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> 10x salespeople are extraordinarily easy to identify, but nearly impossible to hire Doesn't that just mean you need to offer a higher percent commission, mor

> 10x salespeople are extraordinarily easy to identify, but nearly impossible to hire Doesn't that just mean you need to offer a higher percent commission, more equity, or whatever it takes to sweeten the deal?

braythwayt 11y ago
Well, now you're into a different problem: If the market is efficient, what makes you think you can afford to pay them that much? Your equity isn't magically worth more than the equity of the company that already employs them. And if you give them a tremendous chunk of every sale they make, your COS is through the roof and you aren't making any money. You might go raise a ton of cash and spend it buying great salespeople so you can buy some MRR and ARR, but everyone else is playing the exact same game, so you don't automatically raise more money than anyone else to spend on better salespeople. In the end, what I am saying is that there is an efficiency in that market for salespeople such that anything you might think of doing to bring them on board, their existing employer has already done. And possibly better than you ever could.
- w1ntermute 11y ago
  Presumably, you're targeting an opportunity that is very lucrative with a product that is very compelling, such that a sales person can generate more value per unit effort than at their current position. Or perhaps the issue is that, in sales, there isn't the same multiplier phenomenon you see in engineering from massive scale/market opportunity. And this nonlinear effort-to-output relationship is what enables the market inefficiencies (sometimes in favor of companies, and sometimes in favor of engineering employees).
  - TheCoelacanth 11y ago
    Presumably, so is anyone else who can afford to hire a 10x salesperson.
jpeg_hero 11y ago
i've known enterprise sales guys making $1m+ per year, cash comp. a YP seed would get you 30 work days...

braythwayt 11y ago

Well, now you're into a different problem: If the market is efficient, what makes you think you can afford to pay them that much? Your equity isn't magically worth more than the equity of the company that already employs them. And if you give them a tremendous chunk of every sale they make, your COS is through the roof and you aren't making any money. You might go raise a ton of cash and spend it buying great salespeople so you can buy some MRR and ARR, but everyone else is playing the exact same game, so you don't automatically raise more money than anyone else to spend on better salespeople. In the end, what I am saying is that there is an efficiency in that market for salespeople such that anything you might think of doing to bring them on board, their existing employer has already done. And possibly better than you ever could.

w1ntermute 11y ago
Presumably, you're targeting an opportunity that is very lucrative with a product that is very compelling, such that a sales person can generate more value per unit effort than at their current position. Or perhaps the issue is that, in sales, there isn't the same multiplier phenomenon you see in engineering from massive scale/market opportunity. And this nonlinear effort-to-output relationship is what enables the market inefficiencies (sometimes in favor of companies, and sometimes in favor of engineering employees).
- TheCoelacanth 11y ago
  Presumably, so is anyone else who can afford to hire a 10x salesperson.

jpeg_hero 11y ago

i've known enterprise sales guys making $1m+ per year, cash comp. a YP seed would get you 30 work days...