[jahbrewski]

While I agree with the sentiment of #1, I would argue that sales are more important than marketing at this stage. You can spin your wheels “learning SEO” and “creating content” with very little tangible results. In the beginning, sales + product are just about all that matter.

[bushido]

Both can be important and it really comes down to who your customer is.

For B2B (SME+) - Absolutely invest in Sales. Worth mentioning that it isn't too hard hiring seasoned sales professionals, with existing relationships who are trying to find their next career move etc. They'll often agree to a higher commission payout in-lieu of a base salary. This doubles up as a good way to get feedback from the market.

For B2C or smaller B2B - Definitely invest in marketing and customer experience if you would like the main driver behind your business to be product-led growth or some form of a self-signup/self-onboarding.

[jahbrewski]

Could you provide any further advice on how to hire sales professionals? I'm starting to feel comfortable hiring tech roles, but hiring for sales still feels like a black box!

[bushido]

Sales can definitely feel like that. Without more context on your market, decision maker personas etc. the one piece of advise that I can give confidently is this:

Start with Senior Sales Leadership. Ideally someone with experience in your target market.

Reach out to a few individuals, in your network or on LinkedIn or similar. Ask them for advice, see the type of advice they provide. If you like them, ask them to recommend someone – the hope is they recommend themselves.

[GordonS]

B2B sales is an area I'm going to need help with quite soon. Solo-bootstrapping a startup means that money can be tight though.

Do you think it would be possible to get part-time help using the approach you describe? Alternatively, do some sales professionals work on a commission-only basis?

Also, do you have any idea what typical commission is expected?

[bushido]

On sales leaders: I personally know some sales leaders who mentor/advise other start-up founders. This includes getting on some client calls.

However it's tricky, in that they wouldn't do it if there was a conflict of interest of any kind, they'd be more likely to do it once they know these people a bit more. There is also the WIIFM factor.

All that to say, it is possible to get help.

--

On sales reps: As others have mentioned the biggest factor here will be how long it takes to close a deal. If you have quick close cycles (typical in the small to mid-market), a higher commission component or commission only is possible.

Typically, I've seen commissions in B2B to be about 7-10% of Annual Contract Value (ACV) for the first year. Mind you this is highly generalized, based on my experience.

Most sales compensation plans aim for sales reps to earn 1x base as commissions if they meet target. So a base of $60K, would result in $120K in income if they performed.

Based on this you could try finding reps on 14-20% ACV on a commission only basis, paid out on paid invoices.

To be candid, I wouldn't try doing commission-only positions for my own ventures. That said it's worth a try if there are constraints that make it hard to pay a base.

[acruns]

Getting part-time help in sales is going to be hard. It will depend on how long your sales cycle is too.

Sales reps will happily work on commission only if they see a huge market for your product. Which might be difficult to show with a new product.

The commission rate is negotiable at the hiring point. If they are great at sales and know there is a big market they will want a lower base with a higher commission. You should also set a commission cap at some point as your variable costs increase your profit will drop and you could end up at a point where the sales team is making more than the company.

[aledalgrande]

+1 here - sales dominant in B2B, but brand >> product in B2C, look at all the most successful B2C companies

[halfmatthalfcat]

What about D2C?

[rpedela]

One exception would be if your product has really good and obvious search keywords that are being searched at a reasonably high volume. Google ads can work really well in this scenario. Even better if no one else is buying ads for those keywords.

[wolco]

Sales without marketing isn't the best strategy, it literally turns you into a one man[selling machine where everything is based on your time. Marketing develops channels of customers.

[jameslk]

This really depends on the stage your company is at. If you haven't found product-market fit, you need to spend a majority of your time in sales mode talking to potential customers/users so you can figure out who your ideal market is and what your market wants. If you try to start marketing without finding product-market fit, you may end up wasting a lot of time and money without knowing whether anyone even wants your product.

It also depends on who you're selling to as well. Consumer/SMB customers may require less sales efforts than enterprise customers. You will always want to start with talking to users regardless, which is sales.

[jahbrewski]

Well, you sort of described the position I'm in :)

Given that, do you have any recommendations for developing channels of customers? I haven't really hired for marketing before - what should I be looking for in that role?

[bushido]

Outsource parts of it:

- Content writers: Helps with Long tail SEO and building thought leadership; Ask within your network if they know someone.

- Website design and branding: Make a good first impression

- Banner and booth design for Conferences: Hopefully the folks from the design and branding can do this. caveat: Once this becomes a viable channel again.

- Ranking etc: Sign-up for a subscription of SEO Moz or something similar

- Adword: DIY

Honestly it's much much harder hiring for Marketing. If you do hire someone – find someone good at Project managing external resources.

[wolco]

The reply below hits all of the important areas.

From my experiences over the last year I would say there are too many channels that require so much work to reach a point where your reach matters. So unless you have a team I focus on one channel. If you pick youtube learn to create effective videos and use other social channels to reenforce the youtube content by posting on fb, ig about your new videos.

But that's just general advise trying to cast a big nest. The more effective channels usually come from being part of an existing community (think reddit forum or website forum or facebook group) and offering a product that fixes what people want.

As for hiring. Hire someone who has done marketing before or hire someone who is part of a community you want to be in who is usually doing a lot of unpaided work to make the community better.

[jimbokun]

At what point does sales end and marketing begins?

[shostack]

In b2b neither ends.