Lindsey Meyl

If you want to hit $100M ARR (and position your company for true scale), you must master enterprise sales. Here are the 11 critical skills your team needs to consistently close 6, 7 and 8 figure deals: 1. Understanding fundamental differences between transactional selling and enterprise sales 2. Developing the right pricing strategies to align with your customer 3. True multi-stakeholder and multi-threaded sales processes 4. High impact account-based marketing strategies including dedicated virtual programming 5. Field sales support and in-person program development 6. Territory design and comp planning 7. Building the team including pre-sale architects, reps, and customer success 8. Aligning the organization and staffing new functions 9. Building out services to ensure your customers solve their problems 10. Mutual action planning built around client outcomes 11. Deal management at the Board level These are all fundamental skills Pavilion taught previously but the scope and intensity are different when it comes to true Enterprise sales. That’s why Enterprise GTM School is so important and it’s become a foundation of our educational curriculum. We’ll teach you the entire enterprise playbook, give you the workbooks, tools, and processes, and prepare you to hit true scale. The course is included FREE with Executive Membership. It's an absolute can’t miss! And it starts TOMORROW Apply here: https://lnkd.in/ezspvCZe P.S. Not a member yet? DM me to get 10% off Enterprise GTM School

216

23 Comments

A poorly executed #customersuccess strategy will kill your #NRR for years to come. I've seen it first-hand too many times over the years. Here is how you deliver a well-executed CS strategy to drive great NRR and ultimately, business growth: 🛣️ 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝗗𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 & 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 The first step in any customer success strategy is understanding the full & dynamic revenue & customer journey. This means not just knowing what your customers do, but why they do it. How and why did they buy your services? How do they move through their journey with you (rarely ina straight line!)? By understanding their motivations, you can better anticipate their needs and deliver solutions that truly add value. And don't forget, the old-school customer journey is not the standard anymore, you need to use the full, dynamic revenue & customer journey to get the full picture. This stretches from pre-sale to post-sale and allows for the customer to move in and out of journey phases/stages dynamically. 📈 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 Customer success is not a reactive function. It's about being proactive, anticipating customer needs, and addressing them before they become issues. You have to ensure that your strategy is aligned around, and fosters, a proactive CS culture and process that allows your team to execute effectively. This not only improves customer satisfaction, but also reduces churn, and creates more expansion opportunities. Both key factors in improving NRR. 📊 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 In the #SaaS & #CS world, we have access to a wealth of data. By leveraging this data, we can make informed decisions that drive customer success. This could be anything from identifying usage patterns to predict churn, to understanding which features drive the most value for customers and beyond. And it needs to go beyond telemetry, usage etc. Also capture, track and understand customer goals and other qualitative data points. One problem is that this data is often siloed or hard to access, so make sure you have systems (like RevSetter) that can bridge that gap and allows CSMs to effectively action the data & insights. 🤝 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫-𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 Customer success should not be the responsibility of a single department. It should be ingrained in the company culture. When everyone in the organization understands the value of customer success, it becomes a strategic priority that drives business growth. This is why the dynamic revenue & customer journey, the engagement focus, and the proactive mindset are so important. When those are present - and a strategic & customer-centric approach is adopted by the CEO & leadership - the sky is the limit. Leverage these four building blocks and your CS strategy and execution will thank you for it ✅ *** 🛎️ If you enjoy my content, follow me for more ♻️ Repost to share with your network

28

8 Comments

The #SAAS revolution of ever growth of sales & market cap is not working for most users The impact of unspent licenses and unused tools are becoming an eye sore The use it or lose it philosophy with users are being used for many IT tools by business focussed IT departments I see decommissioning of SAAS tools becoming a trend as many companies see taking out systems that are just protecting old ways of doing work a value driver Those providers that try to arm twist customers into staying may succeed in the very short term, but are well served to remember that SAAS was sold on " pay per drink", rip and replace and their ilk #Salesforce #Microsoft

29

6 Comments

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?

16

2 Comments

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!

