Alex Miller

Before diagnosing missed revenue targets Many B2B SaaS companies only look at: - Overall CAC - General LTV - Surface-level metrics To dig deeper, here's what you should track: • Time to impact • Pipeline velocity • LTV by segment • Sales cycle length • Lead quality score • Expansion revenue • Net revenue retention • Feature adoption rates • CAC by customer segment • Customer acquisition cost payback period These metrics reveal hidden insights. Combining these metrics give you the deeper meaning.

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You're thinking about renewals wrong. 66% of your renewals will be decided when you’re not in the room. Want higher NRR? Here’s the non-obvious CS strategy that's key to SaaS renewal: Hold customers accountable! In our current economy, customer acquisition is harder than ever. Every board of directors is obsessed with net recurring revenue (NRR). And they should be. After all, close rates are down (18%) and so are deal values (21%). There is no easier source of revenue than an existing customer. And nothing more painful than losing a customer, when all of the time, effort, and expense of building the relationship goes to waste. So of course we invest in the process. We hold our weekly meetings. We educate our champions. We have quarterly QBRs. We find success stories. But too often, we’re talking to one part of the organization. And we lose visibility to what happens when we aren’t in the room, when our champion needs to roll out or deliver using our stuff. It’s hard to see around corners in companies. A simple question suddenly gets hard to answer: Did they train the users they said they would? Did they share out the data or results? Did they get the feedback needed to tune the offering? When I worked at Ariba, which went from $0 to a $4B IPO in 4 years, we had a saying: Success has 3 ingredients: your people, your process, and our software. In other words, 66% of success depends on the customer. If they don’t do their part, they won’t get the value they bought from you. That’s a problem for them. But also a problem for you, because that’s a customer who won’t renew. Why should they, when the value didn’t happen, whoever’s “fault” it was? You need to flip the script. Accountability means asking the hard questions. Was the data delivered? Was it understood? When is the feedback coming? If the answers weren’t there, escalate to the economic buyer. They are at risk of not getting the value they bought. That should be a red flag for them and us. Are they still committed to the project? How do we get back on track? With all of our weekly tactics, we often lose sight of the most important question of all. Why did the customer buy in the first place? If the customer didn’t do what they said they would, that's bad news. And it’s 100% our fault. Want the renewal? Hold customers accountable.

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The future of NRR: Will CCOs become the new CROs? (...a 7-figure ARR CCO asked me) A CCO recently asked me, "I've seen CCOs reporting to CROs these days and CCOs becoming CROs. What do you think the future holds? Is this going to be a trend to stay?" It's a fascinating question. Here's what I'm seeing: Companies are laser-focused on improving NRR. But who's directly responsible for it? Marketing, support, CS, AMs, strategic account sales...everyone influences NRR, yet no single executive owns it. That's changing. CCOs are emerging as the "Chief NRR Officers." Why? Because the CCO's ultimate goal aligns perfectly with growing NRR. CCOs are under immense pressure to drive new revenue. However, acquiring new customers is far more expensive than retaining and expanding existing accounts. Putting CCOs in charge of NRR makes strategic sense. But there's another strong candidate for owning NRR: The COO. Retention is a team sport. Every customer touchpoint impacts churn, including product, pricing, sales, onboarding, and support. The COO oversees all these critical functions. They're ideally positioned to drive NRR improvements. Mark my words: Having a dedicated NRR executive will soon become the norm. Will it be CCOs or COOs leading the charge? Only time will tell. I break down the full future of NRR in this video:

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Graphium Health, led by CEO Daniel Dura, needed a scalable outbound system. They turned to Predictable Revenue™ Inc. for expert guidance. Before: - Relying on InboundSales with one salesperson. - Needed structure to scale. Challenge: - Lack of an organized sales system hindered growth. - Needed clear roles, metrics, and strategies. Solution: - Our Outbound Consulting service helped build a reliable sales system. - Create a detailed playbook and establish effective metrics. Result: Graphium Health now has a scalable system, aligned team, and a strong foundation for growth. “It’s amazing how quickly we built this capability and avoided pitfalls,” says Daniel.

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Revenue is achieved through systems, not luck. Too many companies treat their GTM as an afterthought. Pump the brakes. Build a process to win. Skipping steps to get leads fast is a mistake. Weak value prop Wrong GTM model Rushed delivery Automating everything too soon All avoidable pitfalls. A solid system helps you know what's working and what's not. You're going to edit your system. But you need one to win. I've been building these for years. I've watched clients who adopt them win ... quick I've watched clients who don't ... fold. (unfortunately) Systems aren't complicated. They're not easy.

