Ari Greenberg is Chief Revenue Officer at Ascend Analytics, the Boulder-based energy analytics and software company whose forecasts inform more than $50 billion in project financing and procurement evaluations. He has spent about 25 years in energy and market data, beginning as an Open Systems Specialist at Reuters and moving into sales at LIM, GlobalView and SNL Energy. From 2012 he led sales teams at SNL Energy, S&P Global and AlphaSense, then served as VP of Global Sales at ZEMA Global before joining Ascend.
“I will argue you do not need a deal desk if you are 20 million or under an ARR, and I'm choosing that number roughly.”
“Salespeople have a tendency to be like water. They take the path of least resistance.”
“Don't tell me you've got to get the BDR in order to book the meeting. Show me you can walk the walk, and then I'll give somebody to amplify you.”
“I think a tiered commission plan does exactly what it's meant to do, which is overcompensate my high performers so that they'll never even think about looking anywhere else because they're disgustingly paid, and for those that don't do well are making so little that they're going to go look on their own.”
“At the end of the day, when you're looking at performance, it's the mean.”
“I say this jokingly, but the worst thing to be is the market leader. It's the absolute worst spot to be. I want to be number two, right? With a laser focus on being that market leader.”
“Let's go get that Frankenstein when he's like seven, eight years old and fix it, not when it's like 33.”
“If you're a CRO and you're not best friends with your CFO, that's going to be a rough slog.”