The Sales People .
Where Startups Scale.
Where Salespeople Thrive.
We've Built a Physical Sales HQ for Startups to Grow their Sales Teams from Within.
Our specifically engineered culture attracts, retains and nurtures top sales talent. Alongside getting access to our tech infrastructure, we help lift the common blockers seen scaling sales teams and help you deliver consistent, predictable revenue.
1. Hire the Top 1% of Sales Talent
We’ve built sales teams to 250+ people.
We know what great looks like (and you can’t just read it on a CV.)
  • We share our proven hiring frameworks
  • We help you find, assess, and hire top performers (we’ll even join final stage interviews to support your hiring decisions)
  • You avoid expensive mis-hires and wasted ramp
2. Build your Lead Engine
Before we build pipeline, we help you get your story straight.
  • Refine your Product-Market-Fit story
  • Define your Ideal Customer Profile
  • Sharpen your messaging + Unique Selling Proposition
Then…
  • Build high-converting lead lists using tools like Clay, Apify, and Apollo
Relying on inbound leads doesn’t work at this stage. We ensure you are able to get high quality, high intent leads, at scale, that create predictable close rates, revenues and key metrics.
3. Create a High-Performing Sales Team
You can build your team in our headquarters.
Why? Because great reps want to be in a high-performance environment. We can offer this right now, you can’t (just yet).
  • We’ve built a powerful sales culture (tested and perfected)
  • Better support, faster ramp, higher retention
  • Your team sits inside our infrastructure (until you’re ready to take them in-house), but stays fully yours
You take them from us once we’ve imprinted our way of working and they can replicate this indefinitely on your side.
Our Ethos
Start with a Vision.
Scale with the right People, Culture and Systems.
You might have the best product, but you need the right people, culture & systems to turn the vision into predictable revenue.
The Right People
Stop gambling on expensive and underperforming hires, start engineering your scalable talent pipeline.
Work with us and you'll learn how to:
  • Find the 1% of salespeople who can build, not just sell. Key for early hires.
  • Build an effective hiring process to reduce the risk of employee attrition.
80% of early sales hires fail
Even the best hires fail without the right systems and culture.
The Right Culture
Performance is not down to chance - it’s engineered.
Work with us and you'll learn how to:
  • Design a self-driven & high-performing environment
  • Build the right compensation architecture to motivate reps
  • Implement a purposeful promotion system
The Right Systems
To sustain elite sales performance, every component must be obsessively built.
Work with us and you'll :
  • Build a hiring process that attracts and identifies the top 1% consistently
  • Generate an abundance of Sales Qualified Leads, automatically
  • Build onboarding and training systems to drive reliable performance in a scalable way
  • Manage your pipeline systematically to maximise the percentage of Closed Won deals
Why It Works
Sales is not a mystery.
It’s a system.
We bring the playbooks, the people, and the environment
to help you go from founder-led sales…
to a real, sustainable sales machine.
Who this works for.
We work best with:
  • B2B startups
  • Founders who value momentum (and can take hard truths/egoless)
  • Products that solve real problems
  • Teams ready to scale
We work with 5 companies per quarter. No fake countdowns or manufactured scarcity - We’re selective because results matter.
The Reality Most Founders Face
You’ve achieved product-market fit. But even brilliant products crumble due to the following structural weaknesses:
  • Critical knowledge lives in your brain, not in systems. You can’t step away.
  • New hires take months to contribute. If they ever do.
  • Revenue fluctuates wildly - investors notice .
  • Scaling paralysis - the thought of 20 great reps feels out of reach.
  • Market expansion costs 3X what it should.
“These aren’t just hiring failures, there are design flaws in your revenue engine”.
The Path to Founder Freedom
From high-stress to effortless. Free your time to focus on growth and product.
We partner with founded startups (1M+ ARR or 1M+ raised) for 6-12 months to:
1
Phase 1: Understand
Identify your weaknesses.
2
Phase 2: Design
Turn insights into a repeatable sales system:
  • Hiring & onboarding
  • Pipeline generation
  • Deal execution
  • Forecasting you can trust
3
Phase 3: Scale
Embed these systems and reach consistent revenue certainty
How do we know?
We have scaled what most consider unachievable
250
mission-driven sales people
70%
YoY growth (sustained over a decade)
5
continents conquered systematically
750m
exit without diluting equity
Alex Sullivan — Founder of The Sales People — was the first sales hire at World First.
He scaled the sales team from 0 to 250+ people, opened global offices, and helped lead the company to a $750M exit — with minimal dilution.
Here’s how he did it:
Hire the right people
People with the right attitude, aptitude, and hunger to win.
Build a culture that scales
Promotion from within. Relentless motivation. Shared ambition.
You can do this too.
