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Lessons Learned from Working with Dylan
This chapter discusses the lessons learned from working with Dylan, including his involvement in the sales process, effective communication with the CEO, and finding the most leveraged way to involve the CEO in sales activities.
Kyle Parrish, Figma’s first sales hire, built the company’s zero-to-one sales engine from scratch. Figma now has more than 3 million monthly users. Prior to Figma, Kyle spent 5 years at Dropbox in various sales roles. At Dropbox, Kyle successfully launched and scaled the Austin office to 100+ people, and then led the enterprise sales function in San Francisco and New York.
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In today’s episode, we discuss:
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Referenced:
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Where to find Kyle Parrish:
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Where to find Brett Berson:
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Where to find First Round Capital:
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(02:10) What founders need to figure out before hiring salespeople
(03:48) Who to hire as your first salesperson
(05:34) Transitioning away from founder-led sales
(07:07) Tactics for hiring great salespeople
(12:50) The ideal experience sales candidates should have
(13:49) Common traits of successful salespeople
(18:45) What it was like being Figma’s first sales hire
(19:59) Interesting tactic to integrate the first sales hire
(21:16) How Figma executed its early sales motion
(32:27) Why Figma changed its customer narrative
(34:03) Building outbound sales strategy at Figma
(36:17) Segmented pricing and no discounts
(41:55) Kyle’s transition from Dropbox to Figma
(47:25) Creating a world-class sales culture
(51:46) How Figma does sales differently
(54:02) Building the initial sales team around a passion for the product
(57:12) Figma’s unique hiring process for salespeople
(60:40) Advice for founders hiring their first salesperson
(63:18) The secret to Dylan Field’s success
(64:33) How to scale yourself as an early hire
(66:25) Oliver Jay’s impact on Kyle
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