STANFORD BUSINESS SCHOOL | WINTER 2025 | COURSE SYLLABUS

S351: BUILDING AND MANAGING

SALES ORGANIZATIONS

S351 CONTACT INFORMATION

INSTRUCTORS Dannie Herzberg dannie@stanford.edu

Josh Leslie jmleslie@stanford.edu

FACULTY ASST Rochelle Bagalso (E 201) rbagalso@stanford.edu

COURSE ASST Sabrina Bukenya (Section 1) snamato@stanford.edu

Sonia Sard (Section 2) sardas@stanford.edu

CLASS MEETINGS Mondays and Thursdays Room: C102

Section 1 | 2:50 – 4:10pm
Section 2 | 4:25 – 5:45pm

S351 COURSE DESCRIPTION

This class focuses on the challenges and critical issues associated with the creation and management of a
B2B sales organization. The course focuses on three primary themes: 1) developing a foundational
understanding of sales organizations and their parts 2) selecting and implementing the right go-to-market
(GTM) strategy for a particular business, and 3) identifying and addressing common challenges that occur
while scaling a GTM organization from inception to maturity. There will be relatively little emphasis on
sales technique (i.e., students should not expect a course on "How to be a Better Salesperson").
like to see developed in the future, please feel free to share this with us.

We expect that almost every class session will revolve around discussing a case or a simulation exercise.
Most of these are Stanford cases we have developed specifically for this class. Whenever possible, we plan
to invite one of the protagonists from the case to sit in on the class and offer his or her reflections at the end
of the session on what happened and why.

S351 COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Course grading will be based 40 percent on class participation (students will be evaluated based on the
quality of their volunteered contributions and performance on cold calls), 25 percent on a sales
management simulation write-up conducted during the course, and 35 percent on a final project (an audit
of an existing sales organization).

Class Participation

Preparation and participation are an incredibly important part of the class learning environment. We will
be prepared for every class and expect you to be prepared also.

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Because we frequently call on individuals whose hands are not raised, please let us know beforehand if an
emergency has made it impossible for you to be prepared adequately for that class.

The basis for assessment of performance is quality, not quantity. Thus, a single comment (succinctly
delivered) that moves the discussion in a productive direction or offers useful critical insight will be
weighed more positively than any quantity metric.

Attendance

Attendance is a necessary condition for an acceptable participation grade. We understand that other
demands may require you to miss a class at some point during the term; therefore, we will excuse two
absences for each student. We will also permit each student to make up a second absence by completing
the assigned reading for the missed class, talking to classmates about what was covered in class, and
recording a video summarizing the key lessons from the session. Unless there are special extenuating
circumstances, this make-up work must be submitted within one week of the missed class; otherwise, we
will consider the absence unexcused. Note that we will start counting absences on the first day of class;
students on the waitlist should either plan to attend class during the first week or use their excused
absences accordingly.

Any additional absences after the first two cannot be made up and will be counted against the student’s
class participation grade. Each additional absence will carry an increasingly negative weight; three or more
unexcused absences will be grounds for an unsatisfactory grade.

We expect all students to arrive on time for each session out of respect for the extremely busy guest
speakers who have dedicated time to attend our class. The course assistants will take a photo of the class
one minute after class begins, which will be the basis for attendance during the session.

EchoPort Simulation

During the term's first half, students will participate in a sales management simulation (EchoPort). Each
student will play the role of a quota-carrying sales representative. Throughout the simulation (which will
be played outside of class over four weeks), students will receive leads and allocate their efforts across
different selling activities to convert these leads into sales. The sales representatives will also be
responsible for delivering forecasts to sales management.

Each student will be required to submit a written account of his or her experience with the EchoPort
simulation. The prompt for the write-up will be distributed during the term while the simulation is in
progress. Students should submit their write-ups to Canvas.

Final Project: Sales Audit

Every student must complete a final project: a sales audit of an existing organization (to be done in groups
of up to six people). These days, with so many companies using hybrid go-to-market strategies, it can be
difficult to know whether a particular organization is an acceptable candidate for a sales audit project. One
piece of advice is that direct sales organizations are characterized by sales reps having territories, quotas
and compensation plans with some form of incentive compensation (i.e., commissions or bonuses and not
just straight salary). If you are still unclear on whether your organization is appropriate, please ask one of
us.

