CROs are often blamed for missed targets, but the root cause is often a flawed hiring plan from the CEO. Rushing to hire reps without adequate ramp time leads to B-player hires, immense pressure from managers, a toxic "horse whipping" culture, and ultimately, missed numbers.

When a salesperson fails, leaders often blame the individual. However, accountability starts at the top. The failure is either a mistake in the hiring process (recruiting failure) or a breakdown in the company's ability to train and coach that person to success (management failure). Leaders must look inward first.

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 a company consistently misses sales goals, the root cause may not be the sales strategy but a failure in the hiring pipeline. A high employee churn rate combined with an inefficient screening process starves the sales team of the necessary manpower to hit its targets.

In environments flush with venture capital, sales leaders developed a habit of 'throwing people at the problem' rather than strategically recruiting. This laziness led to hiring mediocre talent ('Cs and Ds'), burning through capital, and creating inefficient sales organizations that struggled when the market tightened.

Sales leaders often refer candidates from past roles. While the network is valuable, this "I've got a guy" mentality can lead to shortcutting a rigorous evaluation process. A structured process must be enforced to ensure the best candidate is hired, not just the most familiar one.

Entrepreneurs default to high-commission/low-base plans to mitigate bad hire risk. This is a symptom of a weak sales process. A strong, documented process de-risks hiring, enabling higher base salaries which attract different talent and ultimately lower the total cost per sale.

The initial sales hire is the most difficult and often fails. Founders must see this as a learning process, not a reason to stop building a sales team. Getting jaded after one failure is a common mistake that stalls growth and hurts the business.

Peets identifies a critical hiring error: founders hire sales leaders with experience managing a large, scaled organization for their future goals. This backfires because those leaders often lack the essential skills to build a sales function from the ground up, preventing the company from ever reaching that future state.