How Scott Built A Team Of All-Star B2B Salespeople That’s Ramping FAST.

4 min readMar 13, 2018

As the newly-minted VP of Sales and Marketing at HHAeXchange, Scott Schwartz had the huge task of growing the company’s revenue in front of him.

But, he also had a problem.

“When I took over the VPoS role at HHAeXchange, I didn’t inherit a team that would allow us to scale at the rate I knew we were capable of and I knew I needed to find experienced B2B SaaS salespeople who could do this for us.”

Unfortunately, finding the right people wasn’t as straightforward as it should have been.

Scott’s Dilemma Finding The Talent He Needed.

Let’s face it, finding a recruiting partner that can truly deliver is difficult and Scott was no exception to that rule. He struggled to find remarkable salespeople via the incumbent firm and found their ability to deliver was limited which stifled his ability to grow.

“The recruiting firm that we were working with at the time I joined the company wasn’t taking the time to understand us, our product, and most importantly, our process. I spent 3–4 months just teaching one of the people they brought us how to sell before they churned out, costing me $400K in addition to the placement fee I paid.”

But it wasn’t just the firm HHAeXchange had partnered with that was making him feel like he was handcuffed.

“The other firms I had worked with in the past weren’t much different — they were resume farms that didn’t care about the candidates they were presenting.”

Tired and exhausted from implementing Einstein’s definition of insanity, Scott knew a change in approach was needed for building a team that could actually help him reach his revenue goals.

Unfortunately, that presented yet another roadblock.

Jumping The Next Hurdle.

Dissatisfied with the results he’d been getting, Scott turned to ATP for help finding the talent he needed to scale.

“After a few months of doing what we had been doing and seeing no results, I knew we needed to try something different. My experience with ATP on the placement side made it a no-brainer to get in touch with them.”

Months before, Scott had gone through our process as a candidate himself, and it had made a lasting impression.

“You only make it through the ATP process as a candidate if you’re serious, so I knew first hand that anyone they were going to present to me as a hiring manager had not only been thoroughly vetted, but was committed to the process of finding the right next step in their careers.”

But while Scott was ready to get ATP on the search, the rest of his team wasn’t so sure. He wasn’t the only one who had a less than stellar experience working with recruiting firms in the past.

“Like so many hiring managers, our CEO had “scar tissue” from working with recruiters. The feeling was that all recruiters are the same — they send resumes, don’t take time to understand what our needs actually are, and hope something sticks so they earn their commissions.”

However, Scott knew our approach was totally different, and fought tooth and nail to get our team in the door.

“I put my personal reputation on the line to work with ATP because I knew our results would be drastically different if we did.”

They were. And it didn’t take long for his CEO to notice them.

“After we had made our first hire, our CEO was so impressed with the quality of candidates and thoroughness of the process, we went from giving ATP one role to fill to five in a matter of weeks. We hired over 90% of the salespeople they presented us.”

Surprising Results From His New Team.

It wasn’t just finding great talent and a trustworthy recruiting partner that Scott and his team were excited about… there were tangible (and surprising) business results that started to appear shortly thereafter from his new people.

“Even though we’re still in the ramp period for many of our reps, they’re ramping quicker than expected because of how well they complement each other. Each has a skill-set that enhances the abilities of our other team members.”

Just how much faster did this cohesiveness allow them to ramp? FAST.

“Every single candidate we hired through ATP has closed a deal in the first 2 months. Simply put, we wouldn’t be scaling the business at the rate we are if it wasn’t for how well our new team worked together.”

And once Scott had his all-star team onboard, his life as sales leader changed dramatically.

“Everyone on the team already knows how to sell. So instead of spending time teaching them how to be effective salespeople, I can focus on getting them up to speed on the business and enabling them to be successful.”

This shift in focus has allowed him to get back to the things he needs to do as a visionary leader to keep driving the strategy forward to exceed revenue targets.

“We wasted a lot of time on the wrong people before. But working with ATP has allowed me to focus on growing my business without having to worry about recruiting.”

What Made The Difference?

Scott is a sales veteran who understands the importance of a people-driven approach to sales, so we spent a lot of time upfront peeling back the layers to understand what he felt made the biggest difference in getting the right people on board.

“ATP spent multiple hours with me diving deep into our business to ensure they really understood what HHAeXchange was all about and what characteristics would make someone incredibly successful in this role. Ultimately this led to a 98% interview-to-hire ratio — unlike anything I’ve experienced in working with other recruiting firms.”