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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

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 >

I notice in many B2B 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 reconsider…  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 >

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 >

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 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 >

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 >

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 >

“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 >

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 >

When an executive is looking for a way to simplify how they manage their company or a business unit, I recommend the following system that I’ve used consistently over the years. You can use the following simplified 6-step Management System to run a business function and it covers most requirements…  Read More >

There are several problems that organizations face with a typical/average manager based on research published in the Harvard Business Review.  It turns out that many “leaders” are actually not able to perform a leadership function effectively.  It is a real obstacle for companies if someone who is supposed to be…  Read More >

Core values for Sales teams are important because they are the team’s identity and the principles and beliefs by which a sales teams operates. Below I wanted to share the Core Values that I set for my sales teams and by which I hire, and by which we operate every…  Read More >

If you want to attract great people over years in the sales or SaaS community then you have to offer and enable a quality and very professional “Candidate Experience” that puts your brand image in a positive light.  It’s a “small world” out there and people talk about companies and their…  Read More >

There are always gaps between Strategy and its Execution, between business expectations and the actual results.  You can invest a lot of time into a solid Corporate Strategy or your Sales Strategy that you think will deliver exceptional results but some times the result will be off from what you intended to achieve.…  Read More >

Sales Pipeline is a term that gets used often – but what does it actually mean (and how is it different from a Sales Funnel)? Sales Pipeline Definition: A sales pipeline is a set of live, qualified in-flight / open sales deals (i.e. “Opportunities”), that sales reps manage to strategically…  Read More >