Roles and Responsibilities Numbers of FTEs Roles Responsibilities Profile Seed Series Growth Stage A Stage Stage Leading the sales Managed sales team team effectively before, strategic, VP Sales/CSO while aligning sales structured, and 0 0 1 with other process analytical mindset. in organization Must align sales with rest of organization Top performer, either from your competition, promoted internally Leadership of sales or with experience Sales Manager team; Recruiting and selling to the same 0 0-1 3 onboarding markets that you are targeting, 3-5 years experience; needs to be data-driven and capable of aligning team Ambitious, hungry, Account Point of contact for could be extrovert Executive (AE)/ customer for initial and introvert (many Sales Represen- stages of the sales clients are intro- 0-3 2-10 18-24 tative funnel verts!), but key in being likeable and good at listening Point of contact for Technical expert (of- customer before ten business infor- deal is closed; matics background) Pre-Sales/ answer any in-depth and/or ex-consultant 0 1-2 4-5 Sales engineer questions about with tech back- product for Re- ground (e.g. ex-KP- quests for Proposals MG, BCG etc.) (RFPs) Junior position; at start of sales Sales Develop- careers, strong com- ment Represen- Lead qualification munication skills. 1 1-4 9-12 tative (SDR)/Busi- and generation Hire these early to ness Dev. Rep. free up founders to focus on bigger opportunities See appendix for detailed source references. The ratios in this table will vary depending on the complexity of what you are selling and the sales model you adopt. For example, if you are a high-volume, self-service based business, you will not need a sales force at all. 22