As a former VP Sales who now works with startup founders, I’ve seen firsthand the crucial role that timing plays in scaling a B2B tech startup.
I want to share my insights on a topic that can make or break your growth trajectory: identifying triggers for growth.
Understanding Your Business Model
Before I get into the weeds, let’s talk about the foundation. The type of business you’re building will determine how aggressively you grow and importantly, what your specific trigger points look like.
Are you building a lifestyle business or aiming for unicorn status?
Most SaaS businesses are obtaining VC capital, which means they’re building high-growth companies. This often involves investing before you’re at full capacity because it’s all about scaling rapidly.
The Importance of a Backward Sales Plan
Once you’ve nailed down your business model, it’s time to build a backward sales plan. This is crucial because it helps you understand your route to market.
Are you a marketing-led business? Sales-led? Partnership-driven? Understanding this helps you identify what those trigger points are going to look like.
Many businesses I work with are sales-led, and they need to prove they have strong outbound. VCs often expect you to have a sales function. A backward sales plan is your roadmap. It shows you where you need to be and when, allowing you to plan one or two quarters ahead.
Documenting Your Sales Playbook
Here’s what I’ve learnt from experience: document your sales playbook early.
Think about being a more mature business than the stage you’re at. This includes best practices, messaging, and processes. When you hit those trigger points for growth and need to hire, you’ll have the right infrastructure in place. You won’t be scrambling, thinking, “Shit, I haven’t got this, I haven’t got that.” Trust me, having this ‘Bible’ ready to pass on makes the transition smoother when you need to pull the trigger on growth.
Understanding Capacity and Pain Points
Knowing what capacity looks like in different areas of your business is crucial. When it comes to pulling the trigger, it makes it more likely you’ll make the right decision.
- Do you not have enough opportunities? You might need an SDR.
- Too many opportunities to work effectively? An account executive could be the answer.
- Creating and closing loads of opportunities? It might be time for a revenue leader.
Founder-Led Motion
I always advise founders to go as far as they can with that founder-led go-to-market motion before bringing people in. Why? Because you’ll always attract the best talent when the company is doing well and you’ve got data to back it up. It’s about leaving revenue on the table and knowing when that tipping point comes.
Identifying Trends
Keep an eye out for trends in your go-to-market motion. Are you seeing good traction in a new geographical location or a particular vertical? These trends might indicate the need to bring in domain experts to help you double down on these opportunities.

The Importance of Data-Backed Decisions
If you’re building a growth company, your trigger points for growth need to be backed by data. Know the tipping points and the data points that signal when it makes sense to bring a person in. And here’s the kicker – you need to be thinking about hiring that person one or two quarters before you actually need them.
Why? Because it takes time to hire, onboard, and get operations set up behind the scenes. Too many founders come to me saying, “We need someone yesterday.” The way to prevent this fire-drill situation is to have a proper backward sales plan with data-backed trigger points for growth.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The mistakes I see founders make when it comes to identifying triggers for growth fall into two categories:
- Hiring too soon: You haven’t done enough founder-led sales yourself and haven’t figured stuff out. You can’t expect to bring someone in to outsource those problems.
- Hiring too late: You’re scrambling, leaving revenue on the table, under-delivering to customers, trying to do everything as a founder. Things start slipping.
Both ends of this spectrum are problematic. If you hire too soon, it just won’t work. If it’s too late, you’re already adding months to your timeline by the time you go through the recruitment process, notice periods, and onboarding.

Key Metrics to Track
To identify your trigger points for growth, keep an eye on these key metrics:
- Opportunities created per month
- Pipeline velocity
- Conversion rates per stage in your active pipeline
- Closed-won business
These metrics will give you good early signals and help you know who you might need and when.
The Payoff of Getting It Right
Knowing your trigger points for growth is about mitigating the failure rate that comes with scaling a SaaS business. When your growth is backed by data, you’re not making gut decisions. Your VCs will be happier because they can see you have a well-thought-out plan.
By forcing yourself to think about these trigger points, you’re creating a concrete plan for growth. You’re aligning your hiring with data, which significantly reduces the risk of failure.
Final Thoughts
Remember, in B2B tech startups, timing is everything. By understanding your business model, creating a backward sales plan, documenting your processes, and keeping a close eye on key metrics, you’ll be well-equipped to identify those crucial triggers for growth.
Don’t wait until you’re drowning in opportunities or leaving money on the table. Start planning for growth now, and you’ll be ready to scale when the time is right.
Author: Matthew Codd

I’m Matthew, I have 15 years of commercial leadership experience, helping VC-backed B2B technology companies scale revenue and transition from founder-led sales.
I use my experience to help early-stage start-ups with GTM expertise, sales best practice, and hiring insights.
I co-founded Cosmic Partners in 2022. We are SaaS sales recruitment specialists for VC backed B2B tech companies.