Jordan Van Horn: 3 Reasons Salespeople Fail; How to Make a Sales Playbook | 20VC #918

Jordan Van Horn is a Revenue Leader @ Monte Carlo, the world's first data observability company. Prior to this role, Jordan spent an incredible 4 years in sales at Segment including as VP of Sales leading a sales team of 50+ Account Executives and leading the first international expansion for the company into Dublin. Before Segment, Jordan was at Dropbox for 4 years leading enterprise sales for Dropbox Business in California. --------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Jordan’s Background 1:50 What Jordan Learned Working at a Winery 4:00 What is a “Revenue Leader”? 5:18 What is a Sales Playbook? 6:10 Who should create the Sales Playbook? 8:23 Is it OK to have your product be for everyone? 10:12 How to document what resonates 12:18 Most common excuse for not hitting quota 14:00 How do you advice sales leaders on discounting? 16:10 What do you do when your champion leaves? Multithreading? 18:00 When is the right time to hire first Sales hire? 22:30 How to know whether to hire experienced or junior? 24:16 Biggest mistake founders make with their first sales hire 26:30 How to structure the hiring process for Sales 35:34 What makes the best presentations? 36:37 Jordan’s Biggest Hiring Mistakes 39:08 The Jordan Van Horn User Guide 42:12 How do you nurture and invest in talent? 46:13 The Ideal Onboarding Process for New Sales Hires 49:08 Most Common Red Flags that a New Sales Hire Won’t Work Out 50:25 How do you determine quality of Sales Reps? 53:07 How soon do you let new Sales Reps meet customers? 54:20 How to Structure a Deal Review 56:34 Which sales tactics haven’t changed the past 5 years? 57:41 Which sales tactics have died in the past 5 years? 58:23 What advice would you give to a Sales Leader starting today? 1:00:30 What would you most like to change about Sales? 1:00:58 Hardest Thing about Jordan’s Role at Monto Carlo 1:01:24 First Thing to Break When Scaling 1:02:30 Which company’s sales strategy have you been most impressed by? --------------------------------------- In Today's Episode with Jordan Van Horn We Discuss: 1.) Entry into the World of Sales: How did Jordan make his way into the world of sales first with a vineyard? What are 1-2 of the biggest takeaways for Jordan from seeing the scaling sales teams at both Segment and Dropbox? How did seeing that impact his mindset? What does Jordan know now that he wishes he had known when he entered sales? 2.) The Sales Playbook: How does Jordan define "the sales playbook"? What is it not? What five core things should the sales playbook help you accomplish? Should the founder be responsible for the sales playbook? Can it be created by a Head of Sales? How does Jordan advise founders on three signals that now is the right time to bring in a sales hire? How does Jordan advise founders on whether the first sales hire should be a rep or a leader? 3.) The Secrets to Pricing and Discounting: Why does Jordan not care what price customers pay in the early days? If it is not about ARR, what should teams be optimizing for? When does price discipline become important in a company journey? What are the dangers of not having price discipline? What two tools do sales leaders have to use in order to create urgency in a deal closing process? How should sales leaders think about building multiple champions within a potential customer? At what price point is it worth it? 4.) The Hiring Process: How does Jordan structure the hiring process for all new sales hires? What are the must-ask questions that Jordan asks all new candidates? What does he want to see in those answers? Who else does he bring into the hiring process? At what stage do they get involved? What are they testing for? Does Jordan use case studies with candidates? What makes the best? What makes the worst? 5.) The Onboarding: What is the ideal onboarding process for new sales reps? What should founders do and prep for when onboarding their first sales hires? What materials and recordings should they have ready? What are some early signs that a new hire is not working out? How do we measure their impact? For enterprise sales, it takes a long time to close new deals, how can one determine effectiveness of new reps when the sales cycle is so long? --------------------------------------- #JordanVanHorn #MonteCarlo #HarryStebbings #20VC #salestips #sales #salesleaders #entrepreneur #founder #startuplife #onboarding #jobinterview #dropboxmafia