SaaStr

MAY 5, 2025

Dear SaaStr: Why Do Enterprise Customers Insist on Pilots? Because so many enterprise customers won’t buy from new start-ups without a pilot. Heres how: Risk Mitigation : Pilots allow customers to test your product in a controlled environment before committing to a full rollout. You can fight doing paid pilots.

Customers 90

Customers Contract Clients Trust 90

SaaStr

MAY 12, 2023

Annual Contracts Didn’t Boost NRR, And Even Multi-Year Contracts Only Had a Modest Impact on NRR. We tend to intuitively think annual contracts help combat churn, but they really don’t — they just defer it. Let customers buy the way they want to buy. #2. This data confirms that.

Contract 145

Contract Closing Customers Sales 145

SaaStr

MAY 7, 2024

Dear SaaStr: What’s a Resonable Discount for an Annual Contract? How About a 3 Year Contract? Before then, think instead about marking up the prices of non-annual contracts to account for churn. You’ll likely want non-annual contracts to be priced 20%-30% higher to account for the effect of churn, but the exact % can vary.

Contract 111

Contract Price Commission Closing 111

Salesforce

JANUARY 8, 2024

You’ve heard the adage about salespeople telling a customer “Of course we can do that!” ” to close a sale. Sales contracts are vital to completing any business transaction. This guide will teach you how to draft a bulletproof sales contract. What you’ll learn What is a sales contract?

Contract 110

Contract Process Legal Real Estate 110

SaaStr

APRIL 14, 2025

Dear SaaStr: How Do I Learn to Close Big Enterprise Deals Better? Closing high-ticket enterprise deals is a different beast compared to SMB or mid-market sales. For example, a $25k pilot can grow into a $1M+ enterprise-wide contract over time. Simplify your pricing, contracts, and approval processes. Embrace them.

Closing 61

Closing Contract Pitch Finance 61

Martech

OCTOBER 15, 2024

Understanding capability assessment and tool procurement Once marketers understand how customer data flows through various martech platforms and develop a strategic view of how these platforms work together, they can effectively evaluate the capabilities of different tools and guide companies through the right procurement process.

Contract 114

Contract Negotiate Strategize Technology 114

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 30, 2024

A related post here: The 1 Simple Test to Know if You’ve Actually Hired a Real VP of Product or Customer Success … Or Not (note: an updated SaaStr Classic post) The post The 30-Day Test: How to Know if Your VP of Sales Will Succeed appeared first on SaaStr.

Pipeline 117

Pipeline Contract Sales Growth 117

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 11, 2024

Product : Vanta Your deal is almost closed, and all that’s left is the security review. But when it comes to those lengthy security questionnaires, the endless back and forths between you, your security team, and the customer can often cause deals to stall out, leaving your deal at risk and dollars on the table.

GTM 113

GTM X-functional Pipeline Construction 113

Martech

OCTOBER 21, 2024

However, when the old agency disappeared (presumably closed), no one had access to the Google Tag Manager account. Naturally, the client was upset, having paid a significant amount upfront for developing reports, assuming any custom coding was part of the original fee.

GTM 130

GTM Contract Clients Campaign 130

Iannarino

JULY 4, 2021

Many salespeople, though, launch the sales conversation with a firm intention to secure a signed contract and an agreement to install their “solution.” The Lost Art of Closing shows you how to proactively lead your customer and close your sales. But they’re not the only threat out there. No more pushy sales tactics.

Contract 337

Contract Contact Clients Prospecting 337

Martech

JANUARY 14, 2025

Her team stopped hiding behind automation and started engaging in real customer conversations. Another cut content production in half yet doubled its effectiveness by focusing on what customers actually need. When marketing helps close eight-figure contracts, budget conversations become much easier.

Pipeline 128

Pipeline Contract Campaign Growth 128

Iannarino

JULY 19, 2021

At this point, you may or may not need to provide a presentation, but you will eventually have to provide your client with a proposal and a contract. The Lost Art of Closing shows you how to proactively lead your customer and close your sales. Get my 2nd book: The Lost Art of Closing. "In Presentation and Proposal.

Conversion 334

Conversion Clients Sales Presentation 334

SaaStr

APRIL 6, 2025

Celebrations are shifting from contract signatures to consumption metrics – Their team is evolving beyond celebrating closed deals to automated alerts for customer usage milestones, fundamentally changing what success looks like. What’s revolutionary is how they operationalize this insight.

