Fundamentals of Software Sales: Eric Martin
Listen On: Spotify, Breaker, Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts
Our guest Eric Martin has a background in software sales having worked for Swiftype (acquired by Elastic), DataFox (acquired by Oracle), and now at fast-growing cyber-security startup Vanta where he was the first sales employee. Eric has also been an entrepreneur having brought products to market in underwater hardware and fantasy sports markets.
We talked about software sales, entrepreneurship and a ritual that he abides by daily (see summary below👇🏽).
I intend to keep coming back to some of the knowledge he shared especially as I navigate in my entrepreneurial journey ahead.
Also, I will be featuring some of the insights I learnt from this show in my newsletter around productivity, tech trends, and entrepreneurship:
Links from the show
Summary
In this episode, Eric and I talk about:
2:20 His story growing up in Stockton
3:06 Studying in California & Saudi Arabia
5:18 Early entrepreneurial journey
6:51 Takeaways on building startups
9:22 Advice to entrepreneurs
11:22 Eric's journey into software sales -- Swiftype and DataFox
15:26 Software sales basics
18:49 How Eric landed his gig at Vanta?
19:58 Vanta
21:58 How Vanta saves time and $ for companies selling software to enterprise?
23:26 Who should get a SOC 2 certification in enterprise SAAS?
24:48 Takeaways for companies undergoing a SOC 2 certification
26:52 Building a sales team at Vanta -- how CRM (Salesforce, Hubspot etc) and thinking about an outbound engine is key from the start?
30:42 San Joaquin Soccer Alliance
33:24 Eric's daily habit or ritual taught by his dad that has changed his life