Dan Fougere, CRO @Datadog: Why Discounting is Dangerous and Contract Sizes are Misleading | E1229

Dan Fougere is one of the most successful sales leaders of the last decade. Most recently, Dan was Chief Revenue Officer for Datadog, growing revenues from $60 million to $1BN ARR. Before Datadog, Dan was Head of Global Sales at Medallia where he created the Mediallia sales playbook. In addition, Dan is also a minority owner of the New York Yankees. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:56) From Engineering to Sales (07:57) Why Urgency Matters in Product Sales (15:34) Is Outbound Dead in 2024? (19:58) Giving Proper Weight to Small Accounts in PLG Strategies (23:21) Lessons on a Sales Demo (31:54) How CS Should Be Comped (34:00) Dan’s Sales Playbook Meaning (47:12) Advising Founders on Layering Sales into PLG (49:33) Making a Great Sales Culture (52:05) Knowing When Someone is a Mishire (01:01:06) Hiring Sales Reps (01:09:34) Turning Career Challenges into Personal Development (01:17:43) Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Dan Fougere: 1. Lessons Scaling Sales to $1BN in ARR at Datadog: What did Datadog not do that Dan wishes they had of done? What did they not do that Dan wishes they had done? What does Dan know about scaling sales to $1BN in ARR that he wishes he had known at the beginning? What stage of the scaling process was hardest? Why? 2. How to Hire the Best Sales Team: What are the top signals of the best sales candidates? How does Dan structure the interview process for new candidates? How does Dan use tasks and take-home assignments to test candidates? What does Dan think of hiring panels? What are the biggest hiring mistakes Dan has made? What did he learn? 3. Discounting, Logos and Deal Reviews: Is discounting always wrong? How should sales leaders use it? How important is the quality of logo in the early days vs revenue in the door? What is the right way to structure deal reviews? What makes good vs great? Is outbound dead in 2024? Advice to founders on outbound? ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Dan Fougere on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dfougere Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #danfougere #datadog #shoredrivecapital #sales #hiring