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...
May 30, 2024•35 min•Season 2Ep. 4
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://clic...
May 23, 2024•38 min•Season 2Ep. 3
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 Downlo...
May 16, 2024•34 min•Season 2Ep. 2
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 c...
May 09, 2024•37 min•Season 2Ep. 1
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 ...
Nov 01, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Community-led growth involves multiple communities, including core user communities, spheres of influence (like executives or department heads), and the intersection of these communities. And when you run it alongside a PLG motion, it can be truly powerful. Host Mark Roberge is joined by Andrew Ettinger (CRO, Appen) to discuss applying a community-led growth model at your org. In this episode learn more about: The Three C's strategy Empowering developers and technical leads New roles in communit...
Oct 25, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 14
No matter what stage your company is in, you need to build a best in class sales team. And no one knows how to do that better than today's guest. Host Mark Roberge is joined by John McMahon (Board Member, Snowflake & MongoDB) to get super tactical on how to build a billion dollar rev org. They discuss: Plan & scale revenue based on productivity models Why zero attrition is a bad sign How to plan your manager to rep ratio through absorption rates The ratio to promote internal v. hire exte...
Oct 18, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Today we have the architect behind the go-to-market strategy. We're going to laugh, we're going to cry. We're gonna talk about the most important go-to-market strategic moves that made HubSpot what it is today. Host Mark Roberge is joined by Brian Halligan, (Co-Founder, HubSpot) to discuss the roles of a founder and first sales person in taking a company from startup to scale up . In this episode learn more about: Why, for a founder or first seller, it's not about acquiring customers -- it's abo...
Sep 06, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 12
When you found a startup, you’re the first salesperson. Surprise! But eventually, if things go right, you’ll grow the company to a point where you need to shift from founder selling to scaling a global sales team. Host Mark Roberge is joined by Jonathan Anguelov, (Co-Founder, Aircall) to discuss this evolving role of founders. In this episode learn more about: The early sales responsibilities of founders How to apply adaptive learning and experimentation in your outreach Selling on value v. sell...
Aug 30, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 11
How do you set the right sales quota for a rep? What about the quarterly spend on account executives, marketing, or SDRs? Host Mark Roberge is joined by Matt Plank (CRO, Rippling) to discuss how to think through all the different projections on your sales and marketing spends. In this episode learn more about: The evolution of email as a growth channel The importance of demand generation and scaling Finding balance with inbound and outbound Why you should 5x quota on a rep’s OTE (on target earni...
Aug 23, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Hired by Sam Altman. Leading a team of two people. And then your product changes the world. Host Mark Roberge is joined by Aliisa Rosenthal (Head of Sales, OpenAI) to discuss how she leads sales at OpenAI pre and post-AI world. In this episode learn more about: What to do when your company launches the biggest most successful product known to mankind The power of giving your team product knowledge and understanding Her first duty as the sales leader was to un-do sales Building a playbook from th...
Aug 16, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Stop looking at playbooks, and start looking at the learnings. Because success is always about context. And with the right planning, PLG startups can set themselves up the PLG trap – where PLG companies with around 5 billion dollar valuation tend to stall, while others break out to 20 billion dollars or more. Host Mark Roberge is joined by Oliver Jay, (Founding CRO, Asana) to discuss the inappropriate cut and paste of PLG practices. In this episode learn more about: The importance of running exp...
Aug 09, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Once you hit a certain revenue line, going upstream presents an enormous opportunity for your business. Host Mark Roberge is joined by Kevin Egan (Head of Global Enterprise Sales, Atlassian) to discuss the stories behind the legendary companies he’s helped scale with actionable insight. In this episode learn more about: The importance of putting the seller in the shoes of the buyer Difference between a great mid-market salesperson vs. great strategic account executive Account based marketing for...
Aug 02, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Host Mark Roberge is joined by Doug Adamic (CRO at Brex) to discuss how Doug turned Brex into a strategic sales machine, with the power of his sales process playbook. In this episode learn more about: 3 Critical skills for strategic sellers How to navigate the discovery and qualification of an account The secret sauce of sales (that makes you stand out from the crowd) How to grow early career salespeople into high-performing strategic account exec The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Pod...
Jul 26, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 6
If you're an entrepreneur that has experienced ankle biters, congrats! You've made it to the next phase. How do you combat it? Stevie shares her story on how she's mitigated ankle biters at Vanta. Host Mark Roberge is joined by Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta) to discuss how she’s tackled ankle biters and evolved Vanta’s sales motion. In this episode learn more about: How to outsmart your competitors How to put your brand through a moat test Leaning into your competitive advantage Unraveling the “give, ...
Jul 19, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 5
How did an electrical engineer Lecturer at Stanford become the Head of Business & Corporate Development at Descript? And how is he empowering customers to become champions of product at Descript? Host Mark Roberge is joined by Jay LeBoeuf (Head Of Business & Corporate Development, Descript) to discuss how Jay has led his team to grow strong customer advocates and create new opportunities in the go-to-market ecosystem. In this episode learn more about: How to develop champions in your go-...
Jul 12, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Layering a sales organization onto your PLG is critical to your success. It’s a totally different motion from sales-led growth. And yes, you need to align your organizations differently to get it right. Host Mark Roberge is joined by Dino DiMartino (CRO, Snyk) to discuss what product-led growth tactics helped Snyk scale to a billion dollar valued company. In this episode learn more about: When product led growth is applicable to a startup Best practices for adding sales to a PLG company How free...
Jul 05, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3
After a decade spent in marketing, Mike Weir now runs the G2 sales teams. And he has his time spent as a CMO to thank for all his CRO success. Host Mark Roberge is joined by Mike Weir (CRO, G2) to discuss how Mike went from being a marketer to a full-fledged sales leader and what we can all learn from him. In this episode learn more about: The biggest impact on sales and marketing alignment in the go-to-market motion The importance of measuring the efficiency of different channels How to be more...
Jun 28, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 2
OK. You’re moving from founder selling to your first sales hire. Great work. Now, how exactly do you integrate that new hire into your existing organization? Host Mark Roberge is joined by Kyle Parrish (VP of Sales, Figma) to discuss being the first sales hire at Figma. Not only that, but Kyle was also the third sales hire at Dropbox. In this episode learn more about: Building a unique sales culture Leveraging trends to find opportunities to disrupt How to align the engineering/product team with...
Jun 21, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 1
So look, there’s reams of research that show as an ecosystem, we’re not very good at scaling revenue and sales. Each week, host Mark Roberge (Sr. Lecturer at Harvard Business School, Stage 2 Capital, fmr CRO at HubSpot) is talking with the folks who’ve scaled the most successful sales teams in tech to give us the answers. Hear from CROs and sales leaders like Aliisa Rosenthal (OpenAI), Oliver Jay (Asana), Kyle Parrish (Figma), Jay LeBoeuf (Descript), and more. The Science of Scaling is part of t...
Jun 13, 2023•3 min
