Figma avoids role confusion by assigning its high-velocity, product-led growth (PLG) "upgrade" motion exclusively to its SMB sales team. This allows mid-market and enterprise reps to specialize in a purely strategic, sales-led process without being distracted by transactional deals, ensuring maximum focus.
Quotas shouldn't be used as a false comfort to cover a revenue target. Instead, they should philosophically reflect the work's difficulty. Harder, strategic sales motions—like Figma's—deserve more achievable quotas (e.g., 3-4x OTE) to reward and retain top talent capable of that complex work.
The long-term cost of a bad hire—in time, morale, and opportunity—far outweighs the short-term pain of a missed headcount target. Figma's CRO would rather leave a seat open for months than fill it with a candidate he's not truly excited about, even a "solid B player."
Viewing quota as a lagging indicator, Figma's CRO warns that managing to the number creates "lazy leadership." Performance management should instead center on a detailed framework of inputs: behaviors (e.g., collaboration) and competencies (e.g., discovery skills), giving a real-time view of a rep's effectiveness.
Figma's AEs don't just manage expansion; they generate it. They proactively run outbound-style campaigns within their existing customer base, creating a vision for a "best-in-class" deployment and showing happy customers the value gap. This treats every account like a new business opportunity.
A true enterprise champion is created when you educate them with insights that make them and their teams more effective. This value extends beyond simply loving the product; it positions the sales rep as a strategic partner who can teach them something new, earning deep trust and buy-in.
When hiring for enterprise sales, Figma's CRO argues that teaching a smart person industry context is easier than teaching them how to navigate complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles. Experience managing long deals with methodologies like MEDDIC is a more valuable and harder-to-acquire skill.
Figma structures its GTM by eliminating traditional CS and SDR roles. Instead, AEs run a proactive "hunting" motion to expand accounts (replacing CS), and a specialized team handles transactional renewals to free up senior AEs (replacing SDRs). This model is built on a principle of extreme focus and specialization.
Busy enterprise buyers lack time for extensive discovery and want immediate value. The most effective reps are prescriptive, not just curious. They teach customers what top-tier companies are doing with their product and proactively guide them toward a better solution, establishing credibility and delivering insight.