Brian Tino

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 t ...Read More

In my experience, two of important KPIs that most sales teams miss are: Number of purposeful conversations Number of experiments And it makes sense because both of these metrics harder to 1) define and 2) measure over time. However, if done well they can be can be two of the biggest unlocks and fastest ways to progress a developing go-to-market motion. Number of Purposeful Conversations Many sales teams measure number of contacts sourced, outreaches made, calls/demos completed, etc. While these ...Read More

Good question! Taking a sales function up market in an existing business can be one of the most challenging but lucrative transformations of an organization. Often in the early days of your business and go-to-market motion you'll tend to focus on smaller, more nimble customers to validate your product-market fit and refine your go-to-market approach. During this phase, your supporting business structures of product development, finance, legal, security & compliance, etc. will mold to fit the ...Read More

Good question! When it comes to motivation, at any stage & maturity of a sales organization, you need to make sure: 1. Purpose - your sales team understands the mission & objectives of the organizations, feels connected to the purpose of what you are trying to acheive, and most importantly, can see how their work directly impacts progress towards company goals 2. Compensation - your sales team is well compensated and that the components of that make up compensation (base salary, variable ...Read More

Good question! I evaluate every sales candidate who is interviewing to join my team on the same 3 criteria: 1. Sales Skills & Knowledge - key expertise & skills required to be an effective salesperson (ex. conversation generation, discovery, relationship building, business case construction, managing a closing process, etc.) 2. Core Behavioral Competencies - the characteristics that can contribute to success as a salesperson (ex. motivation, presence, adaptability, coachability, etc.) 3. ...Read More

In my experience, communicating the performance & progress of your sales team to the company helps to connect all employees to the mission. It can create transparency into the health of the business, aligns individuals within the company more closely to the voice of the customer, and enables you to more easily activate resources when support is needed. On a Daily Basis... Every time a deal is Closed/Won, a "Congratulations" email is sent out to the whole company, and a Slack message is poste ...Read More

Quota attainment & revenue will always the most important outcomes of any sales organization. However, the most mature sales organizations can align on a set of KPIs that will serve as leading indicators to success.  It’s not to say that consistency hitting KPIs will guarantee achievement of revenue goals 100% of the time, and similarly it’s not to say you cannot meet or exceed revenue goals if you miss KPIs. Sometime all it takes is you being in the right place at the right time with one lu ...Read More

Personally my favorite interview question, which I ask all of my hires from SDRs/BDRs to Sales Directors, is: "Of everything in your life (professionally, personally, academically, athletically, artistically, etc.), what do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?" Of the hundreds of times I've asked this question, I've received so many incredible answers. Some people have talked about the accomplishments of building a family, qualifying for the Olympics, summiting mountains, changing ca ...Read More

From my experience, most candidates coming into an interview put their best foot forward and perform well, however, here are some of the most common pitfalls before, during, and after a sales interview... 1) Lack of Preparation - candidates who have not done even surface level research on the following is a massive red flag: The company - reviewing the website, blog, etc. to understand what we do Myself and the other interviewers - looking at the LinkedIn/social presences of those who they are m ...Read More

Clarity of expectation setting early on is important as it is the foundation of your relationship with a prospect and the rest of the sales process. When I'm operating at my best, I start the conversation by informing the prospect that I view my role as helping them get to a point of clarity as soon as possible to determine if & how our business/product may be able to help them, and then aligning on our social contract outlining what to expect from me and what I expect from them. From me the ...Read More