Shahin chats with Drew Sechrist, Co-Founder & CEO at Connect the Dots about his experience being employee number 36 at Salesforce and the lessons learnt from his time at the organisation.
A cold email to Marc Benioff in 1999 landed Drew an account executive job at Salesforce, where he became the company’s highest-producing seller, then the highest-producing sales manager as Salesforce scaled from zero to more than a billion dollars in revenue.
When Drew moved on in 2010, he was the VP of Salesforce’s High Tech vertical, calling on customers such as Apple and EMC. He launched his first tech company, Koozoo, in 2010, and went on to serve as an investor, advisor, and Chief Revenue Officer for various startups before founding Connect The Dots in 2019.
As a young seller, leaders like Marc Benioff, Jim Steele, Carl Schachter, and Susan St. Ledger transformed Drew’s career by opening their networks and making warm introductions on Drew’s behalf. With Connect The Dots, Drew is making that experience possible for anyone.
The episode covers:
- What was learnt from the early days of Salesforce
- How Salesforce managed to grow
- How to sell into an account
- How Connect the Dots is inspired by his time at Salesforce
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- How to Meditate - Pema Chödrön
- Marc Benioff
- John Barrows
- SaaSy Sales Leadership - Matt Cameron
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Hosted & Produced by Shahin Hoda, Allysa Maywald & Alexander Hipwell, from xGrowth
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APAC's B2B Growth Podcast
APAC's B2B Growth Podcast (formerly Growth Colony) is a bi-weekly interview show unpacking trends, busting myths and delivering insights B2B marketing and sales leaders across Asia-Pacific can put to work today.
Each episode, host Shahin Hoda sits down with a marketing leader, sales leader, founder or operator who has a real point of view, not a generic take.
Guests bring specific stories from inside their own companies: what worked, what failed and what they'd do differently.
We cover what's actually driving B2B growth in the region: account-based marketing built for APAC rather than adapted from a US or UK playbook, sales and marketing alignment, and founder and operator commentary from people doing the work, not just talking about it.
If you're a B2B marketing or sales leader in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore or anywhere else in Asia-Pacific trying to build pipeline from strategic accounts, this show is for you.
Hosted by Shahin Hoda, founder of xGrowth. xGrowth is an account-based marketing and go-to-market agency helping global B2B technology companies improve customer acquisition, build qualified pipeline and win strategic accounts across APAC.
The agency works with regional sales and marketing teams to identify priority accounts, develop coordinated campaigns and turn commercial opportunities into measurable growth.
With specialist regional expertise and hands-on execution support, xGrowth gives lean marketing teams the strategy and capacity needed to enter new markets, reach enterprise buyers and grow valuable customer relationships.
New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe so you don't miss one, and sign up for the xG Weekly newsletter for more insights on B2B growth across APAC.