Andy Champion

Here's the stark facts in sales today. - 31% of reps are making quota - Nearly half (44%) of deals slip - Sales cycles are double digits longer, win rates are double digits down - Inbound leads are down - Salesforce recognised the need to increase pipeline coverage to by 50% (from x2 to x3) Most of those we speak to recognise all these challenges. But they are stuck. "Do more with less" is the message. They have cut teams and fought for those remaining. Their organisations are stuck with blind hope and knives sharpening. The only solution they know is to fire and replace. Because the real problems aren't acknowledged. The market has changed and it's harder. But are teams are not more skilled. The same teams, that could achieve in the old world are failing in this one. And the last message anyone wants, is we need to spend some money to solve that. "That's your job isn't it?" cries the leadership to time-starved managers and leaders. Anyone want to guess what's going to happen to sales manager average tenure (already at an all-time low of 18 months)????

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How do you detect atrophy in your team? Many of the conversations I’m having with revenue leaders centre around how they can become more proactive vs reactive. A big part of this is detecting atrophy - those reps who may be blindly slipping into decline or heading for a bad quarter. To be proactive requires ruthless focus on LEADING indicators. Rather than obsession over LAGGING metrics. Leading indicators typically include KPIs such as: - pipeline value ($ opps created) - pipeline volume (# opps created) - stage to stage conversion (%) - activity volume Another great leading indicator is competency scores - ie what level of competence are reps demonstrating vs key competencies you expect them to display. Close monitoring of leading indicators helps you as a leader make proactive interventions so your team can course correct before it’s too late. It might just save your quarter. #leadership #data #growth #metrics #objectivedata

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While I loved selling in the 90's, B2B sales methodologies have to evolve. Personally I prefer a blend of SPIN Selling (as it focuses on the customer's problems), Customer-centric selling (as it focuses on the customer's needs), and Challenger Selling (as if forces the salespeople to think about focusing on the customer). As far as methodologies are concerned, I think the SPICED methodology from Winning By Design is the closest I have found to a more agile, customer-first approach. I am often asked what is wrong with the dated approaches with BANT and MEDDIC the two I come across the most, often with people with religious levels of zeal. My summary of why we should put these two to bed once and for all follows. BANT is easy to leave behind, with 70% of a buying process being complete before engaging with sales, and 60%+ of buyers not having a budget allocated before talking to sales, then there is no Budget (yet), there is no one decision-maker in a modern B2B buying process (and even if there is, they are not going to tell a salesperson who it is), and if you don't have Budget and Authority, you cann't have a Timeframe. That leaves you with Needs which equate to SPIN Selling problems. The MEDDIC framework, while once effective, struggles to adapt to the digital, dynamic, and complex, nature of modern B2B buyer-centric selling. Shift in buyer behaviour: The traditional linear sales process MEDDIC outlines no longer aligns with the buyer's journey. Buyers are more informed, conducting extensive research online before engaging with sales. This means the sales cycle is longer and more complex, requiring a deeper understanding of the buyer's needs and challenges. Complex decision-making: MEDDIC primarily focuses on identifying a single economic buyer. B2B buying decisions involve multiple stakeholders with varying priorities and influence. This necessitates a broader approach to understanding the decision-making unit. Digital transformation: The rise of digital channels dramatically changed how buyers interact with businesses. MEDDIC doesn't adequately account for the importance of digital engagement, content marketing, and social selling in building relationships and generating leads. Customer experience: Modern buyers prioritize experience over everything else. MEDDIC is primarily focused on the sales process, not the overall customer journey. A holistic view of the customer experience is crucial for long-term success. Speed and Agility: The pace of business has accelerated significantly. MEDDIC's rigid structure hinders sales teams' ability to adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs. A more agile approach is required to win in today's competitive landscape. To effectively navigate the complexities of the modern B2B sales environment, sales organizations must adopt more customer-centric and data-driven methodologies that account for the digital transformation of the buyer's journey.

