Winning a new customer can feel like having an amazing first date: you seem to have the same objectives and you just know you’ll be a great fit. It all clicks. Then, a couple of weeks later…nothing. Though it’s hard to admit, your onboarding process could be to blame. Recently, a product manager for Hubspot […]
Sales
Perfecting the SDR to AE Handoff
Last week I spoke on a panel at the Salesloft Rainmaker event on the topic of perfecting the handoff of a prospect from the SDR to the AE. The handoff can make or break the sale. This is a topic often left orphaned by sales leaders and something that needs far more attention than it […]
When Should You Hire Your First SDR?
A new sales leader reached out this week to ask when she should hire her first sales development representative (SDR). What a great question, and luckily, it’s a pretty black and white answer. Let’s start with when it’s not time to hire your first SDR. It’s too soon to hire your first SDR when: You […]
A SaaS Startup Sales Team Org Chart Example
I get a lot of questions from startup founders, as well as new sales team leaders, about how to organize the SaaS sales team, and what roles are needed to fill at key stages. The answer is surprisingly simple and pretty ‘textbook’. Maybe not so surprising is how few SaaS sales teams follow that textbook […]
My Favorite Sales Engineer Interview Questions
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 […]
10 New Years Resolutions for Your SaaS Business
2018 saw a meteoric rise in new SaaS products and inventions, incredible new opportunities for anyone interested in working in the software industry, astounding technological advances and much more. Looking forward into what 2019 has to offer, Tomasz Tunguz, Openview, SaaS Capital and many other respected SaaS sources have shared data, trends and predictions about […]
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, […]
Four Common SaaS Sales Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)
Most SaaS founders like to think a good enough product sells itself, but an increasingly crowded landscape means it’s easy for even great products to get lost in the shuffle. Building a strong sales team that truly understands a customer’s industry-specific needs is one of the best ways to make sure a SaaS product gets […]