Working in teams, students will select a company and interview at least two people in the organization (or
familiar with the organization from previous employment) to gain insight into the way sales is organized
and managed. Ideally, the interviews should include a senior sales executive whose scope of authority is
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consistent with the audit scope. In addition, you should identify other individuals who can help you
triangulate on key issues. The dimensions of the audit should be those raised in the textbook and
addressed in our class discussions, which may include (but are not limited to) the following:

● Alignment of sales strategy to corporate strategy

● Compensation and incentives
● Business model
● Sales culture
● Recruiting and training strategies
● Sales forecasting / control systems
● Integration of sales into the larger organization

The objective of the audit is to evaluate current practice in a real sales organization, to assess current
challenges and assess how they are being handled, or possibly to assess future challenges and recommend
how they might be handled. The project represents an opportunity for a student team to delve more deeply
into sales management issues and practice in an industry or company of particular interest.

Guidelines for preparing the report are posted in the Canvas Assignment. The grading of the project report
will be based on the following criteria:

● Applicability of company to project requirements.

● Clear and coherent writing.
● Inclusion of course learning from cases, guests, readings, etc.
● Analysis and critical thinking are needed in diagnosing key issues and supporting
recommendations.

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S351 READINGS

All required readings come from the textbook, The Complete Guide to Accelerating Sales Force Performance,
the syllabus packet, or will be handed out in class during the term.

S351 CLASSROOM OPERATIONS

Because each faculty member at the GSB has somewhat different expectations as to classroom conduct and
norms for individual behavior, we would like to outline a few of ours at the outset. We also use this
opportunity to outline a few logistical details.

1. If possible, please let one of us know in advance if you must miss a class.
2. As a courtesy to everyone, please arrive at class on time. Attendance will be taken one minute after
class begins. We will generally run the class without a break and make use of the entire 80-minute
period. If there is some reason why you must leave in the middle of class, please let one of us know
in advance.
3. To help us learn your names as quickly as possible, we plan to use a seating chart starting in our
first class session. We would also find it helpful if you would use your name card in each class.
4. To avoid distractions, please do not make use of any wireless devices while in class, including
tablets.
5. Unless an assignment is designated as an individual assignment, group work is not only acceptable
but also encouraged. However, at no time should you use notes or papers prepared by others for
courses where these materials might have been taught. Such use is considered a violation of the
Stanford Honor Code.

Students with Documented Disabilities

Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the
request with the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) located within the Office of Accessible
Education (OAE). SDRC staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend
reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current
quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact the SDRC as soon as possible since
timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone:
723-1066, 723-1067 TTY).

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Session 1: Introduction & In-Class Vignette

The first class will begin with an overview of what to expect this term. Students can also expect to get a
brief introduction to the role of sales in growing companies and the tricky situations that CEOs and sales
leaders navigate when it comes to leading a sales organization. There is no required preparation for the
first class.

Session 2: From founder-led sales to building an SMB go-to-market machine

(Vanta)

It’s 2022 and Christina Cacioppo, founder of Vanta, is preparing for the annual planning season at Vanta.
The past few years have been a whirlwind: Christina has led Vanta through a serious company-wide
evolution from founder-led sales, to early sales hires, and has recently brought in a Chief Revenue Officer
(CRO) to level up sales and its adjacent functions into a predictable machine. As she thinks about the next
chapter for growth, she asks herself: Should she continue to hire sales reps in the face of market headwinds
for startups? Should she consider lowering quotas from $1.4m in the face of market headwinds?

GUEST
● Christina Cacioppo, CEO & founder of Vanta

READING
● Vanta: The Evolution of a Sales Organization (Stanford SM-378 DRAFT)
● Optional: Read Chapters 1 and 3 in The Complete Guide to Accelerating Sales Force Performance

REQUIRED PREPARATION

Please come to class prepared with your answers to the following questions:
1. What were the hallmark elements of Christina’s approach to founder-led sales?
2. How did Vanta navigate the emergence of aggressive competition? What did the company do well?
What could they have done better?
3. As Vanta matured, what did the company need to do to step up its sales infrastructure, positioning,
and process?
4. What are the most important metrics involved in building the Vanta GTM machine? What strategies
did Vanta deploy to move these metrics?
5. Is now the time for Christina to move the company upmarket? Why / why not? What changes would
that require?

