PART 3: MAKE SALES SCALABLE Painful truth: Growth exposes your weaknesses. JASON’S TOP 12 MISTAKES IN BUILDING SALES TEAMS I made all these mistakes at EchoSign, and I’ve seen founders at growing companies make them again, and again, and again. So here’s my Top 12 list: #1. You hire a sales rep to sell before you can prove you can do it yourself.You have to prove it’s sellable first. And the CEO/founders need to do the initial sales themselves, so that they understand how to make sales work. You can’t outsource this. #2. You hire a VP of Sales to sell before you prove you can do it yourself.You gotta prove the process is at least just barely repeatable before you hire someone to turn up the volume and spin the wheel faster. You gotta build two reps that can hit quota before you hire a real VP of Sales. #3. Any of your first 2­3 sales reps are folks you personally wouldn’t buy from. Because then you’ll never trust them with your precious handful of leads, and they will fail. No matter how well they did in the last start­up. #4. You insist reps #4­400 are folks you personally would buy from. It takes a village.