SaaStr

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

They are hiring leaders, building teams, and attracting advisors in the US while devouring the SV SaaS playbook. AI is likely the next platform, dev tools are strategic given the scarcity of developers, cybersecurity is front and center for enterprises, and the data stack is still going strong. Silicon Valley has a deep talent bench.

Scale 293

Scale Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Cybersecurity 293

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 8, 2020

But with so much data to consider, how can you define the help desk metrics that matter for your team? This can empower teams to take strategic action to improve their overall support experience for customers. This metric represents the average amount of time it takes your customer support team to settle a case once it’s opened.

Customer Support 211

Customer Support Metrics Technical Review Scale 211

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 29, 2019

In this week’s episode we’ve dug down into the podcast vaults to bring you some of the best insights shared by our guests about scaling sales. It’s no surprise that one of the key levers for growth as you go from startup to scale-up is your sales team. Hiring for sales with John Barrows. I can’t teach grit.

Scale 172

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Payment Services 172

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 21, 2018

Whether you’re at an early-stage startup that’s just made its first sales hires, or part of a fast-moving sales team in a large organization, the key to success often comes down to efficiency. That means your focus should be on building the right customer profile and developing precise messaging to reach them.

Sales Hiring 183

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors 183

Sales Hacker

JULY 24, 2018

As sales leaders, most of us assume that many aspects of our sales machine will become inefficient during hypergrowth. As we think of ways to improve sales performance, a number of growth pains may come in the way: High acquisition costs. Decreased revenue per rep, High turnover as you scale headcount. It’s a byproduct.

Scale 74

Scale Headcount Sales Hiring Scaling 74

Sales Enablement, SaaS and Growth

MARCH 23, 2020

Companies which don’t use mental models risk unleashing mayhem with poor choices or becoming bloated and bureaucratic by reducing the volume and speed at which decisions are made - both scenarios are undesirable and will impact growth. OKRs are a useful mental model - they make it crystal clear what people and teams should be striving for.

Underperforming Technical Team 215

Underperforming Technical Team Scale Sales Hiring Marketplace as a Service 215

Sales Hacker

JUNE 3, 2025

The GTM Podcast is available on any major directory, including: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Rick Kelley is the former VP of Metas Global Business Group, where he led a $10B+ revenue organization and played a pivotal role in building out Metas go-to-market teams across North America and EMEA.

Sales Hiring 87

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 87

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. Honest feedback can be hard to take, but it’s essential to develop the type of culture that encourages people to constructively criticize processes, leadership styles, or approaches. Paul: Yeah.

Underperforming Technical Team 249

Underperforming Technical Team Headcount Sales Hiring Scale 249

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Hiring a VP of Sales isn’t new, but the conversations have evolved as the world has. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive. Read the Ultimate Guide to Hiring a Great VP of Sales ebook or What Makes a Great VP of Sales and How to Hire One blog post.

Sales Hiring 157

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 157

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

You are in trouble if you’re trying to hack sales — unless you lay a foundation first. The hard work that every company and every sales leader needs to do cannot be hacked. Stop looking for tips and tricks and learn the foundations that every sales leader and company needs. No high-pressure sales. No spray and pray.

Scale 133

Scale Sales Underperforming Technical Team Headcount 133

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 28, 2022

And for Intercom’s VP of Sales EMEA, Sanj Bhayro , scaling is just what you need to invest in to ensure growth becomes as constant and linear as it can be. Sanj has plenty of experience scaling sales teams at growing businesses, and that’s precisely why, as of November of last year, he‘s overseeing EMEA sales at Intercom.

Scale 210

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting 210

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. SaaS companies, who often have complex sales cycles coupled with small but agile sales teams, can especially benefit from lead scoring, since it allows small teams to punch well above their weight class.

Sales 123

Sales Underperforming Technical Team Systems Review Headcount 123

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

Scaling a support team is challenging enough as it is. You’re investing resources in hiring and training the right people, tracking different metrics at different stages, adding more and more complexity with each increase in headcount, use cases, and customers. For Natasha, the answer is a resounding yes.

