To scale 2X, we are hiring a Sales Head.
Do you have your selling process mapped out?
Of course... well, no. It is in our heads.
Then the Sales Head will fail.
An external sales leader cannot make an immediate difference if you do not know what got you to your first ₹8.5 Cr. A Sales Head will scale a process, not build one — and even if they can build, you will not give them the time.
Three questions first
Is a repeatable selling process written down?
Do at least three salespeople consistently hit quota?
Is your demo-to-close rate between 18% and 25%?
If any answer is no, do not hire yet.
The five numbers
Five Numbers, Ten Minutes
ICP fit
What % of your last 30 demos match your top 3 closed-won accounts? Healthy: 70% or more. Below that, you are selling to the wrong people.
Access to the decision-maker
What % of those demos had the real economic buyer on the call? Healthy: 60% or more. Below that, you are educating influencers who cannot sign.
Demo-to-close rate
Healthy: 18–25%. Below 18%, either the ICP is wrong or your discovery is a disguised pitch.
Sales cycle length
Healthy: 45–65 days. Above 65, deals are dying in silence.
Proposals ghosted or lost
Healthy: below 30%. Above that, the proposal is not losing the deal — your discovery did, forty minutes earlier.
Score it
5 of 5 healthy
Hire with confidence.
3 or 4 healthy
One broken lever — make a targeted fix, and still hire.
1 or 2 healthy
A compounding leak — reset the go-to-market before hiring.
0 of 5
Revenue is theatre. Stop selling and start diagnosing.
I have run these five numbers across 10 companies in the last 18 months. Not one founder had all five at their fingertips. Founders above ₹40 Cr usually know them cold.
For candidates too: ask these questions in your interview to know whether you will survive beyond 18 months
Related: Hired a Sales Head to get out of deals. Still on every call? — what happens when this step is skipped.