Get answers from sales leaders
Alicia Lewis
Culture Amp Senior Sales Director • January 13
One of our company’s core values is having the courage to be vulnerable. This behavior is key to being successful at Culture Amp and within a sales role. In order to better understand someone’s ability to lean into this value, I like to ask the question “What are you currently working on professionally or personally to develop yourself?” I also ask this question because the best talent never rest on their laurels. Top performers are always looking for ways to improve. The most common answers I receive are around reading sales books or applying new sales tactics. The strongest answer that I ever received was someone who shared that they were working with a therapist and shared how their committed approach to mental health had made a positive impact on their life. It's an example of taking on hard things and not being afraid to show their genuine self.
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Roee Zelcer
TikTok Head of Sales, Products & Services • February 10
This is a very important question and one that not everyone will see eye to eye with me on this. But personally, it has never failed me up until now. There are a few elements that are common to candidates that have been proven to be successful: The first is tenacity. It is that inner hunger to learn new topics or master new skill sets. One who always finds ways to be proactive and push boundaries. When talking to candidates, I always look for a potential team member whom I will need to restrain rather than one I will need to nudge forward. The second is communication skills. A great seller is someone who you talk to and immediately comes off as connectable and relatable. Someone who has a clear understanding of the person in front of them. The third aspect would have to be very strong social and emotional intelligence. This goes hand in hand with having a client first mentality. A great candidate is one who will give the client the true sense that he puts their interest above anything. Earning that trust is key to building a long-term, healthy relationship.
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Brian Tino
AlphaSense Director of Strategic Sales, EMEA • January 26
When you are the first sales leader at a company establishing the function, you're going to constantly battle the demands on your time. Personally, I tend to use a mixure of the Eisenhower Matrix combined with ruthless diligence of writing down my Top 3 priorities for the quarter, the week, and the day. By being able to quickly take stock of my Top 3 priorities across each of those 3 time horizons, I can quickly determine the importance of other asks as they relate to those priorities. Unless there is an important task that is immediately urgent, I'll strive to complete my Top 3 daily priorities before I tackle any other projects or tasks. That way, I know regardless of what the remainder of the day has in store, I was able to move forward on the most important work. Typically, I've found as a sales leader, I tend to focus my priorities across these 3 areas ranked accordingly: 1. People - most important is the investment in your people & culture that you create. Diverse hiring, providing personal coaching & development, promoting inclusive belonging, demonstrating empathetic leadership, etc. all result in disproportionate leverage across the other 2 areas 2. Customers - second only to your people is your customers. Meeting with them directly on a weekly basis, helping your team manage deals & relationships, and delivering value needs to always be a focus 3. Operations - finally, setting up the operationing structure for your team to execute within. Everything from defining your buy/sell process, building sales playbooks, refining reports & dashboards, etc. all contribute to an environment of consistenty & excellence Any other demands of your time that do not fall into one of those 3 areas need to be Scheduled, Delegated, or not done at all.
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Sarah Mercedes (Osborne)
HubSpot Head of Corporate Sales, West Coast • September 4
* 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
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Jessica Holmes
Adobe Director, Adobe Sales Academy • August 30
According to all the websites and experts, a typical career path for a sales professional is to move from BDR to AE to Sales Manager, or a variation of this, and that can absolutely be your path. What you'll most likely find, is that there is NO typical path - especially as you discover who you are as a sales professional and your sales style. Each of us have unique strengths and interests, and instead of focusing on a career ladder, where you only have one option in moving up/down in roles, you should focus on in developing your career lattice based on skill and sales style. By this, I mean: Identify what you know and don't know, as it pertains to the sales process: * What parts of the sales process you are skilled in and can leverage as you progress in your career? This can be leveraged to identify roles that you qualify for, can succeed in, and show your expertise. * Where in the sales process do you need to develop or hone your skillset further? This info can be used to identify which roles can help you grow and develop your expertise in the sales process. Determine the type of seller you are/sales motion you are interested in: * Do you like speaking to decision makers early in the sales process? Do you like working multiple deals at the same time? Do you want to close multiple deals a month/quarter? * Would you prefer a longer sales cycle with each prospect? Do you like building long-term relationships and developing plans and strategies that span across multiple buying panels and decision makers? Are you content with closing 1-2 deals a quarter, or even a year? * Do you prefer to work with buyers who are early adopters, where you sell vision and strategy and a reasonable approach to taking risks, or do you prefer working with early/late majority buyers, when what you're selling may have mass market appeal and your buyer is a bit more risk-averse. Once you have identified the type of seller you are, the sales motion you most prefer, the skill set you have today and where you want to develop further in the sales process, you now can make an informed decision about YOUR career path and identifying what is the best next move for you. This may be a move up, across, diagonal or down - as long as you're making career decisions with information and goals to continue your growth, it's a good move. Remember, it's not about doing what's typical, it's about making career decisions that makes it right for you.
