Supporting roles Roles Responsibilities Profile When to hire Generate interest in product; customer Focused on delivering engagement activities sales leads. Pragmatic - such as events; Deliv- start with a generalist Most important; Hire Marketing Team ering to sales people; and then specialise early and develop team align marketing and (digital, branding, PR as you grow sales reporting; gen- etc.) erate leads for sales- people Increase customer sat- isfaction and retention- crucial for SaaS-based Consultative, prob- Customer Success subscription business- lem-solving, and able Once you have 5-7 Team es. Should bring in sales to build rapport with customers on board representatives when customers potential for upselling or co-selling is deter- mined Ideally a pragmatist. Legal and Start by employing Use external resources, Legal Team contractual work someone who has keep off your payroll as legal and other experi- long as possible ence (e.g. a CFO) Sources: Jean Belanger, Cerebri AI; Jens Hutzschenreuter, Digital Business Group; Edward White, Interana; Ian Collins, Wysdom As your startup and sales grows, be careful to avoid silos building up between different parts of your team (such as Sales Development Repre- sentatives (SDRs) and Account Executives (AEs)) and with other parts of the organization such as marketing. Put in place processes to ensure that information is communicated clearly between roles—prospects hate having to repeat themselves again and again to different people during the sales process. 24