When am I ready to hire a salesperson?

When you can answer yes to three questions: Do you have a documented sales process? Can you articulate why deals close? Do you have enough pipeline to keep someone busy? If any answer is no, you're hiring someone to figure it out—and that rarely works.

Why can't I hire a salesperson to figure out the process?

Because sales process discovery requires product knowledge, customer insight, and the authority to adapt on the fly. Founders have all three. A new hire has none. Salespeople are great at executing a process—they're rarely good at creating one from scratch.

What should a new sales hire be able to accomplish in 90 days?

With good hire readiness, a new salesperson should close at least one deal in 90 days, run the full sales process independently, and handle common objections without escalating to you. If 90 days pass and they're still shadowing you on every call, the process wasn't ready.

What does hire readiness actually require?

At minimum: a documented sales playbook, a CRM with clean data, enough pipeline to keep them busy, and clear qualification criteria. Nice to have: recorded sales calls, an objection-handling guide, and email templates that actually get replies.

Hire Readiness

Could a new rep run your process?

Hire readiness is whether your sales process can support a new salesperson. Hiring before you're ready is one of the most expensive mistakes a founder can make—you'll burn cash, churn salespeople, and wonder why nobody can sell like you do.

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What this measures

If you hired a salesperson tomorrow, could they close a deal in 90 days?
Why would you hire a salesperson right now?
Do you have a CRM with clean data a new hire could use on day one?

What to do about it

If this area is broken

Don't hire yet. Document your process first.

If this area needs work

Create onboarding materials before you hire.

How this connects

Depends on

Problems here often trace back to gaps in:

Frequently asked questions about hire readiness

When am I ready to hire a salesperson?: When you can answer yes to three questions: Do you have a documented sales process? Can you articulate why deals close? Do you have enough pipeline to keep someone busy? If any answer is no, you're hiring someone to figure it out—and that rarely works.
Why can't I hire a salesperson to figure out the process?: Because sales process discovery requires product knowledge, customer insight, and the authority to adapt on the fly. Founders have all three. A new hire has none. Salespeople are great at executing a process—they're rarely good at creating one from scratch.
What should a new sales hire be able to accomplish in 90 days?: With good hire readiness, a new salesperson should close at least one deal in 90 days, run the full sales process independently, and handle common objections without escalating to you. If 90 days pass and they're still shadowing you on every call, the process wasn't ready.
What does hire readiness actually require?: At minimum: a documented sales playbook, a CRM with clean data, enough pipeline to keep them busy, and clear qualification criteria. Nice to have: recorded sales calls, an objection-handling guide, and email templates that actually get replies.

Find out where you stand Or take the full diagnostic