Alex Miller

To all SDRs or anyone entering B2B sales, read this post to avoid falling into common traps. 1. The most successful AEs I have met were the best SDRs. 2. SDRs who didn’t excel in the role and are now AEs are still struggling to generate their own pipeline. 3. AEs who skipped the SDR role, often due to an MBA or strong interview skills, fear switching jobs and roles without inbound leads. They’ve never faced the grind of building a pipeline from scratch, filled with rejections. 4. AEs who have never been an SDR majorly rely on their SDRs or Inbound leads from marketing to help them build pipeline and if any Quarter they don't get inbound or enough meetings from SDRs they sh** in their pants. 5. When these AEs become managers, they often question their team—"Where are the numbers?" or "Why isn’t there a pipeline?"—instead of guiding them on building it. Lacking experience in pipeline generation, they fail to lead by example and eventually lose the respect of their team. Learn the art and science of being an SDR and excel at this job at any cost, you will never have to look back or depend on anyone for pipeline EVER. Prospecting and Generating Pipelines is fundamental to Sales whether you are an SDR, AE, Sr Manager, or VP if you don't know how to do OUTBOUND you will continuously live a sales life of fear and anxiety. So SDRs ask yourselves do you want to be such AE and Managers in the future who depend on others to determine their performance and faith or would you like to own your job? #sales #prospecting #outbound #pipeline #sdr #ae #b2b #saas

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Amen to this. Senior leaders need to get involved in the details and understand the structural and operational issues in their organizations that lead to customer churn. You hold the power to improve the quality of your product and the value of your service - you're customer facing Sales and CSM teams do not.

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Renewals are the lifeblood of every SaaS company. However, we don’t talk enough about what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals. Since there are so many lists on what makes a great AE, I thought I’d take a stab at what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals: 1/ They prioritize the renewals that move the needle Renewal rate comes down to simple math. What renewals are going to move the needle for them? Great AMs/CSMs spend their time where they’ll get the most bang for their buck. 2/ They prepare 6 months in advance Average AMs/CSMs prep 3 months in advance. Great ones plan 6 months in advance. This includes asking hard questions well ahead of time during a mid-year QBR, so they know where to spend their time. 3/ They can re-sell the product Stakeholders change. Priorities change. Competitors try to break in. Great AMs/CSMs can sell the product as well as their AEs and know how to position their value props and handle objections. 4/ They know how to negotiate I don’t know any procurement person in the post-ZIRP era who doesn’t try to negotiate their contracts. A great AM/CSM knows how to turn negotiations into win-wins. 5/ They know the difference between procurement and decision-makers Similar to point four, they know how to negotiate and with whom. Negotiating with procurement is much different than negotiating with a key stakeholder. Each party wants something different, and it’s important to recognize what that is. 6/ They know how to rope in their AEs or extended teams Just like the best AEs know how to “quarterback” deals, a great AM/CSM knows how to rally resources to help with renewals. AEs, Execs, SEs, and Professional Services can all be brought in to help show the customer extra love. 7/ They develop a renewal champion We always talk about champions in the presales process, but not enough about champions during renewals. A great AM/CSM knows how to develop champions to help push renewals through. An AM/CSM who knows how to do these things is worth their weight in gold. Keep them happy as long as you can!

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A great Discovery call does 3 things: 1️⃣ It teaches The simplest way to assess the effectiveness of your Discovery calls is to ask who learned more about the prospect's business.  Far too often, the sales rep does most or all of the learning. A strong Discovery changes how the prospect thinks about the problem(s) you address, and to do that effectively, they need to learn new things about their business and situation. 2️⃣ It creates a clear & impactful dissonance between the present and the prospect’s desired future The real power of a strong Discovery call is its ability to build the basis for change. Doing that requires creating structural tension in the prospect’s mind. While this may surprise some, most buyers haven’t paused to think meaningfully about the outcomes they desire. I’ve conducted many powerful Discovery calls that simply defined success and clarified the difference between that vision and their current situation. 3️⃣ It lays out a clear path for what the rest of the sales process will look like An effective Discovery always outlines a specific next step and ensures commitment from all involved parties. You earn extra points for clarifying the overall process and identifying key milestones. Confusion is the #1 cause of decision reluctance, which kills deals. Use your Discovery to get things off to a robust start. What did I miss? What are your keys to a successful Discovery?

