Chris Waldron

How should startups structure compensation for their first GTM hires? I recently discussed GTM hiring with Taylor Wells, and we touched on an aspect that many founders overlook: 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 *early* 𝐆𝐓𝐌 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭. Many startups default to the 50-50 salary & commission split for frontline sellers. This is the norm for established companies, viewing it as the market standard. BUT… Established companies face fewer risks and have robust frameworks in place and GTM maturity. And so, sellers get paid to meet a number. Period. Your early-stage startup might be in a different league. GTM roles, including sales and marketing in very early stages, Need to do more than just drive revenue. They define and refine the sales process, They close the product/customer feedback loop, They help you find PMF/GTMF, creating invaluable institutional knowledge that shapes the company's operational blueprint. (or you can say, they help you figure out the best way to do their job). Therefore, their compensation should reflect this expansive impact. a16z has this concept of the *renaissance rep* A rep that is responsible for many things outside of just revenue growth. I’ve written about early hires at Hubspot spending up to 40% of their time doing customer interviews. These are very important initiatives for your org. And incentives should align. If you're in a position to make these decisions, consider a customized compensation structure, like a 70-30 or 60-40 split favoring salary. OR build in soft targets/objectives that help an early hire hit their OTE. ‘Show me the incentives, and I’ll show you the outcome’ Make sure to prioritize these early activities that will help lay the foundation of your GTM program. P.S. Need help hiring GTM talent for Data, AI/ML, Compute, and Cloud Infra? DM me. We've assisted successful early-stage startups (backed by Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, GV, Accel, and more) in finding A+ hires.

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There are two ways to solve gaps in signal-based selling. Only one is guaranteed to work at scale. 1) Revenue Enablement Provide continuous training for (a) every new hire who joins a team and (b) every 6 months to refresh reps on essential information, workflows, and processes. Many factors can impact the effectiveness of enablement activities (from the comprehensiveness of training materials to the trainer’s institutional knowledge, to how closely the individual reps were paying attention that day). Enablement only becomes harder as more people and processes are added to the mix because there are so many moving parts. 2) Revenue Operations Through automation, RevOps can reduce gaps — especially from human error — that cause friction or inaction among reps. Specifically, end-to-end automation. Most common “automations” in signal-based selling usually don’t go far enough. Therefore teams are overly reliant on enablement touchpoints to stay aligned. Ex: A champion moves to a new role and this is automatically updated in Salesforce This automation gets the process from point A to point B, but still relies on multiple human touches from B to Z. End-to-end automation ensures that essential tasks throughout an entire workflow are set up to keep the process moving toward an end goal. It anticipates gaps and opportunities for human error from point A to point Z (meeting booked). Ex: A champion moves to a new role, the CRM record is updated, a rep is notified, and a multi-step persona-specific email sequence is triggered. Would every rep follow this process if it was entirely manual (even with enablement training)? Probably not. That’s why every signal play should be accompanied by clear workflows enabled with end-to-end automation. The play can scale with your team. Signals without action are just noise for reps. Automation guarantees signals get actioned.

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SaaS companies where you at?! I've got a friend who is at KILLER at product, he's looking for a product leadership role at a growth stage, mission-oriented SaaS company Highlights: --Seasoned Product Leader that has grown organizations' ARR from zero to $5M and from $40M to $80M twice. --Over ten years of digital health experience across the healthcare ecosystem (payers, providers, patients, and pharma) --Experience in other vertical SaaS organizations, including EdTech, Logistics, and FinTech --Typically joins companies that are at an inflection point. They want to tighten product-market fit, scale, expand into adjacent markets, or turn things around. --Experience as a CTO and a P&L leader. --Looking for a product leader role at a series A or later mission-oriented SaaS company. Comment below or DM me if you've got an opening or know someone who does!

