Most Sales Leaders Get AE Hiring Wrong - Here's 5 ways to fix it.

Hey,

I have been helping to hire for sales teams for high growth SaaS businesses for over 15 years now, I have supported 16 different unicorns and 100’s of high growth VC & PE backed businesses. My teams and I have placed 1000’s of Account executives in that time and have seen and made every mistake in the book when it comes to attracting, hiring and retaining top talent.

The intention of this guide is to help you learn from our mistakes, to give you insights to who did it right and more importantly what they did. Our aim is to help you optimise your Account Executive hiring, while avoiding those costly AE mis-hires..

This guide is intended for the founders and early stage sales leaders who are building their fledgling GTM teams in a Seed to Series B SaaS business.

Now let’s be honest—hiring account executives (AEs) is where many sales leaders stumble. AE mis-hiring can cripple a startup and despite good intentions and significant resources, the recruitment process for many startups often fails to identify and attract the right talent. This isn’t just a small issue; it’s a problem that can dramatically affect growth, especially in early-stage SaaS companies. If you’ve found yourself making costly hiring mistakes, you’re not alone.

The good news? You can fix it.

This guide is broken down into 5 common problems and a potential fix for each. Each then has guidance on how to implement the fix and optimise it for your business.

NOTE: No two businesses are the same. What works in one company will have different results in another. This is intended as a guide, to point you in the right direction, but the best organisations often light their own path.

We will cover;

• Misaligned Hiring Criteria
• Inefficient Interview Process
• Weak Candidate Pipeline
• Failing to Close Top Talent
• Ineffective Onboarding

1. The Problem: Misaligned Hiring Criteria

Many sales leaders start the hiring process with a vague idea of what they need—usually a list of generic traits like “hustle,” “grit,” or “charisma”. An off the shelf ‘cookie cutter’ job description and a ‘I will know it when I see it’ kind of approach. While this is all great and these traits are nice-to-haves, they don’t get to the heart of what actually drives success in your specific business context.

Why This Fails

A common pitfall is hiring based on experience at big-name or aligned (competitor) companies. Sure, someone who’s sold at Salesforce or a competitor might look great on paper, but selling an established, widely-known product is entirely different from selling an emerging SaaS solution that’s still finding its market fit. Early-stage sales require a unique set of skills that often go overlooked. Equally selling a competitor's product, in their environment, with their sales methodology and company culture can be completely different to yours. (It might work but don’t assume it will).

The Fix: Define Success for Your Context

TAKE THE TIME NOW, TO SAVE TIME AND MONEY LATER!

Start by asking, “What makes a great AE here?” This requires you to understand your product, market, and sales cycle in-depth. Are you selling a highly technical product to enterprise customers? Or a more straightforward solution to SMBs? Define the specific hard and soft skills that will lead to success in your environment.

EXAMPLES INCLUDE;

Key Hard Skills:

• Quota Achievement: Look for consistent performance, but probe into how they achieved it. Did they rely on inbound leads, or can they build their own pipeline?
• Prospecting Ability: In an early-stage SaaS company, the AE needs to be a self-starter who can generate leads independently.
• Adaptability: Early-stage companies are constantly evolving. The right AE needs to be able to pivot quickly as the company’s strategy, product, or market focus changes.

Key Soft Skills:

• Independence: Can they operate effectively without a lot of resources?
• Customer-Centricity: They must be focused on building long-term relationships, not just closing deals.
• Cultural Fit: Are they aligned with your company’s mission and values? This is critical in a startup environment where everyone needs to pull in the same direction.

Once you know what you are looking for, it's critical that you communicate this to all parties involved in the hiring process. Everyone needs to know what they are looking for and why. How are you going to measure it and who is responsible for screening what?

Example Questions to screen for this:

To assess whether a candidate fits the specific context of your early-stage SaaS business, you can ask targeted questions that dig into their past experiences and how they approach sales in varying environments. Here are some key example questions:

1. Understanding the Sales Environment Fit

• "Tell me about a product you sold that was new to the market or still finding its fit. How did you approach selling it, and what challenges did you face?"
• "Describe a situation where you had to pivot your sales strategy due to changes in the product or market. How did you manage the transition?"
  
  

2. Assessing Quota Achievement

• "Can you walk me through how you achieved your sales targets in your last role? What percentage of your deals came from inbound leads versus outbound efforts?"
• "In your experience, how did you ensure you consistently met or exceeded your quota, especially in a challenging market or with a new product?"

3. Evaluating Prospecting Ability

• "How do you typically build and manage your sales pipeline, especially in an environment with limited brand recognition or established demand?"
• "Share a time when you had to generate leads from scratch. What strategies did you use, and what were the results?"

