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In this episode, James Stone talks about investing in future growth and implementing meaningful automation, especially in your sales processes. James breaks down why investing in future growth is important, how automation in sales helps drive future growth, his framework for driving future growth in sales, and how to define key success metrics (KPIs) in your sales processes. He also shares valuable resources, like books and podcasts, so you can learn more about sales and growing your business’s revenue.
James Stone is Director of North American MidMarket Sales at HubSpot. During his tenure at HubSpot, James both founded and led the HubSpot for startups program, and helped the company grow from about 150 employees and $30 Million ARR to over 5000 employees and over $1 Billion ARR.
“The problems you have six months from now are going to be much different than the problems you have two years from now and finding that balance, I think, is very, very important.”
There are short-term priorities and long-term priorities in any business. A challenge anyone in business will face is how to invest in long-term growth. When thinking about investing in future growth, it’s about taking resources you currently have and the revenue you’re receiving and putting a plan together to accomplish short-term goals, mitigate risk and put yourself in a position 12-36 months down the road to keep growing at the rate that you want.
Automation helps you increase your team’s efficiency in completing tasks. There are two ways to increase your revenue, grow your human capital and increase efficiency and productivity per sales representative. Automation can help improve a rep’s productivity.
The first step is to identify your key metrics (KPIs) that really drive your success and your growth goals, then see where you can grow. Then, figure out how you can compensate and incentivize your sales team to accomplish those goals. What key processes and functions could be tweaked to work faster with automation?
In sales teams, engagement and activity metrics are super important, so I encourage you to start thinking about the typical activities of your sales processes. How many of those activities end up yielding discovery, connection calls, deals, or opportunities? Then, when thinking about the sales account manager, how many of those calls end up closing? That informs you that your sales team is doing a great job. Close percentage, average sale price, and types of products sold are also key metrics to keep an eye on.
Also, look at the clients you bring on board. What’s their lifetime value? How often do they upsell? What’s their dollar retention?
The book that first impressed me was How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie because one of the hardest parts of my role right now is hiring and onboarding individuals remotely, especially in a society where many people haven’t exceeded expectations remotely in their last role. I also love the Make It Happen Mondays podcast by John Barrows, Simon Sinek’s books, and Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin.
Ryan Neu – Founder & CEO of Vendr
Ryan Meadows – VP of Sales at Klaviyo
John Sherer – VP of Sales at Lattice
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