Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 26, 2021

You may not know what your team needs until the ideal candidate shows it to you in an interview. That said, there’s no one-size-fits-all profile that works for every company or even every hire. At Intercom, having a diverse team is a priority, and we’re open to candidates who show promise but might not check every box perfectly.

Scale 160

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 160

Sales Hacker

APRIL 5, 2021

Over the course of time, I’ve interviewed and talked to hundreds of sales candidates. Beyond obvious things like race, weight, age, and religion, there are a multitude of hiring biases that can affect decision-makers in positions of power when interviewing candidates for open roles. First impressions still count.

Sales Hiring 92

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Company Culture Interviewing 92

BetterCloud

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

From there, the next step was the interview, during which the nominees shared their unique IT challenges, approaches, and accomplishments. Once interviews were complete and summarized, an internal BetterCloud team voted for the winners. Like every year, selecting the best of the best was extremely difficult.

Headcount 52

Headcount compliance Innovation Interviewing 52

BetterCloud

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

In our 2023 State of SaaSOps survey, we interviewed 700 IT practitioners of all levels about their challenges, how they measured their work, and their plans for the coming year. It’s now more critical than ever to equip your IT team with the platform they need to address and overcome these challenges— without adding headcount.

Headcount 52

Headcount Metrics Interviewing SaaS 52

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

DECEMBER 3, 2013

Besides working through your budget, marketing programs, headcount, and whatever else you need to have in place when the new year rolls around, I’d suggest you add another item: Review your value proposition and messages. Here’s why. Most of your marketing plans are meant to deliver your messages to your target audience. Ask your customers.

Headcount 100

Headcount Social Media Interviewing Mobile 100

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

Sales now accounts for about 7% of the company’s headcount–a similar share of their workforce as marketing or product management. In a 2019 podcast interview , President Jay Simons emphasized that Atlassian has a low touch sales model. The rest of their headcount only grew by 31%. This is a good thing.

Sales Hiring 57

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Sales 57

InsightSquared

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

If you have open headcount for Q1 be interviewing in Q4. Behind headcount equals behind plan. Make sure you have the right people in the right jobs. Deal with under-performers. Also, highlight your “A” players that are at risk to leave and put a plan in place to retain them. Have everyone participate.

Sales 78

Sales Headcount Sales Enablement Compensation 78

ChurnZero

DECEMBER 28, 2021

20 Customer Success Interview Questions to Ask CSM Candidates. To help you in your search for exceptional CSMs, check out this list of essential interview questions. How do I structure a budget for headcount?”. Customer Success Capacity Planning and Budget Guide. Customer Success Capacity Planning and Budget Guide.

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring Headcount Customer Success Outsourced Development 52

Chart Mogul

JULY 15, 2021

Same when you reach 100 people.” – Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten CEO, based on an interview with Phil Libin. We both noticed a similar pattern: alignment on key metrics breaks as headcount grows: More teams means more silos in processes and tools used to follow metrics. But when there are 10 people it’s all going to change again.

Underperforming Technical Team 52

Underperforming Technical Team Revenue Scale Communication 52

Chart Mogul

JULY 15, 2021

Same when you reach 100 people.” – Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten CEO, based on an interview with Phil Libin. We both noticed a similar pattern: alignment on key metrics breaks as headcount grows: More teams means more silos in processes and tools used to follow metrics. But when there are 10 people it’s all going to change again.

Underperforming Technical Team 52

Underperforming Technical Team Revenue Scale Communication 52

FastSpring

FEBRUARY 22, 2019

From my initial interview with our CEO, Chris, it was clear that company culture would be a big focus. I went from being the 8th hire at Invoca to helping grow headcount to 140 at the time of my departure. Q: What inspired you to join FastSpring? A: There were several things that inspired me to join FastSpring in 2017.

VP of Engineering 97

VP of Engineering Company Culture Scale Headcount 97

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 21, 2018

You need to build an efficient sales team…you can’t just throw money or headcount at things. You need to maximize everything you possibly can to beat the competition because you can’t just throw money or headcount at things. Did you know there was an appetite for this? That was the impetus for starting Sales Hacker.

