I ' ve been in your shoes , ages ago before I was in sales myself . And the one thing I know looking back on the experience is that I knew nothing about how to manage sales people . It ' s completely different than managing a team of programmers or office workers . Sales people need to have clear goals and are coin operated . If you want to get the most out of a sales program , set it up so that their pay is 40 % base salary and 60 % commissions . Track how many leads they are generating , how many meetings they are attending , and how many deals they expect to close for the weekmonthquarter . Be ruthless any solid sales person will expect it . Watch Alex Baldwin ' s scene in GlenGary Glen Ross QMFwFgG 9 NE 8 a few times it ' s one of the best explanations of what sales is really like . You obviously don ' t need to be that much of a jerk , but at least you will know what big corporate sales managers are like . Go on sales calls with them , and be prepared to share the value pitch with a customer . Just because a sales person is good at picking up the phone , building relationships , hearing no a lot , and continuing to hustle does NOT mean that they will get the nuances of what makes your business special . Spend a lot of time before you even start interviewing thinking about what an achievable target is for your new sales person . How much do you absolutely need them to make for this to be a break even proposition ? How much can you realistically see them selling ? Okay , whatever number you just said is probably too high be prepared to justify it based on specific sales to real existing customers . What sales revenue attainment would blow your mind if achieved ? Take those and use them as the break points for accelerators in your sales comp plan . Have this thought through before you start talking to candidates it will show you are serious and get them excited . Build a spreadsheet to model the Comp plan and make sure that you don ' t end up upside down with them in any sales scenario . None of this was what you asked for , but I hope it helps . I ' ve run a startup and hired sales people and I ' ve been the sales person hired by a startup before . I still work in sales , and in an industry related to sales performance . If it was helpful and you have questions , PM me . I ' m happy to give a little guidance and save someone from my own mistakes .