From Zero to $50M ARR: Building a Winning Startup Team, Culture, and Sales Process from Scratch

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From Zero to $50M ARR: How to Build a Winning Startup Team, Culture, and Sales Process from Scratch

Simon Horrocks is a serial startup leader who has helped build and grow not just one but seven startups.

Here’s his advice:

1. Follow the lead of those who’ve done it

Simon shared that if you’re starting from zero, look at the playbook of those companies that have already sold their solutions in Asia and find out what’s worked for them. Look at the template of their sales teams as well, focusing on job titles, industries, and companies of size. Next, to create a value statement, make a smaller list of customers and target them high in organisations.

For example, when starting Science Logic, Simon shared that one of their first SDRs, created a list of 100 Managed Service Providers (MSPs) that included Azure Communications. After getting their foot in the door at Azure, they became their first customer—and a six-figure deal at that.

This approach helps startups stay on track and develop a solid foundation for success in their respective regions.

Switch actionable tips:

1. Analyse Successful Companies' Playbooks. If you're launching a new software product in Asia, study their sales strategies and teams' structures. Identify the key factors that contributed to their success and adapt similar strategies to your own startup's context.
2. Secure Early Wins to Build Credibility. Aim to secure a few early customers who can serve as reference points for potential clients. Highlight these wins in your marketing materials and conversations to encourage more organisations to engage with your startup.
3. Craft a Compelling Value Statement. Develop a concise and compelling value statement that highlights the unique benefits of your product. Craft personalised messages that show how your solution addresses their pain points and contributes to their success.

2. Be process-oriented in hiring people

Simon believes that recruiting your go-to-market team involves building an initial team of people with the same StartUp DNA. Sales leaders play a crucial role, as they will be the ones to promote people from the bottom.

Moreover, never hire people based on your gut. Put candidates through due process, including interviews with multiple people in the organisation. More importantly, treat candidates as human beings and treat them with respect.

Switch actionable tips:

1. Establish a Consistent Hiring Framework. Develop a structured hiring process that involves defining the essential traits, skills, and values that align with your startup’s DNA and persona. For example, if you're building a sales team for a technology startup, identify qualities such as resilience, adaptability, and customer-centricity.
2. Implement Multi-Faceted Candidate Evaluation. Design a multi-stage interview process that includes assessments, technical tasks, and behavioural interviews. For instance, if you're hiring a marketing specialist, let candidates present a marketing campaign strategy as part of the evaluation process. Engage a variety of interviewers to assess their suitability.
3. Foster a Respectful and Transparent Candidate Experience. Treat candidates with empathy and professionalism throughout the hiring journey. Communicate openly about the interview process, timeline, and expectations. Provide feedback to candidates after interviews, whether positive or constructive.

3. Find people with intelligence, character, coachability, and experience

In a startup environment, Simon believes that people who are going to succeed have a combination of Intelligence, Character, Coachability, and Experience or ICCE, just like what Ankesh told us in this episode.

Character is crucial in the startup world, as it helps overcome disillusionment. People must learn how to transition to an organisation where no one knows their name or product.

Meanwhile, to ensure your hiring will be a success, it's essential to test for character and avoid overspending on recruiters. Nevertheless, don’t skimp on their margins either. Simon shared that he made this mistake and lost 20 good candidates.

Switch actionable tips:

1. Develop an ICCE Framework for Hiring. Create a structured framework that evaluates candidates based on Intelligence, Character, Coachability, and Experience (ICCE). If you're hiring for a technical role, for example, assess a candidate's technical proficiency (Intelligence), their alignment with your company's values and mission (Character), their willingness to learn and adapt (Coachability), and their relevant industry expertise (Experience).
2. Prioritise Character Assessment. Ask behavioural interview questions that reveal how candidates handle challenges, setbacks, and unfamiliar situations. For example, inquire about a time when a candidate had to adapt to a new work environment. Assess their ability to navigate uncertainty and remain resilient.
3. Optimise Recruiter Engagement and Investment. Balance your approach to working with recruiters. While it's important not to overspend on recruiting fees, recognise the value that experienced recruiters bring to the table. Negotiate reasonable margins with recruiters to ensure their commitment and dedication.

