BC Startup Sales Podcast – Excelling at Each Stage of Growth with Andrew Elliott (CRO at People Data Labs)

This week we had Andrew Elliott, CRO of People Data Labs, join us on the Bowery podcast to talk about “Excelling at Each Stage of Growth.”

Here are some of the main questions and ideas we discussed in the podcast:

1. When we talk about stages of growth as it relates to SaaS revenue, what are the main buckets or revenue ranges that they’re typically referring to and why do we tend to break them up like that?

2. Let’s start with the first bucket $0-1M. As a sales leader, what are the key things you’re focused on during this stage? What are the key skills that are important at this $0-1M stage for a sales leader/founder to have? What are some of the common challenges during this phase and what are you focused on as a sales leader at this stage? What strategies and frameworks did you leverage at this $0-1M stage that helped enable your success?

3. Let’s move to the next bucket, $1-5M. What are some of the common challenges during this phase and what are you focused on as a sales leader at this stage? What are the key skills that are important at this $1-5M stage for a sales leader and individual contributor to have? What are some strategies and frameworks that have helped you navigate this $1-5M stage of growth?

4. Let’s move onto the next growth stage – $5M-20M. What are some of the common challenges during this phase, give us a sense of what you’re focused on as a sales leader? What are the key skills that are necessary at this $5-20M stage to really thrive? Can you talk about the strategies and frameworks that have really helped you navigate this $5-20M stage of growth?

5. Moving along to the next phase, $20M-100M, help orient us around this next stage of growth. What are the core areas of focus, what kind of challenges typically arise in this stage? What are the primary skills that come in handy for this $20-100M stage, both as a leader and an IC? As for strategies or frameworks, is there anything that stands out that’s really helped you in your career excel in this growth stage?

6. This brings us to our last stage, $100M+. What’s the main focus of a sales leader at this stage, what are some of the common challenges that you’re trying to overcome in this scenario? Same question as for the others, what are the top skills that a sales leader should have to really crush it at this later stage of growth? Any particular strategies or frameworks that you lean on in this stage?

7. Last question before we wrap up with any final tips and tricks, what are some common mistakes made along the way? If you had to narrow in on 1 or 2 top mistakes for each stage, what would they be? You mentioned bad hires, what others?

8. Any final thoughts, tips or tricks for folks to summarize?

Big thank you to Andrew for coming on the podcast and sharing his insights with us!

Andrew’s experience includes over 8 years’ sales (1st and 2nd line) management and 15+ years’ startup experience selling SaaS solutions, into every major vertical/market, across all segments from SMB to Fortune 10, including 6, 7, and 8-figure deals. He’s been a single digit hire 4X and helped companies scale from $0M -> $5M, $5M -> $20M, $20M -> $100M, and $100M+, as well as over 4 years’ experience at publicly traded companies with revenues >$1B.

If you liked “Excelling at Each Stage of Growth” and want to read more content from the Bowery Capital Team, check out other relevant posts from the Bowery Capital Blog.