SaaStr 177: Why Career Paths Are For B Players in Sales, How To "Rig The Recruiters" To Ensure The Best Talent Pipeline & Successfully Moving From Transactional To Enterprise with Bill Binch, CRO @ Pendo.io
Bill Binch is a leader and expert in the SaaS sales industry, currently CRO @ Pendo.io, the startup that helps you understand and guide your users, creating a product experience they can't live without. They have raised over $58m in VC funding from some of the best in their space with the likes of Battery Ventures, Spark Capital and Salesforce Ventures, all backing them. As for Bill, prior to Pendo, Bill was the Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Marketo for 8 years. He joined when it was a small venture-backed startup with a mission to reinvent marketing automation. It was his sales leadership and expertise that formed a critical component in building Marketo into one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies in the world, recognized through his being awarded worldwide VP of sales in 2011.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
How Bill made his way into the world of SaaS and came to be employee #18 at Marketo before making the transition to today, as CRO @ Pendo?
Bill has said before that career paths are for B players. First, what is wrong with the current thinking around career paths? Why does that inherently mean that A players do not align with them? How can one determine when is the right time to step away from the career paths? What characteristics and attributes do those truly special opportunities have?
Bill has successfully made the transition from transactional business to enterprise business many times, what have been his core learnings on what it takes to make this transition successfully? What are the biggest challenges in making the transition? How does the internal structure of the team change when making this transition?
What does Bill mean when he says you have to "rig the recruiters"? What incentives can be placed in front of them that ensure you will be a priority for them? On the flip side, what incentives do you have to give the recently on boarded employees to encourage grassroots, word of mouth on the company brand?
How does the company and sales cycle fundamentally change when moving from $0-1m ARR? What does that mean for the company policy on discounting and pilots? How does the company alter when transitioning from $1-10m in ARR? How can sustainable social validity be built in this stage? How does a company successfully move from $15m-100m in ARR?
60 Second SaaStr?
What does Bill know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
What keeps Bill up at night?
What does Bill mean when he says you have to check your ego?
Read the full transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Bill Binch
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SaaStr 026: How To Hire & Motivate The Best Sales Team with Bill Binch, Former SVP of Sales @ Marketo
Bill Binch is a leader and expert in the SaaS sales industry. Bill was the senior vice president of worldwide sales at marketo for 8 years and he joined when it was a small venture backed startup with a mission to reinvent marketing automation, it was his sales leadership and expertise that formed a critical component in building Marketo into one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies in the world. Recognized through his being awarded worldwide VP of sales in 2011.
In today's show with Bill we discuss:
What were Bill's biggest takeaways from his time scaling the sales organisation at Marketo??
Why did Bill find it enticing selling to sales and marketers with Marketo?
How can startups go about approaching the topic of the sales cycle? What does the right cadence look like?
How can sales leaders look to establish a quota that is achievable and confident? Why is it about deal frequency not dollar size?
How can we optimise the hiring process for sales professionals? What are the benefits to over hiring? Is this sustainable in a downturn?
Does Bill agree that customer success will be the new sales, as Nick Mehta stated?
In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:
SaaS tools that Bill could not live without?
Creating your own scorecard?
What does Bill know now that he wished he had known at the beggining
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
Saastr
Bill Binch