Insight
ACV experience matters more than domain knowledge when hiring sales reps
“Of those two, I'd go ACV. I think that it's actually much more important that somebody understand the profile and they understand the mechanics of doing a deal of that size with that profile. They can learn the subject matter expertise in many cases.”
Opinion
Workplace bias against mothers remains widespread in tech and business
“It is still very real in many corners. I think the thing that has changed is there are now places that we can work, that we can go where people are more enlightened and they understand that you can be both of those things. You can be in that world of being a p…”
Insight
Women should reject the narrative that parenting requires career trade-offs
“The single most important thing is don't apologize. Don't accept this narrative that it's a balance or a trade-off or you're giving something up somehow. It's up to you to define your own narrative, and you don't have to accept that idea.”
Insight
Individual sales reps cannot simultaneously handle SMB and enterprise deals
“I think the thing that goes wrong is when You've got a team focused on one segment and you ask them to dip a toe in the water of another segment. And it's very hard for any one person to both do, you know, high velocity bottom of the market deals and also do s…”
Insight
High-volume cold outbound sales outreach is dead and requires personalization
“Oh, high volume, cold, outbound at scale. It just is brutal. You've got to personalize. People are constantly hit from every angle. You got to give them something meaningful.”
Insight
Stevie Case: Single Motherhood Built Her Executive Superpowers of Focus and Intentionality
“The best part is really what started as the worst part, which was the forced intentionality and the focus that you have to have as a parent. I was forced to develop it as a single mom when she was very young, and now I think it's probably really, truly one of …”
Insight
Stevie Case: Showing vulnerability gives sales prospects permission to be imperfect
“When you're selling to people, you're selling to humans, and if you are vulnerable, and you show your weaknesses, and you show all aspects of your humanity, you actually give the other person permission to also not be perfect”
Insight
Stevie Case: Working parents should never apologize for routine family commitments
“Don't apologize for yourself because you're always going to have other commitments, things you need to leave for. Your child is going to show up on camera during Zoom calls. It's going to happen. You really do not need to apologize for that. Part of normalizin…”
Assertion Supported
Stevie Case was the world's first female professional gamer
“As the world's first female professional gamer.”
Insight
Demonstrating personal vulnerability is the best way to open people up
“The best way to open people up Is to give them comfort with your own vulnerability.”
Insight
Sales professionals can show imperfection because buyers buy from people
“Ultimately people still buy from people and you can be competent and also just a flawed human being who is uncomfortable and unsure at Times.”
Insight
Being a CRO is ultimately about math and score optimization
“And the math behind it to win being a CRO really is not all that different. You have to adapt constantly. It's very dynamic. You're putting together all of these different elements into a strategy. And ultimately the math has to work and really just the score …”
Insight
Combining PLG and sales too early creates customer friction
“You can, but I would caution you against trying to do both right away. I think in the early days of sales, you have to be very, very clear on what is the value prop for the customer and what is that experience. And when you try to combine PLG and a sales motio…”
Insight
Enterprise PLG requires sales reps to handle complex customer needs
“But if you're trying to sell into an enterprise, I am Pro-PLG in the enterprise, but you've got to have some sales folks to back it up as well because they always have needs that cannot be automated away.”
Insight
SMBs measure compliance speed while enterprise customers measure risk reduction
“So an SMB is measuring How quickly can I complete this process to prove I'm compliant? And a mid market customer is really measuring how much time can I save? How much risk can I reduce?”
Disclosure
Vanta created a dedicated enterprise team with a separate compensation plan
“And so in the middle of the summer, I created a team just to go after those mid-market and enterprise opportunities because it is, it's a very different cycle. So put that team on a different comp plan, gave them a little bit more space and time to experiment,…”
Insight
Non-sales executives should participate in sales hiring interview loops
“I think it's actually extremely valuable to get the perspectives of folks who are not salespeople in that process. Just because they haven't sold doesn't mean they don't know what good looks like.”
Insight
Whiteboard roleplays expose sales candidates who interview well but fail under pressure
“You put them up at a whiteboard and ask them to do discovery in an uncomfortable situation. That's where a lot of them fall down.”
Insight
Sales candidates requiring guaranteed compensation are poor fits for early-stage startups
“Somebody who indexes too hard on those guarantees probably is not a fit in a startup.”
Insight
Sales spiffs should incentivize specific behaviors rather than top-line revenue
“A SPF is going to work best when you tie it to something else that might not be directly tied into how they're incentivized in the comp plan, but it's something you need them to do and is important to the business.”
Insight
Slipped enterprise sales deals almost always stem from poor initial discovery
“So many great salespeople suffer from this, and ultimately, this is a failure of discovery. When this happens, you can almost always trace it back to the beginning of the conversation in that deal, and a lack of understanding of some key factors.”
Insight
Avoiding CFOs early in the process causes enterprise sales deals to collapse
“The most important thing in an environment like this is that your sellers pull those people into deals much earlier. So the junior sellers approach in these kind of environments is I want to avoid the CFO at all costs. And like in the world of Vanta, I want to…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Vanta is reprioritizing cost savings over growth drivers in enterprise sales
“The thing that does have to shift as we move forward now in this new environment is that the value drivers that matter are a little bit different. So we're going to have a little more emphasis on cost savings. And efficiency and yes, growth still matters. Ever…”
Assertion Partly supported
Stevie Case successfully sued her Kansas school board over a banned book
“So I sued my Kansas school district because they banned a book. You know, I grew up in Kansas outside of Kansas City. The school board banned a book because it was an award-winning book, but it had homosexual theme. And I did not feel that was either right or …”
Stevie Case