This week, Kevin Karner joined us on the Bowery Capital Startup Sales Podcast to discuss “SaaS Upsell & Add-On Sales Strategy.” Kevin is currently the Head of Customer Growth at Drift, having joined as one of the first sales employees. Prior to Drift, he led up Add-On Sales at HubSpot, from the team’s first incarnation as an experiment, all the way through its growth to a ~15-member team.
Kevin discusses his experience putting a SaaS upsell / add-on sales strategy to work, how it varies from the traditional sales or account management roles, and why a SaaS company should consider building such a team in-house. Here are some questions we’ll answer:
For a SaaS business, what is upsell and why is it important? What are add-on sales and how, if at all, are they different from upsell? How do you identify when an account is ready for an upsell? What data sources or tools do you use to empower your decision? Who should be responsible the initial outreach: add-on sales team, or the sales rep / AM? Who is responsible for the add-on “close”? What defined success for your SaaS upsell / add-on sales team? Did your team have a quota (for SaaS upsell) and how did you determine it? What did you achieve with your SaaS upsell / add-on sales strategy at HubSpot and Drift? Would this strategy make more or less sense for companies with different business models (i.e. does something about HubSpot and / or Drift make them better candidates for this strategy)? How would you go about “testing” such a strategy if you were an early-stage founder?
Dig in below. Happy listening!
If you liked “SaaS Upsell & Add-On Sales Strategy with Kevin Karner” 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, head over to iTunes and subscribe to the podcast to get all our new content each week!
Have 2 minutes? Help improve the Bowery Capital Startup Sales Podcast by taking this quick survey!
Related Articles
![Startup Sales Podcast Ulysses 001](https://craft-bowerycap.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/Startup-Sales-Podcast-Ulysses.001.jpeg?w=568&q=80&fm=webp&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1705847667&s=0dc7076c6e955af798b41cc3f3707778 568w)
Leveraging India To Scale Adoption & Growth with Ulysses David (Dataiku)
![Leslie Brand Bowery Podcast Image 001](https://craft-bowerycap.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/Leslie-Brand-Bowery-Podcast-Image.001.jpeg?w=568&q=80&fm=webp&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1705847630&s=18cf152ba57e40d5a6bff582610899e4 568w)
Building Your Customer Advisory Board with Leslie Brand (Alation)
![Derek Draper Juniper Square 001](https://craft-bowerycap.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/Derek-Draper-Juniper-Square.001_2022-07-18-190643_rxxm.jpeg?w=568&q=80&fm=webp&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1705847613&s=47a3f73bc682572efb69deba6046ce88 568w)
BC Startup Sales Podcast - Metrics Matter: Creating an Effective Sales Framework with Derek Draper (Juniper Square)
![Baxter Lanius Alternative 001](https://craft-bowerycap.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/Baxter-Lanius-Alternative.001_2022-06-22-133512_ydiw.jpeg?w=568&q=80&fm=webp&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1705847598&s=2fb8dfbeceb1bf917f0db28d74e731da 568w)