Nov 16, 2022 · 30m · 20sales

20 Sales: The Ultimate Guide to Sales Onboarding for New Sales Reps and Sales Leaders, The Biggest Red Flags in the First 30 Days & What Can Be Done to Set Them Up for Success with Leaders from Figma, Dropbox, Miro and more.

compilation · excluded from per-person scoring

Harry Stebbings · 10m spoken Oliver Jay · 4m spoken Zhenya Loginov · 3m spoken Dannie Herzberg · 3m spoken Carl Parrish · 3m spoken Jordan Van Horn · 2m spoken Lauren Schwartz · 1m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this episode of 20 Sales, host Harry Stebbings interviews revenue leaders from Figma, Asana, Miro, Fivetran, and Segment to break down effective sales onboarding frameworks, leadership integration, and critical early red flags. The experts outline practical strategies for ramping up individual representatives and executive hires while balancing immediate customer engagement with long-term foundational skill building.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Harry holds 35.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Harry as informed peer 1.2 Guest teaching 2.5 Guest disagreement 1.0 Harry pushing back 1.2
05100:0010:0020:0030:003:11–8:28 · Harry as informed peer 1/10 Oliver Jay on the Three-Stage Onboarding Framework Harry asks basic setup questions and explicitly calls one a 'dumb question' regarding where reps sit during onboarding. Oliver Jay gently reframes Harry's assumption about product exposure, explaining that reps should start in support to understand common customer issues first.8:28–11:51 · Harry as informed peer 1/10 Jordan Van Horn on Onboarding Scale and Manager Proximity Harry acts primarily as a prompt-giver, asking standard interview questions about manager mistakes and red flags. Jordan Van Horn delivers structured advice on manager proximity and early impact without any pushback or disagreement.11:51–16:33 · Harry as informed peer 2/10 Danny Herzberg on Leader Listening Tours and Rep Execution Harry offers an observation about reps avoiding outbound in the PLG era. Danny Herzberg energetically counters that true top sellers cannot just sit back and rely on product-qualified inbounds, reframing the PLG seller's role.16:33–21:03 · Harry as informed peer 1/10 Zhenya Loganov on Executive Onboarding and Relationship Building Harry asks whether a CEO should sink-or-swim a new executive or guide them directly. Zhenya Loganov clarifies that testing should happen pre-hire, and that post-hire success is a shared responsibility requiring heavy CEO investment.21:03–23:55 · Harry as informed peer 1/10 Lauren Schwartz on Enterprise AE Ramp and Call Libraries Harry inquires about the timeline for allowing enterprise reps to speak with customers. Lauren Schwartz outlines how onboarding is structured around customer exposure, call libraries, and progressive ramp timelines.23:55–28:02 · Harry as informed peer 1/10 Carl Parrish on Figma's Early Sales Engine and 90-Day Reviews Harry asks Carl Parrish to walk through a hypothetical 90-day manager review. Carl provides a comprehensive summary of quantitative baseline metrics and cross-functional feedback mechanisms in a collaborative exchange.3:11–8:28 · Guest teaching 3/10 Oliver Jay on the Three-Stage Onboarding Framework Harry asks basic setup questions and explicitly calls one a 'dumb question' regarding where reps sit during onboarding. Oliver Jay gently reframes Harry's assumption about product exposure, explaining that reps should start in support to understand common customer issues first.8:28–11:51 · Guest teaching 2/10 Jordan Van Horn on Onboarding Scale and Manager Proximity Harry acts primarily as a prompt-giver, asking standard interview questions about manager mistakes and red flags. Jordan Van Horn delivers structured advice on manager proximity and early impact without any pushback or disagreement.11:51–16:33 · Guest teaching 3/10 Danny Herzberg on Leader Listening Tours and Rep Execution Harry offers an observation about reps avoiding outbound in the PLG era. Danny Herzberg energetically counters that true top sellers cannot just sit back and rely on product-qualified inbounds, reframing the PLG seller's role.16:33–21:03 · Guest teaching 3/10 Zhenya Loganov on Executive Onboarding and Relationship Building Harry asks whether a CEO should sink-or-swim a new executive or guide them directly. Zhenya Loganov clarifies that testing should happen pre-hire, and that post-hire success is a shared responsibility requiring heavy CEO investment.21:03–23:55 · Guest teaching 2/10 Lauren Schwartz on Enterprise AE Ramp and Call Libraries Harry inquires about the timeline for allowing enterprise reps to speak with customers. Lauren Schwartz outlines how onboarding is structured around customer exposure, call libraries, and progressive ramp timelines.23:55–28:02 · Guest teaching 2/10 Carl Parrish on Figma's Early Sales Engine and 90-Day Reviews Harry asks Carl Parrish to walk through a hypothetical 90-day manager review. Carl provides a comprehensive summary of quantitative baseline metrics and cross-functional feedback mechanisms in a collaborative exchange.3:11–8:28 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Oliver Jay on the Three-Stage Onboarding Framework Harry asks basic setup questions and explicitly calls one a 'dumb question' regarding where reps sit during onboarding. Oliver Jay gently reframes Harry's assumption about product exposure, explaining that reps should start in support to understand common customer issues first.8:28–11:51 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Jordan Van Horn on Onboarding Scale and Manager Proximity Harry acts primarily as a prompt-giver, asking standard interview questions about manager mistakes and red flags. Jordan Van Horn delivers structured advice on manager proximity and early impact without any pushback or disagreement.11:51–16:33 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Danny Herzberg on Leader Listening Tours and Rep Execution Harry offers an observation about reps avoiding outbound in the PLG era. Danny Herzberg energetically counters that true top sellers cannot just sit back and rely on product-qualified inbounds, reframing the PLG seller's role.16:33–21:03 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Zhenya Loganov on Executive Onboarding and Relationship Building Harry asks whether a CEO should sink-or-swim a new executive or guide them directly. Zhenya Loganov clarifies that testing should happen pre-hire, and that post-hire success is a shared responsibility requiring heavy CEO investment.21:03–23:55 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Lauren Schwartz on Enterprise AE Ramp and Call Libraries Harry inquires about the timeline for allowing enterprise reps to speak with customers. Lauren Schwartz outlines how onboarding is structured around customer exposure, call libraries, and progressive ramp timelines.23:55–28:02 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Carl Parrish on Figma's Early Sales Engine and 90-Day Reviews Harry asks Carl Parrish to walk through a hypothetical 90-day manager review. Carl provides a comprehensive summary of quantitative baseline metrics and cross-functional feedback mechanisms in a collaborative exchange.3:11–8:28 · Harry pushing back 1/10 Oliver Jay on the Three-Stage Onboarding Framework Harry asks basic setup questions and explicitly calls one a 'dumb question' regarding where reps sit during onboarding. Oliver Jay gently reframes Harry's assumption about product exposure, explaining that reps should start in support to understand common customer issues first.8:28–11:51 · Harry pushing back 1/10 Jordan Van Horn on Onboarding Scale and Manager Proximity Harry acts primarily as a prompt-giver, asking standard interview questions about manager mistakes and red flags. Jordan Van Horn delivers structured advice on manager proximity and early impact without any pushback or disagreement.11:51–16:33 · Harry pushing back 2/10 Danny Herzberg on Leader Listening Tours and Rep Execution Harry offers an observation about reps avoiding outbound in the PLG era. Danny Herzberg energetically counters that true top sellers cannot just sit back and rely on product-qualified inbounds, reframing the PLG seller's role.16:33–21:03 · Harry pushing back 1/10 Zhenya Loganov on Executive Onboarding and Relationship Building Harry asks whether a CEO should sink-or-swim a new executive or guide them directly. Zhenya Loganov clarifies that testing should happen pre-hire, and that post-hire success is a shared responsibility requiring heavy CEO investment.21:03–23:55 · Harry pushing back 1/10 Lauren Schwartz on Enterprise AE Ramp and Call Libraries Harry inquires about the timeline for allowing enterprise reps to speak with customers. Lauren Schwartz outlines how onboarding is structured around customer exposure, call libraries, and progressive ramp timelines.23:55–28:02 · Harry pushing back 1/10 Carl Parrish on Figma's Early Sales Engine and 90-Day Reviews Harry asks Carl Parrish to walk through a hypothetical 90-day manager review. Carl provides a comprehensive summary of quantitative baseline metrics and cross-functional feedback mechanisms in a collaborative exchange.

speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Harry 100% · guest 0%0:00 · Harry 100% · guest 0%3:00 · Harry 24.6% · guest 75.4%3:00 · Harry 24.6% · guest 75.4%6:00 · Harry 26.1% · guest 73.9%6:00 · Harry 26.1% · guest 73.9%9:00 · Harry 13.2% · guest 86.8%9:00 · Harry 13.2% · guest 86.8%12:00 · Harry 27.4% · guest 72.6%12:00 · Harry 27.4% · guest 72.6%15:00 · Harry 15.7% · guest 84.3%15:00 · Harry 15.7% · guest 84.3%18:00 · Harry 12.2% · guest 87.8%18:00 · Harry 12.2% · guest 87.8%21:00 · Harry 35.8% · guest 64.2%21:00 · Harry 35.8% · guest 64.2%24:00 · Harry 15.8% · guest 84.2%24:00 · Harry 15.8% · guest 84.2%27:00 · Harry 67.4% · guest 32.6%27:00 · Harry 67.4% · guest 32.6%30:00 · Harry 100% · guest 0%30:00 · Harry 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 13:54 Danny Herzberg counters PLG rep laziness premise

Danny passionately rejects the premise that PLG reps can wait around for inbounds, declaring that loving to sell means taking proactive initiative.

Hardest push from Harry ▶ 13:28 Harry challenges rep willingness to do outbound in PLG

Harry pushes on the modern rep mindset, questioning whether sales reps in PLG companies have become too spoiled to perform traditional outbound work.

