Daniel Dackombe

Here's the stark facts in sales today. - 31% of reps are making quota - Nearly half (44%) of deals slip - Sales cycles are double digits longer, win rates are double digits down - Inbound leads are down - Salesforce recognised the need to increase pipeline coverage to by 50% (from x2 to x3) Most of those we speak to recognise all these challenges. But they are stuck. "Do more with less" is the message. They have cut teams and fought for those remaining. Their organisations are stuck with blind hope and knives sharpening. The only solution they know is to fire and replace. Because the real problems aren't acknowledged. The market has changed and it's harder. But are teams are not more skilled. The same teams, that could achieve in the old world are failing in this one. And the last message anyone wants, is we need to spend some money to solve that. "That's your job isn't it?" cries the leadership to time-starved managers and leaders. Anyone want to guess what's going to happen to sales manager average tenure (already at an all-time low of 18 months)????

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Calling all B2B sales professionals. With our friends at Aircall, we need your help with our State of Sales Coaching survey 2024. 3-5 minutes of your time could win you amazing prizes - the latest AirPods, Sonos speaker, Nespresso machine, and of course MySalesCoach scholarships. Sales coaching is widely considered the most critical function of a frontline sales leader. Previous studies demonstrate that it significantly boosts win rates and quota attainment. However, many sales organisations find it challenging to establish and execute an effective sales coaching culture and strategy. Our survey seeks to identify the key trends, best practices, and impacts of sales coaching in 2024. You'll be first to get the study published in October packed with insight, data and trends. Leaders and Individual Contributors should complete the survey - with scholarship places up for grabs for each. Your voice really matters, complete today for a chance of these amazing prizes and to be first with the report. Link here to complete - https://lnkd.in/eKRcTPXV

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A CS Leader we spoke to recently did an amazing job in summarising the critical foundations an #AccountManager or #CustomerSuccessManger needs to grow their accounts and portfolio... Let's start with the goal in mind - what puts you in position to grow an existing B2B Software account? 🟢 Relationship with the right stakeholders 🟢 Clarity on their goals and pain points 🟢 Realised value / tangible ROI 🟢 Positive user experience 🟢 Shared understanding of future value / roadmap alignment ... etc. For an #AM or #CSM to get there can be challenging in practice - there is an art and timing to it that comes with experience. And the pressure of a SaaS business usually adds extra complexity and distortion - so great account owners stick to the basics and get it done through a mix of great timing and well laid foundations: 1. #Relationship 2. Sh*t is not on Fire 🔥 3. #CustomerEducation 4. #Optimization Going into detail on these would be another post, but two quick points - if the account is on fire, do not pass go. And optimization is about optimizing for value - the key to growth. 🔑 The key ingredients... work + timing. 🔴 Bad Example: An Account Manger pivots their attention to a somewhat neglected account with potential, currently on fiiiiire 🔥. After performing internal heroics the #AM, under significant pressure to meet target, pitches the current stakeholder a new product similar companies are buying. After some brief informal discussion in the client org, the idea is 'put on the back burner'. Now, not only is the AM struggling to target, but they have more internal inertia to overcome next time and it will be harder to gain further understanding. 🟢 Great Example: After their account saving heroics an #AM assesses where they are at, now they are out of the woods. Identifying usage and educational gaps, establishing a relationship of trust with multiple people, optimising and building a case for value. Not only working to the clients timetable, but looking for levers to create urgency and establish shorter timelines that align with the client and value. Striking at the right time, with a much clearer understanding of the client's needs and a watertight business case. 💡 Experienced #CSMs and #AMs always take a step back to assess where they are with an account according to these foundations. The great ones can become as important to a client as the product and sustain growth even when there are issues. & Happy Thanksgiving to all 🙏

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I've been reflecting about RevOps. It's been a strange market since 2023, right? 👉 Q1 2023 - What a shit show, less funding, high interest rates, mass redundancies (in particular some amazing Senior Leaders) 👉 Once in Q2+, PEs and VCs had no choice but to reassess expectations and lower targets, Yes most companies weren't hitting those targets, but it was going in the right direction 📈 👉 Q3 My wife and I had our baby boy 👶 (a different type of shit show, but the most rewarding experience, it's easier running a business FYI) 👉 Q4, there was light at the end of the tunnel, interest rates were dropping, more confidence in the market. What really confused me, was RevOps functions were often the first to go! Now I will be fair, and look from the business perspective: 👉 RevOps seen as a cost centre 👉 RevOps teams are paid fairly well 👉 Companies think they can do it themselves, and let the Tech team look after Salesforce, because RevOps is so easy, right?! 👀 What I'm seeing in 2024, lightbulb moment: 💡 RevOps market is maturing, there is tons of people looking to transition into the career 💡 More RevOps roles coming to market with some really cool companies (not just saas) 💡 Execs are educating themselves on how RevOps can help build the foundations for growth and beyond for their business 💡 RevOps isn't seen as a cost centre, because they are implementing better data insights, improving processes and efficiencies across the business, they in fact are contributing to the revenue growth Does this align with what you saw in the market?

