Competencies in Sales: Start-up VP Must-Haves

Getting the right competencies in sales when recruiting a VP of Sales for your startup has a big impact on the success of that individual (and how much cash and time you burn in getting it right). Nearly 35% of startups fail due to insufficient sales, making effective sales leadership not just important but existential for young companies. A successful VP of Sales must balance immediate revenue generation with building scalable processes for long-term success. And, they need to navigate uncertainty while maintaining team morale and alignment with the company’s evolving vision.

Like Sheryl Sandberg said, “Leadership belongs to those who take it.”

We’ve gathered key points on why a VP’s competencies in sales are critical to a start-up’s success.

Sales Competences Evolve with Stages of Growth

Sales leadership requirements evolve dramatically across a startup’s growth journey. Initially, founders typically lead sales themselves, focusing on validating product-market fit. This founder-led sales phase is rewarding and challenging, as founders know their product intimately but usually lack formal sales training. They often lead with vision and passion, which helps to build their initial early adopters and advocates.

As traction builds, the first dedicated salespeople should be versatile go-getters comfortable with uncertainty. Brendon Cassidy of SaaStr recommends hiring two salespeople rather than one as it provides redundancy and performance benchmarks.

The progression typically follows this pattern:

• Pre-Seed/Seed: Founder-led sales validating market fit
• Early Growth: First dedicated sales hires establishing processes
• Expansion: Specialised roles and team structure are emerging
• Scale: Hierarchy with senior leaders overseeing distinct segments

Each transition creates unique strains on the sales organisation. For instance, when moving from product-market fit to go-to-market fit, onboarding volume increases, but sellers may churn if value isn’t immediately apparent.

Core Competencies in Sales Every Start-up VP Should Have

Strategic Competencies in Sales

Flexible And Growth-Oriented

Selling at a startup requires adapting to constant change—pricing, product features, sales materials, and even target markets shift weekly. This creates an environment where traditional sales experience can actually be a liability rather than an asset. Many startups make the mistake of hiring for industry experience rather than sales skills, resulting in teams who “know the market but couldn’t sell their way out of a paper bag. Strong sales VPs know how to adjust to different environments. They are aware that implementing a big company’s sales strategy won’t work for start-ups. Instead, they are willing to use experience as a resource to be flexible and create new strategies aligned with their start-ups’ stage of growth.

For example, big companies have an established brand, and this works as a big plus when reaching out to prospects and closing deals. While start-ups are still building their brand, they need sharp messaging and a clear value prop that solves a niche problem – and outreach needs to be executed with serious discipline and effectiveness.

The established vs. startup sales contrast is stark:

• Established sales involve multiple stakeholders and longer cycles
• Startup sales face brand obscurity and often need to educate prospects about the problem itself
• Established products typically address known needs; startup products frequently introduce novel solutions

Purpose-Led Problem Solving

Sales VPs are problem solvers. Of course, revenue is the goal of sales. But if the VP doesn’t have strong problem-solving skills as one of their competencies in sales, that will affect how they provide effective solutions for their start-ups.

Sales VPs need to be incredibly passionate about the problem their start-up wants to solve and the solution they are providing. The only way to increase the chances of succeeding in sales is when the VP believes in the solution. It will reflect in their leadership, strategy, and commitment.

This authentic commitment also translates into creating rituals that ensure company values are embraced daily by the entire sales team. Without true mission alignment, even skilled sales leaders often abandon ship during inevitable challenges.

Process Management: Building scalable systems

A core competency of a VP of Sales involves creating repeatable, documented sales processes that function beyond a VP’s direct involvement. Without effective processes, startups face inefficiency and resource drain that ultimately hinder growth.

Structured sales processes deliver measurable benefits. They provide clear pipeline snapshots, coordinate complex tasks across teams, and enable accurate forecasting based on stage-specific conversion probabilities. A Harvard Business Review study found that companies actively managing their sales pipeline experience up to 28% higher revenue growth.

Top VPs establish standardised processes for prospecting, qualifying, quoting, and contracting. Moreover, they implement both quantitative and qualitative metrics to evaluate performance, understanding that revenue equals activity volume multiplied by quality.

Interpersonal Competencies in Sales

Talent-First Hiring Mindset

Startup recruitment is different from established company hiring. Sales VPs have to hire great sales talent for their start-up. For example, meeting applicants and having the skills and insight to assess which ones have the competencies in sales to be successful within an early-stage growth environment. Like a VP, a sales candidate from an established company and sales motion may not have the skills to succeed within a startup.

The criticality of recruiting the right sales talent for a startup should not be underestimated. With a limited budget, resources, and tough revenue goals (usually to secure the next round of funding), this is high-stakes hiring compared to hiring in an established company.

Leads Through Trust and Collaboration

Strong sales VPs lead with trust and build strong psychological safety across their team. They delegate tasks and build healthy relationships with their team. Sales VPs know that healthy communication is vital to a start-up’s success, so they maintain healthy collaboration with cross teams.

They know how to maximise their team’s strengths and assess their weaknesses to build effective sales and workflow strategies. They give the spotlight to team members who did a good job, and build a work environment that inspires each other to succeed. Their team should feel that, in a context of constant ambiguity and change, they are safe and supported by their leader.

How to Match VP’s Competencies in Sales Traits to Your Startup’s Needs

Matching the right sales leader to your startup requires a systematic approach beyond simply reviewing resumes. The perfect VP of Sales for one company might be completely wrong for another, depending on growth stage, market conditions, and internal challenges.

Evaluating your current sales gaps

Before hiring a VP of Sales, conduct a thorough assessment of your existing sales function. Ask yourself these critical questions:

• What specific revenue metrics are underperforming?
• Where do deals typically stall in your pipeline?
• Which customer segments show promise but remain underdeveloped?
• What processes exist, and where are the documentation gaps?

In essence, this evaluation reveals whether your primary challenges relate to deal execution, process development, cross-functional alignment, or team culture—the four superpowers discussed earlier. Many founders skip this crucial step, hiring based on impressive resumes rather than specific organisational needs.

Find Your Next Sales VP with Salient

A sales VP is the start-up’s sales expert. They will build sales strategies and train sales teams to achieve the business plan. Hiring the right Sales VP isn’t just important—it can determine whether a startup scales or stalls.

Need help recruiting for your next sales VP? Salient Group is an APJ-based tech and sales recruiting agency with over 15+ years of experience. Our executive search team is experienced Directors in the business who have served 400+ clients across the region.

Contact us now, and we’ll be in touch within 24 hours.