Whispered Hiring with Sanjay Kini, CCO @ 6sense

Описание: Sanjay Kini scaled 6sense's customer organization from 5 to 300+ people while growing revenue from $5M to $200M. His contrarian approach: give hiring managers final authority even when other interviewers disagree, spend more time assessing "will" than "skill," and refuse to post senior roles publicly. The result? 40 of 58 managers promoted from within.
In this episode, Sanjay breaks down his complete hiring system for scaling customer success and GTM teams through hypergrowth. From the "Who" framework for building org structures to why sales leaders are the hardest roles to hire, this conversation delivers tactical insights you can implement immediately.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
02:09 Getting the Right Leaders at the Right Time
03:29 Vetting High-Potential Hires: Skill and Will
06:39 Interview Process and the "Who" Framework
09:11 Hiring Manager Decision Authority
09:54 Internal Promotion Results: 40 of 58 Managers
11:19 Hardest Role to Hire: Sales Leaders
12:41 Network-Based Hiring vs Public Posting
14:36 Favorite Interview Questions for Assessing "Will"
18:28 What Questions Candidates Should Ask
20:57 Assessing AI Fluency in Hiring
22:46 Circle of Influence vs Circle of Power
24:40 Setting Leaders Up for Success in First 90 Days
27:38 Back-Channeling vs Candidate-Provided References
33:44 Best Hires: Betting on Potential

ABOUT SANJAY KINI
Sanjay Kini is Chief Customer Strategy Officer at 6sense. He spent seven years as Chief Customer Officer building a category-defining company, leading customer success, customer experience, platform adoption, support, training, and sales engineering. Prior to 6sense, Sanjay helped scale multiple companies through IPO and hypergrowth including Rational Software and Responsys. He's also a Limited Partner with Stage 2 Capital, serves on G2's Executive Advisory Board, and advises companies like Factors.ai on go-to-market strategy.

RESOURCES MENTIONED → "Who" hiring framework book → Meg Whitman's circle of influence vs circle of power concept → Skill and will assessment methodology

ABOUT Whispered Hiring

Whispered Hiring is a podcast in partnership with Whispered and Front Lines where Andy Mowat talks with senior GTM leaders about how they find, vet, attract, and grow exceptional talent.

Subscribe for more insights from GTM leaders on building high-performing teams!