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I was fortunate to spend a year in Dan Fougere's sales org at Medallia and learned at a rate I've never experienced at any other point in my career. Some of my key takeaways, which he also shares in this conversation. ➡️ A repeatable sales process/playbook is the foundation for scaling an Enterprise business. ➡️ The best Enterprise reps hone and maintain maniacal discipline around PG. They never let it fall off their calendar. ➡️ The most effective frontline managers spend more time coaching and supporting their team early in the sales process (i.e. Discovery & Evaluation) than they do in the later stages (i.e. Negotiation/Closing). Without explicit guidance from 2nd and 3rd line leaders, most tend to get this balance wrong. ➡️ Sales leaders (at all levels) have to be 'in it' with their teams i.e., involved in outbound prospecting, regularly speaking with customers, playing an active role in deals, being audible ready etc.. ➡️ One of your core responsibilities as a sales leader is to create a high performance environment where people feel like they are challenged, constantly learning, and being supported to achieve things they didn't think were possible (securing C-Level meetings via outbound PG, winning 8 figure deals, earning international career opportunities etc). If you work in sales, this Podcast is well worth an hour of your time. #sales #salesenablement #coaching #salesleadership

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AE: "Can you demo to this super warm prospect?" SE: "Sure, what top outcomes are they looking for?" AE: "Umm, here's the e-mail thread. Figure it out." SE: "We might need more information than this..." AE: "But we NEED the demo to sell it to them." SE: "Okay, when's the call scheduled for?" AE: "At 3pm. Today." SE: 😭😭😭 Can anyone relate? Let's change the narrative. #presalesevolution #solutions #sales

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As CS is getting increasingly aligned with the revenue function, this conversation is happening a lot... CRO: "I just took over customer success, can someone explain to me what our CSMs do?" VP CS: "We make sure that our customers are getting value from the product..." CRO: "OK, what does that mean?" VP CS: "We answer all of their questions and log support cases." CRO: "Isn't that support?" VP CS: "Well no, because we have QBRs" CRO: "OK, well what do we talk about in the QBRs?" VP CS: "All the tickets we fixed and the features that we rolled out" CRO: "Ok, what other things do our CSMs do?" VP CS: "We help with implementations and continuous improvement!" CRO: "Isn't that professional services?" VP CS: "Well we read an article that says that we shouldn't charge for services, so our CSMs just do it." CRO: " 🤯 " VP CS: " 🤯 "

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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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MEDDPICC is overengineered for deals < 50k ARR. BANT is useless for outbound generated deals. SPICED is not sophisticated enough for deals over 500k ARR. Do you have to work with any of these? Not necessarily. I studied most existing sales methodologies (NEAT, Challenger, SNAP, ANUM, etc.) and found they have more in common than not. Here are the four factors most have in common: 1️⃣ They are using an acronym to highlight the importance of focusing on the Need/Pain/Problem of the prospect. Not surprising this one, right? 2️⃣ They want to describe the impact of not solving a problem and/or building a quantitative business case for larger deals. They stress the understanding of what happens if the problem is not solved in the near future. 3️⃣ They highlight the importance of a salesperson knowing with whom they talk. They use words such as “Authority”, “Economic Buyer”, “Decision maker”, Champion” and other roles. Makes sense as well. 4️⃣ They highlight the understanding of the process and/or timeline to get the signature of the prospect. Some only use “timeline”, some use “Decision Process” and others “Mutual Action Plan”. If you do not somehow directing the focus of your sales team on those four, you are probably doing something wrong. And what about other criteria? Add them if you think they are important for your process: "Competition" "Paper Process" "Teaching Value" How do you know they are important? If you lose business because you did not focus enough. Check out the data of your close lost opportunties. That is how MEDDIC came to life.

