The Revenue Formula
Toni Hohlbein & Raul Porojan
This podcast is about scaling tech startups.
Hosted by Toni Hohlbein & Raul Porojan, together they look at the full funnel.
With a combined 20 years of experience in B2B SaaS and 3 exits, they discuss growing pains, challenges and opportunities they’ve faced. Whether you're working in RevOps, sales, operations, finance or marketing - if you care about revenue, you'll care about this podcast.
If there’s one thing they hate, it’s talk. We know, it’s a bit of an oxymoron. But execution and focus is the key - that’s why each episode is designed to give 1-2 very concrete takeaways.
Hosted by Toni Hohlbein & Raul Porojan, together they look at the full funnel.
With a combined 20 years of experience in B2B SaaS and 3 exits, they discuss growing pains, challenges and opportunities they’ve faced. Whether you're working in RevOps, sales, operations, finance or marketing - if you care about revenue, you'll care about this podcast.
If there’s one thing they hate, it’s talk. We know, it’s a bit of an oxymoron. But execution and focus is the key - that’s why each episode is designed to give 1-2 very concrete takeaways.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 12, 2023 • 42min
How to build RevOps for hypergrowth (with Sean Lane, Founding Partner, Minot Light Consulting)
From employee #75 to helping Drift become an over $1B valuation company, Sean Lane knows a thing or two about hypergrowth.In this episode, we talk to Sean about his RevOps journey and how to create a strategic team in fast-growing companies. Don't forget to listen to Operations with Sean Lane and check out his new company Minot Light Consulting.(00:00) - Introduction
(00:42) - Meet Sean
(01:30) - How Sean got into RevOps
(07:09) - Expectations and misconceptions of RevOps
(09:41) - What does "Strategic" RevOps actually mean?
(15:59) - The fiscal year flip
(26:07) - Planning is hard
(33:22) - What does a high-growth RevOps team look like?
(36:06) - Talking with your peers
(41:52) - Wrapping up
Oct 10, 2023 • 30min
Don't use benchmarks like this
Benchmarks are generally speaking not really helpful. And unfortunately, many are using them the wrong way - causing a lot of problems.That's why we discussed benchmarks - and when it does make sense to use them (and how)(00:00) - Introduction
(04:01) - Benchmarking
(06:40) - Misled by benchmark
(11:51) - People ratios
(16:40) - Pipeline coverage
(20:13) - Same metrics, different meaning
(22:25) - The only good thing
Oct 5, 2023 • 50min
Cultivating an efficient GTM engine (with Sam Jacobs, Founder & CEO of Pavilion)
How do you cultivate an efficient GTM engine? And what has Sam learned from building Pavilion and the community?In the episode, we get into:(00:00) - Introduction
(05:48) - Culture and challenges
(09:40) - The curated signs of an efficient gtm engine
(16:29) - AEs = more revenue?
(19:42) - Why sales gets all the love
(24:28) - Alignment
(30:48) - Free money created bad behaviour
(32:32) - Going broad vs specific (TAM)
You can check out GTM23 here and Pavilion here.
Oct 3, 2023 • 29min
Buy software like this
Software is bad. It makes RevOps look like system admins. But also, software is also good. In fact, it's very much needed.That's why we decided to cover how to approach buying software. In the episode, we cover:(00:00) - Introduction
(02:51) - Buying software
(04:40) - Text book purchase
(10:30) - The wrong way to do it
(11:10) - Forcing function
(20:15) - Making the deal
Sep 28, 2023 • 43min
Do this to lift sales performance (with Chris Orlob, CEO at pclub.io)
What can you really do to lift the performance of your sales team? That's exactly what we discussed with Chris Orlob, who was part of taking Gong from $200K to $200M in ARR.In the episode, we get into:(00:00) - Introduction
(02:44) - Why quota attainment is down
(06:06) - Why sales takes longer today
(08:32) - How do you solve the problem?
(10:48) - What does good look like?
(12:56) - Discovery: Understanding the need behind the need
(17:48) - Mutual action plan
(20:00) - Understanding intent
(25:37) - Dealing with finance and other stakholders
(30:39) - Making the case
(34:53) - Quota - raise or decrease?
(39:23) - Q5 deals
References:Matt Green on quota attainmentJacco van der Kooij on Solving underperformanceAnd of course pclub.io
Sep 26, 2023 • 29min
The Biggest blindspot of revenue operators
There's a big blindspot in commercial teams. And it'll limit your ability to grow - it's your product.Here's what we got into 👇(00:00) - Introduction
(01:08) - Product market fit
(05:19) - The blind spot
(07:59) - Why it matters
(09:38) - The first question: Do I have product market fit?
(15:01) - Talking with authority
(16:38) - Product limited
(19:04) - When PMF is moving
(23:27) - Changing your own perception
(25:32) - Look with innocent eyes
Sep 21, 2023 • 39min
Strategic Execution with RevOps (With Shantanu Shekhar, Sr Director GTM Ops @ Gong)
While many wants to be strategic... the first step is understanding how to take a strategy to plan to execution.That's exactly what we discussed with Shantanu, Senior Director of GTM Operations at Gong.(00:00) - Introduction
(01:35) - The path to RevOps
(06:55) - The Role of RevOps
(10:05) - Common misconceptions of RevOps
(13:06) - What does strategy really mean for RevOps?
(16:46) - Strategy in practise
(22:54) - First principles
(28:22) - Proactive vs Reactive
(31:21) - Compartmentalization
(36:18) - Practical advise to get strategic
Sep 19, 2023 • 31min
Where hypergrowth comes from
Hypergrowth is fascinating - but where does it come from?Hint: It's not sales, and it's not marketing. Find out in this episode.(00:00) - Introduction
(02:08) - Where does hypergrowth come from?
(05:37) - The forgotten child of GTM
(09:10) - When is it time to focus on customer experience?
(12:02) - Who's enabling CS?
(14:00) - Where's the most expensive headcount?
(17:24) - Reporting depth: Renewed or churned
(20:11) - What kind of software?
(21:17) - Bound by margin
(24:48) - What about the price?
(28:06) - Can we have some marketing?
Sep 14, 2023 • 41min
Strategic Revenue Operations (With Mallory Lee, VP Operations at Nylas)
What does strategic RevOps look like, and how do you manage revenue production from RevOps? That’s exactly what we discussed with Mallory Lee, VP Operations at Nylas.(00:00) - Introduction
(01:09) - Meet Mallory
(02:48) - The difference between RevOps and unified RevOps
(07:34) - Being a Strategic RevOps professional
(11:32) - Weekly forecast meetings
(15:39) - One KPI
(21:34) - How do you get time to be strategic?
(24:40) - Priorities, problems & solutions
(27:44) - Pipeline council
(34:31) - How to become proactive
(38:09) - You can be the first person
Sep 12, 2023 • 31min
4 things great teams do now
We've talked with a bunch of great folks. To help you improve GTM performance, we've distilled it into 4 things top teams are doing today.And... we've added a bonus, so it's really 5.(00:00) - Introduction
(02:32) - What the great teams are doing
(03:35) - More AEs doesn't mean more deals
(08:31) - Unblend the funnel and optimize resource allocation
(13:43) - Focus on the skill level
(18:03) - The parking lot exercise
(23:59) - Continuous improvement
