Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 21, 2023

I pulled up to pump number five at my usual Cumberland Farms convenience store/gas station. Pay inside? I had actually forgotten that before the app, I simply inserted a credit card to pay. I had actually forgotten that before the app, I simply inserted a credit card to pay. Your mind is wandering.

Prospecting 68

Prospecting Strategize Meeting Sales 68

Search Engine Land

JANUARY 12, 2024

From incorrect account suspensions to uncomfortable sales calls “aggressively” pushing automation to confusion over the platform’s own products, advertisers have told Search Engine Land that they are exasperated by the lack of help offered by their reps. .” The result of those changes? This project is ongoing.”

Engineering 140

Engineering Clients Networking Represent 140

Martech

DECEMBER 12, 2023

After attending the recent MarketingOperations.com conference (MOps-Apalooza), my cofounder Tyler remarked, “If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone at MOps-Apalooza say something about companies buying software that they never fully implemented, I think my ticket for next year’s conference would be paid for.”

Drivers/motivators 122

Drivers/motivators Technology Technology Campaign 122

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 19, 2022

Sales compensation planning can be a tricky beast to tame — but know that you’re not alone. I asked 12 incredible sales leaders across the SaaS industry to share their biggest challenges with comp planning and how to overcome them. Read on, take notes, and avoid these roadblocks as you get 2023 comp planning underway.

Commission 94

Commission Finance Quota Strategize 94

The Lost Book of Sales

JANUARY 31, 2024

If you think it's time to ease down and take a back seat immediately after the deal is closed, think again because you're wrong! Implementation stage Just as you’d think you’d be safe to decrease your effort, there’s another critical stage right there ready to bite you.

Sports 105

Sports Drivers/motivators Clients Contract 105

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 27, 2022

In this episode of the Sales Hacker Podcast, we have Scott Barton , VP of Industry Solutions at Varicent. He’s an expert in the sales world, particularly in revenue operations and incentive compensation. Join us for a great conversation about driving the right behaviors within your sales team. Paying it forward [22:29].

Quota 80

Quota Growth Commission Territory 80

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 26, 2021

“It’s not like I didn’t understand the comp plan, but it somehow went from a one-page rewards-based plan to a 10-page online agreement that nobody wants to read.”. That’s how my friend Stacey describes the way sales compensation plans have changed over the last 15 years of her SaaS career. Ramp policy.

Commission 95

Commission Quota Sales Finance 95

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 7, 2022

Scott Barton, Varicent’s VP of Industry Solutions & 20-year sales compensation industry pro, attended WorldatWork’s 2022 Sales Compensation Conference. Advances in tech are changing the field, including virtual selling and AI. Is change in the air? The field is growing: 40% of conference attendees were first-timers.

Drivers/motivators 76

Drivers/motivators Quota Territory Sales 76

Martech

JUNE 13, 2023

If I were an email marketer going on vacation for three weeks, what would I do on my first day back in the office? As you read this, I will be holidaying in Greece and Thailand. It has been a crazy year for me — and, I suspect, for many of you, too, because brands have rediscovered all the great things email can do.

Retail 102

Retail Campaign Clients Start-ups 102

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2022

Take a read if you are still running finance yourself, or just have an part-time outsourced resource. Companies grew more slowly, there was nothing for a CFO to really do for years, and you could sort of outsource everything and just keep an eye on the bank statement. Things have changed a lot. — Jason, ed. Cash is king.

Finance 129

Finance Contract X-functional Start-ups 129

Search Engine Land

OCTOBER 23, 2023

Shah offered his perspective on changing shopper behaviors and what brands can do to proactively reach them through RMNs in a discussion with me. Chris Wood (CW): Why did you decide to start advertising Georgia-Pacific brands on retail media networks? Those were the instances where we saw significant lift in sales for our products.

Retail 118

Retail Networking Customers E-commerce 118

Salesforce

NOVEMBER 3, 2021

In my 20+ years of sales leadership, I’ve spent hundreds of hours thinking about sales forecasting techniques that lead toward predictable revenue and accurate, actionable data. The best sales forecasting techniques answer these two simple questions: How much do we plan to sell?