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Grant Glaser
Salesforce Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach • January 11
One word: outcomes. Sales enablement should (and needs to be) tightly aligned to business objectives & desired outcomes of the business/sales organization. When you tie learning programs to tangible outcomes & KPIs, you get more accurate success measures. This translates to happy learners and happy business units: win-win.
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Shahid Nizami
Braze APAC Vice President of Sales • January 10
In today's world it is relatively quite easy to make a very well informed decision when assessing a new role in a different company. These are some of the things I look at and advise my mentees to do too : * If it's a public listed company, look at their financials to figure out their year on year growth. * Check out websites like RepVue which give you a very good understanding about how sales reps in that company are doing * On LinkedIn, check out the trend on their headcount,especially in sales, is it increasing consistently or not. * Check out analyst reports and websites like g2.com to see how the product is rated by their customers. * Check websites like Glassdoor to understand about the culture of the company you are considering * If possible speak with a few customers and partners of the company as well.
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Andrew Zinger
Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales Enablement • September 11
The lost successful leaders I have worked with all seem to be able to have a healthy mix of the following: Must Have 1. Sales Strategy Development: For CRO's, its imperative that they have the ability to work with their partners in enablement to design and implement effective sales strategies that align with company goals, including setting KPIs, sales targets, and go-to-market plans. These strategies need to be clearly communicated and must be repeatable, measurable and scalable across regions 2. Data-Driven Decision Making: Proficiency in analyzing sales metrics and performance data to identify scalable and repeatable trends, forecast results, and make informed decisions. This includes budgeting, revenue forecasting, and optimizing team performance. 3. Coaching & Feedback Techniques: Knowledge of coaching frameworks (such as GROW or SBI) and the ability to mentor teams effectively to improve individual and team performance is a must. This needs to be a constant part of the conversations with your teams, and feedback should never be a surprise. Do team selling events: mid stage deal reviews, practice upcoming discovery calls together - not every meeting needs to a pipeline review! 4. Product and Market Knowledge: Deep understanding of the company's products/services and the competitive market landscape, enabling strategic positioning and selling. Nice to Have: 1. Marketing Org Alignment: Understanding of marketing programs & principles to help collaborate effectively on important programs like lead generation, content creation, and aligning sales efforts with marketing campaigns. 2. Financial Acumen: Familiarity with P&L management, margins, and revenue impact analysis, to ensure that sales efforts align with overall financial goals. 3. Digital Sales & Social Selling: Proficiency in digital selling techniques and platforms (e.g., LinkedIn Sales Navigator) to enhance prospecting and lead nurturing in today’s online-driven sales environment. Hope this helps!
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Some questions I like to ask are: * Tell me about a time you missed your goals. What happened? (Answer should explain why the person missed goal, what lessons they learned from it and how they've been performing since) * What is a piece of critical feedback you've received from a client, colleague or manager in the past? (Answer should show the person's ability to be coached and take action on feedback) * Tell me about a time you had to re-motivate yourself during a difficult time. How did you do it? (Answer should show the interviewer what the person is motivated by and how they continue to keep themselves motivated when they encounter roadblocks in the role) * What approach would you take in the first 30/60/90 days to ramp up? (Answer should show how the person is thinking about setting themselves up for success. Are they just depending on onboarding and training to get them there? Do they have other ideas on how to prepare for success?) * What is something you don't enjoy doing? Can you give me an example of what your pitch for this thing would be? (How the person reacts to this spur-of-the-moment exercise is very telling. Are they able to go with the flow and think on their feet? Are they able to reframe their thinking?)
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Brandon Love
Salesforce Regional Sales Director • October 12
Our top reps excel at spotting potential opportunities. Since we're focused on run-rate tactical deals in the form of additional license, new initiatives, and pilots, our main stakeholders are typically at the VP level or below. The key here is mastering the art of tailoring conversations - distinguishing between "above the line" and "below the line" discussions ensures that our messaging aligns with the audience. In larger enterprises, industry trends and company direction are often widely available. It's crucial to delve into these trends, gaining a deep understanding of industry challenges and directions. This forms the basis for crafting a unique perspective that resonates not only with the business but also its key players. Once everyone's on the same page and the problem is crystal clear, we can then propose a forward-thinking solution that drives them towards their desired outcomes. What sets this approach apart is its emphasis on discovery. Rather than leading with a product pitch, we invest time in understanding the company's priorities. This makes our interactions much more aligned with the client's needs, creating a more genuine and less "sales-y" experience. This method ensures that our solutions aren't just one-size-fits-all, but tailored to fit the precise needs of each client we engage with.
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