I was recently talking to a CEO of a SaaS company that has recently hit $10M+ in ARR and is on the way to $20M, then hopefully $50M and a $100M. This is the similar growth trajectory I had seen at AppAssure (which went from even less than $10M to over $20M) and also at Acronis and Veeam which both went from slightly below $20M to over $100M. Looking at the pattern, I could tell this company is also on the way there.
The CEO was asking about what his VP of Sales should focus on and here is what I shared. The main mission of a sales leader (i.e. a VP of Sales) in a growing SaaS business is to achieve a Repeatable, Predictable & Scalable Revenue Growth. I recommended the simplest formula to nail down which is the one that I learned from Mark Roberge (the former CRO at Hubspot who took them from $0 to $100M and 10,000+ customers globally) – he wrote about this 4-step process in his best-selling book “The Sales Acceleration Formula” which I also highly recommend:
- Hire the same successful salesperson every time
- Train your salespeople the same way
- Hold your salespeople accountable to the same sales process
- Provide the salespeople with the same quantity and quality of leads
I am a big fan of Mark’s ideas in this book plus I am fortunate because Roberge was my “Sales Management Coach” and a mentor when I was running Sales at InsightSquared. In fact I share a lot on this blog because Mark was one of the original people who inspired me to think of a way to share experiences, give back to the community, and pay forward like he had done with me with insights on sales management. In sharing this above, please note that this 4-step process is the clearest and most effective strategy for you to attain Repeatable, Predictable & Scalable Revenue Growth.
What else? What are some other thoughts on attaining Repeatable, Predictable & Scalable Revenue Growth?