🍉 James D. Bohrman

$100,000, $200,000, $300,000 OTE! OTE is complex topic, so here's a simple breakdown. I felt compelled to do this because I heard of some SEs getting ridiculous OTE offers and if they've never had a variable commission, they won't understand it. Bottom Line using a $100,000 OTE example: 1. Some recruiter is going to promise you a $100,000 OTE. What they don't tell you is that you probably won't make that much money. 2. Ask them "what the split is?" They will probably tell you it's something like 70/30. That means they will pay you a $70,000 base salary. And IF (and I stress IF), your company/team hits their quota, you'll make the remaining $30,000 that gets you to $100,000 OTE. 3. What they won't tell you is that the company hits quota once or twice every 5 years, so you'll rarely hit $100,000. You can ask people all sorts of questions like how many AEs hit quota, but the only way to know for sure is ask them to show you the W-2s of the other sales engineers (which they'll never do). They'll tell you things like most AEs hit quota, but it doesn't matter because you'll probably be in a pooled model and you won't hit quota. The most likely situation is that you'll probably only bring home $70,000 + some extra (maybe $85,000 total for getting halfway to quota). Summary: 1. Figure out what your base is and see if you're happy with it. 2. Count on no commission if you want to play it safe, or count on only 50% of the variable portion, because that's probably the most realistic outcome.

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Salesforce stock just dropped 21% …so how is HubSpot up 12% YTD? It’s simple. Customer expectations have changed. And it turns out… Not all PR is good PR. So what’s changed? 1. Customers demand a shorter ‘time to value’. In this market, they can’t afford an 18 month implementation. 2. SMBs have grown skeptical of ‘no one got fired for buying Salesforce’. SFDC + SF engineers have become a perpetual 2% tax on businesses. 3. Customers expect to use 40-60% of a platform. They’re ok paying for that. SF is so bloated that customers only use 10-20% of what they pay for. 4. Open source is in. If you’re going to buid a custom solution, make it portable. 5. Pricing needs to be inclusive. If it’s not cost-effective for infrequent users, they’ll use something else. Salesforce sold to the COO and CFO - it became an operations platform. Usability for the GTM was sacrificed. Ultimately, SMB isn’t the feeder it once was. Companies like HubSpot built FOR SMB. They stole the pipeline. While growing WITH their customers. We see the same with Event Management Platforms. Customers want: - To get up and running faster. - Power back in their own hands. - Pricing tied to value. - A user experience they’re not embarrassed to put in front of attendees or internal teams. Seems resonable, right? And here’s the icing. Brand matters It turns out not all PR is good. “Updating Salesforce” has become a dreaded meme. Who wants to be hated by your team for buying the dreaded platform? HubSpot made themselves more relatable AND more lovable. Ultimately, your brand is more than what you can do it. It’s how you make people feel. And that does impact company performance.

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Is your cold email *actually* cold? or... is there some history? Here's how I approach old accounts. I look to grab: 1) Context Salesforce notes & Call recording takeaways = gold 2) If anything is new with them News, hiring, earnings reports, etc. 3) Anything new on our end product, case studies, process, etc. & then I stitch them together to rekindle conversation (Lavender makes this REALLY easy) ex. Kyle - when we caught up in Q4, you brought up some use cases (ex. closed lost follow up) that we weren't great for. Since then - we built out our SFDC & Gong integrations. Your team's been on a hiring tear lately. Think it's a good time to catch up?

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Are you asking too much from your on-call engineers? 🤔 Managers: place ZERO expectations on your engineers to do feature work during on-call shifts! Why? Because their focus needs to be 100% on keeping your systems running smoothly. If they aren’t handling alerts, they should be addressing support requests or working on system reliability improvements—not project work. And if they’ve been up all night fighting incidents, give them the day off. Have someone else take point! 💪 On-call is a full-contact sport. Give your team the support they need to win! 🏈 Do you have to balance on-call and feature work? Let me know how that’s going! I’m passionate about helping teams optimize their on-call processes—reach out if you want to learn more! #DevOps #SRE #Leadership #OnCall #ProductManagement

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SDRs - Here's a scenario, your marketing team sends you a lead that downloaded a white paper from your company's website... The reality is that this lead probably didn't read the white paper. Best case scenario is they lightly skimmed it. But these leads aren't totally worthless. There's a reason they started looking at the content in the first place. Find out what that reason is! "what piqued your interest in the white paper?" This'll answer the "why". The "why" is often a pain point. Double down on that pain, offer a solution, and book the meeting. P.S. Want to see real examples of high quality cold emails and cold calls? Check out our newsletter! All tactics no fluff.