Growth 76

Growth Territory Teamwork Cross-sell 76

Gong.io

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

Here’s what you need to know if you want to close six-figure deals: Bigger deals need more multi-threading. We analyzed 10,332 sales deals and uncovered a strong correlation between deal value and the number of buyers involved in closed-won deals: Complex deals take longer, involve more people, and require building multiple use cases. .

Closing 162

Closing Sports GTM Legal 162

SaaStr

JUNE 25, 2025

For SaaS account executives, commissions typically range from 8-10% of the first-year Annual Contract Value (ACV) of a deal. All-in, including base salary and bonuses, the total compensation for an AE usually ends up being about 20-25% of the revenue they close annually.

Commission 69

Commission Inside sales Contract Closing 69

SaaStr

JUNE 21, 2025

Q1 revenue growth: 39% US commercial: +68% growth Government contracts flowing like water NATO partnerships expanding The insight : When you combine AI that actually works with government customers who have unlimited budgets, you get returns that break traditional SaaS metrics. Tier 3: Vertical Specialists Average Return: +15.3%

B2B 101

B2B Government Healthcare Contract 101

Martech

JANUARY 8, 2025

Whether thats adding complexity to a simple process or frustrating customers with needless back and forth, friction is bad news for deal velocity. Pro tip : Use customer feedback to regularly update your content. Dig deeper: How to optimize sales and marketing processes for efficient customer acquisition 4.

CRM 126

CRM Follow-up Sales Prospecting 126

Martech

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Contract timing My team once negotiated a contract with a new vendor where timing was critical. Vendors often offer significant discounts and concessions during this period to close deals and meet their goals, and this was the case for us. It’s a reminder that leaning on organizational partners can help everyone succeed.

Contract 109

Contract Non-Profits Hospitality Negotiate 109

Martech

SEPTEMBER 12, 2024

And there’s this, from The Wall Street Journal’s article on AI spending: Now, here are this week’s AI-powered releases: Yext’s Yext Social is an AI-powered social media management solution that manages local customer engagement at scale globally. AI Revenue Maximizer optimizes ad placements and durations to maximize revenue.

Cross-sell 117

Cross-sell Construction Legal Contract 117

SaaStr

JANUARY 8, 2025

It was often close to the best of times. NRR Fallen to 98% Overall, 99% For $100k+ Customers — From 115% at $600m ARR This is half the reason growth has slowed at Asana. 150,000 Total Customers. 100k+ Customers Are The Fastest Growing. The enterprise customers are growing the fastest. The latter?

Non-Profits 117

Non-Profits Contract B2B Growth 117

SaaStr

MAY 13, 2025

Dear SaaStr: Our Biggest Potential Customers Are All Asking for Custom Features. This is a classic enterprise SaaS challengebalancing the need to close big deals with the risk of overextending your team on custom work. And only if you genuinely believe another Big Customer can use that same feature later.

Customers 73

Customers Niche Price Contract 73

SaaStr

JUNE 12, 2025

We’re said this many times over the years at SaaStr, and it’s as true today as then: You should hire your first AE (Account Executive) once you’ve closed at least 10-20 customers yourself as the founder. Another key factor is your ACV (Annual Contract Value). Dear SaaStr: When Should I Hire My First AE? Not before.

Contract 78

Contract Quota Pitch Closing 78

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

Mangomint has one onboarding manager for every two sales reps, but with no contracts and a 30-day free trial, onboarding starts during the trial. For Mangomint, giving customers 3-6 weeks to onboard (vs 1-2) really takes the pressure off and produces better results. For Mangomint customers, this software is their operating system.

Appointment 101

Appointment Contract Commission Niche 101

Highspot

JUNE 19, 2025

Key takeaways Highly engaged customers tend to stay loyal to companies, spend more on their products and services, and become brand advocates. Sales, marketing, and customer support must collaborate and coordinate to deliver personalized, seamless experiences that foster trust. What is customer engagement?

GTM 52

GTM Customers Cross-sell Contract 52

Hubspot

AUGUST 26, 2024

I identified a key stakeholder with purchasing authority, reached out with a simple yet elegant email pitch, and they responded asking me for a contract they could sign right away. No one is going to sign a contract on your first outreach, and they probably won’t even respond to your email or answer the phone.

