Predictable Revenue Podcast (summary)

331: Scaling from Startup to Success with Saravana Kumar

• Build your audience before building your product

330: The Anatomy of a Successful Sales Organization with Lee Salz

• Like your people, love your process. [3:52-4:36]
• When you look at successful sales organizations, the entire framework is prescribed. That does not have to mean micromanagement. Make sure to leave all kinds of room for salespeople to add their style and personality. [10:17-10:45]
• 6 components of the sales organization
  • New client acquisition
  • Account management (delivering additional, proactive value)
  • Sales management (i.e. leading reps)
    • Pipeline management
    • Goal setting
  • Hiring
  • Onboarding
  • Compensation
• Lee’s sales organization maturity assessment
• Target client profile = people will will perceive meaningful value in what you sell
  • Size (ex: # employees)
  • Location (ex: North America)
  • Business type (ex: B2B)
  • Incumbent (includes outsourced; vendor; internal)
  • Circumstances & Goals (ex: pain)
  • Decision Drivers (ex: regulatory change)
  • Corporate Attributes (ex: financial health)
  • Buying process
  • Deal breakers (What indicators tell you they are unlikely to perceive meaningful value in what you sell?)
• Account management should prescribed based on: revenue; percentage of the wallet that you could achieve; alignment between their needs and your value [24:45-25:29]
• I don’t believe there is such a thing as a great salesperson. We are looking for the right salespeople with the potential to be great in a specific sales role. [31:50-33:22]
• The flaw in sales compensation is that we only pay for yesterday’s news. We don’t have any investment in the activities and behaviors that will keep the pipeline healthy going forward [43:15-43:25 + 45:55-46:55]