There are only three things that matter when hiring a sales engineer. Culture fit, ability to understand your product & sales process, and their ability to demo. Everything comes down to these essentials. Here is how I screen for all three. Culture I’ll keep this one brief. You need to make sure your candidate can […]
In SaaS Sales, Meet Your Prospects at Their Point of Awareness
If you are selling SaaS in a nascent or developing market, your sales reps must meet their prospects at their point of interest, or awareness. And to do this, they must be experts at funnel-aware conversation skills. This is one of the most obvious, but also, overlooked sales skill to cultivate in a SaaS sales […]
Planning Your First Annual Sales Kickoff? Here’s Your Checklist.
If you are planning your first annual sales kickoff meeting, chances are your company is young and your team is small. It can be tempting to just put your head down, keep forging through the day to day and put the whole thing off. In a small team, a sales kickoff can feel like, “What’s […]
What Can You Expect From a New Sales Leader?
In a startup environment it can be hard to know what to expect from a new sales leader you bring in from the outside. And while I hate to say, “It depends”,…well, it depends. Much of what a new sales leader at a startup will be able to achieve will depend on the resources available, […]
When Is It Time To Scale The Sales Team?
Sometimes founders scale their sales team too early, and too quickly. Like, before the first sale. Or after a few sales, but no demand gen machine, no clear ideal customer profile, and barely a sketch of a sales process. I think founders need to make the first sales, and lead the startup sales team, until that becomes […]
Is It Time For a Sales Engineer?
A SaaS sales team usually starts with a founder who sells. Then a salesperson or two. Maybe some SDRs. Then a director or VP. Then more reps. Then sales operations. And at some point, most B2B SaaS sales leaders find themselves wondering, “Do we need a sales engineer?” Hiring my first sales engineer was one […]
A Surefire Way to Hire The Best Candidates
I’ve spent the week helping a few clients interview for some key new hires. I’ve kissed some frogs, and found a few princes (or princesses, as the case may be). And there is one way I can quickly tell the difference between the duds and the superstars. I base my hiring decisions on the quality […]
Take Customer Churn Reasons at Face Value And Do Something About It
If you do a search for “SaaS churn reasons” you will see some great articles and pick up some useful advice about combating churn. Many articles will point to “lack of value” as the root of most churn. And they are right. In most cases if a customer doesn’t receive value, they will not continue […]
How to Not Blow Setting Quota for Your Sales Team
If you are fortunate enough to be running a mature sales organization, then the process of determining quota and compensation for the coming year is pretty straightforward. For the rest of us in startup land it’s a head-scratching, confounding exercise. Here’s how to not blow setting quota for your sales team. Take stock of […]
A.R.E. Planning for SaaS Companies
The A.R.E plan is the simple approach to outline the initiatives and tactics to reach your goals for SaaS customer acquisition, retention, and expansion. For those leaders and teams who don’t love to plan, but know they need to.
