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Hook Case Study

Hook

Hook

Using fractional sales and marketing support to scale faster and find the right full-time sales hire.

How ScaleWise fractional leaders enabled Hook to scale quicker and cut the time and risk of hiring a full-time VP of Sales.

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Business type

Customer Service Software

Solution type

Permanent Hire

Size of commercial team

6

Company stage

Pre-series A

Hook helps b2b SaaS companies grow revenue from their existing customer base. Founded in late 2020, Hook uses data science and predictive machine learning to identify hidden revenue opportunities for every customer. By mapping out churn risks and upsell potential, Hook removes the guesswork from a company’s day-to-day and lets them focus their time on key customers.
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Hook Need

Fresh from raising investment, Hook were keen to expand their commercial arm, but lacked the commercial experience to accelerate pipeline growth, optimise processes or hire an effective commercial team.

 

In particular, they wanted a sales leader with experience of successfully scaling similar companies who could take control of their various sales needs. They knew that finding a permanent sales leader could take 6-9 months (and not be the right fit), but didn’t want to sit still and slow down the scale machine either.

ScaleWise Impact

After discussing Hook’s priorities, ScaleWise recommended fractional leadership to get the expertise they needed quickly with no risks attached. Hook hadn’t considered a fractional leader before and were initially sceptical of the short time frame to find the right match.

However, with ScaleWise helping to outline the skills, background and success criteria they needed, Hook was able to match with two fractional leaders in just four weeks. Munya Hoto joined as a marketing leader for 10 days per month, while Tom Castely joined as a sales leader four days per week, before joining Hook full-time after four months.

 

The ScaleWise fractional leaders had the following impact:

1. Fresh sales approach

Up to speed quickly, Tom was taking customer calls in the first couple of days before setting his sights on the sales process. With a fresh set of eyes, he looked at different personas, value propositions and ways of communicating the product’s value, before rejigging the sales messaging and revising the ICP. As such, he created a new sales approach that derisked the product for Hook customers and led to a new pipeline of prospects.

2. Perfected GTM messaging

Munya helped Hook change their messaging, positioning and GTM strategy to sufficiently loosen the status quo, create urgency around their product and differentiate their solution from competitors. This included tweaking the GTM messaging for the target market, using the right buzzwords and creating the right sentences to resonate with the buyer personas.

3. Full-time hire sales hire

At the start of the process, Hook was hoping that the fractional sales leader might join the team on a full-time basis if they were the right fit (35% of ScaleWise fractional leaders join full-time). Four months into the engagement, Hook approached Tom about the full-time VP of Sales role, which he was keen to accept. As a result, Hook managed to vastly reduce the time and risk of hiring a full-time sales leader, knowing that Tom was the right cultural match before putting pen to paper.

Firaas Rashid

Firaas Rashid

Founder and CEO, Hook

“The alternative to using ScaleWise is a pretty slow, arduous, and full of risk process. They not only helped us get someone on the ground within weeks, but helped eliminate all the risk of hiring someone permanently.”

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Frequently Asked Questions

Thanks to our unique network of pre-vetted GTM leaders, we can carry out the full Partner service in weeks, not months. For example, we matched Learnerbly with a full-time Chief Revenue Officer in just six weeks (see case study here).

Yes. If you choose our ‘Target’ solution, we’ll help you produce a detailed candidate pack on the exact type of GTM leader required, and you can then use other channels to find candidates. If you sign up to our ‘Partner’ solution, we’ll assess and manage your direct referrals alongside candidates we source.

Usually 2-3 weeks from initially reaching out to ScaleWise. After reaching out to ScaleWise, we’ll speak to key internal stakeholders to get a complete understanding of your needs and develop a detailed candidate criteria in week one. Armed with this specific criteria, we’ll use our wide network of GTM leaders to create a shortlist of suitable candidates for you to interview within two weeks (depending on candidate availability).

Depending on the role and criteria, ScaleWise will create a shortlist of 4–6 candidates from which you will be able to select your perfect match.

At ScaleWise, our thorough matching process massively reduces the chance of a mishire by ensuring candidates not only fit the detailed role brief, but are also well-suited to working with your leadership team and your company structure. During the matching process, we can also agree on options in case the chosen candidate doesn’t work out, such as a rehire or a credit.

With a combined 35 years’ scaling experience, including founding the London Chapter of Pavilion (which now contains over 10,000 global revenue operators), we’ve built up a unique network of global GTM leaders. Using our first-hand GTM experience, we have an intimate understanding of scaling challenges and have pre-vetted all the leaders in our network (i.e. all our Scale Experts must have 2 years+ experience in Head-of, VP or C-level roles at investment-backed B2B tech businesses at Series A or Series B). We know their availability and can provide you with ‘off-market’ talent.

Unlike regular recruiters, we have first-hand GTM operating experience at fast-growth B2B tech companies. With a combined 35 years’ experience scaling companies, we have an intimate understanding of the opportunities and challenges of scaling at pace. We therefore not only give you access to a unique network of GTM talent, but also give honest advice on your exact needs and produce detailed criteria for the game-changing hire you need for your specific stage of growth.

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