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 >

For a CRO or VP of Sales to be truly great, they must first be great at recruiting and building winning sales teams.  And that starts with first becoming a great evaluator of talent. If you’re not there yet, you should learn how to identify talent when others totally can’t…  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 >

Today too many SaaS companies have fallen into a trap of designing their sales processes to optimize for their own sales and marketing teams rather than for their buyers.  They approach buyers as just another transaction and focus on checking off a couple of checkboxes but this doesn’t match the way…  Read More >

[Draft] You may have heard the author of “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A new paradigm for sustainable success” book. I think every C-level executive including every VP of Sales and CRO have had people on our team that we knew were talented but we also knew they needed…  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 >

Here is a comprehensive list I’ve used to develop my sales teams:   Prospecting Outbound Calling Skills Email Prospecting Inbound Lead Prospecting Capitalizing on peak selling time and knowing the peak times Understands key prospecting insights Prospecting into inbound leads Developing Multi-touch & Multi-channel prospecting cadence Effective LinkedIn Prospecting Consultative…  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 >

During a conversation with a company I advise, we were discussing coaching and compensation for the sales team.  This compelled me to share that those 2 are the fundamental levers for managing your sales professionals.  And I found that there are 6 “levers” in total that a VP of Sales…  Read More >

It’s time for a check-up – Q1 is over and it’s the right time for a quick sales health check-up and quickly do a “gap analysis” while performing these two assessments: Sales Execution & Performance – attainment of the Q1 sales number and sales team quota attainment Sales Strategy Assessment…  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 >

Today is the Friday that marks the last workweek day of Q1’2019 which is generally the last selling day of the quarter (although all of us have from time to time closed deals during the weekend or got the final paperwork signature on a Sunday night).  A lot of sales reps…  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 >

Prospecting is critical to grow the sales pipeline.  I thought to share what I typically share with sales teams about the framework for making cold outreach. Today prospects are too busy so outbound prospecting is harder than ever – Jill Konrath is well known for her writing about how prospects…  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 >

As part of the complete CHAMP System – I will be publishing my internal slide decks that I’ve used to build teams and develop them – it includes the following: CHAMP Selling Methodology Training CHAMP Sales Process – Engineering an Effective Sales Process CHAMP Sales Leadership & Sales Coaching CHAMP…  Read More >

I was recently talking to a CEO of a SaaS company that has recently hit $10M+ in ARR and is on the way to $20M, then hopefully $50M and a $100M. This is the similar growth trajectory I had seen at AppAssure (which went from even less than $10M to…  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 >

What may be a reason that when you hire new sales reps and one or a couple are not selling effectively?  Companies are often left wondering what is not working and I thought I’d share a couple of factors that may help you determine the root causes. Over the years,…  Read More >

When hiring sales talent – it’s wise to always remember where “experience” fits in the order of priority.  This is one of the most counter-intuitive things that many average CROs/VPs of Sales in B2B SaaS may not get but some of the experienced great ones definitely know. I was reviewing Trish…  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 >

How to Interview Senior Sales Executives Every high-growth company needs to hire senior executives to own and run different business functions – whether you’re hiring a COO, a CRO, a VP of Sales or others, the advice below applies equally well to recruiting any of these roles. The simplest advice…  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 >

There are several options for key performance objectives or core KPIs that a company sets for the sales leader.  The obvious KPI would be the actual Sales $ closed but there is more to the job.  The key areas of measurable responsibilities of a sales executive (or any operational executive for…  Read More >

I enjoy helping companies and have been doing some interesting consulting and advisory projects over the past few months. Most of such projects I’ve done in the past are focused on scaling and accelerating revenue growth and helping accelerate the sales pipeline via improving the entire Marketing > Sales funnel/pipeline. …  Read More >

This is a series of articles on analyzing issues and developing a strategy to increase sales and growth. It’s the beginning of a new year and a new Q1.  Many of us and many companies are doing Sales Kickoffs this week.  And some companies (i.e. their CEOs, COOs, CROs, VPs…  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 >

Building “Winning Teams” is not about getting a bunch of stars to contribute their individual effort together – it’s much more about the collective and collaborative effort. This is how Belichick builds exceptional teams fairly consistently year after year. Here is the Synopsis: Belichick has a unique talent for seeing…  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 >

This is the time that every VP of Sales talks about the Annual Sales Kickoff.  It’s important to get it right and start a new year with a great Kickoff. But there is another kickoff meeting that I think is very important – the “Weekly Sales Kickoff” which is a…  Read More >

I’ve written extensively on Data-Driven and Analytical Management of Sales (as well as Sales & Marketing). I also wrote few books (http://www.zorian.com/books/) on the Quant Sales Management methods. But in this article I decided to share actual lists of the most essential analyses and reports that I regularly use to…  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 >

Every successful Sales Leader knows what “Sales Strategy” means. But this term is sometimes over-used or thrown around in ways that don’t really refer to the correct definition of Sales Strategy.  So what is the correct definition of Sales Strategy? To state simply, it’s an operating plan for the sales…  Read More >

Don’t make the common mistake of making a specific industry experience a key factor when building sales teams, hiring sales reps or sales executives.  It’s called “The Fallacy of Industry Experience” and is well described here in the Harvard Business Review article “What Makes a Good Salesman”: “Many sales executives…  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 >

Building great companies requires building great teams – one of the keys to that is knowing how to identify great Talent (i.e. not merely talent but capital-T “Talent”). What I mean by great Talent is really what I call the “10x” people who are the force multipliers. I have used…  Read More >

A few years ago Forrester surveyed B2B buyers and most conduct 50% of their research online before making a purchase decision.  And most will have formed a strong opinion before talking to B2B sales. These buyers are much more in control of their decision than a B2B marketing team or…  Read More >