The Science of Scaling

Q&A | How Do You Solve for a Siloed Marketing and Sales? Aug 29, 2024

Are marketers just doing a bunch of arts & crafts? Are salespeople spoiled brats? I don't want to offend anyone, but I think most folks would chuckle at this: Sales and marketing leaders don't naturally get along.

So what's the solve for a siloed marketing and sales?

Let's talk through some key steps towards holding everyone accountable to meeting our revenue goals:

Team communication responsibilities
Identify how much pipeline and revenue comes from Marketing
Defining a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
Sales has tof ollow up quickly with a high degree of personalization
Establish an Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Grab the 3 Steps to a Perfect Pitch guide here https://clickhubspot.com/pitch

Q&A | What Is Mark Reading, Watching, and Listening To? Aug 22, 2024

You wanted to know about me?! I'm flattered, humbled, and happy to share what's been inspiring me lately.

Everything from my favorite comedians to my thoughts on the Innovator's Dilemma.

I want to know what you're wondering about! Submit your question at podcasts@hubspot.com, dropping a note on LinkedIn, or leaving a comment on Spotify.

Grab the 3 Steps to a Perfect Pitch guide here https://clickhubspot.com/pitch

Q&A | How Can Sales Culture Be Influenced From the Top Down? Aug 15, 2024

Today's listener Q&A is all about scaling your culture. We want to move GTM and sales away from an uncontrollable art form to a data-driven, predictable process. And that starts at the top.

Our questions is -- "How can sales culture be influenced from the top down?"

Here's what you can expect:

"Scalable Visibility" through inspecting every aspect of your GTM
Effective coaching strategies for your sales team
Hiring high-quality, best fit candidates through training and certification
How to create a predictable process by identifying leading indicators

I want to know what you're wondering about! Submit your question at podcasts@hubspot.com, dropping a note on LinkedIn, or leaving a comment on Spotify.

Grab the 3 Steps to a Perfect Pitch guide here https://clickhubspot.com/pitch

Q&A | How Do You Decide Whether CS or Sales Owns Revenue from Customers? Aug 08, 2024

Today we have another mailbag question, and let me tell you: I love these.

Today's question is one that's come up a lot lately for the portfolio over at Stage 2 Capital -- "How do you decide whether CS or Sales owns revenue from customers?"

Here's what you can expect:

Pros & cons in specializing roles between hunters and farmers
A framework for decision making based on LTV captured in the first sale
Designing the most motivating compensation plan
The concept of Leading Indicator of Retention
Why you need to collaborate with your CFO

So, keep the questions coming. You can drop it to me on LinkedIn. If you're on Spotify, there's a common section.

You can drop it there. You can email us at podcasts@hubspot.com and maybe your question will tackle next.

Grab the 3 Steps to a Perfect Pitch guide here https://clickhubspot.com/pitch

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

How to Build a Billion Dollar Outbound Sales Team w/ Carrie Bosworth (SVP Sales, Checkr) Aug 01, 2024

Is the startup you're about to join gonna become a unicorn? That's the billion dollar question. It's so hard to tell.

But one of the leading indicators of that that's rarely talked about is whether they're scaling to massive revenue through only inbound leads. It's so hard to find those companies. And if you do latch on.

That's what happened with Carrie Bosworth, who a few years ago joined Checkr as the SVP of Sales.

They scaled to huge revenue numbers through inbound only, but they knew it was gonna dry up. In order to keep that pace, they brought in Carrie to diversify inbound with outbound selling.

She's been there for two years and in her own words: It's not so simple.

Grab the 3 Steps to a Perfect Pitch guide here https://clickhubspot.com/pitch

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

Becoming a Unicorn Doesn't Happen By Chance w/ Dini Mehta (fmr CRO, Lattice) Jul 25, 2024

You're looking for your next job. The last one didn't go so well. You gotta get this one right, and you found one. But how do you know if it's good and how do you know you can help?

That's an important riddle.

And today we bring in my friend Dini Mehta , the founding CRO of Lattice.

She saw that this company wasn't exactly growing in its infancy, but she came across Jack Altman, Sam Altman's (OpenAI) brother, who's one of the most brilliant founders she met.

