Teams that celebrate together, stay together: 3 Austin companies doing sales right

Written by Kelly O'Halloran
April 13, 2017Updated: March 24, 2022

Visit any tech office in town and one department is sure to be louder than the rest: sales.

These teams are filled with competitive and colorful personalities, which make for a vibrant team culture. We caught up with four growing sales teams around Austin to learn how they keep their teams motivated, engaged and fresh.

 

For the fourth consecutive year, Duo Security has reported doubling its annual recurring revenue. Boasting one of the highest net promoter scores in the cybersecurity industry (68), some would say the Duo team is absolutely killing it right now, and their sales team is helping push the needle. Dean Yeck, Duo’s RVP of sales, central region, and Matt Smith, VP WW channels and business development, filled us in on their team-embraced sales environment.

What wins does your team celebrate?

We celebrate individual achievement, but we also celebrate team achievement and put more emphasis there. A sales rep on the Duo team won’t feel successful if they are killing their number but everyone around them is failing.

We aren’t a company that reinforces the lone wolf that gets to the top by stepping on everyone else or sucking resources. We celebrate those that help and support us, and we recognize other individuals and teams that contribute to the successful target achievement in sales. We celebrate both competence and character at Duo.

What traditions and celebrations do you have in place to celebrate sales team wins?

Twice a year we have a Duo Top Achievers Trip. Most companies do one large trip, which is designed to be exclusive using a stack ranking and leads to a cut-throat environment in sales.

We do it differently and have two smaller trips per year, and it’s anyone that’s above their personal number that attends. This way we make sure to reinforce the behaviors in our sales team of team selling. We also bring in an entire group of friends of sales that were critical to our success and have them join us on the trip!

How do you keep your team positive and motivated?

We hold Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) where we are encouraged to show vulnerability. We talk about what’s working, what isn’t and what we’ve learned. This creates a blame-free culture where we are learning and growing together. We don’t reinforce cover-ups, point blame or have politics that come in, which for the majority of us is the first time we’ve experienced a sales culture like this! Duo is a place where learning together is celebrated and rewarded.

We take the learnings from QBRS and shape sales places for AEs so we can learn from each other. We’ve developed a huge book of sales plays.

 

 

Sara Borneleit, Procore’s senior business development manager, gave us an inside peek to working on their sales team. The construction software company, based off the coast of California, launched an Austin office a few years ago. Originally the team operated out of temporary space, where the team tracked their sales data on a whiteboard. Now that the team is set up in a gorgeous office overlooking downtown Austin, they continue to embrace the whiteboard tradition.

What wins does your team celebrate?

From small to big, a win is a win. We celebrate every time a meeting is set, when a meeting turns into a sales-accepted opportunity, when someone hits quota and accelerators and of course closed business.

We celebrate small wins as well, like great conversations with prospects. We understand not every conversation will turn into a meeting, but if the prospect is left with a teaching moment around Procore we consider this a win. We’ll also celebrate wins around Learning and Development (L&D) as well. We house our L&D content in a central hub. When an individual takes ownership around L&D and feels truly accomplished, we feel that is worth recognition and celebration

Do you hold competitions?

We love healthy competition at Procore! We have individual competitions and team competitions. Every week we have multiple call blitzes where business development reps dial, dial, dial for an hour. Winners are then determined by calls made and meetings set. We also hold team competitions that typically last a week. This gives the individuals to contribute to a team dynamic all for the sake of the greater good (money and prizes don't hurt either).

What traditions and celebrations do you have in place to celebrate sales team wins?

We have a lot! We have an annual crawfish boil, quarterly team outings to a place of the teams choosing, happy hours and more! Our employees work hard every day; therefore we try to award them at every opportunity. We also offer a trip to headquarters located on the beach for top performers.

We began building our team in a temporary space where all we had was a whiteboard to track data that was visible to anyone. When we moved into our new space the team kept the whiteboard and still enthusiastically gets up, walks over and marks every time they set a meeting.

How do you keep your team motivated? 

We try to keep everyone motivated every day. Ownership plays a key role in motivation. By empowering the employees to own certain projects, a sense of happiness naturally comes to fruition as they can truly feel like a strong individual contributor.

We create an environment where taking risks and learning is not only encouraged, it is valued and recognized. Lastly, we try to keep it fun on the floor with games like hoops, putting greens prize wheels and music to keep things fresh!

 


 

Digital Pharmacy’s sales team has a history of celebrating both personal and professional wins. Benjamin Hagen, the company’s head of sales, told us why it’s important to keep competitions light and how their largest learning tool is the team itself.

What are some of the "wins" your team celebrates?

We celebrate anything we can because who doesn't like a win? From individuals getting their first deal, to a veteran rep hitting the highest revenue in company history, we celebrate everything in between. We also celebrate personal wins too: someone getting engaged, new baby, new puppy, anything. Success can be contagious if you celebrate the day to day wins.  

Do you hold competitions?

Much of our competitions are of the unadvertised variety. Veteran reps that want to break the commission calculator, new reps who compete against other new hires for the first meeting set, meeting held, and first closed deal.

It is a lot of fun when you can keep competitions light. Other ways we do competitions is with monthly incentives: highest meetings set get a $250 Amazon gift card, most meetings held in a day gets a $100 gift card to a nice restaurant, etc.  

What traditions and celebrations do you have in place to celebrate sales team wins?

The daily tradition is when anyone closes a deal, they hit a gong inside the office and everyone stops what they are doing (for the most part) and cheer on that rep. The larger celebration is when the team hits the monthly team goal and we all go out. Rock Rose in the Domain, Top Golf and bowling have been some of the more recent team outings.

What other teambuilding/ongoing learning tools do you have intact to keep a sales team positive and motivated?

I think the largest learning tool is the team itself. Everyone has something that they do particularly well, and if you look around the room, everyone can offer that "pearl of wisdom" to help develop your own pitch and career. Outside of the sales team, we are met with an executive team that has success dripping from their respective resumes: CEO of TravelZoo, the executive director that built the success team from 0 to 80 at Spiceworks, a CFO who has been in successful startup after successful startup and a development team that is always willing to teach and field questions.

 

 
Responses have been edited for clarity and length. Images provided by featured companies.
 
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