May 15, 2016
Interview: Adam Liebman – CEO, Squad
Adam Liebman built the team at SinglePlatform from inception into one of the top Local Sales teams in the country prior to it’s acquisition to Constant Contact. Now, as Founder/CEO of his new company, Squad, he shares his thoughts on team building.
Whats the best piece of advice you’ve received from a mentor?
Delegate. Not everything is life and death. Empower your team. Stay out of their way. Even when you can do something better, is that really where you should be spending your time? If it’s done 85% as well as you could have done it, is that good enough?
Tell me one thing you’re doing that you think sales leaders today aren’t doing enough of? Why?
Putting repeatable processes in place, particularly at the enterprise level. There’s still too much of sales that people put in a black box. With all the tools at our disposal, we’re able to look at more data than ever before and create systems and processes that put people in a position to succeed. Everything, from the cold call to the close, can be mapped out as a repeatable, scalable process.
What’s your best tip for sales teams that are scaling?
Never lower the quality of people you bring into your organization. Even if it means delaying a hiring class, or not hitting your hiring goals, bringing the wrong people onto the team is far more costly than missing your number.
How do you get buy-in from the people you manage?
To me, it’s all about the WHY. When you can effectively communicate to your team why you’re doing something a certain way, they’ll run through walls to get it done. Share more with your team, not less. Everyone wants to work for a transparent leader. Explain your vision and lay out the path to get where you need to be. Nothing gets a team more excited than that.
Adam Liebman is the CEO and Founder of Squad, a social networking app that connects groups of friends when they go out. Previously, Adam was part of the founding executive team at SinglePlatform, and helped position the company for its acquisition by Constant Contact in 2012.
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About Author
Dave Greenberger
David is a co-founder of Building The Sales Machine. He is Head of Sales at Splash--the experiential marketing platform. Previously, David built early teams at Yext, Felix (exit to IAC, now Homeadvisor) and Foursquare.