Tag: saas hiring

Top 5 Mistakes SaaS Founders Make When Hiring Salespeople

Posted on by Nick Mann

There are countless twists and turns when building a SaaS company from the ground up. But you could argue that few decisions carry as much weight as making your first hires. The collective caliber of your team will impact productivity, initial sales, repeat sales, customer relationships, ROI, and the overall trajectory of your company. That’s why it’s so important to recognize the most common yet critical mistakes SaaS founders make when hiring salespeople and steer clear of them.

With that said, here’s the top five hiring mistakes to look out for.

1. Not Leveraging Concrete Candidate Data

In the past, sales recruiters had limited information to go on when assessing the talent level of potential salespeople. Sure, they could filter applicants through an ATS, look at a candidate’s resume, and check references. But there wasn’t any high-level technology that could paint a vivid picture of a candidate’s true abilities from every angle.

Fortunately, that’s changed recently, and SaaS recruiters can now use a wide range of cutting-edge recruiting tools that provide concrete, objective data on each candidate so they can make data-driven decisions 100% of the time. For instance, the Sales Skills Assessment lets you gain full visibility of each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, analyze 21 core competencies, and quantify everything from desire and commitment to motivation and selling skills.

And while a certain level of instinct can sometimes help in the candidate selection process, it’s not wise to rely solely on a hunch. But what’s crazy is that as many as 90% of SaaS sales recruiters still rely on intuition when hiring.

Because of the ubiquity of this outdated strategy, I’ve chosen to list not leveraging concrete candidate data as the number one mistake SaaS founders make. And fortunately, it’s a mistake that can be easily avoided with the right tool.

2. Being Swayed By Charisma Over Ability

Here’s a common scenario that often results in a less-than-ideal hire. The SaaS sales recruiter interviews a candidate who has off-the-charts charisma and says all the right things. The recruiter is so captivated that they go ahead and pull the trigger, deciding to hire the candidate rather than fully considering alternatives, simply because of their charm.

However, after some time passes, the company realizes that the candidate’s charm in the interview doesn’t translate into performance in a real-world setting.

This is a trap that’s easy to fall into because 1) we naturally tend to prefer charismatic people, and 2) a certain level of charisma can be helpful in sales. However, this can be detrimental long-term if a recruiter primarily bases their decision on charm rather than true credentials.

That’s why, again, it’s so important to use objective data and look at the big picture when making hiring decisions.

3. Not Keeping Candidates in the Hiring Loop

Sometimes it may feel like the SaaS sales recruiter has all the leverage when hiring. And there are certainly many situations when that’s the case. But when it comes to hiring top talent (which is what you’re usually trying to do), you can easily miss out on golden opportunities simply because of a lack of communication.

Say, for example, you get a little lax about keeping shortlisted candidates updated on an interview or what to expect next. They may sour and look elsewhere, especially when they know they’re skills are in high demand.

We wrote a previous article called 89% of Sales Candidates Accept Job Offers of the First Recruiter Who Contacts Them: How to Leverage This for Winning Top Talent, which covers this concept in-depth.

In it, we mentioned how frustrating it can be for candidates when they deal with unresponsive recruiters who don’t keep them in the loop. For perspective, 57% of people say it’s the most frustrating part of the job search.

And nearly 25% of candidates lose interest if a recruiter goes more than one week without contacting them after the first interview, while 46% lose interest in the one-to-two week range. The bottom line is that failing to maintain proper communication can be toxic to your SaaS sales hiring and should be a top priority for winning the talent war.

4. Not Taking Cultural Fit Into Consideration

It may sound a little cliché, but creating a strong culture truly is essential for building a thriving SaaS company. Even if you hire a high-octane salesperson who wins in all the right areas, the impact will likely be marginalized if they don’t fit in with your culture. It’s like trying to force a square peg into a round hole.

At best, it may lead to minor friction. But in more severe situations, it can create ongoing conflicts that disrupt daily operations, lead to premature turnover, and diminish the customer experience.

That’s why it’s important to fully crystallize your company culture when hiring and look for candidates with values that align with it.

5. Not Properly Onboarding

When hiring an elite salesperson, it’s common to think that they’ll “just figure it out” and seamlessly sync into their role. But even the most capable reps need strong onboarding to truly thrive.

From understanding macro/micro goals to assembling the right tech stack to knowing your strategy behind delivering a seamless product demo, it’s crucial that new reps have a firm foundation. If you’re looking for a straightforward way to optimize onboarding for the first 90 days, check out this previous post we wrote about the blueprint for new hire success.

Avoiding the Most Common Mistakes SaaS Founders Make

Hiring quality salespeople is one of the most essential parts of building a successful SaaS company. It’s also one of the trickiest, especially if it’s your first time doing it. By understanding the most common pitfalls SaaS sales recruiters make, you’ll be better equipped to navigate the process and build an elite sales team right off the bat.

Ready to make smarter, data-driven hiring decisions? Use the Sales Skills Assessment, which predicts future sales success with 95% accuracy.

