S02E01 - Christian Finstad, CSO Mentimeter - Four Go-To-Market Motions

Mentimeter had zero salespeople from 2014 to 2017 and still grew into the double-digit millions. Then the company added enterprise sales on top of a product-led engine, went from 100 to 330 employees and passed €35m ARR. Christian Finstad joined as Chief Sales Officer in 2022, after 17 years at Meltwater, and has run that build since.

In this episode he lays out the four motions Mentimeter operates in parallel, no-touch, low-touch, high-touch and premium-touch, and why treating them as one motion is where most companies break. We get into how they define ICP for a horizontal product using usage signals rather than firmographics, why enterprise deals with 15 to 30 stakeholders still require people, and how they moved from 95% inbound capture to a balanced inbound and outbound motion.

Christian is also direct about two decisions most sales organisations would not make: Mentimeter has no commission-based variable pay, and it localises leadership by region while keeping strategy centralised. If you are adding enterprise motion to a product-led company, this is the episode where the sequencing gets specific.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:02 Christian's background: 17 years at Meltwater, then Mentimeter
07:29 From product-led to sales-led growth
09:28 Building the sales organisation
11:56 Do you still need salespeople in an AI-driven world?
18:49 Why enterprise buying still requires humans
27:19 Defining ICP for a horizontal product
32:53 Data-driven decision making
34:41 Localising leadership by region
36:09 Why Mentimeter removed sales commissions
38:03 Promoting sellers into leadership
42:01 Value creation over closing
47:48 AI as a game changer in SaaS sales
53:01 The first structural move from PLG to enterprise

Nordic Growth Podcast is hosted by Oliver Lopez, founder of Structsales. A show about B2B revenue, commercial strategy, and what it actually takes to grow.

Learn more: https://oliverlopez.se
Structsales: https://structsales.se