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5 Go-To-Market predictions (ehem certainties) for 2025 ... (with a slight twist of parody) (in ascending order to heighten the suspense) 5️⃣ Alignment becomes a thing of the past - as teams work in harmony 4️⃣ Sales Teams become self-sourcing - and don't ask for CRM reports 3️⃣ Even more vendors will claim their product can Forecast Revenue 2️⃣ Someone figures out Marketing Sourced versus Influenced. 1️⃣ AI was a myth all along. Period. Please add your wise insights and predictions. #revops #sales #leadership

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The top decile enterprise sales leaders I’ve met enable their reps with one thing in particular, that the bottom 90% neglect. Across the several hundred revenue, sales, and value leaders I’ve spoken to as we’ve built Minoa, there’s a recognition that proving value and ROI is tough. Now, hand that responsibility over to a rep too busy dealing with admin, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for miscommunication and lack of customer buy-in. We get this question all the time - “how do I get reps to adopt our value selling initiative”? This frames it as an issue related to rep discipline, when the problem has nothing to do with this. It’s not that reps don’t see the point - they just don’t know how to navigate communicating the quantitative impact of your product’s value. The very best sales leaders empower their reps with clear frameworks of how quantitative impact (be it for revenue, cost, time etc.) maps to value drivers and use cases. Proving value can be hard, but having the power to communicate and match product value to measurable business outcomes in a long and complex sales cycle cuts through the noise. At Minoa, we help set up the value frameworks, calculations, and guardrails that give every single rep the ability, and more importantly the confidence, to use data and quantitative impact to sell on value.

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💡 Interesting article for anyone who manages B2B sales and who's in the process of building their sales team. 👇 https://lnkd.in/evHq-BUr Although I understand where people are coming from, it's too easily said that person X or person Y or person Z "is not a born sales person." This study identifies four key negotiation profiles: • Commanders • Analyzers • Preparers • Trust-builders The ideal salesperson blends features from these four with a strong inclination to the latter. Industry reports like these truly demonstrate the value of quality data collection... something my friend and colleague, Pointerpro CEO Stefan Debois also happened to discuss with the man behind the study, Mike Lander of Piscari... on his very own podcast. 👇 🎙️ https://lnkd.in/e3Vxxqgv

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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SWAT teams rather than armies. Hearing this phrase from lots of sales teams recently. And there is lots of logic - to a smaller highly trained (and coached ;-) elite team rather than a larger team, whether SDR’s or quota carriers. Here’s the drivers… - Sales Efficiency, the obvious one. Growth at all costs is gone, presumably forever. Cost of acquisition and sustainable growth are now key. - Raise The Bar, a smaller elite and well coached (couldn’t resist this time) team removes the weakest performers, the time and resources spent trying to pull them up and raises the bar for everyone on the team. - Bottom Up Economics, teams resourced based on on actual pipeline not multiplying quotas by team size. Quota carriers, even if good prospectors, can’t and arguably shouldn’t create all their own pipeline. If you don’t have the pipeline from SDR’s and inbounds, the team is bloated. - Elite is easier , With a smaller well chosen/recruited team, it’s more realistic with time and resource to help make them elite. And with an elite team, everything is easier. - Cheaper, it’s not just sales efficiency. It’s cost and budgets. They are smaller and what is possible or affordable has changed. What are you doing to create your SWAT teams?

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Rev Ops.....has 'efficient growth' replaced 'growth at any cost' for you? Do you know which people and teams are most productive and most efficient?...Lative can help with this! The past two decades saw businesses striving for growth, often overlooking efficiency. Now, it's time to change the narrative. Discover how Lative supports a shift towards sustainable revenue and cost-efficient growth using data-driven insights. 📊 Request a demo today! 👉

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SEPs get a lot of flack on here, but he's something very simple that Salesloft did that has a big impact. Grouping cadence tasks by account, combined with multi-touch, cuts context-switching massively. It means you can research once and easily repurpose personalization on all channels for all buyers in an account without digging through past activity. It's been a few years since I've used Salesloft; I was a card-carrying, multi-time customer for 6-7 years. I probably moaned at them about this issue back then. Good to see! Next, can you figure out deliverability and let us define our own inputs, outputs, and efficiency metrics for reporting? Thanks!

