SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2024

Former Head of Revenue at BILL and HubSpot Americas leader Michelle Benfer recently joined us on a SaaStr Workshop Wednesday share her insights on one of the most critical roles in any SaaS organization: the frontline sales manager. Driving revenue through acquisition, expansion, and retention. Shaping and maintaining company culture.

Sales Hiring 260

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales 260

SaaStr

OCTOBER 3, 2023

Interviewing? One bit of advice: Please, please, actually research the company you are interviewing at. I asked this CRO how he’d handle the fact that 66% of their revenue came from indirect and channel. The other day I did a similar final, fourth round interview for a VPM. Looking for your next role? Or CRO or CMO?

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Interviewing Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Consulting 273

SaaStr

MARCH 15, 2025

“10 Great Questions to Ask a VP Sales During an Interview.” “How Revenue Multiples Really Fall After Each VC Round.” . “ – This one is a classic because it breaks down the real, tactical changes that can drive exponential growth in sales. “The Era of the SaaS Decacorn is Here.”

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Sales Hiring AI Scale Compensation 256

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2022

Jess Weimer, Senior Vice President of Revenue Marketing at Podium, discusses why it’s time to pivot from demand generation to revenue marketing and best practices for making that pivot. Pillars of Revenue Marketing . Evolving to Revenue Marketing . Organizing your teams for revenue marketing.

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Scale Revenue Scaling Marketing 274

SaaStr

OCTOBER 18, 2024

I bootstrapped ZoomInfo to 25 million in revenue. “You’re hiring a new VP of sales and you’re on your 20th interview. Almost equally to their ability to recruit great people. And then when I brought in private equity, it wasn’t like, ‘Go spend everything you can to grow.’

Sales Recruiting 304

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 304

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2025

What will my revenues look like 120 days after I hire you? (This will ferret out if he/she can play at an early-stage SaaS start-up successfully and if they know how to scale once you scale. So many folks can’t really run a demo or answer tougher or technical questions themselves). Have them explain to you what will happen.

Sales Recruiting 184

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Interviewing 184

SaaStr

MAY 29, 2025

The AI-Native CRO: How Revenue Leaders Must Evolve or Risk Obsolescence 4 Top Learnings for Revenue Leaders 1. Revenue-Generating Time for Reps Can Hit 70-80% With AI. Companies are currently achieving 25-30% increases in revenue-generating activity time through intelligent automation. And where it will be very soon.

Sales Hiring 214

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team AI Scale 214

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2024

Ask the founders this question when you interview them: How supportive has X person been as an investor? 10 Best advice if you’re going from bootstrapping to venture capital to avoid a mistake: First, it all normalizes around 8 to 10 million in revenue. Non-Silicon Valley VCs sometimes like to invest in tranches.

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Venture Capital Software Review Investment Startup 312

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Marqeta Board Member Amy Chang interviews Peters about her extensive experience in revenue and marketing and how to align the two strategies. Marketing and revenue teams should work together to keep the leads moving toward conversion. . But aligning the strategy is easier said than done. Closing the Deal is Not the Finish Line.

Revenue 265

Revenue Strategy Marketing Interviewing 265

SaaStr

JUNE 8, 2025

Look at metrics like revenue per lead, close rates, and sales cycle length. Ask them tough questions during the interview process—how will they improve revenue per lead? Take some risk here if you have someone great but where it’s a stretch. So often, they step up. Just back them. What’s working? What’s broken?

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 163

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2023

Jameson Yung, SVP of Sales at Gong, and Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund and previous CRO at Brex, share five tactical ways to get back to growing and hitting revenue targets. The days of working a little for big returns are behind us in the Boom of ‘21, so what can you do to start hitting revenue targets? #1: Revenue matters, too.