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GTM pros looking for a pre-IPO SaaS firm   Remember:   Funding doesn't = good culture Pre-IPO doesn't = smashing your quota Hiring lots doesn't = endless opportunity Equity doesn't = retirement plan   Some vendors look great on paper but internally it's a car crash. Don't avoid these type of firms - They can be life changing. But do your research first. Don't be blindsided into taking a crap job. #techsales #gotomarket #saasrecruitment

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As CS is getting increasingly aligned with the revenue function, this conversation is happening a lot... CRO: "I just took over customer success, can someone explain to me what our CSMs do?" VP CS: "We make sure that our customers are getting value from the product..." CRO: "OK, what does that mean?" VP CS: "We answer all of their questions and log support cases." CRO: "Isn't that support?" VP CS: "Well no, because we have QBRs" CRO: "OK, well what do we talk about in the QBRs?" VP CS: "All the tickets we fixed and the features that we rolled out" CRO: "Ok, what other things do our CSMs do?" VP CS: "We help with implementations and continuous improvement!" CRO: "Isn't that professional services?" VP CS: "Well we read an article that says that we shouldn't charge for services, so our CSMs just do it." CRO: " 🤯 " VP CS: " 🤯 "

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I believe the inability to prove ROI is the single biggest blocker right now in getting a sale across the line. And there's now evidence to prove this... TrustRadius just released their 2024 B2B Buying Disconnect Report, which found that 71% of buyers end up purchasing the top option on their short list (ie the list they made before they started doing real research and talking to vendors and peers). Additionally, 47% of enterprise buyers said they wished it was easier to calculate ROI. What these two stats together mean to me: - In this turbulent market where budgets are tight, buyers are understandingly very risk averse - and so they are choosing solutions that are well known (and likely more established and "safer" vendors that their boss/CFO knows), and the sales process isn't really changing their opinion. - Emerging vendors aren't doing a good job with the content and sales process to change any buyer's minds, and prove that they have something better than the incumbent worth taking a slight risk on. One big part of this is not being able to show relevant, specific, evidence and success stories that they've delivered success in a similar industry, company size, region, use-case, etc. - Competitive enablement needs to be much more of a focus. While one finding of this report is investing in Brand is important so you make the top of the shortlist -- if you're an emerging vendor - you're not going to outspend the incumbent on Brand - so while important, it's not really an actionable strategy for a lot of smaller companies. What is actionable is harnessing the voice of your happy customers, to get super granular and authentic proof from customers that did switch from these incumbents. Evidence that talks about why you're better/different, what it's like to switch/migrate etc. - Buyers don't believe your (or your Forrester TEI's) 438% ROI claim. It's too broad, it's unbelievable, it's unsubstantiated, and not specific to your exact business and use-case. We need to break the ROI/value argument up into more realistic and believable sub-components (eg hours saved per week, improvements in win rates, FTE salary deferred, etc) that build into a more credible ROI/value narrative. Also - we can't just make sh*t up and pull numbers out of thin air, and pointing to one hand-curated reference customer isn't sufficient evidence, it's anecdotal at best, and a biased sample at worst. Showing more broad-based, relevant, statistically significant samplings of customer success will earn more trust that you've delivered ROI across lots of customers, not just one. Anyway check out the report (link in comments) - there's some great insights in there that should make you rethink how you sell and market.

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Would you hire a recently fired VP of Sales to lead the GTM strategy for your $500K start-up, especially if that candidate had absolutely no industry experience? Likely not, right? Well, LinkSquares did. And I bet they were happy with that decision! So, what's the story? How (and why) did Steve Travaglini (Pavilion 2023 CRO of the year) get fired from one VP of Sales role, after scaling sales from $0-$7M, only to lead growth at LinkSquares from $500K to $50M in ARR over the ensuing 5 years? In the clip below he talks about what he learned in the early days of their rapid growth and what he would change going forward. You can hear the entire episode for yourself on today's episode of The GOATS of Growth podcast, but if he were one of my candidates, here is how I would summarize his attributes: --Gritty --Resilient --Adaptable --Resourceful --Optimistic --Humble And, most importantly, a STRONG bias towards action which was, in opinion, the bedrock for their strong sales culture. Steve, I had been looking forward to interviewing you for a long time and I'm happy I finally got the chance. Thanks for being such a great guest! Please follow Steve to watch as he builds his own startup, Winrate, in public. Listen to the full episode here: https://buff.ly/3Cjhr6Q

