Hunters and Unicorns

Hunters + Unicorns: The 33 CxOs - Brian Blond 001

Produced by SOAP STAR SERIES PRODUCTION

Hunters + Unicorns: The 33 CxOs - Brian Blond 001

Hunters and Unicorns shares the playbooks from leaders, founders, executives and investors from high growth technology companies.  In this special edition series The 33 CXOs we investigate the greatest success story in the history of software sales. Discover how thirty-three sales execs from one organisation, BladeLogic, became CXOs in the world’s 100 fastest growing technology companies. We uncover the stories and playbooks of the most prolific sales leaders in the industry.  ( https://www.somuchsoap.com/the-33-cxos )

Episode 1 features Brian Blond, Managing Director at Sutter Hill Ventures. At 34 years of age, Brian was one of the youngest Chief Revenue Officers ever hired in Silicon Valley. Brian has developed a reputation for building unicorns such as Virtrue, Tealium and ThroughtSpot. Having mastered the art of scaling businesses he is now leading the board level agenda of sales strategy with portfolio companies such as Snowflake, PureStorage and Vera.  Brian had learnt and mastered the playbook under the tutelage of John McMahon during his time at BladeLogic. The DNA required to be successful is validated by his background in competitive swimming. Brian has the character traits required for success; he just needed the right strategy. Once he discovered the blueprint, his career has taken a trajectory that would not otherwise be possible. 

 

“There's plenty of great sales-people all over the place that have failed once they go into management. Without BladeLogic and without John, I'm not doing what I'm doing today.”

 

In this Podcast you will discover: • How the MEDDIC framework enabled him to transition from sales rep to sales manager and beyond • What raw material are needed to make a great sales team • The intensity of the John McMahon interview, his influence, and his legacy. • How to break the glass ceiling  Brian Blond understands exactly how to build a sales machine to grow revenue. We discuss the core ingredients for a company to reach unicorn status. This wide-ranging discussion is essential listening for those with an interest in sales strategy, as well as anyone with a passion for the technology space. 

Hunters + Unicorns: The 33 CxOs - Anthony Palladino 002

Produced by SOAP STAR SERIES PRODUCTION

Hunters + Unicorns: The 33 CxOs - Anthony Palladino 002

Hunters and Unicorns shares the playbooks from leaders, founders, executives and investors from high growth technology companies. In this special edition series The 33 CXOs we investigate the greatest success story in the history of software sales. Discover how thirty-three sales execs from one organisation, BladeLogic, became CXOs in the world’s 100 fastest growing technology companies. We uncover the stories and playbooks of the most prolific sales leaders in the industry. Episode 2 features Anthony Palladino, CRO Aisera. Anthony has more than 20 years of experience in sales management roles at technology companies such as BladeLogic, BMC Software and Splunk, where he was instrumental in the company’s $230 million IPO.

 

“I  don't  want to win and have someone else lose. We win as a team and that's something that is super important to me and that kind of competitiveness was a really strong element of the DNA and approach at BladeLogic for sure."

   After a modest start to his career selling knives, Anthony transitioned into the software space and began his trajectory to becoming a sales leader in this field. During his time at BladeLogic, under guidance of John McMahon, the self-proclaimed ‘born salesman’ was able to fine tune his inherent capabilities for strategic sales methodology and establish his own unique approach to leadership.

“I'm  not a yeller, I'm not a screamer and I'm never going to be that.  I'm  pretty intense  but being able to learn what good operating principles were at BMC and BladeLogic and then being able to convert that into my style to make me the best leader is what's helped a lot.”

 

In this podcast you will discover: How to use the MEDDIC framework. How to recruit to build a successful sales team. How to build champions and scale. The influence of John McMahon’s playbook on the software industry. Anthony knows how to build results-driven, efficient sales teams whilst driving business transformation and growth. We discuss the commonalities among all CXOs in this industry and discover which style of leadership propels the strongest growth rates. This insightful interview is essential listening for those with an interest in sales strategy, as well as anyone with a passion for the technology space. 

