Sales leadership at high-tech companies isn’t for the faint hearted. With ecosystem advances announced almost daily, the tech landscape changes almost quickly. Through experience, Denise Ruffner has learned a few things about building teams that can keep up with these changes. Drawing from her experience as Chief Revenue Officer across several tech companies, she’s developed an approach that borrows from software development, focuses on talent, and keeps teams from burning out.
Moving Past Fixed Plans
Most companies start with the basics – headcount plans, processes, target customers, and marketing calendars. But Denise noticed something interesting: teams that stuck too rigidly to these plans often struggled to adapt. The solution? She borrowed a page from software development. “I look at how development teams work in sprints,” she explains. Rather than annual plans set in stone, Denise breaks sales planning into shorter cycles. “I set the sales sprint meeting at intervals of two to three months.” This gives teams enough time to build pipeline and market presence while staying nimble.
These sprint meetings aren’t just about numbers. “We assemble the team in a sprint meeting and then jointly look at tactics – what’s worked, what hasn’t worked, what do we still want to try,” Denise says. The key question driving these discussions: “Where do we need to make changes?” After each sprint, she makes sure management stays in the loop. These quick feedback cycles help teams spot issues early and pivot when needed, instead of waiting for annual reviews when it might be too late.
Finding Hidden Talent
Fast growth brings another challenge: keeping good people engaged when everything’s moving at warp speed. Denise takes an unusually hands-on approach to talent development. “I ask each team manager to meet quarterly with their team members,” she says. These aren’t your typical performance reviews. Instead, managers dig deep into three key areas: job satisfaction, management feedback, and skill development goals.
This regular check-in system does more than just catch problems early. “This gives the manager a road map on helping the employee gain career skills,” Denise explains. Sometimes that means training for their current role. Other times, it means finding them new opportunities entirely. “I believe that optimizing your employee resources can be enhanced by giving them the opportunities they are looking for,” she says. “They also could potentially be moved to another role to gain new skill sets.”
Managing Growth Without Burning Out
The excitement of rapid growth often comes with a lot of stress for the individual employees. Denise has seen enough fast-scaling companies to know that this happens. “These exciting times can be stressful to all,” she notes. “There are a lot of deadlines and overall a lot of change.”
Her solution? Make sure people have support before they need it. “It’s important for employees to learn healthy ways to cope with stress as well as create a work-life balance,” she says. One specific recommendation: “I often recommend that they find an experienced mentor to guide them through their role so that they can remain healthy and perform well.”
While Denise identified these approaches in early-stage companies, she’s quick to point out they work just as well in larger organizations. The core principle stays the same: “Being agile is not just for development teams – operation teams need to be agile as well.” Whether you’re running a small sales team or a large division, being able to quickly respond to changes in the market is important. Her approach to people management shows that building successful teams isn’t just about hitting numbers. It’s about also creating systems that help people adapt, grow, and stick around for the long haul.
To learn more about Denise Ruffner and her approach, check out her LinkedIn profile.