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It’s time we pivot our focus from efficiency within #revenueoperations to something far more impactful: throughput. Throughput is the most misunderstood, misaligned, misapplied component of #GTM and #RevOps. Here’s why we should be talking about throughput a lot more than we do: ⛓️Managing Bottlenecks: Locate and mitigate constraints within your processes to ensure a smooth flow. 🔄Systems Thinking: Adopt a holistic view of your entire operation to anticipate ripple effects and optimize overall performance, not just isolated metrics. 🔝Maximizing Value: Unlock the full potential of your GTM initiatives by focusing on the rate at which your system achieves your overall goals and generates revenue. How often are you thinking and talking about throughput? 💡For a deeper understanding of throughput and managing your constraints and bottlenecks, tune in to the latest #RevOpsShow (links in the comments.)

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$8.1M in pipeline for a Series A healthtech co. in 6wks Here's how we did it with 1 BDR and systems. The client said they were struggling with leads What they were actually struggling with: • Competitors could easily put their name on messaging. • They were automating outreach like everyone else. • They were struggling with inconsistent positioning. • They glossed over their GTM motion. We took a different approach: • Human intelligence over automation. • Revenue operations fundamentals. • Revenue marketing strategy. • Scaled down tech stack. • Precise segmentation. The problem? • They treated all "providers" the same. • Generic messaging missed crucial nuances. • Engagement and conversion rates sucked. Our approach: • Redefined the "provider" category. • Segment by specialty and sub-specialty. • Develop tailored messaging for each group. • Taught social selling basics. • Cut off mass automation. We dug deep: • Sifted through industry benchmarks. • Gathered data on practice-specific KPIs. • Built business cases for each sub-specialty. • Addressed operational and financial outcomes. Our secret weapons? Perplexity and Telescope • Used these for persona-specific research. • Empathy maps + customer journey for EVERY persona. • Built out persona specific account approaches. • Opened the whole buying committee. • Uploaded directly to CRM for BDR reference. We systemized everything: • Lean tech stack focused on revenue ops. • Integrated call transcripts and outreach data. • Analyzed and refined strategies in real-time. Copywriting got a makeover: • Crafted messages based on empathy maps. • Uploaded scripts and FAQs to JustCall. • Enabled real-time conversation adaptation.    The tech stack was slim: • Lavender 💜  for optimized email crafting. • Close CRM and JustCall integration for consistency. • Clay insights available at every touchpoint. The results? • $8.1M in pipeline. • Higher engagement rates. • Increased conversions. Our edge? • Healthcare expertise. • Precise segmentation and messaging. • Systemized, quality-over-volume approach. Tools that made it happen: • HUMANS (not robots) leading campaigns. • Perplexity for up-to-date healthcare trends. • Telescope for refined prospect lists. • The Org to unlock buying committees • MillionVerifier for email validation • Clay for persona enrichment • CloseCRM as our central data hub. • JustCall for personalized cold calls • Lavender for crispy copywriting. The takeaway? • Generic approaches don't cut it. • Tailored strategies drive real results. • Human touch + smart tech = winning combo. Want to unlock revenue today? Then you need to work with experts. Shoot me a connection and a DM if you want to see the flow.

