Case Study:How fractional CRO support restored Learnerbly’s growth
Role: CRO
Engagement Scope: 3 days per week for 5 months
Business Type: SaaS Marketplace
About Learnerbly
Learnerbly is a SaaS-enabled learning & development marketplace. Founded in 2016, Learnerbly’s platform allows employees to decide what they learn (i.e. public speaking, DevOps, sales skills) and how they learn (i.e. courses, coaching, conferences) by hand-picking packages from 250+ learning providers. Trusted by the likes of HelloFresh, GoCardless and Unmind to upskill their people, Learnerbly has supported 30,000+ employees from over 130+ organisations.
Challenge
After the sudden departure of a sales leader, Learnerbly needed an experienced revenue leader to step in quickly and stabilise the ship before a permanent solution was found. In particular, Learnerbly wanted a revenue leader who could win over the sales team, guide a relatively new sales team away from founder-led sales (Learnerbly raised its £10 million Series A six months earlier), implement improved sales processes and give Learnerbly’s executive and leadership teams a more stable overview over the whole revenue function. In short, Learnerbly needed a fractional Chief Revenue Officer (CRO).
Solution
Following recommendations from other CROs and investors, Learnerbly’s executive team was introduced to Margo. During the introductory calls, it was clear that Margo shared similar values with CEO Rajeeb Dey and COO Jonny Day, and had the skills to support Learnerbly’s immediate needs and future growth plans.
Margo and Learnerbly’s executive team co-created a role designed to maximise Margo’s impact. After seven days of scoping and discovery sessions pre-engagement, Margo would act as a fractional CRO three days per week for five months (with flexibility if more or less days were required). The role would be delivered remotely with Margo assuming responsibility for Sales, RevOps and Marketing, and delivering the following core objectives:
Support revenue teams to accelerate growth
Improve sales processes
Embed a revenue mindset within the leadership team
Oversee transition to a permanent CRO
Results
Support revenue teams to accelerate growth
Margo oversaw the sales, marketing and RevOps teams, working quickly to get people on side and setting clear expectations. Taking a directive approach, Margo mentored the individual revenue leaders, instilled what good looks like for each team, established team and collective targets, and got the revenue teams working together to drive SaaS growth. In particular, Margo helped the sales and marketing teams achieve their highest-ever performing quarters for both sales and demand gen in Q4 2022 followed by delivering even better results in Q1 2023.
Improve sales processes
Margo implemented the MEDDIC (Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain and Champion) sales framework as well as her proprietary ‘Four Ps’ methodology (People, Process, Performance and Proposition). By implementing efficient revenue processes to support the sales team, measuring the right metrics to support performance and simplifying the proposition (including a revamped two-pager on Learnerbly’s proposition and a new sales deck), Learnerably was able to significantly boost its win rate and conversion rate.
Embed a revenue mindset within the leadership team
Throughout a period of transition, Margo acted as the voice of revenue across the company, streamlining revenue reporting and using her Four Ps framework to constantly update Learnerbly’s executive team on ongoing RevOps improvements. Margo also aligned the executive team on the necessary levers to drive SaaS revenue growth and increased executive awareness of sales wins in the current climate, shifting the narrative on expectations and giving the executive team a more rounded view of revenue achievements. What’s more, by establishing revenue leadership across all revenue functions (including customer success), Leanerably was able to achieve faster and better results across all revenue areas.
Oversee transition to a permanent CRO
With Margo not just steadying the ship, but setting it on a course for success, Leanerbly’s executive team was able to take their time to find the right full-time CRO. Margo was also able to onboard the incoming CRO in the month preceding her departure to ensure a smooth transition. This included a clear handover document on the current systems and processes, 1-2-1 meetings on the key priorities for the quarter ahead, and continuing meetings post-handover providing a sounding board for any questions.
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“Margo’s a brilliant revenue leader and a pleasure to work with. Her eye for market proposition is second to none and she’s been a great motivator to our inexperienced sales team. In particular, Margo did a fantastic job at creating a modern revenue engine, getting the revenue teams firing on all cylinders and working together to acquire new customers.”
Case Study:How Interim CRO support restored confidence and results to Arctic Shores’ sales team
Role: CRO
Engagement Scope: 3 days per week for 5 months
Business Type: SaaS Marketplace
About Arctic Shores
Founded in 2013, Arctic Shores was set up to help companies ‘see more in people’ by focusing on potential and capabilities rather than past experience or aptitude in traditional intelligence tests; both of which disadvantaged certain groups of society. A champion of social mobility, UK-based Arctic Shores used gamification and neuroscience to create Europe’s first behaviour-based recruitment assessment, which has now been used by 150+ companies in over 50 countries, such as Siemens, Axa and PwC.
