In the inaugural episode of "20 Sales," host Harry Stebbings interviews Carl Parrish, VP of Sales at Figma, a design platform that facilitates collaboration among teams. Carl shares his unconventional journey into the world of tech and startups, from a finance student to building sales organizations at Dropbox and Figma. He emphasizes the importance of tenacity, work ethic, and a growth mindset for sales success. Carl also discusses the critical role of discovery in sales, the shift away from top-down tactics due to informed buyers, and the value of founders being involved in early sales to understand customer narratives. Additionally, he advises new sales leaders to ask questions, adapt, and focus on customer experience over discount negotiations. Carl admires Slack's sales culture and aspires for Figma to surpass its success. The episode is sponsored by SalesLoft, a sales engagement platform used by leading companies.
Last month we expanded with 20 growth and today we launched 20 sales, a dedicated series to interviewing the world's best heads of sales to uncover their tactics, strategies and experiences.
This quote explains the recent expansion of "20" into a series specifically focused on sales leadership and their effective strategies.
At Figma, Carl built the sales engine from scratch to today with over 100 incredible people in sales.
This quote highlights Carl Parrish's role in developing Figma's successful sales team from its inception.
Sales Loft is the leading sales engagement platform, helping sales teams drive more revenue.
This quote introduces Sales Loft as a prominent tool for sales teams to enhance their performance and revenue.
I ended up getting a job moving to San Francisco in January of 2009, and they had a really renowned sales program.
This quote summarizes Carl's initial foray into the sales world through ADP's program in San Francisco.
Does the CEO need to build the playbook? I don't think that's the best idea.
This quote emphasizes that while the CEO's involvement is important, they should not be the primary creator of the sales playbook.
When you've got some conviction that, hey, this is a motion that's going to require a sales team... Go and get that head of sales.
This quote advises on hiring a head of sales when there's certainty about the need for a sales team.
What happens is they start bringing in advisors, they start bringing in angels in fundraising rounds that have led sales teams, our vps of sales, our heads of sales at other companies, and can give them guidance and advice, which is good.
This quote discusses the interim solutions CEOs may use before deciding to hire a head of sales for strategic guidance.
"You need to bring in someone who just has more perspective and playbooks. I don't think it's about copy pasting what those people have done in the past, but it's about coming in, understanding where they're at today and from first principle, starting to build a foundation of a repeatable sales team, not just prove that you can sell a product and bring in some revenue."
The quote highlights the need for a nuanced approach to building a sales team by leveraging experience and adapting strategies to the specific needs of the company, rather than simply copying past successes.
"I think what allowed me to be successful was tenacity, work ethic, and just always looking to get a little bit better... I was working smarter... efficiency on top of the kind of just motivation and tenacity were key."
This quote describes the personal attributes and work habits that contribute to a sales rep's success, emphasizing continuous improvement and smart work strategies.
"Every good sales rep, they develop a playbook at that company, at that role, when they're hyper successful, it's not a fluke."
This quote emphasizes the importance of a sales rep having a well-defined strategy or "playbook" that they have developed and refined over time to achieve consistent success.
"You're looking for people that have been through adversity, professionally, personally... those kind of people are the people that you want on your team."
The quote stresses the significance of hiring sales reps who have proven their resilience and ability to thrive despite adversity, suggesting they are well-suited to the dynamic nature of sales roles.
"We're trying to think about the candidate experience being a positive one... You want to be efficient, both in terms of your team's time... And the last thing, I think is just focus."
This quote outlines the principles guiding the hiring process, highlighting the balance between a positive candidate experience, efficiency, and a focused approach to evaluating candidates.
"Where do you think founders most commonly make the biggest mistakes with the type of people, the process."
This quote prompts a discussion on the common pitfalls founders face when hiring, suggesting the need for reflection and improvement in hiring practices.
"So you're joining a culture that's probably created and kind of like stood up by engineering, product design, the executives, the founders, of course."
This quote emphasizes the unique cultural environment of startups, which is often not sales-focused and is shaped by different departments such as engineering and product design.
