Phil Freo, Product and Engineering Lead at Close.io

Phil has been leading product and engineering at Close.io, the inside sales CRM of choice for startups and SMBs, for the past 6 years. Before that, Phil spent time working with companies like Google, Yahoo, Quizlet and was a web development consultant for a number of years. During his time at Close.io, Phil’s gotten to work first-hand with our sales team and it’s safe to say he’s learned a thing or two about how sales and engineering can best work together.

In this interview, Phil digs into his personal experience to share what he believes are the best ways for sales and engineering teams to work together, including how to pitch (in-demand) feature requests to product and engineering and how reps should address feature requests from high-value prospects. Phil also explains why technical founders need to care about sales, and goes over common misconceptions about both engineers & salespeople.