Top Insights
- Before you reach product-market fit, you should grow your sales team slowly to avoid burning cash
- Only put large amounts of capital into scaling your sales team after you've figured out a scaleable, repeatable process
- Once product-market fit is achieved, a great way to scale your sales org is by creating replicable sales pods
- Sales pods are small teams responsible for the entire sales process, from prospecting to closing, and typically include at least one BDR and one AE
- Sales pods are a unit of production with predictable inputs (cost, headcount) and outputs (revenue)
- It's best to hire account executives in pairs so you can compare their performance
- Outbound sales is key for early-stage startups due to their lack of brand and credibility
- Employees receive so many cold emails nowadays that personalization is crucial to stand out
- Don't over-hire SDRs without enough staff (founders or AEs) to close new opportunities, or you'll give potential customers bad experiences and lose out on revenue
- Successful AEs and BDRs/SDRs are resilient and need to be ready to face 90-97% rejection
https://youtu.be/9IQkNEy3GEU
This episode features two B2B SaaS founders who scaled their startup by using sales teams that contact, nature, and close customers.