Growing the Team: Sales

I spend more time talking to candidates for sales roles at Perpetua than anything else I do. It's a perk of the job - I get to learn about all of the incredible things people do in their professional and personal lives prior to considering a career at Perpetua and I almost always learn something new (it really is true when they say salespeople come from every walk of life).

Toronto is a flourishing hub for tech talent - there's a long list of impressive companies growing at a rapid pace and therefore hiring salespeople at a similar or even faster pace.

Armed with this knowledge, I've learned that trying to attract sales talent to your organization with impressive growth rates and large amounts of capital raised isn't enough. You're just one of many (great) companies in that case, and so why should a sales rockstar, or a top student coming out of school, or a proven performer looking to transition to a sales career path, join you on your company's mission?

The culture that you build within your sales organization is the most critical component of this - every person that joins your sales team should feel strong conviction in the underlying principles of your culture. Unfortunately, I often find that company or team culture is conflated with things that make working at your company "fun". Stocked beer fridges, ping pong tables in the office, free meals daily - while Perpetua offers all of this, that's not the culture of the company or the culture of our sales team. So what are the fundamental principles of Perpetua's sales team culture?

Trust Granted On Start Date. From your first day on the sales team at Perpetua, you will be granted a high level of autonomy. You were hired because you showed the ability to be exceptional, and so our assumption is that you will deliver exceptional work. While most organizations only allow you to build trust over time through the completion of tasks (small, and over time increasing in size or importance), we feel that this limits your ability to make an immediate impact and behave as an owner within the organization.

Expectation of Thought Presence. All team members are expected to actively contribute to the vision and goals of our sales team. We debate with enthusiasm in the interest of arriving at the best possible outcome, and each team member's opinion is valued equally. When a decision is made, we rally behind our decision as a group and have a strong willingness to disagree and commit.

Fearless Kaizen. This is a shared principle with Perpetua as an organization. We believe that small, ongoing changes can reap major improvements. Be fearless in letting go of perfectionism, not accepting the status quo, and proactively looking for solutions when you find mistakes. Never stop improving.

We strive to create an environment where this culture can flourish, and there is no better way to exemplify this than by hearing the success stories of those that have joined our team.

Check out a few of our team members' stories:

Hilary's Story

Bright's Story