SaaStr

JANUARY 9, 2024

The other day I interviewed yet another other great AE who had recently become a Director of Sales. We used to do it this way. But as everything got bigger, rounds got bigger, and everyone grew faster, we sort of let it go. But as everything got bigger, rounds got bigger, and everyone grew faster, we sort of let it go.

Campaign 95

Campaign Up-sell Start-ups Sell 95

Veloxy

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

Open ended sales questions are a crucial aspect of the sales process. This leads to higher levels of trust and rapport, and ultimately more closed deals. This leads to higher levels of trust and rapport, and ultimately more closed deals. What are open ended sales questions? What are open ended sales questions?

Objectives and Key Results 246

Objectives and Key Results Sales Objection handling Follow-up 246

Gong.io

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

We analyze sales conversations and deals using the Gong Reality Platform’s proprietary AI, then share the results to help you win more deals. In fact, Gartner finds nearly 3 out of 4 buyers say they would prefer to make a purchase without ever engaging with a sales rep. Subscribe here to read upcoming research. Understandably so.

Closing 121

Closing Price Finance Negotiate 121

Sales Hacker

MARCH 12, 2024

Bob Moore is Co-Founder and CEO of Crossbeam, an Ecosystem-Led Growth (ELG) platform that helps companies use their partner ecosystems to generate leads, close deals, and grow faster. 23:10) Diving into ecosystem-led growth (ELG). (24:14) 23:10) Diving into ecosystem-led growth (ELG). (24:14) The story of a $2.6

GTM 97

GTM Growth Strategic partnership Pipeline 97

Martech

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Understanding and leveraging customer profitability Every company has a finite number of target customers who hear their value proposition better, need it faster, will pay more money for it and will stay longer. This is the most elemental concept of successful marketing.

Customers 118

Customers Construction B2B Cross-sell 118

Salesforce

DECEMBER 19, 2023

In the enterprise world, generative AI has shaken up fields from marketing and sales to service and ecommerce. 11 Time-Saving GPT Prompts for Sales Crafting a good GPT prompt can be deceptively simple, but getting it just right requires nuance that can deliver a big productivity win, especially in sales. There were a lot.

Objection handling 115

Objection handling Customer Relationship Management Negotiate CRM 115

SaaStr

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Catch up on part one here , where he deep dives into what he really thinks about AI, Sales and lead Gen for SaaS in 2024. Q: When Should A Slow Growth Company Hire a Head of Sales? They have one salesperson but want to skip having two scaled reps and immediately hire the VP of Sales. Should a VP of Sales hold a quota?

Strategize 93

Strategize Growth Niche Quota 93

Salesforce

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

About 69% of sales professionals say selling is more difficult now than in previous years, according to Salesforce’s State of Sales report. To keep your sales team motivated when things are tough, you need to reward them for their victories. That’s where sales commission comes into play. The pressure is on.

Commission 104

Commission Territory Quota Drivers/motivators 104

Veloxy

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Measuring the right sales productivity metrics is crucial for any sales team looking to boost its performance. We’ll explore how these metrics can sharpen your sales strategy and improve efficiency. We’ll explore how these metrics can sharpen your sales strategy and improve efficiency.

Product 130

Product Quota Objectives and Key Results CRM 130

The 5% Institute

MARCH 28, 2022

Are you looking for a proven sales playbook to use for consistent, repeatable sales? In this article, we’ll detail the 10 step sales playbook that works perfectly for Sales Professionals and Business Owners in service based and consultative industries. The Benefits Of Using A Sales Playbook.

Technique 144

Technique Sales Clients Consult 144

Salesforce

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

Sales great Zig Ziglar once wrote, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” ” That’s the struggle of every team without clear sales targets: no clarity, no progress, no growth. See how it works What are sales targets? Why are sales targets important? But will they?

Quota 116

Quota Territory Pipeline Sales 116

SaaStr

JULY 26, 2021

Q: Dear SaaStr: Should a Startup Founder Handle Sales Themself When First Getting Started? The “best” sequence for building a repeatable sales engine is roughly: The CEO/founder should close at least the first 10 (or 20 or whatever) customers. That way, she knows. To go bigger, stronger, faster. Not just 1.

A/B testing 106

A/B testing Quota Engineering Sales 106

SaaStr

DECEMBER 25, 2021

There’s a meme, a CommonThink, among certain segments that Outbound Sales is Bad, or at least, a Little Unseemly. Inside sales is terrific. And yet … The reality is, by revenue, this isn’t the way the majority of the world buys enterprise software. If you have leads, smother them with sales and success love.