Hunters + Unicorns: The 33 CxOs - Patrick Ball 004

Hunters + Unicorns: The 33 CxOs - Patrick Ball 004

“I think leaders are leaders. I think a lot of that is just innate. If I took Bob Ladouceur and put him in charge of BladeLogic sales, would he have been successful? I 100% agree with that. If I took McMahon and put him in as a high school football coach, I 100% think he would be as successful.” - Patrick Ball

Hunters and Unicorns shares the playbooks from leaders, founders, executives and investors from high growth technology companies. In this special edition series The 33 CXOs we investigate the greatest success story in the history of software sales. Discover how thirty-three sales execs from one organisation, BladeLogic, became CXOs in the world’s 100 fastest growing technology companies. We uncover the stories and playbooks of the most prolific sales leaders in the industry.

Episode 4 features Patrick Ball, Chief Revenue Officer at Privitar. After initially embarking on a career in commercial real estate, Patrick was drawn to the activity and potential upside of software sales. Starting out as an SDR, Patrick’s competitive nature made him the perfect fit for this aggressive sales environment and he quickly rose through the ranks to hold sales leadership positions at BMC and Moxie Software. From there, he went on to lead sales for the Western Region at Cloudera, scaling the organisation 5X during his four years with the company and more recently, he served as SVP of Worldwide Sales at NextLabs. With 22 years of experience and three IPOs under his belt, few careers have seen the success and progression of Patrick’s.

“I'm a builder. Privitar's my seventh start-up. I've been fortunate to have been through three IPOs so I've seen it before, that's what I enjoy doing. I got bored at BMC, when it's a two, three-billion-dollar company, it's too big, I want to have more of an influence.”

Patrick thrives in an environment where he can implement change and develop, that is intrinsic to his DNA, but when it comes to his leadership methods, he gives credit to two key mentors: Bob Ladouceur (his high school football coach) and John McMahon. The combination of competitive sports training and methodological sales strategies has enabled Patrick to become an expert in his field and create his own playbook for success centred around building and scaling sales organizations. His goal is to create a seamless revenue machine and take his organisation to the next level by recruiting top notch AEs and coachable SDRs. Recruiting the right SDRs who have the potential to excel in their role and later transition into a closing role sets up any sales organization for scale. Patrick continually invests in his team’s development to ensure short, medium, and long-term success.

 

“MEDDIC is an over-used term now but it's still fundamental to my playbook. I've tried to take things to the next level. Recruitment is number one. I see the SDR team as my future stars, that's my farm league to go be field reps, and if I'm doing my job right, training and growing, I can segment that market and build capacity within my field team and I've trained them, it's not coming from the outside."

In this podcast you will discover: • The importance building a world class SDR organization • How to recruit high performing AEs • How to implement MEDDIC and take it to the next level • How to train, innovate and gain respect from your team Having worked with the elite of elite in this industry, Patrick knows what it takes to build a winning sales team and uses his experiences to shape his own teams in a unique way. He started his career at entry level but had the raw materials needed to climb the ladder of SaaS Sales with the help of some exceptional mentors. Now, as a mentor himself, he leads from accountability and bases his recruitment model on a new approach to SDRs, transforming what was traditionally a tactical support role into a far more capable and strategic resource that is crucial to the growth of his companies. This extensive discussion is essential listening for those with an interest in sales strategy, as well as anyone with a passion for the technology space.

Hunters + Unicorns: The 33 CxOs - Mauro Trione 006

“Do you need to be a specialist in something to sell it? No. You need to know how to sell, learn what that product can do for a customer, and then apply the playbook, and you can be successful.”  - Mauro Trione 

Hunters and Unicorns shares the playbooks from leaders, founders, executives and investors from high growth technology companies.  

In this special edition series The 33 CXOs we investigate the greatest success story in the history of software sales. Discover how thirty-three sales execs from one organisation, BladeLogic, became CXOs in the world’s 100 fastest growing technology companies. We uncover the stories and playbooks of the most prolific sales leaders in the industry. 

Episode 6 features Mauro Trione, RVP Sales - Southern EMEA at Delphix. With a background of huge success in the enterprise IT field, Mauro has built a strong reputation for himself as an outstanding professional leader. He started his career in sales and channel roles for PTC, EMC, BladeLogic and BMC and unsurprisingly went on to meet extreme success, becoming VP Sales at Bazaarvoice and going on to join Delphix as a Regional Sales Director in 2014, rising through the ranks once again to become VP Sales, developing and driving growth for business.  

