Jason Lemkin: evaluation

Transcript context

…Okay. Then you hire a VP of sales once you're ready to go from three to 300 reps. Your advice is also give the VP of sales a bag slash a quota slash they need to be doing sales themselves in today's world. At least for a little while. More importantly, if they don't want to, I think in today's world you got to run from them. Exactly whether they fully carry a quota, a half quota, whether they backfill the sales team, you want a salesperson. Here's the thing, Lenny, you want a ... This is going to sound silly, but it's not. Trust me on this. For anyone watching, listening, you want a head of sales that actually wants to do sales. I got to tell you, and I'm still struggling with this myself after the last three years or so, so many folks in all functions, we could talk about other functions too, but especially in sales, don't want to do sales anymore. They don't want to do it. They don't want do it. 2021 was crazy because everything was too crazy. There's too much money, too much going on. 2022 was the knife falling. That was crazy too. 2023 was just hard. Whether it's burnout or whatever out or just too much change, I would say I've probably interviewed for different reasons, 50 VPs of sales in the last 12 months, I would say the majority don't want to do sales. It's my first screening question. That's why they got to carry a bag because it proves they actually still care about the craft. The best sales folks love sales. It's a craft. They love money. Yes, they love money, and that does matter. Do not hire a sales rep that doesn't like money. Trust me on this one. There's 0% chance they'll work out either, but they also like the craft. They like honing the script. They like beating the competition. They like figuring out the counterfeit. They like figuring out the weapon and the 10x feature. They like working on a team. They like hunting. They love it, but then sometimes I just think burnout is always a reality, but I just think that the last three years have been so yo-yoed, that folks are just, they're out. They're out. Don't hire them no matter how smart they are, and that's the test. I'll tell you, I talked with a really great VP of sales candidate that had worked with a top 10 tech company and I asked him what he wanted to do in this next role. He's like, "I've got a great team. I've got eight people that I can bring with me. We're ready to lock and load." I'm like, "Okay. Well, let me tell you one of my views in today's world is that you've got to actually visit more customers now, not less. In a distributed world, it's more important to visit customers." He lived in the East Bay in Pleasanton in the East Bay, which is maybe 20 minutes east of Oakland. He said, "I'm willing to visit customers, but I won't go as far as the peninsula in San Francisco." He's just happy at home. He's happy at home, Lenny, and he don't want to sell. This guy has the best LinkedIn and the best references, but he don't want to sell anymore. He needs a job. He wants to be a VP of sales. I see this across the industry and I'm struggling to find answers. I think the biggest hiring ... We talked about a lot of tactical hiring mistakes that you can make today in sales. be a VP of sales. I see this across the industry and I'm struggling to find answers. I think the biggest hiring ... We talked about a lot of tactical hiring mistakes that you can make today in sales. The biggest strategic mistake you can make today in sales because there's so many veterans, there's so many folks that worked at Twilio and Mongo and wherever, pick any great company you want. There's so many veterans out there, you just can't hire the ones that don't actually want to sell anymore, and there's too many, there's too many.…

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