Outsourcing Services 206

Outsourcing Services Scale Software Sales Hiring 206

Sales Hacker

MAY 21, 2020

When inbound sales and marketing works, it’s great. I’ve worked with many companies throughout my career, and there tends to be six common, tactical mistakes when it comes to inbound process: They don’t have sales and marketing alignment and accountability documented in a comprehensive SLA. Start with a Sales & Marketing SLA.

Scale 138

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Headcount Technology 138

SaaSOptics

MAY 2, 2022

The two most common go-to-market strategies are sales-led growth (SLG) and, more recently, product-led growth (PLG). . In a sales-led model, sales processes and teams are the primary drivers of revenue growth. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, but neither is better or worse than the other.

Scale 97

Scale Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Sales 97

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 11, 2019

But as the business becomes more successful – and there are resources to build a support team – additional layers begin to separate executives from their customers. Since 2010, he’s helped the company grow to more than 40,000 customers and helped scale the support team to more than 500 employees to assist those users. Short on time?

Scale 188

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team 188

Kellblog

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

As we struggle to hit top-down targets through rounds of cost-cutting, we cut here and squeeze there so much that we can develop a certain myopia. More subtly, have we teed up both failure and internal warfare by overcutting marketing relative to sales ? And create perverse incentives to not terminate weak employees in the process.

VP of Engineering 131

VP of Engineering Travel Underperforming Technical Team Headcount 131

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

In August of 2016, Rachel Hepworth embarked on a unique challenge: start a growth marketing team at one of the most successful startups of this generation – one that had long relied heavily on word of mouth. I stumbled upon Eric Ries and Steve Blank, the concept of customer development – it was a revelation. We got sales leads.

Growth Marketing 174

Growth Marketing Scale Marketing Outsourcing Services 174

FastSpring

JANUARY 31, 2023

Functionality and feature comparisons Payment Processing Calculating and remitting sales tax, VAT, and GST Checkout Subscription Management Reporting and Analytics Pricing Customer Reviews Note: Information in this article is true at the time of writing but is subject to change.

Payment Services 147

Payment Services Payment Methods Merchant Services Software Review 147

Chart Mogul

MAY 7, 2020

Onboarding a new member of your sales team is challenging on its own, but especially so when they have to call prospects out of the blue. Providing the right cold calling training can make or break the success of a new team member. According to data from RingLead, sales reps spend as much as 15% of their time leaving voicemails.

Sales Hiring 121

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Marketplace as a Service Headcount 121

Baremetrics

AUGUST 29, 2021

An effective sales outbound strategy needs to balance two opposing elements: efficiency vs. personal touch. We recommend starting with LinkedIn’s own Sales Navigator. Let’s say your ICP is a web developer running a startup on the East Coast. This will result in poor open and response rates.

Scale 97

Scale Startup Sales Hiring Sales 97

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

Sales leaders have a bad habit of dumping people into a new job without properly preparing them to succeed. When I landed my first “big girl job” 20 years ago as an Inside Sales Manager , I was underqualified, overambitious, and soon underwater. What’s So Important About Sales Onboarding? So tune in….

Sales Hiring 89

Sales Hiring Onboarding Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services 89

Sales Hacker

MAY 19, 2021

Can your sales reps differentiate negative email replies from positive replies? SDRs work on the front lines of all sales engagement and hone their craft in outbound sales strategies. On average, SDRs still need to attempt contact five to eight times before a lead converts into a sales opportunity.

Data 105

Data Underperforming Technical Team Headcount Sales Funnel 105

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

At the forefront of this change is what we at Engagio call, Account-Based Everything (ABE), some people know it as Account-Based Sales Development (ABSD), and others call it Account-Based Marketing (ABM). We’re going to look at what data you need to develop an account targeting strategy and where to get that data. Growth trends.

Underperforming Technical Team 77

Underperforming Technical Team Technical Review Data Development Team Review 77

ChurnZero

DECEMBER 2, 2022

Does your Customer Success team have the right structure, workload, and engagement model to hit its goals? Re-segmenting your customer base is a natural evolution of your company, product, and team’s growth. We also had to think about how we were doing their variable compensation to incent fairness across the team.

