How to hire a Head of Sales

• You have two to three ramped AEs consistently hitting quota.
• The founder can no longer be in every deal cycle.
• You have a defensible ICP and a repeatable playbook already written down.

• Coach and manage the AE team, including deal reviews and pipeline hygiene.
• Own the forecast and pipeline generation model.
• Design and iterate comp plans, quotas, and territories.
• Hire the next 2-4 AEs and the first sales ops or enablement role.

• Managed a team of AEs that hit plan at a similar-stage company.
• Player-coach comfort: still in deals, still coaching live.
• Track record of hiring AEs who ramp inside 6 months.

• Prior founding AE experience.
• Domain fit with your buyer.

• Only ever managed inside a company past $50m ARR.
• Uses process language without deal-level examples.
• Wants to add SDRs and enablement before hitting number.

• Senior AEs one level from the promotion at similar-stage companies.
• Ex-founders with GTM background.
• Warm intros from your investor network.

1. Founder chat: what the current sales machine looks like and where it breaks.
2. Team plan: they present a 90-day plan for your existing AEs.
3. Live deal review with your current team.
4. References from an AE they managed and their most recent manager.

**Head of Sales at [Company]**

[Company] is [context, ARR, growth]. We are hiring our first Head of Sales to build the team and the machine.

**What you will own**
- Coaching and managing the AE team.
- Forecasting, pipeline generation, and comp plans.
- Hiring the next 2-4 AEs and the first sales ops hire.

**About you**
- Managed a team of AEs at a similar-stage company that hit plan.
- Player-coach: still in deals, still coaching live.
- Have hired AEs who ramped inside 6 months.

**Comp**
[Base] + [OTE] + [equity]. Real accelerators over-plan.