The 3 Moves That Got Us Enterprise Deals (Case Study) | Adam Block - 1914

What It Covers

Adam Block, CRO of Motive, explains how his company scaled from SMB/mid-market to enterprise clients by protecting existing revenue, rewiring operations for complex customers, and 5x-ing enterprise ARR in seven quarters.

Key Questions Answered

• •Protect Core Revenue First: Motive committed to "do no harm" by maintaining support for existing SMB and mid-market customers while building enterprise infrastructure. They reduced account executive book sizes to improve customer experience metrics and average attainment, preventing cannibalization of established revenue streams.
• •Segment-Specific Operations: Different customer segments require distinct service profiles, quotas, and support ecosystems. Motive created separate operational structures for each segment rather than forcing one model across all customer types, allowing sales engineers and account managers to specialize based on customer complexity, not just size.
• •Leading Indicators Before Revenue: Track market contact, meetings, demos, trials, and forecast quality for six to nine months before expecting revenue results. Motive's enterprise organization grew from under 10 people to nearly 120, but initial success signals came from pipeline metrics, not closed deals.
• •RAD Hiring Framework: Hire for Resilience, Accountability, and Discipline rather than industry background. Motive built internal promotion pathways from SDR to enterprise AE, creating a farm system that reduces hiring risk and improves field success rates by testing candidates through progressive roles before enterprise positions.