Dave Quinn

Tired of losing hard-earned deals? Solve for Revenue Leak. In Clari’s 2024 Revenue Leak Report, RevOps leaders said leak happens at every stage of the funnel. - Creating: Poor and slow upsell pipeline tracking - Converting: Unsure where pipeline is dropping off - Closing: Slipped deals Don’t let Revenue Leak drag down another quarter – or another year. Download the Revenue Leak Report for more: https://lnkd.in/g9gnGrdz  

13

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

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: " 🤯 "

9

This is stuff you're not going to see on RepVue or Salesforce State of Sales. We've been gathering data from GTM leaders on the performance of their team. We asked a few questions that we feel like aren't talked about enough. "Rate your sales team's productivity." "Do you mandate activity minimums? "How important are leading indicators vs lagging indicators?" The results are very intriguing. On of the most obvious ones is that team leaders feel their individual contributors are *AVERAGE* at best at being productive with their days. Huge opportunity there for sure. It backs the findings we saw in another study that said productivity software is one of the only spends companies are willing to make in this type of economic environment. When sales gets more and more difficult... you have to get more and more intentional with productivity, strategy and you're going to succeed.

20

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

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

I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see 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 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."

17

5 Comments

Who would win this deal? Imagine this scenario: Sarah, Head of Sales @XYZ, wants to help her BDR team scale their cold calling efforts. On Monday, she reads 3 articles on Aircall's blog about cold calling best practices. However, she doesn't request a demo yet. The next day, Emily, a sales rep from Ringover (a direct competitor of Aircall)—𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐡 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝟑 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥'𝐬 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠—reaches out to Sarah and books a meeting with her. To make it even trickier, Ringover and Aircall offer solutions that are 95% the same. Who has the better chance to win this deal and why? 👉 Scenario 1: Sarah chooses Ringover because… 👉 Scenario 2: Sarah chooses Aircall because… I have my own answer but.. I'm curious about yours! Leave a comment below with your thoughts 😇

41

11 Comments

Salesforce now needs 3x pipeline coverage compared to 2x due to: - longer sales cycle - deal size pressure due to cut backs - lower demand in general In times like these, your win rate matters more than ever. Here are 5 strategies to improve your win rate: 1) Fight pipeline bloat Don't accept: - Unqualified opportunities - Poor deal hygiene - Missing deal insights & signals - Gut-driven deal reviews 2) Simplify your sales process & exit criteria - Clear entry criteria for opportunity creation. So important! - Simple sales process everyone understands + follows - Clear process governance - Simplify exit criteria to ensure your team actually follow them 3) Operationalize your methodologies Remember: Most reps hate sales methodologies as it's "more" work‼ - Help your team understand the "why it matters" to close more deal - Understand what are the key criteria to closing deals and incorporate them - Run ongoing trainings - Train the managers and the reps - Support coaching with hard numbers to showcase success - Tie hard numbers back to leaderboards and commission success 4) Become great at multi-threading Without multi-threading most deals are dead these days‼ - Coach reps on multi-threading tactics - Managers should proactively help multi-thread - Leverage exec & board members to multi-thread further and higher in org 5) Incentivize the right behavior Combine compensation and management to change behavior‼ - E.g. comp more for e.g. higher TCVs and upfront payments - E.g. coach managers to amplify change management aspects - E.g. use CRO to communicate importance of the above - E.g. use data to showcase success This list is by no means extensive and all those topics deserve more details! What would you add? Comment 👇 — 👀 Get free RevOps content like Cheat Sheets, Salary Report - link in profile ➕ Follow me for tips on how RevOps can impact revenue growth ♻️ Share with your friends #revops #saas

27

9 Comments

So we've got this whole #RevOps meme competition going over at RevOps Co-op with our partner Fullcast, The Go-to-Market Cloud And while I can't compete myself because, ya know, ethics, rules blah blah blah 🙄 That doesn't stop me from generating meme inspo for you all 😄 This one is for all of us out there that have been completely devoured and seemingly taken over by a demon during #territoryplanning season But through a RevOps exorcism have lived to talk about it 😅 So might I suggest that on your first full work week following the Thanksgiving holiday To take a little break from work, b/c you know you deserve it, And spend about 5 minutes creating a RevOps meme for yourself (I personally use Imgflip) And then submit that 🔥 meme at the link in the comments 👇🏻 PS there are some pretty sweet prizes too 😏 #revops #revenueoperations #salesops #salesoperations #marketingops #marketingoperations #memethrowdown24 #sops #mops #csops #cxops #gtmops #alltheops