Session 3: Sales Learning Curve (Jive Software)

The year 2008 had been a whirlwind for Jive Software. A new crop of sales reps had been hired in the first
quarter, building on the momentum of 2007’s record revenues. In the second quarter, however, Jive’s sales
teams began to miss their quotas. By the end of the third quarter, it was clear that the company had
strayed far off course. CEO Dave Hersh faced a difficult situation: the economy continued to worsen and
Jive’s venture partner was putting on the heat. After refreshing the majority of his executive team during
the previous quarters, Hersh was running out of levers to pull.

GUEST INSTRUCTOR
● Peter Levine, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

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READING
● Leslie and Holloway, “The Sales Learning Curve.” Harvard Business Review (July-August 2006), pp.
115-123. Reprint R0607J
● Jive Software (Stanford E360)

REQUIRED PREPARATION

Read the article by Leslie and Holloway on the Sales Learning Curve (SLC) and answer the following
questions:
1. What are the three phases of the sales learning curve described by Leslie and Holloway? What is
going on in each of these phases?
2. How would you describe the requisite characteristics for a sales rep in each of these phases of the
sales learning curve? How might the sales compensation plan vary by phase?

Read the Jive Software case and come to class prepared with your answers to the following questions:
3. Why do you think Jive missed its sales goals so badly in Q2 and Q3 of 2008? What happened?
4. How does the sales learning curve apply to Jive? What do you think are the implications of the sales
learning curve for Jive?
5. What can be done to change the “shape” of the SLC?

Session 4: Assessing GTM Readiness (Radcore)

Radcore founder and long-time engineer Anne Conners has bootstrapped her way to hundreds of
customers and millions in revenue when she decides to go big: she hires a trio of Silicon Valley GTM experts
and, with their help, lands a $10M venture round. Now, the team and the investors are excited to scale up.
Is the Company ready?

GUEST
● Kaushik Shirhatti, Vice President at NVIDIA- Global AI Networking

READING
● Radcore: Ready to Go to Market) (Stanford Draft)

REQUIRED PREPARATION

Read the Radcore case and come to class prepared with your answers to the following questions:
1. What do you think of Radcore’s GTM strategy?
2. Is there anything else you want to know about the company to answer this question?
3. Is the company ready to scale up and triple revenue?

Session 5: Low-Touch/No-Touch B2B Sales (Atlassian)

This case investigates the "low-touch" go-to-market model that has fueled Atlassian's success from a
private to a public company. The class discussion will center around what business characteristics
facilitate this low touch model and the implications of potentially introducing increased channel and direct
selling methodologies.

GUEST

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 ● Jay Simons, General Partner, BOND; formerly President, Atlassian

READING
● Atlassian (Stanford E625)

REQUIRED PREPARATION

1. Atlassian intentionally decided on a low price point in order to reduce friction (i.e., lower the
barrier to entry). What do you think of this strategy? What are the pros & cons of this approach to
pricing?
2. What characteristics of Atlassian’s business make this low touch/no touch sales model possible?
Conversely, why mightn't this model work for the majority of B2B companies?
3. What are the tradeoffs of adding direct sales people to the low/no touch go-to-market model? What
are the signs that a business could benefit from a direct sales force?
4. What are the challenges that Atlassian might face if they decide to expand the size & scope of the
direct sales team? How might they address these challenges?

Session 6: Setting and Meeting Sales Objectives (Optigen)

In October 2006, Robert Campos, CEO of OptiGen, was preparing for a series of meetings with investment
banks to discuss the prospects for an IPO. To have a chance at success, Campos and his team would have to
fix two key, interrelated problems: a broken forecasting process and inconsistent quarter-over-quarter
revenue growth. Campos would need to work closely with his VP of sales to bring greater predictability to
the company’s operations.

