The Sales Productivity Formula: Time × Conversion Rate × Average Deal Size | Why $10-36K ACV Is The Zone Of Death | Sales Reps Are Humans, Not Spreadsheets | Russ Thau, Former Revenue Leader at Intercom, Envoy, Box
Most founders get sales rep productivity wrong - and it kills their growth.
If you’re thinking about hiring your first sellers - or wondering why the ones you hired are struggling to hit their numbers - this one is for you!
In this week’s focal podcast, I unpack in detail how to build a repeatable sales playbook that actually works with Russ Thau who drops the sales productivity formula he used to scale multiple companies past $50M in revenue, including taking Box, Intercom, Envoy, SuccessFactor, Airtable, and Launch Darkly.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
02:09 - Why time is the one thing you can't fabricate in sales
03:43 - How many calls can someone realistically take per day?
03:53 - The control experiment: Why founders should do calls first
06:22 - First calls vs. follow-ups: How to benchmark properly
07:46 - Why reps need 30 minutes prep time per call
09:39 - The critical 5-minute buffer between calls
09:49 - How call complexity changes everything (Intercom vs. SuccessFactors)
11:55 - Why follow-ups must happen within hours, not days
12:07 - The context switch problem with outbound prospecting
14:24 - How long founders need to keep selling alongside reps
14:56 - Why hire two AEs at once, not just one
17:22 - The 90-day signal that reveals rep quality
19:04 - When to hire your first sales leader (3-4 AEs)
21:26 - The biggest mistake: Forgetting reps are human beings
22:31 - Why 10% conversion rate is your absolute minimum
24:46 - The velocity math: 100 calls to close 10 deals
26:02 - How conversion rates reveal your true ideal customer
28:20 - The $10-30K deal size "no man's land"
33:00 - Why companies set $36K minimum deal sizes (the math revealed)
37:19 - How to escape no man's land and sell bigger deals
43:07 - Enterprise vs. velocity rep skills: What's the difference?
45:04 - Understanding "the real deal" and your sales methodology
48:55 - Why sales productivity is simpler than you think
If you’re thinking about hiring your first sellers - or wondering why the ones you hired are struggling to hit their numbers - this one is for you!
In this week’s focal podcast, I unpack in detail how to build a repeatable sales playbook that actually works with Russ Thau who drops the sales productivity formula he used to scale multiple companies past $50M in revenue, including taking Box, Intercom, Envoy, SuccessFactor, Airtable, and Launch Darkly.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
02:09 - Why time is the one thing you can't fabricate in sales
03:43 - How many calls can someone realistically take per day?
03:53 - The control experiment: Why founders should do calls first
06:22 - First calls vs. follow-ups: How to benchmark properly
07:46 - Why reps need 30 minutes prep time per call
09:39 - The critical 5-minute buffer between calls
09:49 - How call complexity changes everything (Intercom vs. SuccessFactors)
11:55 - Why follow-ups must happen within hours, not days
12:07 - The context switch problem with outbound prospecting
14:24 - How long founders need to keep selling alongside reps
14:56 - Why hire two AEs at once, not just one
17:22 - The 90-day signal that reveals rep quality
19:04 - When to hire your first sales leader (3-4 AEs)
21:26 - The biggest mistake: Forgetting reps are human beings
22:31 - Why 10% conversion rate is your absolute minimum
24:46 - The velocity math: 100 calls to close 10 deals
26:02 - How conversion rates reveal your true ideal customer
28:20 - The $10-30K deal size "no man's land"
33:00 - Why companies set $36K minimum deal sizes (the math revealed)
37:19 - How to escape no man's land and sell bigger deals
43:07 - Enterprise vs. velocity rep skills: What's the difference?
45:04 - Understanding "the real deal" and your sales methodology
48:55 - Why sales productivity is simpler than you think
Creators and Guests
Host
Pascal Unger
Co-founder / Managing Partner at focal.vc We lead pre-seeds in North America with up to $1M: We exclusively back AI native software startups at the very start. Thereafter, we help them get off the ground better and faster, supported by a network > 200 GTM executives. That's our singular, unwavering focus.