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The way most SaaS companies structure sales leadership compensation creates inter-team competition in a *NEGATIVE WAY* that costs millions of $’s in revenue and 100’s of hours of headaches a year. Here’s why (and a simple change you can make to fix it): Typically sales managers are compensated on the performance of their direct reports. For example, if their 8 Account Executives crush their targets, the manager's compensation reflects this. This sounds reasonable, right? But what about the rest of the sellers? What about the other 25 Account Executives who need to succeed for your company to hit its growth goals? Sales Managers have different strengths and need to be incentivized to help the ENTIRE sales organization, not just THEIR team. That’s why every time I started a new sales leader role here’s what I did…. I switched the manager comp plan so 20% of their variable earnings were based on the total sales orgs performance, not just their direct reports. I often got pushback, but this simple change always led to stronger collaboration, teamwork, and unity. And helped us avoid account controversy, resentment and entitlement. Sales leaders aren't coin-operated, but they are human and humans respond to incentives. Make sure you're incentivizing the right behavior. And create one team.

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There are two ways to solve gaps in signal-based selling. Only one is guaranteed to work at scale. 1) Revenue Enablement Provide continuous training for (a) every new hire who joins a team and (b) every 6 months to refresh reps on essential information, workflows, and processes. Many factors can impact the effectiveness of enablement activities (from the comprehensiveness of training materials to the trainer’s institutional knowledge, to how closely the individual reps were paying attention that day). Enablement only becomes harder as more people and processes are added to the mix because there are so many moving parts. 2) Revenue Operations Through automation, RevOps can reduce gaps — especially from human error — that cause friction or inaction among reps. Specifically, end-to-end automation. Most common “automations” in signal-based selling usually don’t go far enough. Therefore teams are overly reliant on enablement touchpoints to stay aligned. Ex: A champion moves to a new role and this is automatically updated in Salesforce This automation gets the process from point A to point B, but still relies on multiple human touches from B to Z. End-to-end automation ensures that essential tasks throughout an entire workflow are set up to keep the process moving toward an end goal. It anticipates gaps and opportunities for human error from point A to point Z (meeting booked). Ex: A champion moves to a new role, the CRM record is updated, a rep is notified, and a multi-step persona-specific email sequence is triggered. Would every rep follow this process if it was entirely manual (even with enablement training)? Probably not. That’s why every signal play should be accompanied by clear workflows enabled with end-to-end automation. The play can scale with your team. Signals without action are just noise for reps. Automation guarantees signals get actioned.

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Building Weflow, I've spoken to 200+ #RevOps folks the last 12 months about common Salesforce data capture challenges. Here are things that come up: 1) Poor Salesforce adoption - Shadow tooling - Reps avoid Salesforce - 42% forecast in sheets 2) Poor activity capture - EAC not reportable, nor stored - Missing activities on opportunities - Limited insights based on activities 3) Missing contact data - No contact roles - Buying committees unclear - Multi-threading happening? 4) Process in-compliance - Missing stage entry/ exit criteria - MEDDIC (etc.) not populated - Close date pushed/ overdue 5) CRM bloat - Ops-debt (fields, integrations) - Over customization - Consolidation nightmares after acquisitions 6) Historical data - Opportunity snapshots missing - Process change, data worthless - No unlimited field history tracking Takeaway: Poor Salesforce data quality > missing insights > poor visibility > ineffective deal execution > low predictability > broken revenue engine. What would you add? Comment 👇 -- ➕ Follow me for RevOps content 🔊 Listen to the "RevOps Lab" podcast - link in profile 👀 Visit my free RevOps content library - link in profile ♻️ Share with your friends #RevOps #GTM #Sales

