AI Summary
→ WHAT IT COVERS Figma CRO Shaunt Voskanian explains how the company scaled to $1B ARR without traditional CS teams or SDRs, running a majority-outbound sales motion into an existing 500,000+ customer base. He covers quota philosophy, rep hiring criteria, performance frameworks built around behaviors and competencies, and when to specialize sales teams. → KEY INSIGHTS - **PLG-to-SLG Transition:** Figma's mid-market and enterprise motion is now majority outbound, but into existing customers rather than cold prospects. Reps map each account's current Figma usage against an ideal deployment state, then proactively pursue new champions and executive buyers to close that gap. This "expansion as new business" model requires the same strategic hunting skills as traditional enterprise sales, not reactive account management. - **Quota Philosophy — 3-4x OTE:** Figma sets enterprise quotas at roughly three to four times OTE, deliberately below industry norms. The rationale: strategic outbound work into complex accounts requires experienced reps, and that talent pool is smaller. Favorable quotas attract and retain those people. Voskanian argues that stacking quota coverage to hit a revenue target is a false safety net that has no reliable relationship to actual outcomes. - **No CS, No SDRs — AEs Own Everything:** Figma eliminated traditional Customer Success and SDR functions. AEs in mid-market and above own pipeline generation, discovery, expansion, and deal management. The remaining SDR resource handles small transactional renewals to free strategic AEs for higher-value work. The core principle: if a role cannot demonstrate clear incremental value isolated from AE activity, consolidate it rather than maintain it for structural familiarity. - **Performance Framework — Behaviors Over Quota Attainment:** Figma evaluates reps across three buckets: results (including but not limited to quota), behaviors (collaboration, growth mindset, attitude), and competencies (pipeline generation, discovery quality, MEDDIC execution, methodology adherence). Quota attainment alone is treated as a lagging indicator. Leaders are expected to diagnose underperformance through competency gaps, not simply move people out for missing a number. - **Hiring Signal — Job Tenure and Mercenary Mindset:** Voskanian flags candidates with repeated 12-to-18-month tenures as a consistent risk indicator at scale. A stronger disqualifier is candidates who lead with compensation maximization over career growth and learning. His observation: the highest earners he has managed historically prioritized skill development first, and compensation followed. Interview process includes a discovery-plus-demo exercise weighted heavily toward how candidates conduct qualification. - **Specialization Timing — Segment by Motion, Not Just Industry:** Figma has not built industry-vertical sales teams but has created specialization around sales motion and persona. SMB covers zero-to-500-employee accounts with a PLG upgrade motion; mid-market through strategic runs a fully sales-led outbound model. The trigger for adding specialization is when a single rep's scope becomes too broad to execute any one motion with quality — overlay teams and segment splits follow from that diagnosis. → NOTABLE MOMENT Voskanian reveals that Figma's sales team of roughly 300 quota-carrying reps covers 500,000-plus customers — a ratio most sales leaders would consider impossible. Rather than treating this as a ceiling, he is actively pushing leadership to add headcount, arguing the team is already operating at maximum efficiency and further strategic coverage will unlock more revenue. 💼 SPONSORS [{"name": "Rox", "url": "https://rox.com/sign-up"}, {"name": "Monaco", "url": "https://monaco.com"}, {"name": "Framer", "url": "https://framer.com/20vc"}] 🏷️ PLG Sales Motion, Enterprise Sales Strategy, Sales Quota Design, Revenue Org Structure, Sales Performance Management, B2B Sales Hiring