Founder-Led Sales Meets First AE
Sam founded a B2B services marketplace and closed the first 20 customers himself. ARR is $600k, average contract value is $30k, the sales cycle is about 75 days, and win rate on qualified opportunities is 25%. He hires his first AE, Jordan. The CRM has 200 contacts and 40 open deals, but 60% of deals have no source, 30% have no next activity, and stages are used inconsistently: deals are marked “Proposal” after a first call. Sam wants Jordan to generate her own pipeline and close, starting next month. Jordan has no SDR support, no marketing automation beyond basic email, and a list of 200 past contacts. The average deal has three stakeholders and a security review. Sam’s board expects $1.2M ARR in two quarters.
1. What should Jordan fix before building a pipeline plan, and why?
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Fix data and stage definitions first, because any pipeline plan will be measured against a CRM that cannot report source, stage conversion, or next steps. Missing source on 60% of deals means Jordan cannot tell whether founder network, referrals, outbound, or inbound produced the 25% win rate. Thirty percent of deals with no next activity are not a pipeline; they are a contact list. Inconsistent stages make conversion rates meaningless: a “Proposal” after one call inflates late-stage pipeline and distorts the forecast. First actions: add required fields for source and next step with a date; rewrite stage definitions with exit criteria, such as discovery complete only when problem, budget owner, compelling event, and mutual next meeting are confirmed; clean the 40 deals into active, nurture, or closed-lost. This takes two or three days but prevents months of bad decisions. Then use the cleaned past-customer list as the first prospecting source.
2. Design Jordan’s 30-60-90 pipeline generation plan.
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Days 1–30: clean the CRM; interview Sam on the top 20 wins and 10 losses; document ICP, triggers, and three proof stories; build a three-touch sequence for past contacts and referrals; join Sam on 8–10 calls. Targets: 10 conversations per week, three qualified meetings per week, and 100% next-step compliance. Days 31–60: run outbound to 150 lookalike accounts from the best customer profile; ask every happy customer for one referral; create a mutual action plan for every active deal. Targets: four qualified meetings per week and $150k new pipeline. Days 61–90: inspect stage conversion; double down on the source with the best meeting-to-win rate; add a partner or community channel only if outbound is stable. Also surface the board math early: $600k growth at $30k ACV means 20 new customers; at a 25% win rate that requires about 80 qualified opportunities in two quarters, or roughly 13 per month. One AE with no SDR will struggle, so the plan should expose that gap rather than hide it.
3. How should Sam and Jordan handle handoff and attribution so they do not compete?
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Define the handoff by stage, not by relationship. Sam introduces Jordan by email and on the call; Jordan owns discovery, next steps, and CRM updates from the first meeting. Sam stays involved as an executive sponsor for deals above $50k or when the buyer asks for the founder. Use two attribution fields: original source, meaning who created the contact, and active owner, meaning who owns the deal. Do not overwrite source when the deal changes hands. Commission should reward sourced pipeline separately from closed revenue, or Jordan will avoid prospecting. Sam should not quietly close inbound referrals that Jordan sourced; route them through the same SQL criteria. Review pipeline together weekly for the first 60 days, then biweekly. The goal is a clean handoff that preserves trust and makes the funnel measurable.