Top Sales Podcasts From Our Startup Sales Series

We’ve come a long way since our first episode of Bowery Capital Startup Sales Podcast in October 2014. We think it’s a good idea to look back and pick the top sales podcasts for you to revisit. Here are the top 5 sales podcasts out of all 54 episodes that we have released.

1.Why The Predictable Revenue Sales Model Is Overrated with Loren Padelford (Shopify)

Loren from Shopify discussed with us the ubiquitous Predictable Revenue-based sales model and several serious shortcomings that are rarely discussed. These shortcomings can often increase overall costs of customer acquisition and put key deals at risk, the very things it aims to mitigate. This model’s biggest problem is that it’s software-company-centric rather than customer-centric. It focuses on optimizing the sales process to make it more efficient for software companies instead of customers. Because the Predictable Revenue model relies on two key roles: Sales Development Reps (SDRs) and Account Executives (AEs), customers often have to repeat themselves and tell the same information twice to SDRs and then AEs. Loren also explained an alternative sales model he’s been using to great effect. His advice is that it is better and more efficient for the customer if the company can have one person in charge of the whole sales cycle for this customer. Building a sales process that your customers want is the most important thing to shorten your sales cycle and get more deals. This was by far the number 1 on our list of top sales podcasts!

2. Outbound Sales Methods And Tools with Kevin Chiu (Greenhouse)

Kevin from Greenhouse discussed with us the specific outbound methodologies that companies can use to actually go after prospects. Kevin also talked about what worked and what did not work for Greenhouse and how their prospecting methods have changed as the company has grown. We also touched on the tools and sales stack that Kevin has seen deployed in the market by a number of different companies. The discussion also mixed in a bunch of interesting questions such as when to buy lead lists, when to hire revenue generation consulting groups, what an appropriate SDR weekly cadence should be, when to get rid of software that isn’t working for you, and the best resources to inform your thinking on outbound sales methods and tools. This was another one of our top sales podcasts over the past year.

3. Building Successful Partner Programs with Zach Rosen (Pantheon)

Zach discussed with us what any founder should think about before embarking on a partner program and specifically what building successful partner programs means. The discussion also focused on the recipe for success in the early days at Pantheon and how Zach learned from other partner programs that have developed at successful companies such as Hubspot and Salesforce. We also touched on some tips and tricks once your partner program is up and running as well as ways to incentivize and reward your partners. For any SaaS founder that needs to think about partner programs the discussion with Zach was incredible and worth mentioning as one of our top sales podcasts.

4. Social Selling Best Practices with Jon Ferrara (Nimble)

Jon defines social selling as utilizing all social channels to engage the community around the business. The current problem is that sales are becoming more and more driven by social communities and most founders don’t have an efficient way of managing/connecting via social channels. Jon discussed with us the methods to efficiently build your startup’s identity on social media, how to engage communities by providing inspirational content, what tools to use to best engage your audience, and how to turn social engagements into long-time relationships/referrals to drive revenue. Give a listen to this one as it came very close to the Pantheon podcast and was a popular listen for most of our audience.

5. Building The Open Source Sales Machine with Will Freiberg (Mesosphere)

Will discussed with us how any founder should be thinking about building the open source sales machine and what Mesosphere did from the beginning to ensure success. We covered most of the set up areas like the sales process, the community, the pricing and unit structure, the ideal profile of your early customers, and how to think about your existing user base in the context of building the open source sales machine. Will’s biggest piece of advice for founders who want open source SaaS success was to interview each and every big company prospect and really find POCs that share your vision. Mesosphere rounded out our top sales podcasts in the number 5 slot but was still a great one that the developer community loved.

Give a listen to all of these top sales podcasts and special thanks to Boya Wang for contributing to this post.