Step-by-Step: Recruiting a VP of Sales

Hiring your first VP of Sales is one of the most critical decisions you'll make. This role is pivotal in scaling revenue, building a sales team, and creating a repeatable process. Yet, many startups make the mistake of rushing the hire or selecting someone based on the wrong criteria.

This detailed plan ensures that you focus on the right experience, cultural fit, and leadership style to drive long-term growth. By following these structured steps, you avoid costly misfires and will help you bring on a sales leader who can execute in a fast-paced, hands on, environment.

Step 1: Define Your Needs

• What to Do: Ensure you're ready for a VP of Sales by having at least $1M ARR, product-market fit, and some reps already selling. Define what success looks like for this role— eg. scaling from $1M to $5M ARR.

• What to Look For: Someone who thrives in early-stage, high-growth environments and can scale your revenue department.

• Who to Involve: CEO and other key executives should define priorities.

  
  

Step 2: Identify the Right Profile

• What to Do: Target candidates with experience building sales processes from scratch in a SaaS company that’s are at a similar stage to yours. Prioritize operational experience over a rolodex of contacts.

• What to Look For: Hands-on leaders who have scaled teams, driven results with data, and can develop repeatable processes.

• Who to Involve: CEO and CTO to ensure the candidate understands the product and its market potential.

  
  

Step 3: Screening Interviews (Initial Fit)

• What to Do: Conduct 45-minute phone/video calls to assess cultural fit and whether the candidate has experience in the $1M to $10M ARR phase. Ensure they're prepared to be hands-on and have sales processes front of mind.

• What to Look For: Passion for building and scaling teams, understanding of your SaaS sales cycle, and alignment with company vision.

• Who to Involve: Head of HR (or CEO) for initial vetting.

  
  

Step 4: First-Round Interviews (Strategy + Process)

• What to Do: Focus on understanding how they would build a sales team, their sales methodology, and their approach to creating scalable processes. Ask for specific examples of when they did this in prior roles.

• What to Look For: Proven experience in scaling sales organizations from the ground up, a data-driven approach, and alignment with your company’s goals and culture.

• Who to Involve: CEO. Your buy-in determines next steps

  
  

Step 5: Second-Round Interviews (Team Dynamics)

• What to Do: Arrange meetings with key stakeholders—product, marketing, and customer success teams—to evaluate how the candidate would collaborate across functions. Have them outline their plan for building the sales team and how they will interact with existing functions.

• What to Look For: Collaborative mindset, cross-functional leadership, and ability to gain buy-in from internal teams.

• Who to Involve: Heads of Product, Customer Success, and Marketing.

  
  

Step 6: In-Depth Presentation

• What to Do: Ask the candidate to present a 30, 60, 90-day sales strategy for your startup. This should include team structure, key performance metrics, and immediate actions they would take to scale the business.

• What to Look For: Clear vision, practical steps, and a deep understanding of your company’s current needs. Check their strategic thinking, ability to execute tactical work, and how they plan to leverage data.

• Who to Involve: Entire leadership team, including the CEO and CFO.

  
  

Step 7: Final Interviews (Cultural Fit)

• What to Do: Focus on soft skills and culture. Conduct informal interviews to understand the candidate’s values, work style, and long-term vision. Test their adaptability and resilience in a fast-paced startup environment.

• What to Look For: Strong alignment with company values, emotional intelligence, and passion for building in an early-stage company.

• Who to Involve: Revenue team. The people they will be managing.

  
  

Step 8: Reference Checks

• What to Do: Conduct thorough reference checks, focusing on the candidate’s ability to scale sales teams, build processes, and work cross-functionally. Look for feedback on their leadership, adaptability, and results-driven mentality.

• What to Look For: Strong validation of hands-on leadership, data-driven success, and the ability to execute in startup environments. Ask for references from their direct managers (likely other startup CEO's)

• Who to Involve: Head of HR.

  
  

Step 9: Making the Decision

• What to Do: Evaluate the candidate holistically. Ensure they’re a cultural fit, have the right experience to scale your sales team, and can align with your long-term growth goals.

• How You Know It's the Right Candidate: They demonstrate hands-on leadership, a proven track record of scaling sales from $1M to $10M ARR, and possess strong data-driven and cross-functional capabilities. They should inspire confidence and excitement across the leadership team, as well as the revenue team.

Following a structured, detailed approach to hiring your first VP of Sales is not just beneficial—it’s essential. By carefully evaluating each candidate’s experience, leadership abilities, and cultural fit, you ensure that your startup is equipped with the right sales leader to drive growth. A successful VP of Sales will build scalable processes, collaborate cross-functionally, and bring a data-driven approach to decision-making.

Rushing or misjudging this hire could result in lots of wasted time, massive financial setbacks, and lost market opportunity. By sticking to these steps, you’ll maximize your chances of finding the right leader who can help you scale from early traction to predictable, sustained growth. The right hire will be a game changer—not just for your sales team, but for your entire company’s trajectory.