Build an early sales team and operating cadence (readiness gate, hiring plan, role scorecards, interview loop, onboarding/ramp). Use for first AE/SDR hires, seed→Series A sales team build, and product-led sales pilot. Category: Sales & GTM.
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):
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.
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
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.
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.
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.