Why VPs of Sales Don't Last Long

Good Morning. Today is National Fishing Day, which feels really similar to sales. Cold prospecting is basically business fishing. You cast a hundred lines, sit around waiting for something to bite, and pray that when it does, it's a whale and not a minnow you have to throw back. There’s probably a deeper lesson in there, but we don’t got time for that. Now, let's get into today's Follow Up. (:

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In my first sales job, I had two different VPs of Sales in the year and a half I was there. The first one got pushed out left. The second one got fired about a year after I left.

At the time, I figured it was just my company. But it turns out that turnover is pretty normal.

VPs of Sales are under a lot of pressure. When the revenue targets fall short, the CEO and board look at the person running sales. And sometimes that's the right call.

But sometimes the VP just inherited a mess nobody wants to acknowledge.

An analysis of 14K execs found that CROs last an average of 1.8 years, and 1 in 3 CROs turn over every single year.

In 1988, the average tenure was around 7 years. Now it's under 2 years.

In most cases, it takes a new VP of Sales 6 months just to understand the org. Who's good and who's not. Where deals are coming from. Which processes work, and which ones exist because someone built them three VPs ago and nobody questioned them.

Then it takes another 12 months to implement real change. Hiring the right people, building a new playbook, fixing comp plans, restructuring territories.

A new VP of Sales doesn't have that luxury. The average tenure has dropped from 26 months to 19. That's essentially 6 quarters to try to make things work and deliver results, or you’re on the chopping block.

There are bad VPs of Sales. Everyone who's been in sales long enough has worked for one. But some data suggests the problem has more to do with structure and less to do with the person.

HBR found that 62% of companies see revenue growth decline or stay flat the year after replacing their CRO. Growth drops from an average of 15.5% to 11.7%.

If swapping the leader fixed the problem, the numbers would go up. But they usually don't.

Leadership sets aggressive revenue targets without investing in the headcount, marketing, or tools to hit them. Then reps churn underneath the VP because quota attainment drops, and frustrated reps leave.

The VP is trying to build a plane while it's flying, but they don’t have all of the parts they need.

Then, when the numbers aren’t hit, the board replaces the VP and hands the next person the keys to the same broken setup.

One redditor put it perfectly: "If a company is on their 6th VP, it's not a VP problem."

Mark Roberge is the founding CRO at HubSpot. He built the sales team from zero revenue through the company's IPO and stayed for about seven years.

His approach to the job was all about systems. He built a scoring system for evaluating sales hires, created a standardized training program, and used data to diagnose what was working and what wasn't at every stage of the funnel. The systems outlasted any single person, which meant results compounded over time even when he wasn’t directly involved.

In a survey of 90K customers, the sales organizations with the highest satisfaction scores had management turnover of only 10 to 15 percent. The average sales leader at those companies stayed about 10 years. When turnover hit 50%, customer satisfaction dropped significantly.

Stability at the top leads to more satisfied customers.

The VPs who last tend to share a few things.

1) They build systems that work without them in the room.

2) They push back on unrealistic targets early instead of quietly hoping things work out.

3) They invest in developing their team even when things get hard and replacing people feels easier.

It takes longer to see results, but if you want to hold a sales leadership role long term, you have to invest in things with a long time horizon.

Today’s newsletter was written by Nic Conley