CRM Reddit Mentions | ChartExchange

Here is the brutal truth about why you have struggled with this for years and why the two salespeople failed.
You do not have a sales problem. You have a system problem disguised as a sales problem.
When you hire a salesperson into a business with no lead generation system, no follow-up sequence, no CRM with real pipeline tracking, and no inbound flow, you are not hiring a salesperson. You are hiring a magician. You are asking them to do what you have personally been doing for 7 years through sheer force of relationships, hustle, and network. They cannot replicate that. Nobody can. That is YOUR network. Of course they failed in 6 months.
The vast majority of founders try to solve this the same way and get the same result. They think the answer is a better salesperson. The answer is actually a better system that any competent salesperson can run.
Here is what actually works:
1. Build a repeatable lead source before you hire anyone. Networking and referrals are not scalable because they require you specifically. You need at least one channel that generates leads while you sleep. For IT firms that usually means cold outbound (email or LinkedIn at volume), paid ads for a specific service line, or content that ranks for buyer-intent keywords. Pick one. Make it work. Then hire.
2. Build the follow-up sequence before you hire. Most IT firm leads do not buy on the first call. They buy on touch 5, 6, or 7. If your salesperson is responsible for remembering to follow up manually, they will fail. Build an automated SMS and email nurture sequence that runs 5-7 touches over 14-21 days. The system does the remembering. The salesperson does the closing.
3. Define what you are selling more clearly. IT firms struggle to hire salespeople because the offer is vague. "IT services" is not a product. "Network security audits for medical practices with 10-50 employees" is a product. Salespeople can sell products. They cannot sell vague capabilities. The narrower your offer, the easier the hire.
4. Hire for the system, not for the magic. Once you have lead flow plus a follow-up sequence plus a clear offer, the salesperson is running a defined process. Call leads in the pipeline. Move them through stages. Close the ones who are ready. Now you can hire a B-tier closer for $4K-6K per month and get results. Without the system, even an A-tier closer fails.
5. The order matters. Most founders try to hire first and build the system after. That is why it does not work. Build the system first. The salesperson is the operator of the system, not the inventor of it.
The honest answer to your question is the two salespeople did not fail. The system failed them. You hired them into a business where YOU were the system, and asked them to be you. That is impossible.
The fix is to extract what you have been doing for 7 years (your network, your conversations, your follow-up instincts) and turn it into a process that runs without you. Once that exists, hiring becomes easy. Until it exists, every sales hire will fail the same way.
You are not bad at this. You have just been the system for so long you forgot the system was you.

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