👨🏻‍💻 Dipak Vadera

How do you define an MQL? And how does this compare to what other companies do? 🤔 Someone asked this question in the ROC Slack group recently, here's how the RevOps Co-op responded 👇 1️⃣ 2 out of 4 BANT criteria met Consensus here was BANT is the responsibility of the sales team, not the marketing team, so shouldn't be used. 2️⃣ Exceeds lead score threshold based on demographic and behavior data This was a popular choice. Lots of folks said an MQL should be a hand-raiser that meets some sort of grade / score threshold. 3️⃣ Based on account and title fit with ICP This can be the basis of a lead score or grade mentioned in number 2 above. ☝️ 4️⃣ Based on Minimum Viable Customer Profile (MVCP) This is basically a twist on number 2 and 3 above, but I thought it was intriguing. It's basically a more broad version of your ICP using secondary criteria. For example, if your ICP is a Fortune 500 account, your MVCP may be any company with > $50M revenue. Or if your ICP is HQ in the US, your MVCP could be HQ in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. What do you think - anything missing here for different ways to define an MQL? PS - thanks to Malorie Packard, Colby Ricker, Colin Illar, Jeff Ignacio, Jacqueline Freedman 🦋, Rex Biberston, and others for participating in this 🧵 #revenueoperations #revops #marketingops #marketingoperations #mops #GTMOps #alltheops #MQL

23

11 Comments

SDRs = Calling 📞 Marketing & Rev Ops = Cadence Tools & Automations Save your org $$$s by getting your SDRs out of cadence tools and back into the #CRM focussed on dialing Leave automated outreach and multi-touch sequences to marketing, and guess what? Then you only need one cadence tool licence! I chatted to Mark Bedard who clearly lays out the path to streamlining your outbound motion #sales #salestips #bdr #sdr #outbound #calling #coldcalling

24

6 Comments

Since everyone is already sitting on the couch, preparing for a long football Sunday 🏈 , why don't you take 5 minutes to gain a bit of insight on how to best find points of contact in a world where business is being done online more and more. My new blog post is live! Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/g78R7kgB Follow along at https://yahavsal.com and on X (https://x.com/YahavSal) if you’re interested in learning more about navigating sales in our increasingly digital world. #GoChiefs

9

You pay your Account Executives, Account Managers, SDRs, Customer Success, Marketing, and RevOps colleagues top dollar to optimise and maximise how they go to market. But they spend 72% of their time (on average), on tasks that are exactly the OPPOSITE of going to market. Sound familiar? Sales Intelligence used to be: 1) A vendor for contact data 2) A vendor for company data 3) A vendor for intent data 4) A vendor for spotting churn/renewal risk 5) A vendor for website tracking 6) A vendor for conversation intelligence Impact: 1) 72% of their time wasted in chasing after 90% of your TAM, that aren't currently even in market. 2) Finding out after notice has been given that your best customers have been shopping elsewhere. 3) 7 different vendors who don't talk to each other, operating in independent silos of inactionable data. Digital phonebooks & manually data mining across multiple vendors means that GTM specialists spend more time researching...not selling. It doesn't have to be that way... Imagine a world where: 1) Every seller can see what they need to personalise their outreach 2) Every seller can truly personalise at scale 3) Every seller can rely on AI to give them the pointers they need to be relevant AND personable 4) Every Account Manager can spot months & weeks in advance that their best customers are looking at other providers 5) Every RevOps person can standardise their data and insights into a consolidated view We're not in the 2021 economic boom, it has never been harder to convert conversations to dollars, especially in a time efficient way. You might be asking, is an alternative possible? Yes - #ZoomInfoCopilot. Launched to the world today after months of value creation & validation with our customers. The future is now, ready?

