building-sales-team

What this skill does

# Building Sales Team

## Scope

**Covers**
- Deciding **when** to hire sales vs continue founder-led selling
- Designing the **first sales team** (pilot AE/SDR/hybrid) and hiring sequence
- Hiring for **repeatability** (avoid “one heroic rep” dependency)
- Setting a minimal **operating cadence** (ramp plan, metrics, coaching loop)
- Technical / product-heavy selling: “sales that can pass for PMs”

**When to use**
- “We’re ready to hire our first AE / SDR—help me design the plan.”
- “Should we hire sales now or wait until the motion is repeatable?”
- “Create role scorecards + an interview loop for early sales hires.”
- “We’re starting product-led sales—how do we run a small pilot team?”
- “Build an onboarding + 30/60/90 ramp plan for the first reps.”

**When NOT to use**
- You need to get first customers / validate ICP from scratch (use `founder-sales` first)
- You’re scaling a mature sales org (territories, forecasting, multi-layer management)
- You need legal/HR advice, compensation plan legal review, or employment compliance guidance
- You want generic hiring advice without a defined sales motion and measurable readiness gates

## Inputs

**Minimum required**
- Company stage (pre-seed/seed/Series A+) and current GTM motion (PLG, outbound, enterprise, inbound)
- Current funnel baseline: last ~50–100 “at-bats” if available (first meetings → closed-won), win rate, typical ACV, cycle length
- ICP + product complexity (how technical is the sell; who must be convinced)
- Current resources: founder time, CS/support involvement, marketing demand, budget/headcount constraints
- Timeline + success definition (e.g., “2 reps ramped to $X pipeline/month in 90 days”)

**Missing-info strategy**
- Ask up to 5 questions from [references/INTAKE.md](references/INTAKE.md).
- If data is missing, proceed with explicit assumptions and deliver **two options**: (A) “Hire now (pilot)” vs (B) “Wait + founder-led milestones to hit first”.

## Outputs (deliverables)

Produce a **Sales Team Build Pack** in Markdown (in-chat; or as files if requested):

1) **Context snapshot** (stage, motion, ICP, constraints, targets)
2) **Readiness gate** (hire-now vs wait) with measurable criteria
3) **Team design + hiring sequence** (who to hire first/second; when; why)
4) **Role scorecards** (AE/SDR/hybrid) + evaluation criteria (incl. product depth bar)
5) **Interview loop + practical exercises** + scoring sheet
6) **Onboarding + 30/60/90 ramp plan** + coaching/metrics cadence
7) **Risks / Open questions / Next steps** (always included)

Templates: [references/TEMPLATES.md](references/TEMPLATES.md)

## Workflow (7 steps)

### 1) Intake + stage gating (should we hire now?)
- **Inputs:** User context; [references/INTAKE.md](references/INTAKE.md); any funnel history.
- **Actions:** Identify the GTM motion and whether the founder has achieved a repeatable baseline. Look for: (a) organic demand/hand-raisers (if PLG), and/or (b) a repeatable win rate from first meeting → close (target range often ~15–25% over ~50–100 at-bats). Decide: **Hire now** vs **Wait**.
- **Outputs:** Context snapshot + readiness gate decision + assumptions/unknowns.
- **Checks:** The decision is tied to measurable evidence (or clearly labeled assumptions).

### 2) Define the “repeatable motion” you’re hiring into
- **Inputs:** ICP, use case, pricing/packaging, current discovery/demo flow.
- **Actions:** Write a 1-page “sales motion spec”: qualification, first meeting agenda, demo/pilot criteria, pricing guardrails, common objections, and what counts as an “at-bat”. Clarify founder vs rep responsibilities for the next 60–90 days.
- **Outputs:** Sales motion spec + handoff boundaries.
- **Checks:** A new rep could run the next 10 deals with this spec without inventing the process.

