Blog
Startup Org Design
In the early days of a high-growth startup, the organization isn't intentionally designed as much as it is cobbled together based on what is most pressing at the moment. Teams tend to organically sprout up. Roles are added too soon, too late, and when the stars align, at just the right time.
The Most Important Interview Question You Can Ask
No matter what role I am interviewing for, and what I have already asked, I have one question that I ask everyone at the end of the final round of interviews. When a candidate has made it through all the hoops and I think I am ready to make them an offer, I end the final interview with:
Is It Time For a Sales Engineer?
A SaaS sales team usually starts with a founder who sells. Then a salesperson or two. Maybe some SDRs. Then a director or VP. Then more reps. Then sales operations. And at some point, most B2B SaaS sales leaders find themselves wondering, “Do we need a sales engineer?”
A Surefire Way to Hire The Best Candidates
I’ve spent the week helping a few partner companies interview for some key new hires. I’ve kissed some frogs and found a few princes (or princesses, as the case may be). And there is one way I can spot the superstars.
Don’t Forget to Scale HR!
Late night and weekend phone calls from founders are almost always HR issues.
Should You Cut a Difficult Employee Loose?
Should you cut a difficult employee loose? You can skip reading this and I will give you the answer now: YES.
How to Hire Between the Lines for Your Company Stage
It’s so critical to hire the right talent for the stage of your company and things can go badly when this isn’t considered in the hiring process.
How to Hire Better Sales Reps
This could also be titled, “Don’t make the same mistakes I made, because I sure screwed it up a lot.” Sales recruiting is getting harder and harder by the day.
SaaS Startup Hiring Mistakes, and How to Avoid Them
Hiring mistakes are inevitable, especially when you are scaling fast and trying to fill many open positions at once. Here are a few of the most common startup hiring mistakes I’ve seen and some thoughts on how to avoid them.
More Tips for Managing a Remote Sales Team
Yesterday I posted some tips for managing a remote sales team. Those tips were fine, but they were also pretty basic—the stuff we have to do as sales leaders, no matter what. So, I thought a follow up with more specific remote management advice for leading a nascent sales team.
Tips for Managing a Remote Sales Team
As a modern sales leader, there will be times you need to manage a remote sales team. Now is likely one of those times.
50 SaaS Sales VP Interview Questions I Always Ask
I’m often asked to participate in interviews when companies are hiring new sales leadership and people are surprised by the depth of questions I ask. I thought it could be helpful to capture them here. I also created an interview question bank, with notes about what kinds of responses to look for.
Improve Your OKR Results by Focusing on the How
I think the biggest reason that people, and companies, don’t achieve goals is that they forget to think through HOW the goal will be achieved.
An OKR Primer
While it can take a while to “get” the power of OKRs, once the lightbulb goes off, they can transform how an organization aligns and executes towards goals.
Onboarding Remote Employees
At Linux Academy, at least 50% of the staff we hired were onboarded remotely. You CAN onboard a new hire successfully and have them fully engaged in your organization. Onboarding a remote employee is similar to onboarding an in-office employee, so a lot of this advice is common sense. It’s just all matters more.