GUEST INSTRUCTOR
● Kirk Bowman, Board Member & Former Venture Partner at Accel

READING
● Optigen (Stanford E359)

REQUIRED PREPARATION

Read the Optigen case, focusing on the following two challenges faced by the company: channel conflict
(between the direct sales organization and the indirect VAR channel), and a broken forecasting
process. Come to class prepared with your answers to the following questions:
1. What are the root causes of channel conflict at Optigen? What are the ramifications? As VP Sales,
what would you do to address the problem?
2. What are the root causes of the broken forecasting process at Optigen? What do you think the
company needs to do to fix it?
3. If you were in the position of Campos as CEO, would you work with Sales VP Klein, or would you
fire him? Given your chosen course of action, how would you proceed?

Session 7: Designing a Compensation Plan

This session will focus on designing sales compensation plans associated with typical real-world scenarios.
Helios Security is a seed-stage company ready to hire its first sales leader, and Rivet Systems is a Series B

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Company struggling to figure out its GTM priorities. Please review the following vignettes, submit your
proposed compensation plans, and come to class prepared to discuss your proposal.

READING
● Read the early-stage VP vignette and the Series B, B2B SaaS vignette. Refer to the glossary as
needed.
● Optional: Read Chapter 10 in the assigned text ("Compensating for Results"), with particular
attention to the section on the "Four Key Decisions for Effective Incentive Compensation
Design." These four key decisions are:
o Level: How much should a salesperson be paid? (This is on-target earnings or OTE)
o Mix: What proportion of a salesperson's compensation be incentive pay?
o Metrics: What measure(s) should be used to determine the incentive component of the
salesperson's compensation?
o Performance-payout relationships: how should the incentive payment vary with measured
performance?

REQUIRED PREPARATION

Please complete and submit a proposed compensation plan for Helios and Rivet. Students may work with a
partner. For help, refer to the following example. In addition to your submitted plans, come prepared to
discuss the following questions:

1. What outcomes and behaviors are you trying to drive with this plan?
2. What compensation levers did you use to achieve this plan?

Session 8: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0 (HubSpot)

In 2009, the founders of HubSpot faced a crucial juncture: They had just reached the noteworthy milestone
of 1,000 customers and they wanted to accelerate the company’s growth rate and increase profitability. In
order to do this, they had to make some hard decisions: What was the right customer segment to pursue in
service of this goal? What are the right sales and marketing strategies to pursue this desired customer profile?

GUEST
● Brian Halligan, Co-founder & Executive Chairman of HubSpot

READING
● HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0, HBS Case (May 2009, revised January 2011)

REQUIRED PREPARATION

Read the HubSpot case and come prepared to answer the following questions:
1. Compare and contrast the characteristics and needs of "Owner Ollie" and "Marketer Mary." How do
these segments influence HubSpot's product offerings and sales strategies?
2. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of HubSpot's pricing model. Should HubSpot consider
alternative pricing strategies to address customer churn?
3. What challenges and opportunities does HubSpot face in scaling its operations to SMBs?
4. What factors contribute to the customer churn rates at HubSpot? What strategies could the
company implement to improve retention, particularly among "Owner Ollies"?
5. Given HubSpot's commitment to inbound marketing, should they consider incorporating traditional
outbound marketing strategies to meet their growth targets? Why or why not?

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Session 9: Building a Career Path in Sales (Sales Executive Panel)

This session will feature 3 sales executives, pulled from a combination of early stage and scale-up
companies. Dannie will moderate a panel discussion that includes pre-submitted student questions for the
panelists vis-a-vis their careers in sales, hard decisions they have made as leaders, and their professional
experiences navigating the many challenges that we’ve discussed in the first 8 sessions of this course.

PANELISTS

Each section will have a different series of panelists.

2:50 PM class panelists:

Reggie Marable, Head of Sales at Sierra

AJ Tennant, VP of Sales & Success at Glean
Lauren Nemeth, COO of Pinecone, former CRO of Twilio and Nextdoor

4:25 PM class panelists:

Reggie Marable, Head of Sales at Sierra
Heather Akuiyibo, VP of Sales at Databricks
Bob Frati, former Chief Sales Officer at Slack; former VP of Sales at Google Cloud

REQUIRED PREPARATION

Please submit 2 questions into the Google Form on Canvas for the panelists (you can address one or all
of the panelists). Questions should be submitted by 12 PM the day before the session.

