Ex-Splunk Exec: Fix Your Sales System Before You Hire Reps
- E561
- 55:44
- October 28th 2026
The conversation focused on one of the most common and expensive errors CEOs make after raising money: hiring more salespeople before the company is actually ready. The assumption is that more salespeople = predictable growth. The episode makes clear that that's rarely the case, and you often end up in chaos, with high churn and the dreaded "doom loop" of declining revenue.
One concept focused on the subtle signs your sales engine isn't working and why operational readiness, not headcount, determines success. It's all based on experience scaling companies like Splunk from $60m to over $1bn. The guest talks through the key metrics and behaviors that make revenue truly repeatable.
A major theme was the power of focusing on existing customers before chasing the next big deal. Some companies achieved triple (or even quadruple) growth, and it wasn't by getting new logos at all. It was by learning to serve existing customers better and grow that customer base.
What will make your next board meeting less stressful? What hard truths should every founder face before they even start to hire? All of the above, plus counterintuitive strategies and practical advice to keep your revenue engine running no matter how fast your company grows.
Some topics we explore in this episode include:
- Why Hiring More Salespeople Can Hurt Your Revenue
- The Hidden Dangers of Skipping Product-Market Fit
- Early Warning Numbers: The Secret to Predictable Growth
- What Most Teams Overlook in Their Rush for New Customers
- Unlocking Growth with a Repeatable Revenue Engine
- The Ramp-Up Myth: Are your sales targets built on sand?
- Skill vs. Will: The Unexpected Formula for High-Performing Teams
- The Surprising Power of Compensation Plans in Driving the Right Behaviors
- Coaching Secrets: What Great Sales Leaders Do Weekly That Others Ignore
- AI or Human Touch? Where the Real Competitive Edge Lies in B2B Sales
Predictable B2B Success
If you lead a bootstrapped or funded B2B tech company and need revenue to be predictable, not just possible, this podcast was built for you.
Predictable B2B Success is the only show built exclusively for CEOs at seed-to-Series C tech companies who are ready to replace random acts of growth with a scalable, repeatable revenue system from first dollar to $50M+ ARR and beyond.
Each week, host Vinay Koshy sits down with elite revenue operators, GTM leaders, and founders who have solved the hardest problem in funded B2B tech: turning chaotic, unpredictable growth into something structural, a system that holds under investor pressure, market shifts, and scale.
What you will walk away with every episode:
- Operating frameworks for building predictable revenue pipelines
- Real playbooks from founders who have scaled B2B companies from seed to Series C and beyond
- GTM, RevOps, demand generation, and category design insights built for C-suite decisions, not marketing teams
- Strategies that compound across your organisation, not one-off tactics that fade
Why 500+ episodes and a 5.0-star rating?
This is not a show about inspiration. It is a show about operating clarity. Every guest is chosen because they have built systems in sales, content, community, product, or customer success that made revenue predictable. After 500+ episodes, the patterns are unmistakable. This archive is your competitive advantage.
Trusted by founders and CEOs at bootstrapped and funded B2B tech companies across SaaS, cleantech, AI, and enterprise software.
Rated 5.0 stars on Apple Podcasts. Ranked top 5 B2B podcast by Feedspot (2026). 500+ episodes since 2020.
Subscribe now and get a new episode every week, turning your revenue from a moving target into a scalable system.
Show notes, frameworks, and transcripts: sproutworth.com Subscribe to The Inclined, the weekly newsletter for funded B2B tech CEOs: sproutworth.com/newsletter Connect with Vinay Koshy on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/vinaykoshy