In this episode of Selling the Cloud, Mark Petruzzi and KK Anderson sit down with Mark Roberge, founding CRO at HubSpot and author of The Sales Acceleration Formula, to unpack why most companies scale at the wrong time and with the wrong signals. Mark introduces a stage-specific, data-driven framework for moving from product market fit to go to market fit, and explains why managing to readiness and retention beats chasing top-line revenue alone.

Mark breaks down how founders and boards get trapped copying outdated playbooks, why product market fit is often misunderstood, and how to define it through value realization, not just revenue. He also shares a practical approach for finding a leading indicator of retention, then translating unit economics into clear operating KPIs that make scaling repeatable, profitable, and measurable.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why scaling “scientifically” requires managing to readiness and retention, not just revenue growth.
• The difference between market-message fit and true product market fit.
• How to define product market fit using retention and value realization.
• How to build a leading indicator of retention using a simple “P percent do event every T time” framework.
• Why startups should delay scalable processes until product market fit is proven.
• What go to market fit actually means and how unit economics define it.
• How to translate LTV:CAC targets into practical KPIs like quota, close rates, and meeting volume.
• How to diagnose pipeline problems as readiness issues vs volume issues using conversion patterns across reps.

Key Topics:

• The danger of copying borrowed playbooks from past unicorns
• Readiness pacing vs hiring based on fundraising timelines
• Product market fit as value creation, not revenue milestones
• Leading indicators of retention and early customer success signals
• Go to market fit and unit economics as the profitability test
• Turning unit economics into a repeatable go to market formula
• Quick tests for pipeline issues: lead quality vs sales execution
• Why small funnel improvements compound faster than single big swings

Guest Spotlight: Mark Roberge

Mark Roberge is the founding CRO at HubSpot, where he helped scale the company from zero to IPO. He is co-founder and managing partner at Stage 2 Capital, a Harvard Business School senior lecturer focused on sales and go-to-market strategy, and the best-selling author of The Sales Acceleration Formula. His newest book, The Science of Scaling, distills decades of research into a stage-specific roadmap for scaling with measurable readiness.

Resources & Mentions:

• Book: The Science of Scaling (pre-order available)
• Book: The Sales Acceleration Formula
• Concept: Product Market Fit vs Go to Market Fit vs Growth and Moat
• Framework: “P percent of customers do event every T time”
• Example: Slack’s activation benchmark (high-volume team messaging)
• SaaS Metrics: Retention, Leading Indicator of Retention, LTV:CAC, Payback Period
• Reference: Winning by Design and compounding funnel improvement

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In Part 2 of this Selling the Cloud conversation, Amy Weber joins KK Anderson and Mark Petruzzi to go deeper into how modern revenue leaders should think about AI, outreach, hiring, and coaching. Amy challenges traditional sales motions like cold outreach and rigid playbooks, and explains how AI should be used to personalize engagement, free up seller time, and enable more meaningful one on one conversations.

The discussion also dives into assessment driven hiring and coaching, unpacking why resumes are a poor predictor of success, how to identify true talent signals, and how leaders can reduce friction by understanding identity, motivation, and communication styles across their teams. This episode is a practical guide for CROs who want to build revenue teams that perform, scale, and adapt in a more human centered, AI enabled world.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why cold outreach is losing effectiveness and what CROs should prioritize instead
• How AI can personalize messaging without removing the seller’s individual voice
• The right way to define ICPs based on engagement and impact, not volume
• Why playbooks should act as flexible frameworks, not rigid rules
• How assessment driven hiring reveals true talent signals beyond resumes
• Key differences between hunter, farmer, and CSM profiles and why misalignment hurts performance
• How leaders can reduce friction between managers and sellers through better coaching and communication
• Why understanding identity, emotional resonance, and motivation matters more than process alone

Key Topics:

• AI powered personalization in sales outreach
• ICP refinement and engaged account strategies
• Freeing up seller time for high value conversations
• Assessment driven hiring and role fit
• Coaching frameworks for sales managers and leaders
• Managing conflict between sales leaders and individual contributors
• Identity based leadership and communication styles
• Positive intelligence and managing saboteurs in high performing teams

Guest Spotlight: Amy Weber

Amy Weber is a strategic advisor to growth stage and enterprise revenue teams and the founder of VEDA Sales Consulting. She specializes in aligning people, process, and purpose to drive measurable revenue outcomes. Amy works closely with CROs and executive teams to improve hiring, coaching, and leadership effectiveness using assessment driven insights and practical operating frameworks.

🎧 Listen now and follow Selling the Cloud for more conversations on building modern, revenue focused GTM teams in the age of AI.

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In this episode of Selling the Cloud, Mark and KK sit down with Amy Weber, founder of Vetta Sales Consulting and strategic advisor to GrowthStage and Enterprise revenue teams. Amy specializes in aligning people, process, and purpose so strategy translates into real performance. She shares why many revenue organizations stall not because of tools or plans, but because of role confusion, misaligned talent, and leadership gaps.

Amy breaks down how to design roles that reflect reality, how to hire and coach based on true behavioral identity, and why companies must stop promoting top reps into leadership without assessing desire and capability. She also explains how AI can power a stronger customer experience by removing low value tasks and freeing sellers to focus on discovery, executive access, and relationship building.

This conversation hits the core of modern revenue growth: the right people in the right roles, operating in a healthy, human selling system.

What You’ll Learn:

• The three fastest tells that your people or role design are broken
• How to distinguish hunters, farmers, and CSMs without relying on personality stereotypes
• Why top performers burn out in “Frankenstein” job descriptions
• How to test for core sales behaviors using identity based assessment
• Why leadership is not a reward and should not be given based on quota attainment
• How AI can support human selling by automating research, follow up, and content prep
• How to create operating rhythms that ensure AI actually frees time, not adds more dashboards

Key Topics:

• Role design and talent fit for revenue teams
• Behavioral identity vs personality in hiring
• Misaligned promotions and the manager IC divide
• Why customer success is undervalued and misunderstood
• Modern client experience and relationship driven selling
• Practical, tool agnostic ways to use AI for research and personalization
• Operating cadence changes that make AI adoption real
• Avoiding analysis paralysis when implementing new technologies

Guest Spotlight: Amy Weber

Amy Weber is the founder of Vetta Sales Consulting and an advisor to high growth revenue organizations. She helps CROs and CEOs fix the people's side of revenue through role clarity, talent fit, and leadership development. Her work replaces outdated activity goals with clear rhythms and systems that actually change behavior, increase productivity, and create healthier teams. Amy also advises organizations building AI for talent decisions.

Resources and Mentions:

• Cisco sales story on customer experience
• Medium content repurposing with LLMs
• Talent identity and psychometric assessments
• Operating rhythms for revenue teams
• Relationship led selling frameworks

🎧 Listen now and follow Selling the Cloud for more GTM insights from leaders driving the future of revenue. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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