BC Startup Sales Podcast – SaaS Upsell & Add-On Sales Strategy with Kevin Karner (Drift)

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!

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