Wolfgang Depauli’s Post

The tech paradox - 1. In SAAS, sales matters more/equal to having a good product and tech. 2. In AI compute matters most. 3. In b2c, luck, determination and extreme customer empathy operationalised matters most. The only dominant strategy for builders/engineers is ‘ACTION’. Finding work that feels like play is the only way to achieve this over a long time.

SDRs/BDRs - here are three simple yet powerful strategies to level up your sales approach. 1/ In the lively SaaS sales world, try using data to see what customers need before they even say it. when you can predict what they want, you show them that you really understand their business and can help them succeed. 2/ Tell stories when you talk to potential customers. instead of just listing features, share stories about how your product made a real difference for other companies. this makes your solution feel more real and important to them. 3/ Use technology to work smarter, not harder. automate boring tasks with AI tools so you have more time to talk to customers and understand their needs and problems. this will help you build better relationships and align with what they're aiming to achieve. What would you add? feel free to share your thoughts below.

How does an enterprise trust a young founder with a SAAS product? That is the question I have been trying to figure out alongside the team, for the past few months. Most enterprise sales that we see happening around us is driven by familiar or experienced faces. As a young team, there is barely any trust built automatically when you meet a client. Even when your product is better and perfectly suits the client's needs, there is always a barrier. Where's the 20 years of experience and the greying hair and what not? Over time, I am beginning to realise that this is a chasm that can only be crossed by repeatedly showing up, pushing the product's usage through limited-time trials and making the user addicted to the product efficiency rather than getting hooked on who is selling it. Partnerships with experienced people on revenue share models might also be an answer but scaling that is another beast in itself. All of which seems perfectly reasonable, but tremendously difficult to execute in real-time. When you start building a product, these aren't things that you readily envision. To all enterprise product users, buyers and decision makers - there are many products out there, especially with the AI wave, that can significantly improve your efficiencies, unlocking value in places where technology had not dared to tread for the longest time. Give such products a chance and please do not fixate on the age of the ones selling it. If the product works, it works.

One of my more recent connections shared this with me the other day: "Hi Peter, Looking forward to following you here. You have some great perspectives on sales. In particular, I'm very much in doubt about how to structure our future sales organizations. We're a small team and we want to stay small. Hope to see more of your content addressing this complex topic. All the best," That made me think 😀 What will be important to stay smooth as a sales organization, but still grow faster than the speed of light in future B2B SaaS? Well, a couple of things that´s on top of my head are these: ✅ AI & automation all over and keeping costs low while scaling fast. ✅ The rise of "Allbound" - Marketing is integrated with the sales team and the majority of the customers come to you, not the other way around. ✅ PLG maturing into sales-led Enterprise agreements? Yes, this can be combined if done right from the get-go l think. ✅ Partners, Eco-systems, and Integrations first. Do we even need a platform or can we work with smart API:s and prompts? ✅ Digital first, but F2F will be the decisive part to beat the competition. What else can you come up with?

Dean DeBlois is the top dog of changing how we tell stories. He is teaching us how to evolve with customers (just like his dragons did). But most folks don't know how he got there. After analyzing his 3 dragon movies, here's what I figured out. Quick facts about Dean if you don't know him: Made the awesome "How to train your dragon" movies All 3 movies were up for big awards His dragon tales made over $1.6 billion Now he's making a real-life version of his dragon story So... what can SaaS sales learn? Dean makes his stories work in new ways using 3 simple steps: 1) Know who's watching 2) Change how you show it 3) Keep what makes it special Let's look closer: For Dean, it all starts with knowing who's watching. This matters because what people like changes over time, just like his characters grew up. Here's what Dean does that SaaS can copy: Figure out what people want to see now Changes his stories to reach new audiences Mixing old stuff people love with new ideas It's simple, but it works great. Next, Dean focuses on changing how he shows his stories. He's making his cartoon into a real-life movie, just like SaaS is moving from old software to cloud services. Which brings us to… The big reason Dean is so good at changing things up is because he's really careful about: Keeping the heart of his story and characters Making it feel real but still magical Working with smart people who know movies This, plus knowing his audience and changing how he shows stories, is why he wins. SaaS can do the same by keeping core features, making software simple to use, and working with experts. So, let's go over what we learned: First, know who's buying. Remember, what they need changes. Second, learn to change how you sell. Do this by: 1) Try new ways to share your product 2) Using new tech 3) Finding new people to sell to And last, don't lose what makes your product special. Keep the good stuff. And remember to mix new ideas with what people already love.

