The classic model of enterprise sales (the relationship building, the big client dinners, the baseball games, etc) was upended in the 2010s. New approaches like inside sales offered better leverage for salespeople, better metrics to track performance, and a more assured funnel that helped SaaS companies drive efficient revenue growth. That foundation shows up directly in the markets: software companies have mostly survived the past few months and, in fact, have even thrived, driving higher valuations as investors flee to strong companies.
Now it looks like sales is going to be reinvented again in the 2020s. With social distancing, remote work, and massive economic calamities flowing across global business, can sales reinvent itself for what will almost certainly be a radically different decade? What strategies are the ticket to revenue growth this time around?
Given that sales is the lifeblood of most enterprise startups (and even some consumer startups these days), we wanted to make sure we had a great panel of people with the deep expertise to talk about what sales is going to look like going forward. And we’re excited about who we are bringing together to talk more about building a sales team on the Extra Crunch stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2020.
First, we have Brian Ascher, who is a partner at Venrock. Ascher has spent his two decade VC investing career focused on the sales market, backing such enterprise companies as 6Sense, Socrates AI, and Dynamic Signal. He’s going to bring his two-sides-of-the-table perspective to our discussion: how he advises founders on building sales teams today, as well as talking about what the market looks like for sales-focused software platforms.
Next, we have Pete Kazanjy, an authority on sales in Silicon Valley. Many founders learn sales through his popular works like “Founding Sales” as well as his intense community building. In addition to all of that leadership, he has also founded his own company, Atrium HQ, which builds tools for sales teams to increase their performance.
Third and finally, we have Jill Rowley, an early startup employee at enterprise giants Salesforce and Eloqua who has since spent more than a decade guiding and advising founders and executives on how to build out a sales teams and improve their performance. She brings a wealth of experience of all the different models of sales and how they interact with each other.
Sales is no less important today, but the models are once again changing. It’s critical that startup founders adapt to the changing nature of the beast, and we’re excited to have three experts provide a guide map. Plus, because this is the Extra Crunch stage, we will be taking audience questions throughout the panel. So come engage with us and learn the secrets to sales team success.
Disrupt 2020 kicks off tomorrow September 14-18. Get your Digital Pro Pass to participate in this interactive session along with the rest of the insightful content on the Extra Crunch stage.
