SaaS Sales Hiring: Reps or Manager First?
For many SaaS founders, a critical early-stage decision revolves around building the initial sales team: Should you hire a sales representative first, or jump straight to a sales manager? The consensus among experienced SaaS leaders points to a clear, phased approach that prioritizes proving the sales model before scaling it.
The Optimal Sales Team Building Sequence
The most effective path for establishing a successful SaaS sales engine typically follows these steps:
- Founder-Led Sales: As the founder and CEO, your primary task is to personally close the first batch of customers—ideally 10 to 20. This hands-on experience is crucial. Without it, you won't truly understand the sales process for your product, making it impossible to effectively guide or assist future hires.
- Hire Two Sales Representatives: Once you've successfully demonstrated the ability to close deals yourself, the next step is to hire not just one, but two sales representatives. Hiring two allows for an essential A/B test. It provides a basis for comparison, helping you understand why one might succeed where another struggles, and vice versa. This dual hire strategy offers invaluable insights into what works and what doesn't in your specific sales environment. For more on this, consider reading When You Hire Your First Sales Rep — Just Make Sure You Hire Two | SaaStr.
- Recruit a Head of Sales (VP of Sales): The ideal time to bring in a dedicated head of sales is generally after your two initial sales reps are consistently hitting their quotas, typically when your company has reached $1 million to $2 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). At this stage, the sales leader's primary responsibility shifts to scaling the existing, proven engine—hiring reps 3 through 300 and ensuring they achieve their targets. Hiring a VP of Sales before this point often means asking them to figure out product-market fit, which is not their core strength. Their expertise lies in accelerating a working system, even if it's currently at a small scale, not in building it from scratch.
When Exceptions Might Apply
While the above sequence is the general rule, there are rare instances where hiring a great head of sales as your very first sales hire can work. This might be feasible if you have a freemium product that is already generating significant revenue, or if the CEO has personally driven the company to a substantial ARR (e.g., the same $1 million to $2 million mark) before making any sales hires.
The Core Principle: Prove It First
However, for 99% of companies, a head of sales will be far more effective if there are already a few sales representatives on board who have proven that deals can be closed. Their role is then to optimize and replicate that success, not to discover the initial sales methodology. That foundational work belongs to the founder and early reps.
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