Rubrik, Inc.

Strategic Enterprise Sales

People.ai

AppDynamics

Enterprise Sales

Xactly Corp

San Diego Padres

Manager, Partnership Development

PCT International, Inc.

Vice President of Business Development

Regional Vice President of Sales - North

Regional Sales Director - Rocky Mountain/Pacific Northwest

Regional Sales Manager - Rocky Mountain/Pacific Northwest

Cox Communications

Public Relations Manager

Data Protection + Honesty-as-a-Service I Enterprise Sales at Rubrik

I am fortunate to spend my days helping people to solve problems that positively impact their professional lives and their organizations through the utilization of enterprise software. 

At Rubrik I help enterprises secure and protect their data...which means they can keep your and my data secure and protected as well. 

When I am not working, you can find me with my family at the beach or in the mountains. I enjoy camping, snowboarding, fly fishing and attempting to golf.

The longer I’m in sales, the more I realize that product market fit is the thing I care most about when selling a technology.

It’s one of the few things even the greatest sellers can’t overcome if they don’t have it.

It makes selling in good times great and selling in bad times survivable.

It translates to demand for your product, which means more conversations and more opportunity, even in a down macro environment.

It’s a leading indicator for pipeline generation, revenue closure and ultimately quota attainment.

If you’re selling something that the market needs and wants, quota attainment feels a lot more possible regardless of circumstances.

So if you are thinking about a new role, start by seeking out strong product market fit.

It’s what brought me to my current company and role and I see its impact weekly, monthly and quarterly.

Check out what sellers are saying about PMF for 1000s of sales companies: https://lnkd.in/gyvxfmdY

Jacob Karp

I’ll be 39 later this year and I’m still an AE. 
 
And I believe I’m right where I’m supposed to be.
 
The old me would have been sick at the idea of that. 

The old me would be wondering what’s next, when do I make the jump to the next level, am I behind in my career, what am I doing with my life?
 
But those days are gone.
 
I’m 100% comfortable right where I am.
 
I’m the CEO of my territory. 

I’m a vital part of an org in hyper-growth mode. 

I’m busy with plenty of meetings and pipeline that have the chance to positively impact our growth.

I’ve hit my stride as an AE and it's a good feeling.
 
I believe you can hit your stride as well, even if you’re earlier in your sales career. 

I created this to help you get there: https://lnkd.in/g7hTH77r

#karpediem

I was a VP by 30. 

Externally it looked like I had it made.

Making good money, traveling +50% of the time, closing large deals and managing a team with a $15M book of business. 

But I actually had almost no idea what I was doing and was a complete mess. 

I was very unhappy and suffering from massive anxiety and imposter syndrome.

The weekends were a time to “decompress”.

Which actually meant doing things that were incredibly detrimental to my mind and body and putting myself in scenarios that created stress and anxiety. 

Fortunately a lot has changed since then. 

I still don’t have it all figured out, but I’ve at least come to understand what truly makes me happy.

Time with family. Fresh air and being outside. Getting good sleep and working out. Helping others in different ways. 

We’re all on our own journeys. 

Some faster, some slower. 

Allow space and time to figure out what matters most to you and then make it a reality.

#karpediem

My recommendation for sellers that are learning to sell a very technical product?

Ask for things to be explained to you like you are a 5 year old.

Then get really good at explaining those same things like you are a 5 year old talking to another 5 year old. 

You won't use it in that way forever as that simply won't fly with your technical evaluators and buyers, but in the early days it will help you to understand the core concepts. 

Once you have a baseline of the core concepts you can layer on more technical knowledge and verbiage after you actually understand it for yourself. 

Then learn to explain those same things in a way that translates to business outcomes, good, bad or otherwise. 

And by the way, that 5 year old style explanation probably ends up creating a better prospecting message than all the technical lingo. 

And yes, this is what I am doing daily as I learn the world of unstructured data protection at Rubrik.

#karpediem 

The jobs of CISOs and CIOs are converging. That’s a good thing.

The CIO role has evolved from infrastructure & applications management to constructing a portfolio of services that minimize risk for their company.

Now, as cyber threats grow in number and strength, an important piece of that portfolio is information security - the more services a business integrates, the greater their exposure to cyber risk becomes.

That’s where the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) comes in.

While the CIO is responsible for acquiring and compiling a company’s technological portfolio, the CISO develops and implements cybersecurity policies and procedures that align with that portfolio.

But how can a CIO put together a strong portfolio of solutions if they don’t understand the biggest risk to their company: cybersecurity?

The CISO has to provide input on solutions the CIO acquires for cyber risk.

If the two functions can’t work together, then their company’s security function will be inherently compromised.

