Location:
Atlanta, GA
Industry:
FinTech
Position Title:
Director of Sales
Client Testimonial
“Meghan is sharp, responsive and very easy to work with. She asks good questions and has a real feel for people.”
Challenge:
A founder with deep experience in the payments industry launched a new fintech company in Atlanta, drawn in part by the city’s concentration of payments companies and experienced industry talent.
The company was still bootstrapped and did not have the financial backing or brand recognition of the larger players already established in the market. Its compensation structure leaned more heavily toward commission than base salary, which made the opportunity more attractive to younger, entrepreneurial salespeople.
The founder initially wanted to build an entire sales team at once. The company also wanted experienced professionals capable of managing complex enterprise sales cycles. The economics of the business made that difficult to execute across several senior hires at the same time.
Solution:
We recommended changing the hiring sequence before expanding the search.
The first priority became one senior sales leader who understood complex enterprise selling and could establish structure, process, and expectations for the rest of the team.
We shifted the search toward a Director of Sales with enterprise experience and the ability to coach and develop less experienced representatives. Once that leader was in place, the company could build around them with more affordable, earlier-career salespeople who had the drive and aptitude to succeed with strong direction.
The founder agreed and restructured the hiring plan around leadership first.
Outcome
- ▸ The company moved forward with the revised hiring strategy and prioritized the Director of Sales before adding individual contributors.
- ▸ That gave the founder a more realistic structure for building the team and reduced the need to compete for several highly compensated enterprise sellers at the same time.
