SALES TEAM BUILD PLAN
Sales Team Structure
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Current State: [# of revenue team members] | Current ARR: $[Amount]
Target State: [# of AEs, # of SDRs, # of support roles] | Target ARR: $[Amount] | Timeline: [6/12 months]
Go-to-Market Motion:
Deal size: $[Low] - $[High] average
Sales cycle: [# of weeks] average
Close rate: [%] (discovery → close)
Sales Structure Recommendation:
☐ Full-cycle AEs (SMB, quick close): [# of AEs needed]
☐ SDR + AE split (mid-market, longer cycle): [# of SDRs + # of AEs]
☐ Hybrid (mix of SMB + mid-market): [# of FCAEs + # of SDRs + # of MMAEs]
First Hire Profile
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Title: [Sales Manager / Senior Sales Manager / Account Executive]
Reports to: [Founder / VP Revenue]
Background: [5+ years] closing deals in [SMB / mid-market / enterprise]
└─ Must have closed: $[Amount] deals similar to our deal size
└─ Must be comfortable with: building process, training others, getting hands dirty with prospecting
Experience to avoid:
✗ Only sold at Fortune 500 companies (will over-engineer process)
✗ Never had individual sales quota (no sales discipline)
✗ VP-level title seeker (want to hire 10 people instead of close deals)
How to source:
→ Warm intro from founder network (best)
→ Referral from early customer or advisor (second best)
→ Referral from previous colleague (third best)
→ Recruiter (last resort; likely to find wrong person)
Compensation Plan
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Title: Account Executive
Base Salary: $[Amount] (market rate for region + geography)
Commission: [50%] of base (standard for AE)
OTE (On-Target Earnings): $[Amount] (base + commission at 100% quota)
Quota: $[Amount] annual (should be 4-5x OTE)
Commission Structure:
0-75% of quota: [0%] commission rate (no commission until ramp)
75-100% of quota: [1%] of revenue (standard rate)
100-150% of quota: [1.5%] of revenue (accelerator — rewards overperformance)
150%+ of quota: [2%] of revenue (double-rate for top performers)
Team bonus (if target is met): [5%] bonus to all AEs if team hits $[Amount] ARR (drives collaboration)
Clawback: If customer churns <90 days, [50%] of commission is clawed back (aligns sales + CS)
Example calculation:
AE with $100K base, 50% commission, $500K quota
├─ At 100% quota: $100K base + $100K commission = $200K OTE ✓
├─ At 120% quota: $100K base + $120K commission = $220K (accelerated to 1.5% rate)
├─ At 75% quota (ramp scenario): $75K base + $0 commission = $75K
SDR Compensation (if hiring):
Base Salary: $[Amount] (lower than AE; SDR is entry-level)
Bonus: [40%] of base paid as quarterly bonus on pipeline generated metrics
Bonus criteria: [# of qualified meetings scheduled / # of discovery calls completed]
Sales Enablement
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Playbook Status: [✓ Documented / ◯ In progress / ✗ Not started]
└─ Owner: [Name] | Update cadence: [Quarterly]
└─ Contents: [ICP definition, discovery talk track, objection responses, demo flow, closing techniques, proof points]
Call Recordings: [✓ Available / ◯ Being collected / ✗ None yet]
└─ Good example call: [Link or description of a call that went well; annotate what made it good]
└─ Challenging call: [Link or description of a tough call; annotate how you recovered]
└─ Access: [All team members have access to shared folder]
Case Studies: [Count of available case studies]
1. [Company name + 2-3 sentence description of problem + solution + result (quantified)]
2. [Company name + problem + solution + result]
3. [Company name + problem + solution + result]
Battle Cards:
✓ Competitor 1: [How we position vs. them]
✓ Competitor 2: [How we position vs. them]
◯ Competitor 3: [To be written]