Session 10: Hiring Sales Leaders

In this session, we will review two inevitable scenarios that come up when scaling a sales organization: 1)
Hiring a senior level executive to level-up the sales organization and 2) Hiring a frontline manager in a new
market. Students will prepare for the class by thinking through the end-to-end process of hiring these roles
and creating their own guides to assess a given leader’s candidacy.

GUESTS

Jaime Tilotta Green & Matt Strand, Partners at The Cole Group

READING
● Read Chapters 3 and 4 of Who: The Method for Hiring (via Canvas)
● Read the two hiring vignettes

REQUIRED PREPARATION

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 Read the vignettes that outline the two company scenarios for hiring. In your assigned pairs, create the
following parts of an interview process and answer the questions below.

For the CRO hire:

1. Create a hiring scorecard for the role (choose # of skills / attributes; stack rank them in
terms of importance). We will provide a template for you to fill out. Be prepared to discuss
this.
2. Create a 3-5 step interview process for the role
3. Determine your reference questions:
a. What are the two most important questions to ask of his old boss?
b. What are the two most important questions to ask of his former peer?

For the frontline manager hire:

1. Create a first call interview guide:
a. What questions do you want to ask?
b. What are you listening for?
2. Design a step in the interview process that represents a “work sample”

Session 11: Customer Success (Gainsight)

In September 2019, the future looked bright for Gainsight. The company successfully convinced the market
that a customer success function was a necessity for SaaS companies and was making headway in doing the
same thing for non-software companies that relied on recurring customer revenue streams. But all eyes
were on Gainsight, the market leader, to prove the enduring value of the customer success function. CEO
Nick Mehta believed that customer success was not just a cost of doing business but that it enhanced the
bottom line. Mehta considered improvements to Gainsight's recovery period for customer acquisition cost
and net retention rate; if he could achieve better results across these metrics, he was sure Gainsight would
do well in the eyes of future investors. However, this effort would be challenging and require significant
rethinking of incentives and responsibilities across his organization.

GUEST
● Nick Mehta, Chief Executive Officer at Gainsight

READING
● Gainsight (Stanford E682)

REQUIRED PREPARATION

1. Nick Mehta states in the case that a customer success (CS) organization in a typical early-stage
company costs 15%, or more, of annual recurring revenue. Put yourself in the shoes of a CEO at an
early stage SaaS company -- would you make this investment in CS or use the dollars for other
investments like product development or sales? How would you decide? Present an analysis of
your thought process and decision to the class.
2. Gainsight is considering changing its status quo (as shown on page 6) by giving its CS team the
additional responsibility for up-selling products. Account managers would continue to do up-
selling, along with renewals and new product cross-selling. What are the pros and cons of this
change?
3. Should Gainsight take their proposed CS change a step further, give CS responsibility for all up-
selling/ cross-selling/ renewals, and eliminate the account management team? If not, what do you

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 think about where the dividing line should be between the responsibilities of CS and account
management? How does your decision impact business outcomes?

Session 12: Ethical Issues in Sales Organizations

In this session, we will present a framework for thinking about and identifying the ethical gray areas in
selling, discuss a vignette designed to highlight one of these gray areas, and engage in some discussion
(perhaps with the help of a guest speaker) about how these gray areas are handled by sales management in
sales organizations.

GUEST
● Andy McCall, former Chief Revenue Officer at Samsara; General Partner, a16z

READING
● "World-Class Bull," Harvard Business Review, May 2009

REQUIRED PREPARATION

Read the vignette "World-Class Bull" and be prepared to share your answers to the following questions:
a. Do you think what Chris Knox did was okay? Why or why not?
b. How do you think the company should handle this situation?

Session 13: Forecasting (EchoPort)

REQUIRED PREPARATION

This session will be a discussion of the key lessons from the EchoPort sales management simulation. The
focus of our discussion will be on sales forecasting. Please be prepared to share the insights from your
assignment write-ups with the rest of the class.

Session 14: Building a Unique Sales Organization (Dropbox)

In the fall of 2012, Sujay Jaswa, Dropbox’s Vice President of Business Development and Sales, was
preparing for a meeting with the company’s founders in which he was expected to discuss the potential
evolution of the Dropbox sales organization. While Dropbox’s existing sales organization had fit the
company, its timing, and its needs quite well to date, Jaswa anxiously considered what the company’s
future sales organization should look like.