Technique 98

Technique Territory Pipeline Sales 98

Veloxy

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023

How do you instantly tell the difference between a good cold email template and a bad one? Depending on your company, cold email writing is commonly shared between sales reps and marketing. Fortunately for you and me, I’ve invited a cold email expert to complement this blog post who has sent over 2.5 Thank you, Samir PS.

Cold Call 130

Cold Call B2B Campaign Clients 130

Martech

AUGUST 17, 2021

In the 18 months since we added “COVID-19” and “pandemic” to our marketing lexicon, marketers like me have been thinking about how to revise our email programs, what our customers are experiencing and how much everything could change before we move into our next version of “normal.” Does it work?

Territory 145

Territory Government Campaign Technology 145

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 23, 2023

Strategic thinking with most sales leaders seems to be focused on, “How are we going to finish the month?” ” For front line sales managers it seems to be limited to, “Did you hit your prospecting goals for today, what is your plan to do hit it tomorrow?”

Strategize 93

Strategize Growth Follow-up Closing 93

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 1, 2022

We try to develop compensation plans that incent people to achieve those goals. We modify the comp plan to cover all the areas important to performance. Or people in similar roles, have slightly different plans. Over my career, I’ve been victim of terrible comp plans. The performance plan is scorecard.

Quota 96

Quota CRM Promote Growth 96

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 30, 2023

The first goal of sales at a startup isn’t to bring in revenue — it’s to get customer feedback. I’ve spent the last year working to find product-market fit for my startup, Dock. I’ve used our sales process to iterate our way to product market-fit and wanted to share what I’ve learned along the way. So how do you get there?

Conversion 88

Conversion Product Sales Price 88

Martech

MARCH 22, 2023

My answer: No. Consider this: 17% of companies are planning RFPs this year, according to the 2023 State of the ESP RFP. You might not think that sounds like a large number, but it is if you scale that number to industries. It has so many other deficits that you still need to switch. Your CEO might remember that.

Cross-sell 91

Cross-sell Education Price Campaign 91

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

Many are my favorites too, and some you may not have seen. And you can start very small. And you can start very small. You Have to Train Sales Reps 3–10. You have to start formal sales training by rep #3. But you really have to put in the work. They Won’t Train Themselves.

Price 91

Price Contract Territory Growth 91

Salesforce

NOVEMBER 22, 2021

My choice to jump into the cloud A time of growth Paying it forward Six tips for success in your Salesforce career path. My father saved every spare penny to send me and my brother to college. My brother convinced me to learn Java, so I spent all my waking hours doing just that. HIT THE TRAILS.

Growth 98

Growth Networking Consult Drivers/motivators 98

Martech

DECEMBER 4, 2023

We should pay attention to the things that make a significant difference. Edge cases occur when: Someone behaves in a way you didn’t expect. An action takes place in an environment you didn’t plan for. There’s a change in regulations or technology. My friend said, “Why did you do that?”

Gaming 110

Gaming Follow-up Technology Technology 110

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2021

Q: Dear SaaStr: How Do I Convince My Customers with Monthly plans to Upgrade to Annual Plans? My advice: Don’t. Large customers only pay via invoices, especially for any deal of any material size (>$10k a year). Usually, you can get an annual deal here. Let me explain what I mean ….

Contract 66

Contract Customers Commission Price 66

Martech

JANUARY 16, 2024

From incorrect account suspensions to sales calls “aggressively” pushing automation to confusion over the platform’s products, advertisers are exasperated by the lack of help from Google. “I posted a job on Upwork that pays a reward of $500 for anyone that can get us access and set up Instant Reserve TV ads for our account.

Service 111

Service Customers Represent Networking 111

Partners in Excellence

JUNE 2, 2023

Brent had been reading some of my posts, he had been talking to a lot of people and experimenting himself. We could show all sorts of things they might change in their manufacturing processes that would improve output, but they didn’t know which would be best for them. It was unsustainable, we had to find something new.

Engineering 97

Engineering Manufacturing Sales Process 97

Martech

OCTOBER 5, 2023

In our discussion, Shah offers his perspective on changing shopper behaviors and what brands can do to proactively reach them through RMNs. Q: Why did you decide to start advertising Georgia-Pacific brands on retail media networks? Those were the instances where we saw significant lift in sales for our products.