Objection Playbook: [✓ Documented / ◯ In progress / ✗ Not started]
Common objection 1: [Objection] → Best response: [How to handle]
Common objection 2: [Objection] → Best response: [How to handle]
Common objection 3: [Objection] → Best response: [How to handle]
Training Schedule
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Week 1 (Onboarding):
Day 1: Company history, mission, product demo, org structure
Day 2-3: Product deep dive (with founder/product person)
Day 4-5: Sales playbook review + call shadowing (3+ founder calls)
Week 2-4 (Ramp):
Discovery talk track practice (role-play with manager)
Demo practice (3+ times recorded and reviewed)
Play back recorded calls (annotate what went well/poorly)
Conduct 5-10 independent discovery calls (manager sits in, gives feedback)
Month 2 onwards:
Weekly 1:1 with manager (coaching)
Monthly team training (new playbook updates, competitive changes)
Quarterly all-hands (celebrate wins, share learnings)
Hiring Timeline
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Month 1: [Finalize comp plan, define player-coach profile, begin recruiting]
Month 2: [Interview, make offer, first rep starts]
Month 3: [Ramp underway, second rep starts (if hiring pair)]
Month 4-6: [Both reps ramping, founder still closing enterprise deals]
Month 7-12: [Reps hitting quota, identify next hires based on pipeline demand]
Ramp Expectations (Realistic Baseline)
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Rep 1 (First hire, month 1-6):
Month 1: 10-15 discovery calls, 0 deals, 0% quota
Month 2: 20 discovery calls, 0-1 deals, 0-10% quota
Month 3: 20 discovery calls, 1-2 deals, 10-20% quota
Month 4: 25 discovery calls, 2-3 deals, 25-35% quota
Month 5: 30 discovery calls, 3-4 deals, 35-50% quota
Month 6: 30+ discovery calls, 4-5 deals, 50-70% quota
Success metric: Hitting 50% of quota by month 6; on track for 90%+ by month 12
Red flags (firing discussion at month 3 if):
✗ <10 discovery calls completed (not prospecting)
✗ 0 deals in pipeline (no sales ability)
✗ Blaming product/market instead of executing playbook (not coachable)
✗ Not following the documented playbook (rogue behavior)
Weekly Pipeline Health Review
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Date: [Week of __]
Owner: [Manager name]
Deals Closed This Week: [# and names]
Total value: $[Amount]
Pipeline by Stage:
Stage 1 (Discovery): [# of deals] | Age: [< 2 weeks / 2-4 weeks / 4+ weeks]
Stage 2 (Trial/Eval): [# of deals] | Age: [< 2 weeks / 2-4 weeks / 4+ weeks]
Stage 3 (Negotiation): [# of deals] | Age: [< 2 weeks / 2-4 weeks / 4+ weeks]
Total pipeline value: $[Amount] | Coverage: [Should be 3-4x quota]
Deals moved/added: [Which deals moved stage this week? Which are new?]
Deals stalled (>4 weeks in same stage):
Deal 1: [Customer] [Deal size] [Stuck since __] [Blocker: __] [Action: __]
Deal 2: [Customer] [Deal size] [Stuck since __] [Blocker: __] [Action: __]
Activity metrics:
Discovery calls: [# this week] (should be 5-7 per AE per week)
Demos given: [# this week]
Proposals sent: [# this week]
Close rate: [# closed / # in pipeline] (should be 20-30% at maturity)
Action items for next week:
1. [Unblock deal X by doing __]
2. [Coach rep Y on objection handling]
3. [Update battle card for competitor Z]
Culture & Feedback
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Hiring completed: [Date]
Rep 1 name: [Name] | Background: [Brief]
Rep 2 name: [Name] | Background: [Brief]
Team manager: [Name] (player-coach)
30-day check-in questions for manager:
✓ Are reps following playbook? [Yes/No/Partially — where diverging?]
✓ Are they coachable? [Yes/No — examples?]
✓ Is comp plan driving right behaviors? [Yes/No — adjustments needed?]
✓ Any toxic behaviors emerging? [No/Warning signs: __]
✓ Do they believe in the product? [Yes/Neutral/Skeptical — risk?]
