The journey of building a successful company takes dedication, hustle, and the right strategies. In this blog post, we dive into the experience and wisdom of Samir Smajic, CEO and co-founder of GetAccept in scaling a SaaS sales organization. With his unique perspective on sales and business growth, Samir shares invaluable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs and sales leaders.
Meet Samir Smajic, a Serial Entrepreneur with a Passion for SaaS Sales
Samir Smajic is not your typical CEO. He’s a seasoned entrepreneur who knows what it takes to scale a company from scratch. As the CEO and co-founder of GetAccept, Samir has taken his company from zero to 200K in just two months. Today, with almost 200 employees and an impressive 15 million ARR, GetAccept is a force to be reckoned with in the industry.
But Samir’s success story goes beyond numbers. With a deep love for sales and a genuine passion for product development, Samir brings a unique perspective to the table. He’s a family man, a thrill-seeker who has gone skydiving, and an avid believer in providing concrete takeaways for improving sales.
Aligning Sales Leadership with Different Growth Phases
In the early stages of a company, founders often find themselves wearing many hats, including come up with their sales strategies. Samir emphasizes the importance of founders handling sales themselves, especially in the zero to 2 million stage.
However, as the company grows, it becomes vital to bring in experienced sales managers who can assist in the hustle phase.
Samir advises against hiring at the C-level position too early. Instead, focus on finding someone with full sales cycle experience, someone who can handle calls, meetings, and closing deals.
It’s also crucial to ensure that the person can quickly adapt to your market and product, as hiring someone too far from your business domain may require constant guidance and training for every deal.
Hiring the Right People for High-Growth Sales Organizations
To rapidly grow from two to 10 million ARR, Samir emphasizes the importance of hiring someone experienced in hiring sales reps. Look for individuals who have successfully built sales teams in different environments, as they will be adaptable when faced with challenges.
Culture fit is essential when hiring a sales leader, but it’s not necessary for them to have experience in your specific market. As long as they have experience in a similar field or have sold similar products/services, they can bring valuable insights to the table.
Samir suggests focusing on finding a leader who can build and manage a team, rather than hiring individual kick-ass sales reps.
Establishing Leading Metrics for Success in SaaS Sales
Samir’s approach to tracking progress and ensuring success involves focusing on both lagging and leading indicators. While lagging indicators, such as past results, are essential, leading indicators are equally, if not more, crucial.
By tracking relevant web visitors, ARR, pipeline generation, churn, activation, and product engagement, sales leaders can gain insights into where their company is heading.
High-growth companies have distinctive traits, such as rapid growth and high deal sizes. Interestingly, inbound marketing is not the sole source of pipeline for such companies. About 50% of the pipeline is sourced from marketing, and that percentage decreases as deal sizes increase.
Furthermore, sales development representative (SDR) teams play a crucial role in high-growth companies, with a strong focus on outbound prospecting.
Building a Strong SaaS Sales Team
Hiring the right sales reps is the foundation of a strong sales team. Samir emphasizes the importance of having an internal recruitment team that truly understands your culture, business, and product.
A data-driven approach to hiring, combining gut feeling with profiles and assessments, can help identify the right candidates.
Conducting case interviews can further assess candidates’ skills and alignment with your product offerings. It’s crucial to have a quick contract process in place to secure top talent before they consider other opportunities.
Once hired, implementing a structured onboarding program with clear expectations and training plans is key to setting sales reps up for success. A sales bible capturing learnings and best practices can aid in knowledge transfer and continuous improvement.
The Path to Sales Excellence
Samir Smajic’s journey from zero to 200K and beyond showcases the power of hustle, passion, and strategic decision-making. Aspiring entrepreneurs and sales leaders can learn valuable lessons from his experiences.
From aligning sales leadership with different growth phases to establishing leading metrics and building a strong sales team, Samir’s insights provide a roadmap for success.
Remember, the path to sales excellence is unique for each company, but the underlying principles remain the same. Embrace the challenges, hire the right people, measure what matters, and continuously improve.
And who knows, with the right strategies and determination, you might just find yourself scaling from zero to 200K in record time, just like Samir Smajic and GetAccept.
Want to learn more from Samir? Get free access to his course and the full slide deck and playbook here.
