How to Successfully Manage Your First VP of Sales
Summary
This article provides a guide for CEOs and founders on how to effectively manage their first Vice President of Sales hire. It outlines a cadence of inspection points, including weekly 1:1s with reps, monthly operations reviews, and quarterly reviews, to ensure the sales team is performing optimally. Key inspection points include: * **Weekly 1:1s:** Focus on pipeline coverage and quality, attainment, deal slippage, obstacles, and forecast accuracy. The sales leader should articulate changes and action plans. * **Monthly Ops Review:** Analyze 'lead to close' conversion metrics, deals by lead source, pipeline velocity, rep attainment, productivity, loss reasons, and SDR production. This review helps assess marketing spend efficacy, sales efficiency, and forecast reliability. * **Quarterly Review:** Revisit all operational items from the monthly review on a quarter-over-quarter basis, assess progress against territory coverage, review hiring plans, and evaluate development/enablement plans. The article also highlights problem signs to watch for, such as the sales leader's inability to articulate deal specifics, making excuses for slippage, or lack of executive leverage. It emphasizes the importance of data availability and enabling resources like sales operations headcount and reporting tools.