90-day review:
Rep 1 ramp progress: [On track / Slightly behind / Significantly behind] — Plan: [Keep / Coach / Replace]
Rep 2 ramp progress: [On track / Slightly behind / Significantly behind] — Plan: [Keep / Coach / Replace]
SALES TEAM BUILD PLAN
Sales Team Structure
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Current State: 1 (founder-led) | Current ARR: $120K (5 customers)
Target State: 1 sales manager + 2 full-cycle AEs | Target ARR: $600K | Timeline: 12 months
Go-to-Market Motion:
Deal size: $15K - $75K (avg $30K)
Sales cycle: 6-8 weeks discovery + trial
Close rate: 35% (discovery → close)
Sales Structure Recommendation:
✓ Full-cycle AEs (SMB/mid-market, 6-8 week cycle) — 2 AEs
└─ Reasoning: $30K deal size + 6-week cycle doesn't justify SDR overhead (too early)
└─ SDR hire decision point: when monthly discovery call volume exceeds 100/month (can't scale with 2 AEs)
First Hire Profile
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Title: Sales Manager
Reports to: CEO (founder)
Background: 5+ years closing deals in $10K-$50K range (SaaS)
└─ Must have closed: $300K+ in similar deal size
└─ Must be comfortable with: building process, training others, getting hands dirty with prospecting
└─ Personality: Collaborative, coachable, not ego-driven, wants to build something
Experience to avoid:
✗ Enterprise sales VP from Fortune 500 (will over-process)
✗ Only closed PLG/freemium deals (different motion than consultative sales)
✗ VP-level title seeker (want to manage people instead of close deals)
How to source:
→ Warm intro from founder's network (Sarah at Acme knows John; John closed $2M at similar company)
→ Referral from early customer who has sales background (can assess if they fit culture)
Sourcing started: January 15
Expected hire date: March 1, 2026
Compensation Plan
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Title: Account Executive
Base Salary: $90,000 (market rate for Denver, SaaS AE)
Commission: 50% of base ($45K at 100% quota)
OTE (On-Target Earnings): $135,000 (base + commission at full quota)
Quota: $450,000 annual ($37.5K/month) = 3.3x OTE
Commission Structure:
0-75% of quota: 0% commission (ramp protection)
75-100% of quota: 1% of revenue (standard)
100-150% of quota: 1.5% of revenue (accelerator)
150%+ of quota: 2% of revenue (top performer)
Example calculations:
├─ Rep hits $300K (67% of quota): $90K base + $0 commission = $90K (below standard, triggers performance discussion)
├─ Rep hits $450K (100% of quota): $90K base + $45K commission = $135K ✓
├─ Rep hits $540K (120% of quota): $90K base + $81K commission (1.5% rate on overage) = $171K (overperformance reward)
Team bonus: If both AEs hit combined $900K ARR, each gets $5K bonus (drives collaboration, prevents cannibalism)
Clawback: If customer churns <90 days, 50% of commission clawed back (aligns with CS)
SDR Compensation (future hire, trigger: 100+ discovery calls/month):
Base Salary: $50,000 (entry-level, Denver market)
Quarterly bonus: 40% of base ($20K/year potential) paid on metrics:
├─ Qualified meetings booked: 10 meetings/month = $5K quarterly bonus
├─ Discovery call completion: 30 calls/month = $5K quarterly bonus
└─ Meeting show rate: >75% = $2.5K quarterly bonus
Sales Enablement
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Playbook Status: ✓ Documented
└─ Owner: Sarah (founder) | Update cadence: Monthly
└─ Contents:
├─ ICP: $10M-100M ARR SaaS, 50-300 employees, data-heavy operations
├─ Discovery talk track: 8 questions about current state, pain, timeline, budget
├─ Objections: "Tool integration" (handled with pre-built connectors), "Price too high" (handle with ROI), "Need board approval" (extend timeline)
├─ Demo flow: 15-min demo following discovery call (only show relevant features)
├─ Closing: Trial to close is 3-4 week process; milestone-based close (success metrics defined upfront)
├─ Proof points: 5 customer case studies, pricing benchmark document
Call Recordings: ✓ Available
Good example: Call with TechFlow Inc. (VP Product) — clear pain discovery, objection handling, closes with trial commitment
