20Sales: How to Build Vertical Sales Teams, Why No Customer Success is BS and Everyone Needs it, How to Hire, Train and Retain the First Reps and Lessons Scaling to $2.1BN Revenue and 1,300 People with Larry Schurtz, CRO @ Genesys

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Larry Shurtz is the Chief Sales Officer at Genesys where he oversees the company’s global go-to-market strategies, including commercial activities, field sales and partner ecosystem operations. Larry has nearly three decades of experience in the software industry, from leading Confluent to delivering more than 60% revenue growth and doubling customer count as Chief Revenue Officer, to scaling a 1,300-person team at Salesforce to $2.1 billion in revenue.

In Today’s Episode with Larry Shurtz We Discuss:

1. From Robotics Student to $2.1BN Sales Leader at Salesforce

• How did Larry lead 1300 people to $2.1 billion revenue at Salesforce? What were his takeaways?

• What did Larry learn about building vertical sales playbooks at Salesforce?

• Which framework did Larry learn at Salesforce that he still uses at Genesys?

2. Mastering Sales Leadership

• What are the biggest mistakes sales leaders make on prioritization today?

• What are Larry’s “3 Rs” to master prioritization?

• What does Larry think are the most common reasons fast-scaling teams break in sales?

• Has Larry ever caused bad culture in a sales team? What did he learn from the experience?

• Does Larry think sales is more art or science? How does Larry blend the two?

3. Building the Best Sales Team

• How does Larry structure the hiring process for a new sales hire?

• How big should your recruitment team be?

• What are Larry’s most commonly asked questions when interviewing?

• What were Larry’s biggest hiring mistakes? What did he learn from them?

• How does Larry structure the comp? How does he get it right? What do most new hires care about today?

4. The Onboarding: The Dos & Don’ts

• How does Larry structure the onboarding process?

• Why does Larry onboard new hires with big customers? What is the buddy system?

• How does Larry tell if a new hire is bad? What are the biggest red flags to look out for?

• What does Larry mean when he says “You can make all the physical errors, you cannot make mental errors?”

• Does Larry agree with Max Levchin @ Affirm that “When there’s doubt, there’s no doubt?”