Taylor Safford is Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Netcraft, a UK-founded business with its CEO and CRO based in the US. He talks to Erevena’s Chris Warner about the importance of alignment across teams working in different cities and across geographies – and why understanding cultural nuances can avoid embarrassing conversations!

First thoughts

• A leader is primarily responsible for three things: direction, alignment, and motivation.
• As sales leaders, we need to do ‘discovery’ on the companies we join – but we often don’t!
• I knew I had to consciously fight any biases and preferences I may have so I could build trust with my sales team.
• When you’re building and bringing in new team members, you need to communicate and align more frequently than for an established team.
• Make sure everyone understands their role. What are their expectations for themselves, for you, and what do you expect of them? Getting this right will ensure accountability in your organisation, wherever you and your team are based.
• Get opinions on some of the cultural differences before approaching certain things. I don’t want people to think that by hiring US-based executives the company culture will suddenly become US centric.

In conversation

How did you begin your scale-up/growth journey?

I joined Qualtrics back in 2008 and was looking for a temporary position at the time. I was close to graduating with a finance degree and was something of a math nerd when a buddy suggested I interview for a job at Qualtrics. After an hour-long interview, they told me I’d be perfect for a role in sales. That was the last thing I was considering, but with an MBA lined up at a top-five university and newly married, I needed a job for the immediate future. So, I agreed to join for nine months before heading off to pursue my MBA. It turned into something more brilliant than I could ever have imagined.

What life lesson did that decision to stay with Qualtrics give you?

Too often, as individuals, we have a short-sighted perspective of companies and opportunities that prevent us from seeing the bigger picture. I tried quitting Qualtrics 20 times, but I had a CEO who became a close mentor, cheerleader, and friend. He talked me out of leaving each time I tried, acting as my guide to steer and support at that time in my career. I think we all need that support and coaching throughout our careers. He helped me see one of the many reasons I stayed so long (12 years), which was the level of empowerment and autonomy — that was critical for me and I grew a lot. It helped me realize that I actually had five gears beyond what I thought my capacity was. Interestingly, you only learn something like that by finding a company growing in the right way where you’ll be presented with career-altering opportunities, one of which was scaling a business across geographies.

How did you grow and with Qualtrics?

It was a company called Halosight, which focused on unstructured data analytics. I left behind what was probably the offer of a lifetime at Qualtrics after SAP had acquired the company in 2019 and before it took the business public in 2021. This was an opportunity to co-found a company,  something I’d never done before. We were starting from scratch, almost 12 months pre-revenue and pre-product launch, even earlier than when I joined Qualtrics. I wanted that type of challenge in my career and saw it as something intriguing and new.

You then helped co-found a company – how did that come about?

It was a company called Halosight, which focused on unstructured data analytics. I left behind what was probably the offer of a lifetime at Qualtrics after SAP had acquired the company in 2019 and before it took the business public in 2021. This was an opportunity to co-found a company, something I’d never done before. We were starting from scratch, almost 12 months pre-revenue and pre-product launch, even earlier than when I joined Qualtrics. I wanted that type of challenge in my career and saw it as something intriguing and new.

How did your startup/scaleup journey continue?

Several close friends and colleagues from Qualtrics were founders and early investors in TaxBit, a Web 3, crypto tax and accounting solution startup. As the fastest company in Utah to a billion-dollar valuation, they persuaded me that I’d be crazy not to take up the opportunity of joining TaxBit. Because of this meteoric rise and many of the founders and investors being people I knew, it was probably my only career decision based more on emotions versus my ‘Rule of 6’, a process I use to assess companies and opportunities based on three micro and three macro measures. But in reality, the product wasn’t ready, and the company itself wasn’t prepared to scale a sales motion. Subsequently, my expertise was not yet ideal for that stage of their journey, and while they promoted me and provided more compensation, I knew it wasn’t right to stay there. That’s when I moved to Netcraft as their Chief Revenue Officer.

Why did you decide to join UK-headquartered Netcraft when you were based in the US?

I had two unique opportunities, one of which would have seen me taking on the role of CRO for a company in the portfolio of former Cisco CEO John Chambers. So many people told me it was the offer of a lifetime, but then I looked at the second opportunity. This was with a seemingly unknown UK company called Netcraft based in the city of Bath. I looked at their website and it wasn’t reflective of how incredible the solution really was/is, and the impact they were having with some of the largest brands in the world – we’ve updated it since! Then, I started peeling back the layers and getting to know the company, the people, and the value proposition. Layer by layer, a different picture emerged. They were cashflow positive, profitable, had an incredible CEO, and very talented technical teams. They had scaled the company to hundreds of customers, yet they’d never had an official sales and marketing team. The deeper I dug, the clearer it became that this was a special company.

