Kellblog

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

The other day a founder asked me about interviewing because a candidate had described me as “a great interviewer,” and she wanted to know why. I find interviewing and recruiting difficult, have made plenty of mistakes over the years, and the consequences of those mistakes are invariably painful. What size deals?

Sales Recruiting 109

Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Hiring Finance 109

User Pilot

AUGUST 21, 2023

In this ultimate list of product manager interview questions, we have tried to simplify the process of hiring great product managers. While there’s no need to grill candidates with overly technical questions at your next product manager interview, favoring applicants with an innate product sense is only logical.

Interviewing 80

Interviewing Underperforming Technical Team Management Sales Hiring 80

Totango

JANUARY 12, 2022

They act as advocates for the business goals of customers and anticipate how to meet those goals and how they will change over time. At Totango, we’re always looking for great candidates to join our growing team , so we asked some of our leaders to share their top Customer Success Manager interview questions and their ideal answers.

Interviewing 95

Interviewing Customer Success Management Scale 95

SaaStr

AUGUST 17, 2020

Your best bosses, VPs, mentors and others will give you “audibles” — quick bits of micro-advice during pitches, customer meetings, interviews, etc. You will interview 100s and then 1000s of folks over your career, and hire many very good, pretty good, OK and less-than-great folks. Listen to “Audibles” and Act on Them. More here.

Scale 363

Scale Business Interviewing Compensation 363

SaaStr

OCTOBER 20, 2022

They aren’t perfect, but given how many CIOs they interview — over 2,200 for this survey — they’re one of my favorite sources for what’s happening in 2023. The post Gartner: Business Software Spend Still Forecast to Rise 11.3% Be honest. Is it a few bumps in the economy — which always happen.

Forecasting 250

Forecasting Artificial Intelligence Software Business 250

OpenView Labs

AUGUST 31, 2021

Employee exit interviews have a reputation for being some of the trickiest conversations to navigate in the workplace. While you can optimistically expect some candid feedback that might help you improve your team or business; you can also never know how frank an exiting employee is willing to be about their experience. .

Interviewing 72

Interviewing Company Culture Leadership Engagement 72

SaaStr

APRIL 21, 2024

If you’re a “business” founder, know it’s really, really hard to win without a truly great CTO. At least do 30+ customer interviews and really listen on if they’d paid for real, and then go validate that some more. So ask yourself — why will you win ? Answer that instead of worrying about being first.

Startup 282

Startup CTO SaaS Interviewing 282

SaaStr

MARCH 11, 2024

They’re Late Many will challenge me here, but if they’re late to the interview, they’ll be late to customer calls, too. They Can’t Sell You This Pen I don’t know if these days, a sales rep has to come to the first interview being able to do a strong sales demo of your sales product. That’s fine.

Sales Hiring 238

Sales Hiring Sales Interviewing compliance 238

User Pilot

APRIL 8, 2024

How is it different from the top-down business model? Different approaches used in bottom-up SaaS companies How does the bottom-up business model work in practice? Different approaches used in bottom-up SaaS companies How does the bottom-up business model work in practice? Bottom-up SaaS tactics: contextual Loom upsell modal.

Strategy 74

Strategy Business SaaS Customer Lifetime Value 74

ChurnZero

JUNE 30, 2021

To help you make sure you are adequately evaluating your Customer Success Manager candidates consider pulling from this list of interview questions. 20 Interview Questions to Ask Your Customer Success Manager Candidates. Let’s say you have to complete multiple tasks across your book of business, how would you determine their priority?

Interviewing 72

Interviewing Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale 72

Sales Hacker

APRIL 21, 2020

Whether your company has paused hiring, topgrading, still hiring, or will be in the future, having the right people for your business and stage will ALWAYS be a priority. You’ll be able to download the interview scorecard template that I use with my clients. The cherry on top? If you’re a job seeker, never fear! And that’s not all.

Sales Hiring 93

Sales Hiring Interviewing Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 93

SaaStr

APRIL 26, 2023

Keep reading to learn Robertson’s five customer marketing strategies guaranteed to grow your business. Know Your Customers You should always start with customer research, no matter what type of business you’re running. For companies that already have customers, you can conduct interviews and surveys.

