The Science of Scaling

Companies with a very tightly defined ICP that is operationalized on the frontline spend 50% less on sales and marketing. They have CAC payback periods that are 24% shorter than the mean, and those ICP customers have a 425% higher expansion rate in the first 12 months compared to those that are not. Today Dan Sperring (Founder, AlignICP) explores how product success is often determined by specific use cases rather than customer demographics, and challenges the common startup approach of targeting broad markets too early. Get our Database! Real Playbooks from Billion-Dollar Companies: https://clickhubspot.com/scienceofscaling The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Media podcast // ⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn more about HubSpot for Startups⁠⁠⁠⁠ // Produced by Matthew Brown

The amount of personalization is off the charts. The amount of time and money you're willing to invest is enormous. Because it's a million dollar deal. I'll walk you through how to navigate complex Decision Making Units, adapt your entire sales playbook for enterprise deals, and implement advanced qualification frameworks that go way beyond the basics. I'll also reveal what the best enterprise sellers consistently tell me is their number one reason for winning deals. Whether you're trying to move upmarket or sharpen your enterprise sales approach, these frameworks will help you transform your business. Happy scaling, everyone! The Science of Scaling YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ScienceofScaling Grab our guide to transform your sales approach: https://clickhubspot.com/zrjp

We all know Zoom. The company that helped society get through the global pandemic. But before they even had a dollar in revenue, Greg Holmes was the first sales hire and built the team. When Greg left the company, Zoom was valued at $140 billion. He credits his ability to build the foundational team in finding go-to-market fit as a key ingredient to that success. The team to accelerated finding how to build the methodology to support go-to-market fit. Get our Database! Real Playbooks from Billion-Dollar Companies: https://clickhubspot.com/scienceofscaling

There's a connection few founders make — customer interview best practices & deciding what product to build are almost exactly the same as building your sales playbook. Those best practices should influence your zero to one minimal viable product design. And during that stage, not only are you figuring out your MVP, you're actually building your sales process. There are so many companies where you look back at the foundational times, and they followed this process. Today we will unpack one of 'em with Mike Gamson from a little company you've all heard of, called LinkedIn. Get our Database! Real Playbooks from Billion-Dollar Companies: https://clickhubspot.com/scienceofscaling The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network in collaboration with HubSpot For Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown.

New season coming soon! Until then, enjoy this tactical conversation I had with Donald Kelly (Founder & Host, The Sales Evangelist). We pack more knowledge inside 25 minutes than most sales leaders get in a month -- including performance diagnostics, addressing stakeholder interests, pricing models, and attuning sales rep mindsets. We always love to hear from you so reach out to us at podcasts@hubspot.com or send me a note on LinkedIn.

Are marketers just doing a bunch of arts & crafts? Are salespeople spoiled brats? I don't want to offend anyone, but I think most folks would chuckle at this: Sales and marketing leaders don't naturally get along. So what's the solve for a siloed marketing and sales? Let's talk through some key steps towards holding everyone accountable to meeting our revenue goals: Team communication responsibilities Identify how much pipeline and revenue comes from Marketing Defining a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) Sales has tof ollow up quickly with a high degree of personalization Establish an Service Level Agreement (SLA) Grab the 3 Steps to a Perfect Pitch guide here https://clickhubspot.com/pitch

You wanted to know about me?! I'm flattered, humbled, and happy to share what's been inspiring me lately. Everything from my favorite comedians to my thoughts on the Innovator's Dilemma. I want to know what you're wondering about! Submit your question at podcasts@hubspot.com, dropping a note on LinkedIn, or leaving a comment on Spotify. Grab the 3 Steps to a Perfect Pitch guide here https://clickhubspot.com/pitch

Today's listener Q&A is all about scaling your culture. We want to move GTM and sales away from an uncontrollable art form to a data-driven, predictable process. And that starts at the top. Our questions is -- "How can sales culture be influenced from the top down?" Here's what you can expect: "Scalable Visibility" through inspecting every aspect of your GTM Effective coaching strategies for your sales team Hiring high-quality, best fit candidates through training and certification How to create a predictable process by identifying leading indicators I want to know what you're wondering about! Submit your question at podcasts@hubspot.com, dropping a note on LinkedIn, or leaving a comment on Spotify. Grab the 3 Steps to a Perfect Pitch guide here https://clickhubspot.com/pitch

Today we have another mailbag question, and let me tell you: I love these. Today's question is one that's come up a lot lately for the portfolio over at Stage 2 Capital -- "How do you decide whether CS or Sales owns revenue from customers?" Here's what you can expect: Pros & cons in specializing roles between hunters and farmers A framework for decision making based on LTV captured in the first sale Designing the most motivating compensation plan The concept of Leading Indicator of Retention Why you need to collaborate with your CFO So, keep the questions coming. You can drop it to me on LinkedIn. If you're on Spotify, there's a common section. You can drop it there. You can email us at podcasts@hubspot.com and maybe your question will tackle next. Grab the 3 Steps to a Perfect Pitch guide here https://clickhubspot.com/pitch The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

Is the startup you're about to join gonna become a unicorn? That's the billion dollar question. It's so hard to tell. But one of the leading indicators of that that's rarely talked about is whether they're scaling to massive revenue through only inbound leads. It's so hard to find those companies. And if you do latch on. That's what happened with Carrie Bosworth, who a few years ago joined Checkr as the SVP of Sales. They scaled to huge revenue numbers through inbound only, but they knew it was gonna dry up. In order to keep that pace, they brought in Carrie to diversify inbound with outbound selling. She's been there for two years and in her own words: It's not so simple. Grab the 3 Steps to a Perfect Pitch guide here https://clickhubspot.com/pitch The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

You're looking for your next job. The last one didn't go so well. You gotta get this one right, and you found one. But how do you know if it's good and how do you know you can help? That's an important riddle. And today we bring in my friend Dini Mehta , the founding CRO of Lattice. She saw that this company wasn't exactly growing in its infancy, but she came across Jack Altman, Sam Altman's (OpenAI) brother, who's one of the most brilliant founders she met. So she had to assess Lattice to figure out if she could grow it, and then execute a playbook so that years later it's become a $3 billion company. Here's how she did it.