Sales Hiring 274

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Revenue Sales 274

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

When Graham joined in February of last year, Codeium had approximately 200 customers generating low single-digit millions in revenue, combining self-service and enterprise annual contracts. Without it, longer ramp periods translate directly to lost revenue. Hire “good humans” who are exceptional operators.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 216

SaaStr

JUNE 5, 2025

Get it right, and theyll scale your revenue and team. Test for Realism and Honesty During interviews, ask them, What will our revenue look like in 120 days if you join? Dear SaaStr: What Are A Few Top Tips to Hiring The Right First VP of Sales? Get it wrong, and youll lose a yearor more. This question reveals a lot.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 227

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Now, how many people here have read Predictable Revenue? First, you get product market fit, then you create predictable revenue, and then you scale. For them, their rule of thumb is, if they can get a companies revenue up by a million dollars in ARR, they should expect a $12 million dollar valuation increase, right?

Scale 258

Scale Outsourcing Services Revenue Outsourced Development 258

Predictable Revenue

AUGUST 29, 2024

The post How to Run a Customer Development Interview? appeared first on Predictable Revenue. Customer development can be daunting, especially when unsure what to ask or how to approach potential users without a finished product.

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Interviewing Development Revenue Sales 130

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

Solving High Volume, Low Conversion at Lattice Dini Mehta joined Lattice at $3M in revenue when it had just 10 people in seat for Go-To-Market and 7 salespeople. Joining Box as CRO When They Had a Churn Issue Mark joined Box four years ago at $600M in revenue and 4-5 years past IPO.

Scale 273

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 273

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2021

Sandi Lin, CEO and Co-founder of Skilljar, and Kathy Lord, its CRO, know a thing or two about Chief Revenue Officers. You might never have considered a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) because it’s not been a common role until very recently, and because you might not have the kind of revenue that needs its own manager.

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Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Acquisition 299

SaaStr

DECEMBER 15, 2020

And another 6-12 to get any material revenues. Because you won’t have enough revenue just 12 months in … if you have any. Because it’s just so hard to get recurring revenue engines going. Do 20 customer interviews (more on that here ). But the first 2 years, Tiago had no revenue at all.

Sales Recruiting 363

Sales Recruiting SaaS Interviewing Consulting 363

Predictable Revenue

JUNE 28, 2024

In this episode of the Predictable Revenue Podcast, Collin Stewart interviews Chris Riklin, co-founder and Head of Revenue at Topline. The post GTM vs. Revenue Leadership with Chris Riklin appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Leadership 130

Leadership Revenue Interviewing Development 130

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2024

Revenue per employee has doubled since 2021, leading to budget cuts and the necessity for leaders to achieve more with fewer resources. Understanding the Importance of Revenue Goals Jason expresses concerns about the high costs associated with producing a podcast and questions the return on investment if not done thoughtfully.

Sales Hiring 293

Sales Hiring Outsourcing Services Technical Review Scale 293

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2024

The SDR Interview We’ve determined the profile we want to hire for dedicated outbound folks, so now, let’s look at the interview itself. It’s usually a simple interview with a hiring manager screen first and then an actual interview panel. Find the candidates who are hungry to break into tech sales for those early hires.

Sales Hiring 311

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Outbound Sales Team 311

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2022

VCs funded startups in a day, with limited diligence, sometimes at 100x revenue for the hottest of deals. What we used to do, from ‘05-‘19: Do 30 interviews per position, ideally. Then when everything super boomed in 2H’20 and ‘21 it went kind of like this: Do 3-4 solid interview for a position, not 30. Find 3 good ones.

Sales Hiring 319

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Interviewing Startup 319

SaaStr

JULY 22, 2024

And Not Being Curious Enough Way too many VP of Sales candidates these days try to (1) turn every interview around to interviewing the founders back and (2) talking all about process. I see so many candidates basically run this playbook when interviewing with CEOs and board members: “So, tell me more about the company.”

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Sales Hiring Scale Sales Interviewing 307

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2024

Hiring and Interviewing Tips: Jason emphasizes the importance of interviewing at least 30 candidates for a role and consulting with an expert in the field to interview the final candidate. Valuation and Revenue Classification: Jason advises being transparent about different revenue streams and their margins.

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Sales Hiring Outsourcing Services Scale Interviewing 234

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

200+ dedicated workshops and braindates with the best in SaaS, Cloud and AI, from intimate small sessions to 20-50 person workshops from the best Our CRO + CEO Poker Night where we bring 200 top revenue leaders together with CEOs and founders of B2B / AI companies attending Our 4th annual CMO Summit for top CMOs and the CEOs that want to meet them!

