Hiring Trusted Advisors To Build A World-Class Sales Organization

Assembling a stellar sales team is never easy. Most sales leaders consider hiring and retaining the right talent as more important and as challenging as ensuring a consistent pipeline of quality leads.

The struggle to hire salespeople has more to do with the types of roles offered than with a shortage of candidates. Part of the problem is tied to the decades-old stereotype of traditional sales: a pressure-cooker environment where workers rely on desperate tactics to make daily sales goals. It's how the phrase "Always Be Closing" got started.

Twilio's Approach: Creating a Sales Opportunity of a Lifetime

This win-at-all-costs mentality doesn't gel with Twilio. Our approach to selling had to be about more than just closing a deal. We wanted to have a significant impact on our customers by forging genuine relationships, becoming trusted advisors, and helping customers solve problems and seize opportunities.

Early on, Twilio recognized that sales organizations worldwide needed to hit the reset button. And only through the hiring standards set by a world-class sales team would we be able to innovate and reinvent how we sell.

What does "world-class" at Twilio look like?

For Twilio, creating a world-class sales organization is dependent on four crucial disciplines.

1. THE WAY WE SELL

Initially, many believed that our services had to be "bought" — that they couldn't be "sold" in a traditional way. That led us to create a self-service model that put the customer in control, and was perfectly aligned to the needs of developers, start-ups, and tech-based companies.

However, as we learned more about our customers' business challenges, our relationships blossomed. We shifted to a more nurturing and consultative way of building a bond between buyer and seller. This approach set the stage for our expansion into mid-market and enterprise business categories. Today we have a powerful hybrid model that mixes the best of developer advocacy with technical and business leadership selling.

2. THE PEOPLE WE ATTRACT

Who succeeds at Twilio? Highly motivated, optimistic, bright humans who demonstrate an ability to overcome challenges and deliver results. We call them Builders and Owners. They are not cookie-cutter types, where every salesperson has the same qualifications and experiences. Our best performers don't all have the same background, and successful candidates don't necessarily need to come from tech.

We hire people from all backgrounds and with all sorts of sales experiences. And while sales skills are essential, we also seek out curious, empathetic people who can build relationships and embody our values — values we collectively call the Twilio Magic.

3. THE WAY WE LEAD

Creating a world-class sales organization led us to adopt a 'General Manager' mentality. That means we seek out leaders who can be more than just sales managers. They'll own their region, build a plan, attract and develop strong cross-functional teams, and learn to manage to the P&L for their region.

Similarly, account executives take command of their territory outright. As owners of their business, they endeavor to understand customer’s businesses. In doing so, they're more likely to build trusting relationships, take care of their customers, make sure issues are addressed, and – along the way – deliver more results.

4. THE CULTURE WE INSPIRE

One of the reasons we've grown so quickly over the last year – even during a pandemic – is because Twilio has a culture that is unique in the tech industry and a sales organization that looks and behaves in a way you can't find anywhere else.

Our teams are highly collaborative and made up of humble individuals who listen to and support each other. And above everything else, we wear our customers' shoes and look to solve customer problems rather than merely sell Twilio products. For sales candidates, this model has made Twilio an employer to consider.

Becoming world-class, worldwide

Because our role as a sales organization is to help customers with their engagement requirements, advocate for their needs, and partner with them for mutual success, we look for sales candidates who share our vision of being trusted advisors that understand the customer's business.

Twilio recruiters seek out folks who can work effectively with – and be respectful of – a diverse array of colleagues and clients. We want people to lean on their skills and experiences, no doubt, but we also acknowledge that sales processes in a global marketplace are not 'plug and play' from region to region.

Twilio has established sales efforts in four geographical regions: North America (NA), Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ), and Latin America (LATAM). Every sales organization, including our own, must take into account regional variations in sales etiquette. For example:

• In North American and parts of Europe, customers can be direct and want to quickly get to the point of a meeting. First impressions mean a lot.
• In Japan, building a relationship takes time and is dotted with thoughtful gift-giving as part of the process.
• In Brazil, personal family stories and home-cooked meals might find their way into business settings.
• In India, businesses are often very hierarchically structured, and buying decisions are generally made at the highest levels.

Twilio's regional sales leaders are free to develop approaches that match the culture of their territories. Despite these variations, it's become clear that businesses today don't want to be sold to. Instead, they respond to a consultative approach. This learning has driven sales efforts at Twilio to be a very different animal from what takes place at other organizations. We're proud to say that we're leading the way in creating a new sales standard paradigm with every new hire.

How we organize a world-class sales organization

To align with how specialized a customer's buying process is, we focus our sellers on customer size. This is important because, as we've learned, each company category responds to a different sales approach — but all respond to a trusted advisor.

• At one end of the spectrum are Small Businesses, which involve fewer people. We also call this category our Growth Accounts.
• At the other end are Enterprise companies, far more complex businesses with more subject matter experts dedicated to each part of the sales process.
• In between are Mid-Market organizations. We've found these businesses to have a fast front-end buying process, similar to a Growth Account, and a more protracted process towards the back half of the sales cycle, like many Enterprise brands.
• Additionally, we add Sales Engineers and Specialists to help with products that require deeper expertise, such as our contact center and account security solutions.

Another ingredient is innovation — combined with having the guts not to throw out what works. To that end, we've mobilized teams to focus on Industry Verticals such as financial services, healthcare, and the public sector. This is similar to the way traditional sales teams organize, and it will help us further align with the unique requirements of each industry type. We expect to expand to many more verticals, some of which will be driven by the varied needs of businesses in different parts of our global footprint.

Career Progression: New challenges, new opportunities

Unlike other companies, growth experience at Twilio is a unique advantage. As Marc Boroditsky, Chief Revenue Officer at Twilio, said, "We're one of the highest growth companies ever. That's not hubris; that's fact. Growing at the pace that we are, the opportunities that come your way are unheard of. It's like the elevator is going up, and we're all on board. You can get off if you want, but otherwise, you're afforded continual opportunities to expand and progress your career."

If that sounds different than other sales organizations, it is. Those who have a 'take ownership' mentality may find themselves swiftly leaning into leadership roles. "Elsewhere, a new hire gets a sales goal and a territory and is told to bring back the results," says Boroditisky. "Instead, we're asking candidates to actually own their business. That's when they see that there's much more long-term upside here than in the typical sales career."

This resonates well with early-in-career candidates who may join Twilio in their first post-college job — or instead of college. One challenge for younger job seekers is that they may lack examples of demonstrated results, often called for during interviews. That's not a problem for Boroditsky. "We look for signs that a candidate can push past adversity and not allow obstacles to impede them in some way," he says. "We want to find the folks that – no matter what – can pick themselves up and do it over and over again."

5 reasons why it’s the right time to join Twilio Sales

At Twilio, we never stop learning. If that's not enough of a reason to consider joining our sales organization, here are five more.

1. Twilio has Great Technology that is years ahead of the competition. Sure, the gap is smaller in some categories, but when you look across the platform coupled with our genuine developer-first approach, we're well ahead.
2. We're in a Massive Market, and we've barely scratched the surface.
3. Twilions are Awesome Humans. Humble, collaborative, and genuinely great people you will love to hang out with — whether in person or over Zoom.
4. We have a unique Sales Model that works and is likely the future of selling.
5. This is an opportunity to Advance Your Career as you help us Build Something truly amazing.

As Boroditsky often says, "Twilio's culture is what attracts people, but it's the potential that retains them." If you're intrigued, please visit our careers website. We currently have a number of open sales positions in every region, with more on the way!

Apply today. We can't wait to see what you build.