Grit

Topics:

• Is there a stigma around intelligence in sales?
• How to enable high velocity sales

Many organizations today are struggling to strike a balance between being data-driven and gut-driven. For pointers, we turned to Meka Asonye who has deployed data at the highest level in sports doing statistical analysis for the Cleveland Indians. Meka provides tips about using data to discover opportunities and gain a market advantage. Meka also talks about his transition into sales, touching on important issues related to the stigma of the profession (and how that’s changing) and enabling high velocity growth. 

In this episode of Go to Market Grit, we cover: 

• Meka’s atypical career journey, including a four year run advising the GM of the Cleveland Indians on Major League roster and payroll allocation using statistical analysis.
• The Indians’ strategy of trying to gather every data point possible when scouting, to gain an on-field advantage and assist with scouting.
• Analyzing someone’s level of grit, or resilience, and whether that can be accomplished with data alone.  
• Striking a balance between being data-driven and being gut-driven. 
• Competitive balance, and learning how to operate in an imperfect or imbalanced system.
• Meka’s slow but successful transition into technology sales — including why he made the jump into technology.
• The stigma of sales, especially with smart individuals, and why it’s starting to change as the profession is getting more difficult and requiring more personalized experiences. 
• How the role of the modern sales leader has evolved over the last decade or so, as it now involves working with product, finance, customer service, and marketing teams.
• Enabling a high velocity sales engine. According to Meka, the most important thing is to join a company with an amazing product, and a product-led growth strategy. 
• The role that people, processes, and tools play in enabling a high velocity sales engine.
• Meka’s definition of high velocity sales, which is being able to close a significant number of deals in 30 days. 

Links:

• Connect with Meka on Linkedin
• Mixpanel
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

In this episode of Go to Market Grit, CircleCI CRO Jane Kim shares valuable insight about her experiences growing a global organization, and trying to build an effective team and strategy. Joubin and Jane discuss and debate two key topics, including leading with vulnerability, and five common mistakes that first time managers make.

“Vulnerability is not knowing victory or defeat, it’s understanding the necessity of both; it’s engaging. It’s being all in.” - Brene Brown

Leading with vulnerability, and doing it well, is arguably one of the most difficult things to do in business. Yet, mastering this strategy can be incredibly empowering both for yourself and your team, as it can build authenticity and trust.

One person who actively practices leading with vulnerability is Jane Kim, who has helped drive explosive global growth at CircleCI. Jane explains what it means to truly lead with vulnerability, while offering sage advice on building sales teams. 

In this episode of Go to Market Grit, we cover: 

• How a company’s playbook can differ from region to region, and why it’s important to be open to new ideas when stepping into new markets.
• How purchasing is flowing down, and leading to more technical buyers who are empowered to not only test products but also to recommend solutions to decision makers.
• The importance of leading with vulnerability, and how it can create authenticity and trust with workers.  
• How being vulnerable can make you impenetrable to criticism. In other words, by being open about your strengths and weaknesses, you don’t have to be defensive about other people coming after your insecurities. 
• Why it’s important to be considerate about the type of information that you share when practicing vulnerability, as well as when you share it and how you share it.
• A debate about the five mistakes that first time managers make, including micromanaging, hiring the wrong person, falling into the likability trap, giving bad advice to the team, and pursuing the wrong strategy. Jane also mentions leadership principles, including empowerment and accountability. 
• Why Jane prefers to fail fast, and to use failure as a learning opportunity. 
• Giving people the confidence to be themselves, while coaching them to be better.  
• Understanding that you will make mistakes in your management career, and thinking about how you will recover from them.

Links:

• Connect with Jane on Linkedin
• CircleCI
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

In this episode of Go to Market Grit, TripActions CRO and Silicon Valley sales legend Carlos Delatorre opens up about what it takes to build powerful and effective sales teams and strategies. Joubin and Carlos discuss two key topics, including the value of relationship building, and making your go-to-market strategy a competitive differentiator.

In this episode of Go to Market Grit, we cover: 

• Carlos’s criteria when vetting new opportunities including the size of the market, whether the solution has genuine differentiation that delivers real value to customers, and the quality of the team. 
• How a healthy market and great sales execution can make up for a mediocre product. 
• Why people and execution are the most important aspects in sales, even more than product and market size. 
• The importance of relying on trusted experts when qualifying new technologies.
• Analyzing differentiation at the architectural level versus the feature level.
• An inside scoop on how TripActions has been dealing with the lack of travel during the pandemic, and why Carlos views the travel freeze as both a challenge and an opportunity.
• Why Carlos places limited value on relationships when selling differentiated products — and why skilled and curious salespeople tend to be much more successful than people who rely on relationships. Carlos also discusses the value of internal relationships, and why working from home can be a challenge for productivity. 
• The impact that an optimized go-to-market strategy can have on sales, and the magic that can happen when a sales team is given a differentiated product that delivers real value, are expert at demand creation, and can convert demand into revenue. 
• Viewing the sales process as a science, as opposed to an art, and ensuring that the science is applied consistently — and why ideas should flow up and down between management and sales teams. 
• Carlos’s key go-to-market differentiators: Being able to recruit star talent, having a solid enablement program, and having a solid execution strategy.

