Scaling Gong to $7 Billion Valuation w/ Chris Orlob

Hello and welcome back to the Collin Cadmus Podcast. Today I’m joined by Chris Orlob.

Chris studied marketing at Utah Valley University and then went on to start his career at InsideSales.com, after which he started his own company Conversature, which eventually merged with Gong, at which point Chris became the Director of Product Marketing and eventually the Head of Sales where he helped grow the company from $200k ARR to over a $7B valuation in 5 years.

In 2022 Chris left Gong to start his current venture, where he serves as the Founder and CEO of Pclub.io, a sales training platform that aggregates courses from top practitioners into one platform.

The last time I spoke with Chris was back in 2019 and it feels like just about everything has changed since then with the advent of remote work, sales AI, and the divergence from the Growth-at-all-Cost model, so I’m excited to dive in and get his thoughts on all that’s changing.

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TOPICS:

00:00:00 Intro

00:02:12 Outbound Prospecting

00:11:37 Remote vs Office

00:16:42 Quota Attainment

00:23:48  Average Tenure

00:30:24 Growth-at-all-Costs

00:36:43 AI in Sales

00:41:20 Pclub

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QUESTIONS:

1. Outbound prospecting has become increasingly challenging as conversion rates for calls and emails continue to decline. What do you think outbound salespeople should be doing differently today?

2. What’s the best way to build a sales team in 2024; remote, hybrid, or in the office, and why?

3. Average quota attainment is under 40%. Why do you think it’s so low and what needs to change?

4. Average VP Sales tenure is below 18 months. Why do you think it’s so low and what needs to change?

5. What’s happening to the Growth-at-all-Costs model?

6. What role do you see AI playing in sales over the next 5-10 years?

7. What is Pclub?

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LINKS:

Pclub: https://www.pclub.io

Chris on X: https://x.com/Chris_Orlob

Collin on X: https://x.com/collincadmus

Modern Outbound System: https://www.collincadmus.com/the-modern-outbound-system

Sales Coaching: https://www.collincadmus.com/sales-coaching

Founder Coaching: https://www.collincadmus.com/founder-coaching

Collin Cadmus Podcast: https://www.collincadmus.com/podcasts/collin-cadmus-podcast

Revenue Growth Blog: https://www.collincadmus.com/blog

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Sit back, relax, enjoy the episode, and thank you for listening, viewing, and subscribing.

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