37

4 Comments

How can you be more strategic in RevOps? - Move from report jockey to strategic advisor? Here’s a tangible example: - Suppose we’re running a Pipeline Council meeting... - We start showing CQ pipeline and forecast are on target Then, we show the pipe gen for the next quarter is not on track. Here’s how we could tackle the conversation: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴? - This slide shows our pipeline for next quarter. - Current progress is $1M against a target of $3M - We’re behind pace to hit that $3M target on time. 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗞𝗣𝗜 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼? - This will impact one of our major KPIs… - New business bookings for next quarter.” 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱? - We have about 40 more days here - To increase our pipeline generation - In order to close the gap we have today 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁? - If we stay at the same pace - We’ll likely only reach $2.2M in pipeline. - We would likely miss next quarter’s revenue targets. 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: - We can see the issue is in the enterprise segment. - We’re creating about 1/3rd the opportunities we need 𝗦𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: - We’d suggest having a 2nd meeting - Looping in marketing and field sales - To brainstorm a one-off campaign here - And how we can close this gap together 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽: - Other ideas to beef up pipe gen in the next 40 days? This is the fundamental difference in being strategic - We’re identifying a root issue and a potential solution - We’re making it easy for leadership to respond to this data - Not asking them to analyze data and make conclusions alone But what do you think? What would you add here? 🤔 More on this in in yesterday’s 📰 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙊𝙥𝙨 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙡𝙮 📰 Get it here: https://bit.ly/4cDUcVO ✌️

33

3 Comments

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."

24

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."

27

2 Comments

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.

47

5 Comments

The first version of the SaaS GTM playbook was written twenty years ago. Salesforce championed it. Mark Roberge published The Sales Acceleration Formula about Hubspot’s journey. Over the next two decades, we analyzed, quantified, instrumented, & optimized many aspects of the SaaS GTM. Account executive to SDR ratios, sales cycle lengths, conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, customer lifetime values, net dollar retention. The new software GTM playbook has yet to be written. But the companies who figure it out will become the next wave of massive businesses. On Tuesday, Theory held an event with [Dave Morse] formerly at Hebbia & Scale AI, Flo Crivello from Lindy, Paul Yacoubian from Copy.AI, & Chris Changfrom Gradient to discuss how AI changes these practices. These were my take aways : - Selling AI is being discovered because the technology is new. Buyers don’t know how to use it or how to buy it. - Because the sales motions are new, we can’t apply the previous playbook to the new sales process. The CEO/founder should hire a sales leader that they fully trust who focuses on ultimate success. The sales process is a part of the product : using both the customer’s language & the ultimate use of the product through success efforts - Between PLG vs sales led, more companies were sales-led. If starting with PLG, the template sells the product. Fight the empty box problem with great concrete templates that demonstrate how to use AI. If selling top-down, most of the conversations today are at the C-suite rather than the mid-market predominantly because the buying process is new. - Figuring out how to consistently produce wow moments with non-deterministic software is essential. - The room was split on pricing model : seats, usage, or some hybrid. Ultimately, pricing captures 15-30% of the value the software/AI creates. Developing a strong case for this with buyers will be key because the ROI question from buyers is real especially as the broader software market feels pressure. - Only VCs care about the word agents / agentic : for most enterprises, agents mean a customer support agent. Many teams don’t care about the underlying technology, they seek a solution to their problem. Tomorrow, we’ll be publish the results of the 2024 GTM Survey which we’ll reveal at Saastr in which we dig into the use of AI on sales processes & the impact to efficiency. Thanks to the panelists & attendees for a great discussion.

182

16 Comments

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.

42

6 Comments

Half the outbound prospecting tips I see on LI are RevOps tips in disguise. Things salespeople had to do to hit quota that RevOps should have, but didn't, do for them. Here are just two examples. 𝗧𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 There's no bigger waste of time than calling suboptimal prospects outside of your ICP and Personas. The first step here is a data science exercise. You take your ICP and Personas definition and run it against all available internal and external data. Then you map out the capacity of each rep to determine how many accounts they can handle. How long does it take to complete each step in the sales process? How many accounts can they do that with before they run out of time and skip steps? Then you take that number of accounts and use your data to identify the absolute best accounts for each rep. Does any of this sound like a "sales activity?" Is this really what you hired expensive salespeople to do? To fumble through something RevOps could do 10X better and 10X faster? 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 What salespeople should be doing is research on that carefully curated list of accounts and contacts. RevOps can give them a BIG headstart by aggregating data into a single place so that they can quickly see things like: - Contact Info - Website URL - LinkedIn URL - Firmographic Metrics - Technographic Metrics - Marketing Engagement - External Intent Signals As an AE, I spent 30% - 70% of my time on all this stuff. As AE #1 in a small startup this took up most of my time, as I had to start from zero. But even at Salesforce, working inside their well-oiled machine, I still had to do a lot of this on my own. Most companies will give reps thousands of accounts when they can only handle a couple hundred or so and expect them to do the data science instead of spending their time actually selling. Don't waste money on AEs. Set them up to use their time more effectively. If you want to read more, we wrote up an article on this a while back in 📰 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙊𝙥𝙨 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙡𝙮 📰 https://bit.ly/43lFOxQ ✌️

