SaaStr 760: CRO Confidential: Rippling’s Top 3 Growth Tactics for Driving Revenue at Scale with Rippling CRO Matt Plank and Former CRO at Brex Sam Blond
Sep 27, 2024
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Matt Plank, the current CRO at Rippling, shares insights alongside Sam Blond, former CRO at Brex. They discuss Rippling's remarkable ascent to a $14B valuation. Key tactics include evolving outbound sales strategies, blending traditional methods with AI, and the crucial alignment of marketing and sales teams. They also dive into the transition from customer success to account management, emphasizing the need for empathy-driven customer relationships that boost revenue and retention. Tune in for actionable growth strategies from industry leaders!
Rippling's evolution from a programmatic outbound sales approach to a structured team of 150 SDRs significantly improved conversion rates and lead generation.
The transition from customer success managers to specialized account managers enhanced customer relationships, reduced churn rates, and aligned roles with business growth objectives.
Deep dives
The Evolution of Outbound Strategy
Outbound sales at Rippling evolved from a programmatic approach, initially run by marketing with cold emails and calls, to a more structured outbound sales team consisting of 150 SDRs. In the company’s early days, this method yielded about 50 leads per 1,000 contacted accounts, capitalizing on low costs and minimal staffing. However, as the database reached its limits, they faced a bottleneck, prompting a shift to building a full-fledged outbound team. Today, the conversion rates on outbound calls have significantly improved to between 3% and 7%, showing the importance of staffing and strategic investment in sales efforts.
The Concept of the Compound Startup
Rippling is noted for its approach as a compound startup, where it expanded its product offerings from four to over thirty, necessitating an evolved organizational structure for sales. Initially, each sales representative managed multiple products, which became increasingly unfeasible as the product catalog expanded and competition intensified. This realization led to the establishment of specialized product Account Executives to drive sales for specific product lines while still maintaining the roles of new logo reps and account managers. This restructuring allowed for better focus on varied buyer personas and ultimately improved sales efficiency and effectiveness.
Structuring Customer Service for Retention
Rippling’s transition from having customer success managers (CSMs) to dedicated account managers highlights the importance of aligning roles with business growth and customer needs. Initially, CSMs lacked upselling authority, which resulted in missed opportunities for revenue generation and customer retention. By redefining the account manager role to incorporate both upselling and retention targets, Rippling improved customer relationships and significantly reduced churn rates. This strategic change emphasized that having sales-oriented account managers who possess empathy for the customer leads to better outcomes and solidifies the overall customer experience.
The Role of Human Interaction in Sales
Despite advancements in AI and automation, human interaction remains a critical element in successful outbound sales strategies at Rippling. A notable statistic reveals that 50% of their demos originate from cold calls, implying that direct, personal outreach is still effective in engaging potential leads. This human touch is essential, especially when it comes to making critical connections and fostering relationships that lead to conversions. The continued emphasis on personal engagement during outreach sets Rippling apart, allowing them to capitalize on the overwhelming noise created by automated systems in the industry.
SaaStr 760: CRO Confidential: Rippling’s Top 3 Growth Tactics for Driving Revenue at Scale with Rippling CRO Matt Plank and Former CRO at Brex Sam Blond
At this year’s SaaStr Annual, Rippling’s CRO, Matt Plank, chats with Sam Blond, host of the SaaStr CRO Confidential and former CRO at Brex, about Rippling’s top 3 growth tactics, which have led to the Rippling becoming a $14B company with several hundred million of ARR. A few years ago, Matt was making cold calls from CEO Parker Conrad’s basement, and he’s helped bring Rippling to where it is today.
The three growth tactics that worked for Rippling can be categorized into three different stages:
Outbound
Increasing closed-won revenue rates
Serving customers and expanding revenue in the base
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This episode is sponsored by our good friends at Pendo the all-in-one product experience platform. Pendo brings together product analytics. Guides discovery and replay. So you can improve your product experiences for every customer and employee try Pendo for free at Pendo.io/saastr.
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