Gareth Webb’s Post

It's Day 1 of H2, and I thought a follow-up to my post last week might be helpful for my startup and growth-stage friends. There’s a lot of noise on LinkedIn about the "old ways" of growth during ZIRP periods, particularly around hiring a bunch of salespeople, attaching quotas to them, and building a financial model around it. For example, if you currently have 5 AEs each generating $1M in ARR, hiring 20 AEs will add another $1M ARR per hire. It was true then, and it is true now - that’s not how to build a model. Why the strategy fails: -Your first 5 are special. They are passionate about the mission, the founder, and the company. They are scrappy, and early-stage doesn’t scare them. They are risk-takers. Your next 5, and the 5 after that, and the 5 after that… they may be good, but it won’t be the same. -Prospect pool shrinks. Your 5 $1M AEs may have a prospect list of 10,000 accounts with plenty of low-hanging fruit. Every new hire depletes their pool of prospects. -Additional layers needed. You have to hire layers between yourself and the early team. -Hiring misses. Odds are you’ll have some hiring misses as the team grows. -Human factors. People take vacations, get married, experience personal losses, get sick, and sometimes have bad quarters. As the denominator grows, more risk needs to be baked into the model. -Performance variability. Building a team of 20, 30, 40 AEs that perform at the level of your top 5 is statistically impossible. How to solve for it: Build the risk of growth into your model. Per-hire productivity will decline as you scale. Incorporate this decline and risk into your planning to assess what level of hiring makes financial sense. Instead of assuming 20 AEs will each generate $1M ARR, consider that number might be closer to $500k. Then, evaluate the additional resources needed for those 20 AE's: marketing, operations, sales management, training, and onboarding. What is the level of investment that pencils at $500k vs $1M? My guess is you’ll conclude to hire a bit slower—still hire, still grow—but in a much more thoughtful, predictable, and scalable way. At least, that’s where I have landed. #hiring #growth #proptech #h2 # 🚀

🚀 Current Hiring Trends in SaaS Companies: From Growth at All Costs to Cash Conservation and Profitability In the ever-evolving SaaS industry, we are witnessing a significant shift in hiring trends. Over the past decade, the mantra was "growth at all costs," leading to aggressive hiring and expansion strategies. However, the landscape has changed, and companies are now focusing on conserving cash and striving for profitability. This shift is having a profound impact on how SaaS companies hire sales talent. 📉 The Growth-First Era During the growth-first era, SaaS companies prioritized rapid expansion. This approach was driven by: Venture Capital Funding: Startups had the resources to scale quickly. Market Penetration: Companies aimed to capture market share swiftly. Aggressive Targets: Sales teams were pushed to achieve lofty targets, often resulting in high turnover and burnout. 💡 The Shift to Profitability Recent economic uncertainties have led SaaS companies to recalibrate their strategies: Cash Flow Management: Companies are prioritizing cash flow and reducing burn rates. Sustainable Growth: Focus has shifted to sustainable, profitable growth. Efficiency Over Expansion: Hiring practices are now centered on efficiency and effectiveness. 📊 Impact on Hiring Sales People This strategic shift is reshaping the hiring landscape for sales professionals in SaaS companies: Quality Over Quantity: Emphasis on hiring fewer but more experienced and versatile salespeople. Retention Focus: Investing more in the retention and development of existing sales talent. Performance Metrics: Focus on customer retention, upselling, and cross-selling rather than just new customer acquisition. 📈 Data Insights Gartner: 2023 saw a 15% decrease in new sales hires as companies focused on optimizing existing teams. Forrester Research: 72% of SaaS companies prioritize customer success roles. LinkedIn's 2024 Workplace Learning Report: Sales training programs increased by 25%. 🔍 Looking Ahead The future of SaaS hiring is being shaped by a balance between growth and profitability. Companies are becoming more strategic in their hiring practices, seeking sales professionals who drive immediate revenue and contribute to long-term customer success and company sustainability. At Prime Team Partners, we understand these evolving trends and are dedicated to helping SaaS companies navigate this new landscape. Our expertise in recruiting top-tier sales talent ensures our clients are well-equipped to achieve both growth and profitability. 📢 Join the Conversation What trends are you noticing in the SaaS hiring space? How are you adapting your strategies to balance growth and profitability? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! #SaaS #HiringTrends #SalesRecruitment #GrowthStrategy #Profitability #PrimeTeamPartners  

