A transformational leader who specializes in data driven GTM, Allison Metcalfe has had a non-traditional path to the C Suite – starting in Account Management, and being a leader in the evolution of Customer Success, Allison has held a variety of leadership roles across sales and operations in some of Silicon Valley’s most successful companies including Jigsaw (acquired by Salesforce), Demandbase, Quotient (NYSE: QUOT) and Liveramp (NYSE: RAMP), which went from $30M to $500M in revenue and IPO under her tenure.
Discussed in this Episode:
- Allison’s non-traditional journey from customer success to CRO.
- The importance of building a strong post-sales function early on.
- Balancing product-led growth with an enterprise sales motion.
- The qualities that make an effective modern CRO.
- Leveraging customer stories as a powerful growth lever.
- Lessons learned from LiveRamp’s explosive growth and acquisition by Acxiom.
Highlights:
(2:13) Choosing companies based on people and gut instinct.
(7:40) The transition from purely product-led growth to supporting an enterprise sales motion.
(11:52) The risk of neglecting your core customers during growth.
(16:31) Operationalizing the transition from self-service to enterprise.
(23:55) Lessons learned from LiveRamp’s acquisition by Acxiom.
(28:14) Overcoming the desire to be liked as a leader.
(35:25) Beyoncé’s “Sasha Fierce” persona as a leadership tool.
(39:16) The role and skills required of a modern CRO.
(45:18) The importance of separating new logo sales from account management.
(48:29) The power of word-of-mouth and focusing on customer outcomes.
Guest Speaker Links (Allison Metcalfe):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonmetcalfe/
Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/
Sponsors:
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The GTM Podcast
Features conversations with the top 1% of tech executives, VCs, and founders – the experts who have ‘been there, done that’ to build some of the fastest-growing software companies. Every week, a guest joins Scott Barker to dissect their stories – revealing what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.
The post GTM 115: Lessons from CS to CRO and How Customer Stories are Your Most Powerful Growth Lever with Allison Metcalfe appeared first on GTMnow.