Tracyann Mains

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  

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I am going to take the other side. In my experience, metrics that people are judged by drive behavior. I understand why retention dollars is an important CCO metric, but any flavor of sales metrics into a CCO role impacts their behavior and that of their staff. I have always believed that the CCO and their organization is meant to be the advocate and the voice of the customer. The moment that the CCO and their organization's comp/performance is driven by selling to the customer, their intentions come into question. I still believe there is immeasurable value in being able to tell the customer, truthfully, that no one's compensation in the CCO's organization, including the CCO, is driven by selling them anything. The moment you put the CCO under a CRO, unless you structure their role, performance, and compensation under the CRO as net retention only, you lose legitimacy. I think that there is value in having positive friction between the customer and sales groups at any company. There needs to be an ongoing push/pull between them to ensure that the customer is getting the value that they deserve. Customer advocacy needs to continue. Retention should be the driver, not revenue expansion, for the CCO and their organization.

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When I was at Salesforce, they doubled spend on new customers in the first 12 months. New customer acquisition is so tough right now. Nothing is more critical than retaining and growing existing customers. Here are some of the plays I learned at Salesforce: 1. Product Whitespace - Run a report for each Account Mgr - Show products purchased by account - Show products not purchased by account - Account Mgr can now call down accordingly 2. Stakeholder Whitespace - Run a report for each Account Mgr - Show key stakeholder roles by account - Show who we’ve contacted and who not - Show who we’ve met and who we haven’t - Account Mgr can now call down accordingly 3. Monitor Customer Health - Create a Customer Health Score - Scoring their usage of the product - Integrate this score into Salesforce - Run a report showing unhealthy accounts - AM can then call down on these accounts - And work to get them healthy before upselling 4. Find Expansion Signals in Product - Look for potential expansion signals - Example: CS Cases => Premiere Support - Example: Lots of data => Extra Data Storage - Example: Lots of emails => Sell marketing tools - Create reports AM can use to call down accounts 5. Leverage Renewal Event - Meet every single CFO ahead of Renewal - Ask if them they would like “Optimal Pricing” - Very few of them will say they want to pay extra - Ask to review their spending across the company - Get sponsorship to talk to other key stakeholders - Sell bigger package at renewal w/ bigger discounts These are just a handful of plays that worked for me. What would you add? 🤔 More on expansion here: https://bit.ly/4ad3iHy ✌️

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Simple analogy: fly fishing is like #customersuccess and sales. Fly fishing requires patience, strategy, and preparation. So does driving meaningful customer outcomes. Patience: fishing and customer outcomes both take time. Rushing rarely delivers desired results. It’s about understanding the waters you’re in and finding the right moment to engage. Targeting: casting aimlessly doesn’t work. In fly fishing, you study the water, shadows, and movement of fish. In Customer Success, it’s about identifying the right opportunities to add value, focusing efforts where they will make the biggest impact. Fly selection: fish are picky, and their preferences change multiple times each day, let alone each season. You’ll have little success if you cast a bunch of random flies. Customers don’t want every fly in your box. They want what they need. Plan your approach through insights, engagement strategies, or customized solutions to find exactly what that is. Having the right tools: from the appropriate rod and reel to well-tied flies, the right tools make all the difference. In Customer Success, the tools might be CRM platforms, data analytics, or streamlined processes, but their role is the same: enabling you to execute effectively and deliver results. Managing Competition: A crowded river can mean fewer bites. Fish become wary when there’s too much traffic. Similarly, when customers are overwhelmed by competing voices or being over-contacted, they can disengage. It’s critical to find the balance: respecting their space, offering value when it’s needed and ensuring your approach stands out for its thoughtfulness and relevance. Fly fishing teaches us that success isn’t random, it’s the outcome of thoughtful preparation, targeted action, and consistent execution. Whether on the river or in the professional landscape, the principles are the same: patience, precision, and the right tools lead to meaningful outcomes.