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Renewals are the lifeblood of every SaaS company. However, we don’t talk enough about what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals. Since there are so many lists on what makes a great AE, I thought I’d take a stab at what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals: 1/ They prioritize the renewals that move the needle Renewal rate comes down to simple math. What renewals are going to move the needle for them? Great AMs/CSMs spend their time where they’ll get the most bang for their buck. 2/ They prepare 6 months in advance Average AMs/CSMs prep 3 months in advance. Great ones plan 6 months in advance. This includes asking hard questions well ahead of time during a mid-year QBR, so they know where to spend their time. 3/ They can re-sell the product Stakeholders change. Priorities change. Competitors try to break in. Great AMs/CSMs can sell the product as well as their AEs and know how to position their value props and handle objections. 4/ They know how to negotiate I don’t know any procurement person in the post-ZIRP era who doesn’t try to negotiate their contracts. A great AM/CSM knows how to turn negotiations into win-wins. 5/ They know the difference between procurement and decision-makers Similar to point four, they know how to negotiate and with whom. Negotiating with procurement is much different than negotiating with a key stakeholder. Each party wants something different, and it’s important to recognize what that is. 6/ They know how to rope in their AEs or extended teams Just like the best AEs know how to “quarterback” deals, a great AM/CSM knows how to rally resources to help with renewals. AEs, Execs, SEs, and Professional Services can all be brought in to help show the customer extra love. 7/ They develop a renewal champion We always talk about champions in the presales process, but not enough about champions during renewals. A great AM/CSM knows how to develop champions to help push renewals through. An AM/CSM who knows how to do these things is worth their weight in gold. Keep them happy as long as you can!

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There's a reason Sales hates Marketing. Where are the qualified leads? Why is marketing messaging MY prospect?! Logging this webinar campaign in Salesforce isn't gonna close this deal. Marketing also has a reason to hate sales. Why aren't the reps utilizing the campaign I worked so hard on? (Also, our huge egos bc we think sales runs the show) But the reality is... Without Marketing there is no brand recognition. Without Sales there are no customer relationships. Without either? There is no revenue. But together... Marketing Cadences and Sequences create brand recognition and warm a lead. Personalized outreach and real relationships turn the lead into a prospect. A prospect who feels seen, wanted, and supported? Now that's a customer. Next time, before you tell them to take a hike, maybe think twice. Sales + Marketing = 💕soulmates💕 Is the marketing/sales rivalry over? How do you partner with your marketing team? Are you also obsessively happy with the fall colors?

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When I start hiring SDRs, I won’t be hiring traditional SDRs. Here’s what I’m planning… 150k OTE. 50/25/25 comp structure. - 50% base - 25% variable on Enterprise opps created - 25% variable on SMB revenue closed 📈 Let’s start with Opportunities created. These are qualified opportunities you set up for the enterprise sales team. Every month, we’ll align on the 100 accounts you should prioritize with your outreach. The marketing team will focus on the same 100 accounts with its account-based marketing efforts. You’ll use Copy.ai to build account plans, research prospects, and develop outreach strategies for each account. You’ll use Copy.ai to create custom landing pages, ads, and hyper-relevant outreach. You’ll be the quarterback, ensuring the right buying group is engaged, and doing the high-touch, white glove outreach to key contacts. I’m thinking 30 opps generated per month as a quota. The marketing team will share that quota and be incentivized to generate opps. You’re the quarterback. We won’t fight over “who gets credit” because we’re completely aligned on the accounts, budget, and strategies. Having sticker shock at that 30/month number? We have insane momentum right now and are only gaining steam. We’ll set you up for success. 💰 Now, about that SMB revenue. These are SMB deals that are too small for our enterprise sellers to focus on. Call it, under $25k ARR. 100% inbound. You’ll be full cycle here, from qualification through close. Again, you’ll have support from the marketing team to ensure you have what you need to fully engage the buying group, allow buyers to self-serve much of their education, and move deals through the funnel quickly. You’ll have managerial support, of course. But you’ll also have Copy.ai doing deal coaching, giving feedback, suggesting deal strategies, and keeping you focused on real deals. I’m thinking 6-8 deals / quarter = $400k annual quota. Logo velocity is the name of the game. We’ll figure out the accelerator balance so you get rewarded for over-performance, as long as you’re performing against BOTH elements of your variable. You’ll get exposure to the whole GTM engine. You’ll get real, complete sales training. You’re the talent bench for the enterprise accounts team. 👀 Title? I’m thinking Inside Account Director. Two questions: 1. Interested? Let me know. We’re not hiring for this yet (need to hash out plans internally), but we’ll start keeping a warm list so we can hire fast. Fill out this li'l form to join the wait list: https://lnkd.in/esbA4ZVp 2. What am I missing? Any suggestions for what to change? We’re building in public here, and architecting a different approach to all things GTM. Open to feedback. #gtmai #sales #gtm

