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Clarity

Pete Ryan

Austin, Texas

Co-CEO at Hfiive (hf.app). Former Head of Enterprise Sales at Trello (Atlassian). Previously started 500 Startups-backed, Gogohire - Sales Talent Network; grew the company to $1M Run Rate, 350+ customers, $200M in GMV. One of the first sales hires at LinkedIn and launched LinkedIn's Sales Solutions division.

$2.50/min

51

51 Calls

20

20 Reviews

35 minutes
Avg. call

Marketing Entrepreneurship Fundraising Sales Enterprise Software Early-stage Startups Strategic Partnerships Sales Process Direct Sales Sales Presentations

Answers 19
Reviews 20

Answers

Pete Ryan answered

How can I get data entry help for a newly started BPO company?

I would find talent on UpWork. If you post one job and include your Skype or Email the response will be overwhelming. I am not sure you are going to want some high quality candidates -- I'd create a Google Form with a series of questions to properly vet the candidates coming through. You can then put your top five candidates on a one week trial period measuring the quality and speed of their work to determine if you would like to continue working with them.

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Early-stage Startups

BPO

Data Entry

Pete Ryan answered

What are the most reputable email verification vendors? How crucial is this step in email marketing?

Most startups use Kickbox.io. If you need to verify 300K emails make sure you use their API to do so. You'll get shut off if you upload CSVs of email addresses.

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Email Marketing

Email Management

Email List Building

Pete Ryan answered

Do you know a follow-up email expert to write for my company?

What type of emails (marketing / sales)?

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Email Strategy

Email Marketing

Pete Ryan answered

What is the best commission model when hiring a sales person to sell digital marketing services to small businesses?

Option #1 (recommended): Use https://www.voiq.com/ and skip hiring someone.

Option #2: Hire an SDR (right out of college, ex-athlete): and pay them an hourly rate as a consultant (3 month trial period). Pay them upon deals closing (commission % - the % will depend on your margins and the the On-Target Earnings you'd like them to make) and then give them bonuses in the form of prizes (i.e. a trip to Vegas for hitting their quota -- # of calls, # of meetings/# of opportunities created, # of deals closed that they sourced). Bonuses in the form of physical Gifts, especially at the SDR level, have been proven to drive employee happiness over $.

If you have additional questions, happy to get on a call.

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Sales

Sales Operations

Sales Process

Pete Ryan answered

Where can I find sales professionals for the International market?

I would try AngelList (free), Hired (15% of salary) and LinkedIn (free). If you are using LinkedIn, I'd hire someone in the SE Asia through Upwork that does data-entry and then I'd have them copy and paste the first name, last name and company into a spreadsheet from a LinkedIn search you did. Then I'd upload that list into Toofr to get their emails. Then I'd send a mail-merge to the 500 or so candidates using "Yet Another Mailmerge" (free google plugin) or Outreach.io ($110 / mo). Of the 500 candidates you reach out to, you should hear back from 50, set up calls with 10 and hire 1.

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Sales

Strategy

Founder

Pete Ryan answered

Strategies for lead generation and sales to Bariatric Surgeons

Doximity (https://www.doximity.com/) has over 500,000 doctors and surgeons across the US on their professional network. I'd sign up, do a search for "Bariatric Surgeons" and then use Toofr.com to get their email. Doctors will be nearly impossible to get ahold of by phone. Email will be your best shot. Once you figure out the process for finding their first name, last name and hospital name you can hire someone on Upwork for $3 per hour to do the data-entry and Toofr uploads.

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Marketing Strategy

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Sales

Pete Ryan answered

How to compensate a sales person?

I'd make sure you have a process in place in Salesforce to ensure there is a line in the sand regarding the difference between a lead and sale. I've seen issues come about if there is no set process in place, resulting in a grey area.

Also, I'd consider having a variable commission structure.
i.e.
$0-$50K = 10%
$50k-$100K = 12%
$100K - $200K = 14%
$200K - $300K = 16%
etc...
The more a sales a salesperson brings in, the more commission they should make.

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Sales Management

Sales Operations

Pete Ryan answered

What kind of sales roles are there in a company like i.e. Box?

VP of Sales
Director of Sales
Sales Managers - manage different teams (AE's/AM's/CSM's/SDR's across different market segments: SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise).

