20Sales: John McMahon on How to Hire, Train & Retain the Best Sales Reps | How Sales Changes in a World of AI | Sales Lessons from Snowflake and MongoDB | How to Create and Drive a Sales Process with Urgency
John McMahon is widely regarded as one of the greatest enterprise-software sales leaders of all time. He's the only person to have served as Chief Revenue Officer at five public software companies: PTC, GeoTel, Ariba, BladeLogic and BMC Software. He helped scale BladeLogic from a startup into a public company — ultimately leading to its ~$880M sale to BMC — and drove GeoTel into a multi-billion dollar acquisition. Today he sits on the boards of top names such as Snowflake and MongoDB, while also mentoring and influencing a who's-who of modern SaaS sales leaders.
AGENDA:
03:33 The Art and Science of Sales: Insights from a Veteran
04:29 Adapting Sales Strategies in the Age of AI and PLG
07:47 The Ultimate Framework to do Deal Qualification
14:13 How to Drive Urgency and Maintain Sales Process
20:06 How to Hire the Best Sales Reps
25:11 Step-by-Step Guide to Training Sales Reps
45:22 The Mindset of the Best Sales Reps
54:55 Single Most Important Skill to Win in Sales
#173 Author of “The Qualified Sales Leader,” John McMahon: The Five-Time CRO
Guest: John McMahon, author of The Qualified Sales Leader: Proven Lessons from a Five Time CRO
A hell of a lot of people work in sales. But until recently, says five-time CRO and The Qualified Sales Leader author John McMahon, it was rare for colleges and universities to offer a sales degree. Salespeople had to learn on the job from experienced coaches, and adapt. And their bosses, John explains, had to themselves as agents of transformation. “If somebody’s really smart, they’re going to pick up the knowledge,” he says. “If they have what I call a PHD — persistence, heart, and desire — they’re going to learn the skills ... You’re going to have to do thousands and thousands of repetitions before you’re going to get good.”
In this episode, John and Joubin discuss lazy LinkedIn cold calls, Tom Brady’s retirement, being “married to your job,” Carl Eschenbach, crying, sales as a calling, corporate culture vs. coaching culture, adaptable workers, opportunity vs. title, Bob Muglia, transactional leaders, sad rich people, cookie-cutter advice, handshake evaluations, and David Cancel.
In this episode, we cover:
CRO to CEO? (02:21)
Ego and relevance (04:25)
Escaping the 90-day grind (06:25)
Persistence and physical discipline (09:05)
Daily habits and positive energy (14:12)
Why John quit BMC (17:09)
Poor communication (21:17)
Was there another way? (24:37)
Identifying sales talent (28:36)
Showing that you care (32:58)
Sales leaders as hockey coaches (39:46)
Firing people (44:25)
Interviewing the right type of salesperson (49:14)
Snowflake and Chris Degnan (51:22)
“What’s the book on you?” (56:03)
Managing from a position of power (58:01)
The three “whys” (01:00:31)
Why John never went VC (01:04:33)
Is he really done? (01:07:17)
Shlomo Kramer (01:10:20)
Having impact (01:13:11)
Bad advice (01:16:19)
Working with marketing (01:19:32)
Sizing people up (01:21:26)
Can CEOs give up? (01:26:51)
Coaching sales “artists” (01:28:29)
What “grit” means to John (01:30:48)
Links:
Connect with JohnLinkedIn
Buy The Qualified Sales Leader: Proven Lessons from a Five Time CRO
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
EP 76: John McMahon (5x CRO and Enterprise Sales Expert) on The Startup Sales Playbook Every Founder Needs
John McMahon has served on the board of MongoDB and Snowflake and is best known as a five-time CRO who has built the sales processes that power enterprise sales in Silicon Valley. In this episode, John talked through a ton of practical topics around sales, including the biggest sales mistakes that early-stage startups make, how to hire a sales team to supercharge your company, and more.
(0:00) Intro
(1:20) The Qualified Sales Leader
(9:57) Sales basics in building an efficient and scalable sales org
(16:53) Carlo Carelli - Greatest Salesperson in the World
(20:55) Product market fit
(26:07) The medic qualification process
(36:35) Difference between a champion and a coach
(42:51) Best interview questions when hiring
(53:49) The hardest part of transitioning to sales management
(1:03:06) On firing
(1:10:06) The process of letting someone go
(1:11:30) Accidental sales leader
(1:17:25) John McMahon as a sales rep early on
(1:21:24) Blade Logic and Opsware
(1:26:37) The most common misconception about sales
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
Follow on Socials
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow
📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow
🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow
About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
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