If you aiming to build a “sales machine” that generates repeatable, predictable, scalable and sustainable revenue and growth, you need to first systematize your sales – i.e. you have to develop a System for yourself. Such system, just like coaches develop for their professional sports teams, in turn comprises several sub-systems and…  Read More >

I believe that your people are your biggest asset.  And on a Sales Team your people – sales professionals – can be engaged or disengaged based both on your company’s and your Sales Team’s own culture.  I care personally about building a positive and high-performance corporate culture and Sales Culture…  Read More >

The book “Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell” by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle was one of the best books on management and leadership that I’ve read in the past decade. Bill Campbell was the coach to some of the best CEOs in high tech…  Read More >

John Wooden who is one of the greatest sports coaches of all time said “Don’t mistake activity and achievement“. And Lou Gerstner, a former CEO of IBM who turned IBM’s fortunes around, similarly instructed – “Don’t confuse activity with results“.  Being busy and making an effort doesn’t mean you’re actually…  Read More >

Hitting a sales number is a complex thing to do – not complicated but complex – because there are so many variables and moving parts.  There is no “one size fits all” and not a magic bullet and it is “contextual” to each company and it’s own issues.  But here is…  Read More >

The term (or a portmanteau?) that we all hear a lot in sales management is “A-Player” and you typically hear it in “you should only hire A-Players”.  But what does that mean – what is the definition of an “A-Player” in sales? Here is a great definition – see this…  Read More >

100-Day Turnaround Plan – For Tech Investing (how Cerberus Would Do it) Just sharing my notes and insights on the 100 Day Plan to begin turning around a company (with AI cleanup) Day 0–30: Rapid Diagnostics & Stabilization Leadership / Governance After investing, focus on recruiting an interim CRO/CFO if…  Read More >

As a VP of Sales, you know your reps don’t have unlimited time to work their live deals.  You must coach them to prioritize their Opps in the pipeline to ensure that they are on track to hitting its goals.  By analyzing the Pipeline and focusing on the highest probability…  Read More >

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”  – W. Edwards Deming ——- These are the topics the CEO & CRO of a $20M-$100M+ in ARR PE-Backed company must consider: First Step for PE Portfolio Companies Engineer & Optimize an Effective Sales…  Read More >

I was recently asked what a new Sales Leader should do during their first three months (i.e. the first quarter) at their job.  And just the other day, I saw a link from SBI posting a video where Matt Sharrers (the CEO of SBI) asked Eric Vermillion (a former CRO of BlueCat)…  Read More >

Software Turnaround Investing Playbook – Translating the Cerberus Investment Approach to Tech Note – just sharing my own notes   Pre-Deal / Diagnosis Financial Stress Test Model churn sensitivity (GRR -5 to -10%) Simulate CAC payback stretch (18 → 36 months) Stress-test debt service under downside ARR scenarios Product/Tech Review…  Read More >

  According to Private Equity International, PE firms are looking to boost portfolio company valuations while operational issues are becoming increasingly more complex. Source: https://www.privateequityinternational.com/record-demand-operating-partners-gps-seek-boost-portfolio-company-value-survey/ “Operating partner roles are the fastest-growing positions in private equity…” Here is value creation in 5 charts: https://www.peievents.com/en/event/operating-partners-technology-forum/value-creation-in-5-charts/      

What is the top Value Creation Area for PE Operating Partners? See the chart below – the single biggest area is: “Sales, marketing, and revenue growth”. Growing revenue will lead to EBITDA improvements and Multiple Expansion which both drive real value for PE portfolio companies.   Source: PEI – Private…  Read More >

I know every other VP of Sales or a front-line sales manager (FLM) struggles with forecasting accuracy so I thought to share what has worked really well for me with very high level of accuracy.  It’s the Commit Process.  This is part of the way to build up your rep…  Read More >

Business managers/executives are hired for the primary reason to make good decisions.  But making good and smart decisions is very complex. Additionally, many business decisions can affect a lot of important things in the organization including people (and their families).  Good decision-making requires more than just critical thinking skills (analyzing…  Read More >

  The CHAMP Sales System Qualification Criteria   Here is a summary of the CHAMP Qualification Criteria and you can find some example questions below.     The best way to align with your Buyer – is to ask them questions and actively listen with the goal of being helpful…  Read More >

Every B2B SaaS company must be able to communicate to every employee on the Revenue Team (sales or marketing or customer success) the following: Who – who is the ideal type of buyer – or what is called the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)? Your targeted Ideal Company Profile (size, type,…  Read More >

“Select for traits, train for skills” – Chris Lytle, The Accidental Sales Manager   Recruiting talent (and building high-performing teams) is the #1 priority for a CEO, CRO or a VP of Sales for any B2B SaaS company. Previously, I wrote about the importance of and how to make your…  Read More >

I notice in many B2B SaaS companies there is a wrong organizational design starting with too many “player/coaching” issues which is function of what is known as a “Scope of Control“.  Read on… and if this is feeling like it’s just academic or theoretical then I really recommend you to…  Read More >

The other day there was a post on LinkedIn about how some AEs (Account Execs / sellers) want to be promoted to sales managers.  I posted a comment that it is necessary for any executive to help illuminate for all AEs out there that they are misconstruing what management is…  Read More >

