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E42: Cutting the Fat and Building Sales Machines That Scale with Tom Hanrahan

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Release Date: 08/07/2025

E44: Psychologist Dr. Michael Gervais on Mastering the Mental Game of Leadership show art E44: Psychologist Dr. Michael Gervais on Mastering the Mental Game of Leadership

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Dr. Michael Gervais, renowned high performance psychologist behind the Seattle Seahawks’ Super Bowl win and mental coach to Olympic athletes and NASA jumpers, reveals the often-ignored psychological drivers behind elite sales and leadership performance. This episode challenges revenue leaders to rethink competition—not as a zero-sum game, but as a relentless pursuit to be their very best while elevating teammates.   Visit for more.    Thanks for tuning in! Catch new episodes every Wednesday.    Don’t miss GTM2025 — the only B2B tech conference exclusively for...

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E43: Geraldine MacCarthy, CRO of Oyster HR, Demystifies Distributed Sales Teams show art E43: Geraldine MacCarthy, CRO of Oyster HR, Demystifies Distributed Sales Teams

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Remote sales leadership is anything but one-size-fits-all. Geraldine MacCarthy, CRO at Oyster and former CRO at Personio, unpacks the complexities of building and scaling distributed sales teams across multiple continents. With deep experience at Google, Dropbox, and leading remote-first businesses, she reveals why the rigid remote vs. office binary misses what’s really happening—and what works.  She also challenges common beliefs about onboarding and coaching remote reps, sharing how enabling managers to own “last mile” enablement drives real performance impact.   Thanks for...

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E42: Cutting the Fat and Building Sales Machines That Scale with Tom Hanrahan show art E42: Cutting the Fat and Building Sales Machines That Scale with Tom Hanrahan

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Sales efficiency isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the razor-edge that separates thriving GTM organizations from the rest. Tom Hanrahan, EVP and Global Head of Sales at Square, shares ten years of hard-earned insights on building lean, specialized sales teams that don’t just grow—they grow profitably. Hanrahan breaks down how obsessing over every dollar invested, from quota modeling to lead distribution, shapes a more sustainable and scalable revenue machine. He challenges the common trap of "more reps means more revenue," revealing why oversized teams often hide inefficiencies and create...

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E41: Jessica Chiew of Canva on Building AI-Native GTM Org show art E41: Jessica Chiew of Canva on Building AI-Native GTM Org

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

AI is transforming go-to-market operations—and at Canva, it's not just a trend, it's a mandate.   In this episode, Jessica Chiew, Head of GTM Operations and Strategy at Canva, joins Kyle to break down how her team is leading AI adoption across a 5,000-person organization. She shares how Canva blends centralized support with functional ownership, why they created a dedicated GTM AI Lead role, and how they prioritize use cases that deliver real business impact. Jessica and Kyle also dig into the realities of build vs. buy decisions, how to avoid tool sprawl, and why every GTM leader needs...

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E40: Partnership Lessons from COELEVATE with Author Richard Ezekiel show art E40: Partnership Lessons from COELEVATE with Author Richard Ezekiel

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

has created partnerships with Fortune 500 companies and helped scale market-defining startups in Silicon Valley. He joins Kyle to share hard-won lessons on building strategic partnerships that deliver real business impact—not just press. They cover how to assess if partnerships are the right growth lever, why most programs fail, and what it takes to build a durable, high-impact strategy. Richard breaks down his “Partnership T” framework and offers practical guidance for CROs and GTM leaders scaling post-product-market fit. Thanks for tuning in! New episodes of The Revenue Leadership...

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E39: CRO James Roth on Resilience, Reinvention, and AI at ZoomInfo show art E39: CRO James Roth on Resilience, Reinvention, and AI at ZoomInfo

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

What does it take to lead a public go-to-market organization through rapid change without losing focus? In this episode, Kyle Norton sits down with James Roth, CRO of ZoomInfo, to unpack the leadership principles, GTM evolution, and cultural shifts powering ZoomInfo’s next chapter. From rethinking account ownership models to re-centering around core strengths like data and AI enablement, James shares how he's helping rebuild ZoomInfo into a sharper, more focused enterprise. Thanks for tuning in! New episodes of The Revenue Leadership Podcast drop every Wednesday.  Don’t miss GTM2025...

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E38: How Adam Alfano Is Leading Salesforce Into Its AI Era show art E38: How Adam Alfano Is Leading Salesforce Into Its AI Era

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

, EVP of Global SMB and Emerging Products at Salesforce, joins Kyle Norton to share what it takes to lead through change at scale. Over 17 years at Salesforce, Adam has navigated market cycles, evolving go-to-market models, and now the rise of AI—while building and inspiring high-performing teams. He explains how to stay relevant as a leader, scale culture across thousands, and embrace mindset as a competitive advantage. Kyle and Adam also dig into Salesforce’s AgentForce strategy, how AI is transforming sales execution, and why adaptability is the most underrated leadership skill. Thanks...

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E37: Jason Wolf on Uncovering Hidden Growth Opportunities in Go-To-Market show art E37: Jason Wolf on Uncovering Hidden Growth Opportunities in Go-To-Market

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Jason Wolf, President of FullStory and former CRO at Ping Identity and SAP Ariba, joins Kyle Norton to share how companies unlock step-change growth by entering new markets, building new capabilities, and aligning cross-functional teams. Jason has led revenue growth from $200 million to $1.6 billion and brings hard-won lessons from scaling globally.