└─ Key moment: When prospect raised "integration concern," founder pivoted to "let's validate fit in trial" — reduced friction
Challenging call: Call with Luminous Data (bootstrapped) — they wanted custom features, kept asking for discounts
└─ Lesson learned: Early-stage founders have build-vs-buy bias; reframe as "validation first, then prioritize"
Access: All team members have Google Drive folder with annotated recordings
Case Studies: 3 documented
1. TechFlow Inc.: $2.5K/month | Reduced data validation time 80% (15 hours → 3 hours/week) | Expanded to 2 additional teams (upsell $1.5K/month)
2. DataFlow Ops: $1.5K/month | Decreased data bugs in production by 60% (5 per week → 2 per week) | Strategic reference for mid-market deals
3. Pipeline Analytics: $3K/month | Improved forecast accuracy from 75% to 92% (quantified impact on CFO reporting) | Named reference customer
Battle Cards:
✓ vs. Great Expectations (open-source): We offer managed service + real-time dashboards; they build themselves (time cost $100K+); show TCO
✓ vs. Talend: They're expensive enterprise tool; we're nimble, 2-week implementation vs. 3-month; show speed advantage
◯ vs. Apache Airflow: To be written (rare competitor in sales conversations so far)
Objection Playbook: ✓ Documented (5 common objections)
"Tool integration" → "We have pre-built connectors for Fivetran, dbt, Airflow. If you need a custom integration, we'll prioritize that in the trial."
"Price too high for our company size" → "Let's talk about ROI. If you save 15 hours/week at $75/hour, that's $58.5K/year. Our tool is $18K/year. What's the payback calculation for you?"
"We'd rather build this ourselves" → "That's fair. Most teams that try spend 3-4 months building. If you want to go that route, we can integrate with what you build. But let's validate need in a trial first."
"Need security compliance before evaluation" → "We're SOC2 Type II certified. Happy to share our report. Most customers validate in trial; we can do a security review in parallel."
"Need to check with CTO before moving forward" → "Great, let's get them involved. How does their evaluation timeline look? Can we set up a tech call this week?"
Training Schedule
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First AE starts: March 1, 2026
Week 1 (Onboarding):
Day 1: Company history (founded 2024, raised seed $2M, customers: TechFlow, DataFlow Ops, Pipeline Analytics), mission, product demo
Day 2-3: Product deep dive with CTO (API architecture, security model, roadmap)
Day 4-5: Sales playbook review + 5 founder call shadows (annotated; here's where I ask pain questions, here's where I handle objections)
Week 2-4 (Ramp):
Discovery talk track practice (role-play with sales manager, 3 times)
Demo practice (recorded, reviewed, iterate)
Call playback review (listen to founder calls, annotate what happened)
Conduct 8 independent discovery calls (sales manager sits in, gives feedback)
One trial launch (manage customer through 3-week trial, deliver success check-in)
Month 2 onwards:
Weekly 1:1 with sales manager (coaching on deals in pipeline, playbook adherence)
Bi-weekly peer calls with second AE (when they start in May)
Monthly team training (competitor updates, new case studies, objection handling practice)
Hiring Timeline
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January 15: Sourcing begins (founder + manager profile identified)
February 1: First interviews (target 5-8 candidates by Feb 15)
February 20: Offer extended to Sarah Martinez (target start date March 1)
February 28: Sarah onboarding materials ready (playbook, call recordings, product access)
March 1: First AE (Sarah) starts ramp
April 1: Performance review of first AE (should have 3-4 discovery calls done, 0-1 deals in pipeline)
May 1: Second AE (John) starts ramp (if Sarah is performing)
June 30: Q2 review (both AEs should have at least 1 deal closed each, combined $50K+ pipeline)
July onwards: Evaluate SDR hire (if discovery call volume exceeds capacity)
Ramp Expectations (Sarah, First AE)