4. Testing Adaptability

• "Can you provide an example of a time when your company’s sales process or product offering changed significantly? How did you adapt your approach?"
• "How do you handle situations where the sales methodology you've been trained on isn't yielding results in a new environment?"

5. Evaluating Independence

• "Describe a time when you had to be resourceful to close a deal because you didn’t have the ideal tools or support at the time."
• "What’s the most creative solution you’ve implemented to overcome a lack of resources or support in closing a sale?"

6. Assessing Customer-Centricity

• "How do you balance closing deals with ensuring long-term customer satisfaction, especially when working with early-stage products that might not be fully developed?"
• "Tell me about a time when you turned a difficult customer situation into a long-term, successful relationship. What was your approach?"

7. Cultural Fit and Alignment

• "What attracts you to our company’s mission and values? How do you see yourself contributing to our culture?"
• "In what kind of work environment do you thrive, and how do you ensure you stay aligned with the company’s goals and culture?"

8. Understanding Past Experience in Similar Roles

• "Have you worked at an early-stage startup before? How did the challenges there differ from your experiences at more established companies?"
• "Can you compare your experience selling at a large company versus a smaller, growing company? What skills were most transferable, and what did you have to learn?"

These example questions will help you assess whether the candidate has the right blend of hard and soft skills to thrive in your specific business context. The goal is to identify not just someone who can sell, but someone who can sell in your environment, with all the unique challenges and opportunities it presents.

Most founders and sales leaders have an idea of what they want to ask but tend to freestyle in interviews, I would highly recommend that you take time to build your own structured question list, before you start interviewing. This will allow you to be consistent with your screening and will ensure that can assess candidates specific to your needs.

2. The Problem: Inefficient Interview Processes 

The traditional sales interview process is often a marathon of back-to-back interviews, mock pitches, and irrelevant assessments. This approach is not only exhausting but also fails to uncover the traits that actually predict success.

Why This Fails

The problem with long, drawn-out interview processes is that they scare off top candidates. The best AEs are typically off the market within a couple of weeks and if they’re passive headhunted candidate then they wont stay engaged. If your process drags on, you’ll lose out on the talent you need. The best SaaS companies are completing AE hiring processes in a maximum of 2 weeks (Usually less and that's 1st interview to offer accepted).

The Fix: Streamline and Focus

Your interview process should be designed to quickly and effectively identify the candidates who are a true fit. If you can’t get through an end to end process in 2 weeks or less, look at why, what are the blockers and remove them. To hire top talent, candidate experience is everything.

The interview process needs to cover 3 phases (initial screening, Soft skills assessment & Hard skills assessment). If you do this properly you can satisfy them in 2 or 3 interview stages and have everything you need to make a qualified decision.

Step 1: Initial Screening - This is for both of you, they are assessing you as much as you are them (Don’t forget to sell the opportunity!)

• Goal: Sell the opportunity and gauge cultural fit.
• Tip: This is your chance to get the candidate excited about your vision. If they’re not interested in your mission, it’s better to find out early. DON’T FORGET TO SELL!

Step 2: Soft Skills Assessment

• Goal: Assess their ability to thrive in your specific startup environment.
• Tip: Use behavioural interview questions to explore how they’ve handled similar challenges or environments in the past. For example, “Tell me about a time when you had to adapt quickly to a major change.”

Step 3: Hard Skills Assessment

• Goal: Evaluate their real-world sales acumen.
• Tip: Skip the mock sales pitch and opt for deal reviews instead. Ask them to walk you through a few key deals they’ve closed. This will give you insight into their sales process, problem-solving skills, and ability to close under pressure. Mock sales pitches or similar tend to be an act or performance with limited substance.

To streamline your interview process and focus on quickly identifying the right candidates, here are some targeted questions for each step:

Step 1: Initial Screening

Sell the Opportunity:

• "What excites you about our company’s mission and product?"
• "Why do you want to work at an early-stage startup rather than a more established company?"

Gauge Cultural Fit:

• "Describe the work environment in which you are most productive and happy."
• "How do you align your personal goals with those of the company you work for?"

Step 2: Soft Skills Assessment

Adaptability:

• "Can you share an example of a time you had to quickly adapt to a significant change in your role?"
• "Describe a situation where you had to learn something new rapidly to succeed. How did you approach it?"

Problem-Solving:

• "Tell me about a time when you faced an unexpected challenge in a sales process. How did you resolve it?"
• "How do you handle situations where you have to make a decision with limited information?"

Resilience and Grit:

• "Describe a time when you had to persist through multiple setbacks to close a deal. What kept you going?"
• "What’s the most challenging deal you’ve ever worked on, and how did you manage to close it?"

