Sam Blond is Chief Sales Officer @ Brex, the startup that provides corporate cards for startups. To date they have raised over $57m in funding from the likes of Y Combinator, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Yuri Milner, Elad Gil and many more incredible names. Prior to Brex, Sam Was Chief Revenue Officer at Rainforest QA. Before Rainforest, Sam saw firsthand the hypergrowth scaling of Zenefits as VP of Sales where he saw the company grow from 18 employees and $1m in ARR to over 1,800 employees and over $70m in ARR. Sam got his start in the SaaS industry with Jason Lemkin @ Echosign as Director of Sales.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
How Sam made his way into the world of sales and came to join Jason Lemkin with his first role in sales at Echosign? Why does Sam believe that more sales reps does not always equal more revenue? What are the benchmarks that suggest founders really need to add to their sales team? Does Sam agree Founders should be selling up to $1m in ARR? How does Sam assess who is the best person to hire for the role? What have been Sam’s lessons on what it fundamentally takes to attract the best talent? In the early days how does Sam think about both role allocation and whether to hire the young jack of all trades vs the more senior executive? Why does Sam believe that founders need to spend more time on top of funnel? Why does Sam believe that not all opportunities are created equal? How does Sam think about the right structure and time it should take to pass from lead to MQL to SAL to opportunity to deal? Where does this most commonly breakdown? Why does Sam believe the key to success in SaaS sales teams is “urgency”? Literally, how can reps instil a sense of urgency in their current pipeline? Why does Sam disagree with the conventional wisdom and say discounting is a great tool? How does Sam determine the right level of discount to give? How does Sam assess pilots as an alternative approach to getting leads over the line?Sam’s 60 Second SaaStr
What does Sam know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? Quality or quantity of logos in the early days? Sales rep productivity, what does Sam believe is good?If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Sam Blond
SaaStr 699: CRO Confidential: The Proven Customer Acquisition Strategies Behind Toast's Record-Breaking Growth with Toast's CRO, Jonathan Vassil and Founders Fund Partner Sam Blond
SaaStr 698: How to Navigate Strategic Change for Growth with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
SaaStr 697: What SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin Really Thinks About AI, Sales & Lead Gen In 2024
SaaStr 696: The Chat GPT Growth Story: How AI is Changing the Way We Work with OpenAI’s Head of Sales, Aliisa Rosenthal
SaaStr 695: How to Close More Deals with Less Budget with Datadog's CMO Alex Rosemblat
SaaStr 694: Unlock Profitability and Growth - The Key Strategies with Expensify's COO Anu Muralidharan
SaaStr 693: The Secrets to Scaling and Growth in an Unpredictable Market with monday.com’s Co-founder and Co-CEO, Eran Zimman, and SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin
SaaStr 692: How To Perfectly Pitch Your Seed Stage Startup With Y Combinator's Managing Director Michael Seibel
SaaStr 691: The 2024 SaaS Landscape: Why 2024 Could be Pretty Darn Good for SaaS IPOs with SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin
SaaStr 690: From $5M to $100M: How to Scale a Multi-Product Startup with Lattice CEO Jack Altman
SaaStr 689: The Latest 2023 Napkin Reveal: What it Takes to Raise Capital with Christoph Janz, General Partner of Point Nine Capital
SaaStr 688: The State of the Cloud 2023 with Bessemer Venture Partners
SaaStr 687: Building a Global SaaS Empire: Freshworks Founder & CEO Girish Mathrubootham on His Biggest Bets
SaaStr 686: What the Future of SaaS Holds for 2024 with David Sacks, Founder & General Partner, Craft Ventures, and Jason Lemkin, Founder & CEO, SaaStr
SaaStr 685: Why Investors Love SaaS with SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and QED Partner Amias Gerety on Fintech Beat
SaaStr 684: A Deep Dive Into G2, The Power Of AI, Going Multi-Product, And The 2023 Ecosystem
SaaStr 683: How To Live Your Values While Building A Unicorn with Notion, Motive, and Incredible Health
SaaStr 682: The Top 10 Worst Pieces of SaaS Advice to Avoid with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin
SaaStr 681: Scaling to $5B with Cockroach Labs' CEO Spencer Kimball's Formula for Sustained Growth and Resilience
SaaStr 680: The Most Important SaaS Metrics of 2023 with monday.com Co-Founders and SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin
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