Today Eric Vermillion, former CRO of BlueCat, joins us to discuss how revenue leaders can build a legacy in their company that survives their departure. He examines how to lay the foundation for a cohesive sales culture, create interlock within an organization, and ultimately provide leadership for others.

Eric Vermillion, the former CRO of BlueCat, joins us to discuss how revenue leaders can build a legacy in their company that survives their departure. Eric reflects on his role as a CRO and how his leadership through integrations allowed him to develop successors to perpetuate his legacy.

 

Click here for the podcast version of this interview.

 

Segment 1: The Foundation and Legacy of a Sales Culture

  • Leaving a legacy from running a sales organization. minute 4:28
  • Laying the fundamentals for a successful organization through tradition. minute 5:59
  • Developing a sales culture within the company culture. minute 10:31 

     

Skip to minute 8:05 to hear Eric discuss his views on how leaders can build a successful company culture: 

 

“If you embrace the ethical gray area, then that can become a cultural thing in a hurry. So you’ve got to realize that when you’re the leader, you’ve got to be firm in your position on both those tangible sales execution things, but also in building the traditions, and then the soft things that make it an interesting place to be…”

 

Segment 2: How to Get Sales Out of the Silo

  • How full transparency can lead to efficient integrations. minute 12:56
  • Overcoming resistance in your organization. minute 14:27 
  • Activating cross-functional interlock. minute 16:43 

     

Skip to minute 15:43 to listen to Eric talk about how he empowers his team to feel essential at the forefront:

 

“Even in some of the biggest companies in the world, there are a handful of deals that make or break any quarter. I like to get functional leaders or their designee every single week on a call to talk about those big deals. It creates an opportunity for people to see what their impact is, and it also creates an opportunity to get them vested in the success of those deals, and in a shared mutual environment for success…” 

 

Segment 3: Succession Perpetuating a Legacy

  • Eric’s philosophy and passion for being a successful leader and continuing one’s story. minute 19:48
  • How a leader can help their employees reach their full potential. minute 22:23

     

Skip to minute 21:30 to hear more about how Eric views succession and personal success.

 

“The lesson is that their story was far from done at that point. And they took it upon themselves to create a legacy by developing future leaders and just the tentacles of what they’ve done. And I think that’s something that you can do in 18 months in sales…”

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matt Sharrers

Leads the firm's focus on the CEO’s role in accelerating revenue growth by embracing emerging best practices to grow revenue faster than the industry and competitors. 
BIO
ALL PEOPLE

Matt Sharrers is the CEO of SBI, a management consulting firm specialized in sales and marketing that is dedicated to helping you Make Your Number. Forbes recognizes SBI as one of The Best Management Consulting Firms in 2017.

 

Over the course of nearly a decade at SBI, Matt Sharrers was an instrumental early partner guiding SBI as the Senior Partner. Matt’s functional responsibilities included acting as the head of sales where he led SBI’s double-digit revenue growth, and was responsible for the hiring function to build SBI’s team of revenue generation experts.

 

Prior to joining SBI in 2009, Matt spent eleven years leading sales and marketing teams as a Vice President of Sales. Matt has “lived in the field.” As a result, he is the foremost expert in the art of separating fact from fiction as it relates to revenue growth best practices. CEOs and Private equity investors turn to Matt’s team at SBI when they need to unlock trapped growth inside of their companies.

 

 

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