Cedric Chin and Sam Taylor discuss communicating sophisticated data to stakeholders, statistical process control, XMR charts, and the importance of clear communication. They explore tools like Zamarin for data analysis and empowering operators with data tools for process improvement. The conversation emphasizes driving continuous improvement through data communication and organizational decentralization, highlighting the significance of prioritizing data for business success.

Sam Taylor is the VP of Sales and Customer Success @ Loom, an essential tool for hybrid and remote teams allowing you to record quick videos of your screen and cam. At Loom Sam leads Revenue Org including: Direct Sales, Customer Success, Self-Serve Revenue Growth/Assist, Sales Development, Global Customer Support, Revenue Ops + Strategy and Sales Enablement. Prior to Loom, Sam spent over 4 years at Salesforce, following their acquisition of Quip, where he was the first sales leader. Before Salesforce and Quip, Sam spent over 3 years at Dropbox as a mid-market sales leader. In Today's Episode We Discuss: 1.) Entry into the World of Sales: How did Sam land his first big role in sales at Salesforce? How did the sales orgs differ when comparing Salesforce to Dropbox? What are 1-2 of Sam's biggest lessons from his time at Salesforce and Dropbox that shapes how he thinks today? 2.) Sales People Should Be Customer Therapists: What is the right way to approach customer discovery? How can sales reps get potential customers on a call in the first place? What are the right questions to ask? What engenders the most honesty? What are the wrong questions to ask? What are common mistakes? How do the best sales reps then feed that back to customer success and product? 3.) The When and The Who: When should founders consider hiring their first sales hire? Should this hire be a sales leader or a sales rep? What are the nuances? What are the characteristics of the best first sales hires? What are the first sales hires really on the hook for? Why does Sam disagree with the word "playbook" and instead suggest "frameworks"? 4.) How To Hire The Best: The Process What are Sam's lessons on what it takes to hire the very best sales reps? What are the right questions to ask in the interview process? What tangible case studies or tests are done to measure quality? Who is brought into the hiring process and at what stage?

Today we deconstruct the canonical question in early-stage sales. Does the founder need to create the sales playbook? Then secondly, if not, should the first sales hires be reps or a sales leader? Today we are joined by 7 of the best sales leaders to share their thoughts. Jordan Van Horn is a Revenue Leader @ Montecarlo. Previously Jordan spent 4 years with Segment and before that spent another 4 years at Dropbox. Oliver Jay (OJ) most recently spent 6 years at Asana where he was hired as the company’s first revenue leader. Before Asana, OJ spent 4 years at Dropbox where he scaled the sales team from 0 to 50 while tripling ARR. Dannie Herzberg is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital and previously spent 4 years at Slack as their Head of Enterprise Sales. Before Slack, Dannie spent 5 years at Hubspot building sales, opening an SF office, and then joining product to launch CRM & platform. Zhenya Loginov is the CRO @ Miro, where he runs the go-to-market team of 700+ people across 11 global offices. Prior to Miro, Zhenya was the COO @ Segment. Finally, before Segment, Zhenya led a 100-person team at Dropbox across numerous different functional areas. Kyle Parrish is VP Sales @ Figma, where he has scaled the sales team from 0 to over 100 people in sales. Before Figma, Kyle spent over 5 years at Dropbox in numerous different roles including Head of Sales, where he scaled the Austin, Texas office from 3 to over 80 people. Sam Taylor is the VP of Sales and Customer Success @ Loom, at Loom Sam leads Revenue Org including: Direct Sales, Customer Success, Self-Serve Revenue Growth/Assist. Prior to Loom, Sam spent over 4 years at Salesforce, following their acquisition of Quip, where he was the first sales leader. Before Salesforce and Quip, Sam spent over 3 years at Dropbox as a mid-market sales leader. Jeanne DeWitt Grosser is Head of Americas Revenue & Growth @ Stripe. Pre-Stripe, Jeanne was CRO @ Dialpad and also spent many years at Google in numerous different roles including most recently as Director of GSuite SMB & Mid-Market Sales, North America and LATAM. Mitch Tarica is Head of North America Sales at Zoom Video Communications. Before Zoom, Mitch spent over 5 years at RingCentral and before RingCentral, Mitch was at Oracle for over 7 years in numerous different sales roles. In Today's Discussion on Sales Playbooks We Learn: 1.) What is the right definition for a "sales playbook"? 2.) When is the right time to change your "sales playbook"? 3.) What are the biggest mistakes or misnomers made around the "sales playbook"? 4.) Should the founder be the one to create the first sales playbook or can it be a sales leader? 5.) When is the right time for founders to hire their first sales leaders? 6.) For the first sales hire, should founders hire sales reps or a sales leader? 7.) When should you hire a rep vs a sales leader? What are the nuances?