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This is why you think you aren't getting the SDR/SE job: - Not enough experience. Why you actually aren't getting the job: 1. You aren't hunting for the job as if you would if you had the job. 2. You are putting wayyy too much emphasis on perfecting your resume 3. You are applying to 50 jobs a day 4. You are not preparing for the interview like Tom Brady prepares for the superbowl... you're just going through the motions hoping for the best. 5. You don't know how to sell yourself. This is a sale, you just aren't thinking of it that way. How to fix it? Imagine for a second you HAD to get the job or something really really bad would happen? What would you do differently to prepare? Seek help? Practice reciting answers to interview questions? Reach out to people at the company you are interviewing with? Think through a good list of questions to ask the interviewer and rehearse asking those questions in different scenarios? Follow up with each interviewer thanking them for their time? Find ways to be memorable in the interview process? Find people that have recently left the company you are interviewing with that were in your role or similar roles? Buy/use their product (if possible) to see what it's like to be theri customer? You can do this. be in the arena today. you'll thank yourself later. #InTheArena #ClosedWon

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Google is going to kill Calendly HubSpot is going to kill Salesforce Clay is going to kill Outreach Apollo is going to kill ZoomInfo Google Meet is going to kill Zoom All things I've heard recently or in the recent past. But this is nothing new: new technology comes out, new competitors arise, startups either take over the marketshare or are acquired by the giants. The thing is, at some point, they become the giants and move too slowly and their innovation is lacking. So a new crop of players will pop up. Ultimately, all these new tools can provide amazing value but they rarely truly change the course of a business. I can build a great business off all of the tools on the left and I can also build a great business off all the tools on the right. No tool is going to make your product better or your process tighter. That's the point. The best businesses have a product that solves a real pain point and a process that allows them to capture marketshare quickly and efficiently. First work on figuring out the problem your product solves. Then work on the process by which you will go to market to share that problem. Then worry about ripping out your tech stack for all the shiny new tools you hear about on LI. Just my two cents.

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Renewals are pretty boring… unless they make you $60 million bucks. So here’s the story: In 2022, I sold my company. (Not for $60MM.) I was burned out—post-COVID, I was done, done, done with selling used hardware and third-party maintenance. It was a good 15-year run, but it was time for something new. For about a year and a half, my family traveled, I coached sports, played some golf, and got super involved in my church. It was a good break. After about two years, I was ready to do something new. That’s how Owlytica was born. I had built the software, but I needed customers. As I started talking to resellers, I discovered that most of them have a person or team managing renewals. Many use a CRM, ERP, or just a spreadsheet. But what I found was that there wasn’t a tool made for them, and many can’t even tell you how much of their business is from renewals. Which leads me to the $60MM. A few of the resellers that really have their renewals in order? Their renewals moved from 9% to 30% of their business. I modeled this in a spreadsheet at 28%, then layered on some growth to using the same tool to grow "share of wallet" from 60 to 72%. This transformed this models theoretical IT reseller’s sales from $110MM to $170MM. Whoa! Here’s the spreadsheet. Clone it, and play with the numbers. Tear it to shreds... https://lnkd.in/ePGK29Nd Please drop a comment if you’d like more detail, logic, reasoning, etc

