The Path to Sales Leadership: Lessons Learned at Each Management Level with Carl Cross

Carl Cross has an established career transforming and leading superior teams resulting in high performance and vibrant revenue growth. Carl has advanced through multiple leadership roles and has consistently been asked to lead key projects that drive corporate strategy. Currently, Carl is the Chief Revenue Officer of Alkami, a SaaS based digital banking platform. He started his career at Peoplesoft where he climbed into the sales leadership ranks before moving to SAP. After SAP he moved to BMC where he was responsible for the company's global outsourcing business and after a two year stint with HP, Carl headed up worldwide sales at AppSense and helped lead the company through its acquisition by ThomaBravo. He then held the position of Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Workfront and remained in that role leading the go to market integration after the acquisition by Adobe.

In this episode of the Revenue Builders Podcast, Carl Cross, the Chief Revenue Officer at Alkami, shares his insights on sales leadership and scaling a sales organization. He emphasizes the importance of effective leadership, creating a strong sales culture, and aligning sales and marketing efforts. Carl also highlights the significance of understanding the buyer's journey and conducting thorough discovery in the sales process. When it comes to scaling a sales force, Carl discusses the need for a sales capacity plan and the importance of staying ahead in recruiting to avoid falling behind in sales goals.

Tune in to this conversation with John McMahon and John Kaplan on the Revenue Builders podcast.

HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT

[00:05:20] Lesson learned as a first line manager: it's not about you

[00:09:59] Challenges of transitioning to a second line manager

[00:12:24] Transition from tactical to strategic thinking

[00:17:16] Importance of skills and pipeline in sales

[00:19:27] Accountability for recruitment and development of reps

[00:23:11] Importance of understanding and motivating individual team members

[00:27:08] Living by the culture and taking responsibility for it as a leader

[00:32:08] Challenges of being a CRO and the need for alignment

[00:41:27] Motivation and individual differences in sales

[00:51:14] Lessons on scaling a sales force

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Learn more about Carl Cross and about their company:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/crosscarl/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/alkamitech/

Download our Sales Transformation Guide for Leaders:

https://forc.mx/3sdtEZJ

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

[00:52:48] "But for me, scaling is really it's, you know, do you have a sales capacity plan? Right? And I'm not talking about like we're getting ready to come into a new year. We already know the sales capacity plan. We know what we're hiring to, but the most effective CROs, most every SAS company is going to have a 3, 4, 5 year plan, right?"

[00:53:28] "But have the plan higher to it, hold the leadership accountable to it and that's how I think about scaling it. There's a lot of things in it, but your sales capacity plan and your average productivity per head is probably the biggest driver in that well."