“It can be highly irritating for a big customer to answer ques- tions from a SDR, who then hands over to an AE, who then passes them to a customer success team, etc. Focus on a work split model that fits with your business.” — Jens Hutzschenreuter, Digital Business Group “I’ve seen companies—especially bigger organizations and corporates— where different parts of the sales team work in isolated silos. They close a deal, sign the contract, and throw the ‘dead body’ over the fence. This may work in the short term, but doesn’t create sustainable value in the long term.” — Jakob Gillmann, Adjust The structure of your sales team will change dramatically over time, but the figures in the Roles and Responsibilities graphic above shows the typical numbers of people with each role at different funding stages. “First-time founders usually underestimate how hard it is to scale sales.” — Stefan Groschupf, Automation Hero Incentivizing salespeople properly is critical to engaging them, particularly as you enter the growth phase. The following salary benchmarks give you an idea of how to structure salespeople’s packages and what they expect. 25