SaaStr

JULY 29, 2022

Jason recently opened up an AMA on Twitter Spaces to answer questions about how to scale faster. In some ways they’re a next-generation marketing automation system for restaurants, sort of a, they’re a Toast partner but a Toast Plus. As they scaled, they radically changed how they did sales. Times are good.

Scale 277

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Enterprise 277

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2023

For part one of this Ask Me Anything session, Jason covers everything you need to know about hiring your first VP of Sales, what he really thinks about AI, what the future of lead generation in 2024 looks like, and much more. Q: Should Product Marketing Work for Product or Marketing? Let’s jump right into the questions.

Scale 290

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting AI 290

SaaStr

JULY 15, 2022

Jason recently opened up an AMA on Twitter Spaces to answer questions about scaling from $1M to $10M. We did a good AMA on this scaling at SaaStr Europa in Barcelona, a couple weeks back. That will scale, and then take those emails after four great pieces of content and do a weekly webinar and do a weekly get-together for them.

Scale 298

Scale Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring VP of Engineering 298

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

In this latest episode of CRO Confidential , Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund and former CRO at Brex, sits down with the CRO of Zapier, Giancarlo Lionetti (GC), to chat about Product-Led Growth (PLG) and Go-To-Market (GTM). Everything from hiring on the GTM side to layering in a sales-led motion into PLG. Experimental vs. Scale.

Scale 321

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Marketing 321

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2023

How CAC targets drive GTM strategies: If Your CAC Target Is Low You’ll likely focus on small-to-medium businesses and use tools like inbound sales and low-touch or no-touch self-service. Virality and content marketing will be essential to create traffic and win new customers. The sales cycle at this stage may be very short.

Scale 246

Scale Scaling Strategy Outbound Sales Team 246

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

In 2019, the founding team at Storyblok set out to create a content marketing solution that worked for everyone—developers and marketers alike. Their first step to achieving this was hiring a sales leader to build a sales team. They also hired a VP of Partners who knew how to scale B2B software.

Scale 245

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scaling 245

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What are some of the “ultimate sins” in marketing and sales and success in SaaS in the early stages? My list of some bad ones: Sales: Hiring any reps you wouldn’t buy from. Later, once you have a strong VP of Sales, it’s fine though. Your sales reps need to eat. Get rid of this marketer.

Sales Hiring 289

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Marketing 289

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 21, 2020

How to hire a great VP of Sales (tons on that here ). What a great VP of sales really does. What a great VP of marketing really does (tons on that here ). About recruiting and helping you scale. Sales, Marketing, Product, Engineering, Success, Support. Zero content marketing. All good stuff.

Sales Hiring 357

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Engineering 357

SaaStr

AUGUST 24, 2021

It could be content marketing. They will market for you for free — just slowly. But they are the best marketers of all. In the end, 30%-80% of new leads for most SaaS companies come from word-of-mouth and similar referrals. Be a true subject matter expert in your content marketing. Challenge yourself.

Scale 344

Scale Startup Marketing SaaS 344

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 11, 2019

If you’re a leader, he says, don’t try to scale your job. Since 2010, he’s helped the company grow to more than 40,000 customers and helped scale the support team to more than 500 employees to assist those users. Here are five quick takeaways: Most sales and support teams talk about their jobs as a funnel. Short on time?

Scale 188

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team 188

SaaStr

OCTOBER 10, 2023

That may sound obvious, but what I mean is, most start-ups scale roughly the same way after $1m-$2m in ARR or so, at a given price point. One of the best startups I work with, the CEO had never done sales before. So he hired 10 SDRs before he ever hired an AE or a marketing head. Customers and prospects attend them, after all.

Scale 290

Scale Sales Hiring Growth Hacking Content Marketing 290

SaaStr

MARCH 27, 2025

The first 10 customers are all about doing things that dont scale. Its not about building a perfect sales machine yetits about getting scrappy and finding anyone who will pay you for your product. Even small stuff can get you a lead or two. Writing some incredible, S-tier content. Look — Youve Got To Hustle.