Sales Recruiting 167

Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring 167

SaaStr

DECEMBER 15, 2023

Where Founders Demo Founders SaaStr Demo Day will be a completely immersive, live digital event for Founders and Revenue Leaders to discover new products.

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Scale Interviewing Trends Innovation 300

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2024

As a startup, most people who come to an interview appear happy. You interview 30 people. If it’s a role you’ve never hired, find someone great at it and have them do your final interview. How Do You Categorize Revenue for VCs? How Do You Sift Out the Bitter and Broken Individuals When Hiring? Nothing is easier.

Sales Hiring 281

Sales Hiring Scale Marketing Interviewing 281

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

Tell a sales rep you wished they’d made the interview on time? Even on the revenue side. So I’ve made the decision this year to no longer provide any feedback, with a very few narrow exceptions. They go on blast. Tell a contractor they didn’t actually finish the project? Tell most VPs they need to step it up? They blame you.

Interviewing 288

Interviewing Revenue Sales 288

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2022

On average, you got a 33%+ boost in revenue when you hired your first VP of Sales. Hire a great VP of Sales, and revenue goes up. But most of you are getting from 10%-30%+ of your revenues from partners. Most of you think sales reps you interview need to know your product at least well enough to ask good questions.

Sales Hiring 338

Sales Hiring Pricing Scale Interviewing 338

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

But I hadn’t really thought of them as a proxy for all SaaS companies until I saw the CEO’s interview from a few weeks back. Revenues are down in some categories, and not others, Growth is probably 20% more challenging than in the best of times. The companies they own a majority of are collectively at $24B (!)

Cybersecurity 354

Cybersecurity SMB Interviewing Enterprise 354

SaaStr

MAY 10, 2025

Many companies use the event to meet potential hires and conduct interviews on-site. Log into Mobille App For our AI-Powered “Who Do You Want to Meet” program at SaaStr 2025 is a brand-new, AI-powered networking initiative designed to help founders, investors, and revenue leaders connect with the right people.

AI 182

AI B2B Startup Interviewing 182

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

To solve this, Deel interviewed 200 founders seeking answers to the question, “If you’re open to hiring internationally and remotely, what are your biggest challenges, and what kind of product can we build to solve them? Interview personally and define hiring values to build your team. Use your data to inform.

Sales Hiring 273

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 273

SaaStr

MARCH 28, 2021

Starting without any real, true customer interviews. Early interviews won’t be magic — customers can’t give you perfect feedback on wireframes. Don’t Forget the 20 Interview Rule. This is a subtle one, but once you have enough revenue to pay yourself, make sure you do. Internet research is not enough.

Sales Hiring 293

Sales Hiring Interviewing B2B Product Marketing 293

SaaStr

APRIL 11, 2021

Make sure you can go the first 24 months without any real revenue. It likely will take you 24 months to get any real revenue going in most tech start-ups at least. Once you have an idea you are passionate about — interview 20–30 potential customers. I know this is hard. But it’s supposed to be. How will you fund that?

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Interviewing B2B Revenue SaaS 291

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2020

Because you’ll lose not just some incremental revenue, but potentially far more. All the second-order revenue you could have had (6x the initial lost revenue). We’ve posted a script to use when interviewing a VP Sales. But, you should see real revenue progress in Number of Days = Average Sales Cycle.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Sales Engineering 358

SaaStr

JUNE 5, 2022

But most of you are getting from 10%-30%+ of your revenues from partners. Most of you think sales reps you interview need to know your product at least well enough to ask good questions. You get on average 25%-30% of your revenue from outside North America. So lean in early on partners, platform and biz dev. Do better. #35.

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Sales Hiring Interviewing Revenue Sales 280

SaaStr

JUNE 27, 2020

But if they say in an interview they “don’t really care about money” … well … they aren’t sales people. If they’ve never had a true revenue commit (see below), or owned a number, they are too junior. Doesn’t make a lead / opportunity / pipeline / revenue commit. Your revenue per lead just goes down.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Marketing 363