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Mar 28, 2022 · 18m · saastr

How to Set and Hit Revenue Targets with Sam Blond, CRO at Brex | SaaStr Software Community

Sam Blond · 16m spoken
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Brex CRO Sam Blond presents a strategic framework for setting achievable, high-confidence revenue targets that foster an organizational winning culture and accelerate long-term startup growth.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →

Jason as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.4 Jason pushing back 0.0
05100:0010:001:16–5:30 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 The Two Variables: Target Setting vs. Performance This is a solo presentation by Sam Blond with no active host interaction. Blond shares his framework that where you set revenue targets is just as critical as how you perform, advocating for setting targets with 90% confidence.5:30–7:57 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Cultivating a Winning Culture: Chiefs vs. Lions Blond continues his solo presentation, contrasting the winning locker room culture of the Kansas City Chiefs with the losing culture of the Detroit Lions to illustrate why hit targets matter.7:57–13:02 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Scaling Targets Over Time and Managing Board Expectations Blond explains how targets evolve from monthly to quarterly and annual cadences, illustrating board alignment with an anecdote about a founder who needlessly over-promised to his board.13:02–16:46 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Driving Performance: Visibility, Celebrating Streaks, and Quota Alignment Blond details operational tactics for driving performance, including weekly visibility, celebrating consecutive hit streaks at Brex, and aligning quota so that 70% of reps hit target.16:49–18:29 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 The Compounding Power of Winning and Key Takeaways Blond concludes his talk by summarizing the counterintuitive reality that setting achievable targets leads to faster compounding growth than setting demoralizing aggressive targets.1:16–5:30 · Guest teaching 0/10 The Two Variables: Target Setting vs. Performance This is a solo presentation by Sam Blond with no active host interaction. Blond shares his framework that where you set revenue targets is just as critical as how you perform, advocating for setting targets with 90% confidence.5:30–7:57 · Guest teaching 0/10 Cultivating a Winning Culture: Chiefs vs. Lions Blond continues his solo presentation, contrasting the winning locker room culture of the Kansas City Chiefs with the losing culture of the Detroit Lions to illustrate why hit targets matter.7:57–13:02 · Guest teaching 0/10 Scaling Targets Over Time and Managing Board Expectations Blond explains how targets evolve from monthly to quarterly and annual cadences, illustrating board alignment with an anecdote about a founder who needlessly over-promised to his board.13:02–16:46 · Guest teaching 0/10 Driving Performance: Visibility, Celebrating Streaks, and Quota Alignment Blond details operational tactics for driving performance, including weekly visibility, celebrating consecutive hit streaks at Brex, and aligning quota so that 70% of reps hit target.16:49–18:29 · Guest teaching 0/10 The Compounding Power of Winning and Key Takeaways Blond concludes his talk by summarizing the counterintuitive reality that setting achievable targets leads to faster compounding growth than setting demoralizing aggressive targets.1:16–5:30 · Guest disagreement 1/10 The Two Variables: Target Setting vs. Performance This is a solo presentation by Sam Blond with no active host interaction. Blond shares his framework that where you set revenue targets is just as critical as how you perform, advocating for setting targets with 90% confidence.5:30–7:57 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Cultivating a Winning Culture: Chiefs vs. Lions Blond continues his solo presentation, contrasting the winning locker room culture of the Kansas City Chiefs with the losing culture of the Detroit Lions to illustrate why hit targets matter.7:57–13:02 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Scaling Targets Over Time and Managing Board Expectations Blond explains how targets evolve from monthly to quarterly and annual cadences, illustrating board alignment with an anecdote about a founder who needlessly over-promised to his board.13:02–16:46 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Driving Performance: Visibility, Celebrating Streaks, and Quota Alignment Blond details operational tactics for driving performance, including weekly visibility, celebrating consecutive hit streaks at Brex, and aligning quota so that 70% of reps hit target.16:49–18:29 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Compounding Power of Winning and Key Takeaways Blond concludes his talk by summarizing the counterintuitive reality that setting achievable targets leads to faster compounding growth than setting demoralizing aggressive targets.1:16–5:30 · Jason pushing back 0/10 The Two Variables: Target Setting vs. Performance This is a solo presentation by Sam Blond with no active host interaction. Blond shares his framework that where you set revenue targets is just as critical as how you perform, advocating for setting targets with 90% confidence.5:30–7:57 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Cultivating a Winning Culture: Chiefs vs. Lions Blond continues his solo presentation, contrasting the winning locker room culture of the Kansas City Chiefs with the losing culture of the Detroit Lions to illustrate why hit targets matter.7:57–13:02 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Scaling Targets Over Time and Managing Board Expectations Blond explains how targets evolve from monthly to quarterly and annual cadences, illustrating board alignment with an anecdote about a founder who needlessly over-promised to his board.13:02–16:46 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Driving Performance: Visibility, Celebrating Streaks, and Quota Alignment Blond details operational tactics for driving performance, including weekly visibility, celebrating consecutive hit streaks at Brex, and aligning quota so that 70% of reps hit target.16:49–18:29 · Jason pushing back 0/10 The Compounding Power of Winning and Key Takeaways Blond concludes his talk by summarizing the counterintuitive reality that setting achievable targets leads to faster compounding growth than setting demoralizing aggressive targets.