How did your experiences in leading Qualtrics’ local offices help prepare you for Netcraft’s globally distributed team?

I leaned into all the opportunities. I think we sometimes get scared about whether or not we’re capable enough or have the right experience, and we just need to lean into those experiences. At Qualtrics, I helped a company that grew from 15 employees and around $1 million in ARR to 5,000 employees and $750 million in ARR. I was also tasked with starting and scaling three different offices outside the Utah HQ, which was a massive opportunity for me to develop as a leader, even though it was incredibly hard. It had been amazing to start and scale an HQ team from 0 to 100. Then, I had to do it all over again. After leading such a big team in Utah, I had to figure out how to scale a new office in Dallas, then again in Toronto, followed by sales team in Chicago. What a learning experience that was.

How tough is it being based in Utah but working for a UK-based company?

I would have found it daunting without my previous experiences interacting with, and managing, remote teams. Just the time zone differences alone can be tough. For example, I’m meeting from 4pm until midnight with the APAC team at times, then from 6am until noon to cover the UK team. And now we’re starting a US team. So yes, it’s challenging, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. It’s helped that Netcraft’s CEO Ryan Woodley is also based here. He’s one of the lowest-ego CEOs, and is one of Utah’s top operators from a technology standpoint. The opportunity to partner closely with Ryan, learn from him, and gain some of that experience was appealing to me and another deciding factor in joining Netcraft.

Are there many differences working for a US- versus a UK-based company?

Yes, there are differences. But what I’ve experienced isn’t necessarily a stereotypical US company versus a UK one. I’ve seen big differences in companies in the same country between teams, so it could equally be a company culture thing rather than regional. Product-led compared to sales-led companies can present stark differences. Having said that, historically speaking, Netcraft has hired incredibly talented people, predominantly engineers or with a computer science background. Some of those engineers have converted to sales or other teams which means we often approach situations with a more sceptical and analytical mindset. We want to ensure we get it right by analysing a lot – and possibly over analysing at times.

That’s a key difference between the UK and our US and Australia-based teams, both of which have a propensity and/or desire to move faster. However, Netcraft has historically been a product-led organisation, so I think this difference has more to do with how we’ve approached things in the past using that lens. In contrast, the company we acquired out of Australia is a more sales-oriented and sales-led organisation with a generally higher bias towards action and level of urgency.

How do you balance the desire for analysis and the need for speed and rapid action?

A leader is primarily responsible for three things: direction, alignment and motivation. So, when you think of the propensity or the biases that these teams might have based on their geography, or their history, if a leader focuses in on these three aspects, those issues can be minimised.

If we look at alignment, here in the US we tend to use our sales development representatives (SDRs) differently to how we leverage this critical resource in the UK. So, we need to over communicate and align ourselves on how we use these resources to create a single, unified approach. That comes down to things like defining roles correctly, understanding expectations and communicating on how accountability works. As long as we are providing clear direction and ensuring our teams are aligned on these, and that we are motivating them in the same way, any issues will be minimized. It’s when leaders don’t effectively provide the correct direction, when they’re not aligned, and when the proper motivation isn’t there that issues start to spread.

Can you give us an example of how you have managed alignment (or misalignment)?

Looking specifically at Netcraft because that’s where I am working, our commercial team started out on the ground floor. We lacked performance-based compensation, there were very few, if any, KPIs, and we had just rolled out Salesforce. We implemented a new go-to-market plan and rolled out new territories and account books. We literally started with nothing and built from there. Then, we acquired a company which, understandably, brought all its own biases, practices, and formalised processes. We had to work out how to pull them in and align our different ways of working. Ensuring alignment has been absolutely essential. Most of the time we get it right, but sometimes we’ve definitely made mistakes! We still have items to clean up and improve on. A lot of a leadership role can be focused on change management.

What cultural challenges do GTM leaders face when joining an international company?

As leaders, we sometimes forget that we have biases. Just because something worked at another company doesn’t mean that it will work perfectly somewhere else, especially if it’s in a different geography. Too often leaders make that mistake and try to duplicate their earlier successes everywhere else. But that’s a naive thought. Each business has its own culture and operates differently. And, like all good salespeople who say ‘discovery’ is the most important step of the sales process. as sales leaders, we need to do ‘discovery’ on the companies we join – but we often don’t! Consequently, we don’t uncover a company’s true needs, where the business is at, and what stage the team is at.