Sales Hiring 183

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors 183

OpenView Labs

MAY 20, 2021

The same was true when I ran the People function at a software development consultancy that doubled its headcount to ~100 while reducing attrition from 40% to 5% voluntary in 18 months. I’ll often start interviews with a simple “What’s your why?”, They knew the downstream effects. Even kids and pets.

Scale 84

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Headcount Software Review 84

BetterCloud

OCTOBER 14, 2020

But when I interviewed here, I knew I had to take the job—and I’ve loved it ever since. That includes things like headcount, improving our tools, and rethinking how we handle unique situations. An opportunity came up over at Namely and the office is downtown in Manhattan. We didn’t have to change anything.

Headcount 98

Headcount Systems Review Leadership Travel 98

OpenView Labs

JUNE 10, 2019

We’ve compiled our favorite articles, advice, podcasts and interviews in this guide. Read on for more insights from OpenView’s interviews with product experts. Nick Petri assesses how to find the right ratio of headcount between product management, UX and development. Product Management Mental Models for Everyone. Podcasts.

Management 55

Management SaaS Scale Sales Recruiting 55

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 28, 2019

Now, without further ado, let’s listen to this interview with Amyra Rand. Her background in the HR recruiting space combined with her years of experience sourcing, interviewing, and hiring sales people gives her a unique perspective on delivering a best-in-class recruiting experience for candidates and hiring managers.

VP of Engineering 40

VP of Engineering Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale 40

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 25, 2022

Those customer interviews you did 6 months ago that informed the decisions you made for 2022? You probably aren’t going to get all the headcount approved that you did. If you did research interviews six months ago that led to the insight that led to the roadmap you have today, that might be different now.

Sales Hiring 138

Sales Hiring Scale Interviewing Headcount 138

User Pilot

APRIL 7, 2022

There are three popular methods of doing qualitative UX analysis : One-on-one customer interview. Jason Nielson, Nielsen Group — UX training and consulting company—said that you need to hold up to five interviews only and still gather relevant data. UX-Analytics-Instead-of-App-Analysis. Customers’ observation (session replays).

SaaS Payments 52

SaaS Payments Payment Methods Data Payment Solutions 52

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

It’s your secret to finding the diamonds in the rough when you need more qualified leads, without increasing headcount. Should you start by interviewing leads? Whether you have too many leads or too few, prioritizing leads is a gamechanger. Draw data from all departments (not just sales). Where do you start with lead scoring?

Sales 97

Sales Underperforming Technical Team Systems Review Headcount 97

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 20, 2019

Business needs and team headcounts will change as a company matures. This means that if an SDR shows she is ready for a promotion but headcount doesn’t exist for the next role, she will not be promoted until that headcount opens up. The takeaway: Exceeding SDR quota is step one for a promotion to a closing role.

Sales Hiring 35

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Sales Headcount 35

Sales Enablement, SaaS and Growth

MARCH 23, 2020

The Horizons Framework is an effective way to categorise projects, which in turn helps with assigning budget, headcount and timelines. An example of diminishing returns is Google’s hiring process - the technology giant discovered that four interviews was enough to predict whether someone should be hired with 86% confidence.

Underperforming Technical Team 213

Underperforming Technical Team Scale Sales Hiring Marketplace as a Service 213

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

Luckily, we got an invitation to fly out to Mountain View, California and interview in person for YC. I remember we were sitting down on the couches waiting to get interviewed by Jessica Livingston and a couple other partners. ” Then we got … Right after that, we went in and interviewed. Why did we even fly out here?

Scale 114

Scale Sales Hiring Software Review Scaling 114

ChurnZero

OCTOBER 15, 2021

During one of our BIG RYG Hyper-Workshops on budgeting for Customer Success headcount, Kristen Hayer of The Success League, framed this shift by explaining that as a CS leader, you’re not running a happiness team, you’re running a revenue team. And in many cases, that’s where technology and automation have the greatest effect.

Customer Success 97

Customer Success Benchmarks Scale Underperforming Technical Team 97

OpenView Labs

MARCH 10, 2019

Over this time, our headcount has grown by over 10x, and our revenue has grown by over 60x. What this really means is “be patient and invest whatever time it takes to interview and hire the right people.” Below are my top three: Hire the right people. Pay attention to the data.