4. Build a sales process around your North Star

In the early stages of building a sales process and cadence, it is crucial to focus on the North Star, which is the problem being solved for the customer. The North Star concept prioritises understanding the problem at hand, whether it's a goal or need.

To follow the North Star approach, sales leaders and teams need to be relentlessly curious. Simon believes that customers will be more engaging if they know you’re helping them solve their business issues, reduce costs, bring more revenue, or hit a KPI.

Moreover, a great meeting can be ruined if the problem isn't addressed. Simon’s former boss, John Bierman at Netcordia/Infoblox, used to ask the first question of the meeting, "What problem are we solving?" Simon shared that this approach has been his guiding line for successful meetings.

Switch actionable tips:

1. Center Your Sales Process on Customer Value (North Star). Ensure that every step in your sales process aligns with solving the customer's pain points. During interactions, emphasise the direct benefits your solution brings, such as increased efficiency or time savings. This approach fosters stronger customer engagement and positions your product as a valuable solution.
2. Cultivate Curiosity and Value-driven Conversations. When engaging with potential clients, initiate conversations by asking open-ended questions that uncover their pain points and goals. This curiosity-driven approach enables you to tailor your pitch to directly address their specific needs, making your interactions more relevant and engaging.
3. Prioritise Problem-Solving in Meetings. Begin meetings by explicitly identifying and discussing the problem that needs solving. For example, if you're meeting with a potential partner for your e-commerce platform, start by clarifying their pain points related to order fulfilment or inventory management. This ensures that the meeting's focus remains on providing solutions and adding value to the customer.

5. Focus on Leading Metrics instead of Lagging Metrics

While lagging indicators like a qualified pipeline may help you forecast, they do not directly improve your sales process. Instead, Simon believes you need to focus more on leading indicators and understand conversion rates so that you can forecast more accurately.

For example, Simon learned in the past that if a boss is present at the first business meeting, there is a 2x chance of finding an opportunity that ultimately goes to POC. This is because the team has done more preparation and given more care to their presentation to accommodate the boss.

By understanding these stats early in the process, you can make adjustments before they leak through to your revenue.

Switch actionable tips:

1. Focus on Leading Indicators for Process Improvement. Track metrics such as the number of initial meetings held, follow-up interactions, or the quality of presentations delivered. If you're selling software solutions, monitor the rate at which prospects request and attend product demos.
2. Identify Key Conversion Rate Drivers. Delve deeper into conversion rates to uncover actionable insights. Analyse historical data to identify other similar correlation factors. If you're selling B2B solutions, examine whether providing a detailed ROI analysis during the proposal stage influences conversion rates.
3. Use Early Stats to Make Proactive Adjustments. Suppose you're launching a new subscription-based product. If you notice a high dropout rate during the trial phase, analyse user engagement patterns and gather feedback to address areas of dissatisfaction. Based on this data, refine your onboarding process or offer additional support resources.

6. Build a culture of good ethics, high cadence, and customer focus

Simon cites his time at Cisco, where he saw the benefits of a great culture. He believes that a good culture is characterised by Ethics, High Energy, High Cadence, and Customer Focus.

Horrocks emphasises that a startup team must be ethical and customer-focused. He believes you should be honest when talking about your capabilities and addressing the competition's unique problems. Meanwhile, a customer-focused team is more likely to win deals and avoid battles with competitors who lie about their technology or products.

Simon also believes that your startup team needs to have high energy and cadence, so they can keep getting back up every time they get knocked down.

He recalls a time when a CRO, Mark Smith, wanted high energy and cadence in his travels. He was able to schedule five seminars in five countries in Europe in five days and 28 customer meetings. This led to a $5 million pipeline creation in one week.

Simon recalled this was his most extreme week, but he was promoted a couple of months later and had definitely had a great time.

