The Tech Sales Newsletter #61: Tech sales culture starts with hiring
Sales anon,
This week we will take a closer look at the importance of hiring when it comes to tech sales. This is an extremely important part of evaluating a tech sales opportunity, whether from the perspective of a sales rep looking for a new company or an investor looking to add them to their portfolio.
As part of this, we will take a look at a "scoop" - one of the active interviewing documents currently used by Salesforce when preparing candidates. It goes into some very interesting detail and reveals how a company that has struggled with the quality of its sales execution in recent years (many top tech companies no longer hire reps from Salesforce) is trying to turn things around and build a new, high-performance sales culture.
First principles of a top performing sales culture
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The missing gap when evaluating cloud infrastructure software companies.
The 5 year run is the time needed for an individual to progress towards financial independence in a commissioned role. If they achieve or overachieve quota attainment every year, combined with reasonable spending habits, they are very likely to have earned in the Top 10% of wage earners in their country for the period.
We want sales reps to be:
Resilient but coachable personalities (always looking for an edge)
Intellectually curious and seeking to improve in all areas of the job
Take pride in success and want to be surrounded by successful teams
Financially motivated to overdeliver
Let’s breakdown why these are critical and how it connects with the 5 year run:
Resilient but coachable: If a sales rep sees their next role as an opportunity to do exactly the same thing as before, they are likely to underperform in a company with a high-performance sales culture. Many sales leaders make the mistake of betting on individuals who have “done it before” but are not motivated to push themselves further. This is where “coachability” comes into place - top performers look at every new role as a stepping stone and understand that this is only possible when working closely with individuals they can learn from. We are looking for sales reps that have shown the ability to handle difficult periods and who are willing to outwork and outlearn themselves out of them.
Intellectual curiosity: The best sales reps are not only good at managing sales cycles, they are also industry insiders and technology evangelists. They are exposed to the strategies and day-to-day realities of many companies in their niche. They have worked with some of the best product, engineering and operations talent in the industry. They are constantly learning in every domain that they operate.
Ambitious team players: The cliche of hiring competitive personalities in sales roles exists for a reason - great sales reps are emotionally connected to their companies. They are also team players, because they understand that when you are competing for the best deals in their niche, customers need to trust not just a single individual but multiple stakeholders from the vendor side. Great sales reps are elevated by team performances and seek those opportunities.
Financially motivated to overdeliver: If we want an individual to consistently put in 50-60 hours per week of intense and high quality work, then they need clear motivation to do so. Hiring sales reps who are already financially independent rarely results in them taking a step-up in performance, rather they tend to become progressively more difficult to coach and work with. The ideal scenario is hiring a sales rep at the beginning of their 5 year run of success - the period where they’ll give their best every day in order to achieve a higher personal goal.
Now if we work backwards, sales culture is the living, breathing reflection of the Go-To-Market community in a company.
Building the right sales culture starts with hiring the right individuals.
Hiring right means that we are looking for hungry, resilient, curious and highly self-motivated individuals.
The (new) Salesforce tech sales culture
Source: Salesforce BDR Candidate Prep document
We kick off with a rather structured approach and expectation from all participants. The obvious first shift here is the move from "we'll ask you generic stuff for half an hour then kick you out" to:
We want to qualify you hard on how you behave.
We want you to show us how you think, and what do you find important.
Source: Salesforce BDR Candidate Prep document
The interesting thing about coaching candidates into the level of performance we want to see is that the difficulty curve for winning the interview then jumps exponentially.
Demonstrating high energy, passion for the opportunity, and curiosity for growth has always been an upper-percentile closing strategy for interviews. What happens when everyone on this final interview is preparing in this regard? What sets you apart from the other candidates?
Source: Salesforce BDR Candidate Prep document
Again, typically, companies do not coach you on what "good" looks like. However, by setting up the expectation that a great interview looks like, the difficulty curve spikes because more candidates will execute as expected, and some will overperform.
Source: Salesforce BDR Candidate Prep document
While corporate values are often seen nowadays as "mostly useless fluff", the reality is that they help to codify the core behaviours that you expect to be shown as part of daily work.
Source: Salesforce BDR Candidate Prep document
Metrics and processes are becoming the "golden standard" in the industry for evaluating past performance. Simply looking at the numbers without understanding how you think about achieving them is not sufficient.
Source: Salesforce BDR Candidate Prep document
Just talking about successes is not good enough - most tech sales reps will spend the majority of their time failing rather than succeeding. Even for relatively junior roles such as BDRs, it's essential to push candidates into being honest about how they respond when things aren't going well.
Source: Salesforce BDR Candidate Prep document
This is probably the most important part of the document. It outlines what a top performer looks like in the new tech sales culture that Salesforce is trying to create.
They want to be in sales and are passionate about the role
They think deeply about how their workflow impacts results and try to continuously improve
They have a point of view and what to get a deeper understanding of the opportunity ahead
So how is this working out for Salesforce?
Let’s take a look at the recent RepVue reviews that tackle the topic of culture:
At first glance, these reviews highlight a negative trend in the company as perceived by existing sales reps.
However, something we have to consider seriously is the fact that the majority of those reps are not considered good enough for the best-in-class companies in the tech industry. The majority of these were hired when "Ohana" was the core value system at Salesforce:
Inspired by the concept of ‘Ohana, Marc Benioff founded Salesforce to prioritize collaboration, inclusivity, and the well-being of every individual.
Salesforce’s core values:
Trust: Trust is the foundation of Salesforce’s relationships with its employees, customers, partners, and communities. By promoting transparency, honesty, and reliability, Salesforce builds and maintains strong bonds across its entire ecosystem.
Customer Success: Salesforce is dedicated to helping its customers succeed. This principle is reflected in the company’s commitment to understanding and addressing customer needs, providing exceptional service, and ensuring that customers derive maximum value from Salesforce products.
Innovation: Continuous innovation is a cornerstone of Salesforce’s growth and success. The company encourages creativity and experimentation, empowering employees to develop cutting-edge solutions that drive progress and deliver competitive customer advantages.
Equality: Salesforce champions equality in all its forms. The company actively promotes diversity and inclusion, striving to create an environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to achieve their full potential.
Sustainability: Salesforce leads boldly to address the climate emergency, bringing the full power of Salesforce to accelerate the world’s journey to net zero. Because Salesforce knows that the wellbeing of our planet and our most vulnerable communities rests on a healthy climate.
Do any of these really translate to the document we just reviewed? This interview format is the final step in the process, the key deciding moment to qualify whether this candidate is a great fit for the company.
Every single question is geared towards building a highly performing sales culture. This is what change looks like, one hire at a time.
Evaluating Salesforce as a tech sales job opportunity or an investment based solely on their product or previous reputation is not good enough. We want to dig deep into how the organization is shaping up for the future - understanding their sales culture and their product vision is how we get a glimpse into the future.
