20Sales: ElevenLabs: Why We Set a 20x Sales Quota | How to Structure Sales Compensation Plans | Customer Success: 'Total BS' or Growth Engine? | Building an AI Sales Machine: What Tools & Tactics Must CROs Adopt Today with Carles Reina

Key Takeaways

• •

  Sales quotas are set at 20x base salary

  “We ask everyone to bring 20 times their base salary. That's your quota, right? So if I pay you 100K a year, your quota is $2 million. If you don't achieve your quota, then you're going to be out, right? And we're ruthless on that end.”

• •

  Salespeople must prioritize field visits over office time

  “When I see my sales team in the office multiple days, I start getting worried. Because if you're a salesperson, you need to be on the road. You need to be talking to customers all the time. The rush that you get when you close a deal is insane, and I absolutely love it.”

• •

  New hires must close deals within two weeks

  “When you join ElevenLabs, you need to have signed your first contract within the first two weeks. Salespeople need to be on their toes all the time, and they need to be told. We're ruthless on that end. If you don't achieve your quota, then you're going to be out.”

• •

  Equity triggers are linked to aggressive revenue targets

  “The compensation was based on milestones. We ended up deciding together with Matthew and Piotr, okay, if we reach a certain level of revenues within 24 months, then my equity compensation goes up. I unlock an additional portion of equity. It was so funny because we hit that revenue milestone within less than 12 months.”

• •

  Product-led growth serves as an enterprise sales engine

  “The idea was to actually build the entire enterprise side. The company ended up growing so quickly that we ended up switching it. We launched at the end of January 23 and then within a month or so, we had over a million users. It was an absolute no-brainer for me to join.”

Episode Description

Carles Reina is VP of Sales at ElevenLabs, where he was the first investor and fourth employee. Carles has scaled the revenue org from Day 1 to over $350M in just 3 years. Carles is also an active investor with investments in ElevenLabs, Revolut, Happy Robot and more.   AGENDA: 00:00 - Is the Traditional CRO Dead in the Age of AI? 01:01 - Building the AI Sales Machine: Agents that Actually Generate Revenue 08:35 - Will AI Shrink the Sales Teams of the Future? 09:51 - The ElevenLabs Masterclass: Why We Set a 20x Sales Quota 11:00 - How to Structure Explosive Sales Accelerators 12:15 - Why You Should Stop Paying Commission on Pilots 14:00 - Customer Success: Is it 'Total Bullshit' or a Growth Engine? 16:15 - The 'Global-First' Fallacy: Why You Need to Open Every Market Now 17:23 - Why Startups Are Wrong to Ignore 20-Year Sales Veterans 19:15 - The Pipeline Construction Secret: Liquidity vs. Whales 24:30 - Forecasting the Unpredictable: How to Hit a $1B Revenue Target 31:55 - The Substitution Threat: Is AI Voice Just a Commodity? 34:10 - Verticalization Mistakes: Lessons from Scaling India 38:40 - The 'IBM Effect': Does Brand Actually Shorten Sales Cycles? 40:15 - Extreme Expectations: Why ElevenLabs is a Hard Company to Work For 42:15 - Internal Leaderboards: How to Use Public Competition to Drive Results 44:20 - Hunting the Obsessed: Identifying the 'Inner Psychopath' in Hires 46:40 - The SaaS Apocalypse: Will Companies Build Their Own CRM? 48:30 - Formula 1 Branding: The Mindset Behind the Audi-Revolut Deal 50:15 - Dinner vs. Conferences: Which Marketing Channels Actually Scale? 52:45 - Designing Un-Salesy Content: How to Run a Legendary Summit 54:20 - CVC Strategy: Turning Corporate Investors into Distribution Channels 01:01:45 - The Globalization Nightmare: Why You Can't Sell in English Everywhere 01:06:45 - Operator-Investors: Can You Be a High-Performer and a VC Simultaneously? 01:11:30 - Unit Economics in AI: Why Good Early Numbers Might Mean Failure 01:18:25 - The Next Wave: Why Foundational Model Consolidation is Inevitable