GUESTS
● Sujay Jaswa, Managing Partner, WndrCo; Former VP of Business Development & Sales and, later,
CFO, Dropbox

READING
● Dropbox (E-471)

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REQUIRED PREPARATION

1. What are the characteristics of the Dropbox freemium sales organization? What is the impact on
company culture with this type of organization?
2. How would you apply the Sales Learning Curve to a freemium model? What would you use as
metrics for transitioning between phases?
3. The Dropbox case was written in 2013. Dropbox does decide to pursue the enterprise. What are
the advantages and disadvantages in going with this approach?
4. One of Dropbox’s primary competitors, Box, used a “top-down” sales strategy when selling to the
enterprise. Dropbox employed a “bottom-up, land and expand” sales strategy. What are the
pros/cons of each approach, and which do you think is the best for Dropbox?
5. Rather than go to enterprise, were there other approaches that Dropbox could have taken?

Session 15: Sales Force Management at the VP Level – Simulation

We will use this class session to play a competitive simulation. Students (working in pre-assigned teams)
will play the sales management role at a company selling medical devices. Each team will be assigned to
play the role of one of two companies in the industry: either PortaView or SonoTek. Your objective is to
grow the sales force, capture a large customer base, and position the company to go public (or be
acquired); to succeed, you must outperform your competitor by setting and achieving the highest sales
goals that you can. We will split the simulation into two sessions: one session to play the game (Monday)
and one session to discuss the results and process the learning (Thursday).

What follows on this page tells you what you (and your team) need to do in advance to prepare for the
simulation and what to expect when you arrive for class on Thursday, February 27th.

Preparation for class

1. Before the simulation day, you will be assigned to a VP team. This information will be distributed
via Canvas Announcement and posted in the Canvas Module for Session 15. The team names are
deliberately vague (e.g., A1, B1, C1, etc. for Section 1 and A2, B2, C2, etc. for Section 2) so as not to
reveal your assigned role or signal which team you will be competing against.
2. Before Thursday, Feb 27th, we will post a link to the simulation in the left-hand NavBar (SMS-
VP). The VP simulation will be available in Preview mode until we play the simulation in
class. During this time, you can use the simulation to access the case study describing your
assigned role (either PortaView or SonoTek) and a document (which is the same for all teams)
describing "How to Play SMS-VP." Please read both of these documents well in advance of class.
3. Your team should be prepared with its first move when you come to class to play the
simulation. As you will see, your first move consists of 10 numbers:
o Corporate sales goal (1 number)
o Regional sales goals (3 numbers, one for each region)
o Number of sales managers (3 numbers, one for each region)
o Number of sales reps (3 numbers, one for each region)
4. Of these numbers, the first is the most critical: it determines your sales budget for hiring sales
managers and sales reps. If you set this number too low, you will have a relatively small budget
with which to build out your sales organization (and perhaps your competitor will be able to grow
faster). But if you set the number too high and fail to reach it ... well, you might discover that there
are unpleasant consequences.
5. The simulation will continue for six periods (years). In each round of the simulation, you will have
only 10 minutes to decide on your next move. It is therefore HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you

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 discuss with your group how you propose to take the results from each period and decide how you
will determine your move for the next period.
6. Please reach out to the other members of your VP team and talk about how you will prepare for the
simulation. (Our CAs were of the opinion that most would opt to use Google suite for collaboration
and sharing work product).

What to expect in class

1. On the day of the simulation, when everyone has arrived to C105 (please don't be late), we will
provide a brief introduction and then send each VP team to a pre-assigned breakout room in Bass.
2. In your breakout room, we ask that ONE member of each team (and only one member) login and
launch the VP simulation by clicking on the SMS-VP tool in the left-hand NavBar; you will
automatically be authenticated via Canvas. It is very important that only one member of each
team login to the simulation. Please do not use Safari as your browser.
3. Each VP team will be paired with a competing team. When BOTH teams have logged in, their
instance of the simulation will start (note that different pairs of teams may have slightly different
start times). The simulation is equipped with a timer so that you will know exactly how much time
you have left in each round. If at any time the simulation gets "stuck," try refreshing the browser.
4. During the simulation, members of the teaching team will be checking on progress and answering
questions.
5. Note that all teams may not finish at exactly the same time. We ask that you and your team stay in
the breakout room until you receive further instructions.

