Hunters and Unicorns

Hunters and Unicorns | The Playbook Universe - Dan Miller #012

Aug 16, 2023

Dan Miller, GTM Advisor at Loft Lab and Observable, discusses his career-defining moments at prestigious companies such as Splunk, Nimble Storage, Sumo Logic, and SignalFX. He shares insights on closing a deal worth just short of $100m, the importance of allies and mentors in the GTM community, identifying early-stage companies, impactful sales metrics, and sales as a science. Dan also shares the inspirational story of Mark Cranney and his journey in driving a $1.6 billion sale to HP. Don't miss this episode!

54:25

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Episode guests

Dan Miller

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

The importance of allies and mentors in the go-to-market (GTM) community for success in closing deals and achieving revenue goals.

The significance of transitioning from an individual contributor (IC) to a leadership role, and the mindset shift required to focus on team success, coaching, and enabling the sales playbook implementation.

Deep dives

Working with Pre-Revenue Organizations

Dan is currently providing go-to-market advisory work for pre-revenue organizations like Lough Labs and Observable. These organizations are leveraging open source technologies and Dan's expertise to build and scale their enterprise sales processes. With his mastery of the sales playbook, Dan is helping these organizations understand the value of implementing the methodologies that have brought him significant success throughout his career.

Introduction

4min

The Journey at Nimble Storage

27min

Navigating the Pressure of a High-Stakes Sales Deal

12min

Learning from Great Leaders and Go-To-Market Advisory with Open Source Companies

4min

Educating Founders on Methodologies and Future Career Goals

3min

Reflecting on Career Success and the Power of a Playbook

4min

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns: The Playbook Universe. Today we welcome Dan Miller! Key takeaways from this episode are: • What it took to close a deal worth just short of $100m • Why he never missed his number • Why allies and mentors in GTM community are essential Dan Miller is a GTM Advisor at Loft Lab sand Observable, focusing on revenue strategies. In this Hunters and Unicorns podcast, Dan reflects on his career-defining moments at prestigious companies such as Splunk, Nimble Storage, Sumo Logic and SignalFX. He shares his experience when transitioning from an IC to a Leadership role and the challenges he faced. Dan is a force of nature within the playbook space. His list of achievements is extensive and includes; • Exceeding 100% every year • Closed the larges deal in Splunk’s history • Exposed to the playbooks of both John McMahon and Mark Cranny We loved understanding more from Dan about identifying early-stage companies and the right strategies needed for implementation. How can champions really be identified consistently? What are the real impactful metrics when it comes to sales? Dan shares with us his insight pertaining to sales as a science as opposed to an art. He also shares the inspirational story of Mark Cranney and his journey including competing with the Bladelogic team at Opsware and driving a $1.6 billion sale to HP. Dan gives us real insight to the SignalFX story! This episode is not to be missed!

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