GTM Truth-Bombs for Early-Stage Founders from Jason Lemkin

Just wrapped up reading this deeply insightful episode from Jason M. Lemkin of SaaStr , and he's dropping some serious GTM truth bombs—a must-read/watch for early-stage founders/CXOs.

Having Deep product knowledge is a non-negotiable requirement for your sales team ??

Jason emphasizes that your VP of Sales needs to know your product inside and out. No exceptions. He puts it bluntly:

"Whatever you do, I would never give anyone an offer letter before they give you a demo. From CRO to junior SDR. I would never give them an offer letter. If you're foolish enough to do, don't let them start until they can do a demo."

Jason even shared a cautionary tale about a company that learned this lesson the hard way:

"A company I invested in that's coming up on 16, 17 million in revenue, but it's had a tough last 18 months, like some of you have. And I knew the VP of sales, I didn't put him into the company, but I knew him a little bit and I recommended him. I didn't know him personally, I didn't actually do the work to fully recommend him, but I said, hire this guy. And in the sort of the sastr tragedy story, six months in, sales went down. He hired ten people, he brought in a team, and sales went down. It's the tragedy, the sastr tragedy story. But he was honest enough to not hide from it at the board meeting. He was honest enough to not blame me, the Lord, our God, the weather, whatever he said honestly, I've been here six months. This product is much more nuanced than my last product. The sale is more complicated, and I just never really learned how it worked. I never really learned how it worked."

Ouch. Don't let this be you.

Founders, don't ghost your sales team as you scale ??

You might think hiring a VP of Sales means you can step back and focus on the product. Jason says think again:

"No, I know when you hire the VP of sales, you want to get back to product. You want that time back. I am sorry. You never get it back and you will profoundly regret it when you step out of sales."

Even the big dogs stay involved. Jason points to @Benioff of @salesforce as an example:

"Mark Benioff goes to Davos. He said the other day he goes to Davos, with all the VIPs and he sits at the top of a staircase all day to meet customers. Like Salesforce is too big, you can't meet all of them. So he goes where the VIPs are and he has a spot. He's been going for ten years and he just stands at the staircase and says hi to his customers, even at 30 billion in revenue."

Think twice before slashing that marketing budget ??

When times get tough, marketing often ends up on the chopping block. But Jason warns this could be a mistake:

"When you cut salespeople, you cut your present, when you cut marketing, you cut your future. And it's a tough call, but I genuinely think a lot of SaaS companies are public. Companies are too efficient and one reason a lot of them aren't going to get better is Salesforce wants 50% operating margins. The only way you can do that is spending nothing on sales and marketing."

He even shared a real-world example of this happening right now:

"I talked to a public company, the CRO doing multiple billions who called us a couple of weeks ago saying I can't do SaaStr Europa this year, and this company is massively profitable. I said why? My marketing budget just got cut to zero, he said. I want to be an annual in September. I can't do it. I know. I told you it's fine. It's fine. This is a multibillion-dollar company that has pressure and so the CEO cut, literally cut his budget to nothing."

The full video is full of GTM gold. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7igT_vZGxsA