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SaaS Companies are losing HUNDREDS of deals from their crappy discovery and qualification process In the last month, I’ve had 3 discovery calls with 3 large software companies, and all 3 went the same way… Sign-up required a discovery call before the demo, which was just an SDR rattling off a checklist of qualifying questions (classic) All 3 asked: ▶️ What is your company website? ▶️ What are you going to use this for? ▶️ How many users do you need? All 3 said: ▶️ We have a minimum user requirement, which you don’t meet ▶️ I’ll send you a video demo  ▶️ Reach back out when you meet our minimum All 3 failed to: ▶️ Follow-up with pricing details (or send ANY follow-up whatsoever) ▶️ Ask about my growth plans in Q4 and 2025  ▶️ Set up any sort of next steps Some really simple questions could have improved their disco to qualify us better: 1️⃣ What is/ isn’t working about your current process? 2️⃣ What’s the biggest challenge you are looking to solve? 3️⃣ What size is your team today? 4️⃣ What do your growth plans look like? None of these questions were asked. I can’t blame reps for following a strict qualification and discovery process—that’s what they’ve been trained to do But this rigidity can lead to a ton of missed opportunities. It’s not always about a checklist. SDR leaders should listen to some recent disco’s that didn’t make it to an opportunity. Setting a next step might not do anything for your quota this month, but could help get you there next month. Since no one asked about our growth plans, no one discovered that we have an AE joining next month, and would qualify us for their seat requirements… High-quality discovery is impossible if you’re focused on a shortsighted checklist. Sometimes it’s good to go off script. 🦜

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Top 5 key metrics I recommend CROs use for inside sales professionals: 1. Speed of response 2. Efficiency of progression through the process 3. Number of calls per day 4. Number of positive outcomes 5. Demo sets As a CRO leader, these are five metrics that I live by. 

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I was asked what is the fasted way to win new business for sales - get warm introductions in your target accounts. Here are 7 steps that I think will help you get radically more pipeline fast:🔥📈 Inboxes are overflowing, cold outreach is losing its punch. Warm introductions are the key to breaking through the noise and accelerating your sales pipeline. 1. Define Target Accounts 🎯 Zero in on accounts that align with your ideal customer profile. Know their challenges, and understand how your solution uniquely solves them. Focus on a subset you’re confident about – don’t let analysis paralysis slow you down. Key: Don’t get stuck on the first step; just go for it! 2. Identify Connectors in Your Network 🕸️ Expand your network (or automate this with platforms like https://lnkd.in/e-XsFVmR) to match up with contacts who have trusted relationships with key players in your target accounts. Look for people with deep industry and solution experience- they’ll help boost your credibility.  3. Engage with Value First 💬 When requesting an intro, lead with value. Show why the intro matters to their connection and how it benefits them. Remember, your Trusted Advisor isn’t your sales rep – they’re a facilitator of value for their network. Offer insights, unique perspectives, and collaborate in a knowledge exchange. This will set you apart as more than “just another sales rep.” 4. Personalize Your Outreach to the New Contact 🧑‍💼 After a warm into, skip the canned pitch. Reference your mutual connection, then tailor your message to your target accounts needs. Tap into your advisor’s inside knowledge on what truly matters, from active projects to key priorities. This approach makes you relevant, aware, and genuinely interesting. 5. Nurture the Relationship, Not Just the Opportunity 🤝 Warm intros open doors, but it’s the relationships that close deals. Focus on building trust, actively listening, and providing value. Even if there’s no immediate sale. 6. Don’t Forget Your Sales Process 🚀 Whether it’s Solution Selling, MEDDICC, or MEDDPICC, stick to your process to stay on track. Use your advisor’s insights to set you apart, but also to qualify out quickly – if it’s not a fit, pivot to protect your credibility and the trust of your connection. 7. Reward Your Trusted Advisor 🏆 Recognize your advisor’s role in your success! A thoughtful gesture, creative reward, or a few percentage points on the deal can make a significant impact. It shows appreciation, strengthens the partnership, and sets the stage for future collaboration. Warm introductions are your ticket to stronger connections, faster cycles, and higher close rates. Are you tapping into them? 🔑 And if you want to make this easy, check out https://lnkd.in/e-XsFVmR – the first platform designed to automate and scale your ability to find and leverage warm introductions into all of your target accounts. 🔗 #SalesTips #Sales #SDR #SalesPipeline #WarmIntroductions #ForceEquals