Step 3: Hard Skills Assessment

Deal Review:

• "Walk me through the most complex deal you’ve closed. What was your strategy from prospecting to close?"
• "Tell me about a deal you lost. What did you learn from that experience, and how have you applied it since?"

Sales Process Mastery:

• "Describe your approach to managing a sales pipeline in a startup with limited resources."
• "How do you prioritise your time when balancing multiple deals in various stages?"

Objection Handling:

• "Give me an example of a time when a deal was on the verge of falling through due to a customer objection. How did you turn it around?"

These questions help ensure that your interview process is not only efficient but also effective in identifying candidates who are the right fit for your early-stage SaaS business.

3. The Problem: Weak Candidate Pipeline

Another major issue sales leaders face is not having enough high-quality candidates in the pipeline. This often leads to desperation hires—bringing on someone who’s “good enough” rather than waiting for the right fit.

‘Admit it you have done this! I have and it never works out.

Why This Fails

Relying on inbound applicants often results in a shallow pool of talent.

Does this sound like you? You have a vacancy, so you post an update on LinkedIn asking your network to recommend someone. You may also post a Job Advert on LinkedIn or similar and that drives applicants. Sometimes this can result in hundreds of applications, some of which could even do the job, but these are the ‘good enough’ people.

The problem with this is that the best, top performing sales talent is not actively looking for a job. They are not applying to job adverts, they are off somewhere closing deals and making it rain. Even when they do change jobs they don’t need to apply to adverts.

Think of it like a great house, on a great road in a great area. The house never makes it to Rightmove or Zillow, they already had buyers.

To attract this talent it requires a different approach.

The Fix: Proactive, Data-Driven Sourcing

Instead of passively waiting for resumes to come in, take a proactive approach to sourcing. Use tools like LinkedIn, Crunchbase, and Apollo to identify potential candidates who have the right mix of experience and skills (External Talent Mapping). Look for those who have thrived in similar early-stage environments and who understand your target market. Then you need to organically engage this talent.

NOTE: If you want us to build your External Talent Map for you, we do this for FREE. Just follow this link and let us know what you need. https://saiyoconsulting.com/free-candidate-market-map

Build an external talent pipeline:

Unless you want to be stuck forever passively waiting for the right candidate to find you, you need to proactively build a talent pipeline by organically engaging the candidates identified in the ‘External Talent Map’. We call it ‘Talent Based Marketing (TBM), account based marketing for candidates. You surround them with the right content, so that when you finally approach them about a role they are warm and interested.

This subject area is massive so we won’t cover it in detail here, but you can get our free step by step guide to building a talent pipeline here: https://saiyoconsulting.com/free-candidate-market-map

Key highlights and benefits of a talent pipeline;

• Talent pipelines are databases of candidates who are already vetted and qualified to fill a position. They can be external and internal candidates, as well as active or passive talent.
• Crafting the perfect talent pipeline as a part of your talent acquisition strategy will reduce time to hire, save on hiring costs, boost employee engagement, and improve the quality and volume of candidates in process.
• Create engaging talent communities to keep candidates interested. Some ways to do this include showcasing your employer brand and company perks until you’ve got a vacancy to offer them.

Other ways you can increase talent pipeline - Get Creative with Sourcing

• Referrals: Tap into your network for recommendations.
• Diversity of Experience: Don’t just look for candidates from traditional tech companies. Consider those from adjacent industries who have a track record of success in fast-paced, high-growth environments.
  

4. The Problem: Failing to Close Top Talent

So you’ve finally found the perfect candidate—but they’re not signing the offer. What went wrong? Often, it comes down to poor communication and a lacklustre offer process.

Why This Fails

Top AEs are in high demand, and they know it. If your offer process is slow, confusing, or unappealing, they’ll quickly move on to other opportunities.

The Fix: Nail Your Candidate Communication

Effective communication is key to closing the deal with top talent. Here’s how to do it right:

It starts at the very beginning, the very first time someone at your company speaks to them. You need to be completely transparent and honest and ask the same of the candidate.

The candidate should be willing to share their current salary and package and their expectations if they were to make a move (this is always inflated). (As an agency we are also able to get the candidates minimum expectations, but this is always more difficult for a vendor to do directly). If the candidate is out of budget or has an inflated expectation, now is the time to address it. Tell them what the budget is, don’t waste your time in a process with a candidate that is never going to accept the position. On dozens of occasions companies have ‘hoped’ that with an amazing value prop and opportunity, they can convince a candidate to accept the position at a lower salary. On the rare occasion it works the candidate leaves for more money within 1 year, putting you back to square one, if not worse off.

