Steve Reid

The transition from founder led sales -> a repeatable GTM motion is hard... Extremely hard. There are so many things to consider to mitigate risk and get as many repetitions on closed loop feedback as quickly as possible. -> what profile of a rep should I hire -> how to assess the right talent -> SDR or AE or growth hacker type or both -> what channels should we be testing -> what does good look like? What does great look like? -> how do I know if we’re making progress? And so much more… We’re discussing all this live next Tuesday at Kiln. If you’re in Utah, come check it out: https://lnkd.in/eQ9dyJK4

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Utah has produced some of the top SMB / MM sales teams: Podium Route Divvy Canopy Lucid Pluralsight Brex Pinterest BambooHR and so many more here... Why? ⛪️ A huge percentage of saas sales reps start their sales career knocking doors. Selling Jesus. Nothing harder than that. Slam the door in your face? Go to the next smiling ear to ear. Oh, and do it for 2 years in a foreign country at 19 years old. Oh, and you pay for it yourself. Yes, I'll be making 'Utah, Selling Jesus & Saas' shirts soon. 🚪A HUGE percentage of these then go on to sell door-to-door with solar, pest, alarm, or whatever else you can sell door-to-door. It's what they are good at and know. 💵 Many then realize it's unrealistic to be 23, married and have their second kid on the way and still be making >$180k a year knocking doors only during the summer. So, the fastest path to $180k+ a year is selling saas. ⤴ The path to selling large enterprise is a journey and many fall out during the journey. So, sales teams naturally have a huge influx of SMB / MM talent that is top notch here to pull from 🎯 We're small. The community is still small and has the feel of 'everyone knows everyone'. This means your recruiting efforts have compounding effects. If you can steal a rep from company X, they likely went to school with, roomed with or worked with 3 others that want to follow them Regardless, I'm a believer. Selling to SMBs / MMs. No better place to build it than Utah. Shoot me a note, I'll tell you which companies to pick from. 😇

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Public SaaS sales efficiency metrics continued to UNINSPIRE in Q1 Our focal point as always: How much Sales & Marketing dollars are spent to acquire $1 of Net New ARR This figure has exploded from ~$1.50 two years ago… to ~$2.30 last year. As for Q1?  More of the same!  Barely moved.. (The chart also shows the same metric removing Stock-Based Compensation from S&M – a better benchmark for privates, since SBC is ~0 for them.) Stay tuned for more Q1 benchmarks and a tally of winners and losers. #SaaS #Metrics #Benchmarks #GTM

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How much retention would go up? If... - The Customer Success org starts with Solutions - There's a Chief Solutions Officer on the board - AEs consult with SEs on all ongoing deals - Customers talk 80% in conversations - Focus is on adoption, not renewals I'm guessing by A LOT. That's the GTM SaaS world I envision. P.S: True customer adoption nearly guarantees renewals. #presalesevolution #customersuccess #saas

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Revenue pros need to get ahead of the renewal conversation. Don’t take your renewals for granted. Instead: (1) Understand what’s going on with the business. Where are they winning and where are they struggling? (2) Demonstrate the impact you’ve had on their business. Make the case for renewal plain and simple. (3) Bring a point of view to the renewal conversation. This may mean restructuring to find an agreement that works for everyone. How are you getting ahead of renewals?

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The path to $10MM ARR is about finding your repeatable, scalable sales motion. The formula is simple, but not easy. It looks like this: Effort + Enthusiasm + Messaging + Lead Quality = Results When you are scaling a sales team, your job is to manage the inputs. Those are the things on the left side of this equation. If you can reduce the variability of the inputs, you will have more consistent results. Put another way. Consistent inputs leads to consistent outputs. Let's break it down... 1. Effort is the driver for your sales performance. You cannot scale without consistent effort. Effort includes the velocity of sales activity (phone calls, emails, meetings, etc.). Effort also includes the way that you execute your sales activity. This is your sales process and sales playbook. You can improve the quality of your effort with learning and development. 2. Enthusiasm is an amplifier for your effort. You have to act like you want to earn the business. A little enthusiasm goes a long way in closing more business. I've found that you can't teach enthusiasm. You must hire for it. 3. Messaging is how you get prospects to believe what you believe. Your messaging is your value prop. It's how you approach your ICP. It's the way that you convince customers that their current version of the world is no longer acceptable and they must make a chance. The best messaging illustrates the consequences of inaction. 4. Lead quality drives your conversion rate You have to stay focused on your ICP. The more variable your lead quality, the more inconsistent your sales results. The best effort, enthusiasm, and messaging are helpless if you are focused on the wrong accounts. This is the formula for predictable, repeatable, scalable sales. Manage the consistency of your inputs and you will have consistent outputs. What about you? What's your formula for repeatable results?

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#Sales and #CustomerSuccess aren’t just deal-makers... They’re relationship-builders. But often, they’re chasing different goals, which leaves real revenue potential untapped. What happens when both teams are actually in sync? 🤝 In this episode: Daisy Chung from Orum 🥇 and I discuss how Sales and CS can align their strategies to: a. Drive #SustainableGrowth. b. Foster long-term partnerships. c. Eliminate the finger-pointing when times get tough.

