In this episode, Steli Efti (CEO and co-founder of Close) takes over our podcast to talk about cultivating a winning mentality in your team. Before founding Close, Steli ran Elastic Sales - Silicon Valley's secret sales team on demand - and has contributed to raising the sales IQ in the bay. He shares how winning is the foundation of a solid sales team, how caring is harder than it sounds, and how Close managed to grow it's sales org while being fully remote. 

Winning as a foundation: 00:40 - 04:40

How you win matters: 04:40 - 09:00

Friendly strength: 09:00 - 11:05

Caring is harder than it sounds: 11:05 - 14:55

Not being weak: 14:55 - 16:05

Building a remote sales team: 16:05 - 22:05

Bad advice in sales: 22:05 - 27:35

In this episode, we grab coffee with Martin Duhamel (Head of Sales EMEA at Front) and talk about defeating internal biases and boosting creativity in sales. Martin combines experience from SaaS and consulting. He joined Front 2 years ago, opening the EMEA HQ and hiring a team of 20. In our discussion, he opens his playbook into how to start with customer needs before moving to the solution, what it means to sell software for multiple use cases, and how to go beyond the script to address each customer on their own terms. 

YC's culture-add: 0:45 - 4:30

Creativity in sales: 4:30 - 8:10

The 5 "why's": 8:10 - 9:50

Need-based selling: 9:50 - 11:20

Selling to SMBs AND the enterprise: 11:20 - 16:00

The dissertation framework: 16:00 - 20:30

Encouraging new ideas: 20:30 - 23:59

Our next guest on the show is none other than Jacco vanderKooij, founder and CEO of Winning by Design as well as host of his own channel that goes by the same name. Jacco has worked alongside top sales teams to help them operationalize their sales and marketing. In this episode, we go deep on topics like sales process, compensation, and what it takes as a leader to build a solid culture in your sales team.

Leading by example: 00:55 - 3:10

Manager vs coach: 03:10 - 06:15

Process is the star: 06:15 - 08:50

Team before individuals: 08:50 - 15:30

Compensation in sales: 15:30 - 19:25

Hiring a CRO is a bad idea: 19:25 - 24:00

Eating together vs sharing food: 24:00 - 27:05

I hate being sold to, but love buying: 27:05 - 30:54

In this episode, we chat with Nazma Qurban (Chief Revenue Officer at Cognism) about hiring, driving, and building a sales culture suited to millennials. Nazma was one of the first employees at Cognism where she grew revenue by 600% in 2018 and built a base of over 200 clients in just 18 months. She's also been included in the Top Women Leaders in SaaS of 2018 by The SaaS Report. In this episode, she shares her tips for building - and scaling - a team of high-performing millennials in sales. 

Hiring millennials in sales: 01:10 - 03:10

Finding culture-fit: 03:10 - 04:45

Managing a millennial salesforce: 04:45 - 06:40

Building a culture in line with millennial's expectations: 06:40 - 12:45

Selling to other sales people: 12:45 - 15:00

In this episode, we chat sales culture and personal branding with Jake Dunlap (Founder and CEO of Skaled). Jake is a sales leader with over 15 years experience both as a VP of Sales and working in sales consultancy. In the show, Jake shares what it takes to build a winning culture today, why building a brand has become table stakes for sales leaders, his process for growing his personal brand, and sales tips that you absolutely shouldn't follow. 

Culture happens on purpose: 00:55 - 03:55

People are always watching: 03:55 - 05:00

Don't hire for potential: 05:00 - 07:30

Having professional development conversations with your team: 07:30 - 11:00

Don't be a hero manager: 11:00 - 12:15

Personal branding has become table stakes: 12:15 - 16:00

Jake's process for growing his brand: 16:00 - 20:40

Keep a script: 20:40 - 24:34

In this episode, we catch up with Ollie Sharpe (VP Revenue EMEA at Salesloft) to discuss how supporting work-life balance and hiring for culture adds can drive team performance. Before joining Salesloft, Ollie spent 10 years at LinkedIn. He's spoken a lot about the mental side of the sales game and brings his learnings to sales leaders looking to build high-performing teams in the competitive world of sales. 

Hiring for culture-add: 0:50 - 6:20

Driving performance by encouraging work-life balance: 06:20 - 10:25

Managing stress in sales teams: 10:25 - 13:25

Winning - and failing - as a team: 13:25 - 19:44

In this episode, we sit down with David Apple (Head of Customer Success and Sales at Notion) to talk about how to build a sales team in a product-driven company. Before joining Notion, David also headed up Sales and CS at Typeform. Drawing from his experience, David discusses how to align sales and customer success, how sales works in a product-driven company, and his first steps in building out the sales team at Notion.

Combining sales and customer success: 01:50 - 05:20

Integrating sales in a product-driven environment: 05:20 - 09:10

Managing small versus big accounts: 09:10 - 10:50

Customizing the pitch: 10:50 - 15:40

Aligning with tough conversations: 15:40 -  18:54