Links:

• Connect with Carlos on LinkedIn: 
  • LinkedIn
• TripActions
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

In this episode of Go to Market Grit, Obsidian Security CRO and sales veteran Bob Kruse shares his thoughts on culture, and how it impacts sales teams. Bob and Joubin discuss why having a strong culture is critical in sales, as well as the benefits of deploying a multifaceted channel program.

In this episode of Go to Market Grit, we cover: 

• Why having a strong culture on your sales team can serve as a competitive advantage — and why it needs to be treated as a top-down initiative.
• Why it’s important to prioritize transparency, integrity, trust, and authenticity in sales.
• Viewing sales as a team sport — and why reps need to work together as a single unit. 
• How inclusivity, and bringing different types of employees into the sales process like engineers can be beneficial to the company and help to achieve common goals.
• Tips for improving your odds of success when hiring, such as being completely comfortable with prospects and prioritizing referrals and recommendations.
• Tips for keeping sales teams motivated, yet working hard and in touch with reality — and why complacency is death. 
• Bob’s thoughts on the channel — including how it’s changed due to SaaS, and how a multi-faceted channel program can help sales teams expand and grow, and open new doors.

Links

• Connect with Bob on LinkedIn: 
  • LinkedIn
• Obsidian Security
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

In this episode, Jeff StClair, currently VP of Sales at Palo Alto Networks and most recently VP Sales at Evident.io shares his thoughts on how startups can more effectively discover, attract, and retain top talent, and in doing so take their organizations to new heights. We also dive deep into what makes a great sales rep.

In this episode of Go to Market Grit, we cover: 

• Key qualities that Jeff looks for when recruiting sales associates.
• Why hiring should be a group effort for startups, with team members agreeing on new reps before bringing them on board. 
• Considerations for hiring in a startup environment, versus an organization that’s growing at scale.
• The importance of nurturing and developing talented sales associates, by giving them opportunities to continuously challenge themselves to work beyond their capacity. 
• Why top tier sales associates typically make poor managers and leaders -— and what it takes to thrive in a leadership role. 
• The difficulty — and importance — of building a competitive team that  integrity and a strong culture. 

Links 

• Connect with Jeff
  • LinkedIn
• Prisma Cloud
• Palo Alto Networks
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: [email protected] 
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

In Episode #1 of Go to Market Grit, Slack’s SVP of Sales and Customer Success, Bob Frati, gives the inside scoop about the company’s sales and go-to-market strategy, and why they have been able to scale their go to market so quickly and effectively over the last few years. Bob and Joubin discuss two key topics in detail, outlining the next four years for Slack and key growth levers they can pull, along with growing competition in Slack’s market and what that means for their future. 

In this episode of Go to Market Grit, we cover: 

• Key growth levers for Slack, and why the company is positioned for continued market dominance.
• Slack’s response to growing market competition, and why it’s ultimately better for the consumer and for the company.
• How Slack identified a business need and strong product market fit, and then worked to expand the solution to a broader audience. 
• The importance of having a strong and developed customer-facing team to navigate complexities in large enterprises, and push business forward to completion.
• How Slack grew its sales team from 300 to 2,000 people — quickly, and effectively. 
• Some of the factors that Slack looks for when hiring customer-facing sales staff, and why they value these characteristics.
• Why hiring should be a mutual fit for both the candidate and the employer.
• Identifying motivated individuals, and finding ways to tap into their motivation that will drive them to be successful. 
• Bob’s career journey from sales rep to manager — including why and how he executed the leap. 
• Why much of Slack’s success can be attributed to tight collaboration between its engineering, product, sales, and success teams. 
• Slack’s ability to not only deploy a solution in an organization, but to help manage through the change and ensure success — and why this is a game-changer.
• Slack’s role in ushering a new way of working, and why it transcends the tired and overused digital transformation narrative in business.

Links 

• Host company: https://www.kleinerperkins.com/
• Loom: https://www.loom.com/ 
• Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rfrati/
• Host Twitter: https://twitter.com/Joubinmir
• Host Email: [email protected] 

About the Joubin Mirzadegan

Joubin has been with Kleiner Perkins since 2019 where he advises the KP portfolio companies on how to build and scale a robust go-to-market strategy. Additionally, he enables the firm’s portfolio through high impact relationships with F500 executives and key ecosystem partners. Joubin was previously at Palo Alto Networks as a global district sales manager for the Central US based in Chicago where he scaled the Central Cloud business from 1 enterprise rep and $2M ARR to 12 reps and $50M+ ARR in 4 quarters. He has also worked for Evident.io as an enterprise account executive and at Bracket Computing (acquired by VMWare) where he built the inside sales team from the ground up.