Startup Resilience and Strategic Growth

Startups and small businesses have a lot of advantages over their entrenched competitors, but one thing that big businesses have access to is forecasting and business intelligence. Our guest today is working to level that playing field, Spencer Dent is Co-Founder of Clozd, a platform that provides world-class consulting and technology for win-loss analysis. We help our clients design and execute effective win-loss programs that uncover the real reasons they win and lose—so they can start winning more.

About Spencer Dent:Spence has worked with sales and marketing teams throughout his career. Prior to receiving his MBA from Duke, he was an operator that helped small financial services sales teams. After graduating, he worked at Bain with sales organizations across a variety of industries. He moved on to Qualtrics, where he worked to expand operations across the globe and introduce new channels.

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In this episode we discuss:

02:27 Spencer’s journey to Co-Founding Clozd04:04 The first sales experience that helped shape Spencer07:11 What he learned at Bain that helped his career09:29 Challenges and opportunities of early scaling at Qualtrics11:44 How 6 years of business school failed to teach him how to be a leader14:48 Why they decided to leave Qualtrics pre-IPO20:37 Typical mistakes early-stage startups make when building their sales team24:22 Why hasn’t anyone created win-loss analysis software before?28:23 Losing because of price is weak analysis and won’t help your organization grow32:20 What Win-Loss really means and what startup founders need to know about it37:25 How a post-loss interview should be conducted39:39 What data Clozd tracks above and beyond a CRM like Salesforce43:06 Why buyer-feedback is the gold standard over feedback from the sales rep44:38 Why they chose to include a managed service offering48:42 Why they chose to take on a Series-A financing round led by Greycroft along with Madrona and Album VC51:33 How the pandemic affected them and plans for the new funds

Fast Favorites

* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Jim Rome, Dan Patrick

* 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: The Clozd Newsletter 

* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Airpods

* 📈-  Favorite New Trend: Win-Loss

* 📚- Favorite Book: Showtime, Dreamland, The Looming Tower

* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Work has to be done

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