Dear Vice President of Sales, no one is out to get you.

I did a podcast the other day with Kyle Norton, CRO of Owner.com, which is coming out soon and is going to be great. One of the topics is how many VPs of Sales and CROs think that CEOs, boards, and VCs are basically out to get them. That the goal is to fire them after 7-8 months if they can’t execute on an impossible plan. In fact, we see this all over LinkedIn.

Does this happen sometimes? Yes

A founder I know wants

The search for a VP of Sales takes a tremendous amount of energy. It often takes the better part of a year, and often even after an initial failure or failure. Everyone wants the VP of Sales to work. Anyone in their right mind knows that starting over will take the better part of the year again. Almost no CEO or VC firm has a magical superstar VP of Sales just waiting to happily take your job.

What I see today is that many sales VPs are often given almost too much time. Since “macro impact” and “the downturn” are now a built-in excuse for many founders (as long as they don’t run out of money), I see many CEOs actually wanting to protect and keep their underperforming sales VPs. Not fire them. Why? Because they just can’t think of a better idea.

• Do many venture capitalists talk behind closed doors about firing a VP of sales when a startup underperforms? Yes, absolutely. The VP of Sales’ job is to… make sales, so they’re the first people to be approached in closed meetings when sales are falling short.
• But I see VCs telling CEOs to
• And I almost always see founders who have a VP of Sales who underperforms for longer than necessary.. Not firing them for things that are “not their fault.”

Selling is hard, and the hardest job in sales is that of VP Sales/CRO. Because the number increases every quarter.

But remember that no one is out to get you or sabotage you. Everyone wants you to succeed.

Start with an honest plan that you understand and believe in. Then you can re-do your forecast once. And after that? If you have to re-do your forecast a second time in the first year, you’ve joined the wrong startup.

This concerns everyone.

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