20Sales: Slack, Atlassian, Dropbox: Five of the Biggest Lessons on Starting, Scaling and Managing Sales Teams from 25 Years Leading the Best with Kevin Egan, Global Head of Enterprise Sales at Atlassian

Founders' Role

Kevin Egan, Global Head of Enterprise Sales at Atlassian, emphasizes the importance of founders in shaping sales strategies. He distinguishes between a sales playbook and sales motions, preferring the latter as it involves understanding the buyer, user persona, and industry-specific challenges. Egan believes that while founders provide the inspiration and high-level insights, it's the responsibility of sales leaders to codify these into actionable sales motions.

I think it's the CEO of the founder's job to provide the inspiration and the high level talking points... but it's the sales vp's job to really nail it.

--- Kevin Egan

This approach ensures that the sales strategy is aligned with the company's vision and effectively addresses customer needs 1.

   

Sales Motions

Egan further elaborates on the concept of sales motions, which he views as more strategic than traditional playbooks. He argues that sales motions require a deep understanding of the customer's business problems and how the product uniquely solves them. This strategic focus helps sales teams move beyond just selling product features to delivering real business value.

When I think of a playbook, I actually just think of sales motions... understanding who is the buyer, what's the user Persona that we're selling to, what's the industry that they're in?

--- Kevin Egan

By focusing on these elements, companies can create more effective and customer-centric sales strategies 1.