Headcount 98

Headcount Underperforming Technical Team Scale Outsourced Development 98

ChurnZero

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

And yet, downplaying your team’s needs undermines CS’s current impact and future revenue-driving potential. According to our 2022 Customer Success Leadership Study, CS teams are already underfunded and under-resourced. This is something that I’m doing with fractional headcount allocation. Now we have a name for this.

Customer Success 98

Customer Success Sales Hiring Headcount Scale 98

Sales Hacker

MARCH 12, 2020

Like most things in life, hiring sales talent is a matter of timing. Especially since the best candidates with strong sales skills are usually snatched up within 10 days. That’s why it’s critical to overcome indecision and move quickly when recruiting sales talent. Is it unrealistic sales quotas? Is compensation too low?

Sales Hiring 95

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Compensation Underperforming Technical Team 95

FastSpring

JULY 11, 2024

We’re human beings with, we come with baggage, good baggage, bad baggage, prior experience, a perspective. Sahil Patel (14:27) What I’m optimizing, great question, is can I get more people from the traffic you already get to turn into a sales prospect? Now, let’s unpack what a sales prospect means. And we got.

B2B 169

B2B Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales 169

ChurnZero

DECEMBER 19, 2024

For the fifth year running, we’ve recognized five customer success teams who achieved remarkable results in one of five categoriesonboarding, adoption, renewals and expansion, advocacy, and innovation. The Ollie team reimagined the process, using ChurnZero to structure and systemize their onboarding and keep customers on track.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Scale Underperforming Technical Team Innovation 52

Outseta

JANUARY 20, 2020

I was managing a team of 15 and the company had grown to about 140 employees. In light of the sale of Buildium last month I figured now is as good of a time as any to reflect on the most important ones. We mostly succeeded. I’m proud of all that. I learned a million lessons about SaaS, about start-ups, and about life along the way.

SaaS Payments 145

SaaS Payments Sales Hiring Payment Methods Payment Services 145

The Angel VC

DECEMBER 12, 2018

While this is generally true for most companies, it’s particularly true for SaaS businesses, which invest heavily in product development, sales, and marketing upfront and get payments from customers over a delayed period of time, usually several years. The main reason is that your customer acquisition costs are highly front-loaded.

Sales Recruiting 106

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Scale 106

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 13, 2021

Although Linda started her career in sales, she has spent the past twelve years scaling post-sales teams and moving hyper-growth companies like Zendesk, Slack, and now Gong upmarket into the enterprise realm. So how do you create a strong, enterprise-ready team? Leveraging customer insights across your business.

Customer Success 177

Customer Success Scale Sales Hiring Strategy 177

OpenView Labs

JANUARY 12, 2022

Take Stack Overflow , the world’s largest software developer network, community, and platform, serving close to 100 million monthly visitors. In fact, the team intentionally takes a non-dualistic approach that relies more on empathy, flexibility, and context than on the concept of right versus wrong. .

Leadership 98

Leadership SMB Underperforming Technical Team Scale 98

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

Pipeline analytics: Offers sales managers a view of their teams’ pipelines that goes beyond what’s available in their native SFA applications. Here’s what we use: CRM (SFDC), Sales Acceleration (SalesLoft), Forecasting (SalesLoft), Conversation Intelligence (Gong), Data (custom in-house), Automation (Momentum).

AI 96

AI Revenue Scale ChatGPT 96

ChurnZero

JUNE 26, 2020

Using ambiguous instructions and poor questions. This will help offset the “quantity over quality” sales approach that vendors sometimes push with ancillary features that don’t have a strong use case or value. Implementation – What time constraints is our team working against to launch the product?

Customer Success 98

Customer Success Software Review Software Scale 98

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 12, 2018

As VP of Corporate Strategy at Twitter, Elad Gil was a key player as company headcount skyrocketed from 90 to 1,500 employees. This wasn’t Elad’s first experience with hyper growth – Google grew headcount 10x during his time as a product manager there – nor the last. The second is employees.

Sales Hiring 120

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors 120

Chart Mogul

JULY 15, 2021

As teams grow, it gets harder to rally around key goals. 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. As you grow, complexity will increase and new departments, teams, initiatives will require focus on new goals.

Underperforming Technical Team 52

Underperforming Technical Team Revenue Scale Communication 52