Walking through LA, I couldn't help but notice the abundance of 'For Lease' signs on office buildings. This intriguing phenomenon, unexplained by locals or AI, piqued my curiosity. A VanillaSoft article (https://lnkd.in/dfEPBk9G) shed light on the broader picture: the interplay between hiring practices, economic uncertainty, and the seismic shift to remote work that's reshaped industries. The pandemic was indeed the catalyst, with ripple effects still visible today. Tech giants like Amazon and Google have faced layoffs, and Apple abandoned its electric car project. TechCrunch offers a comprehensive list of recent layoffs across well-known brands (https://lnkd.in/dSaMk6zv ). As AI advances, a new challenge emerges: the widening skill gap between junior and senior staff. In this evolving landscape, continuous learning is key to staying above the curve. Interestingly, the pandemic also triggered the 'Great Resignation' in 2021, with millions of U.S. employees voluntarily leaving jobs that no longer aligned with their expectations, confident in finding better opportunities elsewhere. What are your thoughts on these shifts in the work landscape? What strategies are you employing to stay ahead of the curve? And looking ahead, what do you think will happen in the near future that will significantly affect workforce dynamics? #FutureOfWork #WorkforceTransformation #RemoteWork 

#VerticalSaaS people: Do you hire industry veterans or proven SaaS experts? Although not impossible, as a leader in a vertical SaaS business it can be difficult to find someone that has both SaaS and industry-specific experience -- leaving hiring managers with some big decisions. I've gone from General SaaS, to the Retail / CPG vertical (non-technical software), to now business aviation (highly regulated and very technical software) and have come across this choice many times while scaling teams. After interviewing and hiring hundreds of professionals that fall across this spectrum, of course the answer is going to be "it depends." Here's some things that it actually depends on: 1. The role If it's customer-facing or a strategic product position, having team members that deeply understand the industry you're in is a potential superpower. (Shoutout to just a few SMEs like Adrian Casillas, Caroline "Ceci" Hayssen Fornell, and Jaimie Girndt who are CSMs with industry-specific experience at Avinode Group.) Customers love working with vendors that speak the industry lingo and tend to come away feeling like we "get them" because of it. But does a CSR or marketing ops hire need the same industry experience as your AE? Maybe not. 2. The complexity of the product / industry The alternative form of this question is: Would it be faster to train someone on the basics of their role or the details of the industry? At a previous company, it would take us 6-12 months to train a new sales team member because it was a complex product and we were only hiring team members with SaaS sales experience. So even with a solid new hire onboarding process you'll eventually be faced with acknowledging the urgency of your... 3. Timeline Not the best thing to admit, but sometimes startups really do need someone in the seat ASAP. I'm not saying to make any sacrifices on talent, but sometimes timing is your biggest pressure point. From my experience, going with specialized, industry-specific hires shrinks the talent pool and could potentially increase your time to hire (#remotework helps with this a bit). And when you're in a time crunch, it's ok to trust that smart, motivated individuals joining a supportive team will get the job done one way or another. 4. Team dynamic Assuming you can't hire an entire team of your ideal candidates, ultimately you'll want to have a team with diverse backgrounds and experiences to be able to learn and grow together. So while hiring at vertical SaaS businesses really is an "it depends" situation, in the long run, the makeup and dynamic of your team and organization really is the most important thing. #AI generated hashtags for visibility: #VerticalSaaS #HiringTips #IndustryExperience #SaaSExpertise #businessaviation #saas