78

5 Comments

🪦 R.I.P SDRs? 🪦 When I open my Linkedin every second post is debating whether SDRs will be still around in the future or if this function is no longer needed due to automation and AI. Here is my take on this: - Some teams(especially SMB focused) might realise they don't need to segment sales roles into pipeline generating and closing roles, they will be going back to full cycle sales roles - Lot of SaaS teams restructured recently, this also means SDR teams got leaner, on the other hand due to AI and new tools they can be a lot more productive, making these teams more efficient - I also see a new trend where some SDRs are shifted to a "Sales Development Engineer" role, where this function knows all the in-and-out about scaling and automating pipeline generation with the help of AI and automating workflows - New GTM playbooks will focus more on "warmer" leads, especially visitor and intent data Few weeks ago, I was debating the same topic at a roundtable discussion at SaaStr Europa with various revenue leaders and I could feel excitement about the advancement of technology and AI, but there was a strong agreement that at the end of the day people love to buy from other humans. You can read more about this topic and how leading SaaS teams are changing to a playbook that can be successful in this changing environment. What do you think will we still have SDRs in 3 years time?

30

4 Comments

To all SDRs or anyone entering B2B sales, read this post to avoid falling into common traps. 1. The most successful AEs I have met were the best SDRs. 2. SDRs who didn’t excel in the role and are now AEs are still struggling to generate their own pipeline. 3. AEs who skipped the SDR role, often due to an MBA or strong interview skills, fear switching jobs and roles without inbound leads. They’ve never faced the grind of building a pipeline from scratch, filled with rejections. 4. AEs who have never been an SDR majorly rely on their SDRs or Inbound leads from marketing to help them build pipeline and if any Quarter they don't get inbound or enough meetings from SDRs they sh** in their pants. 5. When these AEs become managers, they often question their team—"Where are the numbers?" or "Why isn’t there a pipeline?"—instead of guiding them on building it. Lacking experience in pipeline generation, they fail to lead by example and eventually lose the respect of their team. Learn the art and science of being an SDR and excel at this job at any cost, you will never have to look back or depend on anyone for pipeline EVER. Prospecting and Generating Pipelines is fundamental to Sales whether you are an SDR, AE, Sr Manager, or VP if you don't know how to do OUTBOUND you will continuously live a sales life of fear and anxiety. So SDRs ask yourselves do you want to be such AE and Managers in the future who depend on others to determine their performance and faith or would you like to own your job? #sales #prospecting #outbound #pipeline #sdr #ae #b2b #saas

102

12 Comments

The AEs and SDRs from 5 years ago are the CROs and VPs today. This may sound somewhat self-serving, but here it goes. It’s been cool to see the goodwill I created with those AEs and SDRs over the years turn into meaningful opportunities, pipeline, and revenue for Copy.ai. This has never been the primary intent of my presence or content here. But I will say, it’s a nice benefit. Build trust, provide value, be kind, build your network. It’s worth it for many reasons. #sales #sdr #gtmai

176

12 Comments

Salesforce has upped their game, requiring 3x pipeline coverage instead of the usual 2x. Sales Strategies Need a Refresh. But too many companies are stuck in old habits. The reason? Sales cycles are stretching out, deal sizes are shrinking, and win rates are dropping. Here's the reality: Industry average quota attainment is now below 40%. On the other hand, Salesforce is pushing for more pipeline coverage to tackle these challenges. They’re also boosting enablement, and training, and adding AI tools to support their sales teams. The biggest SaaS players accept that old sales models don't fit today's market. They're also following in Salesforce’s footsteps of more pipeline coverage as a solution. But for most companies, reducing quotas might be the best move. (depends on where they stand) However, if you can invest in generating more pipelines, it’s smart to adapt to the current sales game. Avoid the costly cycle of hiring and hoping. Instead, focus on realistic adjustments to your sales strategy. Do not stay traditional when the market is dynamic.

68

4 Comments

Want to drive more expansion? Here's the playbook I learned at Salesforce - Find gaps with customers - Create offers to address gaps - Market this to your expansion list - Introduce offer in sales and CS mtgs - Lay the groundwork and spark interest - Start sales conversations with stakeholders - Close Expansion Opportunities and grow Accts! Whitespace is a key way to find those gaps. 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗧 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘 - What products does each customer have? - What products does each customer NOT have? - Which products have you yet to present to them? *This is pretty basic but so often not executed well! 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘 - Which key stakeholders do you know? - Which key stakeholders do you NOT know? - Where can you open up new key relationships? 𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗟𝗔𝗣 - Where do these overlap? - You can sell a new product to an old contact - You can sell more current product to a new contact - But man is it easier to sell new products to new contacts Let me share some examples from my days at Salesforce: - VPs of Sales bought Salesforce (Sales Cloud) - VPs of Service/COOs bought Service Cloud - CMOs bought Pardot or Marketing Cloud - CFOs bought more licenses at discounts We had a different play for each product and each stakeholder. It wasn't this cut and dry though. Sometimes VPs of Sales bought Service Cloud or Marketing Cloud. CFOs often wanted the best contract terms and were my bread and butter for expansion, but it wasn't always them driving this. Most often, though, our relationship started with the VP of Sales who bought Sales Cloud and didn't really care about anything else we had to sell. This playbook is how Salesforce "landed and expanded" accounts and doubled spend for the average customer within 12 months of the initial purchase when I was there. More details in the 📰 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 📰 https://lnkd.in/ezX9iMjr ✌️

