How to build a team of A-Players and scale 0-$35M with Ankesh Chopra

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How to build a team of A-Players and scale 0-$35M with Ankesh Chopra

Are you having trouble attracting or retaining rockstars?

If you can recruit really well, half of your problems are solved. Whether you agree or not, you can’t deny that hiring the right person can make or break momentum.

Below, we detail the actionable insights in hiring A-Players from our conversation with Ankesh:

1. Preparing to Hire the A-Players

Hiring is the key part of this process, but there are only five to 10% of the population that are A-players.

Ankesh prepares to look for these unicorns by using the ICCE Framework.

Key to getting A-Players: The ICCE Framework

ICCE stands for Intelligence, Coachability, Character, and Experience.

Ankesh uses this framework in hiring junior reps, BDRs, and senior leaders to create consistency.

He also believes an applicant’s Character is the most important, as it increases the risk of failure without a learner's mindset or growth mindset.

On the other hand, Ankesh believes Experience is the least important component in the ICEE. An applicant has to meet at least the minimum requirements.

If you have an inexperienced but intelligent and coachable applicant, there’s a higher chance that they’ll be successful in your role.

How to test people’s ICCE

• Intelligence - Measure their problem-solving ability, skillset, and curiosity. See if they can think on their feet.
• Coachability - Observe how they take on feedback and, more importantly, how they implement it.
• Character - Ask about their struggles and how they overcame it. For example, ask about a time when they moved to a new city or country, as that’s a test of character.
• Experience - Test their skills by letting them run a discovery call with a customer. He also measures candidates' receptiveness to coaching before participating in these sessions.

2. Looking for A-Players in the Market

Now that you know the ICE Framework, it’s time to put it to the test.

You can now look for your A-Players.

To start, Ankesh suggests using your internal network such as your colleagues.

He also believes you should speak to your customers and business partners, as they can provide valuable feedback about your applicants.

For example, you can ask them to refer you to the best Sales Rep they’ve worked with. You can then use this as a point of reference when you’re pooling applicants for an open role.

3. Screening for A-Players

It’s also important you screen applicants meticulously. This will save you time and ensure that only the best candidates are considered for the job.

Here are the steps that Ankesh takes:

• Seek Feedback about the Potential Candidates - While it’s important you talk to someone, you might miss some red flags. This is why Ankesh suggests you seek other people’s feedback about your potential candidates. Pree also chimed in that you should also ask their colleagues or clients—those who’ve seen them in the field of play.
• Doing reference checks - Hiring managers should also do reference checks themselves (not the talent or external recruitment team). Do this to assess any information you might have missed asking for during the interview.
• Set criteria for vetting the right candidates - Ankesh also shared about the challenges in attracting candidates for roles due to a lack of suitability. To address this, they set criteria and communicated them to both internal and external recruiters. They then focused only on those candidates who had their desired qualifications and experience.

For starters, non-negotiable criteria can include:

• Continuous short tenure over a period of time (no job hoppers or repeat failures)
• Achievements on a resume or CV (must show facts and figures)
• Performing year-on-year (A trend of repeat success)

Some negotiable criteria can include:

• He prefers AEs who started out as BDRs, but it’s not critical
• He likes people who are trained on MEDDIC sales methodology (and others) but it’s not mandatory

Pree also added that you can use a scorecard at the start of the hiring process, grading candidates using the ICCE framework. This helps avoid biases and ensures that the right candidate is chosen.

4. Onboarding A-Players

Ankesh also shares that onboarding new employees is another critical aspect of a successful organisation. To reduce the ramp time of new starters, it's essential to give them a great experience on the first day.

You can achieve this by:

• Getting their tools and access sorted out. Make sure their laptop is ready. They should also receive access to your essential communication channels right away.
• Meeting the new hire in the office as a team. Or it could be just a coffee meeting online for the first 20 minutes. This sets the stage for the new employee to feel comfortable and reinforces the reasons for hiring the individual.
• Schedule meetings to get them engaged quickly. You should schedule customer meetings, partner meetings, and internal meetings with stakeholders and marketing partners. This helps them feel excited and gain momentum. You can also spend an hour each day with the newbie.

5. Coaching A-Players

Regular feedback on the job is also crucial. Leaders should not wait for performance cycles to offload everything.

To add more value to their colleagues’ lives, they should focus on developing their skill sets and initiate projects outside of their day-to-day job.

To retain your A-Players, Ankesh suggests you take these steps:

• Do one-on-one coaching- This is the biggest coaching opportunity, so avoid making it into a forecast call. You can do one-on-ones at the same time every week. This will ensure that your colleague feels valued and respected. To make sure you’ll drive an outcome after these meetings, prepare at least 30–45 minutes for each person.
• Focus on one or two points only - Consider the one or two pieces of value you can deliver in these meetings. Make sure that the individual walks away with something valuable.
• Plan an agenda for your weekly meeting - Ankesh suggests you use this framework for your weekly one-on-ones:

1. Check-Ins - Ask something about their life outside of work. You can ask about how they spent their weekend or their latest hobbies.
2. Provide Assistance - Understand their needs at work and find out how you can give them assistance. For example, you can try helping them prepare a weekly plan of action items.
3. Give Advice - As their leader, you can also share advice on how they can become better at what they do. This could range from improving their pipeline generation to looking for opportunities.

Ankesh’s final comments

We wrapped up our conversation by asking Ankesh’s best three lessons:

• Don’t hire too quickly when you’re entering new markets. Spend more time making a team successful first before hiring more people.
• Creating an ecosystem for partners, customers, and services is crucial. It's not necessary to hire all partners at once, but having marketing, customer success, and services throughout the ecosystem can help.
• Incorporate frameworks like the three Rs and ICCE into everyday practice to improve overall performance.

About Ankesh Chopra

Ankesh is a SaaS leader who has scaled revenues from zero to 35 million ARR and teams from zero to 100 for hypergrowth companies like Qlik, AppDynamics, Zscaler, and ClickUp.

About Pree Sarkar

Pree Sarkar is an Executive Recruiter and Talent Advisor to leaders at start-up and global technology companies. He is the Founder and Chief Advisor at Switch Recruitment, a leading firm the Asia Pacific Region.

LinkedIn rated him as a Top 1% Recruiter and he is also the #1 Best Selling Author for his book – Switch, Stand out, Get noticed and Accelerate your career.

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