Ep.206: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Tim Strickland (@Tim-Strickland).

My guest today is Tim Strickland, former Chief Revenue Officer of ZoomInfo and now an advisory partner at Summit Partners. Tim led during a massive growth period for ZoomInfo and had to learn how to rapidly scale sales teams both within ZoomInfo and incorporate go-to-market teams from acquired companies. I’ve loved my own sales experience through data at Altos Research and wanted to hear what sales look like in hugely successful data companies just like ZoomInfo.

Tim and I talk about the characteristics of high-performing sales teams, where companies get stuck and common challenges, key points in a company’s growth cycle for sales teams, and what he looks for in new sales hires.

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Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

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Links:

Summit Advisory

Tim on LinkedIn

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:03:37) - Tim’s Sales career and the impact on the CRO role

(00:08:02) - Focuses for a sales team

(00:15:07) - Key reorgs within the sales team at Zoominfo

(00:17:39) - Defining the CRO Role

(00:20:51) - What to look for when hiring

(00:26:28) - What makes a good SDR into a great SDR

(00:29:07) - Where do you see the sales team get stuck most often?

(00:33:50) - Hard lessons learned