52

8 Comments

99% of SMB sellers think they need to get promoted to enterprise to make $300,000 a year. They're wrong. What they REALLY need is a hungry market and a decent comp plan. Here's 4 reasons why SMB reps can out-earn enterprise reps. 1. If your company isn't firmly "upmarket," enterprise reps struggle. In my heyday at Gong, the highest-earning salespeople were SMB reps. I knew several who cracked $300,000. We had not yet 'crossed the chasm' to selling to the enterprise. Yet startups and SMBs were RAVENOUSLY hungry for what Gong had to offer. Enterprise reps struggled. SMB AEs routinely hit 200% of their number. When you have commission accelerators in place, that's big money. 2. Enterprise customers are "laggards." Again, if your company hasn't "crossed the chasm," most enterprise buyers view new technology with skeptical eyes. They want to see other enterprises "go first." They aren't trying to get a fast-mover advantage. They're trying to not f*** up. It can take YEARS for your company to "crack" the enterprise. 3. Enterprise is feast or "famine." The people who make HUGE incomes in enterprise? They close 2-3 MEGA deals per year. They aren't hitting a bunch of singles, doubles, and triples. They choose to go "all in" on a few home runs. If it pans out, they make millions. If it doesn't, they make their base pay. 4. Your quota in enterprise is much higher. Here's a dirty secret for you, coming from a former sales leader who designed comp plans: If your OTE goes up, so does your quota. Senior business leaders know that quotas must be at least 3.5x to 5x the size of your OTE. It has to be that way. Otherwise the math of the business falls apart. 5. Product/market fit in enterprise and SMB are VERY different. Just because you have product/market fit in SMB doesn't mean that applies to the enterprise. Big enterprises have DIFFERENT demands on your product for it to be considered. SSO and advanced security capabilities to name a couple. Many companies are light on these features. So enterprise reps have to "sell around those gaps," which is REALLY hard. Ok. To the future guy in the comments: I agree with you: There are long-term career reasons to want to land an enterprise sales role, even if it means making less money short term. I support that. But don't tell me for a second that SMB reps are destined to make peanuts and enterprise reps are destined to make millions. Rarely happens that way. Especially in hot startups. You can make $300,000 in SMB if you find a hungry market. P.S. I had dinner recently with the COO of a $2B publicly held SaaS company. He formerly worked at Box in their heyday. Mentioned their highest-earning salespeople were SMBs reps, often topping out at $500k. Something to think about. P.P.S. I've watched over 3,000 discovery call recordings "by hand." Here's a list of the 39 best questions that sell: https://go.pclub.io/list

297

20 Comments

Top Sellers aren't begging for specific features to beat competitors Or more training... what do they think will help drive more revenue?? 👀 See the report below for the real data 👀 Met with killer revenue leaders at Gong's annual conference last week and read their report on the "State of Sales Productivity" Similar to what we saw re: GTM Execution being a top priority for Founders / CEOs, this report shed light on top challenges impacting reps and hindering productivity... And it resonated. The least motivating thing when I was a seller? Wasting time OFF THE FIELD updating fields + busywork that didn't help my customers / prospects. I've yet to meet a successful seller who'd rather focus on internal tasks vs spending time moving deals forward... No surprised the top 3 areas that negatively impact rep productivity: 61% - Admin Tasks 47% - Inneficient processes 37% - Time management *Spending time on non-selling activities is de-motivating *BS internal processes slows down deals *Time is the most valuable asset to sellers / Opps (time does kill all deals) From spending time obsessed with making customers successful and being at the top of the leaderboard, I can tell you firsthand most GTM tools don't help with what frustrates the field the most. And is why I felt passionate enough to quit an amazing gig at Stripe to build Accord. To win in 2024's market, every moment counts. Revenue leaders can’t expect their team to be hit targets if they are not setting them up for success. Take the admin work out of it, and have fields populated automatically IN the flow of work. Build a repeatable playbook that is foolproof and can help leaders identify slipped deals, before they slip Make sure you team isn’t spinning their wheels on pipeline or activities that don’t move the needle. Are you making sure your team is motivated, focused on their customers, and setting them up for success going into the final weeks of the year and into 2025?? 📈

29

7 Comments

SDRs can be taught to be AEs SDRs can be taught to be CSMs [shoutout to Eric Partaker for the post inspo] Also... SDRs can be taught to be Managers SDRs can be taught to be Marketeers SDRs can be taught to do almost any role Fact: It's better to hire someone who is 60% ready with the right behaviours. Than 100% ready with the wrong ones. SDRs deserve a chance. Do you agree? PS. Share ♻️ with others in your network. And follow Chris Ritson for more sales content like this.

209

15 Comments