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Month 1 (March): Ramp phase
Target: 8-10 discovery calls, 1-2 meetings scheduled for April, 0 deals, 0% quota
Success metrics: Understands playbook, comfortable on discovery calls, getting warm intros working
Month 2 (April): Early activity
Target: 12-15 discovery calls, 2-3 demo scheduled, 0-1 small deal ($5-10K) closed, 5-15% quota
Success metrics: First deal closed, following playbook, reps are coaching-able
Month 3 (May): Building momentum
Target: 15-20 discovery calls, 3-4 active trials, 1-2 deals closed ($15-30K), 20-30% quota
Success metrics: Two deals closed, pipeline is diversified (not all from warm intros)
Month 4-5 (June-July): Expansion
Target: 20-25 discovery calls, 4-5 active trials, 2-3 deals closed/month ($40-50K total), 40-50% quota
Success metrics: Hitting ramp curve, beginning to close own deals independently
Month 6 (August): Hitting stride
Target: 25-30 discovery calls, 5-6 active trials, 3-4 deals closed/month ($50K+), 50-70% quota
Success metrics: On track for 90%+ quota by month 12, generating own pipeline
Red flags (coaching/replacement discussion if by month 3):
✗ <8 discovery calls completed (not prospecting)
✗ 0 deals closed or in qualified pipeline (sales ability issue)
✗ Not following playbook (rogue or doesn't understand process)
✗ Misaligned comp plan (if Sarah has better lead sources, adjust territories)
Weekly Pipeline Health Review (Example for Week of March 10)
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Owner: Sales Manager (John Smith)
Deals Closed This Week: 0 (Week 2 of Sarah's ramp; expected)
Total value: $0
Pipeline by Stage (Sarah's pipeline):
Stage 1 (Discovery calls scheduled): 3 prospects | Age: <1 week
Stage 2 (Trial running): 1 prospect (DataTech Inc.) | Age: 2 weeks | On track
Stage 3 (Negotiation): 0
Total pipeline value: ~$20K (estimated if trial converts) | Coverage: 0.04x quota (low, but expected in ramp)
Deals moved/added:
NEW: First trial launched (DataTech Inc., $2K/month, 3-week trial) | Expected close: Early April
MOVED: FinanceOps moved from discovery to trial evaluation | Expected trial start: March 20
Deals stalled (>2 weeks in same stage):
None yet (too early; all deals <2 weeks)
Activity metrics (Sarah):
Discovery calls this week: 3 (on track for 8-10/month target)
Demos given: 1 (DataTech Inc. trial launch)
Trials launched: 1
Proposals sent: 0
Close rate: N/A (too early)
Manager observation: Sarah is natural on calls; follows discovery script well; asks good pain questions; reps are buying from her
Action items for next week:
1. Schedule FinanceOps trial launch (target: March 20)
2. Set up DataTech Inc. success check-in call (week 2 of trial)
3. Coach Sarah on "how to close" — she has 3 more prospects in discovery; ready to trial some
Culture & Feedback (Current state: Month 1 of Sarah's hire)
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Hiring completed: March 1, 2026
Sarah Martinez | Background: 6 years closing $15K-$50K SaaS deals at Velocity (data platform); team player; excited to build something from ground up
John (second AE to hire) | Background: TBD (target hire date: May 1)
Team manager: Sales Manager + Founder (shared coaching until 2nd AE hired)
30-day check-in (scheduled for March 31):
✓ Is Sarah following playbook? Yes — discovery framework is clear to her; asks all 8 questions
✓ Is she coachable? Very — took feedback on demo flow; adjusted and improved next call
✓ Is comp plan driving right behaviors? Too early to assess; she's in ramp (no commission yet)
✓ Any toxic behaviors emerging? No — she's collaborative with founder, excited to learn
✓ Does she believe in product? Yes — actually uses it on own data; brought suggestions for product
90-day review (scheduled for May 31):
Sarah ramp progress: [On track — 2 deals closed, $35K pipeline, following playbook] → Plan: Promote to full responsibility; remove founder shadowing; bring in second AE
Prepare 2nd hire (John) — confirm start date May 1, finalize onboarding materials