speaking balance: gold is Jason, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%0:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%3:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%3:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%15:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%15:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%18:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%18:00 · Jason 0% · guest 100%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 4:45 Contrarian take on conservative target setting

Blond acknowledges that his philosophy of setting targets conservatively with 90% confidence runs contrary to standard Silicon Valley aggressive target setting.

 Hardest push from Jason ▶ 1:15 No host pushback (Solo presentation)

This session is a solo keynote address by Sam Blond, so no host pushback occurs.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:00 Advising founder on board target reset

Blond walks through his coaching of a founder on why overpromising a 40M target creates downside, advising him to reset to the board's 28M expectation.

 Jason holds their own ▶ 1:15 No host intervention (Solo presentation)

Because this is a solo keynote presentation without host participation, no host expertise demonstration takes place.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicJason as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementJason pushing backWhy
The Two Variables: Target Setting vs. Performance 0010 This is a solo presentation by Sam Blond with no active host interaction. Blond shares his framework that where you set revenue targets is just as critical as how you perform, advocating for setting targets with 90% confidence.
Cultivating a Winning Culture: Chiefs vs. Lions 0000 Blond continues his solo presentation, contrasting the winning locker room culture of the Kansas City Chiefs with the losing culture of the Detroit Lions to illustrate why hit targets matter.
Scaling Targets Over Time and Managing Board Expectations 0010 Blond explains how targets evolve from monthly to quarterly and annual cadences, illustrating board alignment with an anecdote about a founder who needlessly over-promised to his board.
Driving Performance: Visibility, Celebrating Streaks, and Quota Alignment 0000 Blond details operational tactics for driving performance, including weekly visibility, celebrating consecutive hit streaks at Brex, and aligning quota so that 70% of reps hit target.
The Compounding Power of Winning and Key Takeaways 0000 Blond concludes his talk by summarizing the counterintuitive reality that setting achievable targets leads to faster compounding growth than setting demoralizing aggressive targets.

Statements from this episode (8)

Insight
Blond: Startups Should Set First Targets When Dedicated Sales Reps Are Hired
“When you really need to set your first target is when you have dedicated salespeople who are focused on revenue.”
Sam Blond Mar 28, 2022 ▶ 2:47
Insight
Blond: Early-Stage Startups Should Set Targets on a Monthly Cadence
“Initially, you want to set targets on a monthly cadence. There's no advantage early on to setting, ah, targets that are farther out into the future. You want to set monthly revenue targets.”
Sam Blond Mar 28, 2022 ▶ 3:45
Insight
Blond: Sales Revenue Targets Should Be Set With 90% Confidence
“I set the target with 90% confidence that we're able to hit it.”
Sam Blond Mar 28, 2022 ▶ 4:30
Disclosure
Blond: Brex shifted from monthly to quarterly and then annual targets
“Brex launched in June of 2018. We had monthly targets for June, July, August, September, October, November, December. The year of 2019, we switched to quarterly targets. And so we said at the beginning of 2019, where do we want to be in the month of March? Whe…”
Sam Blond Mar 28, 2022 ▶ 8:12
Insight
Blond: Founders gain no advantage setting revenue targets above board expectations
“There was no advantage for this CEO to set the target at forty million dollars in the first place. What you should have done with hindsight, is reached out to the board before the meeting, said, what does a successful twenty-twenty-two look like to you all? Th…”
Sam Blond Mar 28, 2022 ▶ 12:32
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Brex hit consecutive monthly targets from June 2018 to November 2019
“We started these monthly revenue targets in June of 2018. The first target that we missed was November of 2019.”
Sam Blond Mar 28, 2022 ▶ 14:31
Insight
Blond: Companies should set quotas so roughly 70% of reps hit target
“Philosophically you want some consistency with those targets, but also you want something like 70% of your sales team over target or over quota.”
Sam Blond Mar 28, 2022 ▶ 15:59
Insight
Blond: Achievable targets drive faster growth than aggressive stretch goals
“Your business will actually grow much faster with the winning culture and it's counterintuitive. If you set a target that is higher you may think that that's going to drive more behavior and ultimately drive higher performance from your team. But if you're mis…”
Sam Blond Mar 28, 2022 ▶ 16:54
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