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Dan Shapiro: Sales leaders fail by focusing on quarters instead of scaling

Daniel Shapero · a16z Podcast | Getting Sales Right · Jan 2, 2019 · at 8:25

Dan Shapiro, former VP of Sales at LinkedIn, explains why sales executives must shift from a short-term rep mindset to long-term executive planning.

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“I think where a lot of people get struggle is where the top leader is basically thinking about the business three to six months out. And I think a lot of sales leaders do because they grew up in a quarter to quarter individual rep capacity versus thinking about, okay, if I woke up a year from now and realized that we weren't scaling anymore, why would that have happened?”

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