Better Together - Collaboration with other departments and Sales Enablement If you have not already started to build out councils with your core heads of department this will allow for set times for you all to meet to collaborate on the enablement priorities and build out RACIs to outline who is responsible during each phase of each project. Below are three steps that can help you start one 1. Meet with all the key department heads that you need to collaborate with to effectively manage or funnel all the information that is required for sales enablement to build strategy and enablement for the field. Explain what your organization is responsible for and how you can partner together 2. Schedule regular cadence with one representative from each group and form your sales enablement governance council - this allows each head of the department to delegate someone to represent that group in any or all projects that require you all to work together. 3. Keep it documented, share the successes, take input and build together The above is the most efficient to build credibility, trust and collaboration with your department heads, remember they will be talking to the sales leaders in other meetings just like you so building your collaboration and trust will help you all partner better together for the benefit of the sales and the organization.

During your first month at the company as the Head of Sales, it's essential to have productive one-on-one meetings with the demand generation and revenue operations teams to align strategies, understand processes, and foster collaboration. Here are some questions you should consider asking during these meetings: 1. Demand Generation Team: * What are the primary goals and objectives of the demand generation team? * Can you walk me through the current demand generation strategy and tactics being used? * What channels and tactics are most effective in generating leads and driving customer acquisition? * How are leads qualified and passed to the sales team for follow-up? * Are there any areas of opportunity or challenges that the demand generation team is currently facing? * How can the sales team better support the demand generation efforts, and vice versa? 2. Revenue Operations (RevOps) Team: * What is the role of the revenue operations team within the organization? * Can you provide an overview of the current sales processes and workflows? * How are leads and opportunities managed within the CRM system, and what data is being tracked? * Are there any gaps or inefficiencies in the current sales operations that need to be addressed? * What tools and technologies are being used to support sales operations, and are there any opportunities for optimization or integration? * How can the sales team collaborate more effectively with the revenue operations team to improve efficiency and effectiveness? 3. Alignment and Collaboration: * How can we ensure alignment between the sales, demand generation, and revenue operations teams to achieve common goals? * Are there regular meetings or touchpoints where the three teams can collaborate and share insights? * What metrics or KPIs should we track collectively to measure the success of our efforts and identify areas for improvement? 4. Future Initiatives and Opportunities: * Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects that the sales team should be aware of? * How can the sales team contribute to the success of these initiatives, and what support will be needed from other teams? * Are there any emerging trends or opportunities in the market that the sales team should be leveraging?

It's a great question. I believe that all reps are continuously motivated by earning potential and career growth opportunities, regardless of the stage of the company. To get more nuanced, you'll see earlier hires more motivated by the combination of equity and cash, and you'll also see earlier hires hoping to leverage their early arrival to accelerate their career growth (vs later hires). As an aside, one of the real joys of leading and scaling sales teams is rewarding those deserving early hires with promotions, additional equity grants, etc. We've had the opportunity to do a lot of this at Vanta. More broadly, my advice is to spend a lot of time thinking about the design of your compensation plans (revisiting them at least annually) and also to map out levels and definitions for career growth sooner vs later. Make sure that you're putting your team in a spot where they believe they can hit their goals, and where they understand intimately what career growth means for them, and how to unlock it. Easier said than done. :)

Be transparent and share the “why”: Each SDR should be able to articulate the purpose of their role, the rationale behind their goals, and the methodology used to calculate key performance indicators (KPIs). While many teams have robust processes to determine these factors, they often fail to provide transparency to their teams. When metrics are perceived as being dictated without explanation or “handed down”, they become less motivating. Encourage individuality- Find areas where SDRs can flex their creativity, contribute to experiments, and express their opinions. When you go overboard with processes on an SDR team, it takes away the joy from the work and lowers the possibility of discovering impactful ideas. Create a team that defaults to collaboration and praises readily- While a slack channel, shout-out specific application, or kudos google form can be well intentioned, they often go underutilized. We know that if our team has downtime, they are probably using it to update Salesforce. Make giving praise part of an essential process that is already done!

I don't have a favorite question but I do prefer open ended questions in discovery. Close ended questions start with helper verbs. Every question beginning with these words(Am, Are, Is, Was, Were) can be answered by a buyer with a yes or a no. Even when folks give you more than a yes or no they will always be giving you less than a response to an open ended question. To get the most information and provoke deep thought from a prospect. I coach my team to leverage open and command open questions. For example questions that start with Who, What, Where, Why, Tell Me, Explain, Describe, Help me understand ETC. When you construct questions that are "open ended" buyers will elaborate and provide answers with a lot of detail.

* Not doing enough research on the company they're interviewing with * Not anticipating the questions the interviewers will have * Not coming prepared with their own questions for the interviewer * Not coming with multiple examples prepared or not having results and metrics at the ready to speak to in the interview * Not leveraging their recruiter as a resource to adequately prep for the interviews * Not asking for feedback from their interviewer to apply to the next interview * Not closing their interviewer * Not sending a follow up email post-interview * Not practicing concise answers ahead of the interview

Sales is an ever-evolving sport and there is no sitting on your laurels if you want to stay ahead. Companies are constantly on the look-out for cutting edge technology to train & tune sales skills, increase industry knowledge, and show-up well in-front of customers. Adoption of new tools, tactics, & strategies include: * Understanding the role of AI in sales interactions * Finding ways to uncover customer pain-points before hearing it directly from a prospect/client * Staying on top of best-in-class sales methodologies (or often creating their own) * Leveraging a simple, clear, and efficient sales process that maps to the buying journey of clients

There's a few different ways to gauge a candidate's autonomy in a sales interview. 1. Behavioral Questions: Ask situational questions that require candidates to describe times where they had to work independently to achieve sales targets or overcome challenges. For example one of my go to questions is, "What's the most creative, out of the ordinary, or above and beyond thing you’ve done to win a customer?" 2. Past Experience: Review the candidate's resume and ask about specific examples where they demonstrated autonomy in previous sales roles. Inquire about their sales process, strategies they implemented independently, and decisions they made autonomously. 3. Problem-solving Scenarios: Present examples of current sales scenarios and ask how the candidate would approach them. Evaluate whether they demonstrate the ability to think critically and make decisions independently in real life situations that arise. 4. Role-play Exercises: Conduct role-playing exercises where the candidate must handle a sales scenario independently. We ask candidates to run a discovery call and give them basic information on the team. Observe how they handle the situation and objections without much assistance or input.

When I look at a new opportunity I evaluate the below items: * Product-Market Fit: I evaluate how well the company’s product addresses the market need and its potential for long-term success. * Belief and Passion: I ask myself if I genuinely believe in what the company is building and feel passionate about its mission and product. * Competitive Landscape: I spend time comparing the company to its competitors, speaking with my personal network and meeting with current customers to understand the pros/cons of the product and customer experience. * Growth Potential: I consider how the opportunity aligns with my career goals * Clear Expectations: I ensure the company sets clear expectations around goals, responsibilities, and success metrics before making a decision. This is very important in sales as unrealistic quotas/numbers and expectations is common.

I'm going to include some red flags on resumes since I have already talked about common mistakes people make in sales interviews. Some resume red flags: * Resume is multiple pages long (people pay most attention to the first half of the resume so if it's very dense, you will lose your audience) * Having every single job the person's ever had listed on there (relevant job experiences only please) * Having little-to-no quantitative results (e.g. % attainment, conversion rates, etc.) on the resume, especially for sales roles * Basic spelling or grammar mistakes (shows that there was no detail to attention if you have a lot of them)