93

2 Comments

🤯 “Ramping up SDRs, AEs and CS people  takes us no less than 6 months.” 💣 🙈 This is what I heard on a recent demo from  a CRO of a rapidly scaling tech business. 📈 Time to efficiency is a struggle Heads of Sales Enablement and Customer Success are going through across their commercially-driven teams… 📖 At the moment, they expect internal  sales and CS decks, call recordings,  business pitches, etc. should do the job. 🙄 But it doesn’t! 🗓️ They're wasting too much time for people to start performing, closing deals, effectively onboarding customers, reducing churn & upselling… ❌ Sometimes, they still don’t perform... And then guess what? Off leaders go through to recruiting mode again starting from ground 0. 🎯 Hence the need for action-based learning.  Not just passively reading through PDFs  and listening to call recordings. 👨‍💻 Below are some use cases we see our customers here at UJJI AI ✨ leveraging our tech for: 🔸 Business-specific lead gen and outbound 🔸 Pitching quick and easy over the phone 🔸 Delivering demos and answering queries 🔸 Effectively onboarding new customers 🔸 Efficiently implementing product features 🔸 Practising great customer support 🔸 Guiding customers to upselling 🚀 Ultimately, growing tech businesses comes down to predictable new business development, high customer retention and low churn. 💬 So, DM me if you want to see examples  of AI-powered. easy to build and consume knowledge equipping experiences. 👇 Anything to add to this, Sales and CS leaders? Gautam Rishi Rohan Dickinson George Heron Russell Mitchell Callum Hartley Jon Teale James Dixon Seán Colfer Caroline L. Guy Rubin Jake Carter David Muscat Arun Raveendran Steve Eveleigh Ayo Kukoyi,

29

7 Comments

5 things I would do as a SaaS BDR/AE/AM/CSM with commercial targets for a successful quarter close: 🔎Identify the hotest leads + requalify as you go, for a delay-free closing process. 📊Make use of existing data: what has worked well for you and for your colleagues in previous quarters? 💥Prioritize high-impact activities and minimize distractions (like unnecessary meetings). 👔Aim to focus your outreach on those with decision-making authority. 💪Intensify your follow-ups, with a strategy that works for you: whether it is automated reminders or personalized communication. What else will you be doing to make the most of the two weeks left in the quarter?

9

The top decile enterprise sales leaders I’ve met enable their reps with one thing in particular, that the bottom 90% neglect. Across the several hundred revenue, sales, and value leaders I’ve spoken to as we’ve built Minoa, there’s a recognition that proving value and ROI is tough. Now, hand that responsibility over to a rep too busy dealing with admin, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for miscommunication and lack of customer buy-in. We get this question all the time - “how do I get reps to adopt our value selling initiative”? This frames it as an issue related to rep discipline, when the problem has nothing to do with this. It’s not that reps don’t see the point - they just don’t know how to navigate communicating the quantitative impact of your product’s value. The very best sales leaders empower their reps with clear frameworks of how quantitative impact (be it for revenue, cost, time etc.) maps to value drivers and use cases. Proving value can be hard, but having the power to communicate and match product value to measurable business outcomes in a long and complex sales cycle cuts through the noise. At Minoa, we help set up the value frameworks, calculations, and guardrails that give every single rep the ability, and more importantly the confidence, to use data and quantitative impact to sell on value.

16

2 Comments

Sales Lessons from Gareth Southgate and England at Euro 2024 ⚽   Anyone in sales or sales enablement knows the feeling. One minute you're celebrating a smashed quota, feeling like you're unstoppable 💪 The next, you're staring at a spreadsheet of missed targets, questioning every sales tactic you ever learned. It's a rollercoaster and sometimes it feels like the freefalls are never ending. 😭   This emotional pendulum swing reminds me a lot of Gareth Southgate and the England team so far at Euro 2024. Remember the heat he took after some shaky performances? The pundits were calling for his head, questioning every decision. Tactics? ❌ Lineup? ❌❌.   Then, Southgate did something bold yesterday. He subbed out his captain, Harry Kane, for a player, Ollie Watkins, that played ZERO minutes in the entire tournament. 😱 😱 A gamble some might say, but a gamble that paid off in spectacular fashion – Watkins bagged the winning goal against the Netherlands!   The lesson here? Even when the pressure's on, and the critics are circling, stay true to your strategy. Just because someone hasn't had their big moment yet doesn't mean they can't be your game-changer. So, the next time you're feeling like you're at the bottom of the sales well, take a deep breath, dust yourself off, and remember: 💠 Believe in your process. You got this far for a reason. Keep refining your approach, and the results will follow. 💠 Don't be afraid to make bold moves. Sometimes, shaking things up can lead to breakthroughs. 💠 There's always an "Ollie Watkins" out there. New ideas and approaches can come from unexpected places. Stay the course, and never lose sight of your self-belief. Let's go!!

