SVP Revenue at GitHub, Erica Anderson: Combining Top-Down and Bottom-Up Sales Motions

Guest: Erica Anderson, SVP of Revenue at GitHub In this episode, we cover: 'The Home of Open-Source Software': How GitHub is used for software development and when Erica joined the company. (3:12) ... How Erica was promoted to VP of Worldwide Sales at GitHub despite never having been a quota-carrying salesperson herself. (5:35) ... The Value of Partnerships: What a successful relationship between sales operations and a sales leader looks like. (8:51) ... 'Listening and learning': The methods Erica used to develop a new skill set for the sales leadership job she had never done before. (10:47) ... Hiring too soon: The 'very painful lesson' Erica learned at GitHub about hiring and expanding before fully understanding product-market fit. (15:43) ... Finding what fuels 'internal drive' — and the differences between external and internal competitiveness in sales. (19:18) ... How Erica's overall focus changed when promoted to a sales leadership role from a sales operations position — and the importance of individual forecasting for sales reps. (23:36) ... Sales motions: The 'internal selling' Erica did to convince GitHub to embrace top-down selling in addition to its existing bottom-up sales structure. (27:41) ... 'Aggregating customer feedback': How GitHub decides which product feature requests to prioritize. (34:01) ... The counterarguments made when Erica and her team advocated for a top-down selling motion to enterprise clients at GitHub. (38:03) ... How Erica defines grit. (41:37)