Many companies don’t hire well for sales rep roles or even at executive level such as for a CRO or for a VP of Sales role.  They focus too much on teachables rather than on unteachables.  That’s one of the many mistakes to avoid. Dan Ross, the SVP of Commercial…  Read More >

Several years ago, Jason Lemkin at SaaStr wrote the post “What a Great VP Sales Actually Does. Where The Magic Is. And When to Hire One.” Recruiting – 20% of the time must be invested here the most important thing to do well for a Sales Leader is recruiting great…  Read More >

Many PE portfolio company CROs (and Sales Leaders across the sales organization) track their Sales Pipeline Coverage ratio as a KPI internally and use it for reporting to the Board of Directors.  They consider 3x to be a good coverage ratio. These CROs also set a goal for their global…  Read More >

When should sales managers focus on inspecting Opps during the Pipeline Review – higher up in the funnel (i.e. early) or later? Most sales managers engage later in the process when there is some problem with an Opportunity but by that point it’s too late. It’s natural to focus there…  Read More >

If you could only choose one for your company, would you hire the a) top sales management or b) top salespeople? This questions puzzles a lot of folks.  And the answer I hear most often is that having better sales reps is of a higher value to a company than…  Read More >

Every VP of Sales has 3 key managing responsibilities and roles at the company: People manager: Build a successful sales team Customer manager: Provide exceptional customer experience Business manager: Attain the business and sales goals Sales Manager: Create and manage the system for the sales force Originally this was covered by…  Read More >

A successful business is all about great People! Recruiting and bringing in exceptional people is the key to success.  You can have a great product but without great people your company will either not go very far or simple won’t reach it’s full potential.  When I recruit and interview candidates to…  Read More >

Price vs. Cost There is a big difference between Price vs. Cost that is important to communicate when helping a prospect make a buying decision. A price is what you pay.  A cost is the “Total Cost of Ownership” (TCO = Cost) of something.  For example, you can look at…  Read More >

The Permanent and Unchanging Pillars of a Blueprint for Scaling Sales   Synopsis: In B2B SaaS, there are many commonalities and fundamental consistencies These don’t change much from one B2B SaaS company to another – they are fairly consistent I call them “Sales Pillars” when it comes to the commonalities…  Read More >

I frequently hear a question about what makes someone a good VP of Sales when companies are looking for one.  So below are some of the fundamental attributes of a successful and effective VP of Sales. (And also want to make a point – there is something specific that is…  Read More >

I’ve been a fan of the Farnam Street blog by Shane Parrish for the past 4-5 years.  One of his Principles is “Thoughtful Opinions Held Loosely”. This is based on what Paul Saffo introduced as “Strong opinions, weakly held” concept. Bub Sutton (who wrote Good Boss, Bad Boss) wrote about…  Read More >

The stage of growing sales revenue from $10M to $100M is really exciting.  I’ve had experience in this sales revenue range at 3 companies: AppAssure – we went from $10M to $25 Million in sales around the acquisition by DELL Acronis – we went from $19 Million to $100+ Million…  Read More >

The sales function at any company is very complex. A successful sales organization is the result of many variegated factors which are directly affected and also indirectly influenced by the sales leaders of those organization (i.e. a EVP or VP of Sales or the CRO – the executive who is…  Read More >

Every effective VP of Sales needs to create and use a tool known as a Skillset Matrix to validate the skills, knowledge, and proficiency of their sales teams. There are different types – one can be based on ratings which rate the skills available on the team.  And it will…  Read More >

If you are looking to accelerate your revenue with a new product launch or entering a new market, one of the key aspects of your Marketing Strategy must be a clearly defined Go-to-Market.  A Go-to-Market Strategy (aka “GTM”) is, at the most basic level, a plan of how you “go to…  Read More >

Here are some great books I read by professional sports coaches which I thought apply perfectly to Sales Leaders who want to learn the real art of coaching from the best: Bill Walsh – Finding a Winning Edge Bill Walsh – The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of…  Read More >

A couple of years ago, I was invited to present at the annual Inside Sales – Sales Acceleration Summit and I talked about “The Science of Sales” (InsideSales.com posted the presentation on Slideshare). It was fun to see that the other presenters at this event were the likes of Steve Young, a…  Read More >

Unlike a VP of Sales at a larger Mid-Market SaaS company, a VP of Sales at a $5M-$20M ARR Growth Stage SaaS business is more focused & hands-on: Sales motions Helps create or improve the optimal Go-to-Market (GTM) Develops the right Messaging for sales: Positioning, Unique Value Proposition, the Elevator…  Read More >

Several years ago Google wanted to determine whether managers matter and, if so, then what makes a manager great. Their research team first tried to prove that managers actually don’t matter and that the quality of a manager didn’t affect a team’s performance.  This hypothesis was due to a belief held…  Read More >

Here are the lists of analyses and reports that you can use to manage GTM (mostly Sales & Marketing). Some of these are contextual and there are additional analyses I’d do for different types of companies but if you are running a B2B sales & marketing org in SaaS then…  Read More >

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”  – W. Edwards Deming To grow your team that sells effectively and efficiently and to scale your revenue growth, every VP of Sales must operationalize selling into a defined, formal, structured framework for the…  Read More >

Most products on the market are not “Must Have”.  But that is OK because this is not a binary switch but a spectrum and you can do a number of things to move on this spectrum away from “Nice to Have” towards “Must Have”. Most companies are much closer to the…  Read More >