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This week on Executive Function, former Snowflake CRO Chris Degnan shares lessons from a decade scaling a single company to billions in revenue. “I need to know how to sell the product better than anyone else. Otherwise, how will I be able to judge if we’re hiring the right salespeople? Or what a good sales call looks like? How can I trust the forecast I’m being given?” Chris Degnan joined Snowflake as employee #13 — the first sales hire. He scaled revenue from $0 to more than $3B ARR, his tenure as CRO spanning 11 years and four CEOs. He now advises startups on building a disciplined go-to-market strategy. On the latest episode of Executive Function, Degnan sits down with First Round partner Brett Berson to discuss how the CRO role changes from $10M to $1B+, what he learned working under four different CEOs (including Frank Slootman), why he stays hyper-paranoid about competition, and more. He shares: - How CROs develop trust with their teams as they move further away from closing deals. Degnan refused to become what he calls a “spreadsheet manager,” a CRO that hides behind the desk and dashboard, losing touch with the sales front lines. He says being close to the actual selling fosters trust down the ladder. “If you lose that element of, ‘I could pick up the phone and call anyone in the organization,’ and you sit in your ivory tower and think things are great, you won't be good.”
- The reason behind his uncommonly long tenure at Snowflake. It’s rare for the first sales hire at a startup to be in the CRO seat 11 years later. Degnan has been told that his willingness to absorb feedback from everyone, from board members to peers, is part of why he lasted so long. “You have to be super open to feedback. Listen to it and take action.”
- Why hunger beats pedigree. Degnan shares what he looks for when hiring a head of sales, including signs that someone is willing to grind, travel and do the uncomfortable work growth requires. “If you're doing your job right, you're not sleeping in your bed 8 to 10 nights a month. You're on the road. That’s the question I’m always asking: ‘Are you willing to do that?’”
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