Using Data-Driven Assessments to Hire High-Performing SaaS Salespeople

Posted on by Nick Mann

Here’s a sobering stat. 70% of SaaS salespeople failed to reach their quota in 2024. While there’s a laundry list of reasons why many SaaS salespeople fall short, it’s important to look to the very beginning — the initial hiring stage — when looking for a solution.

If a hiring leader fails to make the right decision and hire truly elite talent that not only has the skills and qualifications but also fits in culturally, problems will likely arise. Fortunately, many hiring mistakes can be avoided by using data-driven assessments to find the best of the best.

The Problem with Intuition

In the past, much of SaaS sales hiring relied heavily on intuition. The logic was that if a hiring manager knew the ins and outs of their product and industry and what it takes to succeed, they could use their expertise to find talented SaaS salespeople.

And in some cases, intuition works out. That said, it’s easy to get yourself in trouble with this approach.

That’s because relying on one person’s subjective judgment — something that’s often laced with bias — can lead to bad decisions and potentially high turnover.

For perspective, “When hiring is over-reliant on intuition and assumptions about candidates, we make successful hires only about 30% of the time. At that rate, you get better odds with a coin flip.”

As hiring technology has progressed, we’re now able to quantify things that previously were unquantifiable and objectively measure a SaaS sales candidate’s ability to make smarter decisions.

That’s where data-driven assessments come in.

The Power of Data-Driven Assessments

Rather than taking what a candidate says at face value and relying on intuition, data-driven assessments arm you with valuable information to help you make consistently great hiring decisions. Let me give you an example.

The Sales Skills Assessment by Objective Management Group allows you to thoroughly analyze a SaaS sales candidate on a granular level by objectively assessing multiple selling competencies, such as relationship building, consultative selling, presentation approach, closing, and much more.

This gives you a bird’s-eye view of exactly what each candidate brings to the table, which allows you to make a hiring decision with far greater certainty and accuracy. With it, you can compare candidates side-by-side to see who’s truly the most skilled based on the specific criteria you’re looking for when filling a role.

While it’s always been easy to compare candidates on factors like education, previous experience, and industry knowledge, core selling competencies have been trickier to pin down. But with data-driven assessments, you can know for sure just how capable each candidate is to dramatically improve your SaaS sales hiring.

If you’re looking for concrete numbers, 92% of candidates recommended by the Sales Skills Assessment went on to reach the top half of their sales force within their first year. And 72% became top performers.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Sales Skills Assessment is just one example, and there are several other options you can use to zero in on the particular aspect of SaaS sales hiring that you want.

For instance, there are personality assessments that provide insights into a candidate’s true personality so you can get a sense of how well they would match your company culture. There are situational assessments that let you see how they would react in real-life SaaS sales scenarios.

There are behavioral analysis assessments that give you a feel for interpersonal skills. And there are psychometric assessments that provide insights into cognitive abilities and working style.

Whatever part of a SaaS salesperson you want to analyze, odds are there’s a data-driven assessment for it.

The Full Scope of Benefits When Using Data-Driven Assessments

At this point, it’s clear that using data-driven assessments can help you make better hiring decisions. But let’s go a bit deeper and discuss some specific reasons why.

First, it significantly increases your odds of choosing the right person for each role. By analyzing hard skills, soft skills, and everything in between, while factoring in the specific role you’re trying to fill and company culture, you can use the data to greatly improve hiring accuracy. That way, you’re far less likely to make the wrong hire, which brings us to our next key benefit — less turnover.

One study from Deloitte “found that companies leveraging data-driven approaches to hiring saw a 36% increase in employee retention.” And it’s easy to see why. Whenever you find the perfect person for a SaaS sales role — someone who was made for the position — it’s only natural that they’ll A) succeed and B) stick around for the long haul.

This means you don’t have to worry about excessive turnover, where you constantly have to rehire. By getting it right the first time, there should be greater stability and you can build a cohesive SaaS sales team, with some hires moving up the ladder into leadership positions.

It also streamlines your hiring process. Rather than having to meticulously sift through candidate after candidate the old-fashioned way, data-driven assessments help accelerate recruiting so you can create a shortlist of top candidates without eating up a ton of time.

And let’s not forget about sales performance. Whenever you hire the cream of the crop, where SaaS salespeople possess the essential core competencies it takes to thrive, you can expect increased performance.

Needless to say, that’s extremely helpful, as this often leads to a host of other benefits, including higher conversion rates, increased profitability, greater customer satisfaction, and a stronger bottom line.

Final Thoughts

We’re at an exciting point in history where hiring leaders now have access to cutting-edge technology that simply didn’t exist a decade ago. Case in point — data-driven assessments, which can be used to quantify and objectively understand even the most intangible of candidate traits.

By leveraging this technology, you can capitalize on a plethora of amazing benefits, including smarter hiring decisions, shorter hiring time, reduced turnover, better sales performance, and ultimately bigger profits.

Learn more about the Sales Skills Assessment feature above and how it can help you find A+ SaaS salespeople.