026: Predictable Sales Growth with best-selling author Aaron Ross

On the heels of a failed startup in 2002, Aaron Ross stumbled into a call-center position at Salesforce.com. Looking for sales perspective, Aaron discovered something much bigger. The discovery, covered in his best-selling book Predictable Revenue, was a revolutionary approach to outbound selling that led SalesForce from $5M to $100M in sales. Since then, Aaron has helped companies like Uber, SAP, and Oracle figure out how to build scalable, predictable revenue. These strategies, as well as the concepts of "hypergrowth" covered in his recent book with co-author Jason Lemkin, are a just few of the topics we cover as we explore the secrets of predictable sales growth.

“The things that will change your growth rate are often the things you don’t feel comfortable doing.”

On this episode, you'll learn:

• How Aaron went from a failed startup to helping SalesForce.com grow from $5m to $100M in revenue
• The sales challenges at Salesforce that led to "Predictable Revenue" and Cold Calling 2.0
• 3 factors to determine whether an outbound strategy is right for your organization
• How to get your SDR's to think for themselves and away from email template fixation
• A compensation model for Outbound SDR's
• The sales mindset or SDRs - how to promote consultative selling and adaptability
• "Nailing A Niche" and knowing when you’re not ready to grow
• How to cross the trust gap and reach customers who don’t know you
• How to go upmarket and increase your average deal size
• From 0-9 kids in 6 years - how to promote an entrepreneur work-life balance