📈 Sales should be a part of PLG ?!? I'm a big believer that the overarching notion of PLG is that users are spending more and more of their time in the product. This is especially true for SaaS and AI products. So what this means is you need to infuse your sales, your marketing, your support, your customer success into the product itself. And I believe the sales team can help with that. At Slack, we focused on understanding common sales objections and integrating solutions into the product usage process. By addressing these objections early, we could refine our messaging and improve user education. This strategic approach can significantly enhance your sales success. How do you handle sales objections? Share in the comments! 👍 #SaaS #SalesStrategy #ProductManagement #GrowthHacking #SaaSCMOPro

Most Saas companies have used BANT. You shouldn't. Here is why: 𝗕𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁 = Money flows to solving big problems for key people. 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 = Typically not 1 person that makes the decision. 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 = No solution without problem first. 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲 = Not aware of problem yet you expect a compelling event. BANT is s͟e͟l͟l͟e͟r͟ focused... Not buyer focused. It’s a matter of perspective → Budget. Authority. Need. Timeline. Instead, figure out • How you can find a problem for important executives? • Who else cares about solving the problem - and why? • Relate the problem to a specific solution. • Cost of inaction. What happens if you don't solve this in 6 months? BANT was good from a sellers point of view..... Flip your framework to them. Thursday reality check, over! _______________________________ P.S. Follow Alexander Stefansson for more sales tips and tricks.

🚀 New Blog Alert! 🚀 SaaS tech sales continues to evolve at an incredible pace, driven by advancements in AI, product-led growth, and customer-centric strategies. In my latest article, I dive deep into the key trends, best practices, and strategies that are shaping the future of SaaS sales, including: 💡 Product-led growth (PLG) success stories 💡 The importance of customer success in retention and expansion 💡 Leveraging AI for personalized outreach and sales optimization 💡 Vertical SaaS solutions that are transforming niche industries Whether you're in sales, marketing, or product development, understanding the nuances of SaaS sales is critical for scaling your business. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/ev9geGH9 💼 #SaaSSales #TechSales #PLG #CustomerSuccess #SalesStrategy #AI #VerticalSaaS #Cloud #SaaS #leadershiplessons #sales #growth #softwareasaservice Microsoft Salesforce Adobe ServiceNow Workday Shopify Zoom

🌟Spotlight on an Elite Value Seller 🌟 Last week I spoke to Katherine in the Customer Value Community. Katherine is an elite value seller for a public SaaS company. During our conversation, she shared a recent interaction with a CIO. “It's not just about listening to their words," Katherine said. “It's about hearing the emotions behind the words, the unspoken concern or hesitancy in their voice.” Katherine had detected a hint of uncertainty in the CIO’s tone when discussing implementation timelines. "He didn't explicitly say he was worried about disrupting current operations," she recalled. "But I could sense his concern about balancing innovation with stability." She skillfully guided the CIO through the #ValueValidationFramework with real-time editing of their objectives and tactics with acute focus on the proposed joint implementation roadmap. "The key is to make them feel truly heard," Katherine emphasized. As the CIO mentioned a concern, she would interactively pull up the dependencies and address it right there. Katherine said. "It wasn't about convincing them to buy our solution, but helping them feel confident that we have thought through all the implementation challenges.” Her ability to empathize, read between the lines, hear what was #not said, made the difference. In today’s value selling your best compass is empathy, and your strongest currency is trust.

The obsession with new logos in SaaS has confused me for years. YEARS. Like literally since I started consulting SaaS companies in 2011. When I looked under the hoods of SaaS businesses, I would see much bigger issues than new logos like: 1/ Customer onboarding. 2/ Customer adoption. 3/ Customer ... anything. Anything with the people who had ALREADY PAID THE MONEY!!! Despite "customer-centric" in the list of 5 values of most SaaS companies, if you talk to anyone in customer success at those companies, they likely have 2-3 times the number of customers than would be reasonable for Superman to rescue. It's ridiculous. And even from a technology perspective, many teams have cobbled together techstacks that make information transfer from sales to CS a nightmare and honestly, most sales teams are like 🤷♀️ "We did our job. Figure it out." And most CEOs when sales does that are like. 🤷♀️ Sales needs to focus on selling. And the result? I think NOW, maybe NOW, SaaS is starting to reap what its sown. Putting CS on the backburner has led to a lot of burnt out customers who, when times get tough, cancel. Maybe. Just maybe the back half of the 2020s will find a focus on the customer. For real. Instead of just pontifications of "customer-centric" - I'm optimistic that this hardship will finally force a true commitment to customer value. Thoughts? You optimistic too or am I delusional?