Welcome to our new mini-series of The Debrief podcast, Masters of Sales Hiring. Hosted by our own Teddy Chestnut, the series features conversations with today’s top sales leaders, sharing their candid stories about building world-class sales teams.
Today’s guest is Mark Kosoglow, the CRO at Catalyst Software, former SVP of Global Sales at Outreach, and creator of the Digital Sales Collective.
As the first employee at Outreach, Mark has learned what it takes to build a top-notch sales team from the ground up. In the conversation, Mark shares the lessons he learned about hiring great AEs, assessing for key competencies like coachability and work ethic, and establishing a hiring mindset that counteracts affinity bias.
Check out the highlights from our conversation:
The most important elements of an AE profile (3:09) – Your ideal AE profile depends on your company size, market, and personas. But generally, you want to look for people who have a great work ethic, are naturally curious, can make connections on the fly, and are easily coachable.
The tried and true method for assessing coachability (6:19) – The secret to assessing how coachable a candidate may be is by using a role-playing exercise. Mark walks us through the exercise and the signs to watch for that indicate just how coachable a candidate truly is.
Dig deep into a candidate’s work ethic (10:42) – Mark shares the most important question you should be asking a candidate to uncover their work ethic.
Tap into a candidate’s subconscious (12:30) – The subconscious mind works twice as hard as the conscious mind. Use visual context questions to tap into a candidate’s subconscious and understand how their mind works.
The hiring mindset that counteracts affinity bias (17:43) – Affinity bias leads us to hire people who look and think just like us. To counteract the impacts of affinity bias, establish a mindset focused on hiring candidates who bring a diverse point of view to the table, not necessarily the person with the most aligned experience.
Listen to the podcast or watch the entire conversation below:
Also, be sure to check out Mark’s Digital Sales Collective, a series of micro-courses that teach the digital sales frameworks, systems, and strategies used to create billion-dollar startups.
Missed the last session of The Debrief? Catch up on our conversation with Dan Shapero, COO at LinkedIn.
