#24 A Holistic Approach to Hiring and Leading a Revenue Organization

ABOUT THE GUEST - KEVIN MULRANE, VP MID-MARKET SALES AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AT GLOBAL WEB INDEX 

Kevin Mulrane has 15 years of sales experience specializing in building and scaling Saas revenue organizations. Kevin's expertise is with early-stage technology startups scaling from zero to $50+ million in revenue. Kevin is currently the Vice President of Mid-Market Sales Customer Experience at GlobalWebIndex. Kevin has had held key revenue leadership roles at Madison Logic, AOL, and Feedvisor. Outside of building powerhouse sales organizations, Kevin enjoys spending time with his wife, two boys, Crossfit, and eating pizza and drinking wine on Friday nights. 

Find Kevin on LinkedIn here: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmulrane/ 
 
Find Kevin’s Podcast “Addicted to Growth” here: 
https://www.linkedin.com/company/addicted-to-growth/ 

  
ABOUT THE EPISODE  

The idea for this episode started with a LinkedIn post by David about hiring salespeople and the frustrations that surround it. Kevin commented, the conversation continued in messages and then in a phone call, and Kevin has such a deep and innovative perspective on hiring that we just had to do an episode around it.  

While most sales leaders think about how to hire in terms of ads, resume screens, and interviews, Kevin starts well before then by asking if it is the right time to hire, if the company is prepared to support new salespeople, and how they can make sure the new people win alongside the existing team.  

Kevin shares some solid ideas and insights around all of that and more. It’s a great episode - enjoy!  

0:45 - What’s the single best piece of sales advice that Kevin has ever received?  

3:42 - What’s the worst advice about sales that Kevin has ever heard or received?  

5:09 - David sets up the topic for the show - frustrations around hiring for sales roles  

05:46 - Kevin starts his consideration for hiring into sales roles in a unique place - when to hire - and here he starts to unpack why that’s important  

7:37 - What kinds of metrics should a company look at before considering whether or not it’s the right time to add more salespeople to the team?  

9:58 - How hiring at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons has a negative impact on team culture  

11:12 - What are some of the other big pieces that a sales org should have in place before deciding to add new salespeople to the team?  

13:05 - Most companies don’t have the kind of well-established ecosystem Kevin describes to hire into, so what’s the big deal? What’s the negative impact of hiring when the company they are hired into doesn’t have their duck in a row?  

16:07 - Kevin explains the idea that “a good marketing team is actually a really well-trained sales team” and the power and impact of a first impression with prospects in the market  

16:49 - Is there a connection between bad sales hiring practices and the short shelf life of the average VP of Sales?  

19:18 - How organizations who are hoping for a sales miracle within an siloed environment can start to take a more integrated approach to customer success from multiple departments?  

20:54 - The future of successful sales organizations is bigger than the future of successful sales organizations  

23:11 - What advice would Kevin offer to someone who is in sales now and who might be considering a move into sales management  

26:08 - Where is the best place to find Kevin and his content