740 - Embracing Remote Culture for Global Sales Success, with Chris Parker

Colin Mitchell chats with Chris Parker about his journey from technical marketing to sales leadership at Customer IO. They discuss the challenges of growing a global sales team while operating lean and the importance of meeting customers where they are. Chris shares insights on building a strong culture in a fully distributed team and the strategies that have helped Customer IO triple its revenue.

Follow the Host:
Collin Mitchell (Partner, Leadium)

Our Episode Guest:
Chris Parker (VP of Global Sales, Customer.io)

Sponsored By:
Leadium | The leader in outbound sales appointment setting

*If you'd like to be a guest on the show or have any questions, email us at [e-mail] - Just tell us why you're reaching out and we'll contact you as soon as we can!

Episode Transcript

Announcer (00:00):
Welcome back to sales transformation brought to you by
Leadium. Today, we have ChrisParker on to discuss his journey
from technical marketing tosales leadership at customer IO.
Colin, over to you.

Collin Mitchell (00:13):
Alright. Welcome to another episode of
sales transformation brought toyou by Leadium. I'm your host,
Colin Mitchell. Today, I've gotChris Parker on. Chris, welcome
to the show.
How you doing?

Chris Parker (00:23):
Thanks, Colin. Doing well. Thanks for having
me.

Collin Mitchell (00:26):
Yeah. So give us a little bit of background on
yourself, you know, kind of whatis your sales journey look like,
and then we'll get into thetopic we planned out for today.

Chris Parker (00:34):
Sure. Absolutely. So a little atypical. I actually
began my career on the technicalmarketing side. So I was
managing websites, kind of ajack of all trades in terms of
website development, emailmarketing, everything in
between.
And in around 2010, I joined anad tech startup in Boston. I

(00:58):
ended up spending about 8 yearsthere. I was one of the first 20
employees, and I did come intothat organization, kind of
wearing that type of hat. Sojack of all trades, kind of
working on their publishernetwork that they owned and
operated. They were a mediafocused company.
And over the years, you know, Idecided I wanted to kind of

(01:21):
center myself with the corebusiness. And, I took on a
product marketing role, andthen, that kind of just
naturally somehow, turned intosales leadership. So I kinda
jumped straight in and, haven'tlooked back since.

Collin Mitchell (01:37):
Interesting. So your your your journey kinda
started more in the technicalmarketing side of the business
and then, ended up in in sales.Curious if if is there any or
sales leadership rather, anyskills working on the marketing
side of the house that you feelhave made you a better sales

(01:58):
leader?

Chris Parker (01:59):
Yeah. Definitely. I mean, I think early on,
around, I would say, 2,007,2008, affiliate marketing and
SEO was very big. And, you know,there's a lot of revenue to be
to be had there, really. And,you know, that was kind of
always the focal point of thesetypes of companies back then.

(02:21):
It actually was the early dayswhen HubSpot was, I think they
had a tool called WebsiteGrader,and that's how they kicked off.
And, everybody was really kindacentered around how do you
optimize the web experience forrevenue. So that naturally led
pretty well into my salescareer. But I think, you know,
as it relates to productmarketing, there's definitely a

(02:44):
lot of synergies. It's all aboutstorytelling.
It's all about meeting thecustomers where they are and,
just ensuring that they have agreat experience. So, you know,
naturally, that plays very wellinto sales, and that's
definitely what we focus onhere.

Collin Mitchell (03:01):
Got it. Okay. And so now you're the, vice
president of global sales atCustomer. Io. Tell us a little
bit about kind of what yourjourney's been like there and
and what exactly it is that,Customer.
Io does.

Chris Parker (03:16):
Yeah. Absolutely. So I'll start there. So we like
to, again, start around thecustomer problem. And the
problem that we solve for isthat customers of SaaS
applications or any mobile orapp based products, they're
bombarded with noise.
So they're bombarded withtransactional messages,

(03:38):
notifications, emails, pushmessages. And what we do at
Customer. Io is we really help,brands. We have over 7,000
brands. We help them solve thischallenge by directing directly
leveraging their first partydata, so that they can craft
engaging experiences that arebased on intent and, help, break

(03:59):
through the noise and, createmore personalized customer
moments.

Collin Mitchell (04:04):
Interesting. Okay. And so you you've been
there a little bit over 2 years,it looks like. Yep. And, what
are some of the the challengesthat you've taken on as growing
a global sales team?