36

4 Comments

What we were promised: a unified ops function for all GTM teams. 😎 What we got: a new name for sales ops. 😔 The labels aren’t really the issue here. It’s the fact that alignment across functional ops teams still seems elusive in many companies. These are some common objections to creating a unified RevOps function: 😰 Functional leaders are worried about their ops teams becoming less responsive 😰 MOPS and CS Ops worry about getting swallowed up by Sales Ops and losing autonomy  😰 Marketing and CS worry their needs won’t be prioritized if RevOps reports to a sales leader These concerns are legitimate and need to be addressed. But they don’t change one simple reality: a lack of alignment among operational teams is usually just a mirror of the lack of alignment among the GTM functions. And these silos harm business performance. Instead of focusing on the challenges, let’s look at what a business can GAIN when ops teams are strongly aligned or unified: 🗺️ A holistic view across the entire revenue process ⚖️ Initiatives prioritized by business impact rather than executive fiat 🥰  A more unified and seamless customer experience 💰 More efficient tech spend with fewer redundant tools 🤝 All revenue teams rowing in the same direction 🤗 Pooled ops resources and mutual support 💪 A stronger ops function that can manage performance rather than just close tickets These teams DO exist, and this week on RevOps FM, I spoke with Julia Kim, who leads one of them at Electric. Julia leads a very mature RevOps function that supports marketing, sales, CS, and partnerships. Not only does this org structure work—her team is a driving force behind the business, which wasn’t at all the case when ops teams were embedded in their functions. In this episode, Julia shares: • The scope and structure of her team • How they plan and prioritize • How they balance running the business as usual with innovation and strategy • How RevOps can have different objectives at different stages of maturity • How she finds efficiencies across the tech stack • And much more Episode link in the comments 👇 —--- P.S. a unified function is one way to achieve alignment, but I don’t suggest it’s the only way. At my company, for example, my team supports marketing and BDR Ops and reports into marketing, while all other ops teams are centralized. This still works very well because a) The marketing leader also reports to the COO, ensuring consistent priorities b) Marketing ops still works closely with other ops teams, has regular cadences, shared OKRs, etc. So the key factors here are a centralized reporting structure and close collaboration. P.P.S. I feel like I've seen the meme I used before somewhere. If you created it first please raise your hand and I'll gladly give credit 😊

75

19 Comments

Salesforce revised its pipeline coverage ratio to 3x, shedding light on the math keeping execs up at night. How can 1 ratio blow up your entire GTM model? It's not rocket science. It's just math. Particularly, pipeline generation math. Salesforce went from 2x to 3x. You might be going from 3x to 4x, or even 4x to 5x. What does this mean? Assumptions about pipeline coverage are falling like dominos and leaving GTM orgs with a massive hole in their forecasts. When this happens, the math gets really bad, really fast. Picture this: you're a best in class GTM org like Salesforce and you've just updated your pipe coverage ratio from 2x to 3x. Needing 50% more pipeline is painful enough. But the punishment doesn't stop there. Pipeline generated by your sellers is also down. Buyers are reluctant to champion products, and budgets are tight. This leads to longer sales cycles, more discounting, and plummeting deal sizes. Across the board, reps are producing less pipeline. Ranges vary by category, but let's assume pipeline creation is down 25% for illustrative purposes. (We're going to keep the math simple, because specifics will vary by company). On a $100M new business goal, you'd previously need $200M in pipeline. At $1M in pipeline per AE, you could bring it in with a team of 200. Now you need $300M of pipeline to close that same $100M in revenue. AEs are creating $750k instead of $1M, so that same team of 200 is bringing in $150M in pipeline, only half what you need for the year. Draw out the math and you suddenly need 200 additional (fully ramped!) sellers to deliver the same $100M in revenue. That's DOUBLE the headcount. Your CEO and CFO's heads are spinning, because this wreaks absolute havoc on a company's operating model. But that's a post for another time. You can tweak the assumptions if you'd like, but it's terrifying any way you look at it. No amount of passion, skill, or dedication can overcome math. You can't escape math. The bad news? This doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. The good news? Recent advances in AI can change some of the assumptions around the people, process, and technology equation required to generate new pipeline. In the old world, the only answer would be to double headcount. In the new world, there are ways to drive enormous leverage into the equation. Scaling with people doesn't have to be the answer, you can scale people with AI like no time in history. Which means the cavalry could be on the way...

