This week I had the huge pleasure of chatting with one of my subscribers, Kit Wetzler, VP of Sales at data observability platform Bigeye about what he’s learned from being the first sales leader at a number of startups selling to technical buyers.

Kit is an absolute gold mine of insight and advice for early stage sales leaders. From how to figure out if a founder is a good fit to work for, to what needs to change when taking over from a founder-led sales motion, to defining sales processes that keep deals moving forward, to using mutual action plans to get through complex POCs, to hiring the right profile of account executive, to coming up with a plan that’s achievable, to partnering with product to sell and deliver on the future roadmap, and much, much more.

Its a must-listen for anyone looking to jump into a sales leadership role at an early stage startup, as well as a handy refresher for anyone who is currently in the role. I personally learned a lot from speaking with Kit!

Give it a listen and let me know what you think! And if you haven’t done so already, please consider subscribing.

Podcast Contents

0:25 — Tell us about Bigeye and the problem you’re solving

1:00 — You came up through big companies like Citrix and Amazon. How did you transition into early stage sales leadership?

1:55 — What lessons have you learned from taking over from the founder as head of sales?

3:30 — Which processes do you build first?

7:15 — How do you structure a proof-of-concept (POC)?

9:05 — How do you stop POCs from going sideways?

12:10 — How do you keep stakeholders engaged during a POC?

13:35 — How do you prospect technical buyers at an early stage company?

18:20 — What does the initial team typically look like and how do you grow it?

21:35 — What should founders look for in their first sales leader?

24:15 — What are the biggest things first sales leaders get wrong?

26:00 — How do you figure out if a founder is a good fit for you?

28:10 — What advice would you give on coming up with a plan that’s achieveable?

Additional reading

How to build your first sales playbook

How to empower your product team to unlock revenue growth

The 4 reasons heads of sales fail (and what to do about them)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therevenuearchitect.com/subscribe

This week I had the immense pleasure of chatting with one of my subscribers, Justin Schweisberger, CRO of contract management platform Pramata about how he’s built their go-to-market motion.

Justin is big on using process and data to inform his decisions, which has helped him execute a shift from doing complex outbound sales across multiple stakeholders to simpler inbound sales with a consolidated buyer in legal ops.

He also took a non-traditional route to being a CRO, coming up from law school via consulting and product, a journey that has heavily influenced how he approaches his role. From how he created a webinar that broke Zoom, to how he qualifies buyers, to how he deals with investor pressure, to how he handles buyer objections: there’s so much gold in this podcast I’ve personally learned a ton!

Please give it a listen and let me know if you’d like to hear more real world stories like this. And if you haven’t done so already, please consider subscribing!

Podcast contents:

* 0:15 — Can you give us a primer on Pramata and the problem you are solving

* 1:10 — You took a very non-traditional career path to becoming a CRO. Can you tell us about your journey?

* 3:20 — How has your experience shaped how you solve problems as a CRO?

* 6:00 — How did you figure out who your ideal customer profile is?

* 8:25 — Legaltech is a fairly new category in SaaS. How ready are they to buy?

* 12:15 — How do you qualify where buyers are in their journey?

* 14:50 — What strategies are working for you in generating leads?

* 17:10 — How do you handle leads that aren’t ready to buy?

* 18:30 — Dealing with investor pressures.

* 19:30 — What objections do you run into and how do you overcome them?

* 23:30 — How has your GTM team grown over the years?

* 26:00 — How going downmarket and simplifying the product actually led to more enterprise deals

Helpful resources:

* How to adapt your sales process for inbound vs outbound

* What to look for in a CRO

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therevenuearchitect.com/subscribe

This week I had the pleasure of chatting with one of my subscribers, Abeed Mohamed of Birdie, about how he built their go-to-market motion over the last 5 years.

From day one in a startup incubator sending cold emails to prospects to the present day as Chief Commercial Officer of a 100+ person company with $50M in venture funding, Abeed’s journey is a case study in doing founder-led sales, packed with lessons that any early stage sales leader will find incredibly useful.

Contents:
0:30 — How did you get the idea for Birdie?
4:30 — How did you find your first customers?
6:20 — What kind of objections did you run into in the early days?
10:00 — How long did it take you to figure out your ideal customer profile and value prop?
12:10 — Looking back, what are some things you got right along the way?
15:20 — How did you generate leads?
21:00 — How has your team grown along the way?

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therevenuearchitect.com/subscribe