The GTMnow Podcast

GTM 68: Klaviyo’s Blueprint for Sales Success of $25M to $450M+ Growth with Sean Marshall


Listen Later

During Sean's most recent operating role he spent 4.5 years as SVP, Global Sales at Klaviyo. He helped scale the sales organization from 15 to 300 people, while growing annual recurring revenue from $25m to over $450m.  Prior to Klaviyo, Sean served in enterprise sales roles at Localytics, Yammer (acquired by Microsoft for $1.2B) and SuccessFactors (IPO & acquisition by SAP for $3.4B). He was one of the first few reps hired at Yammer to sell into the Fortune 500, responsible for closing some of their largest, 7-figure contracts. In 2022 Sean made the switch from operator to investor, currently serving as Managing Partner at Perkins Cove Partners. Over the last few years he has advised and invested in many B2B SaaS companies, particularly focused on helping with Go-To-Market.

What You Will Learn:

  • The importance of leveraging your connections.
  • Strategically pulling in every sales team within your org to orchestrate deals.
  • How to hire the best AE’s for your company.
  • How to be an effective storyteller.
  • Optimizing different parts of your funnel in order to extract incremental dollars.

Highlights:
(2:57) Sean Marshall’s success attributor.

(5:35) Moving up to enterprise from a PLG focused company.

(9:36) Starting sales conversations - effectively positioning enterprise reps.

(14:10) Knowing when you’re ready to go upmarket.

(19:28) The makeup of enterprise pods that were set up at Klaviyo.

(22:05) Why CSM’s should be apart of the early deal cycles and not just post sales.

(23:45) A pivotal story that led Sean into Sales.

(29:39) How to evaluate an AE effectively in an interview.

(34:09) What it means to be a strong story teller.

(39:00) How to create a more efficient sales engine.

(47:35) Always offer your customers optionality.

(50:18) The importance of leveraging your referrals in a sales cycle.

Guest Speaker Links:
Sean’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanmarshall82/
Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeanMarshall1

Host Speaker Links:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/

Referenced Resource:
An article by Andy Raskin: The Greatest Sales Deck I've Ever Seen

The GTMnow Podcast
The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.

Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The GTMnow PodcastBy GTMnow

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

147 ratings


More shows like The GTMnow Podcast

View all
This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

This Week in Startups

1,283 Listeners

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

529 Listeners

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

172 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,083 Listeners

The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship by Omer Khan

The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship

184 Listeners

Founders by David Senra

Founders

2,082 Listeners

Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

Masters of Scale

3,983 Listeners

Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

232 Listeners

Grit by Kleiner Perkins

Grit

192 Listeners

30 Minutes to President's Club | No-Nonsense Sales by Armand Farrokh & Nick Cegelski

30 Minutes to President's Club | No-Nonsense Sales

391 Listeners

The Startup Ideas Podcast by Greg Isenberg

The Startup Ideas Podcast

203 Listeners

Marketing Against The Grain by Hubspot Media

Marketing Against The Grain

354 Listeners

The Next Wave - AI and The Future of Technology by Hubspot Media

The Next Wave - AI and The Future of Technology

59 Listeners

Revenue Builders by Force Management

Revenue Builders

155 Listeners

Uncapped with Jack Altman by Alt Capital

Uncapped with Jack Altman

40 Listeners