Interviewing My First VP of Sales w/ Adam Liebman

Hello and welcome back to the Collin Cadmus Podcast. Today I’m joined by Adam Liebman, my first VP of Sales who hired me out of my retail job at CVS and trained me into becoming a top salesperson at SinglePlatform.

Adam graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2008 and then started his career in sales at Yext, which was founded by Howard Lerman who I interviewed in episode 15. He was then recruited out of Yext to become the VP of Sales at SinglePlatform, which was founded by Wiley Cerilli who I interviewed in episode 2.

Adam led sales at SinglePlatform from its infancy to being acquired for $100 million by Constant Contact and not only taught me how to prospect and sell, but then taught me how to take over the hiring and training of salespeople at SinglePlatform which launched my career into sales leadership.

After SinglePlatform Adam founded a social app called Squad, which aimed to help groups of people make plans and meet up in major cities, similar to Tinder, but for friend groups.

After Squad Adam went back to sales leadership at Flexport, Seated, and RenoFi, until landing his most recent and current position as VP of Inside Sales at Steno.

Adam has also served as a consultant, advisor, and investor to dozens of top startups. Needless to say, he’s done a lot and it’s been a long time since we last spoke, so I’m excited to catch up on his journey and get his thoughts on all that’s changing in B2B sales.

Before we get started, if you’re watching on YouTube, please take a moment to subscribe to the channel, like the video, and leave us a comment if you have questions or feedback. If you’re joining us from Spotify or Apple Podcasts, please drop us a review and let us know what you think of the episode. This stuff really helps to grow the audience.

Without further adieu, let’s dive in.

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TOPICS:

00:00:00 Intro

00:02:18 SinglePlatform 

00:04:15 Squad

00:13:41 Back to Sales Leadership

00:21:18 Picking an Employer

00:23:57 What’s Changed in Sales

00:34:40 Growth-at-all-Costs

00:39:39 AI in Sales

00:44:34 What is Steno

00:47:01  Sales Model at Steno

00:55:48 Jobs at Steno

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QUESTIONS:

1. Can you give an overview of what you built at SinglePlatform and how it led to founding Squad?

2. What was it like founding a consumer app like Squad? What happened? What did you learn?

3. After tremendous success at SinglePlatform, what was it like going back to sales leadership?

4. Every company is different, how do you pick the right company to lead sales for?

5. What has changed the most in sales since the SinglePlatform days? Has your process evolved?

6. What are your thoughts on Growth-at-all-Costs vs aiming for efficiency and profitability?

7. What’s your take on AI in sales over the next 5-10 years?

8. What is Steno?

9. What’s the sales model and process look like at Steno?

10. What roles are you hiring for and who should apply?

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LINKS:

Steno: https://steno.com

Adam on X: https://x.com/AdamLiebman

Collin on X: https://x.com/collincadmus

Modern Outbound System: https://www.collincadmus.com/the-modern-outbound-system

Sales Coaching: https://www.collincadmus.com/sales-coaching

Founder Coaching: https://www.collincadmus.com/founder-coaching

Collin Cadmus Podcast: https://www.collincadmus.com/podcasts/collin-cadmus-podcast

Revenue Growth Blog: https://www.collincadmus.com/blog

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Sit back, relax, enjoy the episode, and thank you for listening, viewing, and subscribing.

Available on: YouTube, Rumble, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.