Chris Parker (04:17):
Yeah. Absolutely. So, just a couple months back, I
think we publicly announced thatwe reached over 60,000,000 in,
ARR. When I joined, it wasaround 20. So almost 3 years
now.
So quite quite the ride in termsof success, especially during

(04:37):
this pretty difficult time forSaaS. Yeah. So kinda, you know,
classic, you know, growing ateam from 4 reps to 14, you
know, adding leadership layers,adding, sales operations,
solutions architects,partnerships, everything in
between, and just reallystanding up, a really durable,

(04:59):
you know, and multifaceted salesorg. So a lot of, lot of
obstacles along the way, but,yeah, it's been fun.

Collin Mitchell (05:09):
Yeah. But it sounds like you you run a fairly
lean team for the the amount ofrevenue that you guys are doing.

Chris Parker (05:16):
Yes. Yes. We definitely do. And, you know, we
can, dive into this if you'dlike as well. But we're very
methodical in our growth, and,that kind of, you know, goes
straight to the DNA of the thecompany.
And I think, you know, in manyways that we're fortunate that
that has always been in the DNAof the business because, it's

(05:38):
kind of the way you you need tooperate these days. So, you
know, again, we're we're blessedby just the the fact that our
leadership has always kind oftaken that approach instead of,
you know, just trying to grow atany cost. So we kind of have

(05:59):
continued to follow thatstrategy as we've grown
globally. So that's that's kindof the the way we operate.

Collin Mitchell (06:07):
Yeah. Which is very different than the way a
lot of, SaaS companies wereoperating, and, frankly, that's
what got a lot of them introuble. And, you know,

Chris Parker (06:16):
why a lot of

Collin Mitchell (06:16):
companies are having, you know, a lot of
challenges. But so, yeah,curious to to kinda dig into
that a little bit. You know, howhave you, you know, essentially
tripled revenue in the time thatyou've been there while growing
a global sales team andoperating lean? Like, what are
some, you know, kind of thingsthat have worked well for you

(06:37):
guys, and we'll kinda go fromthere.

Chris Parker (06:41):
Yeah. Absolutely. So I mean, 1st and foremost, I
think it comes, down to justmeeting our customers and our
prospects where they are. So oneexample of that is, opening up,
availability, not, you know,before we even expanded
globally, availability acrossUnited States, making sure that
we have coverage and we'remeeting our prospects where they

(07:04):
are. You know, from an salesoperations point of view, that
means using clever routingtools, you know, making sure
that our tooling is set upappropriately.
And then it obviously comes downto the team that you build and
bring in. Having that growthmindset, making sure that
everybody is oriented around thebusiness objective, is key. And,

(07:28):
you know, we we definitely havea very tight and solid culture.
So that's been incrediblyimportant for us. And, everybody
is, very used to change, and, Ithink they embrace it.
So that that's been great forus.

Collin Mitchell (07:46):
Yeah. And is is everybody remote, or is there
any partial in office? Or kindayou know, what is the,

Chris Parker (07:54):
team lead up? So so, again, back to the the DNA
of the org, it was actuallyfounded to be a globally
distributed company, back in2012. So, you know, ahead of the
curve there in many ways, and,we continue to scale in that way
as well. So, again, just beingintentional around being remote

(08:16):
has been, a benefit and ablessing for us as well because,
you know, a lot of companies didkind of have have to go remote
during, the COVID era. And, youknow, even kind of having that
partial in person remoteenvironment, you know, sometimes
it is challenging because youdon't really know which way to

(08:36):
build your culture.
And, we certainly have always,been building it intentionally
to be remote and asynchronous.So, that's that's how we
operate.

Collin Mitchell (08:48):
Yeah. And what are some things that have helped
you in building a good culturewith a, you know, fully
distributed global team?

Chris Parker (08:56):
Yeah. Absolutely. So, obviously, you know, you
can't really you can't solve forthe gap that in person does, you
know, kind of deliver in termsof just the relationships that
you can build when you are inperson. So we do, a in person

(09:18):
SKO, like many traditional, youknow, companies that do operate
within offices. We do have some,events that we do run, that are
in person as well.
So just starting with thatfoundation of just knowing each
other, not only from behindZoom, but also being able to

(09:39):
meet each other in real life anddevelop those relationships has
been super important. But thenalso just, again, you know,
working asynchronously, when wecan is, something that we
default to. And, you know,everyone, you know, very much
enjoys and loves and adopts andembraces our culture. So, you

(10:02):
know, they want to do the thingsto help support that. So just,
again, having everyone kinda beoriented around those goals is
super important.
And it just makes communicationthat much easier, you know,
when, again, you're not tryingto juggle multiple kinda
intentions or priorities.

Collin Mitchell (10:20):
Thanks for tuning in. Please don't forget
to like and share so we can helpmore people transform the way
they sell.