E29: Building Sales Capacity: Bonfire VC’s Brett Queener on the Ratios Salesforce Used Run the Numbers

In this episode, Bonfire VC partner Brett Queener, who was also the first sales ops and sales strategy person at Salesforce, shares insights on staffing ratios and building sales capacity. Brett unleashes his wisdom on driving alignment and setting sales quotas, forecasting revenue for new products, targeting existing customers vs. net new, the importance of sales enablement, expanding product offerings and TAM, the risks of predicting revenue for new products, long-term forecasting and investment, and avoiding an identity crisis. Supercharge financial operations with Maxio. Request a demo at www.maxio.com/runthenumbers for 10% off your first year.
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SPONSORS: Maxio | Tropic | Thoropass

Maxio is the only billing and financial operations platform that was purpose built for B2B SaaS. They're helping SaaS finance teams automate billing and revenue recognition, manage collections and payments, and put together investor grade reporting packages. 🚀 Request a demo at www.maxio.com/runthenumbers for 10% off your first year.

Tropic is the next-generation Procurement Platform that’s helping modern CFOs take control of their budgets and bottom line. By combining approval workflows, supplier management, and pricing benchmarks all in one place, Tropic makes savings opportunities easy to find and act on. 🌴 Visit www.tropicapp.io/metrics to learn how.

Thoropass provides complete compliance management, continuous monitoring, and security audits through intuitive software and expert guidance – allowing you to do business with confidence. Learn more: www.thoropass.com.
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LINKS:
Brett's resources and templates for founders, strategy, and CFOs: https://www.bonfirevc.com/fuel
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FOLLOW US ON X:
@cjgustafson222 (CJ)
@bqueener (Brett)
@TurpentineMedia (Turpentine)
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:19 Sales Strategy and Capacity Planning at Salesforce
00:39 The Evolution of On-Premise Companies
01:28 The Shift to Salesforce and the SAS Model
02:34 Building Your Own Army: Salesforce's Growth Strategy
02:50 Staffing Ratios and Sales Capacity
03:57 The Importance of Efficient Spending in Business
04:27 The Role of High Quality Developers and Account Executives
05:04 The Impact of Overfunding and Changing Goalposts
05:09 Understanding Business Economics and Balancing Growth
05:48 The Importance of Staffing Ratios in Sales Organizations
07:07 The Role of Salespeople in Business Growth
08:06 Understanding Business Segments and Hiring Perspectives
08:42 The Role of Marketing in Different Business Segments
09:32 The Importance of Understanding Your Business and Its Segments
11:47 The Role of Sales Capacity in Business Growth
13:55 The Importance of Forecasting in Business
15:28 The Role of Sales Rep Compensation in Business
18:52 Sponsor: Maxio | Tropic
20:12 The Role of Procurement in Business
21:15 Understanding the Ratio of Quota to OTE
25:21 The Importance of Growing Your Reps to Outrun Your Expenses
27:09 Understanding the Impact of Attrition in Business
30:19 Sponsor Break: Thoropass
30:52 Introducing a New Way of Doing InfoSec Audits
31:41 Exploring the Technical Side of the Business
32:26 Understanding the Importance of Developers and Salespeople
34:45 The Role of Product Management in a Tech Company
37:38 The Importance of a Strong Product Leader
41:41 The Challenges of Launching New Products
49:16 The Importance of Long-Term Forecasting
55:41 Understanding the Identity and Potential of Your Company
57:42 Closing Remarks and Contact Information

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