Session 16: VP Simulation – Discussion

In this session, we will discuss the results and the lessons from the VP simulation that we ran in the
previous class.

*** Partial results from the VP simulation in Session 15 will be provided below after the simulation
is concluded ***

● Partial results from Section 1

● Partial results from Section 2

Session 17: Snowflake

Chris Degnan was the first salesperson hired at Snowflake when the company was pre-revenue. Today, he
is the Chief Revenue Officer, managing a business with over $3 billion in ARR. In this class, Chris will share
some key learnings from this incredible journey.

This discussion will focus on Customer Success. Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, has argued that CS should be
as obvious as Sales. Do you agree?

GUEST
● Chris Degnan, Chief Revenue Officer at Snowflake

READING
● Listen to the 20VC Podcast featuring Chris Degnan, CRO of Snowflake.
● Read the following blog about consumption-based pricing and sales compensation at Snowflake.
● Review the Gainsight case.

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REQUIRED PREPARATION

● One of Chris’s early decisions at Snowflake was to eliminate Customer Success. Do you agree with
this decision? Why or why not?
● Chris cites Snowflake's consumption model as a key driver for eliminating CS. How much is the
business model a determinant of the applicability of CS?
● What organizational gaps or risks must be considered if an organization eliminates CS?

Session 18: Designing a Consumption-Based Sales Organization, “The Stripe

Way” (Stripe)

In 2016, Jeanne Dewitt Grosser took an unexpected step in her career to join Stripe as one of its first sales
hires. With this move, she had the opportunity to build the company's nascent sales organization from the
ground up. Although exciting, this endeavor was not for the faint of heart: there was much work and many
critical decisions to make in the path ahead: What sales strategy should Stripe implement as it embarks on
its next phase of growth? What customer profile and sales playbook does that call for? What type of
Account Executive should she hire to implement this new strategy: the experienced AE or the multi-tool
player MBA type? How should she promote a sales culture that harmonizes with Stripe’s unique
engineering and developer-focused environment? What kind of organization structure and sales
compensation plan will incentivize both short-term “hunting” of new accounts and long-term account
management? How should she go about building a robust sales capacity plan to deliver on Stripe’s
ambitious growth targets? And for every one of those decisions, how will Stripe’s consumption-based
billing model (and the unique opportunities and complexities that go with it) affect the decisions Dewitt
Grosser and her team must make?

GUEST INSTRUCTOR
● Jeanne Dewitt Grosser, Chief Business Officer of Stripe

READING:
Stripe (Case to be published before class begins)

REQUIRED PREPARATION

Please come to class prepared with your answers to the following questions:

1. Describe Stripe’s business model. What are the unique downstream implications of this model vis-a-
vis staffing and compensating the sales organization?
2. Given your knowledge of Stripe’s ambitions and the differences between sales models, should Dewitt
Grosser institute a “Hunt and Hold” or a “Farm and Grow” model at Stripe? What consequences could
each model have on AEs’ incentives and actions? What peculiarities of the Consumption-Based Billing
model should she consider as she makes this decision?
3. What is unique about creating “Stripe Sales” vs “Sales at Stripe”? How did the sales team embrace the
former? What is particular about building a Sales organization at an Engineering-led company?
4. What are the major differences between Enterprise and Buffalo customers? What implications will
these differences have on Stripe’s sales strategy and organization? What about the incentives and
compensations for Stripe’s AEs?
5. Evaluate the factors Dewitt Grosser should consider when designing Stripe’s sales compensation plan
and their potential downstream consequences. How should Dewitt Grosser weigh the trade-offs of
introducing variable compensation and individual targets at Stripe? What is unique about structuring
compensation in a Consumption Based Billing model?
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 6. What were the key variables in building Stripe’s sales capacity plan? What levers can Dewitt
Grosser and the Sales team pull to solve the delta between Stripe’s growth ambitions and the
bottoms-up sales model?

Session 19: Conclusion

In this final session, we will summarize the key lessons we’ve shared over the course of the past 18
sessions and wrap with a few final lessons on how to embrace sales today.

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