Communicating with the Field

Guide to communicating with and within the GitLab Field team using both Slack and email

This page is meant to serve as a guide to communicating with and within the Field using both Slack and email. Read below to find an outline of all Google Groups and Slack channels related to Sales and Customer Success.

In order to drive clarity on this page, it is important to note the difference in definitions between:

  1. Sales: Refers to team members in the Enterprise and Commercial Sales teams.
  2. CS: Refers to team members in the groups that make up the Customer Success organization.
  3. Field: Refers to ALL members of the GTM team โ€“ Sales, CS, Marketing (SDRs), Professional Services.

Google Groups

The parent google group of the sales team is sales-all. Several child groups fall within the parent group.

Group Name Group Level/Access Description
sales-all organization Includes all members of the sales and CS teams as well as stakeholders across the business
sales-leaders leadership Regional directors and above (ASM and above for COM)
cs-leaders leadership VP Customer Success direct reports
field-managers leadership ASMs and above or equivalents on the CS/Channel/Alliance/SDR side who are people managers
sales-ent-managers leadership ASMs and above on the Enterprise team
sales-com-managers leadership ASMs and above on the Commercial team
sales-cs-managers leadership Managers and above on the Customer Success team
sales-commercial segment Members of the commercial sales team
sales-ent segment Members of the enterprise sales team
sales-emea team Members of the ENT EMEA sales team
sales-apac team Members of the ENT APAC sales team
sales-east team Members of the ENT AMER east sales team
sales-west team Members of the ENT AMER west sales team
sales-pubsec team Members of the ENT pubsec sales team
sales-cs segment Members of the customer success team
sales-channels segment Members of the channel partners team
sales-alliances segment Members of the alliance partners team
sales-fieldops segment Members of the field operations team
sales-ops team Members of the sales operations team
field-enablement team Members of the field enablement team
sales-analytics team Members of the sales strategy team
sales-talent acquisition segment People partners and sales recruiters who support the field organization

See the below chart for a visualization of the Google Group hierarchy

Sales Google Groups

To confirm if you are in a particular Google Group, see the Google Workspace Group Membership Reports. To gain access to new Google Groups, please fill out an access request (AR) form.

Slack Channels and Groups

The primary Slack channels for the field are:

  • #field-fyi: Official field announcements channel. Restricted permission levels to help streamline important updates. (Find more information here.)
  • #sales: The general channel for WW Sales open to posts from all team members.
  • #sales-support: The general channel to ask for sales support from Field Operations.
  • #customer-success: The general channel to interact with & within Customer Success.

All field team members should star ๐ŸŒŸ and follow these four channels for important updates about the business. There are multiple team channels in the field organization, outlined below. Please follow the channels relevant to your role. To gain access to private channels, please fill out an access request (AR) form.

Slack Groups

Slack Groups are groups of members in a workspace who often need to be notified at once. The Field organization has multiple Slack Groups that effectively allow a group of people to be cc’d on a Slack communication. Please note that Slack groups send a push notification to all members and should be used sparingly, in accordance with the guidelines around @here mentions in the Handbook.

Only use Slack Groups if:

  1. The content of the message is hyper-relevant to ALL members of the group
  2. The content of the message is time-sensitive and/or needs immediate action
  3. The content of the message has significant impact to the business and/or team
Group Name Group Members/Description
sales_leaders Regional directors and above (ASM and above for COM)
cs_leaders VP Customer Success direct reports
field_managers ASMs and above or equivalents on the CS/Channel/Alliance/SDR side who are people managers
sales_ent_managers ASMs and above on the Enterprise team
sales_com_managers ASMs and above on the Commercial team
sales_cs_managers Managers and above on the Customer Success team

Field Slack Channels

The below channels are specific to the field organization.