You should never be making an offer to a candidate unless you know they are going to accept it. That is why transparent communication throughout the process is key. If you are getting surprises at the end of a process, then there is something wrong with your process.

At the end of the process ask the candidate, ‘if we make you an offer inline with the expectations discussed will you accept?’ , if they hesitate or are not sure, you have work to do. Address the concerns, just because the interview process is finished for you, it doesn't mean it is for them.

You also need to ensure transparency from the candidate relating to other opportunities and any potential promotions/counter offers within their current company. Reciprocating the transparency by telling the candidate how many candidates are in process, what stages they are at and even where they currently rank, will help smooth communication. Transparency goes both ways!

If you want any help with creating an effective process for hiring top AE’s we provide a FREE audit and recommendations service - Just follow this link and we can schedule a session https://saiyoconsulting.com/book-a-consultation

NOTE: Don’t underestimate the power and importance of the candidates benefits package, often in startups you can’t offer the ‘bells and whistles’ other companies can, candidates may expect and be ok with this, but they will also expect to be compensated for them in other ways.

Here are some other key factors in closing top AE’s

Be Decisive and Timely

• Speed Matters: Provide feedback within 24 hours after each interview. The faster you move, the better your chances of landing top candidates.
• Clear Communication: Clearly outline the next steps after each interview, so candidates know what to expect.

Use Multiple Channels

• Personal Touch: In addition to formal emails, use text messages or phone calls to keep the conversation going. This shows the candidate that you’re genuinely interested in them and helps build a rapport.

Craft a Compelling Offer

• Sell the Opportunity: Highlight the growth potential, both for the company and for the candidate’s career. Make it clear why they should choose your startup over the competition.
• Be Ready to Negotiate: Understand what’s most important to the candidate—whether it’s salary, equity, or work-life balance—and be prepared to offer a competitive package.
  

5. The Problem: Ineffective Onboarding

Finally, even if you manage to hire the right AE, poor onboarding can lead to underperformance and high turnover.

Let’s be real for a moment, an AE under performs for 1 of 2 reasons;

• You hired the wrong person
• You provided poor onboarding and haven't given them the resources needed to be successful

Both of these are your fault!

- 20% of employees who quit, do so within the first 45 days of employment.

- 69% of employees who experience an exceptional onboarding process stay for 3 years +

- 60% of employers do not set or effectively communicate milestones or goals to new employees.

Why This Fails

A weak onboarding process leaves AEs without the tools and knowledge they need to succeed. In a fast-paced startup environment, this can quickly lead to frustration and disengagement.

The Fix: Structured, Ongoing Onboarding

Your onboarding process should be structured but flexible enough to adapt to each AE’s unique needs. Here’s how to make sure your new hires hit the ground running:

Immediate Integration

• Day One: Start with a comprehensive introduction to your product, target market, and sales strategy. But don’t overwhelm them—focus on the most critical information first. (yes in an early stage startup you can expect them to do some of this for themselves, but make it easy, not hard for them).
• Ongoing Learning: Provide resources for continuous learning and development. Encourage your AEs to take initiative, but be there to guide them when needed.

Regular Check-Ins

• Weekly Meetings: Schedule regular check-ins during the first few months to discuss progress, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. This will help you catch any issues early and provide the support your new AE needs to succeed.

Measure Success

• Set Clear Goals: Establish measurable goals from the start. Whether it’s a certain number of demos booked, pipeline built, or deals closed, these benchmarks will help both you and your AE track their progress and stay focused.

Did you know at Saiyo Consulting we offer our clients access to our own SaaS onboarding and learning platform? https://getfundamental.io/

We know how finding and hiring the talent is only half of the job, providing an effective onboarding and helping the candidate be successful is just as critical. Effective onboarding can result in up-to a 45% increase in AE performance.

So there you have it

Hiring account executives for your early-stage SaaS company is a critical task that many sales leaders get wrong. But with the right approach, you can avoid the common pitfalls and build a high-performing sales team that drives your company’s growth.

Remember, it’s not just about finding someone who can sell—it’s about finding the right person who can sell your product, to your market, in your unique business environment. By defining clear success criteria, streamlining your interview process, proactively sourcing candidates, and nailing the offer and onboarding stages, you can set your company up for long-term success.

Saiyo Consulting builds Executive, Leadership and Go-To-Market teams for SaaS. Europe and the USA. Full-Time and Fractional.

If you would like any additional free guidance or advice on any of the above please schedule a consultation with one of our consultants and we will be happy to help. 

https://saiyoconsulting.com/book-a-consultation 

Happy hunting!