Aug 7, 2019 · 38m · saastr
"The Secret to SMB Sales" Accel Partner Andrei Brasoveanu and Doctolib CDO Agnes Bazin
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this fireside discussion hosted by Accel Partner Andrei Brasoveanu, Doctolib Chief Development Officer Agnes Bazin breaks down how the healthcare unicorn scaled its pan-European SMB sales organization through operational rigor, high-touch change management, and a culture of internal talent promotion.
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 2.5 Guest teaching 5.8 Guest disagreement 0.0 Jason pushing back 0.0
speaking balance: gold is Jason, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 16:08 Firm rejection of blaming product for sales issues
In a non-adversarial interview, Agnes asserts a strict boundary, explaining that reps cannot be allowed to default to blaming product shortcomings for lost deals.
Hardest push from Jason ▶ 33:48 Challenging standard SaaS executive hiring normsAndrei questions how Doctolib navigated scaling without hiring specialized executive layers for distinct ARR milestones.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 12:35 Sales rep onboarding requirement for SMB trustAgnes explains why passing signed customers to separate implementation teams destroys trust in SMB healthcare sales, forcing reps to handle setup themselves.
Jason holds their own ▶ 33:48 VC perspective on VP of Sales stage transitionsAndrei articulates the industry benchmark of replacing VPs of Sales between 0 to 50M and 50M to 100M ARR stages, demonstrating SaaS market expertise.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Jason as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Jason pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Structuring Sales Organization: Field Sales and Inside Sales Expansion | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Andrei prompts Agnes with standard high-level questions about sales organization structure. Agnes provides an in-depth breakdown of early field sales expansion mistakes across small French cities and the accidental creation of their inside sales motion. | |
| The Doctolib Sales Playbook and Iterative Process | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | The conversation is entirely collaborative as Andrei invites Agnes to share the sales playbook. Agnes delivers an educational masterclass detailing why sales reps must perform training themselves, diagnosing failures across people, script, or product, and rebuilding Salesforce three times. | |
| Sales Operations, Training Academy, and Best Practice Scaling | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | Andrei frames a question around Accel's focus on software automation, while Agnes explains tactile sales ops methods, including the Doctolib Sales Bible, practical field tricks like bringing croissants to gatekeepers, and observing reps all day to identify automation opportunities. | |
| Recruitment Principles and Internal Promotion Strategy | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | Andrei demonstrates industry insight by noting how SaaS companies typically swap VP of Sales across ARR stages. Agnes explains how Doctolib bypassed external executive hires in France, promoting individual contributors all the way to Managing Director based on strict performance and mindset criteria. |
Statements from this episode (13)
Brasoveanu: Doctolib reaches 80k doctors, 1,700 hospitals, and 900 employees
“They currently work with 80,000 doctors, growing up to 3000 per month 1700 hospitals, thirty-five million strong patient community, 900 employees.”
Brasoveanu: Doctolib raises $280M total and nears $100M ARR
“Since then, the company has continued to grow tremendously, and have raised a total of two hundred eighty million dollars, most recently passing the one billion valuation mark, and are fast approaching a hundred million dollars in recurring revenue.”
Bazin: Field sales territories need 2,000 to 3,000 prospects per rep
“So you've gotta make sure that each A business developer got, ah, like, a pipe of prospect that is not too scattered around so that he doesn't spend the whole day in his car. So you've got to split your territory between, you know, pools of 2003 thousand prosp…”
Bazin: Inside sales only works for solo practices and non-medical specialties
“And then what we realized is that it works, but only for certain segments. So it works for simple organization with single doctors. Mostly for, you know, non-medical specialities like physio psychologist and everything where it's easier to change things in the…”
Bazin: Doctolib Generates Majority of Sales Through Inbound
“And basically, I think it's only thanks to having thousands and thousands of meetings every week with super nice, super entrepreneurial guys that doctors love, that we build such a huge trust on the French market. That allows us today to have a majority of our…”
Bazin: Doctolib Rebuilt Salesforce From Scratch Three Times
“And what's actually funny is that we had to rebuild our Salesforce from scratch three times.”
Bazin: Evaluate Reps and Scripts Before Blaming the Product
“Most of the time in sales, there are three, you know, options where it doesn't work. So the first option is that the wrong person is selling your product, people problem. Second option is that you're not selling your product in the right way. So it's basically…”
Bazin: Sales reps can deviate from playbooks only if they overperform
“There, basically, there's a rule that if you overperform, you can do whatever you want. But if you cannot prove, you know, superior performance, then you have to, you know, stick to the best practices that we've set up and shared and everything.”
Bazin: Doctolib built a 25-person recruitment team structured like a sales org
“So we build, I build a 25 people recruitment team that work exactly like a sales organization.”
Bazin: Waiting 10 days to respond to sales applicants loses all top candidates
“So if you've got applications in sales, you wait for 10 days to answer them, you can be sure that the only ones that would be left would be the bad ones, because the other guys, they can get, you know, offers within 10 days.”
Bazin: A candidate's past track record does not count in sales hiring
“And I think in sales more than for any other type of population, what matters is to It's that, you know, the track record doesn't count at all.”
Bazin: Doctolib built a 300-person French sales org with zero executive hires
“I think that in France, we build a 300 people sales organization with zero executive hire. Hundreds of people were hired as individual business developers.”
Bazin: Doctolib CEO walked 20km door-to-door with reps in new cities
“Our CEO and founder, Stan, he's really leading by example, and so, for example, at the beginning, I explained to you that we opened, like, 15 cities, so he would spend one day alone with the guy, And so when he goes there are two options. Either the guy had en…”