15

5 Comments

Me and George Storm has written 5 books in total and we're offering our e-books series on SaaS #Sales for FREE for a limited time (next couple of weeks) to celebrate the fact that our printed book on prospecting reached Amazon's Bestseller list! 🤩🤩🤩 Ps. We would love your review if you like the books! 🔥 Put Book me! 🤟🏻 in the comments and I will send you the e-books! 🤩 #Sales #SaaS

22

9 Comments

"How do I go from being an SDR to an AE?" Its probably the most common question I've been asked when coaching SDR's. The same for my old mucker, Richard Smith. So to help Rich has written a blog about it AND He's interviewed one of MySalesCoach's elite Sales Coaches, Josh Bruer for an episode of 'Coaching Conundrums' - our 15 minute series where Rich gets one of our experienced coaches to walk through a common conundrum many sales leaders face. What's the call to action? If you're an SDR and you want to be an AE - > check out the blog and our latest episode of Coaching Conundrums. This is your personal game plan. If you're a sales leader facing this question -> check out the blog and our latest episode of Coaching Conundrums. There's gold in here for you. Got a friend/ colleague wanting to make the jump -> tag them. They'll thank you for it. link to the blog and episode here: https://lnkd.in/e8P_3vxv #SDR #salesperformance #salescoaching

16

1 Comment

We conducted the largest sales coaching specific survey EVER. Now its time to talk through the results and share what we discovered. Next Tuesday at 2pm UK time, join myself and Imani Cracknell from Aircall . Standby for: - How Sales Reps really feel about the amount and quality of coaching they are currently receiving - The huge disconnect that exists between sellers and leaders which companies have to pay attention to. -The type of sales coaching sellers crave (and what they want less of) - The correlation between great coaching and quota attainment. These results are a huge wake up call for Sales Leaders, who are perhaps convinced they have a fulfilled and happy sales force when it comes to their personal development. This webinar will share the specific things you need to be focused on as you plan for 2025, to finally put coaching front stage of your agenda. Register your spot here: https://lnkd.in/eESH_MDq

28

1 Comment

A CS Leader we spoke to recently did an amazing job in summarising the critical foundations an #AccountManager or #CustomerSuccessManger needs to grow their accounts and portfolio... Let's start with the goal in mind - what puts you in position to grow an existing B2B Software account? 🟢 Relationship with the right stakeholders 🟢 Clarity on their goals and pain points 🟢 Realised value / tangible ROI 🟢 Positive user experience 🟢 Shared understanding of future value / roadmap alignment ... etc. For an #AM or #CSM to get there can be challenging in practice - there is an art and timing to it that comes with experience. And the pressure of a SaaS business usually adds extra complexity and distortion - so great account owners stick to the basics and get it done through a mix of great timing and well laid foundations: 1. #Relationship 2. Sh*t is not on Fire 🔥 3. #CustomerEducation 4. #Optimization Going into detail on these would be another post, but two quick points - if the account is on fire, do not pass go. And optimization is about optimizing for value - the key to growth. 🔑 The key ingredients... work + timing. 🔴 Bad Example: An Account Manger pivots their attention to a somewhat neglected account with potential, currently on fiiiiire 🔥. After performing internal heroics the #AM, under significant pressure to meet target, pitches the current stakeholder a new product similar companies are buying. After some brief informal discussion in the client org, the idea is 'put on the back burner'. Now, not only is the AM struggling to target, but they have more internal inertia to overcome next time and it will be harder to gain further understanding. 🟢 Great Example: After their account saving heroics an #AM assesses where they are at, now they are out of the woods. Identifying usage and educational gaps, establishing a relationship of trust with multiple people, optimising and building a case for value. Not only working to the clients timetable, but looking for levers to create urgency and establish shorter timelines that align with the client and value. Striking at the right time, with a much clearer understanding of the client's needs and a watertight business case. 💡 Experienced #CSMs and #AMs always take a step back to assess where they are with an account according to these foundations. The great ones can become as important to a client as the product and sustain growth even when there are issues. & Happy Thanksgiving to all 🙏

