Pursuit

Hiring sales is different from hiring any other position. Why? Recruiting shifts when you have to vet out the soft skills required for sales, rather than matching resumes with open positions. Hard skills are easier to find as they are 'measurable' and soft skills are not; a lot more strategy, preparation, and intentionality are required to seek out the soft skills needed for sales roles. We have placed numerous candidates that weren't a fit on paper but were a strong fit for the actual role. A resume never tells the whole story.

Want your resume to stand out to hiring managers?📜 - Keep it short & impactful. Stick to one page otherwise it's likely to not be read. - Show your wins. Use metrics like sales numbers, rankings, and growth percentages to highlight your success. - List experience in order. Start with your most recent role and work backward. - Make it easy to scan. Keep formatting clean, clear, and straightforward. Your resume should quickly show if your experience aligns with the role. Make it easy for hiring managers to say “yes” to an interview!

A resume never tells the whole story. If you're only screening resumes, you're missing the real differentiators in candidates. Dig deeper.

When you start a hiring process with no clear candidate profile, here's what happens: ❌ You’re unsure what you actually need in this role, leading to indecision and a drawn-out hiring process. ❌ Candidates leave confused about the role - top talent moves on ❌ Time and resources are wasted interviewing candidates who aren't the right fit for your company or your role ❌The wrong hire leads to quick turnover, and you’re back at square one hiring for the same role again. Define success from the start and you'll be able to make better hires, faster.

Avoid the never-ending recruiting cycle by focusing on adding value for candidates. If you've finally found that 'perfect' person for your role, only to lose them a few months into it, it's time to reassess how you evaluate "value add" during the interview process. "Value add" differs for each candidate: career growth, company culture, work-life balance, learning opportunities, compensation, or equity. Understanding what matters most to each individual helps ensure you're offering the right incentives to attract long-term talent. Figure out what is important to the candidate during the interview process, ensure you can provide that value, and you're on the right track to hiring people who will be there for the long-haul!

Marketers are storytellers. If you're interviewing for a marketing role - your ability to land that role depends on how well you can tell your story.

This week, GTMfund and Foundation Capital hosted an inaugural type of event in San Francisco: 👉 The GTM Workshop x Founders - a blend of content, small group discussions, and open networking. When some of the sharpest founders and a handful of brilliant go-to-market leaders get together in one place, you can cover a lot of ground on considerations and tactical insights for growth and AI. We got to hear from three world-class speakers: 💥 Sydney Sloan (CMO, G2) on 5 ways to build brand awareness, considering how AI is reshaping content strategy and GTM distribution 💥 Ariela D Bitran Rich (Director of Pricing Strategy, Chargebee) on pricing as a GTM strategy. 💥 Joanne Chen (GP, Foundation Capital) on the AI landscape. We also got to go deep in small group discussions around hiring, selling, scaling and fundraising - and of course, AI's utility across all of these areas. A huge shoutout to our sponsors for making the event possible: 🟢 TriNet 🟢 Perkins Coie 🟢 Pursuit 🟢 Chargebee The three sessions will be available on the GTMnow YouTube channel next week and event dates listed in the The GTM Newsletter. Thank you to our network of founders and go-to-market leaders, our sponsor partners, and to Foundation Capital!

Your interview process can make or break your ability to land top talent. A-Players may not need your opportunity like you think they do(they probably don't). If you’re not selling them on your opportunity throughout the process, they’ll move on. A disorganized or slow-moving interview process will deter top performers. If you want A-players on your team, make sure your hiring experience is seamless, engaging, and compelling.

Ever wish you had a magic 8-ball that would tell you how someone would perform in a role?🎱 Us too....but we have the next best thing. When Pursuit was just getting started, we had someone from the The Predictive Index reach out about utilizing their assessment for candidates. Being bootstrapped at the time, the answer was no. Our rep told us if we let them test our team (20 at the time) they would be able to tell us who was a top performer based on the behavioral assessment. The entire team took the assessment, and it accurately predicted the top 4 performers as well as the bottom 4 performers. Years later, we still use the PI when hiring internally to ensure candidates are hardwired for success in their role. We believe people are happiest and work best in their role when they don't have to stretch to be someone they're not. Instead of spending time interviewing candidates who aren’t a natural fit, we focus on those who have the right instincts, drive, and behaviors to excel.

Marketers, know your impact🎯 If you're interviewing for a marketing role, you should be able to clearly articulate how your previous work has driven results. Did you lower CAC? Boost conversions? Drive revenue substantially? Make your experience measurable and transferable to show how you'd succeed in the role you're interviewing for.