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Here's what elite sales enablement teams do in their reps' first 30 days. Taylor Jurgens VP of Enablement at Ushur, helped build Auth0's enablement from scratch and scaled it through Okta acquisition. Under his enablement program, 90% of reps hit quota every year. His rules: ✅ First 30 days = PURE enablement ❌ No Salesforce dive in ❌ No account assignments ❌ No distractions What did they do? 🥊 Mostly role plays! ONE focus: Mastering discovery. 📖 Inside this deck you'll discover: how Auth0 achieved ✅ Reps fully ramped in 60 days ✅ First deals closed in 6 weeks ✅ 90% of reps hit quota every year ✅ Sub-90 day sales cycles ✅ 4% sales team turnover

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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 ✌️

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Speed to lead might sound simple, but the architecture behind it is anything but. ZoomInfo's demo routing is powered by Zoominfo Enrich, which we used to create a system of models and workflows for SDRs to connect prospects with closers (AEs). As always, our goal is to optimize outcomes while maintaining equitability for reps. Let's break it down: ⚖️ Balancing Model: Designed within Salesforce, this system prioritizes demo allocation by evaluating the number of eligible events over their event quota over a rolling period to ensure a fair distribution of leads among AE cohorts. 📏 5 Tier Prospect Scoring Model: Dynamically assesses and assigns prospects to a tier based on channel, segment, win rate model, and title department rating collected and enriched at the time a prospect fills out a form via ZI form complete.. 🏆 Win Rate Model: Leveraging ZI enriched data points, this model refines demo allocation by categorizing prospects and accounts into win rate cohorts based on thousands of ZoomInfo’s industry-specific and title data points, such as # of sales employees and recent funding activity all help pinpoint the best meeting. ✅ AE Tiering Eligibility: Based on segment and ACV quota, AEs are eligible from anywhere from 1 to 4 tiers of demos. The demo router matches eligible AEs to a prospect tier to determine whether or not an AE is best suited for this particular meeting. 🗓️ Availability Integration: Through direct integration with Google Free/Busy API, we prioritize speed to lead by matching AE availability with the time the SDR coordinated with the prospect. This way we can book more same-day and next day meetings. The magic is that an SDR simply has to hit a button to initiate this process and schedule a meeting, making the handoff and tracking practically seamless We're continuously refining our model to adapt to nuances like PTO, market changes, and shifting demands to keep our leads flowing as quickly and smoothly as possible. See what Steven Bryerton, our SVP of New Sales has to say about Speed to Lead 👉 https://lnkd.in/gSQ5JyrD 

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RevOps leaders are building their tech stacks around tools they are confident can scale alongside their growing teams (and complexities). Today QuotaPath has released a series of features that position us as the most adaptable commission software for high growth teams with complex compensation problems. I use QuotaPath constantly (a fun perk of the job), and we are constantly listening to our customers and evolving QuotaPath to address their biggest pain points. Features like a first-of-its-kind Mapping Manager that allows users to build data logic once in a template, save it, and re-use it anytime they need to add a new comp plan and connect to its data source. (A massive time saver.) Our Manager Plans and Dynamic Team Assignments are designed to seamlessly support the shifts that occur when reps transition between teams. These features ensure that your compensation plans stay aligned with your evolving team structure. And a new multi-level approval process promises that by the time Finance gives its final sign-off on commission earnings, reps and sales leadership have already seen and approved their earnings, streamlining the payout process while giving reps more ownership over their commissions. Congrats to our team and thank to every customer who has contributed to QuotaPath’s evolution. 

