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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."