Scale 133

Scale Content Marketing AI Scaling 133

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2024

Dedicated Slack Channel For Every Metric From the early days at Secureframe, they have had a dedicated Slack channel for every metric: every net new sale, every expansion, every churn, and every expense. But the reality is, if you’re scaling from $1M to $20M in ARR, you’re going to need to become best friends with your executive recruiters.”

Sales Recruiting 304

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Engineering 304

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

Everyone has awoken to how important Content Marketing is in SaaS and almost anywhere in building an audience, awareness, and leads. Content Marketing is one of the top 5 initiatives of almost any growth marketer or demand gen leader now. And SEO really scales. What did I learn?

Scale 296

Scale Content Marketing Consulting Scaling 296

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 20, 2018

Sujan has seen first-hand just how powerful chatbots can be – greater efficiency, accelerated sales cycles and better customer experiences. As the co-founder of WebProfits , he’s led marketing strategy for the likes of Intuit, LinkedIn and Salesforce. Sujan’s no stranger to finding the cutting edge in growth. Short on time?

Scale 151

Scale Scaling Technical Review Systems Review 151

SaaStr

AUGUST 16, 2022

But even there, to truly scale, they went more enterprise and built out a full enterprise sales and marketing function. What works to get you leads? The magic is in getting them together, and inviting a bunch of prospects. And invite all your prospects and your customers. At least for a while. More here. #2.

Scale 332

Scale Sales Hiring Marketing SaaS 332

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2020

The lead commit goes up each quarter and every year. To want a head of sales operations and a director of sales to help carry the load not later … but on Day 1. To want a head of sales operations and a director of sales to help carry the load not later … but on Day 1. as you race past $10m+ in ARR.

Sales Hiring 304

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting SaaS 304

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

In this Ask Me Anything Part 1, Lemkin answers the questions: Many VCs talk about funding, yet you’re so focused on sales. How do you build high-quality content that’s consistent and repeatable? Question #1: Why Are You So Focused On Sales When Other VCs Are Focused On Funding? That VP of Sales came out of Salesforce.

Outsourcing Services 291

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting 291

Teamgate

JULY 1, 2020

You have amazing content and all looked fine except the sales. The sales suck and it’s not promising. They have good content and good traffic but no conversion and sales. There’s no secret in content marketing, what you are missing is a content marketing funnel.

Content Marketing 124

Content Marketing Scale Underperforming Technical Team Marketing 124

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2021

Yes, you can manage the sales team yourself. You can do the drip marketing campaigns if you have to. Cash was tight and I didn’t know any great VPs of Biz Dev, so between myself and my VPs of Sales, Product and Customer Success, we all jointly managed our key partners. Get on jets and go meet them. A lot more.

Part-Time VPE 299

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 299

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 1, 2023

Sales development, content marketing, & software engineering strike me as the workstreams that will benefit immediately. Content marketing 30% 5% 1.5% AI’s contribution to engineering productivity is 5x+ greater than other teams because of the scale of the gain & the company’s team composition.

AI 315

AI Startup Scale Headcount 315

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Just when it sarts to get good, again and again, I see the same thing: the number of leads each month stalls out. Many SaaS companies hit an “organic lead plateau” at several phases: When you get Really Big, at some point, every company in the world is Already An Opportunity. Box, Salesforce, etc. It’s consistent.

Scale 229

Scale Sales Hiring Branding Revenue 229

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2021

Because SaaS requires so many functions beyond engineering, especially if it’s sales-driven … outbound, SDRs, inbound, field sales, marketing, customer success, support, more complex product management, etc. What will it look like, if it’s a sales-driven model? Talkdesk inside sales team at $10m ARR.

Sales Hiring 350

Sales Hiring Headcount Scale Engineering 350

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

Developing a sales strategy is one of the core activities every business will have to undertake. You can delay it until you’ve acquired your first 100 or 1,000 customers, but at some point you’ll need to find sustainable traction in the market. A well defined sales strategy is your path to meaningful, sustainable growth.

Scale 177

Scale Strategy Sales Underperforming Technical Team 177

SaaStr

JANUARY 7, 2021

Whether it was our interview with Podium’s Eric Rea on how he scaled with a team outside the Bay Area before it was really considered an option, or TripAction’s Megan Eisenberg on how to prioritize trade-offs in marketing without sacrificing pipeline, we’ve covered the gambit of relevant topics throughout the year. .

