What do I do?
- Hire, retain and develop world class sales talent in the technology industry
- Create and deliver sales strategy and operating models
Guiding principals
- People are the most important thing. Always. I believe that happy, informed and curious people have the confidence and courage to lead others to achieve the outcomes they need to achieve business and personal success. So I will always work to keep my team confident and know you are valued.
- Aim for simplicity. Life is complex, people are complex, business is complex. That makes things hard and slows progress down so as much as possible I’ll work to simplify everything. To reduce matters to the most important and fundamental points to achieve success.
- I start with an assumption of positive intent for all involved. This has worked out well for me over my life.
- There are no shortcuts. I’ve tried to find them all, I hoped I would find at least one by now but in the long run there is only hard work, discipline and determination. Growth is hard. Time is finite. Efficiency and working smart are the only way.
- What gets measured gets improved. The science of sales allows us to measure where we are succeeding so we can accelerate there. It also highlights our failures, often in a very stark way, making it possible to improve.
- Self-awareness is your greatest asset. There are always things to improve, gaps to find, self-improvement to seek and solution for. You are the best judge of yourself so be honest and be aware, it’ll speed up success.
Trust
- Trust and transparency come hand in hand. I’ve been fortunate enough to work for companies in which an open book policy operates, that is to say that all the bad news is shared as well as the good. This is how I operate. There are always things that can be improved and they need addressing so I will be fully transparent about those and we will work together to solve them.
- I make decisions based on medium and long term outcomes. Trust is built over several interactions & transactions. Therefore the best relationships are built where multiple transactions over time are assumed in the approach to each engagement.
- I will give you my trust. We will build on this over time and we will always look to give each other more and more. When it breaks we will talk about it open and honestly, it can be regained.
- Here are two great detailed resources about trust that I believe in
My assumptions
- You’re very good at your job. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t. If it feels like I’m questioning you it’s because I’m either: a) Trying to gather context. Or b) Trying to be a sounding board.
- You’ll let me know if you can’t do your job. One of my main responsibilities is ensuring that you’re set up for success. Occasionally things slip through the cracks and I won’t know I’m letting you down.
- You feel safe debating with me. I find that ideas improve by being examined from all angles. If it sounds like I’m disagreeing I’m most likely just playing devil’s advocate. This does rely on us being able to have a safe debate.
Our week together
- We will have a weekly 121 to talk about the KPIs for success. We have a shared Google doc for accountability reasons, the intent is to keep us improving ourselves and our relationship.
- I am always available to talk about deals and strategy and I expect you to come to me when you need to review your pipeline. Be honest with yourself in these sessions. Nothing is perfect. There are always gaps. I’ll do my best to find the gaps. I may ask others to help us if we can’t see any. I’m also not precious about you doing this with other sales managers and reps if you think a deal/set of deals are similar to ones they’ve closed, we are all here to learn and improve each other. Make sure you update me on the outcomes so I can learn too.
- We will do daily huddles. The purpose of these is to focus, be accountable and learn. We talk about 3 things.
- Deals you’re working that day/week
- What you’re focusing on for pipeline generation
- Business & team updates
How to 121
- This is our sacred time. It’s about us as people. Relationships require work and honesty so let’s use this time to nature our relationship
- Come prepared with questions, expectations and asks I will too. Add items to the 121 Google doc ahead of time
- It’s nice to do these outside the normal operating areas
Feedback protocol
- I am going to ask you for feedback in 1:1s regularly. I am never going to stop doing this no matter how many times you say you have no feedback for me. Disagreement is feedback and the sooner we learn how to efficiently disagree with each other, the sooner we’ll trust and respect each other more.
- Feedback is a gift.
Meeting protocol
- There must be an agenda and an owner
- If it can finish early it should, if it can’t we will stop it and plan when to continue
- No devices as far as possible, Instagram is just too tempting. But seriously, it’s off putting for everyone and you aren’t truly connected to the subject and missing the value of the meeting
- If it’s not clear to me why I am in a meeting, I will ask for clarification on my attendance
- My calendar is open to all, if you need to ask me if I can move a meeting, Slack me, if it’s getting really urgent then call or WhatsApp me.
- Feel free to put something in my calendar, don’t feel like you need to ask first. Just make sure to include an agenda. Is my calendar full? Send me a message and I’ll likely be able to move something around.
The weird things about how I operate
- I look angry when I’m concentrating but I’m not. I know about this and I’m working on it but always come and talk to me, I love people.
- Occasionally I burst into song when I’m working on something. I can’t sing and I know it but it makes me happy, please tell me to stop if it’s not for you, I would appreciate it.
What books do I recommend
- Ben Horowitz – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
- An honest appraisal of self, business and just a thrilling read for those in the tech industry
- Ken Follett – All books in the Century Trilogy
- Lots happened in the 21st century and it shapes our world for this century. We should know about it
Songs that will always make me happy
- LCD sound system – all my friends
- Gipsy Kings – bamboleo
Updated: Summer 2023