Scale 69

Scale Customer Success Scaling Sales Hiring 69

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 22, 2019

Now, without further ado, let’s listen to this interview with Catie Ivey. I stumbled into an interview my last semester of college, literally because it had “international” in the title, which was the only reason I showed up. Outreach has your back. About Catie Ivey and Demandbase [2:00]. and went to university.

Revenue 41

Revenue Scale Strategy Sales Hiring 41

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 12, 2020

For example, if you listen to a podcast interview or webinar, and they are legion now that we are all nearly remote in the crisis, you can pull a very specific section to reference. Most sellers focus on personalizing their content, but they often fall short of the hyper -personalization that is required to really stand out.

Scale 107

Scale Scaling AI Search AI 107

Neil Patel

JANUARY 8, 2019

And to give you an idea of how many companies are making this mistake… I interviewed 208 companies that generate over a million bucks in revenue. Don’t be afraid of headcount… remember teams build great businesses, not individuals. Don’t just focus your efforts on traffic acquisition, focus on conversion optimization.

Marketing 111

Marketing Sales Hiring Technical Review Scale 111

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 13, 2021

You can also read the full transcript of the interview, which has been lightly edited for clarity, below. Early on, how you might think about your capacity planning or your headcount allocation for CS is very much a cost-centric framework. Riding the hyper-growth wave. Linda: That’s a great question. Well, it’s not me.

Scale 177

Scale Customer Success Strategy Sales Hiring 177

ChurnZero

JULY 1, 2022

I also do interviews with our team members and with the teams they work with to identify if we have gaps. Does that save in future CSM headcount? I keep a running backlog of those. Are there things that we can smooth over? I continue to augment that never-ending backlog. How much time are we saving for them? Who’s onboarding?

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Scale Technical Review Systems Review 52

ChurnZero

JULY 1, 2022

I also do interviews with our team members and with the teams they work with to identify if we have gaps. Does that save in future CSM headcount? I keep a running backlog of those. Are there things that we can smooth over? I continue to augment that never-ending backlog. How much time are we saving for them? Who’s onboarding?

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Scale Technical Review Systems Review 52

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 29, 2019

This data typically comes in three broad flavors: Firmographic: This includes employee headcount, revenue, vertical, business model, location, tech stack, web traffic, and other publicly available information about the customer. Consider these other examples: For business collaboration tools, headcount likely indicates differing needs.

Business 184

Business B2C Scale Headcount 184

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2020

Below, we’ve shared the transcript of Harry’s interview with Sam. Sam Taylor: So no matter what, I mean, Dropbox, no matter how you slice it, what function you’re in, was just insane from a growth perspective, headcount-wise, user base-wise, you name it. Harry Stebbings. Sam Taylor. I like to do a hypothetical.

Scale 174

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 174

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

Because sales is a lead-driven but headcount- closed business. 10 Great Questions to Ask a VP Sales During an Interview. Let me give you a partial interview script that may help a bit. And the great VP of Sales all know this. To hit their number, they know they need the heads. Backfilling and Helping His/Her Sales Team.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 363

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 21, 2022

What started as a series of interviews by co-founder Des Traynor soon bloomed into hundreds of episodes where we explore how businesses are driving growth through customer relationships and how to build successful products at scale. I’m recording the first in what I expect to be a series of interesting interviews.

Outsourcing Services 215

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring CTO Hire Acquisition 215

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 20, 2022

We surveyed and interviewed key people in our teams to understand how they worked and how they saw Intercom’s internal operations. We’ve done interviews. And sure enough, the feedback was that things were starting to slow down. Speed is a first-class citizen at Intercom, but it should be in every single company.

Underperforming Technical Team 249

Underperforming Technical Team Headcount Sales Hiring Scale 249

SaaStr

MARCH 22, 2022

This requires effort from your entire organization, and Handshake VP, Employer Partnerships Jessica Peluso outlines some changes that you can make to your brand, and your application, interview, and offer process that will help find the talent you are trying to attract and hire. Below is the transcript of Jessica’s session.

Sales Hiring 224

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 224

ChurnZero

AUGUST 23, 2019

Q: If there is no headcount for a new CS ops person, what’s the best way to incorporate the function until you can get budget? However, I still believe that the Chief Revenue Officer should own what is needed to drive that revenue. A: That’s another great question.

Sales Hiring 40

Sales Hiring Scale Customer Success Retention 40