Welcome back to our mini-series of The Debrief podcast, Masters of Sales Hiring. Hosted by BrightHire Co-Founder Teddy Chestnut, the series features conversations with today’s top sales leaders, sharing their candid stories about building world-class sales teams.
Meet today’s guests, Brian Malkerson, CRO at Attentive, and Neysa Reilly, VP of Recruiting at Attentive. Together, they’re an unstoppable duo who have played a critical role in Attentive’s tremendous growth, from becoming a unicorn to being named one of the fastest-growing companies in North America by Deloitte.
Throughout it all, they’ve built a strong, trusting relationship between sales and recruiting and grown the sales org from 160 to 1,200 employees. In our conversation, they share their secrets to forming a strong partnership, tips for staying aligned on hiring, the 4 must-haves when building a relationship, and much more.
Check out the highlights from our conversation:
How to forge a strong bond between recruiting & sales. (1:13) – The secret sauce to a strong partnership? Neysa says it all comes down to three things:
- Alignment
- Clear two-way communication
- Full investment from both teams in the recruitment process
From Brian’s perspective, a great partnership requires mutual respect, adaptability, and the ability to come to the table with solutions and ideas while also being receptive to different approaches.
The keys to hiring alignment. (6:33) – Before hiring a new sales role, Neysa and Brian partner together to:
- Develop the job description
- Consider how the role ties into the goal of the team and company
- Find ways to improve the process and refine the candidate profile
The biggest hiring challenges when scaling a sales team. (8:52) – In just 1.5 years, Neysa and Brian grew the sales org from 160 to 1,200 employees. Along the way, they faced a number of challenges, like time-crunched hiring managers, building a great candidate experience at scale, and overcoming hiring process inefficiencies.
Making the most of slower hiring periods. (13:00) – When hiring goes from hyperspeed to slower-paced, there’s no better time to take a more intentional approach and build a more structured interview process.
The 4 must-haves when building a relationship between recruiting and sales. (16:50) – When it comes to uniting sales and recruiting, Neysa and Brian say there are four things you must get right:
- Clear two-way communication
- Empathy and grace for the other team
- Alignment around communication, responsibilities, and the hiring process
- A map of what you want the candidate experience to look like and the different touchpoints along the way
Listen to Neysa and Brian’s podcast episode or watch the entire conversation below:
Missed the last session of The Debrief? Catch up on our conversation with Dini Mehta.