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The best AE's I've worked with Are constantly looking for the tiny details 👉Reading prospects documentation to learn their internal language 👉Finding key triggers for engagement 👉 Understanding job movers & internal dynamics 👉 Truly personalising and adding value through the process, persona by persona 👉Building a hypothesis and narrative around a companies problems The great thing today - is if you sit as a sales leader You can take your best performing reps workflow And automate it entirely for the rest of your teams using tools like Clay Have you tried to do this already? ______________ If there's a large gap between your top and bottom performers, it's likely automating these flows would make a significant impact on pipeline ______________ I run the playbook agency, the best outbound operations agencies for SaaS & B2B services

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SWAT teams rather than armies. Hearing this phrase from lots of sales teams recently. And there is lots of logic - to a smaller highly trained (and coached ;-) elite team rather than a larger team, whether SDR’s or quota carriers. Here’s the drivers… - Sales Efficiency, the obvious one. Growth at all costs is gone, presumably forever. Cost of acquisition and sustainable growth are now key. - Raise The Bar, a smaller elite and well coached (couldn’t resist this time) team removes the weakest performers, the time and resources spent trying to pull them up and raises the bar for everyone on the team. - Bottom Up Economics, teams resourced based on on actual pipeline not multiplying quotas by team size. Quota carriers, even if good prospectors, can’t and arguably shouldn’t create all their own pipeline. If you don’t have the pipeline from SDR’s and inbounds, the team is bloated. - Elite is easier , With a smaller well chosen/recruited team, it’s more realistic with time and resource to help make them elite. And with an elite team, everything is easier. - Cheaper, it’s not just sales efficiency. It’s cost and budgets. They are smaller and what is possible or affordable has changed. What are you doing to create your SWAT teams?

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How do you get AEs to prospect more? Turns out, a simple driver might be...streaks? We added a small, almost accidental feature in AccountAim - a daily activity map, inspired by GitHub’s contribution tracker. It’s become a huge driver of AE prospecting output. 🔥 Reps don’t want to break their streaks 🏆 Visible competition motivates the whole team 📈 Activity leads to impact - reps can easily sense the correlation between activity and opps created when presented visually Combine this with prescriptive targeting, and many of our customers have more than 2x’d AE prospecting activity. It’s no wonder gamification has taken off in all of the consumer apps, it’s actually a game-changer. Credit to Brett, our CTO, for this one!

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🤯 “Ramping up SDRs, AEs and CS people  takes us no less than 6 months.” 💣 🙈 This is what I heard on a recent demo from  a CRO of a rapidly scaling tech business. 📈 Time to efficiency is a struggle Heads of Sales Enablement and Customer Success are going through across their commercially-driven teams… 📖 At the moment, they expect internal  sales and CS decks, call recordings,  business pitches, etc. should do the job. 🙄 But it doesn’t! 🗓️ They're wasting too much time for people to start performing, closing deals, effectively onboarding customers, reducing churn & upselling… ❌ Sometimes, they still don’t perform... And then guess what? Off leaders go through to recruiting mode again starting from ground 0. 🎯 Hence the need for action-based learning.  Not just passively reading through PDFs  and listening to call recordings. 👨‍💻 Below are some use cases we see our customers here at UJJI AI ✨ leveraging our tech for: 🔸 Business-specific lead gen and outbound 🔸 Pitching quick and easy over the phone 🔸 Delivering demos and answering queries 🔸 Effectively onboarding new customers 🔸 Efficiently implementing product features 🔸 Practising great customer support 🔸 Guiding customers to upselling 🚀 Ultimately, growing tech businesses comes down to predictable new business development, high customer retention and low churn. 💬 So, DM me if you want to see examples  of AI-powered. easy to build and consume knowledge equipping experiences. 👇 Anything to add to this, Sales and CS leaders? Gautam Rishi Rohan Dickinson George Heron Russell Mitchell Callum Hartley Jon Teale James Dixon Seán Colfer Caroline L. Guy Rubin Jake Carter David Muscat Arun Raveendran Steve Eveleigh Ayo Kukoyi,

