The SaaS (Software as a Service) market is growing at a notable pace, which is leading to fierce competition for top sales talent. Scaling a start up or running a more established tech business? We know that finding and hiring the right SaaS sales professionals can make a difference to your revenue, customer retention and long term success.
Here at Apache Associates we work with IT firms to help them build high performing sales teams. In this article we will be sharing guidance on how to recruit SaaS sales professionals effectively.
What Makes A Strong SaaS Sales Candidate?
Before you start the recruitment process, it is crucial to understand the difference between a strong SaaS salesperson and a general sales professional. SaaS selling is its own discipline. It involves longer sales cycles, technical knowledge, subscription revenue models and a focus on customer success and retention.
The best SaaS sales professionals tend to have key characteristics such as:
- Consultative selling - listening & giving solutions to solve customer challenges
- Technical curiosity - comfortable understanding & articulating software solutions
- Pipeline management - working with a CRM, forecasting & staying organised
- Resilience & adaptability - products evolve & sales teams must evolve with them
- Customer success mindset - ensuring renewals & successful upsells
Keeping these traits in mind will help to shape your hiring criteria and help you avoid costly mishires.
Define The Role Clearly
One of the most common mistakes companies make when recruiting for SaaS sales roles is rushing to market with an unclear job description. A poorly defined role wastes candidate and employer time as well as bringing in the wrong candidates.
Before advertising a vacancy, carefully consider the following questions:
- Are you hiring for new business (hunters) or account management & renewals (farmers)?
- What is the average deal size & typical sales cycle length?
- What market sector will they be selling to - SME, mid-market or enterprise?
- What tools & CRM platforms will they need to use?
- What does the on target earnings (OTE) structure look like?
Being clear about these details in your job advertisement will attract candidates who are properly aligned with the true scope of the role. Candidates with SaaS experience will quickly lose interest if they feel a job description is generic or unclear.
Where To Find SaaS Sales Talent
Its rare that the best SaaS sales professionals are actively searching for new roles. This is because they are performing well and being looked after by their current employers. This means your recruitment strategy needs to go further than just posting a vacancy on a job board and waiting for applications.
Here are some of the most successful channels for sourcing SaaS sales talent:
- LinkedIn - proactive headhunting & InMail outreach is one of the most direct ways to connect with passive candidates
- IT recruitment agencies - working with a recruitment partner like Apache Associates who understands the sector gives you a network of vetted candidates
- Employee referrals - your existing sales team may know talented people in their network - incentivising referrals can work well
- Industry events & communities – SaaS events, webinars & online communities are good places to find active & engaged professionals
- Targeted job boards - specialist tech vacancy boards will reach a more relevant audience than general sites
An approach that uses more than one of the channels helps to combine proactive outreach with inbound applicants to give you the strongest pool of candidates possible.
Structuring A High Quality Interview Process
Once you have a selection of strong candidates in the pipeline, your interview process needs to assess competence and cultural fit. For SaaS sales roles we recommend a structured process that includes four key stages.
Stage 1
The first stage involves an initial screening. This will include a short call to assess motivation, career trajectory and cultural alignment.
Stage 2
The next step should involve a competency interview. Here you can explore the candidate's past sales record in detail. Be sure to ask for examples of deals won, pipelines they've built and how they've worked in complicated sales cycles. It’s also worth using the STAR technique (situation, task, action, result) to get strong answers.
Stage 3
Put together a practical exercise, such as a mock discovery call or presentation relevant to your product and market. This should give you a clear sense of how the candidate performs under pressure and whether they can communicate a value proposition clearly.
Stage 4
Finally, in the senior stakeholder meeting, cultural fit, long term prospects and leadership potential should be assessed.
Keep in mind that the best candidates may be managing multiple processes at the same time. Therefore, try to keep your interview stages efficient and communicate clearly at every step.
Making a Competitive Offer
Top SaaS sales talent knows their worth. If your final offer isn't competitive, you risk losing candidates to competitors at the final stage. Research market salaries carefully and make sure your OTE is achievable and clearly structured. Also consider the full package including remote working, flexibility, progression and company benefits.
Speed matters as well, because a slow offer process can lead you to lose a preferred candidate.
Partner With A Specialist Recruiter
Recruiting SaaS sales professionals requires sector knowledge, a strong network of potential candidates and a polished process. At Apache Associates we specialise in placing tech sales professionals and we know precisely what businesses need to build high performing SaaS teams.
If you're looking to improve and expand your sales team, get in touch with our recruitment team. We'd be delighted to help.