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The skills to be an effective SaaS CRO have changed. That's not my opinion, but that's basically the crux of what bona fide CROs, and those that hire them, are telling me. Just a few years ago these were 5 desired skills when hiring a CRO. --Proven "scaler", which often meant doing more with MORE (people) --Willing to take calculated risks to and set ambitious goals --Ability to thrive in unpredictable environments with frequent changes (sadly lots of change was caused by literal CRO changes) --Laser focus on achieving revenue targets no matter the cost  --Inspire and motivate large sales teams These are 5 desired skills when hiring a CRO today: --Analytical with the ability to interpret data and identify trends to make decisions --Deep understanding of sales methodology, customer segmentation, and pricing strategies  --Financial acumen to understand unit economics --Customer focused to build long term relationships and loyalty  --Cross-functional relationship builder That said, in MY opinion, the skills needed few years ago are still necessary, but the trick is finding people, or becoming, the person, who straddles both profiles. Those people are also known as The GOATS of Growth, or at least well on their way.

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The other day I met with a founder & CTO who advises and scales early stage companies - with several successful exits under their belts. We talked about “what exactly is Rev Ops” and how if done right - we are a lean / mean strategic investment to drive GTM operations at scale. Many founders are doing exactly this type of work. But when a founder has to focus on sales, or marketing, or pmf, or, or, or….who is taking this lens. So we talked about the purposeful investments in ops and the strategic need for Rev Ops. Driving cross business alignment of gtm operations, tooling, data, and business strategy that fuels the revenue creation engine. Knowing what levers to pull by when, how, and to what outcome. Don’t grow at all costs. Don’t grow inefficiently. Grow sustainably using the levers you already have in your business. #revops #growtherightway

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If you are an SDR manager, you can help your team get meetings by responding to the outbound you're receiving from other vendors. Ask the SDR who is emailing you if they use anything for revenue intelligence [obviously insert your category] and go from there. Find out the information, and then give it to the lowest performing rep on your team for an easy win. Here's the email you can draft for your SDR: "Hey VP of Sales, I spoke with my manager who mentioned you were using XYZ already, she talked to John (one of your SDRs) who gave us the tip. Would you be willing to have someone on your team evaluate us as an alternative?" ^^ It sets. Try it! #sdrlife #sales

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Some predictable pipeline reflections from GTM audits this week: 1️⃣ Many companies are selling too fast, and it's ironically slowing down closed deals. Talking about product and price too early, pushing buyers faster than they're ready to go, dragging buying committee members along that have no idea what you're talking about. Sometimes three steps is faster than one. Be methodical to accelerate pipeline velocity. 2️⃣ Inbound is often fool's gold. The numbers make you feel good but the quality is fleeting and inconsistent. The healthiest companies combine inbound and outbound into an "allbound" strategy that drives more predictable performance and results. 3️⃣ Marketing programs and budgets in complex sales cycle situations need to be managed from the bottom up, not the top down. Cost per lead isn't nearly as important as customer acquisition cost (CAC) and managing a body of work that's at and below that number on a consistent, repeatable and scalable basis. 4️⃣ Smaller numbers are most often your most important numbers. Stop celebrating webinar registrations, booth drop-bys and social followers. Even engagement doesn't matter unless it's paired with an accurate, comprehensive ideal customer profile (ICP) definition. 5️⃣ Politics is killing internal progress and innovation. The most successful leaders create a culture of collaboration and transparency, maintain a "team sport" mentality to go-to-market, and encourage if not require ongoing professional development and learning.