We’ll show you how.
Your Turn
We will tell you within 25 min if this can work for you.
FAQs
Within B2B tech, do you specialise in any particular sector (e.g. SaaS, AI, cybersecurity)?
No - our team has experience across many sectors (Fintech, SaaS, AI, Cybersecurity and more) but we’re sales experts at our core and can add value to any B2B tech company.
What is your team’s background in growing companies?
Our Founder was the first sales person at WorldFirst and scaled it to a $750m exit and has since invested in over 20 startups. The wider team has an array of experience from PwC to Funding Circle - all proven superstars within their own niches.
How much does it cost?
A common question for any startup! This will cost you less than a junior tech sales person. The exact number will depend on how long you want to be with us and a few other factors.
What exactly do I get for my money?
From Day 1 you’ll work with our VP of Sales to dissect and build out your sales strategy. He will use his extensive background building record breaking teams to establish and lead your sales team. Additionally, you will work with our GTM engineer to build out your own firing lead generation machine using a tech stack worth thousands. Finally, we’ll share our hiring framework and structure with you to help you attract and select the best talent - we’re happy to join interviews to help you select the very best.
How is this more cost-effective than hiring a full time sales leader and GTM resource?
Depending on experience, for a good quality Sales Leader (Manager through to VP) you can expect to spend £120,000 - £250,000 OTE (you get what you pay for here). For a high-quality GTM engineer you could also expect to pay anywhere from £100,000 to £150,000. We are a fraction of that cost. Not only do you work with our experienced team, you also get to tap into our tech stack and environment to get your sales team firing!
Can you guarantee a return on investment?
Nothing is guaranteed in the startup world - you need the right product, people and timing for growth. Whilst we can’t guarantee success for you, we can definitely utilise our collective experience to heavily stack the odds in your favour.
How does your physical sales HQ benefit us more than building it in-house?
80% of early sales hires fail. You can hire too senior, too junior or opt for people with the wrong aptitude and attitude for Sales. Even if you hire the right talent, salespeople need a very specific environment for them to thrive (and want to stay at the company!). If you’ve ever been on a hustling sales floor, you’ll know the difference to a startup hybrid environment. We can give you the sales floor needed for salespeople to thrive.
How long do I have to commit for?
We only ask for a 6 month commitment - some opt to stay for longer. The goal for us is to build an elite sales team for you UNTIL you’re ready to take them off our hands.
What level of control would we retain over our sales strategy and team?
It’s your strategy and your team. We bring our experience to help shape it to increase the odds of success. Our VP Sales and GTM engineer will be working very closely on a daily/weekly to keep you posted on performance, training and progress.
Meet the Team
Alex Sullivan
Founder
Alex Sullivan is a seasoned sales leader. He was the first sales team member at World First which sold to Alibaba for $750m with no external funding.
Built sales teams from 0-250 several times.
Founded several businesses.
Investor >20 startups.
Vion Menezes
Co-Founder - COO
From PwC boardrooms to startup war rooms, Vion wields vision, transformation, and strategy—scaling billion-dollar firms and advancing early-stage companies to critical funding milestones.
Niamh Andrews
Programme Manager (Founding Team)
Niamh is no stranger to the fast-paced world of startups. She brings creativity and a can-do attitude. As Programme Manager, she oversees all cohorts, continuously refining and improving our programs to ensure the best possible experience and results for every participant.
Angus Pollard
VP Sales Coach
Angus brings over a decade of sales experience, having managed teams and built strategic partnerships across various sections, including FinTech and SME's. Most recently, he served as Sales Team Manager at Funding Circle UK.
Afsha Haslani
GTM Engineer Coach
Afsha is an accomplished Go-To-Market (GTM) Engineer with a strong foundation in outbound sales development and AI. A true expert in building scalable sales engines, Afsha is dedicated to helping businesses unlock their sales potential and drive results.
Chris Wilkinson
Funding Advisor
As a Managing Director at Forward Partners, Chris has been instrumental in driving the company's success. Chris plays a crucial role in preparing startups to successfully secure Series A funding, facilitating connections with VCs and ensuring businesses are primed to attract investment.
Tristan Gillen
Growth Advisor
Tristan is the founder of Growth Division, a Growth agency for startups. Over the last 4 years his team have helped build and scale over 130 startups and have driven 10's of millions in revenue.
« A note from our Founder»
Having seen so many startups with great products make the same mistakes, we founded The Sales People to help early-stage companies build the right foundations, hire the right talent & create a growth-focussed culture. I am passionate about sales, and seeing small businesses shape the future.
Get In Touch
We only work with 5 companies per quarter, so we want to ensure it’s a fit (for both of us).
Or, book a 25 minute call.
Connect with us on social media: LinkedIn