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VPs Sales, STOP managing your SDRs | Here's why... 👀 Here's the sh*t you should be doing: 💵 Focus on supporting your AE team/s close deals 🧬 Prioritise strategic collaboration with other functions 📊 Review data to set strategic direction 👔 Spend time hiring A-Grade Leaders & AEs 🤝 Give attention to customers to optimise renewals & upsells ⚙️ Implementing & driving adoption of core sales processes Here's the sh*t you either should NOT be doing or worse... MISSING: 🗣️ Coaching the most inexperienced/junior reps in the org 🔁 Hiring & promoting in an ever-changing team dynamic 👥 Providing daily support for people still finding their way as an adult 🧑‍🏫 Teaching the BASICS of how cold-call, email, qualify, etc. 🔬 Study current prospecting trends & ideas 💪 Keeping impatient and hungry young professionals motivated Be honest with yourself... 🧠 Think about where you're burning your calories 🧠 Think about whether you have the time to manage this stakeholder group 🧠 Think about whether your prospecting knowledge is as sharp as it should be 🧠 Think about whether your SDR team is delivering the results you want 🧠 Think about where you are going to have the biggest business impact ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ 👋 Hi I'm Andy, Founder of RevRocket. I specialise in building, optimising and growing your SDR function so you don't have to. Considering getting support for your PipeGen Team? Shoot me a DM ✉️

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Renewals are the lifeblood of every SaaS company. However, we don’t talk enough about what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals. Since there are so many lists on what makes a great AE, I thought I’d take a stab at what makes a great AM/CSM who handles renewals: 1/ They prioritize the renewals that move the needle Renewal rate comes down to simple math. What renewals are going to move the needle for them? Great AMs/CSMs spend their time where they’ll get the most bang for their buck. 2/ They prepare 6 months in advance Average AMs/CSMs prep 3 months in advance. Great ones plan 6 months in advance. This includes asking hard questions well ahead of time during a mid-year QBR, so they know where to spend their time. 3/ They can re-sell the product Stakeholders change. Priorities change. Competitors try to break in. Great AMs/CSMs can sell the product as well as their AEs and know how to position their value props and handle objections. 4/ They know how to negotiate I don’t know any procurement person in the post-ZIRP era who doesn’t try to negotiate their contracts. A great AM/CSM knows how to turn negotiations into win-wins. 5/ They know the difference between procurement and decision-makers Similar to point four, they know how to negotiate and with whom. Negotiating with procurement is much different than negotiating with a key stakeholder. Each party wants something different, and it’s important to recognize what that is. 6/ They know how to rope in their AEs or extended teams Just like the best AEs know how to “quarterback” deals, a great AM/CSM knows how to rally resources to help with renewals. AEs, Execs, SEs, and Professional Services can all be brought in to help show the customer extra love. 7/ They develop a renewal champion We always talk about champions in the presales process, but not enough about champions during renewals. A great AM/CSM knows how to develop champions to help push renewals through. An AM/CSM who knows how to do these things is worth their weight in gold. Keep them happy as long as you can!

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How do you detect atrophy in your team? Many of the conversations I’m having with revenue leaders centre around how they can become more proactive vs reactive. A big part of this is detecting atrophy - those reps who may be blindly slipping into decline or heading for a bad quarter. To be proactive requires ruthless focus on LEADING indicators. Rather than obsession over LAGGING metrics. Leading indicators typically include KPIs such as: - pipeline value ($ opps created) - pipeline volume (# opps created) - stage to stage conversion (%) - activity volume Another great leading indicator is competency scores - ie what level of competence are reps demonstrating vs key competencies you expect them to display. Close monitoring of leading indicators helps you as a leader make proactive interventions so your team can course correct before it’s too late. It might just save your quarter. #leadership #data #growth #metrics #objectivedata

