# From founder-led selling to the first sales hire > Write down what the founders know, agree shared definitions and a service agreement between marketing and sales, choose and onboard the first salesperson, and use AI tools with human review and care for data. - Course: [B2B Marketing and Sales: Win Your First Company Customers](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales.md) - Module: Accounts, renewals and the first hire - Lesson 31/32, ~22 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/from-founder-led-to-first-hire ## It all lives in two heads **Alex Tutor:** Back at Klasna for Teams. With three big clients starting this spring, Marta finally has a budget for one more person. **Marta:** Leo and I agreed: we hire a salesperson for new deals. You keep marketing and the key accounts. The new person must not start from zero. **Leo:** Half of our small clients came through people I know. I know whom to call and what to say. None of it is written down. **Alex Tutor:** That's **founder-led sales**: founders sell because they know the product and the buyers best. It works early. It stops working when the founders' calendars are full and nobody else knows the moves. **Alex Tutor:** So before the **first sales hire**, write a short playbook: whom we sell to and whom not, why clients buy, the questions that qualify a deal, common objections with honest answers, prices and which discounts need approval, and proof stories. > **Exercise:** Which belong in the playbook Teams writes **before** its first sales hire? Choose all that apply. ## Words that mean the same to everyone **Sofia:** I'm already worried about one thing. I'll pass on a lead, the new person will call it rubbish, and we'll argue every week. **Alex Tutor:** Then agree on words before the hire. A **sales-qualified lead** for Teams: a company that fits the profile, a named person with a real training need, a known route to the budget owner, and a start within six months. **Alex Tutor:** Try the definition on four leads from last month. > **Exercise:** Which lead is **sales-qualified** under Teams' definition (fits the profile, a named person with a need, a route to the budget owner, a start within six months)? **Alex Tutor:** Then the stages: each one ends with something the buyer did, not with how the seller feels. And the **handover**: what travels with the lead, so nobody asks the client the same questions twice. **Marta:** Write the handover note as a short template: who, which company, what need, who owns the budget if we know, what was promised, next step and date. > **Exercise:** Match each shared term with the definition Teams agreed on. ## A service agreement between two teams **Alex Tutor:** Now put promises on both sides in a **marketing–sales SLA**. Marketing promises leads that meet the definition, with the handover note filled in. Sales promises to contact each one within one working day. **Alex Tutor:** And a feedback loop: sales accepts or returns each lead within a week, with a reason. Once a month you look at the returned ones together and fix the definition or the campaign. **Leo:** Isn't that bureaucracy for a team of three? **Alex Tutor:** It's one page. The response time and the one-week window are Marta's choice, not an industry rule. What matters is that both sides can see when a promise is broken, before it turns into blame. > **Exercise:** Which clause makes the marketing–sales SLA **two-sided**? **Alex Tutor:** Leo calls it bureaucracy. And where do those times come from? > **Exercise:** **True or false:** the SLA's one working day to contact a lead and one week to accept or return it are industry standards Teams has to follow. ## Whom to hire, and the first month **Marta:** One candidate sold phone plans, 40 calls a day. Another sold software to HR teams, slowly, through committees. Who fits? **Sofia:** The first one sounds like more energy. Forty calls a day is a lot. **Alex Tutor:** Energy helps, but hire for the sale you actually have: long, with a buying committee, procurement and legal. That's the second candidate. Test with a work sample: a role-played discovery call and the follow-up email. **Alex Tutor:** Then onboard. Week one: the playbook and two clients' stories. Weeks two and three: sit in on Marta's calls. Week four: run calls with Marta listening. Only then take new leads alone. > **Exercise:** Teams sells programs over two to three months through a buying committee. Which hiring approach fits best? **Alex Tutor:** The hire is made. Put Marta's onboarding plan in order. > **Exercise:** Put the new salesperson's first weeks in order. ## AI tools, with a human in charge **Sofia:** Can the new person use AI tools to draft emails and research companies? It would save hours. **Alex Tutor:** Yes, for drafts, call summaries and research from public sources. But a person reads and edits every message before it goes out: these tools can invent facts, numbers and even people. **Alex Tutor:** And care with data. No client contracts, employee names or call recordings in tools the company hasn't approved. Record or transcribe a call only with the client's consent. And the consent rules for outbound still apply. **Marta:** Put that on the playbook's last page. Short, so people actually read it. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** if an AI tool drafted a follow-up email from the call notes, it can be sent without reading it, since the notes were accurate. ## Your turn: the one-page agreement **Marta:** The new person starts in May. I want the definition and the promises on paper before then. **Alex Tutor:** Write it so a stranger could decide in a minute whether a lead qualifies and who owes what to whom. **Sofia:** Criteria that are facts, not feelings. A handover list. Promises with times on both sides. **Alex Tutor:** Exactly. And mark which numbers are your choice, so nobody mistakes them for a law of nature. > **Exercise:** Write the core of Teams' one-page marketing–sales agreement: (1) **3–4 criteria** for a sales-qualified lead, (2) what the **handover note** contains, (3) **one promise from each side** with a time. Mark which numbers are your team's choice. > **Key ideas** > > - **Founder-led sales** works early and stops scaling when only the founders know the moves. Before the **first sales hire**, write a short playbook. > - Agree words first: what a **sales-qualified lead** is, what ends each stage (something the buyer did), what a handover note contains. > - A **marketing–sales SLA** puts promises on both sides: leads that meet the definition, a response time, accept-or-return with a reason, a monthly review. The times are your choice. > - Hire for the sale you have (long, committee-driven), test with a work sample, and onboard step by step before handing over leads. > - AI tools draft and research; a person reviews every message. No client data in unapproved tools; record calls only with consent. **Alex Tutor:** Next time, the last case of the course: Veloria at 38% of Teams' lessons, and Marta wants an answer. - Previous lesson: [Renewals, expansion and complaints](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/renewals-and-expansion.md) - Next lesson: [Case: Veloria is 38% of Teams revenue](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/veloria-38-percent-case.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.