This document outlines the scaling journey of a SaaS company from $1M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) to a goal of $100M ARR. It discusses strategies for different revenue stages including hiring sales operations, removing founders from pricing, defining sales funnels, specializing roles, implementing CRM, focusing on high-value segments, and establishing sales enablement processes. The final stages focus on improving sales cycles, stages of the funnel each quarter, and building a leadership team to scale the sales organization significantly beyond $75M ARR.
Am I able to frame this as : artisan, industrial, automation
Blogpost – linked’in : actionables and more details
Are they sharing the slides or talks/video
1st Lesson Founder Lesson : there is world after start-up death….
Job from Uber Pool
Serendipity - had not run sales before, 3 AEs, first non Indian hire
Founder
app - ToysRus - Platform
There is life after shutdown
Hard period -> Better after
Serendipity : Uber Pool [PHOTO]
Self service : < $5K ACV
You are already doing everything we will talk about : qualification, discovery, demo, technical validation, negotiation, implementation ) (Krish used to flag leads coming in), this is a journey of specialization
Everything changes, every 6-9 months. Don’t get comfortable.
Keep it simple
CRM simplicity and spring cleaning
Go for 80%
No points for creativity, only for dollars
One of the best documented functions
Nothing you break can’t be fixed : don’t let fear of making a mistake keep you from acting
$1M you have product market fit, need to navigate the turn from product, customer discovery company; to a sales, customer driven organization.
What you think you need a VP of Sales
What you really need.
3 Monte Carlo Rallies 60s
Nimble, easily repaired, agile, resistant, does not require too much TLC
When I was hired, I was the first non Indian; I guess that’s the first time a 30 year old white man is the face of diversity.
Glorified support, transactional model
3 years later : 75 people across 4 continents
Consultative
Generalist to specialist
From checkout clerks, we have become doctors
Good news is you’re doing it all already
Do things that don’t scale; remember ch-ch0changes
Hire Ops - someone who has seen $10M’ish probably not $50M
3 things Sales Ops : reports, tools, and process
Negotiate away the value
Dart board – walked in and said “we’ll hit $1m by the end of the the quarter, $5M in 5 quarters”
“How?”
“Belief.”
Planning gets better over time
Multiple people working on tasks in parallel
You know about how long it takes to make an oak desk, but they all look a little different
Log basic data; things will change; KISS; not everything, what really matters : feature requests, why you lose, where they are located and what industry they are in
Transactional to sales driven, = complex product like chargebee, need product specialists and sales specialists.
Hire Ops - someone who has seen $10M’ish probably not $50M
Actionables + Bonus / Tweet
3 things Sales Ops : reports, tools, and process
Specialization, still some spreadsheets
Can start making forecasts, though they may not be reliable.
Buyers buy differently
Simple for scale – your team needs to understand what piece each stage requires
Onboarding team
130% Capacity to Plan, 3-4x Pipeline to Quota
Don’t forget ramp time.
training
on-boarding
leadership
territory
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https://media.giphy.com/media/eexxV3Q2N485XZO0VS/giphy.gi
Automation : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iV_hB08Uns
Though a process can be industrialized, sales is art more than science, the output remains human.
How you sell is just as important as what you sell.
Because as my nephew reminds us, ultimately we are selling things…