Hiring the right people at the right time and avoiding hiring mistakes is absolutely critical to the success of your business. When it comes to growth, Amy Volas (CEO of Avenue Talent Partners) has seen every mistake in the book throughout her career of enterprise sales and high-precision sales recruiting.
Amy is a top mind in intentional hiring and finding the perfect person for sales roles, especially at early stage companies. She’s been able to guide some incredible companies and candidates to the right fit. If you’re actively learning about sales and hiring online, you’ve probably learned something from her across her writings with SalesHacker, HubSpot, Openview Partners, and more.
In this webinar, you’ll learn how to be able to avoid toxic growth mindsets that could cost you your company and have a clear, actionable recipe for hiring success. Get ready for some truth bombs that you must hear if you’re going to grow the right way.
Watch the recording below. We understand the audio is a bit choppy, so we summed up some key takeaways below.
What is “growth”?
Some companies view growth as “more revenue” or as hiring itself. However, growth is actually the accumulation of all departments coming together to align (marketing, product, etc.). Growth is the outcome that you want to see realistically given what the market demands are. And it is the ability to to do your business well, make money, and continue to see the outcomes you want to see. Comparing these definitions of growth to the idea that growth is simply “more employees” is setting yourself up for failure.
Pro Tip: Don’t hire based on what it appears you need. Have a clear goal and work on moving the right people into the right roles. If you’re wanting to grow, you must be hyper focused on the goal, which may in fact not be hiring.
Hiring as growth
It is easy to fall into the “this is what you should do” mindset when you are in the position to affect growth in your company (e.g. “Everyone in SaaS is hiring 100 salespeople We’re in SaaS. Let’s do that too!”). The problem with this is that what works for one company, doesn’t mean will work for you too.
Let’s say you made your first enterprise sale. Because of that, you decide you must hire an entire enterprise team. However, not all salespeople or startups are created equal so what you need isn’t plug and play. In the example that you want to tackle enterprise sales, you must be smart about who and how many salespeople you hire to ensure the success of the outcome. You shouldn’t approach this with the mindset that “startups are about taking risks” and quickly hire a large team without considering what success looks like. Amy recommends thinking about what you will be bragging about a year from now about what you did “so right”. What is that thing you did so right and how do you create the path to get there?
Pro Tip: If your goal is to hire a cohort of people in hopes that the best will rise to the top and the rest are expendable, then don’t hire. And if your answer to any of the following is “I don’t know”, then don’t hire.
- What is the job description?
- Why is it time to hire?
- What is your goal?
- What is your TAM?
Not hiring for growth
Control is another toxic mindset to have. If you are in a position where you have a lot of control or have a hard time delegating work, this might be the reason for not hiring at all. It is dangerous to not hire for growth when in fact it is needed. We understand it is hard to give up everything you have done yourself up until this point, but it is crucial to allow for growth by hiring the right people at the right time.
Pro Tip: Don’t let fear of hiring failures or loosening up the reigns hinder you from seeing the best pathway to success.
Hiring by gut
Hiring by gut is one of the most common mistakes. When you make hiring mistakes, it affects your clients, your business, and costs a lot more money to fix the mistake. Hiring by gut or by a feeling is a big disservice to yourself. Using Amy’s analogy of dating, don’t approach hiring the same way a lot of people approach dating. If you get enamored by chemistry, you might skip the important questions first and get too far along in the hiring process before realizing the person isn’t a good fit at all.
Pro Tip: Use Amy’s hiring scorecard to ensure you aren’t blinded by shiny objects and make sure you’re hiring candidates that are a good fit.
Get Amy’s Sales Hiring Playbook by signing up for free here. Learn how to evaluate your needs, define your hires, and what else you should be avoiding. You’ll also get and learn how to use the hiring scorecard. Once you login, you’ll get instant access!
If you need help with your hiring efforts, check out Avenue Talent Partners here. Got a question for us? Contact us here.