$5 Million to $25 Million in Under Two Years, with Kyle Porter, CEO of Salesloft

In this episode of SaaS Connect by Cloud Software Association, Kyle Porter, CEO of Salesloft, provides rich information about how organizational health, values, mission, vision and alignment are the greatest competitive advantages a company can have. Kyle shares how he never used what he was taught from his wise mentors and ended up running his business into the ground, burning $250,000 of investors’ money. He decided to reboot the business and start up again from scratch, this time making the choice to focus entirely on organizational health, mission, vision and values. Five years later, the business experienced dramatic growth in revenue, expanding at the rate of 120% annually. Today, with 350 employees, Salesloft is the seventh fastest growing company in North America. What changed? Here are the lessons any company can implement: Everyone at the top needs to be the first to take organizational values to heart and inject them into every element of the business. Tactics for focusing on organizational values: 1. Have a one-page strategic plan that includes the purpose (why you do what you do), defined values (how you will behave), mission, three-year core strategies, annual goals, quarterly goals and quarterly objectives. At a special meeting, every person in the organization presents their own individual objectives and how these fit into the company’s objectives.This helps the business stay focused on the right things. 2. Every weekend the CEO provides an update to every person involved in the company. In this episode, Kyle shares what he includes in the update and how this activity keeps him as CEO accountable, too. 3. Values-based interviews to make sure the staff they bring on board fit the values of the company. Every single prospective employee goes through value-check interviews. Competitive differentiating factors: 1. Customer first 2. Team before self 3. Bias towards action 4. Focus on results 5. Glass half full How the company rewards employees. The measurements of a values-driven company. Q&As 1. Why is it so effective to think about sales from a human values and engagement point of view, and how to do it if you have a small team, even of about five? 2. How to handle resistance to change? 3. How to get a company from the point of just talking about being value-driven, to actually becoming value-driven? 4. What’s the most awkward question you’ve ever been asked by an employee? 5. As the CEO, where do you turn to when you’re struggling with a challenge? 6. How to get over the fear of selling. Resources Mentioned: Pardot Mindspring Earthlink Techstars Glassdoor Deloitte LinkedIn Evernote Google Chrome Quora Thank you to our amazing podcast team at Content Allies. Want to launch your own B2B revenue-generating podcasts? Contact them at https://ContentAllies.com