Artic Shores Sale scale-up need
From start-up to scale-up. Arctic Shores has grown rapidly since its inception in 2013, currently employing over 70 staff and making Deloitte’s list of the 50 fastest-growing UK-based tech companies in 2020. However, like many scaling companies, Arctic Shoes has also experienced growing pains.
As Arctic Shores tried to shift its mentality and processes towards the scaling end of the spectrum, its sales growth took a hit in the first quarter of 2021. Arctic Shores CEO and co-founder, Robert Newry, was keen to bring in extra resource to address the dip and help with the transition, but instead of rushing an important CRO hire, he sought an interim solution first. In particular, Arctic Shores wanted a seasoned sales leader that could be parachuted in quickly, mentor the sales team and improve sales performance in the time taken to find a suitable CRO. They turned to Scalewise.
Scalewise impact
Scalewise co-founder and sales leader Gavin Sumner spoke to Arctic Shores to better understand the company’s background, challenges, requirements and expectations, while also discussing preferred leadership styles so the interim leader and Arctic Shores’ management would have natural working chemistry from the off.
Robert Newry interviewed three candidates put forward by Gavin (and also put them through the Arctic Shores behavioural assessment) and decided to hire Margo Hayward as a sales lead three days per week (over an eventual six months). Margo has over 21 years of experience in technology sales and business leadership, she quickly used this wealth of knowledge to deliver the following key impacts:
Restored sales team’s confidence
Renewed sales team’s focus
Reinitiated cross-team alignment
Boosted sales growth by 100%
Prioritised key actions
Restored sales team’s confidence
Off the back of missing their Q1 sales targets, Arctic Shores knew the importance of restoring confidence to the sales team. Straight away, Margo reminded the 7-strong sales team of their capability and potential. Focusing on the basics of the company’s amazing approach and widespread benefits, Margo used her optimism, energy and get-things-done mentality to instill the belief among sales reps that there was no reason why they shouldn't be successful.
Renewed sales team’s focus
The sales team’s focus had blurred while scaling into new territory, but Margo quickly put a structure in place enabling the sales department to reset. Not only did she implement a sales success routine and cadence back into the team, but she also created a six month reset plan and channeled the sales team’s focus with her ‘4P’ methodology: people, process, proposition and performance.
Reinitiated cross-team alignment
As a result of missing its Q1 targets, the Arctic Shores sales team had slipped into a bunker mentality and was feeling separated from the rest of the company. Margo worked hard to boost interdepartmental collaboration and by working closely with the CMO and Chief Customer Officer - showing them how sales needed their help - she rallied the rest of senior leadership to support her team in delivering sales.
Boosted sales growth by 100%
Coming in at the start of Q2, Margo inherited a similar run rate to Q1 and quickly set to work to alter the sales trajectory. By Q3, after implementing a new focus, revising the sales structure and restoring confidence, Margo’s revamped sales team hit their revised targets and increased the run rate by 100% from Q2. The same momentum is set to continue for Q4.
Prioritised key actions
Instead of acting as a direct replacement for a full-time Head of Sales, hiring a Sales Lead for three days per week ensured Margo’s time was used to full effect. For example, Margo was not required to attend non-sales focused meetings or product reviews, but instead fully focused on the areas that had the most impact. This streamlined drive enabled Arctic Shoes to get the most out of Margo’s time and deliver the greatest impact in the time period.
Describing her time with Arctic Shores, Margo said: “Working with the team at Arctic Shores was a joy, the team are capable and motivated to succeed. With the support of the Senior Leadership we were able to put a plan in place that made an instant impact to the sales performance by identifying clear focus areas that from my extensive experience I knew would lead to better results.”
“You wouldn’t have known this was Margo’s first interim role: she was absolutely brilliant. There is a large spectrum of people who could do interim or fractional roles, but only a few that fit in the sweet spot overlap of the three critical areas that I was looking for. Credit to Scalewise for not only having the breadth of sales leaders to choose from, but for working closely with me, having the right processes and asking the right questions to make sure we got the best match possible. To top the experience off, the handover to the new CRO has been well-thought through and structured. I am very happy with the overall results and collaboration.”
