Most new sales hires don't meet expectations: about 48% fail, and only 6% exceed them. $150K is the floor. $500K is the real cost when a hire doesn't stick, and in founder-led or founder-dependent companies it usually isn't the person's fault.

This session isn't about hiring better. It's about what has to be true before you hire at all, whether it's your first sales hire, your second through fourth as you scale a small team, or a re-hire after the last one didn't work out. The strategy almost never lives anywhere but the founder's head, and you can't onboard someone into a system that doesn't exist. That's not a people problem. It's a sequencing problem, and there's a right order to solving it before the search even starts.

You'll see the six most common gaps behind failed sales hires, why each one matters, and what good looks like. Summer shares a real client case study: a financial services founder who built the system first saw revenue rise 20% within six months of the hire, and the hire is still on the team nearly two years later.

What you'll leave with:
- A clear view of which gap is costing you the most right now
- What good looks like for each gap, so you know what "fixed" means
- A one-page scorecard to take back to your team
- Your top one or two priorities and a do-now / do-next plan, not an inspirational message

Who it's for: CEOs, founders, and owners of growth-stage companies planning a first sales hire, scaling a small team, or replacing a hire that didn't work out.

Formats: 15-minute TED-style talk, 60-minute presentation, or 3-hour interactive workshop.