Switch actionable tips:

1. Cultivate an Ethical and Customer-Focused Culture. When presenting your product to potential clients, be candid about its capabilities and limitations. Highlight how your solution addresses their unique challenges, while also acknowledging your competition's strengths.
2. Infuse High Energy and Cadence. Consider setting ambitious goals for outreach and engagement. For example, challenge your sales team to schedule a certain number of customer meetings or product demonstrations within a specific timeframe.
3. Leverage Efficient Scheduling and Intense Focus. Adopting focused "sprint" periods can yield significant results. For instance, allocate a specific week for a concentrated effort on customer outreach and engagement. This focused approach can lead to substantial pipeline creation and contribute to business growth.

7. Be genuinely curious about the customer

Simon states a problem in sales where vendors pitch their products or platforms without asking questions. This can lead customers to feel like they are being taken through the sales process, rather than the vendor being genuinely curious about their problem.

To make customers engage more, you need to help them solve problems that address business issues, reduce costs, and achieve KPIs. Meanwhile, to build a champion for your business, your sales team needs to have high conviction that they’re helping the customers achieve their goals, rather than just reach their quota.

This is a win-win approach, as the vendor can achieve their own objectives while helping the customer solve their problems.

Switch actionable tips:

1. Prioritise Curiosity over Pitching. Instead of launching into a product pitch, start conversations by asking open-ended questions to understand the customer's challenges. For instance, if you're offering cybersecurity solutions, inquire about their current data protection concerns and potential vulnerabilities.
2. Focus on Value Creation and Champion Building. Train your sales team to approach interactions with a genuine intent to help customers achieve their goals. If your product enhances supply chain efficiency, delve into the customer's supply chain pain points and potential cost savings. Highlight how your solution aligns with their key performance indicators (KPIs).
3. Establish a Mutual Win-Win Mindset. When discussing your solution, emphasise how it solves problems, drives efficiency, and contributes to the customer's bottom line. If you're selling marketing software, illustrate how it can increase lead generation and revenue.

8. Learn from great people-focused leaders

Simon shares his experiences working with great managers and leaders, focusing on their ability to support their people and make a difference in their teams.

He highlights the impact of Kevin McCoy, a manager he had at Cisco, who gave people the power of belief and unleashed them on unsuspecting customers. Simon also recalls Tony Simonsen, another great people-focused leader, who helped him focus on his subject knowledge and presentation skills.

He also emphasises the importance of being approachable and allowing individual contributors to be treated as if they were part of the organisation. Jim Cavanaugh, for example, often used the phrase "I work for you" when working with individual contributors in his regions, which puts them at ease and helps them perform easier. Richard Freemantle, who ran the Cisco business in Australia, Europe, and AsiaPac, also played a significant role in Simon’s success.

Horrocks learned that these great leaders make their teams feel high by making them feel confident in their abilities. This approach has helped him become more productive and successful in his career. Horrocks encourages sales leaders to learn from these great leaders and apply these lessons to their own teams.

Switch actionable tips:

1. Empower Through Belief and Support. Encourage your team members to take ownership of their roles and unleash their potential. If you're leading a sales team, foster an environment where each member believes in their ability to do great things and be courageous.
2. Focus on Skill Development and Approachability. Provide targeted training and mentorship to help your team members continuously improve their competencies.
3. Build Confidence and Elevate Team Morale. If you're a sales leader, regularly communicate your dedication to supporting your team's success. Use phrases like "I work for you" to convey that you're there to provide guidance and resources. Recognise and celebrate individual and team achievements, whether it's surpassing sales targets or successfully launching a new product.

Final thoughts

I learned from Simon that when it comes to growing startups, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You need to do the basics very well. Have the heart to help your customer solve their biggest problems and teach your teams to do the same - and run fast. Do this and your startup’s growth will be guaranteed.

About Simon Horrocks

Simon Horrocks is a serial startup and scaleup leader who has worked with Harness, AppDynamics and ScienceLogic building revenue and teams from the ground up to $50M in ARR.

About Pree Sarkar

Pree Sarkar is an Executive Recruiter and Talent Advisor to leaders at start-up and global technology companies. He is the Founder and Chief Advisor at?Switch Recruitment , a leading firm in the Asia Pacific Region.

LinkedIn rated him as a Top 1% Recruiter and he is also the #1 Best Selling Author for his book –?Switch , Stand Out, Get Noticed and Accelerate your career.

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