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If you're a seller you've felt it over the past 3 years - longer sales cycles, bigger and more risk-averse buying committees, tougher budget scrutiny on deals, more competition, and lower win rates. But why? In a new UserEvidence research study of 200+ B2B buyers, 200+ sellers, and 200+ marketers (600+ total respondents) - we examined the disconnect between the 3 groups - and dug into the details on one of the primary culprits: Vendors aren't providing today's skeptical and conservative buyers with enough quality and relevant customer evidence and proof and content to make buyers feel confident in their purchasing decision and path to strong ROI. There are huge implications for sellers and marketers. Transactions aren't smooth - it's not working. There is a lot of room to improve. Some topics that stood out in the report: 🔍 - where buyers START their search - it was a bit of a surprise to me that analysts firms like Gartner and Forrester have eclipsed peer review sites 🏁 - where buyers FINISH their search - is NOT analyst reports or even review sites. While great starting points for building a short list - technology is getting more complex, so buyers need more relevant information about how a solution will work in their unique environment 🎯 - Relevance one of the most important (and often missed/poorly executed) factors for whether or not content was effective. Matching on Industry was the biggest proxy for relevance, but use-case, role, company size, were all important as well 💵 - vendors STRUGGLE to produce any credible statistical evidence that would help a buyer make a concrete business case for strong ROI (e.g. cost savings, time savings, productivity gains, etc). And this financial business case is needed more than ever as CFOs get involved in more deals. ⚔ - the #1 type of customer evidence missing for sellers was COMPETITIVE EVIDENCE - ie why customers switched from incumbents, whats better/different about their product. There has been an explosion of vendors, and buyers are lost in the noise, and can't differentiate well between solutions. Kyle Lacy said it well, “The holy grail of marketing is customer evidence. Marketing teams must prioritize the creation of quantifiable ROI and validations to regain the buyer’s trust. Elevating customer stories is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ thing; it’s essential for winning.” Download the full report w/link in the comments. Some great wisdom included from Emily Kramer, Emma Stratton, Mark Kosoglow, Devin Reed, Mac Reddin 🦕, Adam Schoenfeld, Jason Oakley, Kyle Asay, Adam Goyette, Chris Orlob, Natalie Marcotullio, Amanda Natividad, Morgan J Ingram, Kaylee Edmondson #productmarketing #customermarketing #salesenablement

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Picture this scenario: You're the CRO of a Series A startup. You hired and onboarded a team of BDR's and AE's. New logos are coming through the door often and your ARR is on the rise. Your BDR's are going above and beyond setting meetings, understanding the product as well as how to give an initial demo. Your AE's are discovering product market fit in new verticals and are bringing whales into their pipeline, which go on to closed-won. You now have successfully raised a Series B round. All of this growth and momentum is an exciting new challenge and you now need to invest most of your time and efforts in orchestrating the funnel of leads coming in from marketing, inbound, and outbound, the sales cycle, the offerings, and the post-sales process. You decide it's time to hire a VP of Sales. Do you let the VP of sales bring in their own AE's or do you push to promote your BDR's to the AE position and existing AE's to strategic or team lead while only bringing aboard a new BDR team? It is a matter of preference and experience. In my experience and the conversations I've had with sales professionals, the former happens more than the latter. Have you also seen the same scenario play out? What has been the result? What would you do?

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Interested in expanding your network in 2025 to SDRs Leaders in other companies? Want to find out about how other SDR Leaders are solving the issues you are struggling with? Struggling find other SDR Leaders with whom to network? Introducing SDR Leader 1:1s - your solution to networking and learning from peers! This innovative platform automatically schedules meetings with other SDR Leaders based on your availability, background and experience level. For just $20/month, you can: * Connect with SDR Leaders tailored to your background and level of experience. * Share best practices and learn new strategies. * Get valuable feedback and insights. * Expand your network and build relationships. It's like having your own personal SDR mastermind group! And the best part? You can try it FREE for your first month with the code "LEADER". Don't miss this opportunity to take your SDR leadership to the next level! Sign up today: * Become a Pending Member: https://lnkd.in/e2FqJ_2t * Monthly Subscription Link ($20/month): https://lnkd.in/eQSWcvKy Invest in yourself and your career this year. Make SDR Leader 1:1s your New Year's resolution! Thank you to Dale Thorn for creating this networking platform!!! #SDRLeadership #Networking #ProfessionalDevelopment #CareerGrowth

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I'm looking to connect with PE firms and/or general acquirers interested in B2B SaaS companies. I work with startups that are: - Profitable - Majority growing double-digits MoM - Ranging from $100k to millions ($$) in ARR Every founder I work with wants to sell at some point. #b2bmarketing #saas #startup