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How much retention would go up? If... - The Customer Success org starts with Solutions - There's a Chief Solutions Officer on the board - AEs consult with SEs on all ongoing deals - Customers talk 80% in conversations - Focus is on adoption, not renewals I'm guessing by A LOT. That's the GTM SaaS world I envision. P.S: True customer adoption nearly guarantees renewals. #presalesevolution #customersuccess #saas

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Salesloft helps drive efficiency from an individual contributor level all the way through sales leadership. Check out how Gabby Winfield and the team at Staffmark are driving success with Salesloft: https://lnkd.in/eceFBunT

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Nice and detailed article from Jeremy Sacramento about the importance of Sales Intelligence Data to accelerate the pipeline: - Identifying ICP - Qualifying and prioritising LEADS - Timing and personalising the OUTREACH - PLANNING Of course the ultimate goal ⚽ remains to constantly generate the number of monthly leads that allows every sales rep to reach their quota 🚀 #salesintelligence #ICP #leads #outreach

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A CS Leader we spoke to recently did an amazing job in summarising the critical foundations an #AccountManager or #CustomerSuccessManger needs to grow their accounts and portfolio... Let's start with the goal in mind - what puts you in position to grow an existing B2B Software account? 🟢 Relationship with the right stakeholders 🟢 Clarity on their goals and pain points 🟢 Realised value / tangible ROI 🟢 Positive user experience 🟢 Shared understanding of future value / roadmap alignment ... etc. For an #AM or #CSM to get there can be challenging in practice - there is an art and timing to it that comes with experience. And the pressure of a SaaS business usually adds extra complexity and distortion - so great account owners stick to the basics and get it done through a mix of great timing and well laid foundations: 1. #Relationship 2. Sh*t is not on Fire 🔥 3. #CustomerEducation 4. #Optimization Going into detail on these would be another post, but two quick points - if the account is on fire, do not pass go. And optimization is about optimizing for value - the key to growth. 🔑 The key ingredients... work + timing. 🔴 Bad Example: An Account Manger pivots their attention to a somewhat neglected account with potential, currently on fiiiiire 🔥. After performing internal heroics the #AM, under significant pressure to meet target, pitches the current stakeholder a new product similar companies are buying. After some brief informal discussion in the client org, the idea is 'put on the back burner'. Now, not only is the AM struggling to target, but they have more internal inertia to overcome next time and it will be harder to gain further understanding. 🟢 Great Example: After their account saving heroics an #AM assesses where they are at, now they are out of the woods. Identifying usage and educational gaps, establishing a relationship of trust with multiple people, optimising and building a case for value. Not only working to the clients timetable, but looking for levers to create urgency and establish shorter timelines that align with the client and value. Striking at the right time, with a much clearer understanding of the client's needs and a watertight business case. 💡 Experienced #CSMs and #AMs always take a step back to assess where they are with an account according to these foundations. The great ones can become as important to a client as the product and sustain growth even when there are issues. & Happy Thanksgiving to all 🙏

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Douglas landed his new Enterprise AE role at nTop using Aligned! He got the buy-in from the sales leaders, exec's, procurement and the aunts and uncles (trying to make a funny one here)......! Bad sales really is like a bad pushy date. Dont go in too hard for the close - get buy-in first. Episode 3 is out..food for some thought perhaps? #sales #khantent #management #baddate #badsalesdate

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Its important we drink our own champagne, we practise what we preach and we use Jointflows to enable it. So what are the outcomes when we adopt a fully buyer-led approach? - Consistent positive feedback from prospects - Accelerated sales cycles - More exposure to the buying committee - Significantly increased conversion rates #buyerled #increasedconversion #revenue

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Congrats to ZoomInfo on their launch of Copilot – a new solution for B2B sellers powered by AI & G2 data. 🎉🎉🎉 I enjoyed chatting with Calen Holbrooks during today’s launch event, discussing the challenges B2B sellers face and how solutions like Copilot are helping to change the game. Here are some of the points we covered: ⚡It's time for B2B selling to catch up to B2C – providing the type of personalization we see with Instagram ads. ⚡Sales teams are often relying on the ineffective spray & pray approach -- wasting time, money & frustrating those being targeted with irrelevant outreach. ⚡With only 5% of a B2B business’ ICP actively in market at a given time, a more tailored, targeted approach is required. ⚡AI-powered solutions like Copilot can help – with accurate data from G2 & ZoomInfo, so sellers can reach the right in-market prospect with the right message at the right time. ⚡This is just one example of how AI will shape the future of go-to-market. Another is connecting software buyers and sellers more seamlessly, pairing up the perfect match. At G2, we are doing this with our #AI assistant Monty. Congrats to our partners Henry Schuck, Bryan Law, & team, and thanks for having me today! If you missed it, you can catch the event on-demand & learn more about Copilot from Henry at the links below. 👇

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