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At ZoomInfo, we don’t settle for fool’s gold. Or bad data. And you shouldn’t either. With ZoomInfo Copilot, unrivaled buyer data and signals, tailored engagement recommendations, and AI-powered personalized outreach mean you’ll strike gold every time. 💰 Fueled by ZoomInfo’s best-in-class B2B data, ZoomInfo Copilot has the power to turn every seller into your best seller. DM me to learn more or visit our landing page 👉 https://lnkd.in/gJbMg4WZ #ZoomInfoCopilot 

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The singer Jessie J may have said “It's not about the money, money, money,” but sometimes it is… I’d argue that one of the biggest factors that impacts #CustomerSuccess and retention in SaaS companies is the sales comp plan. And there is no easy answer. Every sales coverage model and comp plan has pros and cons, with respect to churn and growth: 💡 TCV Comp: The “old school” model from on-premise software and hardware is to compensate salespeople on “total contract value,” regardless as to whether the bookings was new or a renewal. The upside of this model is salespeople have a big incentive to make sure clients renew. The downside is reps can make their quota on existing customer retention and growth can suffer. 💡 No Renewal Comp: If Account Executives make money only on new bookings, they can focus on growth. However, if a CSM needs help from a rep for a “resale,” the salesperson has no incentive to help. 💡 Partial Renewal Comp: Some companies give AEs a small amount of comp for renewals (e.g., 20% of on-target earnings come from renewals). On one hand, this is good because it gives reps “skin in the game” on renewals. On the other hand, the 20% dilutes rep commission on new bookings. In addition, the 20% may not be enough to incentivize action. 💡 Net ARR Comp: I’ve met a few larger organizations that pay a rep on the “net growth” in their territory. This means they give a rep a starting Annual Recurring Revenue base for a territory and then pay them on net growth of the base. For example, if the rep has 10 accounts totaling $10M of ARR, then they get paid only on growth ABOVE $10M ARR. This ensures the rep stays close to customers. But it definitely penalizes a salesperson for a big churn that may have been out of their control. 💡 Activation-Based Comp: Some companies try to walk the line by paying reps once clients are activated / onboarded. This ensures salespeople don’t (unintentionally) sell “bad deals” and do use their relationships to assure deployment. On the flip side, this approach can create tension between Sales and CS. What sales comp models have you tried and how do they affect renewals? There is no perfect answer. Every approach comes with a “Price Tag.” See what I did there?

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Sequence is absolutely *crushing* its GTM content engine. Worth checking out their most recent report "Sequence Principles" detailing tactical revenue lessons from 100+ B2B companies. Some highlights: 1. Clear ICP messaging (B2B sales leadership) 2. Easy scrolling/skimming ability across sections 3. Real-time founder testimonials (like Sasha Orloff) 4. Highly tactical advice (i.e. packaging, bundling, metrics) 5. Simple design without overwhelming folks w/ dense content Highly recommend taking a look - big s/o to the Sequence team ⚡

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Ultimately, the job of any SDR is driving pipeline coverage. It not only ensures you meet your targets but also creates predictability in your sales process. And that’s what we do at Salesforge 🔥 and with Agent Frank. AI can help you drive coverage even when you’re asleep, on holiday or simply busy with other tasks. Give it a try: https://vist.ly/3mkqqjv

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“What do they do again?” is the kiss of death! “What do they do again?” is intellectually lazy! “What do they do again?” screams I didn't care enough to spend an ounce of time looking them up! “What do they do again?” is disrespectful to relationships who believe in you, recommend you, or advocate on your behalf. Read this post and then watch the podcast interview by Jason M. Lemkin and commit to yourself to never stop growing, learning, or losing your edge. https://lnkd.in/exuuntYg? #GreatSalesLeaders #LeadersWhoWantToSell #SaaStr #NeverStopGrowing

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Top H1 takeaway from QBR's about our Rev Org: "We're an ecosystem, not a hierarchy." (h/t Alexandra B.) We collaborate, everyone's voice matters, and we strive to put people in roles they love so they can be madly successful. Hearing this statement was validation that what we are building in the Revenue Org at LibraryPass is unique, and scalable, and contagious. And we have roles coming soon! So if you're interested in being part of an ecosystem, let's chat. Here's to an even better H2!