Described as the fastest man in technology due to his background as a racing car driver, Mauro is a competitor with natural ambition. Having won the Italian Championship in Touring Cars before even embarking on a career with PTC, Mauro knew nothing about selling software before he entered into this tough sales environment, but he had all of the attributes, skills, and raw materials needed to make it in this industry.  

“I'm a sales guy. You can call us VPs, managers, etc, but we are sales people, we want to be able to completely control what we do. As a race car driver, I like to control things because if you don't control your car and your car drives you, you're fucked!” 

Described by McMahon as “one of the most incredible sales people in the world,” Mauro is a truly talented communicator and an out of the box thinker. His innate determination and drive enabled him to transition through the ranks at BMC, but he gives credit to the PTC management, especially John McMahon, for putting together a structure that enabled him to learn how to become successful in this industry by following a specific process.  

“It doesn't matter how you refer to it, if you come from PTC or EMC, you’ll have great examples of successful people, and if you ask them, “Did you apply MEDDIC?” They would say, “What is MEDDIC?” But if you go back and try to understand what they have done and do reverse engineering on how they manage activity; they will tell you that they did the same thing that we did.” 

In this vodcast you will discover: 

• The parallels between race car driving and software sales 

• The importance of playbooks and training for a rapid transition into technology and success in this industry 
• How to use MEDDIC strategies and champions to close deals  
• How to transition into managerial roles 

 

Mauro Trione knows how to lead with passion and drive maximum revenue for his teams. We discuss his spectacular achievements in this formally unfamiliar territory, the role of training and playbooks and what has caused his work ethic to evolve over time. Giving you an insight into the mindset of an extraordinary athlete, this interview is essential listening for those with an interest in sales strategy, as well as anyone with a passion for the technology space. 

 

 

 

Hunters + Unicorns: The 33 CxOs - Jeff Lortz 005

Hunters + Unicorns: The 33 CxOs - Jeff Lortz 005

Hunters and Unicorns shares the playbooks from leaders, founders, executives and investors from high growth technology companies. In this special edition series The 33 CXOs we investigate the greatest success story in the history of software sales. Discover how thirty-three sales execs from one organisation, BladeLogic, became CXOs in the world’s 100 fastest growing technology companies. We uncover the stories and playbooks of the most prolific sales leaders in the industry.

Episode 5 features Jeff Lortz, Chief Operating Officer at TOMIA. Jeff started his career in the U.S. Navy as a line officer operating nuclear power plants but his path has taken some unpredicted turns since then, leading him to become the accomplished Senior Executive he is today. With more than 25 years of success in the technology, software, and SaaS industries, Jeff explains how he “stumbled” into hi tech with no marketable skills or capabilities at all, and worked his way up to arrive at his current destination driving strategy, business planning and go-to-market business processing at the fourth largest software company in the world.

“I started out as just a billable consultant on a team implementing the technology with customers. By the time I left, I was a Senior Vice President, I had over 600 people working for me around the world, 150 million dollars’ worth of revenue responsibility and all from knowing sort of nothing, coming in.”

Transitioning from SVP Global Services at PTC, to VP Professional Services at BladeLogic and then VP of Global Services at BMC, Jeff has witnessed first-hand the opportunities and processes involved in the huge success of these organisations. He took his lead from the stand-out members of these extraordinary teams, in particular John McMahon, and his military background enabled him to thrive in these highly competitive cultures, adopt the playbook and subsequently learn everything he needed to know about how to rapidly scale a company.

“I think there was a belief among everyone involved that it was totally doable again in other circumstances and should be taken forward for the rest of their careers. It just became a club that everybody knows the initiation rights to, everybody knows what the rules are, and you're allowed to go off in your own business and use it as a base line and tweak it and change it to whatever suits the situation.”

In this podcast you will discover: Effective growth strategies for a building a business The role of a COO and what it takes to be a manager in the software industry The importance of a winning culture and how to create it How to use playbooks to scale a company With a proven history as a results-driven, strategic leader, Jeff Lortz has had an incredible career and has learnt from experience how to build a business from the ground up. We discuss his vast knowledge on this industry, past to present, and his unique approach to leadership. Offering inspiration, motivation and advice on how to build foundations with methodologies and strategies, this in-depth interview is essential listening for those with an interest in sales strategy, as well as anyone with a passion for the technology space.