50

4 Comments

Most companies aren’t experimenting enough in GTM. - Products, Channels, Initiatives - They drag on for years without working - Or they're killed off before they have a chance Here are some examples: 𝟭. 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗤𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗮𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 - Reps are told to log more activity - This doesn’t produce more revenue - But no one is measuring so it continues 𝟮. 𝗠𝗤𝗟'𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁 - Marketing has an MQL target - Lead score is changed to hit target - But it doesn’t produce enough revenue - And it still continues for many years on end 𝟯. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗞𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗧𝗼𝗼 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗹𝘆 - Company launches a Podcast - It doesn’t generate revenue immediately - It’s killed off just six months after it started - Long before it had any chance to succeed 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴? - CXO gets a new idea - Attends a conference - Sees a shiny new tool - Wants to implement it - Then forgets about it - Until funding gets tight - And we need to look for things to cut Is this the right way to deploy capital and resources in a business? 🤔 Instead, revenue teams should initiate measured experiments with clear KPIs to track progress from the beginning, to defined milestones, to the goal outcome. In tomorrow’s 📰 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙊𝙥𝙨 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙡𝙮 📰 we’ll break down how to do this. Subscribe to get it here: https://bit.ly/49RCm0h ✌️

25

7 Comments

Here are 3 differences between a low-performing and high-performing #CSM. Low-performing CSM (LP CSM) <---> High-performing CSM (HP CSM) 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐦𝐞𝐝 <---> 𝐈𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥 #CS can be overwhelming. There is always a lot going on. From customer requests, demands, expectations etc to internal goals, KPIs, priorities etc. LP CSMs have a really hard time managing this. While HP CSMs know how to prioritize, say no, and focus on what moves the meddle, the LP CSMs spend their time putting out fires, chasing customer requests and running around. 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 <--> 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 LP CSMs are reactive with their work. They start their day by opening up their email or Slack, see what is being asked of them and jumps in to resolve those things. HP CSMs spend one hour on Sunday night planning out their week to see what they need to accomplish, what will move the needle and create a plan of attack. 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 <--> 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 LP CSMs typically still need to improve their business acumen, but can still be good at talking about their product and all the features and things it can do. That becomes their focus with customers, how to use the product or service. HP CSMs on the other hand, have high business acumen and focus on the "why" as much as the "how". Why will this feature help? Why is this important for their business goals? What is their business really? HP CSMs know how to talk business, not just product. At the end of the day, there are many, many tactical and strategic difference between low and high performing CSMs that I could list out. But these 3 are typically fundamental. If you spend your entire time chasing tasks and requests, you will not have time to move the needle on anything important. If you are tactical and start each day from scratch in CS, you will never be "ahead" of the game and constantly stay in chase-mode. If training a customer on the product is just about the features, the CSM wouldn't be needed...just send them a training video and do group training sessions for customers. So as a CSM - or leader of CSMs - ask yourself: am I (are we) in control, proactive, and business-minded? If yes, then you have the foundation to succeed. If no, then you have some work to do... *** 🛎️ If you enjoy my content, follow me for more ♻️ Repost to share with your network #CS #customersuccess #CS #accountmanagement #revsetter

15

5 Comments

Here is the real impact that value selling is having for revenue teams: Tom Pisello David Yockelson 🔑48% improvement in winrate 🔑35% increase in deal size 🔑25% reduction in sales cycle time BUT...... ⛔️ only 19% of reps and 19% of pipeline is using value selling today. BIGGGG opportunity here...!

17

4 Comments

The AEs and SDRs from 5 years ago are the CROs and VPs today. This may sound somewhat self-serving, but here it goes. It’s been cool to see the goodwill I created with those AEs and SDRs over the years turn into meaningful opportunities, pipeline, and revenue for Copy.ai. This has never been the primary intent of my presence or content here. But I will say, it’s a nice benefit. Build trust, provide value, be kind, build your network. It’s worth it for many reasons. #sales #sdr #gtmai

176

12 Comments