How have you altered your leadership style to align with different company cultures?

I didn’t want to fall into the trap of being that leader who comes in and says “Do it my way”. I wanted to approach things differently at Netcraft. So, I aligned with the Board and Ryan, the CEO, on expectations that they had for me over 30, 60, 90 days, and the first year. I asked myself how I could meet the go-to-market team, understand where it currently was, and work out how we could progress from there. The specific expectations I’d mapped out with the Board and CEO were catered to the needs of the team, rather than my own preferences.

There’s a great book by Kim Scott called Radical Candor. Kim was a fantastic mentor and colleague while I was at Qualtrics and writes about the importance of building trust in order to provide meaningful feedback. Learning and understanding that individuals have preferred communication methods, different management/leadership styles, and varying motivation factors (both personal and professional) can help cater to leadership and communication styles at the individual level. One of my favourite quotes from Kim has helped guide my career states, “Listen, Challenge, Commit. A strong leader has the humility to listen, the confidence to challenge, and the wisdom to know when to quit arguing and to get on board.”

How do you adapt to the needs of different teams globally at different stages of maturity?

I recognised that the Netcraft team wasn’t at the same stage as the Qualtrics team I was leading after 12 years of building it. The size, processes, and maturity of the sales team here are all very different. I also have to approach how I work with the UK-based team differently to the way I work with the Australia-based team because the maturity of those sales teams are different. This comes back to the importance of alignment that I mentioned earlier. If we’re not aligned, frustration will build.

When you’re building and bringing in new team members you need to communicate and align more frequently. Then, as you develop competency and trust, there’s a better understanding of who’s doing what, and the frequency of communication can be reduced. This is the basic principle of orbit leadership. As competency, alignment, and organisation increases in specific teams or departments, your frequency of follow up can decrease.

What do you look for in building your GTM team?

I’ve been fortunate to participate in thousands of interviews in my career which has taught me a lot. Now I prioritize five characteristics from a sales perspective: intellectual curiosity, emotional intelligence, personal drive, career trajectory, and what can someone add to our culture?

• Beginning with intellectual curiosity, some of the top individuals I’ve worked with haven’t been to college or university, but they were highly intellectually curious. They wanted to gain a good understanding of what the technology did, our gaps, how we differentiated from our competition, and the industry trends. This intellectual curiosity is a big one for me.
• Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is about how well someone works with their peers, how well they work a key opportunity from discovery to close, and how they interacted with their previous bosses. Were they able to lean into challenges and feedback, or did they run away from them? There are a handful of ways to gauge someone’s EQ effectively.
• To be in sales you also need to be driven. It is hard and challenging working in a commercial team, so this is an important factor in my hiring decisions.
• Then I want to consider their career trajectory. Are we finding someone who separates themselves from their peers in whatever they choose to do? Are they finding success in each role, showing a propensity to promote and move up within the same organization? Are they running towards challenges/unique opportunities, or running away from situations?
• And finally, what can someone add to our culture? This is different to the often-asked question of whether a new hire is a ‘culture fit’. I don’t want someone to just come in and be a cookie cutter fit to our culture. Why? Because we might actually be limiting the talent pool. I want someone with the potential to be a catalyst of change, someone who will spark and add to our culture we’re building.

I’d add that because we are looking for the best people, we’d rather delay a hire and find the right person than hire someone who simply meets our hiring goals and deadlines.

What would you say to someone considering joining a company with European or international roots?

Find your favourite caffeinated drink because you’ll be working across time zones! And be willing to travel a lot.

Clearly, it’s important to be respectful and courteous to all team members, but also make a concerted effort with individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds. A funny example of this latter point is the ‘vests’ we designed featuring the Netcraft logo. Our colleagues in the UK wanted to know why we were putting logos on an undergarment – vest has a different meaning on opposite sides of the Atlantic! But this has a more serious side in that I have learned to get opinions on some of the cultural differences before I approach certain things. I don’t want people to think that by hiring US-based executives, the company culture will suddenly become US-centric, so we have to get this right.

I’d also urge new leaders to have a bias towards action after taking feedback from their team. I would rather have that bias and make three wrong decisions than do nothing at all. There’s often a conservative feeling of not wanting to change too much. But, in fact, you do need to take action – just be patient because you might make several wrong decisions before you get it right! Understand the importance of one-way and two-way-door decisions as well!

Finally, ensure that everyone understands their role. What are their expectations for themselves and for you, and what do you expect of them? Getting this right and defining roles will ensure accountability in your organisation, wherever you and your team are based.