GTM 119: Design Products Backwards From GTM: Lessons from Scaling to $1B+ with David Knight

The GTM Podcast

David Knight is the Co-founder and CEO of Avarra, an AI-powered platform that simulates human-to-human interactions to accelerate sales onboarding and training. With over 30 years of experience scaling companies from tens of millions to billions in revenue, including WebEx and Proofpoint, David brings a unique perspective on the intertwined nature of product and go-to-market.
Discussed in this Episode:

• The power of AI simulations in providing experiential learning for sales reps.
• Designing products backwards from the go-to-market motion.
• Strategies for aligning product and sales teams to drive revenue growth.
• Rethinking ramp time: it's about at-bats, not arbitrary time periods.
• Shifting perspective from the sales funnel to the buyer's journey.
• The future of AI in sales training and enablement.

Highlights:
(02:24) Simulating human-to-human interactions with AI avatars.
(07:44) Creating a fun, engaging environment for sales training.
(13:26) Designing products from the go-to-market motion backwards.
(19:32) Helping sales leaders win deals as a product leader.
(27:08) Listening for pain points, not feature requests, from customers.
(31:07) Completely changing the go-to-market motion at Proofpoint.
(37:43) Aligning motivations between product and sales teams.
(38:43) Rethinking the sales funnel as a buyer's journey.
(41:50) Building customized simulations for qualified prospects.
(34:55) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that David thinks is bull$***.
(41:50) One thing that is working for David in go-to-market right now.
Guest Speaker Links (David Knight):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrknight/
Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/

Sponsors:

• HG Insights. Feeling that AI FOMO? You’re not alone. That’s why HG Insights created The Next Generation of Sales AI report — to calm the FOMO and help you bring AI to your GTM teams. It includes a breakdown of the Sales AI landscape, adoption of GenAI and Sales software across buyer groups. Plus, an analysis of the top 75 trending sales AI tools. Why HG Insights? Simple. They’ve been writing market reports for years as the pioneer of tech adoption and market insights. Trusted by GTM leaders at the likes of Snowflake Five9 and Google Cloud to improve GTM efficiency. Thinking about AI for your sales team but unsure where to start? This free and ungated report has you covered.

The GTM Podcast
Features conversations with the top 1% of tech executives, VCs, and founders - the experts who have ‘been there, done that’ to build some of the fastest-growing software companies. Every week, a guest joins Scott Barker to dissect their stories - revealing what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.
This podcast is produced by GTMnow, the media brand of VC firm GTMfund.
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