Account Executives: focused on net new business
Account Managers: focused on retaining / up-selling existing business
Customer Success: often measured differently than Account Managers and role is to ensure customer is engaged and trained on product; sometimes CSM can mean AM and vice versa
(typically AE's/AM's/CSM's are on different teams selling into different market segments; SMB, Mid-Market and Enterprise)

Sales Engineers: brought into deals by AE's / AM's as a technical expert to help close deals

Sales Development Reps: role is to generate leads for AE's (sometimes AM's also). Often are different types of SDR's (inbound versus outbound).

Other misc sales roles:
Head of Sales Operations
Head of Sales Enablement
Head of Sales Training

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Sales

Sales Process

Sales Operations

Pete Ryan answered

How many SaaS enterprise sales can a salesman make.

This is a really tough question to answer without more context.

Market(s) your selling into?
Vertical(s) your selling into?
Average deal size?
Pricing model?
Competition?
How long your team has been selling?
Experience of the sales reps?

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Sales

Sales Management

SaaS

Pete Ryan answered

How can I build a marketplace mobile app?

1. write down the whole process in-depth on both sides from sign-up to transaction
2. Find similar marketplace apps on the app store and pick one that is inline with what you are looking to build
3. Use UXpin to mock-up what you are looking to build using the other app as a guide
4. Then I'd hire and sit down with a designer and let them design it (cost $2K - $10K)
5. I'd go through a few revisions based on a) features that are missing b) user feedback (use Invisionapp for this)
6) Then I'd hire a iOS development to build the app.

Tip: spend a ton of time with the designer to build the app and make it as simple as possible; don't try to boil the ocean and/or skip steps. If you spend a lot of time in the beginning, the developer's job will be that much easier. Gigster seems to be a good place to find high quality designers and developers.

After you have the app built, the hardest part will be to actually get users and transactions. With marketplaces you need to seed/fake one side of the marketplace in the early days. If you focus on trying to attract supply AND demand from the start, you'll never be able to do one very well.

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Mobile applications

Mobile Application Design

Mobile Apps

Pete Ryan answered

Should we offer a referral bonus to my clients?

I'd say client referrals are different from resellers. Value Added Resellers are typically partners in adjacent markets that sell your product for a fee (typically 20%).

Client referrals should be free! If you have ever read the book Predictably Irrational, it mentions cases like this; studies have been shown that the intrinsic motivation (helping someone for free and feeling good about it) is a much more powerful motivator than actually getting paid for helping others.

Provided that you have strong relationships with your customers and they like your product, they should want to help you and their friends (helping their friends by telling them about your product!).

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Referrals

Sales

Client Relationship Building

Reviews

It was a pleasure speaking with Pete as he shared some incredibly valuable insights and advice on a new product idea we're exploring and if/how it might look when taking it to market.

Zach Wade Source: Clarity

Pete is an excellent entrepreneur and sales professional. I would highly recommend him to anyone seeking expertise around growing their sales.

Chase Hughes Source: Clarity

Pete is a super sales leads and advisor. He gave me solid advice and it's informed the business and sales strategy. I left the call with clarity, a bunch of actions, and the next steps to take. I will reach out to Pete again in the future. Highly recommended.

Ryan Falconer Source: Clarity

I got a lot of valuable feedback from Pete. If you're exploring building a sales solution, I recommend you reach out to Pete!

Kishan Bhoopalam Source: Clarity

Pete was great to speak to. Such a knowledgeable SaaS expert. Looking forward to my next call!!!

Peter T Source: Clarity

Pete had fresh ideas and new perspectives that I haven't thought of before. I am excited to try them out as they sound like game changers! I highly recommend you speak with him.

Alex A. Source: Clarity

Great, insightful call with Pete. He gave very specific, actionable advice that I can implement immediately. It was exactly the type of help I needed. He even offered to follow up with additional materials that would help with my project. Highly recommend.

Jared Iverson Source: Clarity

As was last time - another great chat with Pete. Another call in the works!

Yossi Mlynsky Source: Clarity

Thanks for your help Pete! This was a really valuable call. Made our plans for sales much clearer, with practical advice I can use right away. Highly recommended.

Pietro S. Source: Clarity

Session with Pete was amazing. Pointed my sales team in the right direction. Loads to get to work on!

Yossi Mlynsky Source: Clarity

Great stuff from Pete. Helped me get out of my head on a few issues with designing our new sales team and process.

Jasen Barnes Source: Clarity

Member since July 2013