Commission 113

Commission Inside sales Sales Gaming 113

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Few things will frustrate you more in the early days than long sales cycles on bigger deals. You’ll feel like you just don’t have the time for a 6, 9 or even 12 month sales cycle when you’re struggling just to put the first few points on the board. You cannot force 9 month sales cycles into 9 days.

Commission 137

Commission Sales Price Pipeline 137

SaaStr

AUGUST 28, 2020

I know we’ve hit a number of these points individually before on SaaStr, but after getting asked about the top mistakes hiring your first sales team so many times over the years, I thought it would be worthwhile to assemble a Top 10 List. Make fewer of them and you’ll scale faster with less stress. Here’s my Top 10 list: #1.

Quota 129

Quota Price Sales Up-sell 129

SaaStr

MARCH 11, 2022

As per current trajectory – high likelihood of H2 acceleration in ecommerce sales. H1 growth looks like 8-10% y/y H2 could be 12-15% y/y. The argument here is multiples have fallen too far, since the best SaaS and Cloud companies are growing so, so much faster than in 2018 and 2019. HubSpot is growing far faster at $1.5B

E-commerce 103

E-commerce Price Growth Closing 103

The 5% Institute

AUGUST 5, 2021

In this article, we’ll detail the 10 step sales process / selling process that works perfectly for Sales Professionals and Business Owners in service based and consultative industries. Learning, implementing and following a sales process is one of the most important things you can learn in sales.

Process 145

Process Sales Technique Clients 145

SaaStr

DECEMBER 3, 2023

E.g.,: CAC of < 12 months is Good-to-Great Paying sales reps 25%-30% of what they close is Good A burn ratio of 1 or less is Good These metrics do sort of work, if you have some capital to spend (i.e., Or it ends up all gone, faster than anyone planned. can invest in marketing that takes a little while to pay off).

Non-Profits 79

Non-Profits B2C B2B Start-ups 79

Salesforce

JANUARY 3, 2024

Early in my career, I worked for a company that encouraged its salespeople to push for an immediate close, and it was soul-sucking. I’m grateful to have found a better way to sell — one that builds mutually beneficial long-term relationships. As a sales professional, you don’t have to coerce or pressure.

Pitch 109

Pitch Sales Prospecting Clients 109

SaaStr

MAY 14, 2021

No matter how well you are doing post-Initial Traction in SaaS … you can almost always do at least 10-15% better. So it’s hard to dig even deeper inside yourself to get that last 10-15% of additional, much-harder-to-achieve revenue out of the ether. And find a way to fund it. Pretty much almost always.

Quota 108

Quota Growth Engineering Closing 108

Gong.io

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

What rules your sales team – order or chaos? Do your reps follow a consistent and repeatable process that makes it easy to predict quarterly sales? Some of the best sales teams start that way. Some of the best sales teams start that way. It can be easily done by building a simple and repeatable sales cycle.

Objectives and Key Results 118

Objectives and Key Results Cold Call Pitch Sales 118

SaaStr

JULY 17, 2023

There’s the classic rule that only about 10% of prospects are truly in-market at any given time, and that’s about right in my experience. Sometimes, checking back in next quarter or later really is the best way to go. If you do the work for them, you’d be surprised how much faster some deals can kick off. They should.

Contract 78

Contract Pitch Gaming Start-ups 78

Heinz Marketing

FEBRUARY 17, 2022

Amongst this dilemma, attribution, lead scoring models, click-through rates, MQLs are often some areas of controversy and friction between sales and marketing teams. In B2B, buying decisions are made by 3 to 5, and sometimes 10 or more people within an organization. MQLs are often a cause of friction between sales and marketing teams.

Pipeline 116

Pipeline Cross-sell Click Through Rate Territory 116

SaaStr

DECEMBER 9, 2022

Almost everyone in sales is going to have to work harder next year. CIOs and SMBs went on a huge “digital transformation” spend wave in 2021 and into early 2022 that was, in many ways, a one-time reaction to how the world changed post-Covid. And it’s faster than Mongo was growing at $700m ARR. Probably none.

Growth 105

Growth Up-sell Start-ups Price 105

Salesforce

JANUARY 2, 2024

With AI infiltrating nearly every aspect of our lives in 2023, sales leaders saw huge industry transformations — automation, data analysis, and enhanced productivity for starters. Many AI adopters saw conversion rates and sales productivity improve by 10-30%. Here’s what sales leaders should keep an eye on.