Scale 298

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling B2B 298

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

Today, we’re going to show you how to use technology to set up a process for personalization at scale. The Demand for Personalization in Sales. While cold outreach has long been a crucial component of the sales cycle, the best teams know that cold doesn’t have to mean frozen, stiff, and impersonal. Getting to Know Your Audience.

Scale 115

Scale Technology Scaling Sales 115

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2024

Lemkin expresses concern about the changing work ethic and loyalty of sales and marketing professionals, observing a trend of multiple job-holding and lack of commitment. Revenue per employee has doubled since 2021, leading to budget cuts and the necessity for leaders to achieve more with fewer resources.

Sales Hiring 298

Sales Hiring Outsourcing Services Technical Review Scale 298

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

Content Marketing and SEO. This takes a while and there is some snake oil here, but done right, content marketing works. Write a few pieces of iconic content, that really help your customers, and they will find you. And yes, it’s hard to make it scale unless you really know what you are doing.

Marketing 317

Marketing Scale Content Marketing Consulting 317

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

To be a true VP of Sales, you have to have hired at least a handful of reps that hit quota. Imagine that Director of VP of Marketing gets you just 2 more customers at $30k each. She’ll have more than paid for her salary difference right there, over than junior content marketer that can’t own anything.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale SaaS Enterprise 363

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

You’ll figure out how to do initial content marketing. It doesn’t matter how good an individual contributor, how good of a hacker, how good of a small team lead you are/were. That’s not enough to scale. But if you can’t recruit those leaders under you, really great ones … you can’t scale. Recruiting is hard.

Scale 299

Scale Interviewing Engineering Content Marketing 299

Neil Patel

AUGUST 4, 2020

So, to help you with your content marketing efforts, I’ve created a free 4-week training course called Content Marketing Unlocked. Introducing Content Marketing Unlocked. As I mentioned, over the next 4 weeks I am going to teach you all about content marketing. Lesson #1: Getting Started.

Content Marketing 145

Content Marketing Marketing Social Media Scale 145

User Pilot

JANUARY 17, 2024

Scaling SaaS is not for the faint of heart. If you do not scale, you will be unable to reach a new pool of customers and your competitors will leave you in the dust. If you scale prematurely, you may struggle to satisfy customer expectations. Provide the necessary training for your sales teams.

Scale 105

Scale Scaling SaaS Underperforming Technical Team 105

SaaStr

JULY 4, 2019

E.g., “How to deploy a hybrid cloud app with Google Cloud” How to do content marketing better. For the last 2 years we’ve done a good job of ensuring high and constant traffic to the Expo (our average attendee gets over 1,000 leads), but we always want to do better. Put on a Marketing Automation party.

Scale 249

Scale Cloud Scaling Content Marketing 249

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

As your sales organization grows, your tech stack almost always does too. But figuring out which sales tools you should buy and invest in – let alone what each tool even does – can be a daunting task. This is especially true when you consider the seemingly endless list of sales tools to choose from. Better tools, not more tools.

Scale 192

Scale Sales Hiring Sales AI Search 192

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 29, 2021

Just ask any content marketer – they would rather have the resources and the time to focus on both, because to build a strong marketing brand, you need an approach that covers both the awareness and the acquisition. Ideally, this wouldn’t be a conflict. Here are some of our favorite takeaways from the conversation: 1.

Content Marketing 118

Content Marketing Innovation Scale Marketing 118

SaaStr

OCTOBER 22, 2021

The reason is while I believe for a Given ACV, everyone sort of scales the same way after Initial Traction … we all find different ways to get to Initial Traction. Others are content marketing geniuses and build a mini-brand abnormally early. Others are content marketing geniuses and build a mini-brand abnormally early.

Scale 299

Scale B2C SaaS Scaling 299

SaaStr

AUGUST 29, 2022

VC State of the Market with SaaStr’s CEO and Cowboy Ventures : Hear from SaaS VC legend, Aileen Lee , and SaaStr’s CEO Jason Lemkin on the current state of VC and what you need to know for 2023 and beyond. Scaling Revenue in 2022: What’s the Same and What’s Different? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Scale 290

Scale Sales Hiring Marketplace as a Service B2B 290