Biggest teaching moment ▶ 4:30 Oliver Jay reframes product vs support exposure

When Harry assumes reps should sit with product, OJ corrects him by explaining that customer support ticket handling is the true starting point for understanding sales obstacles.

Harry holds his own ▶ 13:28 Harry highlights the entitlement shift in PLG sales reps

Harry demonstrates domain insight into sales culture dynamics by highlighting how product-led growth has made reps reluctant to handle unglamorous cold outreach.

the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicHarry as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementHarry pushing backWhy
Oliver Jay on the Three-Stage Onboarding Framework 1311 Harry asks basic setup questions and explicitly calls one a 'dumb question' regarding where reps sit during onboarding. Oliver Jay gently reframes Harry's assumption about product exposure, explaining that reps should start in support to understand common customer issues first.
Jordan Van Horn on Onboarding Scale and Manager Proximity 1211 Harry acts primarily as a prompt-giver, asking standard interview questions about manager mistakes and red flags. Jordan Van Horn delivers structured advice on manager proximity and early impact without any pushback or disagreement.
Danny Herzberg on Leader Listening Tours and Rep Execution 2322 Harry offers an observation about reps avoiding outbound in the PLG era. Danny Herzberg energetically counters that true top sellers cannot just sit back and rely on product-qualified inbounds, reframing the PLG seller's role.
Zhenya Loganov on Executive Onboarding and Relationship Building 1311 Harry asks whether a CEO should sink-or-swim a new executive or guide them directly. Zhenya Loganov clarifies that testing should happen pre-hire, and that post-hire success is a shared responsibility requiring heavy CEO investment.
Lauren Schwartz on Enterprise AE Ramp and Call Libraries 1211 Harry inquires about the timeline for allowing enterprise reps to speak with customers. Lauren Schwartz outlines how onboarding is structured around customer exposure, call libraries, and progressive ramp timelines.
Carl Parrish on Figma's Early Sales Engine and 90-Day Reviews 1201 Harry asks Carl Parrish to walk through a hypothetical 90-day manager review. Carl provides a comprehensive summary of quantitative baseline metrics and cross-functional feedback mechanisms in a collaborative exchange.

Statements from this episode (10)

Insight
Jay: Support tickets reveal future sales obstacles during rep onboarding
“A lot of times the best way to do that is actually get the team exposed to support because the tickets that you get coming in is basically a reflection of what you're likely sales obstacles that you're going to get.”
Oliver Jay Nov 16, 2022 ▶ 4:16
Disclosure
Oliver Jay: Asana reached $20M revenue without a sales deck
“When I joined Asana, we had twenty million in revenue, mainly driven from our self-serve business. And we didn't have a sales deck.”
Oliver Jay Nov 16, 2022 ▶ 5:18
Insight
Van Horn: Managers should spend one-third of time supporting month-one hires
“It's incumbent on the manager to go spend a third of their time with new hires in the first month.”
Jordan Van Horn Nov 16, 2022 ▶ 10:06
Insight
Van Horn: Sales leaders should determine new hire fit within 30 days
“You should know within 30 days about whether someone's gonna be a fit or not.”
Jordan Van Horn Nov 16, 2022 ▶ 10:52
Insight
Herzberg: Effective PLG sales reps act as extroverted user researchers
“A good seller within a PLG company is kind of like an extroverted user researcher.”
Dannie Herzberg Nov 16, 2022 ▶ 14:19
Insight
Herzberg: Sales leaders not meeting weekly customers is a major red flag
“If a leader had not gotten in front of a customer, if he or she was sitting in virtual or physical conference rooms for their first two months, and wasn't talking to one new customer at minimum every single week. That is a major flag for me about customer orie…”
Dannie Herzberg Nov 16, 2022 ▶ 15:53
Insight
Loganov: New sales leaders should meet engineering before their own sales reps
“So if you're a head of sales, You don't go and talk to your salespeople first. You go and talk to your head of engineering or key engineering product leaders, because if you truly as a head of sales, you are going to need to work with them for the company to b…”
Zhenya Loginov Nov 16, 2022 ▶ 17:26
Insight
Loganov: CEOs should ask existing reps for direct feedback on new sales hires
“And your job as the CEO is actually to make sure that you go and practically ask them, ask all of your team members, how do they feel about the new hire? What is the value that the new hire is delivering already? How is the new hire helping them up level and d…”
Zhenya Loginov Nov 16, 2022 ▶ 20:22
Disclosure
Parrish: Figma had no customer-facing employees when he joined
“When I joined Figma, for example, there was nobody in a customer-facing role, and so I'm Sales enablement, sales operations, sales finance, and I'm all of those things bad or mediocre at best because you just have to be. Those roles and those functions don't e…”
Carl Parrish Nov 16, 2022 ▶ 24:18
Insight
Parrish: New sales hires shouldn't make customer calls in week one
“You're on the bench. You're watching the players on the court play for only a couple of weeks, but that's the best thing for the business and for the customer in a lot of cases, because if you put someone on the phone four days into the job, it's not a good lu…”
Carl Parrish Nov 16, 2022 ▶ 26:11
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