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Most sales leaders focus on their top performers. But your best reps will crush quota whether you help them or not. Here's the uncomfortable truth about scaling revenue... Your top 10% will succeed despite you. They'll figure out how to sell your product and close deals even if you give them zero support, no collateral, and an undefined ICP. But you can't build a scalable revenue engine on top 10% talent alone. It's just math. Even with a rigorous interview process and strong recruiting brand, our 12-month retention rate at Levelset was around 55%. And that was GOOD. The key to scaling isn't finding more unicorns. It's raising the floor for everyone else. That means writing down exactly what success looks like. Not just hoping good people will "figure it out." I learned this the hard way. For the first 4 years (or so), we closed deals almost in spite of ourselves. No real sales playbook. No defined process. Just talented people working hard. When we finally documented our exact process - from first touch to close - our ramp time plummeted and consistency shot up. The uncomfortable truth? Most founders spend way more time recruiting than preparing to train and support their hires. Your playbook doesn't need to be fancy. Start with one document: "How to Run a Demo." Make it painfully detailed. Your top reps will hate it. Your new reps will love you for it.

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It's getting to that time of year when your CFO sends an email asking for your help to save $1M or $10M in costs... It's a common tactic when Sales teams don't hit their H1 targets or when the Q3 and Q4 pipeline is looking weaker than expected. If you didn't fill your open headcount fast enough or spend your travel and training budget, you might start to panic and scramble to protect your budget. It's tempting to keep your head down and remain out of sight, hoping you will stay off the Finance team's radar. There's a better way to approach this. A company-wide push for cost savings is a golden opportunity to bring attention to your best ideas. Here are 5 ways you can seize it: 1️⃣ Volunteer to swap some open headcount for outsourced or contingency spending. If you believe your headcount may be trimmed anyway, lean into it by proposing to trade in a portion of your open headcount for agency or outsourced spending. It can help secure your remaining open headcount while simultaneously accelerating your key projects with external resources 2️⃣ Ramp up short-term spending on opportunities with strong ROAS & LTV:CAC. Although your CFO wants to cut costs, spending for revenue growth is a more efficient way to achieve this. Do you have strong Marketing channels where you can accelerate customer acquisition with more paid search spend? Perhaps you've been holding back on Mobile ad spend or non-English paid search - this is the right time to make a case for highly focused investment. 3️⃣ Modernize your tech stack. If you haven't overhauled your technology stack in the past 3 years, take a look at some modern tools and platforms that can eliminate manual effort or reduce high third party spend. It's the perfect time to consolidate and overhaul your use of technology. 4️⃣ Ask for your vendors help. Don't wait until your budget is cut to renegotiate contracts and service agreements with your vendors. They are experts in their field - ask for their ideas and suggestions to reduce costs or gain efficiencies. Ask your web developer agencies how you can reduce costly manual work with routine processes and standardization. Ask your localization agency how AI and Machine Translation can make your budget go farther. 5️⃣ Fast-track revenue growth opportunities. Where are the low-hanging fruit opportunities to expand or grow revenue in your team? Consider adapting your roadmap to fast-track initiatives that drive monetization and lower churn. Perhaps you can repurpose open headcount towards initiatives that have strong revenue potential. How else have you approached company-wide cost saving goals?

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