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Zoominfo's Earnings Bad News and Potential Room for SaaS Optimism. Zoominfo reported disappointing 2Q24 results yesterday, further hurt by a $15M revenue write-off related to a lack of collections on revenue already recognized from “risky SMBs.” The quarterly revenue of $292M was down 6% YoY versus up 3% YoY last quarter. They also lowered full-year guidance. All of this left the stock down 12% (stock is up 5% today at this time of posting). The lower guidance was due to “conservatism” and the expectation of more write-offs over the rest of the year. Because I am an unapologetic optimist looking for clues that could point to an improved “macro environment", here are some quotes I found most interesting. Regarding a question on sales cycles, Henry Schuck, CEO responds, “Sales cycles have stayed largely the same.” He then goes on to talk about operational improvements and makes a case for segmentation. “I think the thing that we've learned across the largest deal that we closed in our history and continued improvement in mid-market and enterprise is that segmenting the new business sales reps and then allocating resources to the upmarket is turning into results for us. We have the highest mid-market and enterprise new business quarter on record, and that came from an increased focus in segmentation of the sales rep base against those different segments.” Flashback to Q1 earnings calls, HubSpot, Salesforce, Gong, etc. described “headwinds” that included longer sales cycles and greater price scrutiny. I am glad to hear that sales cycles have stayed the same for Zoominfo. Henry Schuck also calls out 1) the biggest deal on record and 2) the continued improvement by focusing upmarket on Enterprise and MidMarket. The non-optimists also have something here, lower 2024 guidance due to “escalated write-off rates” over the course of the full year. The largest factor for Zoominfo’s “write-offs” is companies shutting down due to the challenging capital access environment. As Cameron Hyzer, Chief Financial Officer, shared, “We continue to see more pressure on SMBs. With respect to the write-offs, those did accelerate in June, and so the impact of those was really an end-of-quarter issue more than it was throughout the quarter.” I realize that a few hopeful points in Zoominfo’s bad news earnings call do not make a case that we are out of the woods, but let’s see what HubSpot has to say in their investor call later today. I am rooting for and will continue to point out instances of reduced headwinds and an improved (SaaS) macro environment. Thank you! From your perspective have the Q1 headwinds increased, decreased, or stayed the same? #SaaS, #GTM, #2Q24results

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As CS is getting increasingly aligned with the revenue function, this conversation is happening a lot... CRO: "I just took over customer success, can someone explain to me what our CSMs do?" VP CS: "We make sure that our customers are getting value from the product..." CRO: "OK, what does that mean?" VP CS: "We answer all of their questions and log support cases." CRO: "Isn't that support?" VP CS: "Well no, because we have QBRs" CRO: "OK, well what do we talk about in the QBRs?" VP CS: "All the tickets we fixed and the features that we rolled out" CRO: "Ok, what other things do our CSMs do?" VP CS: "We help with implementations and continuous improvement!" CRO: "Isn't that professional services?" VP CS: "Well we read an article that says that we shouldn't charge for services, so our CSMs just do it." CRO: " 🤯 " VP CS: " 🤯 "

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SaaS companies are growing much slower than in 2022 But they've made an important change to offset this. We can see this in the Rule of 40 metric. Rule of 40 is a metric that looks at the trade off a company makes between generating ARR growth and generating free cash flow. Because these things are typically at odds with one another. The rule of 40 helps us to understand whether or not the trade off in one area is made up by the gain in the other. To find it we take: -> ARR growth rate -> Free cash flow margin and add them together. The benchmark is a total of 40 (hence the name) Example: -> ARR growth at 49% -> Free cash flow margin at 6% Rule of 40 = 55 Example 2 -> AAR Growth of 23% -> free cash flow margin of 22% Rule of 40 = 45 So in theory you can grow quickly but burn a ton of cash and still have a strong rule of 40. Or you can generate a ton of cash but grow more slowly. The narrative in SaaS over the past 18 months has shifted from growth at all costs, to slower growth at reasonable cost. We can see this show up in the numbers. Growth rates are down, but FCF margins are up to offset them. If you want to dig into this data in more detail Comment and I'll send you a copy of the full Q1 report. 

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"Most Talked about RevTech" prizes go to: CPQ Competitors Nue.io and DealHub.io Clay has come up in every roundtable/meeting I've been in Lead routing competition coming in hot with Chili Piper Apollo.io coming in cheap against ZoomInfo Rattle 🦖 (for workflows) and Recapped 🎯 (for deal rooms) Inflection.io and Iterable (and how marketing automation needs disruption) And Gong coming in hot taking with consolidation Who is coming up for you? #tech #revops

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Want to catch the WinsDay replay? Matt Calhoun and I chatted about... ➡ Pre-Sales Strategies ➡ Demand Gen: Avoiding Failure When Outsourcing ➡ First Go-to-Market: Pivoting Your Startup  ➡ SDR Success: Leaders' Role in Prospecting Some themes popped up.... ☑ being data driven ☑ getting your ICP right ☑ documenting your processes ☑ what does good like ☑ what clues does customer success tell us ☑ culture ☑ people first leadership ☑ know your worth (mindset) ☑ trust and candid conversations .....and so much more Check out the comments to catch the replay! #sales

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"How many CSMs do we need?" "How many customers do my CSMs manage"? We've dug into our nearly $2 billion in client revenue data, analyzed industry standards like the Jason M. Lemkin and Gainsight suggestions, and crafted our own Infinite Renewals approach. Whether you're managing too many accounts or wondering how many CSMs you need, this is for you. A sample is below, but the good stuff is in the full report. The Infinite Renewals team of Kate Mazzini, Kristine Vallila, and Renee Murphy really dug in, and also put together a "choose your adventure" approach, which accounts for ACV, ARR, and allocated time per account. Next Thursday, October 3rd, from 1-2 PM EST, we'll be hosting an exclusive Ask Me Anything session. 📈 Drop "REPORT" in the comments to get the report. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain invaluable insights! 🗓️ Spread the word!

