meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20 Sales: Three Reasons Why Sales People Fail | The Two Things That Matter When Hiring Sales Leaders | Why Revenue, Discounting and Price Do Not Matter in the Early Days with Jordan Van Horn, Revenue Leader @ Monte Carlo

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

The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4637 Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jordan Van Horn is a Revenue Leader @ Monte Carlo, the world's first data observability company. Prior to this role, Jordan spent an incredible 4 years in sales at Segment including as VP of Sales leading a sales team of 50+ Account Executives and leading the first international expansion for the company into Dublin. Before Segment, Jordan was at Dropbox for 4 years leading enterprise sales for Dropbox Business in California.

In Today's Episode with Jordan Van Horn We Discuss:

1.) Entry into the World of Sales:

  • How did Jordan make his way into the world of sales first with a vineyard?
  • What are 1-2 of the biggest takeaways for Jordan from seeing the scaling sales teams at both Segment and Dropbox? How did seeing that impact his mindset?
  • What does Jordan know now that he wishes he had known when he entered sales?

2.) The Sales Playbook:

  • How does Jordan define "the sales playbook"? What is it not?
  • What five core things should the sales playbook help you accomplish?
  • Should the founder be responsible for the sales playbook? Can it be created by a Head of Sales?
  • How does Jordan advise founders on three signals that now is the right time to bring in a sales hire?
  • How does Jordan advise founders on whether the first sales hire should be a rep or a leader?

3.) The Secrets to Pricing and Discounting:

  • Why does Jordan not care what price customers pay in the early days? If it is not about ARR, what should teams be optimizing for?
  • When does price discipline become important in a company journey? What are the dangers of not having price discipline?
  • What two tools do sales leaders have to use in order to create urgency in a deal closing process?
  • How should sales leaders think about building multiple champions within a potential customer? At what price point is it worth it?

4.) The Hiring Process:

  • How does Jordan structure the hiring process for all new sales hires?
  • What are the must-ask questions that Jordan asks all new candidates? What does he want to see in those answers?
  • Who else does he bring into the hiring process? At what stage do they get involved? What are they testing for?
  • Does Jordan use case studies with candidates? What makes the best? What makes the worst?

5.) The Onboarding:

  • What is the ideal onboarding process for new sales reps?
  • What should founders do and prep for when onboarding their first sales hires? What materials and recordings should they have ready?
  • What are some early signs that a new hire is not working out? How do we measure their impact?
  • For enterprise sales, it takes a long time to close new deals, how can one determine effectiveness of new reps when the sales cycle is so long?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You are listening to 20 Sales with me, Harry Stebbings. Now, this is the monthly show where we

0:03.8

interview a world-class sales leader to reveal their tips, tactics and strategies. When it comes to

0:08.8

scaling sales teams today, I love doing these episodes because I simply learn so much. Today, more so

0:13.9

than ever, get your notebook out and be ready for Jordan Van Horn, revenue leader at Monte Carlo,

0:18.8

the world's first data observability company. Prior to this

0:21.8

role, Jordan spent an incredible four years in sales at Segment, including as VP of sales,

0:26.6

leading a sales team of 50 plus account execs, and leading the first international expansion for

0:31.4

the company into Dublin. Before Segment, Jordan was at Dropbox for four years, leading enterprise

0:36.5

sales for Dropbox business in

0:38.1

California. And I want to say a huge thank you to Genia at Mero, Sam at Loom, Carl at Figma and

0:42.9

Eleanordorfman at Retool. Some amazing question suggestions today. Such a team effort. But before we

0:48.4

dive into the show stay, Harmony.a.i can be a total game changer for your company and your

0:53.5

sales team specifically for two

0:55.4

core reasons. First, lead gen, Brex, Ramp, Vouch, Carter, and many others are using Harmonix filters

1:02.2

to define their ICP and build feeds of companies that are matching their criteria,

1:06.8

whether it be newly formed, recently funded, key hires made, etc. And then second qualification,

1:12.5

companies with a PLG motion, like Notion, Superhuman, are using Harmonics integrations to enrich

1:18.2

new leads as they come in. This allows them to shorten their forms and quickly dedicate sales

1:23.0

resources to qualified leads. As I said, this gives your sales team superpowers they've never had before.

1:28.8

You must check them out at harmonic.aI. And now you've heard me talk a lot about product-led sales

1:33.7

on my podcast and on LinkedIn. And that's because it's the future of how modern software

1:37.6

companies go to market. I first heard about it from a company called Endgame. And they're

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Twenty Minute VC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Twenty Minute VC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.