Startup Stunts & Loving Your Customers with Kyle Porter - The Transaction - Ep. 33

How do you steal the spotlight from Marc Benioff at Dreamforce? By hiring a Benioff impersonator. Yes, Kyle Porter and the Salesloft team ACTUALLY did that. But they didn’t stop there…

Joining co-hosts Matt Amundson and Craig Rosenberg to chat about the amazing stunts pulled in the early days of Salesloft and how to build a healthy company culture is Kyle Porter himself, the Founder and Board Chair of Salesloft. Beyond bringing a Benioff doppelganger to Dreamforce, Kyle shares some brilliant plays his team used to drive brand awareness and become the biggest story at their competitor’s conference. Kyle also dives into how he built a loving culture within Salesloft and how that loving culture was extended to and felt by their customers. 

Also, Craig provides a gripping tale about his experience with an elevator and Matt sets the record straight on whether a presentation he gave was sweaty or swear-y.

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Critical Takeaways

• When you really love your customers and they can actually feel that love, they are willing to go to bat for you and your company. Because Matt felt that Kyle loved him-as a customer-he would defend and promote Salesloft when others were defending or promoting a competitor.
• Building a strong company culture is more important than ever. It should be built on love–in a platonic way–for the members of your organization. A healthy organizational culture translates to better team dynamics, productivity, and ultimately, better customer interactions and satisfaction.
• Dare to be different, especially when it comes to events. People will only really remember 1-2 things from an event, so it’s critical to make that shortlist. A bigger booth doesn’t necessarily make you more memorable. Most event booths zig, so find a way to zag, even if it means doing something other than a booth (Sorry if that one hit too close to home).

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Chapters

00:00 Introducing Kyle Porter!

08:25 Awesome SaaS Stunts from the Salesloft Team

26:00 The Importance of Organizational Culture and Leadership

30:18 Loving Your Customers

32:54 Building a Community & Leveraging Customer Advocacy

44:28 How to Build a GREAT Sales Deck and Engage with Key Decision Makers

50:36 The Impact of Kyle’s Brand as a Founder

Epic Quotes

• “We're going to continually love and serve our customers and our people better than anyone else. And when you care more than anyone else, you're going to win ultimately.” - Kyle Porter
• “When a customer bought SalesLoft, I had the mentality that they had just saved my life and I was going to treat them as such” - Kyle Porter
• “Taking care of your employees Actually helps you take care of your customers” - Matt Amundson

Connect with Kyle

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyleporter/ 
• Website: https://www.salesloft.com/ 
• Kyle’s post about the Marc Benioff Impersonation (with pictures): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141022175506-2446560-how-we-impersonated-the-salesforce-com-ceo-for-one-of-the-best-marketing-hacks-at-dreamforce/ 
• The Puppy Party for #Unleash17: https://x.com/Salesloft/status/872167164123459584 

Shoutouts

• Jon Birdsong: https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdsong/ 
• Mike Damphousse: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damphoux/ 
• Behind the Cloud by Marc Benioff: https://amzn.to/3CE8WXS 
• AJ Gandhi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjaigandhi/ 
• AJ Gandhi’s episode of The Transaction: https://thetransactionpod.co