Retail 103

Retail Networking Customers E-commerce 103

Partners in Excellence

MAY 2, 2023

Having anything to do with sales was the furthest thing from my mind when I was thinking about a job following college. My Mom usually bought the allocation I was assigned to sell. Sometimes a neighbor would buy them (but I think my Mom had called saying she would pay for them). I went on to get my MBA.

Sell 97

Sell Retail Consult Strategic planning 97

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. Live trials of easy-to-use-and-deploy web services really have changed the game. And the higher you sell up in an organization, the less free trialin’ is going.

Commission 112

Commission Inside sales Sales Gaming 112

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 25, 2023

While, I’m a big fan of Winning By Design’s “bow tie model,” virtually every business has a bow-tie revenue model, with many having a very lopsided bow-tie with the majority of revenue coming after the first sale. The initial sale, often produces zero revenue, we create a design win.

Manufacturing 80

Manufacturing Contract Represent Service 80

Search Engine Land

DECEMBER 28, 2023

As we approach the end of 2023, let’s reflect on some of the most headline-worthy, controversial, and impactful changes that significantly influenced the PPC world over the past 12 months. Justice Department (DOJ) and 35 states in a landmark case that could bring significant changes to Google and the future of the Internet.

Retail 127

Retail X-functional Launch Non-Profits 127

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2021

What’s the difference you might ask? I know everything can’t go according to plan in any start-up. But let me just make one suggestion if it’s early days: Don’t Forget the 20 Interview Rule, if you are planning to sell to the enterprise / businesses of any meaningful size. Not people you know.

Pitch 141

Pitch Up-sell Start-ups Prospecting 141

Salesforce

JANUARY 11, 2023

Never give up on yourself Paying it forward. From being a radio host to working at a call center, in sales, and now as a Senior Salesforce Admin , I’ve had quite a career journey. Along this journey, I’ve discovered a few practices that have helped me make strides in both my personal and professional life.

Hospitality 98

Hospitality Customer Relationship Management Trust Drivers/motivators 98

Gong.io

JULY 22, 2022

You might win your next sales call before it even starts. No, it isn’t a new “sales hack”. Yes, I’m talking about sales call planning. Here’s what I mean: You’re not just making a sale, you’re building a relationship, one that you hope lasts a long time. This video is a great example.

Objectives and Key Results 118

Objectives and Key Results Sales Pitch Presentation 118

SaaStr

JULY 26, 2022

Customers don’t expect you to build a feature before they buy. Don’t need as much sales experience on sales team. SMBs often force you to build a better product, as they lack a deployment and IT team. The type of churn you almost can’t do anything about. Endemic churn.

Growth 142

Growth Start-ups Up-sell Strategize 142

Martech

OCTOBER 14, 2022

However, most likely, you don’t need a CMO. There are plenty of reasons to hold off on hiring an in-house CMO, ranging from the effect on your bottom line to a CMO’s inability to build successful marketing efforts without an established sales cycle to extrapolate from — let alone a team to build out content and campaigns. Get MarTech!

Non-Profits 115

Non-Profits E-commerce Strategize Consult 115

SaaStr

JULY 8, 2021

Q: What’s the proper way to commission a multi-year SaaS sale with increasing ACV each year? There’s no perfect answer here, but at least until you are at $10m+ ARR , my strongest recommendation is align around cash. So pay up here. Pay for all the years, I say. The key is multiyear deals need to be organic.

Commission 109

Commission Customers Sales 109

Spiro Technologies

MAY 12, 2022

After all, who wants to sit down and make calls for three hours when you can check ESPN.com or have fun with your co-workers? But that wasted time isn’t going to get you where you want to be. If you use your work hours more productively, you’ll thank yourself when you see your commission check.

Cold Call 116

Cold Call Commission Pitch Technique 116

The Lost Book of Sales

JANUARY 31, 2024

If you think it's time to ease down and take a back seat immediately after the deal is closed, think again because you're wrong! Implementation stage Just as you’d think you’d be safe to decrease your effort, there’s another critical stage right there ready to bite you.

Sports 59

Sports Drivers/motivators Clients Sales 59