AJ Bruno is the Co-founder and CEO at QuotaPath, the most adaptable compensation solution for sales reps to finance to everyone in between. Prior to QuotaPath, AJ spent six years at TrendKite, the company he founded and was president of in Austin, Texas. Aside from his love of all things tech, AJ is an avid pilot and is very active in the startup community. He’s an investor to dozens of startups and advisor and mentor to many. He currently sits as a Board Member of Philly Start-Up Leaders, the largest community of entrepreneurs in Philadelphia.
In this episode, AJ takes the audience through his sales origin story, one that includes successfully leading a company of over two hundred people to an acquisition and the inspiration to launch QuotaPath. With the desire to build an organization that disrupts a new industry in a completely unique way, and applying lessons learned from TrendKite, AJ knows that QuotaPath is operating in a multi-billion dollar industry and that there are endless opportunities. AJ and Scott speak to the evolution of QuotaPath and the key lessons AJ has learned throughout his career. They talk about compensation management and other aspects of a CEO’s role that AJ had to conquer. AJ speaks to the sales skills that were critical in his transition to a founder role and best practices for selling as a CEO. Finally, AJ discusses the importance of planning, following your passion, and investing heavily in people.
What We Covered:
00:24 – Scott welcomes today’s guest, AJ Bruno, who joins his for the very first LIVE episode of Sales Success Stories
02:36 – AJ speaks to his time at Meltwater talks about the sales skills that he uses every day as a founder and CEO
11:18 – How a chip on his shoulder led AJ to build an incredible team and culture
13:05 – Pain points of venture capital
17:26 – Where the idea for QuotaPath originated
20:31 – The evolution of QuotaPath and what AJ has learned throughout the years
23:27 – What AJ looks for in a successful prospective sales employee
24:11 – Compensation management
27:06 – Best practices for selling as a CEO
30:07 – How AJ structures his workdays
33:09 – AJ answers some questions from the audience
35:53 – Advice AJ would give to other founders
40:50 – What QuotaPath offers to its customers
42:06 – Best practices for planning the year ahead for sales leaders
43:49 – Fulfilling a lifelong aviation dream
46:19 – AJ answers more audience questions
59:48 – The most common thing that CEOs from a non-sales background miss
01:01:25 – The value AJ places on investing in people
01:02:03– Scott thanks AJ for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can follow him
Tweetables:
“I thought, ‘I’m so pissed off that I’m gonna fix this stupid industry and build a tool that’s just easy to understand, a sales rep can onboard in less than ten minutes, integrate their CRM, and can do more of the inspirational things that actually matter.’ So less about the quota – even though our name is QuotaPath – more about the goal tracking.” (19:09)
“What I’ve realized for QuotaPath – and this goes for all of our employees, not just sales – is that really being genuinely interested in a person’s business goes a really long way and shows because you’re asking questions with much more intent and understanding.” (23:48)
“And so if I can have an extra three months in a calendar year to outhustle, outrun, outpace anyone, I’m gonna do it.” (30:54)
“The best finance leaders are bringing all the stakeholders into the conversation. And sales leaders need to be the first in the queue on that.” (42:50)
“One of the questions I like to ask for sales leadership or actually any leadership is, ‘How are you going to uplevel your peers?’” (50:59)
Links Mentioned:
[email protected]
2021 Sales Success Summit
AJ Bruno on LinkedIn
QuotaPath
QuotaPath’s Careers Site
Trailer for Value Props with AJ Bruno
Sponsors Mentioned:
Podcasts Mentioned:
Books Mentioned:
Venture Deals
Founders at Work
Founders Dilemma