Sell For Scale - The Sales Playbook for Growth

Hire a sales leader who builds & scales your team: The "Profit Partner" Model.

• Dylan Starr • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Tired of hiring sales reps who disappear in 90 days or only ask for leads? As founders, we often look for closers, but what we truly need is a strategic partner who can build, lead, and scale our entire sales department alongside us.

In this episode of Sell For Scale, I introduce you to the "Profit Partner" concept. This isn't just another sales rep; it's a high-level sales operator who takes ownership and accountability for your entire sales system, driving consistent, predictable revenue. I'll reveal why common sales hiring cycles lead to frustration and how this model creates true alignment, helping your business scale past even $100K per month.

You'll discover the common mistakes founders make when trying to scale their sales team early on, alongside the profound impact of this unique sales leadership role on business growth and retention. I'll also share my 3-step framework to find and recruit a "Profit Partner," covering how to correctly position your opportunity, key questions to ask during the interview process, and the compensation model and onboarding plan that incentivizes long-term ownership.

Finally, I'll provide actionable steps to rewrite your sales rep description and start your search this week. If you're ready to build a robust sales machine that brings in consistent revenue without the stress of constant hiring and management, this episode is a must-listen.

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Most founders are looking for closures, but what they really need is a co-piloT. closures close, but profit partners. They build, lead, and scale the entire sales department alongside you. So if you're tired of hiring reps who ask for lead and disappear in 90 days, Then this episode will show you how to find the person to build the system with you. So here's the common cycle. You hire a closer. They ask for warm leads. They close a few deals, maybe if you're lucky, But then they bounce whenever the leads slow down, or even worse, their performance dip. The truth is closers only rely on what already exists in the company. But the issue is most founders don't even have a sales process yet. So what you need isn't a closer. You need someone who can build the machine for you, and that is exactly what a profit partner does. Nobody actually teaches you how to find one. Until now. By the end of this episode, you'll know. Where to find closers with profit partner potential. How to qualify them without getting burned. And what to say to attract them, even if you don't have a big brand or a sales team. My name is Dylan Star, and this is the Sell for Scale podcast. So a year and a half ago, a founder came to me who was in the trading space. He had a high ticket offer. He was going through a bunch of closers, and he was really frustrated because none of the closers were even performing. And even worse, they were waiting to be told what to do, and then they would just leave. So they wouldn't even stick around. And he felt like he was wasting his time. And in his defense, he was. After I looked under the hood, I realized he had a great offer. He had leads, but what he was actually missing was structure. Each closer kept coming to him and saying the same thing. Can you send me more calls?. But nobody actually took the time to help him build an outbound system, a repeatable script, a follow up flow, or even a hiring pipeline. So I eventually told him, look man, you don't need a closer. You need to actually go and hire a profit partner. We rewrote his job description and led with rev share impact and ownership. And within two weeks, we were able to help him find a qualified profit partner, potential candidate, who was excited to help him scale. Fortunately, I had the pleasure of working with this individual and training him in the past so I know he had experience to do outbound. Handle managing cells himself. Didn't need someone holding his hand, looking over his shoulder. He knew exactly what to do from refining the offer to building a frame, everything from scratch. After working with him within the first month, he had a massive week, literally just outbounding his leads, everything that was on the table. He collected $54,000 in cash for the business.$54,000 in one week. Was the profit partner happy? Heck? Yeah. He got commissions and percentage of that rev share in his pocket for that one week of work. Literally money that was just sitting there on the table that an average closer never wanna been able to do because they don't have the skillset to do outbound, or even worse, they have to be told what to do. According to Sales Hacker, 70% of commission-based closers will quit in the first 90 days if they do not have consistent lead flow. roles that did include rev share and leadership responsibility. Would see three to four x higher retention and better ownership behavior. According to Founder Path's B2B benchmarks. Founders who bring on high level sales operators as early partners are 67% more likely to scale past a hundred K per month. So if you want someone to stick as a founder, you need to give them something worth sticking for. So the mistake that I see most founders make in the early stages is they go to market posting job descriptions for hiring a closer. Or even worse, they put high performing closers. They think just because they're in the beginning stages of their business, that a very well-versed, high performing closer who is top tier, is gonna all of a sudden be interested in their opportunity of a new startup that has no process, no proof of concept. An offer just created a thin air. Maybe they sold it, maybe they haven't, we'll just see all this potential to want to go and work with them. And unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. So what do you do if you're an early founder? What you need to be hiring for? Is a partner who can build with you? A strategist who can sell, and a leader who wants ownership, not just commission. And this actually doesn't require a massive company or a huge brand. It only requires clarity, transparency, and of course, a killer offer. So if you've made it this far and you have no idea what I'm talking about in terms of profit partner, then please make sure you go back to the previous episode of the podcast, episode seven. Go listen to that episode and catch up. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about because now I'm about to go into my three step framework for how to find and hire a profit partner. So step one of the process is refine the ask. Don't just post looking for closers. Instead, lead with this. Looking for a performance based sales partner to build and lead a scalable sales system. Rev share model, not commission only. Be specific. Talk, partnership, ownership and outcomes. Step two, filter for builders, not takers. During the interview process, you wanna ask every single candidate these three questions. Question number one, what sales system have you helped build before? Now, why is this important? Because we wanna know their experience of being involved in the process of helping building something out.'cause we all know as founders, starting a process from scratch is not easy and it's not something that anybody can do. Certainly a brand new beginner who has to fill it out from scratch, right? We want somebody with experience who has done it and you'll know based on their response whether or not. They're just pulling something outta their butt or if they're actually saying things that make sense and you can tell if they have experience, they will know what they're talking about. Question number two. How do you approach mentoring or training other reps? Now, why do we ask 'em this question? Because if they're gonna be going and building an entire sales process from scratch, and we're gonna be ramping up and I'm gonna be giving them a high margin of my revenue, then I have to know that they have the experience to hire people and mentor them and train them. Again, I don't want them to learn this as their first time. I want to hear key instances and situations that they can tell me of them mentoring somebody and guiding them in the past. Because as a founder, I don't wanna have to go and step in. I wanna know that I can trust my profit partners who have this experience and lead the charge so I can stay completely out of the sales process. That is their job. My only job as a founder should only be focusing on the macro level ideas of the business. And branding and fulfilling my clients. All sales needs to go to the profit partner and he or she can handle building the team hiring and training. All right, and the third and final question. What does your ideal partnership with the founder actually look like? This question is designed to see what kind of relationship are they actually looking for this partnership? How do they view themselves interacting with the founder? Do they take communication seriously? What kind of outcomes are they looking for? And more importantly, what are their goals and are they actually future pacing the next three, five, or even 10 years down the road, and thinking long term of growing within the organization. Remember, you're looking for system thinkers, people who think macro level as building a system, not just someone who can repeat a script. And finally, number three of the framework set a clear structure you want to offer at least very, very important, 20 to 30%. Of all revenue that they generate for the business. Then you wanna set 30, 60, and 90 day check-ins. That are tied to actual outcomes. Now, why 20 to 30%? If you're listening to this or you're watching this and you hear that amount and you freak out and you're like, oh my gosh, there's so much, remember. We want to incentivize them to be long-term thinkers and if they're gonna go and build a team, they also need enough margin to be able to go and pay them team from the revenue. That's one of the biggest benefits of having a profit partner is, is their responsibility to hire and divvy up their revenue however they see fit, to be able to go and do the team, and they're gonna need enough to be able to do so then you wanna let them grow into that team ownership. Where the percentage that you give them can actually increase as they grow the team. So eventually you're looking at 40 to even 50%. And if you wanna start as 50 50 partners, that's completely fine. But if you'd rather incentivize'em to start small and see. How well they do and then incentivize them with higher commissions later on so they'll know like, Hey, I'm cool with giving you 40 or even 50% based on how you perform so you can have more money in your pocket and have that to be able to grow and grow the team. But I just gotta see what, where you're gonna do and what you're gonna accomplish. Remember, this is a relationship. It's you gotta take time to build trust. And the best part is if they crush it. And stay loyal. They become your VP of sales without the salary bloat, and that's exactly how you should think about your profit partner. Essentially, they are a loyal VP of sales who are running your entire sales operation. Managing the team, hiring, training, and focusing on sales process and putting money into the business without you dealing with the stress of sales or managing the team yourself. So next steps for this week. Get started right away. If you're a founder, go ahead and rewrite your sales rep description to reflect an actual profit partner opportunity. Then identify at least one platform where you know closers are hanging out. This can be Facebook groups, LinkedIn, or even school communities. And finally, post the description, share it, and start the conversation. Remember, you don't need five closers. You only need one solid person who can build the entire business with you. So question. Are you looking for a profit partner right now? If so, dm me or tag me with the word partner on LinkedIn or Instagram and I'll send you a starter template for your outreach and offer structure. And if this helped shift your perspective at all on profit partners versus closures and you got value, make sure you subscribe to the podcast and share it with any founder you know that's trying to build a business from scratch. Now that you found your profit partner, how do you set them up for success? In the next episode, I'm gonna walk you through the profit partner ramp up plan. This is the exact 30, 60 and 90 day structure that I use to onboard new partners so that they're building, closing, and even scaling by month three. No guesswork. Just results. See you on the next episode.