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Great interview from our VP of Product here at Amplitude, ibrahim bashir, with Eric Nehrlich (Executive Coach) on the principles behind 'Executive Presence' and what it means to have it, what needs to be left behind to lift up to this level and how you need to be 'more thermostat and thermometer' (controlling the 'temperature' of the room/team/business, as well as checking it). Moving away from the mindset of 'work do'er' to 'work facilitator' is one of the key differences that drives an executive mindset. You lead the people/business areas, less the day-to-day tasks and therefore giving you an opportunity (if you take it) to look out to the horizon and observe the system as a whole, the landscape around you, what needs to and is changing and maintain curiosity. Also, using signals and insight to ask better questions, and support your teams through 'walking the talk' are two areas that I have focused on over the years in my executive level roles. Great insights, great advice and for those stepping up on their career journey, have a read/watch/listen. https://lnkd.in/gNedK64N (on Substack, so either subscribe or download the app for this video/article for free) #strategy #leadership #executivemindset #digitalmindset

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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With over 3/4 of sellers missing quota, what are the impacts on mental wellbeing, morale and even sales as a career? While I’m not sure the historical data exists, surely the current figures from numerous surveys recently (our own at MySalesCoach, the excellent data from Ebsta etc) has missed quotas at an all time high. And with teams of sellers underperforming, what’s the impact individually and collectively on mental wellbeing, morale and sales as an aspirational career to the next generation? I think it’s pretty safe to assume, sales isn’t about to get easier. The knight in shining armour isn’t likely a turnaround in performance. Granted, the economy has its ups and downs throughout history, but the promise of AI and technology will bring as much challenge as relief - for individuals at least. The bar is only going one way, whilst the investment and support in skills development and performance more scrutinised than ever, with weighting and focus on current quarters and short term goals. What’s your perception and how can we manage this as a profession? Is the answer adjustments in quota or is that unlikely for under pressure organisations?

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Honestly? Process + Mindset, no SaaS tools needed I'll address mindset first because that's where 90% of sellers fail. They hear a no and they run for the woods. Not a "thank you for letting me know", email response or anything back. They hear the buyer said "not now" or went with a competitor and disappear. It's ghosting in reverse. I've actually read research ages ago that showed that how we react when people tell us "no" is an incredible way to build trust. Some of my trading floor colleagues sometimes deliberately asked for things they knew they wouldn't get from customers, just so they could show how they react to that & increase the likelihood their next ask would be a yes. If you ghost the buyer the second they say "no", it makes it a lot harder to reconnect in future. Process is a lot easier. Just a "dumb" report with closed lost opportunities older than 60 days where there was no activity in the last 30 days. Run that once a week and drop a personalised email to everyone new showing up + follow up sequence. Personally, I do this via Hubspot /rant over. I love nurture

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A great Discovery call does 3 things: 1️⃣ It teaches The simplest way to assess the effectiveness of your Discovery calls is to ask who learned more about the prospect's business.  Far too often, the sales rep does most or all of the learning. A strong Discovery changes how the prospect thinks about the problem(s) you address, and to do that effectively, they need to learn new things about their business and situation. 2️⃣ It creates a clear & impactful dissonance between the present and the prospect’s desired future The real power of a strong Discovery call is its ability to build the basis for change. Doing that requires creating structural tension in the prospect’s mind. While this may surprise some, most buyers haven’t paused to think meaningfully about the outcomes they desire. I’ve conducted many powerful Discovery calls that simply defined success and clarified the difference between that vision and their current situation. 3️⃣ It lays out a clear path for what the rest of the sales process will look like An effective Discovery always outlines a specific next step and ensures commitment from all involved parties. You earn extra points for clarifying the overall process and identifying key milestones. Confusion is the #1 cause of decision reluctance, which kills deals. Use your Discovery to get things off to a robust start. What did I miss? What are your keys to a successful Discovery?

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SDRs can be taught to be AEs SDRs can be taught to be CSMs [shoutout to Eric Partaker for the post inspo] Also... SDRs can be taught to be Managers SDRs can be taught to be Marketeers SDRs can be taught to do almost any role Fact: It's better to hire someone who is 60% ready with the right behaviours. Than 100% ready with the wrong ones. SDRs deserve a chance. Do you agree? PS. Share ♻️ with others in your network. And follow Chris Ritson for more sales content like this.

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🎙️ I had a great time with Alex Mislan during Spekit 🐙's first 'Enablement Therapy' webinar series last week! 💡 We covered so many great topics like the clip below about how Enablement balances the art of pushing down to Reps AND pushing up to leadership to be that strategic partner and advocate to and for both groups. 👇🏼 Definitely give the full chat a listen - link in the comments! #salesenablement #enablement #revenueenablement

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