SalesTechStar Interview with Hein Hellemons, Chief Revenue Officer at Darktrace

Looking for revtech tips for 2026? Hein Hellemons, Chief Revenue Officer at Darktrace weighs in with some suggestions in this SalesTechStar interview:

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What excites you most about being a SaaS CRO?

The SaaS world is always changing – that constant innovation is what drives me. Every day brings something new: emerging technologies, evolving customer needs, fresh market trends. After years in both startups and at tech giants like AWS and Microsoft, I’m still energized by how fast-paced and innovative this space is. Right now, I’m customer obsessed. I like working backwards from the customer’s goals and figuring out how we can build and motivate a team of sales professionals who are as customer obsessed as I am and focused on helping customers be successful. I love building global teams and developing people into leaders. And all of this is about scale, expanding a business across borders and segments. Seeing a team passionate and aligned – and then watching us solve customer problems and grow together – that’s incredibly exciting for me.

How is the B2B CRO’s role and team structure evolving in a revtech/salestech driven market?

The modern CRO role goes far beyond just leading a sales team. Today, CROs are responsible for influencing the entire revenue engine – that means sales, marketing, customer success, partners and operations all working in unison and being very aligned. To stay ahead of the evolving landscape, we need specialist teams who can incubate products and solutions, helping them gain maturity before being absorbed back into the business. And everyone should be utilizing AI and the full tech stack, to better collaborate and prepare for customer and partner interactions. In fact, AI offers us the opportunity to understand our customers and partners much better, anticipate what they need and develop the best approaches for the moment. I’m also passionate about standing up a steady ‘rhythm of the business’ with regular cross-team check-ins and updates, targeted enablement and communications so in this fast-paced market everyone stays connected. In short, an effective CRO will be the chief connector: orchestrating people, process, and technology across the revenue cycle to move faster as one cohesive unit.

What do modern CROs not do enough of when driving revenue strategies to beat the competition?

Many CROs today get too caught up in hiring quickly to fill to capacity, which over time does not help you achieve the long-term objective of a reliable, capable sales team. Hiring the right people is 80% of the solution and then investing in world-class enablement and training to get them the rest of the way there. Some modern CROs don’t spend enough time developing their team or fostering an open, idea-sharing culture, and that’s a missed opportunity. I’ve learned that when you build a respectful, inclusive culture where every team member feels heard, you unlock ideas and energy that give you a real competitive edge. I’ve seen CROs be too internally focused, trying to solve operational challenges at the expense of spending time with customers. CROs need to be out talking to the people who buy and use their products. You not only get a front row seat to understanding them better, you also get to see your own teams in action and evaluate their strengths and strategies. Making sure you’re setting aside time each week to do this in different regions and with both customers and partners is a good way to maintain a competitive position.

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What are some top challenges plaguing modern SaaS CROs, and your tips to overcome them?

Every SaaS CRO faces a few perennial challenges. One big one helping to identify and develop strong leaders at the most critical level, the front line. Another is forecasting revenue accurately in a volatile market; pipeline predictability can be tricky. And of course, preventing customer churn is an ongoing battle in any subscription business. My approach: first, establish a high quality, repeatable process to build a strong front line leadership community. These leaders need to be scrappy and know their territories and teams intimately to be effective. Second, leverage data and AI to improve forecasting – we’re setting up real-time dashboards that flag risks, so we can adjust quickly instead of being surprised at quarter’s end. Finally, invest heavily in customer success. I partner closely with our Chief Customer Officer to proactively monitor customer health and engage with clients well before renewal time, ensuring they achieve value quickly and stay happy. Focusing on these steps can help turn those challenges into manageable parts of the plan, rather than fires to fight after the fact.

What are some of your preferred revtech/salestech tools that have helped drive your goals?

There are a few must-have tools in a complete revtech stack and each are infused with a bit of AI, and now we’re seeing the power of wrapping all these tools with an additional AI system, like Copilot. This approach can really unlock productivity. Well run companies have a robust CRM as their single source of truth, a sales engagement platform to automate outreach, advanced analytics and forecasting tools for pipeline insights, call intelligence for coaching, account-based marketing tools for targeting key customers, and a customer success platform to track post-sales health. Each one helps the team sell smarter and faster, and together they keep us closely aligned with our customers.

Here’s a quick snapshot of these tools and the value they provide:

Five SaaS revenue-generation myths you’d like to bust?

I’ve heard plenty of myths in the industry. Let me quickly bust five of the big ones:

• Myth 1: “A great product will sell itself.”
  Reality: Even the best product needs active marketing, sales, and customer education. If you just build it and wait, customers won’t come – you have to get out there and show them the value. Then you have to provide an excellent experience to keep them coming back to you and renewing and expanding.
• Myth 2: “The lowest price always wins.”
  Reality: Consistently competing on price is a race to the bottom. In B2B tech especially, buyers care about value, trust, and results. They’ll often pay a bit more for a solution that truly solves their problem and comes with great support, rather than choosing a bargain that might not meet their needs. This is especially true in the cybersecurity space.
• Myth 3: “Modern sales is easy because tech does the hard work.”
  Reality: Technology helps a ton, but selling has never been more complex. Buyers are savvy and markets move fast – you still need skilled people, a solid strategy and a loyal set of partners. Tools like AI and automation assist us, but they don’t replace building relationships and understanding customer pain points. In fact, with so much information out there, successful selling requires more insight and personal touch than ever.
  
• Myth 4: “Salespeople only care about commissions.”
  Reality: The best salespeople I know care about customers and the company. Yes, compensation matters, but great reps are driven by solving problems and helping clients succeed. They want to be part of a winning team and culture. If you think your team is purely coin-operated, you’re not tapping into their full potential (and you might attract the wrong kind of talent).
• Myth 5: “Marketing and Customer Success are secondary – revenue is all about sales.”
  Reality: Revenue is a team sport. You need marketing to feed the funnel and shape the brand, and you need customer success to ensure customers stay and grow. If any one of those is weak, your revenue engine sputters. We make sure our sales reps and solutions engineers, marketing, and CS teams understand each other’s roles and goals. When they collaborate, the whole business wins. In SaaS, it’s not just about closing deals; it’s about creating happy customers who stick around. That only happens when all parts of the organization work together.

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