If you can't pay employees enough to retain them, the root cause is likely a flawed sales process, not a hiring issue. A weak sales motion prevents price increases, which suppresses profit margins and ultimately limits what you can afford to pay your team.

Founders who are the primary salespeople often get trapped in a cycle: sell heavily, then get overwhelmed with service and operations, causing the pipeline to dip. This desperation leads them to hire salespeople without the necessary infrastructure, a costly mistake.

When revenue lags, the common reaction is to hire more reps. This compounds the problem by adding cost to a broken system. The correct sequence is to first diagnose commercial maturity, then fix the underlying infrastructure like sales processes, and only then add headcount capacity.

By fixing the upfront cash collection, the business generates enough surplus to potentially double sales commissions from $50 to $100 per deal. This elevated pay structure attracts a completely different caliber of salesperson—"an order of magnitude better"—who can close more deals per day, dramatically accelerating growth without adding financial risk.

Many companies mistakenly hire salespeople and then define their job and compensation. The correct sequence is to first determine the business need, then construct the specific job role to address it, and finally design a compensation plan that incentivizes the required activities before ever posting the job.

Instead of competing for expensive sales talent in hubs like San Francisco, startups can find better value and alignment in cities like Phoenix or Austin. The talent there is often more willing to bet on themselves with high-commission, lower-base salary packages, which is ideal for a startup's growth stage and capital efficiency.

Instead of documenting the sales process themselves, busy founders should first hire a sales leader. This leader's initial job is not to manage a team, but to shadow the founder, document their process through an objective lens, and build the system before the first sales reps are brought on board.

If you can't attract top talent, the root cause is often not your recruiting process but your business model. Commodity pricing prevents paying above-market salaries. To fix the hiring constraint, you must first fix your offer and sales motion to escape being a commodity.

Traditional salary-only structures for marketing create a disconnect from revenue. By introducing commission-based compensation tied to closed deals, marketers gain a direct stake in the sales process, fostering true alignment and shared financial incentives.