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Salesforce revised its pipeline coverage ratio to 3x, shedding light on the math keeping execs up at night. How can 1 ratio blow up your entire GTM model? It's not rocket science. It's just math. Particularly, pipeline generation math. Salesforce went from 2x to 3x. You might be going from 3x to 4x, or even 4x to 5x. What does this mean? Assumptions about pipeline coverage are falling like dominos and leaving GTM orgs with a massive hole in their forecasts. When this happens, the math gets really bad, really fast. Picture this: you're a best in class GTM org like Salesforce and you've just updated your pipe coverage ratio from 2x to 3x. Needing 50% more pipeline is painful enough. But the punishment doesn't stop there. Pipeline generated by your sellers is also down. Buyers are reluctant to champion products, and budgets are tight. This leads to longer sales cycles, more discounting, and plummeting deal sizes. Across the board, reps are producing less pipeline. Ranges vary by category, but let's assume pipeline creation is down 25% for illustrative purposes. (We're going to keep the math simple, because specifics will vary by company). On a $100M new business goal, you'd previously need $200M in pipeline. At $1M in pipeline per AE, you could bring it in with a team of 200. Now you need $300M of pipeline to close that same $100M in revenue. AEs are creating $750k instead of $1M, so that same team of 200 is bringing in $150M in pipeline, only half what you need for the year. Draw out the math and you suddenly need 200 additional (fully ramped!) sellers to deliver the same $100M in revenue. That's DOUBLE the headcount. Your CEO and CFO's heads are spinning, because this wreaks absolute havoc on a company's operating model. But that's a post for another time. You can tweak the assumptions if you'd like, but it's terrifying any way you look at it. No amount of passion, skill, or dedication can overcome math. You can't escape math. The bad news? This doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. The good news? Recent advances in AI can change some of the assumptions around the people, process, and technology equation required to generate new pipeline. In the old world, the only answer would be to double headcount. In the new world, there are ways to drive enormous leverage into the equation. Scaling with people doesn't have to be the answer, you can scale people with AI like no time in history. Which means the cavalry could be on the way...

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Part 1: a RevOps board prep journey supporting their sales team 👇🏻 ✅ Does sales love their RevOps team? Obviously. ✅ oh you pulled this from the CRM? Well that’s obviously wrong. ✅ this data looks horrible. Let’s make some things up so this looks better. ✅ sweet t-shirt What else have y’all experienced during board prep or quarterly business reviews? PS - marketing team, I’m coming for you next 😉 #crm #revops #revenueoperations #salesops #salesoperations #sops

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Every sales leader I know has a goal to "be more data driven." Those same sales leaders work constantly in ungoverned, stale spreadsheets and manual edits. Why do they do this? 1. Salesforce is never 100% up to date or accurate 2. Leaders have their own context to add 3. Aggregate views for forecasting require more tempering than a deal by deal roll up Sigma saves our sales leadership team tens of hours per week in forecasting alone. See how my boss Mike Gerardi had a hand in building our process here:

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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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The same page… AEs, SDRs, CSMs & renewal managers How are you tracking to your goal achievements 🎯? Some mid-year reminders for the team. - Re-align to find out what has changed in your shared account(s) - Stay connected on a regular cadence - Build report and trust - you want to rely on each other - Meet in person if possible - see previous bullet - Enable tough feedback sessions - so important - Share current customer status and revisit top priorities - Strive for a unified front & strategy - Known when to engage leadership - target this as a step - Share your success metrics, KPIs, and percent to goal Success is a #team sport Have a great day!

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Mega dealers vs the rest I’ve spent the best part of the last decade working in hyper growth SaaS (Salesforce & ServiceNow) In that time I’ve worked with & led some incredible sellers, and studied them Here’s what sets the true big deal giants (high 7 and 8 figure ACV deals) apart: 1) Belief They believe almost fanatically in their pursuit and ability to help their customer fix big problems They inherently also understand that they must focus. This is important as it shows 2) It’s on them - they take FULL responsibility They show up, and understand that the buck stops with them No excuses 3) They go together, not alone. They understand that an unfair share of resource on their customer will lead to oversized reward As such they recruit people (at all levels) to their cause Lead without authority And orchestrate for success Whether the markets good, or bad these people deliver time & time again Right now I think there’s a lot to learn in this!

