SaaStr Scale: The playbook to re-igniting growth with Aaron Ross

I got home at 2:30am last night, after a delayed flight back from Philadelphia. Earlier this week we attended HITRUST Community Extension Program (CEP) events in New York and Philadelphia. I made sure however, to get back in time for SaaStr Scale today in San Francisco. The first session I attended was by Aaron Ross: The Playbook To Re-Igniting Growth. I've previously written about Aaron and his books here, here, here, and here.

SaaStr Scale: The Playbook To Re-Igniting Growth with Aaron Ross - My Takeaways

Here are my takeaways from Aaron Ross' presentation, The Playbook To Re-Igniting Growth.

• Skipping a step is a common error to scaling growth
• Some funds equate an increase of $1M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) to an increase of $12M in a company's valuation
• Focus on 3 Primary metrics: More qualified meetings, more proposals sent, more deals won
• If one person doesn't own it, it won't happen
• Outbound will not work without dedicated people to it. It just won't.
• Split account management (Customer Success) from staff (Sales) who close accounts
• You can't scale leadgen without accurate metrics
• "Every leadgen dashboard I've seen lies." (Aaron Ross)
• Outbound is really about the dashboard
• Audit or review every single outbound opportunity
• "If I don't trust the metrics, I don't know what to invest in." (Ross)
• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff originally didn't trust outbound metrics because at Oracle, they were all fudged. It took 2 years to sway his opinion.
• Re: Outbound: "You don't want hope, you want truth." (Ross)
• Create "Revenue Team" Alignment: Close the Sales-Marketing Goal Gap
• Get one Revenue Leader who can speak both (Marketing and Sales) languages
• Have goals but not expectations
• "With Sales, if you can add more roles, that usually helps." (Ross)
• What can you do to ramp leadgen? Use whatever is working for you.
• Absolutely do not have your SDRs doing both Inbound and Outbound job functions

See Also: SaaStr 2018: How to Build an Outbound Sales Team

See Also: From Impossible to Inevitable: Chapters 1 – 8

See Also: SaaStr 2017: My Takeaways from Day 3

See Also: 5 Amazing Business Books I Read This Year