Scaling Sales and Qualifying Deals with Adam Aarons

Adam Aarons is a seasoned sales executive with
extensive knowledge of the risk and compliance space. Adam is
well known and admired for his time as the CRO of Okta, during
which Okta grew from a $1M startup to a publicly traded $300M+
ARR category winner. Adam was previously an active advisor to
Drata, and has now joined the company full time to drive revenue
at scale as CRO.


In this conversation with John McMahon, Adam discusses the keys
to scaling a salesforce, including productivity per head, average
deal size, and ramp times. He emphasizes the importance of
understanding the ideal customer profile and where they are
located. Adam also highlights the critical role of qualification
in the sales process, focusing on the ICE framework (Identify
pain, Champion, Economic buyer). He stresses the need for
continuous discovery and the importance of establishing decision
criteria. Adam shares insights on forecasting, metrics, and the
value of customer success in reducing churn and driving revenue.
He also discusses the challenges and lessons learned when
transitioning from a sales rep to a manager, VP, and CRO on this
episode of Revenue Builders.


HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT:


[0:00:42] Introduction to Drata and its automation of compliance
data collection


[0:49:52] Using an automation platform to coordinate customer
outreach and marketing campaigns


[0:55:18] The need for effective communication and expectation
setting between managers


[1:00:55] The importance of coaching for young CROs


HIGHLIGHT QUOTES


[0:57:08] "Having respect and empathy for people that haven't
done it before, that you're working with to make sure that they
understand the why versus just saying, hey. Trust me, let me go
do my job like I know what I'm doing.”


[0:52:03] "If you're a leader and you're doing this work, it's
hard work. You should expect it to be hard. You should enjoy the
grind and enjoy the challenges because you learn so much in these
jobs that even with the things that you and I have talked about,
there's so much more depth that you could dive down into."


Learn more about Adam through this link:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-aarons-438111/


Check out John McMahon’s book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064