This article comes from Wade Burgess‘ insightful talk, ‘Talent Strategy: The Key to Revenue Growth’, at our 2022 San Francisco Chief Revenue Officer Summit, check out his full presentation here.
Growing up in the Midwestern United States, I didn't step outside the country until my early 30s. I came from a hard-working background - my father was in banking, and the path to a company's success back then was simple: build a better product than the competition.
As I advanced in my career, that dynamic shifted. Financial strategy and having a great CFO became the driving force behind a company's valuation and market performance. The CFO was now the one seated right beside the CEO during earnings calls.
Then technology took center stage and those companies with superior tech strategies dominated their respective industries.
But today, I would argue that a company's talent strategy - the ability to assemble and inspire a top-notch team - is the key differentiator between good and great organizations.
How we represent our brand isn't about any one individual, it's about the people we bring together and how they engage with customers and prospects. That's our true brand.
The shift toward talent strategy
I vividly recall an "aha" moment while building a multilingual inside sales team in Dublin. As I listened to reps speaking 12 different languages, I realized I couldn’t directly coach them on sales calls like I used to.
My role had fundamentally changed from being the subject matter expert to attracting, inspiring, and enabling a talented team to thrive.
It was like removing a self-imposed limitation, I couldn't be the bottleneck. A leader's job is to assemble and empower a great team in the way that works best for them, not me.
This realization also reshaped my view of HR's role. A century ago, HR emerged to prevent companies from making too many legal missteps in hiring, which meant there was an adversarial rift between HR and hiring managers.
Today, HR is a strategic partner, not the "Department of No" and they're truly invaluable for talent acquisition, retention, employee relations, and more.
Joe Aurilia Jr.
Attracting top talent
My philosophy became:
"Always recruiting, sometimes hiring."
The talent bar rises every quarter, so we need to continuously upgrade our teams, like a pro sports franchise.
Part of that involved tapping into talent pools we might’ve overlooked previously.
For example, I now have digital nomad reps who excel while traveling the world without a permanent home base. For others, being location-dependent is essential due to personal health issues or family obligations.
Even though the pandemic normalized remote work capabilities, our talent strategy can't be location-limited.
I've been frustrated too many times by not being able to hire someone simply because of where they lived. That's absolutely an unnecessary constraint in today's global workplace.
Of course, people have different motivations. Benefits that matter to someone in Sweden may not resonate with a Vietnamese worker, so understanding those cultural nuances becomes vital when building a diverse, distributed team.
Initially, my mindset was labor arbitrage -
How do I hire more affordable talent overseas?
But I quickly realized that skill levels are relatively equal around the world, the real opportunity was finding untapped potential that others were overlooking.
We've also had to confront myths about remote employee productivity and retention. Numerous studies show that for many roles, a well-structured remote setup can boost productivity by 40-50%.
When people work in an environment that suits their strengths and priorities, they're empowered to deliver their best.
Rebecca Stewart
Retention and engagement
Of course, the ability to "work from anywhere" is just one aspect, we still need to cultivate an engaging culture and foster a sense of community within our organizations.
That means balancing flexibility with accountability. I don't buy into any of those generational stereotypes about entitlement or work ethic, every new workforce generation has faced those tired critiques.
What I see from today's youngest talent is an inspiring blend of discipline, character, and looking out for one another. Our role as leaders is to provide the flexibility they want while creating structured opportunities to connect and grow as a team.
In a distributed workforce, those human engagement moments become even more crucial. The water cooler conversations, group meetings, and team-building events play a vital role in building rapport, trust, and cohesion.
We also can't lose sight of our obligation to push people to reach their potential. As leaders, we owe it to our teams to challenge them, invest in their development, and create clear pathways for empowerment and growth.
It's a disservice to let talent stagnate or go overlooked, no matter where someone is located.
Yes, compassionate leadership is essential in a global organization, we have to be mindful of time zones, personal situations, and obligations. But compassion also means holding people accountable and helping them be their best.
Top performers want to be surrounded by other high achievers in a culture of excellence.
Elevating the sales profession by promoting diversity, driving professional development, and advocating for equitable opportunity is personally important to me.
For too long, sales has carried a stigma of being an "old boys club" or the domain of used car salesmen. Just look around - sales leadership still has a diversity problem. We have to keep driving positive cultural change.
Rebecca Stewart
Overcoming compliance challenges
Of course, expanding into a global distributed workforce introduces a web of regulatory compliance obligations around taxes, labor laws, equity vesting rules, and more.
I know in my former roles, I made plenty of costly mistakes through inexperience.
Rules around notice periods, employment contracts, terminations, and more can easily trip up well-meaning companies. Even something as seemingly small as a car allowance requires doing your homework on policies and norms for that region.
Large enterprises often have entire legal and accounting teams to navigate this, but most companies need to find reliable global partners to consult with on compliance matters. Otherwise, the risks and penalties can be severe.
I worked with an EOR provider for one UK-based hire, and it cost about 40% of that person's salary to ensure full compliance. That's not a sustainable model as you scale up international hiring.
There are better solutions emerging now, and by creating a unified global workforce model with streamlined compliance capabilities, we're helping companies overcome exorbitant costs and risks.
Conclusion
As the competitive landscape intensifies, your talent becomes the ultimate differentiator. Just like top sports teams, we have to continually evaluate and upgrade our teams with elite performers who raise everyone's level.
That's why developing a world-class talent strategy - one that taps into the full global talent pool and removes barriers like physical location - is so critical for driving sustainable revenue growth.
Of course, it's an ongoing journey with challenges but it's a pursuit that I'm passionate about because it also represents an opportunity to elevate the sales profession.
By championing diversity, investing in development, and creating an equitable environment for top talent to thrive, we can continue moving the industry in a more positive direction.
Ultimately, talent is your brand, your differentiator, your path to achieving ambitious goals. Make it a top priority and you'll see the growth results follow.
