Panel: 

Mark Roberge, Chief Revenue Officer of Hubspot Sales Division. Prior to this role, Mark served as HubSpot's SVP of Worldwide Sales and Services from 2007 to 2013, during which time he increased revenue over 6,000% and expanded the team from 1 to 450 employees. These results placed HubSpot #33 on the 2011 INC 500 Fastest Growing Companies list. Mark was ranked #19 in Forbes' Top 30 Social Sellers in the World. He was also awarded the 2010 Salesperson of the Year at the MIT Sales Conference.  Prior to HubSpot, Mark founded and/or held executive positions at start-ups in the social media and mobile sector.  Mark started his career as a Technology Consultant with Accenture. (Bio) 

Brian Frank is Vice President of Global Sales Operations at LinkedIn. Brian is focused on helping companies transform the way they hire, market and sell by strategically managing all aspects of sales productivity and leverage, including Sales Operations, Sales Effectiveness, Sales Systems, Sales Development and Advertising Operations.  Prior to LinkedIn, Mr. Frank spent 10 years at Ariba, where his roles included VP, GM of the Contract Management Solutions, Regional CFO of North America, and Associate General Counsel. Mr. Frank has extensive experience in selling SAAS solutions, sales operations, business systems, and financial planning.   Mr. Frank holds a degree from UCSD, cum laude and a JD from Santa Clara University School of Law. (Bio) (Twitter)

Mark Birch is the founder of Enterprise Sales Meetup. Mark is an enterprise software tech entrepreneur, sales executive, and early stage startup investor based in NYC. Enterprise Sales Meetup is a community that brings together B2B sales professional and leaders for events to share ideas, network with peers, and learn of innovations in the field of sales. There are communities in NYC, Boston, DC and soon launching in Philadelphia. Previously to invest and advising startups, he worked at a diverse group of leading technology companies including Oracle, E.piphany and Siebel. (LinkedIn)(Blog)

Topics That Will Be Covered: 

• When should you hire your first sales people?
• When making your first sales hires should you be hiring a VP of sales first, or 1 - 3 salespeople who can deliver early sales?
• Have you seen startups scale sales prematurely?  If so, what “sign” should you look for so you know it is the right time to scale sales?
• When you hire a VP of Sales, what do you expect them to do? Are they selling as well?
• How much latitude do you give your salespeople around pricing and terms?
• How do you think about inside sales folks versus outside sales folks? If you are just getting started, should you implement this?
• When do you know you need to hire a VP of sales?
• When should you / should you script your sales people?
• In early sales, do you think selling via web demos and phone calls is effective or do you need to meet face-to-face?
• How do you best learn / what questions do you ask to find out who the real decision maker is and if they have the budget?
• What are the killer questions you love to ask when hiring salespeople?
• For compensation, what should the split be between base and commission? Do you think it’s best to offer commission or bonuses?
• How do you make sure sales is giving effective feedback to engineering / product management?
• What are the best techniques you have used to discover great sales people?
• Most common mistakes you’ve made and see startups make when hiring salespeople?
• How important is picking and implementing the right sales tool (e.g., Salesforce, Streak, Pipedrive)?