10/10 GTM

Nick Casale, Director of Sales at Sendoso and an early hire at Talkdesk, shares his journey from startup to leadership. He discusses the importance of building a flexible sales process that balances autonomy and consistency among team members. Nick emphasizes empowering sales teams to connect authentically with customers rather than relying solely on scripts. He also delves into the challenges of navigating unexpected demands during negotiations and maintaining professional boundaries to identify qualified buyers effectively.

Welcome back to the Seller's Journey! This week, we're talking to Conor Dragomanovich, Director of Commercial Sales at Productboard. Conor joined Productboard in 2018 as a founding AE, and since then he's moved up to lead and scale the commercial sales team of 20+ AEs. He and Ross talked about common mistakes in startup sales, how to successfully partner with your reps, and future trends in B2B sales. Want more content like this? Subscribe to the From Vendorship to Partnership newsletter for tactics from sales pros, info about upcoming masterclasses, and more resources for startup sales leaders today. About Conor Conor Dragomanovich is a Founding AE & Director of Commercial Sales at Productboard, an industry leading customer-driven product management system. Before Productboard, Conor was a Founding AE at Dealpath as well as a top performing rep at AppFolio. Before entering the world of Startups, Conor managed surf shops in Santa Barbara, CA.

It's our Customer Appreciation Week here at Accord, and since Stripe has been a big supporter of ours since the beginning, we couldn't think of a better episode to celebrate with. Our guest this week is the incredible Jeanne DeWitt Grosser, Head of Americas Revenue & Growth at Stripe! Jeanne has helped build and lead the sales team at Stripe for 6+ years; previously, she led SMB and mid-market sales for GSuite at Google.  Listen to the episode to hear her take on common sales leader pitfalls to watch out for, who you should hire as your early sales reps, and other tactics for early stage sales teams. To celebrate reaching 100+ paying customers at Accord, we're putting our amazing users in the spotlight. Check out this article to learn how we grew from 0 to 100+ customers in a year, and see how high-growth startups are winning & onboarding customers faster with Accord. About Jeanne Jeanne DeWitt Grosser has nearly 20 years of sales & GTM experience, and is currently the Head of Americas Revenue & Growth at Stripe, where she has spent 6+ years helping to build and lead sales. Previously, she was the CRO at Dialpad, and led SMB and mid-market sales in North America, Latin America, and the Japan & Asia Pacific regions for GSuite at Google.

Welcome back to the From Vendorship → Partnership podcast, Season 2: Seller’s Journey. This week, we’re sharing a masterclass we held with a panel of top revenue leaders on how to maximize NRR – the new startup North Star! We talked about best practices to action expansion opportunities & mitigate churn, who should own upsells & customer relationships, and NRR tactics for different sales motions. Get key takeaways from the masterclass here! Meet the experts: Brian Reuter, Director of Account Management at Figma – 10+ years GTM experience across the customer journey in sales, marketing, and CS Alex Heller, Head of Account Management at NYSHEX – 10+ years in sales & leadership at Flexport, Athena Health, etc. Connor Fee, CRO at Shortcut – 10+ years GTM & leadership experience at Clearbit, Winning by Design, UserVoice, & more

Welcome back to the From Vendorship → Partnership podcast, Season 2: Seller’s Journey! This week, we’re sharing a masterclass we held with a panel of veteran B2B sales leaders on how to hit your sales goals during a downturn. We talked about making the most out of every lead and opportunity, managing timelines & stakeholders when budgets are tight, and positioning your product as a “need to have” in this challenging time for tech. Get key takeaways from the masterclass here. Meet the experts: Renu Gupta, VP of Sales at Thrive – 15+ years sales leadership at Slack, Dropbox, Google, Cisco, etc. Elizabeth Andrew, Head of Sales at Netomi – 10+ years sales & leadership experience at Skillsoft, Dropbox, Parley Pro, etc. Jamie Wheeler, Head of Sales at MessageBird – 2 decades of experience (Twilio, Braze, Layer, etc) across sales, leadership, and founding startups