Sales 69

Sales Cold Call Technique B2C 69

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 5, 2023

Exit 10+ Actionable Things You Can Do To Scale Faster In The Early Days Are We Back to a 6x World? SaaStr 697: What SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin Really Thinks About AI, Sales & Lead Gen In 2024   2. SaaStr 697: What SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin Really Thinks About AI, Sales & Lead Gen In 2024   2.

GTM 60

GTM Pitch Growth Go To Market 60

SaaStr

JULY 19, 2023

How many qualified opps are there per sales rep? Step Two: Diagnose the Bottleneck to Closing More Revenue When your company doesn’t hit target revenue, it can be tempting to zero in on conversion rates. For example, consider how different an enterprise sales cycle looks compared to a small business sales cycle.

GTM 80

GTM Growth Referrals Quota 80

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2022

I’d roughly say 20% are growing even faster than earlier in the year, 20% are having a tough time, and 60% are somewhere in the middle. In sales in particular, I usually see even more bifurcated performance in tougher times. In tough times: I often see the worst reps stop closing at all. Even, sometimes, a Year of Hell.

Follow-up 81

Follow-up Growth Closing Start-ups 81

SaaStr

DECEMBER 29, 2022

So with that … here are Your Top 10 New Year’s SaaS Resolutions for 2023: #1. The best way to get out of a hole is to hire a great VP. A great VP of Sales. So we have a classic set of New Years’ Resolution in SaaS that we update every year. But 2023 is so … unique. Go Hire That Missing VP! Of Marketing. Of Product.

E-commerce 89

E-commerce Healthcare Launch Promote 89

Salesforce

JANUARY 2, 2024

With AI infiltrating nearly every aspect of our lives in 2023, sales leaders saw huge industry transformations — automation, data analysis, and enhanced productivity for starters. Many AI adopters saw conversion rates and sales productivity improve by 10-30%. Here’s what sales leaders should keep an eye on.

Sales 64

Sales Cold Call Technique B2C 64

Women Sales Pros

MAY 3, 2019

One of my personal resolutions was to post a new article to our blog every week to keep you current on what we’re finding is working in sales and marketing. One of my personal resolutions was to post a new article to our blog every week to keep you current on what we’re finding is working in sales and marketing. So do you give up?

Referrals 130

Referrals Appointment Quota Pipeline 130

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

SaaStr Founder and CEO Jason Lemkin shares the 10 worst pieces of SaaS advice, excuses, and mistakes founders make, and what to do instead. #1 You can’t always expect a great VP of Sales to double sales in 30-60-90 days. But you have to see progress in one sales cycle. The best VPs of Sales hit the ground running.

GTM 69

GTM Engineering Closing Start-ups 69

Salesforce

JUNE 14, 2023

Let’s face it: Hard sells and flashy demos can be effective ways to close. Today’s buyers come to the sales process more informed than ever, looking for in-depth information specific to their needs. Shifting your focus to offering value and solutions is the way forward. But not always. The next step?

Gaming 95

Gaming Cross-sell Referrals CRM 95

The 5% Institute

AUGUST 16, 2021

In this article, we’ll detail exactly how to ace your sales call, by following our proven and effective sales process. Learning, implementing and following a sales process is one of the most important things you can learn in sales. The Benefits Of Using A Process In Your Sales Calls. 2 – Building Rapport.

Technique 145

Technique Clients Consult Sales 145

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2023

Jameson Yung, SVP of Sales at Gong, and Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund and previous CRO at Brex, share five tactical ways to get back to growing and hitting revenue targets. Create/ track a leaderboard so i f someone is below average in sales, it’s objective. Working hard is also embedded in the culture.

Objectives and Key Results 78

Objectives and Key Results Referrals Pipeline Campaign 78

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

The Challenges and Pitfalls of a Partner Ecosystem Drata attributes much of its success to its partner ecosystem, which is an interesting case study for most, so how do they break up marketing, sales, and resource allocation vs. a more direct-sales modeled business? The sales reps were friends, and accounts were shared.

Cross-sell 80

Cross-sell Strategize Campaign Education 80

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2020

But to be a great CEO, you need to find a way to force yourself to be a great recruiter. Find a way. Getting a great candidate is more than worth 10%, 15%, 20% of first year salary. It’s way too many meetings, way too many candidates, to have individual VPs and employees manage these processes themselves.

Networking 144

Networking Clients Closing Start-ups 144