BC Startup Sales Podcast – Go-To-Market Kick Off vs. Sales Kick Off with Jordan Rackie and Ellen Kindley (QASymphony)

This week, the Bowery Capital team hosted Jordan Rackie, Chief Revenue Officer, and Ellen Kindley, VP of Business Operations, of QASymphony to discuss “Go-To-Market Kick Off vs. Sales Kick Off.” QASymphony helps companies create better software by being the only provider of truly enterprise-level agile testing tools.

Jordan Rackie is the Chief Revenue Officer at QASymphony, responsible for leading all new revenue acquisition (sales and marketing), generated from both new and existing customers. Jordan represents the new breed of technology go-to-market leaders. His leadership in the SaaS space, which includes a vast understanding of the latest sales and marketing enablement tools, provides a strong foundation that will help QASymphony scale and grow the business. Jordan was one of the original sales leaders at Pardot, helping the marketing automation company grow from a few thousand dollars recurring into an organization that eventually sold for near $100 million, and is now owned and operated by Salesforce.com. Following success at Pardot, Jordan directed sales process and growth at PeopleMatter, a venture-backed organization (Noro-Moseley, StarVest Partners, etc.). While at PeopleMatter, Jordan inserted sales strategies that directly contributed to a 700%+ increase in quarterly bookings. A native of Georgia, Jordan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Ellen Kindley is a dynamic business operations leader at QASymphony specializing in sales process, data management & analytics, strategy and sales tech. Ellen seeks to enable growth by facilitating strategic planning, infrastructure and overall go to market excellence. Ellen is passionate about laying the foundation on which SaaS startups can scale and grow – always striving to be the driving force for productivity improvement. Starting at QASymphony in 2014, first as a consultant and then as a full time employee in 2015, Ellen has successfully set the stage for hyper growth. Every step is data driven as she sets initiatives and priorities, evaluates gaps and executes improvements. Ellen’s goal everyday is to allow sales management and individual contributors to focus solely on revenue generating activities. Ellen holds a B.S. in Accounting and Legal Studies from the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC.

On the podcast, we discuss why the team at QASymphony decided to do a Go-To-Market Kick Off this year as opposed to the more traditional Sales Kick Off that they’d done in years past. They dive into how the Go-To-Market Kick Off was structured from a timeline and activities standpoint and what teams were included in the day. We then discuss how the various leaders of the sales, marketing, and customer success teams presented 2018 goals. We end by walking through learnings from the day, things that others who are considering doing a Go-To-Market Kick Off should plan for, and their plans for next year’s event.

If you liked “Go-To-Market Kick Off vs. Sales Kick Off” and want to read more content from the Bowery Capital Team, check out other relevant posts from the Bowery Capital Blog. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the podcast to get all our new content each week!