Kyle Norton, CRO at Owner.com and former lead at Shopify, shares his expertise on scaling SMBs in the SaaS landscape. He highlights the necessity of adapting sales strategies at each milestone, explaining how to identify a startup's potential for growth. Norton emphasizes the importance of early investments in RevOps and shares tips on hiring the right sales leader. He also discusses the balance between remote and in-office work and the key traits that define a successful sales team, making this a must-listen for startup founders and sales leaders alike.
01:17:34
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Martial Arts Background
Kyle Norton's interest in martial arts began with watching UFC, especially Royce Gracie.
He trained intensely for eight years, even co-owning an MMA academy.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Path to SaaS Sales
Kyle Norton's sales career began at an events company after college, where he honed core sales skills like cold calling.
He later cold-called his way into tech sales roles, including Shopify.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Choosing Companies and Products
Optimize for great leadership and learning environments early in your sales career.
Later, prioritize joining a winning company with a strong product.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
In 'Who: The A Method for Hiring', Geoff Smart and Randy Street offer a comprehensive and structured approach to hiring top talent. The book outlines a step-by-step method to ensure that the right candidates are selected, emphasizing the importance of defining the job, finding A players, and conducting effective interviews. It also provides strategies for avoiding common hiring mistakes and ensuring long-term success.
Made to Stick
Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Chip Heath
Dan Heath
In this book, Chip and Dan Heath explore the anatomy of ideas that stick and provide methods to make ideas more memorable. They introduce the SUCCESs formula, which stands for Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. The book is filled with examples from urban legends, business stories, and personal anecdotes, demonstrating how these traits can be applied to make any idea stickier. It is particularly useful for anyone interested in influencing others, whether in business, education, or other fields.
Elon Musk Biography
UFF EDITION
This biography, written by Walter Isaacson, provides an in-depth look at the life of Elon Musk, from his tumultuous childhood in South Africa to his rise as a visionary entrepreneur behind companies like SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity. The book is based on two years of shadowing Musk, attending his meetings, and conducting extensive interviews with him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. It explores the triumphs and turmoil of Musk's life, addressing the question of whether the demons that drive him are also what drive his innovation and progress.
Scaling SMB Vertical SaaS Owner.com from $2M to $30M with an Ever Evolving Playbook that Adapts Sales Strategy at Each Milestone: CRO Kyle Norton
The secret to the best Sales Playbook for scaling is that it constantly changes at each step. Kyle Norton took his company from $2M to $30M ARR in just a few years by pivoting the GTM strategy to the challenge at hand. Kyle offers actionable advice for Sales Leaders and Founders in early stages on:
- The people to hire in the beginning vs the people to hire to scale
- Indicators that determine if a $2M company has the potential to reach $30M
- How early investments in RevOps can help you scale faster
- Preparing for setbacks before they happen
You’ll hear everything a Founder needs to know about finding the right Sales Leader to take their startup to the first $30M, and everything that Sales Leader needs to know about getting there from Kyle Norton and Bravado CEO Sahil Mansuri in this episode.
Episode Content:
00:00 - Welcome Kyle Norton, CRO at Owner.com
03:20 - Doing hard things helped me be better at Sales
05:07 - Finding a winning company
16:43 - What to look for in a founding team
33:43 - Your first VP of Sales is a bridge
48:44 - You need Pirates and Romantics
58:010 - In office vs remote
1:08:35 - Shoot above your number
1:13:08 - Quick fire round
The Bravado Pod 