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Do you know what a Sales Performance Improvement Plan refers to? Do you know how to craft a Sales PIP properly to boost sales results? You can find answers to these questions in the article below. The ability to detect a sales representative's performance gap is just the first step. The more important goal is how to design a sales performance improvement plan to eliminate this gap. Do you use Sales PIPs in your company? #b2bsales #salesperformance #salesleader #pip #salestips

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A bad sales comp plan will kill your sales team productivity. A good sales comp plan motivates your team to hustle through the end of each month. As we scaled the Levelset sales team to 60+ front-line sales reps, we learned a TON about how to build great comp plans. Here are my principles for good sales compensation: 1. Salespeople don’t do sales and other things well. Let the salespeople sell, don’t saddle them with additional responsibility. For example: Sales and Customer Success are separate functions. 2. The compensation structure should be so simple that you can do the math on the back of a napkin. 3. No commission-only roles. Sales reps should get base salary + variable compensation. 4. At least 40% of sales reps On-Target Earnings should be in the form of variable compensation. 5. No “draw on commission” for ramping reps. New reps should have some mix of guaranteed variable compensation during their ramp period. 6. Sales reps should be paid “straight-line” up to 100% of quota. There should be compensation accelerators above 100%. There will be no compensation hurdles or decelerators for producing below 100%. 7. Annual quota for Account Executives should be 5x On-Target Earnings. For example: $500k annual quota, $100k OTE. This keeps your cost of sales to between 20 - 25% of gross revenue. ‍ 8. Did I mention accelerators? You need to include accelerators for over-performance. This isn’t a comprehensive list of principles. But if you follow these principles, your comp plan will motivate the team to hit their number. Read the full list of principles here: https://lnkd.in/gmwXkRE9

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Hey CROs: Don't hire a "RevOps Team of One" until you really understand what you're getting into. Let me explain. Why you (should) want RevOps: - You need to build the GTM team - You need to set the vision and lead the team - To do this effectively you need a lot of operations - You need an Annual Plan, Territories, Targets, Quotas - You need goals and metrics across sales and marketing - And you need your systems integrated, working, used daily So, you hire a RevOps person to do this for you But.... - Systems updates are endless - Requests flood in all day every day - You need a technical person for this - But this is all they will have time to do - And often it is all they know how to do You've hired a Salesforce ninja and they're going to have more requests for updates to Salesforce than they have time in the week. Many of those requests will be for things that aren't important but they likely don't have the GTM expertise to prioritize the work. And even if they could, they don't have the expertise to do everything else. So, you, as the CRO, are left with.... - All the "strategic work in RevOps" - Annual Plan, Territories, Targets, Quotas - Aligning goals across Sales, Marketing, CS - Analyzing your GTM metrics on a regular basis - Planning a RevOps Roadmap and prioritizing items - Etc. Do you have time to do all of this? Is building and leading the entire GTM team a part-time job? If not, here's what you're left with: 1. You have less time to do what you're best at doing 2. Your RevOps person is doing a lot of low-priority work 3. Some of the most important work is done poorly or not at all 4. You and your "RevOps Team of One" are both exhausted What else am I missing here? 🤔

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You can't scale a sales team without this. A document that tells reps exactly how to create new opportunities, run demos, and close new customers. Call it a script, playbook, or whatever you want to call it. Your team needs one. I put off creating playbook for too long. It felt like busy-work. Empty calories. Something that you do to pretend that you are being productive. Salespeople should be selling, not documenting their processes. Similarly, sales leadership should be leading and coaching, not writing things down. Right? Wrong. The naive and inexperienced version of me thought that hiring good people was enough. I felt like if I could just get the right salespeople on my team, then they will figure out how to sell and the revenue will go up. So I ran an intense interview process and sought out the best sales talent that I could find. After failing to onboard a few hires that should have been all-star salespeople, I realized that I was the problem. Or rather, my lack of a documented sales process was the problem. New sales hires were learning on the fly, which slowed their progress and made it harder to make money. I wasn’t doing enough to show them how to be successful in their role. Then one day while I was sitting on the sales floor, I heard something that made the hair stand up on my neck. Three different sales demos happening at the same time from three different reps. Each salesperson was using a different version of our sales deck. Each salesperson had a different way of explaining who we are and what we do. Each salesperson had a different method of ending the demo and setting clear next steps. And these were three of our tenured, successful reps! How could we possibly scale a sales team with such a mix of sales execution?! I decided to make a change. I rushed back into my office and started a word document: “How to Run A Demo”. This document outlined the exact steps for running a Levelset demo, in excruciating detail. I was done assuming that salespeople would know how to do things the right way. Leave nothing to chance. If they know, they will do it well. If they don’t know, then at least I have it written down. I included things like: - how to set up your zoom so your video stream looks professional - the ideal structure for a product demo - email templates to make sure your prospect shows up to the demo - what questions to ask your prospect to kick off the demo - key objections and how to overcome them - how to use the sales deck to drive conversation - how to set clear next steps For most experienced reps, it was too detailed but it reminded them of the fundamentals of generating new business. For new reps, it was like I gave them a magical compass. It was a blueprint for success. You can do the same for your team. Start with one page. It will grow into something that you can use for every new person on your team.

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Normalizing to meet market demand isn’t the same as dying… Rightsizing to meet market demand is what happens when companies need to earn a profit vs inflate valuations. If the growth projections aren’t based in reality nothing you do based on it will be either

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SDRs, stop talking about what you sell on LinkedIn. Start talking about HOW you sell. That's how you build a brand.

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