Expanding from selling a single product to multiple products. It's almost a required journey for getting to unicorn status. And yet that journey often leads to failure. Most companies think, "Mobilize the organization, train the sales team, build the product, get the customer support folks trained, change the website." Only, that's the approach that leads to failure. So today we bring in Ryan Meadows, head of Global Sales at Klaviyo, to walk us through how his company has scaled to multi-product selling. And in the process, hit unicorn status. The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

If a sales rep receives more than three hours of coaching a month, they beat their quota by 7% on average. If they receive less than two hours of coaching a month, they miss by 10%. (Corporate Executive Board) Building a world class coaching culture is one of the most important ways to scale your sales and revenue. And that's what Jonathan Vassil (CRO, Toast) has done. Jonathan talks bout: Importance and influence of a sales coaching culture Creating performance management systems Prioritizing work ethic over industry experience in hiring Scorecards and iterative review processes The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

Have you ever reflected on the term post sale? Why do we call that post sale? When did we stop selling? And what have we started to do? Create customer value. Renew and expand. I've never thought about it until today's episode with Sangeeta Chakraborty (CRO, Miro) — a recent Silicon Valley darling. And what's really cool and unique about her is she grew up in customer success. Customer success didn't even exist 20 years ago. And now we have this new generation of CROs that grew up from that perspective. Evolution of Customer Success in Sales Leadership Importance of Company Value System in Hiring Sales Leaders Alignment of Enterprise and PLG Offerings in Sales Transition Differentiation in Sales Approach for PLG and SLG The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

You're the sales leader of a unicorn. Selling the tool that every sales leader tries to optimize around. So the question is: How do you and your team use it? We're learning from Ryan Longfield (fmr. CRO, Gong) about how to run your sales org like a billion dollar company using the same software we're all using. Because it turns out, almost all of us are not unlocking its real potential You'll also hear from Ryan about: How to chart your career path based on priority and life stage Why content marketing is your best differentiator early on What to look for in choosing the next company leader you work with Grab HubSpot's free AI-Powered Customer Platform and watch your business grow https://clickhubspot.com/tsc The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

You're a first time founder, CEO, or sales leader. You've crushed the Seed stage of your business, and got the $10 million Series A check. Now you're at your board meeting. The multi-decade venture capitalist is feeding you with advice and counsel. And you take it. The problem is: They're wrong sometimes. But how do you know — you've never been in this seat before? As an independent board member, Jen Grant (COO, Cube) has seen every angle of this equation and she's here to help us decipher it. The role of an independent board member How to build an advisory board Evaluating advice from VCs Navigating the pace of growth Grab HubSpot's free AI-Powered Customer Platform and watch your business grow https://clickhubspot.com/tsc The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

You spoke and we listened. We cover a lot of the science of scaling in our episodes, but we know there's plenty of questions you still have. So we'll be answering listener questions periodically on the show. Send your question to Mark on LinkedIn, at our email address podcasts@hubspot.com, or on Spotify's Q&A prompt on your phone. Today, Mark predicts the future of AI in the revenue space and how leaders need to think today in order to find success in the years to come. It won't be easy, but the winners ten years from now are the ones creating the right moats today. Grab HubSpot's free AI-Powered Customer Platform and watch your business grow https://clickhubspot.com/tsc

We're in the Q2 board meeting, and we have a huge decision ahead: Who is our next sales leader? We're sifting through the candidates and one person says, ah, they're two big company. What does that mean to big company? Jeff Perry (CRO, Carta) knew he had to check his ego at the door if he was going to find success coming from a sales org like Oracle to lead a then 50 person team at Carta. Here's what it takes: Sales ops as a trusted internal partner for sales leaders Segmentation for optimal org design A mix of inbound and prospecting Enabling expert frontline salespeople & checking your own ego Stay ahead of the sales trends and exceed your 2024 sales targets with this: https://clickhubspot.com/qin The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

Probably the most common and important early stage go-to-market question I get from founders and first sales leaders is this: What are creative new ways to create demand for my sales team? It's a forever question, and it's so hard. Usually it's about understanding what's coming next. Best practices that haven't been exploited yet. I have a hypothesis — it's community-led growth, CLG. My friend Paul St. John, the first sales leader at GitHub, arguably the pioneer on CLG, joins me to demystify how he built a revenue machine and all the unique attributes of doing that on top of a very successful CLG company. Free Resource: [Free Report] Learn from 1,000+ startup founders on how AI is scaling their sales strategy https://clickhubspot.com/ias The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown

I'm rewriting some of my Science of Scaling framework after this conversation. It knocked me off my chair, if we're being honest here. It's about the commission plan. When I asked Nick Dellis (VP of Revenue, Mercury) about his team's commission plan, he said, "We don't have one." And Nick makes a strong case for why it might be high time for your company to ditch its commission plan too. Resource: [Free Download] Learn how sales teams are using AI and automation with our 2024 Report https://clickhubspot.com/sai The Science of Scaling is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Learn more about HubSpot for Startups // Produced by Matthew Brown