Scale 223

Scale Strategy Marketing Education 223

Trint

OCTOBER 6, 2021

Astute businesses have noticed this trend, and we see more marketing teams produce their own podcasts. Additionally, they make great content for your owned social media channels and provide an excellent opportunity to engage with other networks, businesses, and influencers who may have a similar audience to the one you are targeting.

Business 130

Business Social Media Interviewing Education 130

CustomerSuccessBox

OCTOBER 31, 2021

Many CX professionals across the globe still don’t understand the criticality of Quarterly Business review. This is why we, at CustomerSuccessBox , thought of interviewing CS leaders to understand their perspective of QBR. The second interview in the series is with Mary Poppen. Why is Quarterly Business Review important?

Interviewing 52

Interviewing Consulting Education Customer Success 52

OpenView Labs

JULY 20, 2020

Interviewing is hard , and interviewing candidates for sales roles can be doubly so. Why is effective interviewing so important? Hiring well or poorly will literally make or break your business. Better interviewing = better sales teams. How not to interview for sales.

Interviewing 73

Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team 73

CustomerSuccessBox

OCTOBER 31, 2021

Many CX professionals across the globe don’t understand the criticality of business reviews. This is why we, at CustomerSuccessBox, thought of interviewing CS leaders to understand their perspective of QBR. Sue : A business review is also an important opportunity for the measurement of mutual success between vendors and customers.

Interviewing 59

Interviewing Technical Review Scale Communication 59

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 20, 2020

Just as sales is its own animal in the professional ecosystem, the sales interview is its own unique beast. Your skills will be fire-tested and aggressively interrogated , and the mock demo portion makes it more like an audition than an interview. Start Acing Your Interview Before You Even Start. But this is a sales interview.

Sales Recruiting 76

Sales Recruiting Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales 76

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2019

Q: What are the biggest mistakes new founders make when they start a business? My list: Not budgeting 24 months to get to a viable business. It almost always takes 24 months from “go”, or longer, to build a real business in SaaS. But real, serious interviews. Don’t Forget the 20 Interview Rule.

Business 162

Business Interviewing Market Research B2B 162

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

And business software spend is set to cross $1 Trillion this year for the first time ever! I bet you get an interview. To $300k-$400k+ per employee at scale. So cuts continue. But don’t the headlines obscure what’s really happening, because they tend to shout out quieter trends. And write them the best cold email ever.

Sales Hiring 272

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Interviewing 272

CustomerSuccessBox

OCTOBER 31, 2021

At CustomerSuccessBox, thought of interviewing Customer Success leaders to understand their perspective of Quarter Business Review. The post Decoding the QBR myth-Interview with Aaron Thompson appeared first on.

Interviewing 52

Interviewing Technical Review Benchmarks Customer Success 52

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2024

For Sam, an SDR has always been the most challenging hire within the sales organization because they are often fresh out of college or moving from a different career path, and they don’t have historical performance and back-channel references to lean on — yet you rely on them for net new business. What can the SDR control?

Sales Hiring 257

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Outbound Sales Team 257

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 22, 2020

By mastering your sales interview questions. As a longtime recruiting leader, I’ve worked with countless hiring managers looking to fill sales roles , and I’ve had a firsthand look at their interview process. 6 Sales Interview Questions to Find the Best Talent. How do you make sure your potential new hires have the right skills?

Sales Hiring 76

Sales Hiring Interviewing Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting 76

OPEXEngine

APRIL 12, 2022

The other day a founder asked me about interviewing because a candidate had described me as “a great interviewer,” and she wanted to know why. I find interviewing and recruiting difficult, have made plenty of mistakes over the years, and the consequences of those mistakes are invariably painful. To line of business, IT, or both?

Sales Recruiting 40

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Interviewing Finance 40

Agile Payments

MARCH 19, 2019

An interview with MyEvent.com. Early adopters of the PayFac business model MyEvent.com has successfully implemented payment facilitation and used it to grow their business and acquire new clients.

Payment Services 77

Payment Services Payment Facilitation Interviewing Payfac 77

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 26, 2020

As the COVID-19 situation continues to impact people, businesses, and communities everywhere, we know it is more important than ever to stay in touch with your customers, and Intercom is committed to helping you stay connected. We have robust plans in place to ensure we continue to deliver the highest levels of technical and business service.