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Live demo days - have seen a lot of these pop up lately, and just gotta say...I don't get it and have no plans to do this at RevOps Co-op. Here's why 👇🏻 1️⃣ Misleading value prop for attendees Watch demos without jumping into a sales cycle. That's the pitch with these live demo days. But when you sign up, your information gets shared with the companies showcasing their products. So you then get dropped into a sales sequence. Which is no different than if you booked a live demo yourself. And this will happen multiple times, With every company that participates in the live demo day, So the outcome is actually the complete opposite of what was pitched, Because instead of not getting put into any sales cycle, You get dropped into multiple. 2️⃣ Misleading value prop for participating companies Get in front of 300 people, convert just 1% of them and that's 3 new customers. Easy to calculate ROI, right? Wrong. The buying journey isn't linear, And the decision to buy is never based on one, single event...like a live demo day. It's based on a series of things like 👇🏻 Research the prospect has done. LinkedIn posts the prospect has seen. Questions they've asked in communities like RevOps Co-op. Free trials they've taken advantage of. Even watching un-gated recorded product demos. So while I get the appeal of the "easy ROI math", The truth is there are no shortcuts, and this is no different. Here's the kicker though 👇🏻 As a company, you should absolutely 100% be participating in these live demo days, But approach them differently and focus on educating the market on your product, Which should tie to all of the other initiatives and campaigns you do. Because collectively, that's how you generate pipeline. Let me be clear - I've got nothing against companies doing these live demo days. And like I've said above, if you're a software company you should be participating in these. But I've been asked multiple times why we aren't doing them at RevOps Co-op, and that's why. Shields up. 🛡️ Happy Thursday y'all ✌🏻 #revops #revenueoperations #salesops #salesoperations #marketingops #marketingoperations #mops #sops #cxops #csops #gtmops #alltheops

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SaaS leaders tell me the same thing: "We need more leads, but good ones." That's where WMAmerica comes in. We don't do fluff. We do results. When I joined, my mission was simple: help SaaS companies grow fast. Not just any leads, but the right ones. Take one client: They had product-market fit but zero lead flow. In 3 months, we: 1. Boosted qualified leads by 60% 2. Closed 5 new major clients 3. Got them scaling like never before Another founder? Sick of bad leads. We stepped up and: 1. Booked 30+ meetings with perfect prospects in a quarter 2. Grew their revenue by 40% Lead gen is tough, but with the right partner, it's a game-changer. Ready to see results? Let's talk.

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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

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There are three types of sales process design concepts: 1/ Pipeline Stage Focus: This approach uses pipeline stages to gauge deal status. You'd be amazed at how many sales organizations still use Salesforce's default pipeline stages for this purpose. 2/ Milestone Focus: This approach defines stage-specific exit criteria as milestones that must be met to move from one stage to the next. In the context of assessing a deal's forecasting status, the milestone focus is certainly better than the pipeline stage approach. However, the problem arises when you turn the milestones into stages, often leading to more than ten stages. The best practice is to make the exit criteria focused on buyer behavior. These sales process design types are solely used for inspecting pipeline and forecast status which is why they are of little use to salespeople, and why "sales process" is a 4-letter word to them. There's a better approach: 3/ Deal Coaching Focus: This approach remains true to the cause of helping gauge deal status but flips the script by making the primary purpose providing guidance on how to advance a deal based on proven deal-winning attributes and (rep and buyer) behaviors. In the context of a complex sale, especially an enterprise sale, this is the recommended approach. It takes a page out of “The Checklist Manifesto”, which suggests that even experts need checklists and that one missed step can lead to failure. It requires a level of granularity that leaves nothing to chance. More importantly, it provides reps with a detailed blueprint for stage-specific success criteria.

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Ashi from Gong is fast (😮‍💨10k) But not as fast as Gong Engage users when they use Lavender. Access to your Gong calls in our personalization assistant ✅ Access to our coach & "Ashi fast" personalization in Gong ✅ Better 🤝 Faster 3.0 (and so much more) coming soon

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