Follow-up 85

Follow-up Contract Sales Technology 85

RingDNA

MARCH 26, 2025

The whole point of social sales is to get more data about potential customers so that you can spend more time talking to the right prospects and, more importantly, ensure that those conversations are successful. Sharing personal wins, sales tips, and customer success stories shows that you’re in the trenches, driving real results.

Closing 62

Closing B2B Sell Referrals 62

Martech

DECEMBER 6, 2024

Lets also not forget the nuances that the RevOps and customer operations perspectives bring to the table. Martechs role in marketing When martech practitioners sit in marketing, they are naturally close to marketers the ultimate stakeholders of martech projects. That will take more effort for those who dont sit in marketing.

Technology 114

Technology Technology Legal Contract 114

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

The commonality between the two of us is the obsession around helping customers solve complex problems and create great value. My obsession to provide Customer Value Written by Christian Maure r Dave, thank you very much for picking up the challenge. That’s how my obsession to provide customer value was borne.

Customers 139

Customers Contract Consult Up-sell 139

Sales Pop!

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

We needed multiple contracts with hardware and software vendors. But Microsoft was a closed system, and I have recounted numerous times throughout my books and articles how, at the time, I was a very vocal advocate of open source. I contracted with the Austrian government to explore open source’s possibilities.

Pipeline 246

Pipeline Territory CRM Contract 246

Iannarino

AUGUST 8, 2021

The manuscript is due to the publisher in three days: my contract calls for 65,000 words, a good length for the publisher based on what people will spend on a book. The Lost Art of Closing shows you how to proactively lead your customer and close your sales. The deadline for my fourth book is looming.

Intrinsic 321

Intrinsic Quota Clients B2B 321

Salesforce

AUGUST 15, 2024

Keep an eye on your financial progress, get a better understanding of your customer’s behavior, and use dashboards to track key performance indicators (KPIs) — all in real time. Remote, hybrid, and onsite teams can operate smoother, respond to customer needs quicker, and achieve better results with less effort. Back to top. )

Product 89

Product E-commerce CRM A/B testing 89

Veloxy

JUNE 21, 2021

Introduction Opening Lead Qualification Closing the Sale. Introduction Opening Lead Qualification Closing the Sale. While you will inevitably stray from your script to personalize your pitch for each customer, having a script gives you the structure and guidance that will propel you to success. Cold Calling Script Structure.

Cold Call 298

Cold Call Objectives and Key Results Pitch Follow-up 298

SaaStr

JUNE 6, 2025

Slower New Customer Growth. Especially if NRR is falling, not adding enough new customers eventually leads naturally to slowing growth. Customer Success Is Make-or-Break : With new customer acquisition becoming more challenging, retention and expansion within existing accounts becomes critical. This just has its limits.

Territory 98

Territory Growth Price Contract 98

SaaStr

APRIL 28, 2025

AI Will Handle Most One-Call Closes For routine sales with transactional deals (typically under $10K), AI will soon handle 80% of the process. The SaaStr AI is already one release away from being able to automatically send contracts for simple sponsorship deals rather than just connecting prospects with sales reps.

Negotiate 95

Negotiate Contract E-commerce Price 95

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2025

Reps who get just three hours of coaching per month can increase close rates by 70%. Customer Segmentation and Targeting : Are you focusing on the right customer segments? Review lead quality, conversion rates by segment, and the effectiveness of your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). Are you losing deals at a specific stage?

Cross-sell 69

Cross-sell Pipeline Legal Contract 69

Understanding the Sales Force

JUNE 17, 2025

Raffy” moved to the San Francisco Giants, who were kind enough to take on the remainder of his 10-year, $310 million contract and provide four players in return. That is not who Rafael Devers is—not even close. They own the relationship with our biggest customers,” they admit. The customers usually stay with the company.

Gaming 93

Gaming Contract Sales Quota 93

Iannarino

JUNE 17, 2021

At one time, as a salesperson, you would be told to find “the decision-maker,” the single individual who could sign a contract. The Lost Art of Closing shows you how to proactively lead your customer and close your sales. You are still going to need a person with the formal authority to sign a contract.

Contract 212

Contract Sales Clients Government 212