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Fun fact: I was the first customer of Compound Growth Marketing. When I was working at Drift as VP of Marketing I wanted to work with John Short. We tried to get him to come to Drift but he was setting out to start his own agency. One weekend I ran into him + wife + kids at Friendly Toast in Back Bay and John mentioned starting CGM. I told him the next best thing to having him on the team at Drift I guess would be working 1:1 as a consultant. John was just starting CGM at the time but I knew that he was super smart and thought about B2B marketing and driving revenue in ways that I didn't. Today - 5 years later - no surprise John has built a wildly successful agency supporting B2B SaaS companies and today their team that manages over $50M in paid spend. But they don't just manage paid. They become a partner that helps you think about the full funnel. • They helped one company build $1.9M in pipeline in 4 months with ABM • Increased Trials by 60% while maintaining the same spend level • Grew a companies SEO traffic by 40% in just 6 months  • Scaled a companies pipeline by 400% YoY while increasing spend by only 189% If you need help scaling growth and you're in B2B SaaS, John and the team at CGM would be on my short list to reach out to. Every marketing leader needs a few strong agency partners, and John and the team can be that partner to you because he's been there before in your shoes. Speaking of paid spend. The team at CGM built this helpful calculator to help you compare your budget to what the average SaaS company would spend based on your revenue growth goals. You can: • Enter your growth targets for 2025 • Enter in your average deal size • Build out funnel economics by customer segment, funnel, and channel • Understand unit economics to see how much you can spend on upper funnel metrics like MQL/A's Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/e3ij3N4E *** Disclosure: Compound Growth Marketing is currently an Exit Five sponsor, and this is a sponsored post.

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This is a fabulous memo from Bessemer Venture Partners regarding scaling SDR/BDR teams. I urge all B2B SaaS founders to dig into this one. #founders #entreprenuers #startup #seedfunding

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Heads up SaaS Sellers, your whole world is about to change. It's Q4 - and I know all of you are thinking about how to cash in over the next 3 months. 🤑 But your company is thinking about how to cash in over the next 5 years. So it's moving to Usage Based Pricing. UBP Companies grow at 2x the rate of subscription based companies, so this is good for you, I promise. But, switching to usage-based pricing changes everything. It’s not just about closing the deal anymore; it’s about what happens after that handshake. Here’s how you and your ops teams need to adapt: 1️⃣ You must be a consultative seller. If you're not already, learn how, and fast. Force Management is a great place to start. Because soon, you won't just be closing a deal—you’ll be setting customers up for long-term success, and you'll be comped on it. 2️⃣ Teamwork is non-negotiable. Sales and customer success teams will fail in silos. Everyone’s got to share metrics, align incentives, and collaborate to keep customers winning, from onboarding to expansion. Also, don't be surprised if AE, AM and CS all become one role some day soon. 3️⃣ Your Ops team needs to revamp your commission structure. Incentives will work best oriented around recurring revenue, NRR and usage-based bonuses - but remember, you'll be on the hook for the customer's success. Max Maeder has written a lot of great insight here. 4️⃣ Commercial Flexibility will be critical —contracts need to scale with usage without blindsiding customers. Adaptable, scalable agreements make growth frictionless. Expect small lands, and faster, but smaller expands. In the end, you'll grow accounts much larger over three years than you would have, but it will take more transactions. 5️⃣ Lastly, continuous customer education is your secret weapon. Regular touchpoints, automated updates, and best practice guides keep customers engaged and using the product more. Your job description is about to change to "long-term partner," not just a deal-closer. If you adapt to this new game, you will be the one leading the charge. Oh and also, you'll make more money. I guarantee it. 💰 ____________ #SaaS #SaaSSales #UsageBasedPricing #ShowMeTheMoney

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This x10000 I recently bought new bedsheets from a brand I won’t mention. 3 days after I made the purchase, feeling good with my 25% discount on my purchase, I got a text message offer for 50% off. I came away from that experience feeling duped, because had I known that I would have gotten an offer for 50% off, I would have just waited. Will I buy from them again? I don’t know, depends on how good the sheets are. But I definitely won’t be making another purchase from them for at least another 90 days. It’s so important to be thoughtful in how you talk to your customers right after they purchase. If they purchased, they’re probably really excited about that purchase and are happy to engage and learn more (particularly if it’s high AoV like high end apparel, bedding, or a wellness product) It does NOT mean that the 5-7 day period post purchase is a great time to hit them with another discount - they will feel similar to how I did.

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