Building a world-class sales org | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)

Рет қаралды 20,604

Күн бұрын

Jason Lemkin created and runs SaaStr, the world’s largest community for B2B/SaaS founders, and is the managing director of SaaStr Fund, a $90 million venture capital firm specializing in early-stage enterprise investments. He is also the mastermind behind two major tech conferences each year-one in the Bay Area, drawing in over 15,000 people, and another in Europe, with a crowd of more than 3,000 SaaS executives, founders, and entrepreneurs. Before SaaStr, Jason wore many hats: CEO and co-founder of EchoSign (later bought by Adobe), vice president at Adobe Systems, co-founder and president of NanoGram Devices Corp., vice president of NeoPhotonics, and a senior director at BabyCenter. In our conversation, we discuss:
• How far you should go without a salesperson
• Signs it’s time to hire salespeople
• Why you need to hire two salespeople
• How to compensate your salespeople
• How to interview salespeople
• When to hire a VP of Sales
• How to prevent their flaming out
• How to scale your sales org
• How to improve the relationship between your sales and product teams
• Much more
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Find the transcript and references at: www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/bu...
Where to find Jason Lemkin:
• X: / jasonlk
• LinkedIn: / jasonmlemkin
• Website: www.saastr.com/
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: / lennysan
• LinkedIn: / lennyrachitsky
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Jason’s background
(06:18) The importance of sales in B2B businesses
(11:23) Signs that you should start hiring salespeople
(14:19) Attributes to look for in early sales reps
(19:08) Hiring a VP of Sales
(26:43) The role of a VP of Sales
(30:06) Interviewing salespeople
(45:16) Determining sales compensation and quota
(53:34) Transitioning from 100% commission to a smaller percentage
(56:58) Indicators of a hard-to-sell product
(59:39) Scaling the sales organization
(01:05:26) Understanding sales roles and titles
(01:10:02) Product involvement in sales, and vice versa
(01:20:32) Thoughts on product teams taking on P&L responsibilities
(01:27:23) One thing founders can do to become better at sales
(01:31:02) The ideal trial length for a free trial sales team
(01:39:50) Closing thoughts
(01:41:43) Lightning round
Production and marketing by penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Пікірлер: 28

@AlicinChristensen 4 ай бұрын

Fantastic to see Jason on here - I could listen to him all day. Brilliant man. Thank you both!

@leadgenjay 4 ай бұрын

The insights on when to hire salespeople are spot on. Adding to that, it's crucial to align sales metrics with customer success outcomes, as this fosters a culture of customer-centricity which can significantly reduce churn in the long run. Plus, always look for reps who can teach and tailor the conversation to the customer's needs, not just sell.

@WhiteCarbon7 3 ай бұрын

It was very enlightening the conversation around EVERYONE raising prices and not earning it. I was thinking it was limited to my and a few other companies that weren't adding value; actually decreasing value. A "one year free pass", I'm afraid that is the new norm, because business don't give money away and the sales goal is just higher for 2024.

@bharatbheesetti1920 4 ай бұрын

Everytime I come across your content, I start with a healthy dose of skepticism, but you seldom fail to deliver. Absolutely unbelievable that such an info dense podcast is freely available. I work in product at B2B SaaS and a lot of the information that Jason talks about comes from such a wealth of learned experience. Excellent work, Lenny. Thanks for this.

@ecodelearn 4 ай бұрын

Amazing "Mini Course". Thank´s one more time!

@Sam-ne9ns 4 ай бұрын

Incredible interview! Jason's material is value packed. One thing, though, "be kind" and the Israeli flag don't go hand in hand.

@markrussellfilaroski5035 4 ай бұрын

I have had 3 years of mentorship from joining the SaaStr community and I've been in the game forever. Jason is awesome.

@GrahamQuigley 4 ай бұрын

That's wonderful Mark, excited to hear this. I'm a solo founder in Oakland and CRAVE community and mentorship. I tell people, "I'm coachable" 😊 Please let me know if you are willing to share your experience

@GrahamQuigley 4 ай бұрын

This is such amazing content! Solo founder here selling my own product, just starting to hire my first sales people, this advice is gold! So super grateful!

@LennysPodcast 4 ай бұрын

Jason is amazing

@tobilobafaseyitan2876 4 ай бұрын

Great episodes everytime! Lenny, interview someone from Canva next, I totally love the product and would love to hear about their culture and product management in general. Thanks man!

@LennysPodcast 4 ай бұрын

Working on that 🤞

@mattalma 4 ай бұрын

Fantastic interview, I really enjoyed the conversation. I thought the length was perfect. Brilliant!

@Jasonlk 4 ай бұрын

We definitely went deep!

@Jasonlk 4 ай бұрын

Such a great convo!

@hugonaturals1232 4 ай бұрын

Yea this was top tier. Phenomenal information from Jason

@legendhasit2568 4 ай бұрын

Great interview, thank you for sharing. This was the third of your interviews I’ve watched now and I’m glad to have found your channel

@saadatkhan9583 4 ай бұрын

Amazing job, both of you.

@adamkasprowicz Ай бұрын

Jason is great!

@luvodlulisa7883 4 ай бұрын

This was awesome.

@stephen9196 11 күн бұрын

Jason is the goat

@ACCA2016 4 ай бұрын

Lenny, I am in if the newsletter is $5-6 per month. It is just how much I think a newsletter worthy to pay for. Maybe repositioning the newsletter as industrial insights?

@salesvirtual8214 4 ай бұрын

This is news to SaaS sales folk, but 101 in other industries. Tech struggles to understand its role in a business. Too much in love with its technology. Go talk to medical and industrial sales professionals. Tech sellers sell dreams, but come across as commodity sellers.

@ibains 4 ай бұрын

Thanks. Enterprise B2B sales AEs make 150-150, not 75-75. It would have helped if Jason gave company examples and ranges. Looks like bottom of barrel SaaS apps.

@Jasonlk 4 ай бұрын

I think the math and point mostly holds, but for sure. The even bigger stressor is how long it takes to see if an enterprise AE can close.

@s.h306 4 ай бұрын

@@Jasonlkdealing with this right now - took us a year to offboard an AE because 'hey the sales cycles are long, give him a chance, these prospects move slow". High ACV enterprise SaaS, i'm down to monitoring activity/inputs and just general paranoia at this point.