### 3) Choose the initial team topology (pilot-first) + sequence hires
- **Inputs:** Motion spec; readiness decision; budget; pipeline sources.
- **Actions:** Select the simplest starting shape:
  - PLG/hand-raisers: attach yourself to a **pilot AE and/or SDR** and run it as a learning pod (not quota theater).
  - Outbound: consider an SDR+AE sequence (or a hybrid rep) depending on deal complexity.
  - In very early stages: use **founder/CS/support** to close a subset of deals until the motion is proven.
  Build a hiring sequence that enables A/B testing: if feasible, **hire two reps** close together to avoid “one data point” dependence.
- **Outputs:** Team design + hiring plan table (roles, timing, success criteria, risks).
- **Checks:** The plan creates comparability (two reps or comparable cohorts) and protects learning time.

### 4) Write role scorecards (hire for product depth + learning ability)
- **Inputs:** Motion spec; team design; customer/technical context.
- **Actions:** Draft scorecards for each role (AE/SDR/hybrid). For technical products, set a “PM-like” bar: reps should demonstrate product intuition, curiosity, and the ability to earn engineer trust. Translate insights into “must-have signals” + “red flags”.
- **Outputs:** Role scorecards + evaluation rubric.
- **Checks:** Scorecards are specific enough that two interviewers would rate candidates similarly.

### 5) Build an interview loop with practical tests
- **Inputs:** Scorecards; [references/TEMPLATES.md](references/TEMPLATES.md) (interview kit).
- **Actions:** Define stages, interviewers, and exercises (e.g., mock discovery, objection handling, written follow-up email, product deep-dive, “explain to 10 engineers” test). Add structured scoring and a debrief protocol to reduce gut-feel hiring.
- **Outputs:** Interview plan + question bank + score sheet.
- **Checks:** Every interview maps to a scorecard signal; pass/fail criteria are explicit.

### 6) Create onboarding + ramp plan (and a simple management system)
- **Inputs:** Motion spec; expected pipeline sources; enablement assets (or create minimal ones).
- **Actions:** Build a 30/60/90 plan: training, shadowing, call reviews, pipeline targets, activity guardrails, and demo/pilot readiness. Define weekly cadence (pipeline review, call coaching, experiment review). Preserve the “A/B test humans” approach by tracking rep-to-rep differences and diagnosing process vs person.
- **Outputs:** Onboarding plan + ramp targets + coaching cadence + metrics list.
- **Checks:** Ramp targets are measurable; coaching loop is scheduled; “definition of done” exists for each phase.

### 7) Quality gate + finalize
- **Inputs:** Draft pack.
- **Actions:** Run [references/CHECKLISTS.md](references/CHECKLISTS.md) and score with [references/RUBRIC.md](references/RUBRIC.md). Add **Risks / Open questions / Next steps** and identify what would change the hire/wait decision.
- **Outputs:** Final Sales Team Build Pack.
- **Checks:** A stakeholder can approve the plan and start hiring this week (or confidently defer with clear milestones).

## Quality gate (required)
- Use [references/CHECKLISTS.md](references/CHECKLISTS.md) and [references/RUBRIC.md](references/RUBRIC.md).
- Always include: **Risks**, **Open questions**, **Next steps**.

## Examples

**Example 1 (first AE hires):**  
“Use `building-sales-team`. We’re seed-stage B2B SaaS. Founder has closed 12 customers; last 60 first meetings → 14 closed-won (~23%). ACV $12k. We want to hire our first AEs. Output: a Sales Team Build Pack with readiness gate, hire-two plan, role scorecards, and interview loop.”

**Example 2 (PLG → PLS pilot):**  
“Use `building-sales-team`. We have steady inbound hand-raisers from our product. We want a pilot AE/SDR pod to close mid-market upgrades. Output: team topology, hiring sequence, and a 30/60/90 ramp with coaching cadence.”

**Boundary example:**  
“We have no repeatable sales motion or ICP yet—hire a VP Sales to ‘figure it out’.”  
Response: recommend founder-led discovery/validation first (use `founder-sales`), define readiness milestones, and return to this skill once a motion can be written down and measured.