Organization-Wide/Management

Channel Name Channel Access (Private/Public) Description
#sales public General channel for WW Sales, open to posts from all team members
#field-fyi public (read-only) Official field announcements channel
#cro public CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) announcements and communication
#cro-approvals public Triaging approvals required by the CRO across GitLab
#sales-vp public Used for scheduling requests, etc. related to all field VPs
#sales-leaders private Used for communication with and between Sales directors and above (ASM and above for COM)
#cs-leaders private Used for communication with and between VP Customer Success direct reports
#field-managers private Confidential (people and/or comp-related) communication with Field (Sales, CS, SDR) managers - ASMs or equivalent and above
#sales-ent-managers private Used for communication with and between WW ASM-and-above-level managers in Enterprise
#sales-com-managers private Used for communication with and between WW ASM-and-above-level managers in Commercial
#sales-cs-managers private Used for communication with and between WW managers in Customer Success
#wins-key-deals public Used for celebrating key deals for our Sales team. Scope defined in channel description.

Sales

Channel Name Channel Access (Private/Public) Description
#apac_field_team public Team channel for APAC sales team
#eastsales public Team channel for ENT U.S. East sales team
#westsales public Team channel for ENT U.S. West sales team
#mid-atlantic-sales public Team channel for ENT U.S. Mid Atlantic sales team
#emea-sals public Team channel for ENT EMEA sales team
#public-sector-sales private Team channel for Public Sector sales team
#emea_mid-market_sales public Team channel for EMEA Mid-Market sales team
#commercial_global_all private Team channel for global Commercial sales team

Customer Success Consistent with company guidance to use public channels, there are instances where private channels are preferred. As we want to ensure an inclusive environment, the feedback from some of the team is that private channels are sometimes preferred as there is a perception of being judged (i.e., imposter syndrome). The recommendation is to use public channels as it:

  • Allows for broader collaboration (i.e., SA/CSM/PS, Product, Marketing, Sales) on solutions, recommendations, and best practices
  • Provides ability for broader learning for things such as customer challenges, enablement needs, product documentation improvements, etc.
  • Enables the ability to harvest the information for content (i.e., CSM solutions, adoption content for digital journey, product documentation) The recommendation is to use public channels even while it may sometimes feel uncomforable as we want to embrace this.
Channel Name Channel Access (Private/Public) Description
#customer-success public Used to interact with & within Customer Success
#cs-questions public Questions from customers and prospects to the Customer Success team about using GitLab and best practices
#demo-systems public Open discussion and questions about demo systems that arenโ€™t appropriate for issues
#professional-services public Used to communicate with the Professional Services team

Field Operations

Channel Name Channel Access (Private/Public) Description
#sales-support public Support for general sales-related questions, requests, and updates
#field-enablement-team public Used for communication between GitLab sales and CS team members and the field enablement team
#field-cert-program public Stay up-to-date on GitLab’s Field Certification Program

Channels and Alliances

Channel Name Channel Access (Private/Public) Description
#cloud-aws or #cloud-gcp public Questions regarding alliance partners
#channel-sales public Topics related to channel sales
#partner-programs-ops public Topics related to partner programs and operations
#channel-marketing public Topics related to channel marketing
#channel-services public Topics related to channel services
#channel-accred-mvp public Communication about the channel partner accreditation program
#partner-fyi public Communicates updates to the Channel & Alliances teams on program, operations, enablement and marketing.

Helpful Company Slack Channels

The below channels are owned by teams outside of the field organization but might be helpful for field team members to follow given the nature of their roles.

Channel Name Channel Access (Private/Public) Description
#company-fyi public (read-only) Official company announcements channel
#company-fyi-private private (read-only) Official & confidential company announcements channel
#whats-happening-at-gitlab public Team-wide communication and announcements (reminders, events, project updates, etc.)
#ceo public Questions and requests for Sid
#competition public Used to share competitive insight/information from the market in real time and to ask the competitive intelligence team questions about how they might handle certain situations
#support_ops-announcements public (read-only) Sharing updates on Support-related changes
#legal public General legal questions that are not confidential or seeking legal advice
#marketing public General marketing team channel
#sdr-global public Used to ask questions and provide useful information related to XDRs
#sdr-fyi public (read-only) The official SDR announcements channel
#content-updates public The latest GitLab-published content you can share with prospects on social media
#newswire public News mentions and industry news related to GitLab
#diversity_inclusion_and_belonging public Get updates and receive feedback on all things related to Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
#eba-team public Communicate with the EA team; schedule time with the CEO and CRO

Field-FYI Slack Channel
GitLab's official field announcements channel