Monograph provides streamlined management software for architectural projects. 

After steady growth over the first couple of years, CEO Robert Yuen was finding that the sales department was anything but streamlined. 

In fact, there wasn’t much of a sales department to speak of – Yuen was driving outreach and inbound initiatives himself, leaving him little time to focus on the higher operational aspects of the company. That’s what motivated him to reach out to Vouris for help building a sales team.

• Challenge: CEO Robert Yuen was spending most of his time managing sales, and the higher functions of the company were stalling as a result.
• Solution: Vouris helped build a sales team of 7 that were capable of driving and increasing sales without daily executive input.

• Result: Monograph hit its yearly revenue goal of a 300% increase in 11 months.
  

Here’s how Vouris helped Monograph triple revenue and build a strong sales function from the ground up.

Building a Self-Driving Sales Team

In order to free up more of Robert’s time so he could steer the company at the macro level, Monograph needed a sales team that could generate revenue without constant executive input. The team needed to be dynamic, able to adapt as the company grew, and adept at setting aggressive-but-attainable goals. 

Monograph Background

Built by architects to solve the problems architects and their teams face as they bring their designs to life, Monograph seamlessly integrates financial and business management tools into a single project management solution. 

In 2018, Monograph was started by Robert and his co-founders, Alex Dixon, and Moe Amaya. The team realized that architectural firms suffered from a lack of communication between teams, chaotic organizational techniques, and unclear project management and budgeting tactics. Monograph was built to give architectural projects clarity, precision, and a streamlined workflow across multiple departments. 

Monograph’s Growth Was Stalled By Its Sales Approach

While it's easy to focus on revenue as a goal or benchmark, Robert points out that it’s often not the best way to gauge progress. In fact, while sales numbers were part of the motivation to begin building a self-powered sales team, Yuen knew the day-to-day reality of operating without a sales team wasn’t compatible with growth.

Robert realized it was time to change the approach not when the numbers began to falter, but when the sales efforts as they stood were no longer scalable. He highlights that the stress on the team just to complete day-to-day tasks was taking its toll, and that morale was suffering. When the pressure didn’t seem worth it relative to the strides they were making, he knew it was time to build a better infrastructure for success, starting with a great sales team and a repeatable sales process.

How Did Vouris Help?

The team at Vouris realized quickly that Monograph’s sales approach was unsustainable. In under a year, Vouris grew the sales team from 0 to 7, hiring at roughly 3-month intervals. 

The first step was to hire 2 new SDRs to begin driving inbound sales efforts. But after a few months, the new sales team was already at capacity, and another SDR was brought to the team. By the fall, the SDRs were beginning to tackle outbound leads as well, and began to delegate duties and specialize. 

And the process for closing sales was still tough to scale without a head of sales and AEs for support. After hiring a head of sales and building out an AE team with Vouris, Yuen could then step back and begin focusing on his duties as CEO.

In just 11 months, they were able to:

• Build a sales team of 7 from the ground up.
• Create a repeatable sales strategy that scaled along with the company. 
• Triple their revenue.

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Q & A With Robert Yuen:

What was it like to work with Vouris?

I love the entire team’s personality. And what I really mean by that is, you’re not shy about different concepts, different working arrangements, or getting on the phone like ‘let’s hash this out.’ [...] Your willingness to meet in person, I think, outweighs a lot of things. Why do we have to do the zoom thing all the time? Let’s just get in the car and I’ll see you in, like, 40 minutes. I love that.” 

If you hadn’t reached out to us, how would things have been different? 

I would’ve hired a sales manager. I would’ve hired someone who’s in the middle of their career, who was extremely focused on either sales opps or training. Not both. I don’t think hiring a player coach would have been the right move. I think we would have moved slower by at least a quarter. 

What advice would you give to a startup founder who’s thinking of working with Vouris? 

If anyone’s ever on the fence [...] it’s really easy. Just call. They can call me! Everyone should be comfortable going into an agreement. But if you’re in the Bay Area, take Kyle out. If you’re not in the Bay Area, pick up the phone.

What was your experience with how data driven our team is?

Not only data. Data drives efficiency, right? When we first started out, Monograph didn’t have a team, so we leaned on you quite a bit. But I think you have a video about this special spreadsheet you built and designed. It was an amazing experience working with that spreadsheet and tracking the team’s performance. It was our way of essentially motivating the entire team through understanding. What was your historical performance, what are the targets we need to hit for this week, or the month or quarter? 

And then all the work that you and your team did with our hubspot, with our complicated inbound structure, that we’re trying to tie with product level data. It was an incredible experience to watch your team build a lot of infrastructure that we’re still using today.

Are You Ready?

If your sales strategy is stalled out, Vouris can help you build teams, set goals, create procedures, and scale your efforts. Whether your sales team needs a lift or a full rebuild, we’re here to help. Reach out to us today to take your sales team to the next level.

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