Mark Ripley is the VP of Sales at Mosaic, with 20+ years of sales and leadership experience. In this episode, he and Ross dive into how to effectively partner with customers and build better relationships by asking better questions during the sales process. Want more content like this? Subscribe to the From Vendorship to Partnership newsletter for tactics from top startup sales leaders, invites to masterclasses, and more resources for high-growth B2B sales teams. Check out past editions and subscribe here! About Mark Mark Ripley is the VP of Sales at Mosaic. Mark is a revenue leader with 20+ years of experience in SaaS and Cloud Computing Software, with a successful track record building, leading and scaling high performance sales teams that consistently surpass revenue goals and grow market share. He has a reputation for building a vibrant culture and cohesive teams, united by their collective motivation to achieve ambitious team goals.

Our guest this week is Jill Rowley! Jill has over two decades of experience in B2B SaaS: she was one of the first 100 employees at Salesforce and employee #13 at Eloqua, and joined Marketo 11 months before it was acquired by Adobe. Now, she advises startups as a GTM Advisor and Limited Partner at Stage 2 Capital. In this episode, she and Ross dive into common startup sales mistakes, how to build deeper partnerships, and tactics for making your solution "stickier" in your customers' world. Get episode summaries & subscribe to get more startup sales tactics here. About Jill Jill Rowley has 22 years in SaaS, the majority in MarTech. Born Sales, Bred Marketing, Bleed Customer. Early employee at Salesforce (first 100) and Eloqua (#13). Former Chief Marketing Evangelist at Marketo. Been through numerous acquisitions, including Oracle ($871 million), Cisco ($270 million), and Adobe ($4.75 billion). One of the first Social Selling evangelists and professional speakers on the topic. Investor and advisor at various B2B SaaS companies, including Stage 2 Capital, Guild Education, Vidyard, Terminus, and People.ai.

Welcome back to the From Vendorship → Partnership podcast, Season 2: Seller’s Journey! Jared Robin is the CEO & Co-Founder of RevGenius, a community of 27,000 sales, marketing, rev ops, and CS professionals to get inspired, learn, and grow. Previously he worked in sales and leadership roles for 15+ years, including FedEx and various VC-backed startups. Listen to hear Jared & Ross' conversation about partnering with customers, building RevGenius, and the future of B2B sales. About Jared & RevGenius Jared Robin is co-founder & CEO at RevGenius, Winner of Best International fashion Film Awards, homie of revenue professionals worldwide, and proud Ny'er. RevGenius is a community of 27k sales, marketing, revops and cs professionals worldwide. Our mission is to bring inspiration and creativity to all revenue professionals. Before founding RevGenius, Jared spent 15+ years in various sales and leadership roles in both fortune 100 (FedEx) and early-stage VC-backed startups (Peter Thiel backed etc).

This week, we’re sharing a masterclass we held recently with an incredible panel of sales & CS leaders on how to use mutual action plans (MAPs) to win & expand more deals. We talked about why every seller should be using MAPs to partner with buyers and get them to value quickly, so you can hit revenue targets and build long-term advocates for your product. Get more takeaways from the masterclass here! Meet the experts: Ryan Sydor, VP of Manufacturing, Automotive and Energy Sales at Salesforce – has ~2 decades of sales & leadership experience at Salesforce, Clio, & more Jocelyn Brown, Head of CS & Sales at Hypercontext – 15+ years managing high-performing sales & CS teams in B2B & SaaS Daniel Cacic, Enterprise Solutions Director at Kurios – B2B enterprise sales leader leading an early stage team of six in the EdTech space

Welcome back to the From Vendorship → Partnership podcast, Season 2: Seller’s Journey! Our guest this week is Swapnil Shinde, CEO & Co-Founder of Zeni. Zeni is an AI-powered startup bookkeeping and accounting service. Swapnil is a 3x founder and led Zeni’s sales for its first two years, closing over 100 customers single-handedly. Swapnil chats with Ross about founder-led sales, what to look for in your first reps, and his top book recs for startup/sales leaders. Want more content like this? Subscribe to the From Vendorship to Partnership newsletter! Every other Thursday, we'll share conversations with top sales leaders, invites to masterclasses & other events, and more. You can check out past editions here.