So she had to assess Lattice to figure out if she could grow it, and then execute a playbook so that years later it's become a $3 billion company. Here's how she did it.

Expanding to Multi-Product Selling w/ Ryan Meadows (SVP Global Sales, Klaviyo) Jul 18, 2024

Expanding from selling a single product to multiple products. It's almost a required journey for getting to unicorn status. And yet that journey often leads to failure.

Most companies think, "Mobilize the organization, train the sales team, build the product, get the customer support folks trained, change the website." Only, that's the approach that leads to failure.

So today we bring in Ryan Meadows, head of Global Sales at Klaviyo, to walk us through how his company has scaled to multi-product selling. And in the process, hit unicorn status.

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

The Secret to Toast's Coaching Culture w/ Jonathan Vassil (CRO, Toast) Jul 11, 2024

If a sales rep receives more than three hours of coaching a month, they beat their quota by 7% on average. If they receive less than two hours of coaching a month, they miss by 10%. (Corporate Executive Board)

Building a world class coaching culture is one of the most important ways to scale your sales and revenue. And that's what Jonathan Vassil (CRO, Toast) has done.

Jonathan talks bout:

Importance and influence of a sales coaching culture
Creating performance management systems
Prioritizing work ethic over industry experience in hiring
Scorecards and iterative review processes

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

There Is No Post-Sales in SaaS w/ Sangeeta Chakraborty (CRO, Miro) Jul 04, 2024

Have you ever reflected on the term post sale? Why do we call that post sale? When did we stop selling? And what have we started to do? Create customer value. Renew and expand.

I've never thought about it until today's episode with Sangeeta Chakraborty (CRO, Miro) — a recent Silicon Valley darling. And what's really cool and unique about her is she grew up in customer success.

Customer success didn't even exist 20 years ago. And now we have this new generation of CROs that grew up from that perspective.

Evolution of Customer Success in Sales Leadership
Importance of Company Value System in Hiring Sales Leaders
Alignment of Enterprise and PLG Offerings in Sales Transition
Differentiation in Sales Approach for PLG and SLG

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

How to Use Gong Like The Team Who Developed It w/ Ryan Longfield (fmr CRO, Gong) Jun 27, 2024

You're the sales leader of a unicorn. Selling the tool that every sales leader tries to optimize around. So the question is: How do you and your team use it?

We're learning from Ryan Longfield (fmr. CRO, Gong) about how to run your sales org like a billion dollar company using the same software we're all using. Because it turns out, almost all of us are not unlocking its real potential

You'll also hear from Ryan about:

How to chart your career path based on priority and life stage
Why content marketing is your best differentiator early on
What to look for in choosing the next company leader you work with

Grab HubSpot's free AI-Powered Customer Platform and watch your business grow https://clickhubspot.com/tsc

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

How to Build an Advisory Board w/ Jen Grant (COO, Cube) Jun 20, 2024

You're a first time founder, CEO, or sales leader. You've crushed the Seed stage of your business, and got the $10 million Series A check. Now you're at your board meeting. The multi-decade venture capitalist is feeding you with advice and counsel. And you take it.

The problem is: They're wrong sometimes. But how do you know — you've never been in this seat before?

As an independent board member, Jen Grant (COO, Cube) has seen every angle of this equation and she's here to help us decipher it.

The role of an independent board member
How to build an advisory board
Evaluating advice from VCs
Navigating the pace of growth

Grab HubSpot's free AI-Powered Customer Platform and watch your business grow https://clickhubspot.com/tsc

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

Listener Q&A | What Future Revenue Space Challenges Can You Predict Today? Jun 13, 2024

You spoke and we listened. We cover a lot of the science of scaling in our episodes, but we know there's plenty of questions you still have. So we'll be answering listener questions periodically on the show.

Send your question to Mark on LinkedIn, at our email address podcasts@hubspot.com, or on Spotify's Q&A prompt on your phone.

Today, Mark predicts the future of AI in the revenue space and how leaders need to think today in order to find success in the years to come. It won't be easy, but the winners ten years from now are the ones creating the right moats today.