AWS 192

AWS Scale Business Cloud 192

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2023

Even if you are quietly biased here, let it go when they show up incredibly on top of how your business works, and where it should go. And whatever you see as a flag during the interview process, is almost always 10x bigger once they join full-time. Not perfect background, but showed up incredibly prepared. See previous point.

Sales Hiring 272

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Startup 272

SaaStr

JUNE 18, 2022

Up today: a 2016 interview with Harry Stebbings and Gusto Co-Founder and CEO Josh Reeves. At the time of this interview, Gusto had 350 employees serving 40,000 customers. Today, it’s grown to more than 2,000 employees serving over 200,000 businesses. Ultimately, every new hire must have a meaningful impact on the business.

Interviewing 305

Interviewing Development Churn SaaS 305

Buffer Resources

MAY 24, 2023

I tried hosting IGTV interviews with female founders but quickly realized that many viewers struggle to watch a long conversation, so I pivoted to podcasts. I leveraged the networks and reputations of my guests to grow When it comes to building a successful business, I swear by the power of collaboration and amplification.

Business 84

Business Entrepreneurship Interviewing Social Media 84

SaaStr

AUGUST 22, 2023

It took us 2 years just to figure out our ultimate business model. Double-down on your market understanding, research, and customer interviews. Don’t Forget the 20 Interview Rule. #3. The best of the best here can really accelerate your business. What you think you do on day 1 may look very different by day 365.

Interviewing 228

Interviewing Market Research Business Model Startup 228

SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2024

Talent + Asset — Taking everything t o expand the business or some core piece of the product. Not only do you have to pass the hiring interviews as a Founder, but everyone on your team does, too. Brett has seen deals where the founder and a couple of employees are great, but most of the team failed the initial interviews.

Software Review 230

Software Review Technical Review Acquisition Scale 230

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What do startup founders typically get wrong when starting a business? More here: A Simple Commitment Test For You And Your Co-Founders – SaaStr Not doing enough potential customer interviews. Don’t Forget the 20 Interview Rule. SaaStr Trying to pursue a “Grass is Greener” business model. That’s tough.

SMB 237

SMB SaaS B2C Interviewing 237

Neil Patel

JULY 6, 2021

As business owners and marketers, we go through manic highs and lows. One way to help get yourself over the hump is with business coaching. The best business coaches not only coach you in your business but also coach your life as a whole. What Is Business Coaching? What Does a Business Coach Do?

Underperforming Technical Team 115

Underperforming Technical Team Business Technical Review Interviewing 115

SaaStr

OCTOBER 24, 2023

I remember interviewing Todd McKinnon, founder CEO of Okta (now at $2B+ ARR), saying it wasn’t until $30m ARR or so he felt they weren’t going to fail : You will never, ever feel Failing With 100% Responsibility as a “mere” employee. If you aren’t the founders, and the business fails. You will feel it every day.

Entrepreneurship 264

Entrepreneurship Interviewing Scaling SaaS 264

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 25, 2021

She’s been coaching business leaders for over 30 years, helping them build more customer-centric initiatives and create long-lasting, memorable relationships with their customers. For businesses to grow, they must rise above the constant stream of issues and deflection strategies and shift to a proactive CX approach. The lesson?

VP of Engineering 181

VP of Engineering Scale Business Leadership 181

Valuize Consulting

DECEMBER 7, 2021

In the subscription economy, there’s no debate about whether or not to invest in Customer Success (CS); 70% of rapidly growing businesses say that Customer Success is extremely important ( Hubspot , 2017). Level Up Your Customer Success Organization.

VP of Engineering 98

VP of Engineering Customer Success Sales Hiring Interviewing 98

User Pilot

APRIL 24, 2024

TL;DR Challenge : Lisa, our UX researcher, found it difficult to recruit participants for usability tests via email since B2B users are busy individuals with cluttered inboxes. Using Userpilot’s survey functionality, Lisa created an interview invite survey and triggered it to the right user segment inside Userpilot.

Interviewing 82

Interviewing B2C B2B Advertising 82