at this. 4️⃣ Have strong attention to detail. You need to have strong attention to detail, especially in written communication. Lack of attention to detail was my biggest pet peeve and the biggest reason to disqualify candidates in the written-take-home assignment. Using complete sentences, spell-check, and structured thinking is a non-negotiable! P.S. We’re hiring for our founding SDR! This is an incredible opportunity to join our growing GTM team! Details on the role in the comments ⬇️

Offiste is HIRING an Account Executive w/ experience: 👉 closing $10k-$40k+ deals 👉 closing $500k+ annually 👉 selling to Chiefs of Staff, EAs, Heads of People, etc at Series A-D startups If that’s you, please apply via the job description below! Or, refer a friend (we will give you $500 towards one of the hotels in Offsite’s marketplace for a vacation if you refer someone we hire). Job description in comments… **UPDATE - if you're interested in applying, THANK YOU and please apply via the job description...that's the fastest and easiest way for Jake, our Head of Sales, to process interest in the role** - - - If you’re gainfully employed but want to jump ship to Offsite, we can make that happen too. 👀🤷♂️🚀 We’re approaching profitability, can give you equity, uncapped commissions, work from anywhere, amazing team and colleagues, lots of room to grow into team/department leadership and/or enterprise sales for even bigger deals, and more. In other words, we’re building a category defining company and we may only hire one other salesperson before Series A, so if you want a great entry point to an awesome startup, here it is… Finally, we are running a fast hiring process (woohoo!), so we won’t waste your time or that of anyone you recommend.

When you first start in business, you're solely focused on "doing the stuff that brings in the money". - Outbound - Sales calls - Generating leads Then you reach a certain level and realise the stuff that allows you to scale over the long run is the unsexy stuff. - Hiring - Operations - Financial tracking Signing clients continues to get easier with growth and vice versa for the operational stuff. Thoughts?

Excited to announce that we're hiring more outbound BDRs at Supermove! 🎉 We've been very busy over the past few months trying to build the most predictable outbound engine - it's now time to scale. We have alot more fine-tuning to do but unit economics tell us it's time! More on the role: 📈 You will be joining a winning locker room - team of 4 BDRs that are all hitting target MoM. We are predictably generating $50k pipeline /mo per BDR and our AE team is closing at 50%+. Your work will generate $25k ARR / mo like clockwork. Room to grow too... 📞 This is a call-heavy role. Response rates and conversion rates are significantly higher over phone vs email. Gotta talk the talk...literally. 🧰 We sell to blue-collar SMB personas (moving company owners). They are straight shooters - no fluff. 💰 Our commitment to you is that you will learn and earn more than you ever have. We take development seriously and hiring/promoting from within is path #1. If you aspire to be an AE, you will do so in less than 12 mos. 🥇 You get to learn from one of the top up-and-coming leaders in Amanda DaSilva - seriously top 1% in the industry. You will also never have more fun working for another leader. (JD in comments)

I'm doing it! We're building out a micro office in Austin. The first iteration of the office will be to build out a Sales Development team that can accelerate our pipeline and revenue growth. Along with this, we're hiring for 2 very important positions: 1. COO / Operations Manager: this person will help us build out our office here and take our culture / people development to the next level. 2. SDR Manager: responsible for hiring a local SDR (aka. phone sales) team, setting the culture, leading the team, etc. Both of these positions will play a huge role in accelerating our revenue growth. They're also MASSIVE opportunities for the right person who's the best of the best in operations or running a sales team. Fast growing company, leadership positions, big upside, great benefits, high growth environment, etc. We're building what will become one of the biggest companies and employers in Austin. Know anyone who might be a fit for either of these positions? Tag them below! P.S. there's a $3,000 bounty if we hire someone you send our way...so it's definitely worth taking 30 seconds to think on this and tag someone. 😜 P.P.S. any friends with businesses that want to let us use some of your extra office space for the first 2-3 months as we test out this concept?

🚀 Big News: SellTech is 'Hiring' We're on the lookout, not for new team members, but for our next great client. That's right. We have a spot open for a business ready to increase its sales. Here’s What We Bring to the Table: 💪 A team of top-notch SDRs, ready and equipped with everything they need to boost your sales. 💪Tailored strategies that fit your unique needs, led by years of experience. 💪A partnership that values real, lasting success over quick wins. We're Looking for Someone Who: 💯Chooses quality every time. 💯Is on the hunt for long-term growth. 💯Is open to trying new strategies. 💯Has a great product and is ready to see it succeed. Think of it as joining a team where we’re all in on making sure you win. Interested? Let’s chat. 😃

My worst mistake of 2023 is not hiring more people for my lead gen agency Founders doing above $10k/month should focus on: 1: Content Creation (Creating Inbound Opportunities) 2: Building Systems & SOPs to delegate everything. 3: Building a network with High Worth Individuals