Larry Shurtz: How to Hire, Train & Retain the Best Vertical Teams | E1151

Larry Shurtz is the Chief Sales Officer at Genesys where he oversees the company’s global go-to-market strategies, including commercial activities, field sales and partner ecosystem operations. Larry has nearly three decades of experience in the software industry, from leading Confluent to delivering more than 60% revenue growth and doubling customer count as Chief Revenue Officer, to scaling a 1,300-person team at Salesforce to $2.1 billion in revenue.
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:48) Entry Point into Sales
(03:12) Sales Leaders' Prioritization Pitfalls
(05:55) Art vs. Science in Sales
(09:13) Definition & Purpose of Sales Playbook
(10:55) Structure of Hiring Process
(25:29) Lessons in Scaling Sales Teams
(35:33) Quality vs. Quantity in Sales
(39:02) Interplay between CS & Sales
(51:32) Why Larry is Good at Sales Forecasting
(59:10) Quick-Fire Round
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In Today’s Episode with Larry Shurtz We Discuss:
1. From Robotics Student to $2.1BN Sales Leader at Salesforce
How did Larry lead 1300 people to $2.1 billion revenue at Salesforce? What were his takeaways?
What did Larry learn about building vertical sales playbooks at Salesforce?
Which framework did Larry learn at Salesforce that he still uses at Genesys?
2. Mastering Sales Leadership
What are the biggest mistakes sales leaders make on prioritization today?
What are Larry’s “3 Rs” to master prioritization?
What does Larry think are the most common reasons fast scaling teams break in sales?
Has Larry ever caused bad culture in a sales team? What did he learn from the experience?
Does Larry think sales is more art or science? How does Larry blend the two?
3. Building the Best Sales Team
How does Larry structure the hiring process for a new sales hire?
How big should your recruitment team be?
What are Larry’s most commonly asked questions when interviewing?
What were Larry’s biggest hiring mistakes? What did he learn from them?
How does Larry structure the comp? How does he get it right? What do most new hires care about today?
4. The Onboarding: The Dos & Don’ts
How does Larry structure the onboarding process?
Why does Larry onboard new hires with big customers? What is the buddy system?
How does Larry tell if a new hire is bad? What are the biggest red flags to look out for?
What does Larry mean when he says “You can make all the physical errors, you cannot make mental errors?”
Does Larry agree with Max Levchin @ Affirm that “When there’s doubt, there’s no doubt?”
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[@amyslater1236]

Yes! Employees typically leave people not companies.

[@jmstockholm]

Nice episode!