The Blueprint for a Sales Dream Team with Mark Roberge

In this episode of the Revenue Builders podcast, our hosts John
McMahon and John Kaplan talk to Hubspot’s original senior vice
president for sales and later Chief Revenue Officer, Mark
Roberge. Mark talks about working at Hubspot since day one,
building the sales department from the ground up, offering advice
on prioritization, hiring, addressing retention and reducing
churn. Mark also shares his present journey as a senior lecturer
at the Harvard Business School and Managing Director of the VC
firm Stage 2 Capital. 


 


Additional Resources:


Donate to Build.org: https://build.org/

Buy Mark's book:
https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Acceleration-Formula-Technology-Inbound/dp/1119047072

Listen to More Revenue Builders: https://forc.mx/3bfW5Od



 


HIGHLIGHTS


Titles generally do not mean anything 

You need to learn prioritization as a sales leader 

The best sales reps don't necessarily make the best sales
managers 

There is no such thing as a universal top sales hire profile

Don't take coachability for granted in hiring 

How Mark addressed employee retention at Hubspot 

Foray into investing and the lessons learned 

Is an economic winter coming? 

Mark's beef with most MBAs 



 


QUOTES


Mark answers why promoting your best seller as manager
isn't the best idea: "The job of salesperson and
manager is so different. Salesperson is going out doing great
discovery, moving people through a process, being good with your
time. Sales management is all about picking people and empathy,
understanding, connecting, and coaching and discipline."


Mark's advice for success in hiring:
"Have the discipline every quarter to sit down and look back on
your people that you hired six months ago so that you now know
are they doing well or not. And reflect on why and what those
attributes are and iterate on your scorecard. And have the
discipline to sue your scorecard in your hiring process." 


Mark's three biggest lessons about
retention: "Retention is probably your biggest
number, even more than top line revenue growth. Okay, that's
learning number one. Number two, the root of retention issues is
in sales. It's not in product, usually. Sometimes in product but
most of the time the root is in sales. And number three, the best
way to fix it is through compensation."


 


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