He explains how to time multi-product and multi-region moves, validate new growth bets, and build strategies driven by customer pull rather

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E36: Why Product Thinking Beats Process Obsession in GTM with Sangeeta Chakraborty show art E36: Why Product Thinking Beats Process Obsession in GTM with Sangeeta Chakraborty

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

Most GTM teams operate in straight lines. Sangeeta Chakraborty believes they should function more like product organizations, with constant iteration, testing, and learning.


In this episode, the former CRO of Miro shares how applying product management principles helped her design go-to-market systems that reflect the full customer journey. She explains how her team ran structured GTM experiments, embraced cross-functional collaboration, and built systems for long-term customer growth. K

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E35: Building a Multi-Product Platform with Seismic’s CRO, Hayden Stafford show art E35: Building a Multi-Product Platform with Seismic’s CRO, Hayden Stafford

The Revenue Leadership Podcast with Kyle Norton

In this episode, Kyle Norton sits down with Hayden Stafford, President and CRO at Seismic, to unpack what it really takes to transform a company from a single-product business into a true multi-product platform. Drawing from his experience leading global teams at Microsoft and now steering Seismic toward half a billion in ARR, Hayden shares the go-to-market, organizational, and cultural changes required t

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More Episodes

Sales efficiency isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the razor-edge that separates thriving GTM organizations from the rest. Tom Hanrahan, EVP and Global Head of Sales at Square, shares ten years of hard-earned insights on building lean, specialized sales teams that don’t just grow—they grow profitably. Hanrahan breaks down how obsessing over every dollar invested, from quota modeling to lead distribution, shapes a more sustainable and scalable revenue machine. He challenges the common trap of "more reps means more revenue," revealing why oversized teams often hide inefficiencies and create churn risks. Instead, he emphasizes smart specialization, rigorous data-driven segmentation, and maintaining a tight balance between lead volume and rep capacity.

 

Thanks for tuning in! New episodes of The Revenue Leadership Podcast drop every Wednesday. 

 

Don’t miss GTM2025 — the only B2B tech conference exclusively for GTM executives. Elevate your 2026 strategy and join us from September 23 to 25 in Washington, D.C. Use code TOPLINE for 10% off your GA ticket.

 

Stay ahead with the latest industry developments and emerging go-to-market trends with Topline Newsletter by Asad Zaman. Subscribe today.

 

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You’re invited! Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders, share insights, and keep the conversation going beyond the podcast!

 

Key Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction of Tom Hanrahan and Today’s Sales Efficiency Focus
(02:56) - Defining Sales Efficiency: Balancing Growth and Profitability
(04:33) - Why Large Sales Teams Often Breed Inefficiency
(06:48) - Early Career Lessons That Shaped Hanrahan’s Sales Philosophy
(09:24) - Cultivating Patience to Build Foundations Amid Growth Pressures
(12:46) - Core Sales Efficiency Metrics: Quota Modeling, Lead Efficiency, and Specialization
(14:06) - How to Approach Quota Modeling to Maximize Capacity and Win Rates
(17:00) - Reframing the Mental Model: Opportunity Volume as the Real Bottleneck
(18:32) - The Underrated Power of Sales Team Specialization and Segment Focus
(22:59) - The Risks of Over-Specialization and Sales Org Brittleness
(27:02) - Modeling Sales Team Growth with Churn and Ramp Dynamics
(30:42) - Incubation Pods: Experimenting with Sales Motions Under Controlled Conditions
(33:56) - Metrics to Evaluate Before Committing to Sales Team Reorganizations
(36:43) - Hidden Inefficiency Drivers: Frontline Manager Consistency & Lead Weighting
(40:00) - The Value of Weekly Business Reviews to Maintain Rigor and Transparency
(44:18) - Deep Data Analysis Culture: Finding Gaps by Embracing Hard Truths
(47:01) - Current Team Structure at Square: Vertical Specialization and Channel Diversity
(48:58) - Recalibrating Incentives and Focus: Driving New Business Growth vs. Farming
(50:50) - Fine-Tuning Inbound vs. Outbound Mix to Enhance Sales Productivity
(52:43) - The Concept of “Sweet Spot” Targeting for Optimal ROI on Sales Efforts
(55:30) - Full Cost Modeling: Loading All Expenses to Reveal True Unit Economics
(56:14) - Building Efficient Revenue Organizations from the Ground Up: Why Entry-Level Talent Matters
(58:30) - Identifying Ideal Sales DNA: Coachability, Competitiveness, Hard Work, Motivation
(01:02:30) - Assessing Motivation and Hard Work During Hiring to Weed Out Misfits
(01:06:40) - Leveraging Data Science in Hiring: Scorecard Retro and Pattern Recognition
(01:12:00) - What Makes a Great Revenue Leader: Balancing Operational Mastery and People Skills
(01:13:15) - Advice for New Sales Leaders: Get Curious Before Acting on Presumptions
(01:14:20) - Navigating Cross-Functional Dependencies: The Enterprise Sales Parallel
(01:17:39) - Personal Reflections: The Enduring Lesson from Hanrahan’s Father on Commitment and Grit