Sales Lead

ClosedWon Talent LLC; New York (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

ClosedWon Talent LLC in New York is seeking a Founding Sales Lead to build the commercial organization from the ground up. You will personally manage discovery, demos, and closes with independent hotel owners, while shaping the sales playbook and process.

This role requires a track record of beating quota in SMB/mid-market, comfort with autonomy at an early-stage company, and the ability to lead a doubling team as the system scales.

Qualifications

• 3–10 years in sales with quota-beating SMB or mid-market motion.
• Experience building or rebuilding a sales motion.
• Experience coaching reps and leading a team.
• Ability to manage a personal number while leading the function.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery calls, demos, and closes with hotel owners and operators.
• Write the sales playbook, including messaging and qualification criteria.
• Own pipeline hygiene, forecasting, and weekly operating rhythm.
• Scale the team, scope hires, and set targets as the system proves out.

Skills

Sales experience

Team leadership

Pipeline management

Closing deals

Data-driven

Discovery & demos

Job description

We’re ClosedWon Talent, a sales and go-to-market recruiting agency that specializes in working with fast-growing startups. If you’re exploring your next move, we might have just the opportunity for you, including this one.

About our client

They're building an AI operating system for independent hotels. Most independent hotels still run on a fragmented mix of legacy software, spreadsheets, and marketing agencies that charge a few thousand dollars a month whether they deliver results or not. Our client’s platform takes over the work closest to revenue, including room pricing, Google Ads, Google Hotel Ads, email, and social media marketing, and it’s priced on outcomes, so the company only earns a percentage of the bookings it actually drives. If they don’t perform, the hotel pays nothing, which makes it an easy decision for owners.

They recently closed the largest seed round in hotel tech history and the sales motion is already proven. Most of their growth has come from cold outbound, and the founder is converting roughly 85% of sales calls into customers on a single call. Now they're ready to build their sales team, starting with hiring a Founding Account Executive and a Founding Sales Lead.

About the role

The Founding Sales Lead will build their commercial organization from the ground up. This is a player-coach role for an exceptional closer who is ready to build the system that other people sell inside. In the first months, most of your time will be spent in the motion itself, carrying a personal number and running discovery, demos, and closes with independent hotel owners and operators. Most deals close on that one call, and because pricing is outcome-based, deal sizes vary widely, with some customers reaching $150K.

Alongside selling, you’ll write the playbook, including messaging by segment, qualification criteria, objection handling, follow-up cadence, and the handoff to Customer Success. You’ll also own pipeline hygiene, forecasting, and the weekly operating rhythm, decide which hotel segments to prioritize, and partner with the go-to-market team on outbound messaging and lead quality.

The entire sales organization reports up to this role. On day one you’ll have one to two direct reports but the team is expected to quickly double. As the system proves out, you’ll scope, recruit, onboard, and coach additional sales hires, set their targets, and own the team’s number. The role is focused purely on sales, not marketing or operations, and you’ll work directly with the founder as the voice of the market inside the company.

Must-have requirements

• 3 to 10 years in sales, including several years of consistently beating quota in a short-cycle, high-volume SMB or mid-market SMB motion.
• Experience building or materially rebuilding a sales motion, whether as a first sales hire at a startup, a team lead, a player-coach, or the person who wrote the playbook everyone else used.
• Experience managing or coaching reps, formally or informally, along with a genuine interest in leading a team.
• A desire to keep selling while you lead, since this role owns both a personal number and the function.
• A systems mindset when it comes to segments, conversion rates, cycle length, and capacity, along with analytical strength, strong organization, and accountability for outcomes.
• A warm, personable style that builds trust quickly and sells through credibility rather than pressure.
• Comfort operating with significant autonomy at an early-stage company where things change quickly, including the occasional evening call with customers in other time zones.
• The ability to work in person in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, four days a week.

Nice-to-have requirements

• Experience selling vertical SaaS to owner-operated businesses.
• Experience selling hotel or hospitality technology, or working with independent hotels or short-term rental operators.
• An understanding of performance marketing, paid search, SEO, websites, or other revenue-generating products.
• Previous experience at an early-stage startup.
• A habit of using AI to automate research, follow-up, and admin work, along with the expectation that your team will do the same.