What I Learned Scaling from 2-80 Salespeople in Under a Year - Sam Blond Sales Hacker Conference San Francisco - November 6, 2014 Visit SalesHacker.com for more sales hacks, tips, and tactics.

1. How we grew from 2 to 80 reps
in under a year (and the lessons
we learned along the way)

2. Agenda
- Overview of Zenefits and 2014 Growth
- Recruiting
- Quotas and Compensation
- Controlling Cycle Times
- Specialization & Sales Development
- Training
- Org Structure & Promoting
- Q&A

3. So, what is Zenefits?

4. Payrol
l
Health
Insurance
Employee
Onboardin
g
401(k
)
Commute
r
And much
more :)

5. Growth Overview
- Started Jan 1, 2014 with 20 employees; 2 in
sales
- Currently 400 employees; 60 closing reps; 55
SDR’s
- Will finish 2014 with 80 closing reps; 70 SDR’s

6. Recruiting
- What to look for in a rep?
- When is it time to hire a VP of Sales?
- What should that VP bring to the table?
- Outside recruiters (we use several: Betts, Lions,
RJR, Premier)
- When is it time to hire an internal recruiter?

7. Quotas and Compensation
- Quotas should be challenging, but attainable
- I like 70% or more of reps hitting quota
- You get what you pay for
- Pay for performance, not attendance
- You want to create a reputation of paying above
market – this will help tremendously with
recruiting

8. Controlling Cycle Times
- Why is this important?
- The role of discounting
- Get creative
- Don’t back down

9. Specialization & Sales Development
- Specialization allow reps to be more efficient
- If the margins support specialization, do it. If
not, get creative to find an alternative solution
- Sales Dev should roll up into Marketing
- Specialization can go beyond Sales Dev and
closing reps

10. Training
- Hire strategically; you should not be spending time
training reps on how to sell
- You can wing it for a while, but only up to about 10
reps
- When you are hiring more than 2 reps/month, hire
them in classes
- Over-invest in training as soon as you are hiring in
classes
- Hire someone dedicated to run training and
enablement
- Make culture a priority and include it in training

11. Org Structure & Promoting
- Each closing rep manager should have 8-10
direct reports. SDR managers can handle a bit
more
- Keep the org structure simple
- Promote from within if it’s the best option,
but don’t force it
- Be careful not to set unrealistic expectations
around promoting

12. Q&A
Thank you.
Sam Blond
sam@zenefits.com