The trend In SaaS for the coming 6 months is expected to be as follows, according to 🐶 Jacco van der Kooij from Winning by Design... Growth at all Cost (GaaC) will have been AI’d but have made little to no impact to output results, the (+)AI impact primarily is around “lower cost.” I'd like to add myself here, that there's also just much more noise now, thanks to outbound on AI. Prospects their mailbox is almost unmanageable and the fight for their attention, is very real. GTM Efficiency will be(come) the top priority for the CEO, many companies will see the $-spend to secure $-growth trending in the wrong direction. GRR/NRR metrics will create tri-furcation of the market: 1️⃣ Vertical SaaS will continue to do fine on revenue (20%) 2️⃣ Companies with great products will continue to do great (10%) BUT 3️⃣ The remainder companies (70%) will struggle as they continue to lose grip on $-spend to acquire $-growth... We are going to see: ⏺ Continued layoffs, in particular CRO/CMO positions, who are paid large $$$ but cannot seem to find a solution or a way out. ⏺ New people will be hired … and we will see the rise of new titles around: GTM Strategy and Planning, and GTM Strategy and Operations. ⏺ More companies want their team to do it themselves as they see this as a permanent need vs. bringing in a consulting firm to do it for them. The need for generalists will be replaced by the need for specialists. This will wreak some havoc in fractional CRO/CMO roles that were previously needed as GAAC could be done by anyone. Personally I think this is the rise of data and science in our industry, and CRO profiles better know their marketing, sales, cs, and rev ops - and know how a SaaS company works and is built, according to Revenue Architecture, sustainably and measurably. And why Retention and Expansion, is so important. Versus being so acquisition-only focused, like most CRO's with a sales background (most CRO's) often do. It's also about re-educating ourselves as an industry, according to Revenue Architecture. Which is imposing a new operating standard, to our industry. The Revenue Factory 🏭. I'd really buy and STUDY that book. It all starts by learning the languages and its principles. If you are a fractional CxO and pursue it as a career, Jacco advises you to become specialist in a specific area (Deep enterprise sales, community events, account management, etc.). Summarized... SaaS market overall will recover, but very slowly/and only a little bit, and in Q4 we will start to see more “orange/ and light green” metrics as an industry as a whole. This is the result of the 10%+20% categories mentioned above to be growing. Thanks for sharing, Jacco ❤️! I think the people are going to love hearing your take on this! 🚁Roee Hartuv, Jeremy Spijker, Sari Green, Dan Smith, Ian Buchanan, ADCR Capital

Hiring orgs are picky right now.  They only want to recruit elite sellers. Sellers who consistently earn $500k+.  They aren’t interested in roles where it's not possible. Here are 6 things they care a LOT about, though:  1 / Exceeding their plan, every year, and probably cracking $500k on the W2: If your org can’t support that, don’t bother trying to recruit them. If your CEO isn’t ok with making less cash comp than a great rep, don’t bother. (There are a LOT of CEOs out there like that FYI)  2/ Not getting involved in office politics: Generally, just leave them alone.  3/ Working for the market leader in a sector: Occasionally they will work for number 2.  If it’s a big TAM.  4/ Selling world class products: They don’t want you to be sorting out product market fit.  That’s a different profile of rep.  5/ VERY good benefits are table stakes: They probably have a family or people to support. They don’t care about your kombucha.  Trust me on that.  6/ Territory: If you’re going to recruit them, you’ll need to be HYPER specific about the book of accounts they’re inheriting or the geo they’ll manage.  They will quickly determine if the book can’t support what they want to earn. Many gravitate towards public companies.  They KNOW public software companies almost ALL have $1M sellers.  If your org isn’t one of them, it’s not a deal breaker, just show them the path that your earlier stage company has for the earnings they need. Oh and if you’re lucky enough to develop one of these personas internally.  Get out of their way, and don’t ever give them a reason to take that recruiter call. We've ranked close to 7,000 sales orgs by comp (check salaries), culture (read reviews), quota attainment, and more: https://bit.ly/3yTjWid

Some solid insights here. Many of the early stage CEOs and CROs I speak with have become as lean as they can to survive this challenging period. What comes next? Get to break even, then scale appropriately to grow. To achieve this you need the best quality sales talent you can find.

