Sales From a CEO’s Perspective: My Takeaways
Last night I attended Triangle SaaS Sales Grind Meetup and decided to share my takeaways. I wrote about the last one I attended here.
The panelists included:
- Scot Wingo CEO Spiffy & Founder/Executive Chairman of ChannelAdvisor
- Doug Kaufman CEO of TransLoc
- Darren Pierce CEO of etailinsights
- Todd Olson CEO of Pendo
On the Role of a CEO
All panelists agreed the role of a CEO changes as a company grows. In the early days, all CEOs were involved in all interviews. Then as their companies grew they slowly weaned off to become almost completely hands off.
“As CEO your job is to work ON the business not IN the business” -Doug Kaufman, TransLoc
As a company becomes larger it is critically important to balance engineering and sales teams. As CEO, you must be able to manage the needs, wants, and emotions of entire departments so the company works cohesively.
Keeping Sales and Engineering Happy
If customers are churning quickly it could be because sales is selling before features are ready. Meaning that sales are selling to customers that may be either a little too big or complex for a young product. A situation like this can make sales and engineering feud because sales is blaming engineering for not pushing feature updates fast enough and engineering blames sales for not being able to close deals that are right for today’s product.
On Revenue and Sales
Often times people think revenue and sales goals can be pinned down to an individual sales person or team. And though it is true that if each individual hits their sales numbers and goals so will the company, Todd made a great point. He said:
“We preach the revenue number is everyone’s number, but ultimately the CEO is responsible.” -Todd Olson, Pendo
They noted how important it is that sales people believe their product is THE solution, not A solution. Genuinely believing in a company, their mission, and their product makes selling that solution much easier.
What They Look for in New Sales Hires
Scot Wingo touched on how great it is hiring in the RTP area. In comparison to Silicon Valley, he said people are much more likely to work together to help others and not just be a one man team. He said it really helps recruit people to the area when considering relocating.
“We look for energy and passion because you can’t teach it” -Scot Wingo, Spiffy
Though hiring processes vary from company to company all the panelists agreed on good ways to impress them and land a job at their growing startups.
Culture Fit
They look for good culture fit. Meaning- does this person’s personality mesh with the speed, attitude, and mission of the company? For example, if someone has spent years in a very structured and bureaucratic organization he or she might not be a great fit for a growing startup where much more independence is required.
Communication
In a sales role, if you cannot communicate why you should get hired, how can you expect to be hired? Communication is vital. They often look at candidates to be able to explain difficult concepts clearly. Sometimes in an interview, they will ask a candidate to teach them something new.
They also ask about past faults and failures. Being able to articulate what went wrong, how you fixed it, and what you learned from it shows maturity and critical thinking skills.
Past Performance
Having a positive attitude helps in getting hired at a startup, but the biggest factor that leads to being hired is past performance. Hiring is such a subjective process with a huge risk that a person might not work out that the best way they had found to hire is by judging on past successes. They are looking to see if someone is intelligent and creative.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed getting to hear from local CEOs on their thoughts about sales and hiring and look forward to many more meetups.
Thank you to all the panelists!
I write about things I learn and how to recruit top sales talent. Thanks for reading :)
And thanks to Colin Rex for the cover photo.
