83. What do the top 1% of SaaS sales people do that the other 99% don’t? I have a pretty good sense what the Top 10% do, but not 100% sure about the top 1%. Except one factor -- one difference between the Top 10% and the Top 1% is the very top are extremely efficient with their time. They’re already very, very good. They know exactly what they are doing going into every deal, usually even before they even do the demo or pick up the phone. If I closed Aetna selling to the VP of X -- I already know exactly how to sell to the same the exact same business process to the exact same VP at Cigna. And with only so many hours in the week, they know exactly how much time to spend on each prospect to absolutely maximize the revenue per lead. And because they are so good at presenting... they don’t seem to quite sweat as much as the guy right below them, who’s still making a ton of money, but not quite as efficient in getting there. The mediocre ones tell you prospects “waste their time.” That’s exactly backwards. As the 1%ers will tell you. 84. How quickly should you hire salespeople in a SaaS company? Let me take a tactical take on this answer: As soon as he or she can cover their costs. Hiring your first few salespeople is stressful, especially if you’ve never done it before. Assuming you’re handling sales yourself at first, I’d hire someone as soon as you think they can likely just pay for themselves. Don’t worry about making margin there, at first. You’ll learn and gain so much hiring in sales. Just believe they can return 1x. And hire 2 if you can. You’ll learn far more running an A/B test. Once you prove that, then move to a more traditional model where they bring in 3-5x their cost. But try to go there out-of-the-gate, and 9 times out of 10, I’d argue you are stressing things too much. SAASTR.COM 81