GTM 149: How to Scale International Sales Teams with Rick Kelley

Rick Kelley is the former SVP of Gaming & App Monetization Solutions at Meta and Managing Director of Meta Ireland, where he led a $1B+ revenue organization & played a pivotal role in building out Meta’s go-to-market teams across North America & EMEA. Over his 15-year career at Meta, Rick was instrumental in driving international expansion, especially across Europe, the Middle East, & Africa—helping to localize strategy, scale high-performing sales teams, & bring new ad products to market. Today, he advises founders on global GTM execution, sales hiring, & how AI is reshaping the future of commercial organizations.

Discussed in this Episode:

• The operational playbooks that scaled Meta’s ad sales
• Why AI will shift how sales orgs think about headcount & human capital
• The three traits Rick looks for in great sales leaders—& how to spot them early
• Why early-stage companies should prioritize hiring builders, not closers
• How to segment go-to-market motions by customer journey, not just ACV
• Why “coachable, humble, gritty” still wins—even in an AI-powered GTM world
  
  

Highlights:

6:30 How Meta scaled repeatable playbooks across SMB, Mid-Market, & Enterprise

10:00 The role of humility & coachability in building scalable teams

13:00 Why top sales leaders are systems thinkers—not just great closers

16:00 AI’s impact on headcount & how to scale without over-hiring

21:00 Making your first 5 sales hires count

25:30 Early-stage mistake: over-complicating GTM before validating demand

30:30 Why product & GTM must be tied at the hip—especially in AI-first companies

34:00 From Facebook to Meta: what changed & what didn’t in sales strategy

37:00 Final thoughts: GTM myths, leadership advice, & staying grounded

Guest Speaker Links (Rick Kelley):

1. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rickkelley

Host Speaker Links (Sophie Buonassisi):

1. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi
2. Newsletter: substack.com/@sophiebuonassisi

Where to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):

1. Website: gtmnow.com
2. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/gtmnow
3. Twitter/X: x.com/GTMnow_
4. YouTube: /@gtm_now

Sponsors: UserEvidence

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The GTM Podcast
The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.

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