Ramping sellers have 3-6 months to get to productivity. 

This means 3-6 months to start generating and converting pipeline en route to closing revenue. 

Month 1 is a wash as you settle into your role. If you’re lucky you find a flow around the 2 month mark and before you know it you’ve been there 3 months. 

Now you’ve got a quarter to hopefully close some revenue…if you’ve built pipeline.

The best sellers I know are maniacally focused on beating their ramp, which means getting a head start from day 1.

Here’s 29 steps to help you do that, whether or not you’re new to an org: https://jacobdkarp.com

#karpediem

A lot is said about selling into IT and Security. 

Here are the top things I like about it:

- A true no BS mentality - love the direct, straight shooting mentality. The mindset of "prove to me this work's, show me how it works and show me how it solves my problems" is one I respect and appreciate

- It work's or it doesn't - Grey area isn't really a thing in IT/Security technology. Your tech either does the job or it doesn't, either integrates with other systems or it doesn't. Be honest about all of this because they probably already know anyway

- Mission oriented and a willingness to solve problems - If I stack ranked these this might be at the top. The majority of people who work on these teams really care about what they do, the mission behind it and how their work can enable their org to help people 

- Trust and credibility matters deeply - Small world in the technology sales arena in IT and security. Your reputation and that of your companies is very meaningful. Do all you can to build that in the correct fashion. Takes a long time to build a short time to destroy 

- The community is tight knit - Everyone knows everyone and word travels fast, good, bad or otherwise. Operators will ask their peers, colleagues and industry counterparts how to solve a problem or what vendor to look at. Also, if someone needs help or assistance the community will be the first to lean in 

- Unique sense of humor - I would be lying if I told you I understood all the jokes I hear in my IT conversations...but what I will tell you is that I laugh a lot in these meetings. I also get laughed at a fair amount, which is probably well deserved

#karpediem 


The best sellers I know see territory planning, account stack ranking and account planning as non-negotiable. 

I can personally say that my sales career changed for the better when I started spending the time upfront to focus on those areas and it continues to pay huge dividends from a pipeline and quota attainment perspective. 

When done right, the planning work helps create a well thought out path that focuses on where and how you will spend your time, which is your greatest resource as a seller. 

You simply don’t have enough time to cover all of your accounts in a way that will create meaningful pipeline generation and conversion.

Building a territory plan allows you to understand what accounts you want to prioritize and focus on, taking into consideration your ICP, propensity to buy and long-term account value. 

You then take those top accounts and create in-depth account plans for them. These account plans include well researched point-of-view and hypotheses, org charts, strategies for how you will break in and areas where you can leverage your ecosystem to help. 

All of that turns into actions that can be taken to generate pipeline to drive towards new or expansion opportunities. 

As many times as I have done this, I still have things to learn. 

I just took the Ascender Sales Planning Certification that goes through this all in depth and highly recommend it. 

Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/g-43EUMx

#ascenderpartner

As Major League Baseball (MLB) kicks off another season, a picture and a story.

Many people don’t know I worked in the San Diego Padres front office for one season on the Corporate Partnerships team. 

Having grown up in San Diego, it was the definition of a dream come true. 

I snapped this picture during my first week, standing in the owners box looking out on the field. I was in awe. 

I still look at it every year on Opening Day.

While my time in MLB was short lived, it was one of the most memorable years of my life.

Looking back I’ll always remember walking through the tunnel, being on the field for batting practice, working with players and sponsors as part of sponsorship activations.

I wish I stuck around a little longer, but I ended up in software sales following this and that hasn’t turned out too bad.

Who is your team? 

#karpediem

Today Rubrik and CrowdStrike have announced a strategic partnership, bringing together two of cybersecurity's most trusted technologies. 

The mission is simple: defend customers sensitive data. 

Accelerated data growth, increased regulations and costs around security breaches has heightened the need for companies to secure their sensitive and intellectual data. 

By combining forces, Rubrik and Crowdstrike will allow customers to receive context-rich insights and unified threat detection with data discovery and classification across cloud and IT infrastructure. 

Together this will deliver the information security teams need to rapidly detect and respond to attacks on high-value data targets.

What's better in defending against the world’s growing threat landscape than two key leaders in the cybersecurity space?

Sellers will spend hours, days or weeks to set a meeting and then prep for 10 minutes.

So much work to get there, so little work to ensure the meeting is tight and focused.

I used to be that way as well, until I learned how to effectively and quickly prep for meetings.

Conversions went up almost immediately.

And while your prospect or customer will likely never directly say it, they appreciate it as well.

Grab this free template and change how you prep today: https://lnkd.in/ggsWWq9c

#karpediem

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