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The Twenty Minute VCLori Jiménez: How to Increase Sales; Hiring Tips from Google; Best Way to Grow Sales Teams | E1043
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WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Lori Jiménez Reveals How To Build, Hire, And Scale Sales Teams
- Lori Jiménez, veteran sales leader (Google, Facebook, Box, Navan, WorkRamp), shares how to design sales playbooks, hire early sales talent, and build predictable revenue organizations.
- She argues founders must own the first sales playbook, avoid over-indexing on ‘logo hires,’ and instead prioritize curiosity, grit, and coachability in early reps.
- The conversation goes deep on interviewing and compensation for sales roles, onboarding, discovery and active listening, deal reviews, discounting, and forecasting in volatile markets.
- Throughout, she stresses genuine human connection, cross-functional collaboration, and a revenue-team mindset that tightly links sales, implementation, and customer success.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasFounders should own the first sales playbook before hiring sales leaders.
Because they know the product, customer problem, and ‘why’ more deeply than anyone else, founders are best placed to craft the initial narrative, iterate based on feedback, and then hand a proven motion to a head of sales.
Don’t overvalue ‘logo hires’; prioritize scrappy, curious, and adaptable talent.
Big-brand résumés can mask rigidity and misfit; early-stage companies need people energized by ambiguity, willing to build from scratch, and open to new ways of selling rather than importing a single ‘right way’ from a prior employer.
Interview for ‘how’ they win and lose, not just that they win.
Dig into losses, team collaboration, and specific metrics; shallow, scripted answers and excessive ‘I, I, I’ are red flags, while detailed stories with data and cross-functional teamwork indicate mature, repeatable performance.
Active listening and structured discovery are core sales superpowers.
Great reps ask layered questions, listen for both desired and undesired answers, and adjust in real time; managers should coach this by reviewing calls, highlighting ‘perfect’ discovery examples, and discouraging robotic scripts.
Align SDR incentives with quality, not just volume.
Using clear qualification frameworks (e.g., BANT/MEDDIC) and tying some SDR credit to opportunity stage progression ensures they don’t just ‘book meetings’ but hand off pipeline that sales can actually advance.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesOne of the most important characteristics of a great salesperson is being curious.
— Lori Jiménez
Think of a sales playbook as a GPS, not a script.
— Lori Jiménez
You can’t do anything on your own at Google… the stakeholder partnerships you make are critical to how you get work done.
— Lori Jiménez
We don’t operate as a sales organization, an implementation organization, and a success organization—it’s one revenue organization.
— Lori Jiménez
Forecast inspection needs to happen in the best of quarters and in the worst quarters; if you only do it when you’re down, it’s fear-based.
— Lori Jiménez
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