Sales Role at LYTIQS

Overview

You sell workforce analytics and planning software to HR and finance teams at mid-to-large enterprises. Most of your prospects aren't actively looking for this solution—you're educating them on workforce ROI metrics they're likely not tracking, then running multi-stakeholder deals that involve HR leaders, CFOs, finance analysts, and sometimes IT for data integrations.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Early-stage (22 employees, likely bootstrapped or seed funded)

Size: 22 employees total

Growth: Hiring for sales indicates growth phase, targeting specific verticals (healthcare, higher ed, manufacturing, finance)

Market Position: Niche player in workforce analytics—not competing with massive HRIS platforms but selling analytics layer on top

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 70% Outbound - Cold outreach to HR VPs, CFOs, and workforce planning leaders who aren't actively searching for this solution
• 20% Referrals/Partners - Existing customer networks, consultant referrals in targeted industries
• 10% Inbound - Limited brand awareness means true inbound is minimal

SDR/AE Structure: At 22 people total, likely no dedicated SDR team—you're self-sourcing or sharing limited SDR support

SE Support: Likely founder-led demos early on or you're handling technical product walkthroughs yourself

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Workforce planning modules in Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, or Oracle; niche players like Visier (analytics), One Model (workforce analytics), or homegrown Excel/BI solutions

How They Differentiate: Focus on ROI identification and "reclaiming lost value"—positioning as strategic advisors not just software vendors

Common Objections:

• "We already have reporting in our HRIS"
• "Our finance team builds these reports in Tableau/Power BI"
• "Not a priority right now" (it's a nice-to-have, not a must-have)
• Budget constraints—ROI tools get cut when budgets tighten

Win Themes: Quantifiable ROI identification, industry-specific benchmarks, combined HR+finance approach that resonates with strategic planning teams

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting (40%) | Active Deals (35%) | Internal/Admin (25%)

Key Activities

• Cold outreach to HR and finance leaders: You're calling and emailing VPs of HR, CFOs, and heads of workforce planning at healthcare systems, universities, manufacturers, and financial services firms. Response rates are low because workforce analytics isn't top of mind—expect lots of voicemails and follow-up sequences.
• Discovery and education: Early calls are spent educating prospects on metrics they should be tracking (workforce ROI, retention costs, productivity gaps). You're diagnosing pain they may not know they have, which means many conversations end with "interesting but not a priority."
• Multi-threaded stakeholder management: Deals require buy-in from HR (wants better planning), finance (controls budget and cares about ROI), and often IT (needs to understand data integration). You spend significant time scheduling alignment meetings and managing internal champions who get pulled into other priorities.
• Custom demo prep and ROI modeling: Each demo needs industry-specific examples. You might spend hours preparing healthcare staffing scenarios or manufacturing shift optimization use cases. Post-demo, you're building custom ROI models showing potential savings, which prospects will nitpick.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Long, uncertain sales cycles: 3-6 months minimum, often longer. Deals slip quarters because budget committees meet quarterly, stakeholders change, or a hiring freeze deprioritizes workforce planning tools. Your pipeline constantly needs refreshing.
• Education-heavy selling: You're not responding to RFPs—you're creating demand. Most prospects don't wake up thinking "I need workforce analytics." You spend energy convincing them there's a problem worth solving, and many never get past that stage.
• Competing with free/good enough: Finance teams already build reports in Excel or Power BI. HR has basic dashboards in Workday. You're selling a premium solution against "we can do this ourselves" inertia, which means proving 10x ROI to justify the investment.
• Small team = scrappy execution: At 22 people, there's no enterprise marketing engine feeding you warm leads. You're building your own lists, writing your own sequences, and likely doing your own first-line product demos. If something breaks (demo environment, data integration), you're troubleshooting with a small support team.

What Success Looks Like

• Closing 6-10 enterprise deals per year at $50K-200K+ ACV each
• Building a multi-quarter pipeline because deals take 4-6 months minimum—today's prospecting pays off next quarter
• Becoming an expert in one or two verticals (e.g., healthcare workforce challenges) so you can speak credibly about industry pain points
• Getting customer case studies and references quickly—social proof is critical when selling a lesser-known solution

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• VP/SVP of HR or Chief People Officer (sees value in better workforce planning)
• CFO or VP of Finance (controls budget, cares about cost reduction and ROI metrics)
• Director of Workforce Planning or HR Analytics (champion who wants better tools)

What They Care About:

• Quantifiable ROI: They need to justify the investment to their CFO. Vague promises don't work—you need to show "we'll save you $X in turnover costs or identify $Y in productivity gains."
• Industry-specific use cases: A healthcare system cares about nurse staffing and retention; a manufacturer cares about shift optimization and seasonal planning. Generic demos don't resonate.
• Ease of data integration: They don't want a painful IT project. Questions about data sources, security, and integration timelines come up early and can kill deals if answers aren't smooth.
• Time to value: Finance especially wants to know how long before they see insights. If it takes 6 months to onboard and another 3 to get actionable data, the deal gets harder.

Requirements

• 3-5+ years selling B2B software to enterprise buyers, ideally to HR or finance stakeholders
• Experience running full-cycle consultative sales—self-sourcing pipeline, running demos, managing multi-stakeholder deals through procurement
• Comfort with complex sales cycles (6+ months) and ability to keep deals moving when momentum stalls
• Ability to translate business pain into ROI models and quantify value in financial terms CFOs care about
• Domain knowledge in HR tech, workforce planning, or analytics is a plus but not required—you'll learn the space
• Self-starter mentality—at a 22-person company, you won't have extensive sales ops, enablement, or marketing support