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For the past 4 months I've worked with SaaS VPs/CMOs to "fix" their messaging. They know it's not converting. But they don't always know WHY. (Sometimes it helps to have an 'outsider' perspective.) So I audit their messaging and content to figure it out. And it's almost always one of these things (sometimes more). Here are the 3 Messaging Mistakes Plaguing B2B right now: 1. Messaging is WAY too academic. 🚫 Don't try to be the smartest in the room. ✅ Instead, use "street level" language to resonate. Better to be approachable than intellectual. Write at a 7th grade reading level. 2. Their TONE is boring and forgettable 🚫 Resist blending in because it's safe. ✅ You can differentiate yourself by using a distinct tone. It's all about mirroring your audience. You can't afford to play it safe anymore. Better to challenge the status quo and be memorable - even if 10% don't love it. 3. Too much focus on Product > Problems 🚫 Most companies still lead with features instead of helping their market solve real-world problems. ✅ You want your audience to see themselves in your content and your stories because that's what they'll identify with. Lead with features and they mentally unsubscribe. Lead with problems and they'll race to buy. Avoid these 3 mistakes and you'll *attract* the right buyers. And that'll grow your brand and conversion rates. ✔️ This mini-lesson is from my chat with Rowan Noronha Morgan J Ingram on the Marchitect Podcast, hosted by Klue. #content #marketing #messaging

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I used to think of SDRs like entry-level grunts until I realized the best ones are the cash printers of a business.. Any business that wants to grow should invest in their SDRs. Here is my recommendation to keep the printer going: ↳ Give them an education stipend of $X per quarter. Let them spend it on their favorite sales content with the condition they give a presentation to the team on what they learned. Why? A sales org becomes an echo chamber of the same ideas without new information. Let your top performers study under someone they admire and infuse new ideas in your org. P.S. Great SDRs don’t just happen, they’re nurtured and developed by companies that care. What challenges do your SDRs face and how are you addressing them?

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People who are looking to break into SaaS Word of caution: 1. We get fired 2. We work long hours 3. We have poor managers 4. We have low quality of life 5. We have poor products to sell 6. We have unbelievable targets (thank you VCs) B2B is not better than B2C. SaaS is not a crown jewel on Earth Everyone suffers the same way. Some people are better placed than others The grass is not greener on the other side. Don’t buy into ridiculous hype so people can sell their programs to you

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Carrie Lynn R. Absolutely agree! The foundation of effective outbound sales is simple: make the calls. Engage directly with SMB owners, understand their challenges, and offer genuine solutions. You don't need a fancy AI tool or a perfect sequence to start a conversation. The key metric that matters most is your CONNECT RATE—because that’s what drives the next crucial KPI: MEETINGS BOOKED. Focus on authentic interactions, and the results will follow. I like to focus on what I can do to increase the connect rate.

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"Should we outsource SDRs?" No, with rare exceptions. There's a reason why customer churn is high at most of the outsourced SDR shops. Outbound isn't as easy as paying $3-5k / month for a part-time SDR. And then expecting to see high-quality opportunities in 30-60 days. I've NEVER worked with a client that was happy with their SDR agency. - Poor show rates to meetings - Terrible expectation setting with handoff - Low-quality meetings with non-decision makers - Few, if any, closed/won deals But to be fair—it isn't always the SDR agency's fault. Many of their clients expect them to be miracle workers. An outbound-led sales motion is very different from an inbound-led sales motion. If your AEs are used to meeting with inbound leads, they must be taught how to close outbound leads. Prospects will likely not be problem-aware, there isn't a budget in place, and they probably won't have brand awareness. Do not hire an SDR agency if: ⛔️ You've never done outbound before as an org. ⛔️ You sell enterprise ⛔️ You're breaking into new industries ⛔️ You haven't figured out your messaging or value drivers ⛔️ Your AEs aren't self-sourcing and doing their own outbound No outsider will ever understand your customers as well as you do. And it's only a bandaid to build a sales culture that doesn't understand how to excel at outbound. It might make sense to work with an agency if: ✅ You know outbound works, but need help scaling it ✅ You've mastered messaging and value drivers ✅ Your AEs know how to close outbound deals ~~~ Agree or disagree? #sales

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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."

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