Your agency is about to lose a LOT of business to this current trend if you’re unaware of it: The next two months, over the summer, will be dull hiring-wise, per usual. Yet September is a huge boom in hiring, as companies gear up for Q4 and are closing up budgets. What does this mean for your agency’s BizDev strategy? Hiring Managers will be hired NOW over the summer as companies gear up to hire in September. This could be HMs that are Business Contacts you work with now or have worked with in the past! -> if you catch them right when they move, you’re in luck: You’ll be able to contact them congratulating their move, wishing them luck, thanking their business at their previous company, and requesting to work together at the new company they’ll be hiring for shortly. 🥇 -> if you don’t, they’ll get recommendations from their new colleagues, and start their journey with a new agency. ☠️ This is a simple analysis of the timing on the market, that can be used to create an entire strategy. One thing could hold this whole strategy up: If you’re not alerted when those business contacts in your ATS leaves. That’s where Woo.io can help, updating your business contacts daily to alert on any changes, which can then be paired with search/outreach tools like Bullhorn Automation/SB. Want to learn how the best agencies are winning new business through cadences with their existing clients? PM me and I’ll be happy to share 💡 #recruiting #airecruiting #ai

Do you want to learn why hyper-targeting talent is so important to the success of your SaaS or tech startup? 99% of SaaS and tech startups are posting jobs, getting referrals and then wondering why people are leaving and they're not experiencing rapid growth. The main problem typically stems from a lack of hyper-targeting talent. Hyper-targeting talent is a systematic process where you define exactly what you're looking for in a person and then a recruiter targets people who have those requirements and are working for a minimum of 2 years. It involves 3 phases: - Requirements Gathering - Candidate Dataset Building - Outreach through email, LinkedIn, phone and text Requirements Gathering This includes things like targeting your competition, a specific geography, salary range, SaaS domain area, last job length in years, along with the 10-15 typical job requirements you're looking for in a new hire. Most SaaS and tech startups just don't have the skills or expertise to understand how to do this deep level of SaaS requirements gathering. The results are bad hires that don't stick arround. Candidate Dataset Building The next step of the process involves building a targeted dataset of people that have all of these requirements and are working for 2+ years. These are people that are either in the bullseye or very close to it. The best core dataset for SaaS comes from LinkedIn and other datasets like GitHub and Meetup. Most SaaS and tech startups don't have the manpower or expertise to execute this at scale. Outreach through email, LinkedIn, phone and text The final step in the hyper-targeting process is to outreach to people through email, LinkedIn, phone and text campaigns. This phase includes messaging templates, sequences and automation of messaging across all platforms. In a perfect world recruiters would be hyper-targeting 50 people a day. What do you think about hyper-targeting? Does this make sense? Let me know your feedback in comments. #saas #saasgrowth #recruiting

15+ million people quit their jobs since April of this year. + Follow … The biggest threat to sales teams today isn't losing clients. It's losing people on the team. ESPECIALLLY in startups. Hubspot said their top-performing articles are about doing interviews better to get hires right... Meaning lots of people are looking for this intel. This is a problem because it's harder than ever to replace people when they leave these days! Sales is the TOP role tech companies are hiring for. It's why I wholeheartedly agree when Hubspot says: "But what if this isn't a good thing? What if it's time we stopped writing off five-year lows in sales job tenure simply because it's a tough job full of high standards and a lot of rejection. What if we spent less time learning about how to interview the perfect sales rep and more time on developing and investing in the reps we have?" Sales retention is more important than ever. The good news is, 75% of the reasons our people would leave us are within our control as leaders (Gallup's data). 7 things you can do to stop the bleeding: 1. Make each person feel like they're a valued part of the team 2. Show them their impact 3. Get better at hiring 4. Create room for your people to grow 5. Minimize barriers to productivity 6. Don't screw around with their comp plans! Do you like it when people mess with your money? Why on earth do you think it's okay to mess with theirs?! 7. Create flexible work environments What am I missing? #sales #startups #leadership #linkedingrowth