Grab HubSpot's free AI-Powered Customer Platform and watch your business grow https://clickhubspot.com/tsc

Moving From Big Company to Startup Sales Roles w/ Jeff Perry (CRO, Carta) Jun 06, 2024

We're in the Q2 board meeting, and we have a huge decision ahead: Who is our next sales leader? We're sifting through the candidates and one person says, ah, they're two big company. What does that mean to big company?

Jeff Perry (CRO, Carta) knew he had to check his ego at the door if he was going to find success coming from a sales org like Oracle to lead a then 50 person team at Carta.

Here's what it takes:

Sales ops as a trusted internal partner for sales leaders
Segmentation for optimal org design
A mix of inbound and prospecting
Enabling expert frontline salespeople & checking your own ego

Stay ahead of the sales trends and exceed your 2024 sales targets with this: https://clickhubspot.com/qin

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

The Power of Community Led Growth to Drive Demand w/ Paul St. John (Ex-GitHub) May 30, 2024

Probably the most common and important early stage go-to-market question I get from founders and first sales leaders is this: What are creative new ways to create demand for my sales team?

It's a forever question, and it's so hard. Usually it's about understanding what's coming next. Best practices that haven't been exploited yet.

I have a hypothesis — it's community-led growth, CLG.

My friend Paul St. John, the first sales leader at GitHub, arguably the pioneer on CLG, joins me to demystify how he built a revenue machine and all the unique attributes of doing that on top of a very successful CLG company.

Free Resource:

[Free Report] Learn from 1,000+ startup founders on how AI is scaling their sales strategy https://clickhubspot.com/ias

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

It’s Time to Ditch Your Commission Plan w/ Nick Dellis (VP of Revenue, Mercury) May 23, 2024

I'm rewriting some of my Science of Scaling framework after this conversation. It knocked me off my chair, if we're being honest here.

It's about the commission plan.

When I asked Nick Dellis (VP of Revenue, Mercury) about his team's commission plan, he said, "We don't have one."

And Nick makes a strong case for why it might be high time for your company to ditch its commission plan too.

Resource:

[Free Download] Learn how sales teams are using AI and automation with our 2024 Report https://clickhubspot.com/sai

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

How to Perfect Land and Expand w/ Kyle Duffy (VC, Gradient Ventures) May 16, 2024

Today we're doing something a little different. We've heard from sales leaders, but what about the other side of the scaling equation: Venture Capital.

Kyle Duffy joins us from Gradient Ventures, part of Google parent Alphabet, specializing in early stage investing in AI and machine learning. Exciting stuff, to say the least.

Kyle unpacks early stages of go-to-market development — what are the biggest opportunities he sees, and what are the ones early stage founders fail to exploit?

[Free Download] Discover how sales leaders leverage AI to optimize their GTM strategy to drive better results https://clickhubspot.com/gtm

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

How to Navigate Sales Cycles w/ Ang McManamon (VP of Sales, Crunchbase) May 09, 2024

We've gone from arguably the biggest bull market in the history of tech in 2020-2021 to arguably tech's biggest down cycles in 2022-2023.

It's not the first time, and it won't be the last.

What does that mean for a sales leader? What does that mean for the pressures you're getting from your CEO, from the leadership team, from the board? How do you manage expectations, culture, product pivots, and value prop with your customer?

Take a breath. Exhale. Ang McManamon (Vp of Sales, Crunchbase) gets candid about navigating tricky sales cycles — so you'll be best equipped for the inevitable next one.

Use this to start closing more deals https://clickhubspot.com/atg

The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

How to Diligence Marketing and Sales Leadership Roles w/ Sydney Sloan & Adam Aarons (CMO & CRO, Drata) Nov 01, 2023

Sales leaders often diligence the CEO, but they quickly realize they should've done the same for the CMO. Same for the other way around. It's a topic not even Mark has yet to fully codify.

Host Mark Roberge is joined by Sydney Sloan (CMO, Drata) and Adam Aarons (CRO, Drata) to discuss how the two navigated their way into a unicorn-worthy partnership. They'll talk about:

The importance of marketing and sales alignment
How to evaluate potential team members when joining a company
Back channelling for honest feedback
Why go-to-market alignment is so important for team dynamics