10

🚀 Sales Confidence 2.0: Get SDRs Who Hit the Ground Running! 🚀 Tired of spending weeks onboarding new SDRs, only to realise they aren’t a fit for your fast-paced team? I know the challenges of hiring SDRs—getting the right person who’s not just great on paper but ready to sell from day one can be tough. Let’s face it, traditional CVs don’t tell you if someone has the grit to go out there to the market and have conversations. We provide pre-trained and pre-screened SDR candidates, ensuring your next hire can deliver results immediately, without the lengthy training process. Our Sales Confidence 2.0 ranking system highlights the most proactive, self-taught talent, so you can skip the guesswork and bring on SDRs who are proven to thrive in sales. 🌟 Meet Our Top Talent of today🌟 Jalil- an experienced B2C sales professional with entrepreneurial passion, showcased resilience and bravery in handling tough objections during his role play. Enrike -A charismatic listener who builds trust with strong questions, creating powerful, results-driven conversations. Zuhair- An adaptable professional with retail experience, skilled at handling tough conversations and solving problems creatively. Ali - An aspiring sales professional who thrives on the thrill of winning deals, bringing energy and enthusiasm to every prospecting challenge. Jiya - A versatile professional with a strong background in events, her energy and bubbly character from the role play can allow her to use humour to establish trust. Avishai- A future leader with a background in music, is a well-spoken and articulate professional who excels at getting to the point and handling objections with ease. If you are hiring reach out, remember 50% reduction fee.

14

For Revenue Operations Directors, staying on top of market trends is essential. With the rapid growth of sales technology, evaluating RevOps tools has become more important than ever. A valuable resource for this is the HG Insights IT Spend Report, which helps identify spending trends and make data-driven decisions. In this article, key takeaways from the Sales and Marketing section of the report are highlighted, emphasizing the importance of investing in RPM software like Xactly. Read on: http://spklr.io/6043Q0w1

2

I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

24

I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

26

2 Comments

🚀 'There we Land' Sales Confidence 2.0 – Week 4! 🚀 We’re thrilled to showcase a talented group of aspiring SDRs who are making their mark in the world of SaaS Sales. If you’re on the lookout for charismatic, proactive candidates who are self-taught in sales, this August is your chance to connect with them at no cost! Our exclusive Sales Confidence 2.0 ranking methodology ensures you get the most proactive and self-motivated individuals for your SDR roles. Want to see how we rank them? Let’s talk once you start working with us! 🌟 Meet Our Top-Tier Candidates: 🌟 Nusrat Bhuiyan – A smart, articulate professional who uses her tone to ask insightful questions. She adeptly handles objections with a blend of knowledge and humor. Benjamin Kita – An inspiring sales professional who understands the transformative power of sales, focusing on guiding people from point A to point B with his solutions. Kunle Adeniji – A charismatic professional with diverse industry experience, leveraging his legal background to craft compelling stories and ask challenging questions during role plays. Nicole Maria Green – A multi-talented pro with a background in sales and marketing, quickly grasping complex needs and showcasing her bright talent in the sales world 💥 Here’s Your Opportunity: Connect with these standout candidates directly to offer mentorship, advice, or coaching. 💡 No cost, no strings attached—just pure potential. 🔗 Discover their profiles here: [Link in the comments] #Sales #SaaS #SalesDevelopment #TopTalent #SalesExcellence #CareerOpportunity

3

2 Comments

Here's the stark facts in sales today. - 31% of reps are making quota - Nearly half (44%) of deals slip - Sales cycles are double digits longer, win rates are double digits down - Inbound leads are down - Salesforce recognised the need to increase pipeline coverage to by 50% (from x2 to x3) Most of those we speak to recognise all these challenges. But they are stuck. "Do more with less" is the message. They have cut teams and fought for those remaining. Their organisations are stuck with blind hope and knives sharpening. The only solution they know is to fire and replace. Because the real problems aren't acknowledged. The market has changed and it's harder. But are teams are not more skilled. The same teams, that could achieve in the old world are failing in this one. And the last message anyone wants, is we need to spend some money to solve that. "That's your job isn't it?" cries the leadership to time-starved managers and leaders. Anyone want to guess what's going to happen to sales manager average tenure (already at an all-time low of 18 months)????

19

4 Comments

The average RevOps team size has doubled in the last 4 years according to OpsStars and 75% of the highest growth companies will deploy a RevOps model by 2025 according to Gartner (I would have assumed it was actually more than that!!) I attended a great panel event at Salesloft offices that really showed the importance of what we are doing here at Lative! Key trends in RevOps are consolidation, automation and attribution....we help with improving data quality, eliminating manual processes, providing reliable insights, better strategic decisions, mapping to strategic KPIs, measuring leading and lagging indicators and help you to iterate early and often!! Lative is a RevOps tool and we help companies to build and achieve their sales plan to meet company objectives in the most profitable and efficient way! Huge thank you to Allison Kavanagh, Will Eves, James Peacock of Salesloft and also the great panel - Jonathan Fianu from Thunes, Molly L from Dext and Valeriu Ionescu from Datamaran

65

7 Comments