"Startups is all about prioritization."
This quote highlights the importance of understanding and respecting the constraints and priorities within a startup, especially when it comes to product development and engineering resources.
"It's not a fluke that those people have chosen those opportunities and tend to work in large organizations."
This quote suggests that individuals who have long tenures at larger companies may not be the best fit for a startup environment, which requires a different skill set and mindset.
"You got to get thing off the ground to prove you can bring in resources and additional headcount and other experts that know that area much, much better than you do."
This quote describes the multitasking nature of early roles in a startup, where individuals often wear multiple hats until the company can hire specialized teams.
"Early on, I feel like it was a lot of kind of sidelining. You're on the bench, you're watching the players on the court play for only a couple of weeks."
This quote illustrates the observational phase of onboarding, where new hires learn by watching and understanding the business before actively participating.
"So by then we've had baseline metrics in terms of number of discovery calls, like initial call, the customer, they would expect pipeline that you've been adding."
This quote indicates the importance of having clear, measurable goals for new sales reps to aim for within their first few months.
"You got to trust me. We're going to get there."
This quote reflects the reassurance and trust that managers need to instill in new hires, especially when the company is still developing its sales processes and structure.
"Say for example, you're doing a bunch of initial calls with customers, but you're just converting at a much lower rate."
This quote identifies a potential red flag in a sales rep's performance, suggesting a need for further investigation and coaching.
"Can you be efficient? You can't take 2 hours every day to close out."
This quote stresses the importance of efficiency in a fast-paced startup environment, where time management and the ability to quickly adapt are key to success.
"We do deal reviews and we have kind of an outline that they follow and they bring it and they come and they talk with myself, our CRO, our sales ops and rev ops leaders, frontline managers, and we just have a good discussion on all of the different things that it's going to take."
This quote explains the collaborative approach to deal reviews at Figma, involving multiple stakeholders to strategize and improve sales outcomes.
"I think what I learned in being close to Dylan and his role and working with Amanda closely is that early on as a founder, again, you've maybe never been at a company, never founded a company, never worked in sales in any capacity...So what I learned early that I think the founder and that sales leader should be meeting at least weekly, is my expectation for an hour at minimum."
This quote emphasizes the importance of regular and structured communication between the founder and the head of sales, especially given the founder's potential lack of experience in sales.
"We're now a $10 billion company with the most recent fundraise. But we also genuinely think that that's just the floor...And so I think as long as you can talk about the journey that we're embarking on and being on the very, very early part of that, it keeps people grounded."
The quote discusses the importance of keeping a sales team grounded and focused on the long-term journey, despite current successes and high valuations, to avoid complacency.
"I think there's more and more focus on today. One of the stalls, the strongest methodologies I'm hearing about is force management command of the message. But good discovery, having the customer talk more than the salesperson."
This quote points out that while methodologies may evolve, the fundamental principle of good discovery in sales remains unchanged.
"It's like what I've learned is sometimes this job is three steps back, one step forward, five steps back, ten steps forward. It's not this directional line that we're just marching on. So ask questions, learn, and be open to adapting."
The quote advises new sales leaders to be flexible and adaptable, recognizing that progress is not always linear and that asking questions and learning are key to success.
"We don't discount the product. It's something we've held to really strongly...removing that so you can focus more on the customer experience, more on customer success, more on learning better skills and sales development that'll further people's career long term."
This quote highlights a strategic move away from discounting products, instead focusing on the value of the product and improving customer experience and sales skills.
"I think stewards, notorious for saying, oh, we're not going to build a sales team early on...And then what they did in a relatively short amount of time, they built a really impressive sales.org and of course had an amazing exit and outcome."
The quote expresses admiration for Slack's successful development of a sales organization and culture, which serves as an inspiration for other companies.
"Salesoft is the leading sales engagement platform, helping sales teams drive more revenue with the modern revenue workspace."
This quote underscores the value of Salesloft as a comprehensive tool for sales teams to enhance their sales processes and outcomes.