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GTM Triage Unit™ <--- I'm naming this now. Many orgs are NOT BUILT to handle a cross functional setup like this. Those that ARE, or that WILL be able to handle this reality will win. Leaders lead. Nice job Sam, putting the plan out there and driving to get it done. This sort of Triage Unit is a great idea. Amos Gewirtz, this is related to what we were talking about. Who cares, and what should we do with this info, data, circumstance, or insight? Building better next steps, leads to better outcomes, and reduces the chance of Churn. #leadersLead #churn #saas #GTM #outcomes

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Our revops “team” at Chili Piper does A LOT OF automations. If you’d see our list, you’d think we have a full train of rev ops folks working here at Chili Piper (spoiler alert, we have 1 and a half). Here’s an example of an “unconventional” automation We assign churned accounts to SDRs. Yep, we automate outreach to churned accounts Here’s why and how First, let me tell you, it breaks my heart to see any customer churn. I feel like my heart is asking but always aim to learn from it and make everything better for them if they were to come back. Hence, we want to learn what made them leave, fix the problem, and win them back And the good news is that we win many of them back . Here are the nitty gritty on how we do this : We setup these rules for assigning churned accounts to our SDRs: – Account Status = updated to Churned – Transaction End Date = 91 days – Round Robin across SDRs and update SDR Owner – SLA: after 12 working hours, check if there was activity yesterday AND ROE phase ≠ unfit to work, send Slack notification – SLA: after 12 working hours, check if there was activity yesterday AND ROE phase ≠ unfit to work, reassign – Provide a Slack notification to the AM (80 days post-contract end date) – Provide a Slack notification to the SDR once the Account has been assigned (91 days post-contract end date) – Provide SDRs with information on why the account is churning in SFDC to give them the context to sell into the account effectively. If you are curious about more details on this, let me know!  

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Seismic is the category leader of sales enablement, scaling to nearly $400M in ARR. But they didn't create the term themselves. Someone else did, then they embraced it and worked to define the category, then eventually dominate it. In a time where most founders want to create a new category from scratch, this serves as a reminder that you don't have to. You can find existing terminology and then work to define that category. To learn more about the Seismic GTM journey, listen to my full interview with Doug Winter: https://lnkd.in/eYNFAuxE

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Incentives matter. They matter so much that they influence drug shortages... This Week in SaaS were covering how Done.'s business practices led to arrests and contributed to ADHD patients unable to get the drugs they need.  🚓🚓🚓 You know what didn't need a subscription revenue service? Adderall. Turns out speaking regularly to a doctor and adjusting your meds is a good thing. Ethics in business are important. It is too easy to get wrapped up in increasing metrics. Don't forget the greater impact you're having. 🌞Be human🌞 #thisweekinsaas #saasnews #drugsarebad #drugscanbefuntho #mentalhealthishealth

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SDR Dashboards - what do you want to see? Gimme your top 3 stats/charts/reports you like to see on YOUR dashboard for pipeline gen. There's the obvious activity levels and SQL/SAL volumes but what else do you like to see.....

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The operator immersive model starts with targeting. Investing in vertical SaaS has proven that even within in a niche market, there is so much nuance to determining where you will win and win now. Seed stage companies are typically looking to establish GTM fit. That typically comes with a specific subset of the market. There are a variety of factors, but it comes down to the problem you are solving and what audience is most ready to solve it with your solution. Sean Kester provided is great breakdown on targeting for early stage B2B SaaS companies in the most recent IRC Perspectives with 6 surefire steps... Step 1: Identify your ICP Step 2: Conduct Market Research Step 3: Create Buyer Personas Step 4: Engage with your Audience Step 5: Test and Iterate Step 6: Stay up to Date (Obvious but critical) Each step detailed in the linked post. #GTMcheatcode

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