Adem Manderovic’s Post

I have worked with countless salespeople across many tech startups over the last 20 years, many of whom have risen to become sales leaders. These leaders often default to old-school tactics such as hiring, firing, cold calls, and email blasts...because it's what they know. But let's be real...just because it's familiar does not mean it is the most effective. It's time to challenge the current approach of going to market through sales-led outbound demand generation. Here is a framework to measure your true costs and outputs: Efficiency = (Desired Outcomes) / (Time + Speed + Cost) 1. Time. How long does each sales or marketing activity take? 2. Speed. How quickly do prospects move through your sales process? 3. Cost. What's the monetary cost, including internal resources and time spent? Efficiency is about the business outcomes you achieve through your sales and marketing efforts. Too many young companies have a narrow and limited view of sales, overlooking how technology and content can outperform traditional SDR and AE teams overseen by an overpriced VP of Sales at a fraction of the cost. If you're not measuring true costs and impact, you are missing out on huge opportunities. elvis works dot com #SalesStrategy #B2BSales #SalesEfficiency

📣 Crafting Effective Sales Quotas for Your First Sales Hire Setting sales quotas for your first sales hire is crucial for their success and your company's growth. Here are some practical steps to ensure a fair and motivating quota system: 1. Understand Your Business Goals: - Start by aligning quotas with your overall business objectives. What revenue targets do you aim to achieve? Break it down into monthly or quarterly goals. 2. Choose the Right Metric: - For most startups, **monthly recurring revenue (MRR)** is a logical basis for quotas. Each Account Executive should have a monthly MRR target tied to their commission. - For longer sales cycles, consider **Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)** targets. 3. Factor in Ramp-Up Time: - New hires need time to learn, build relationships, and close deals. Set a realistic ramp-up period before expecting full quota attainment. 4. Balance Base Salary and Variable Compensation: - Structure a performance-based compensation package. Consider a mix of base salary and commission. - Incentivize high performance by allocating more compensation to the variable component. 5. Calculate Quotas Fairly: - Use a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. Consider market size, deal size, and conversion rates. - Ensure quotas are challenging but attainable. 6. Transparent Communication: - Be open with your sales team about how quotas are set. Explain the rationale behind targets. - Avoid mid-period changes unless absolutely necessary. Remember, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. Adapt your approach based on your startup's unique context. 🚀 #SalesQuotas #StartupGrowth #SalesSuccess

As revenue orgs start thinking about their #growth strategy, when have you seen the best time to start #scaling? Is it dependent on revenue goals, and you add the #SDR and sales headcount based on your TAM and ICP accounts to get more lift? Is it when the #sales team starts growing so you had headcount to the sdr team to support the larger sales org? Do you wait till you have a repeatable, & consistent process that’s ready to scale? And by repeatable I mean, consistent flow of pipeline, and that customer and pipeline data are at conversion rates the company is comfortable with to then start scaling? Is it dependent on the gtm stage, and if your inbounds aren’t enough to feed the team or are too small that you think of expanding headcount to go outbound? Do you start with the sales & marketing org then hire sdrs. Or do you hire sdrs in tandem so then you can have them hit the ground running to bring in pipeline for the new reps quickly. Or do you hire them a bit before to secure enough pipeline for the new rep to jump in an work? Or do you think about growing the team once you have enough sdrs to promote into new roles so then you have a robust pipeline engine for revenue and talent? Is it based on ROI of the sales dev team, CAC for marketing leads, and once you’re in a positive position do you start adding more headcount and tools? And how’re you measuring ROI? Many questions, feel free to answer what resonates most with you or if you want to address it all, your feedback is definitely appreciated.

It seems most founding AE roles are helping businesses move into the mid market segment from SMB, and they always want someone to help them figure out how to get into Enterprise companies. I'm uniquely qualified to do this relative to most tech, media, or SaaS AE's. I've been predominantly in early to mid stage SaaS for almost 11 years. I've sold at Founder led companies, PLG, sales led. I've seen several iterations of inbound motions. I've sold to HR, Engineers, Sales, Marketing, Channel/Partner teams, Data teams and more. I've generated 10s of millions of pipeline from tradeshows (and sold 40k in 2 days on the floor.) I've done 100 deals in 12 months, many 6 figure deals, one 7 figure deal, and 100s in between. I've extensively used every conceivable communication channel to engage with buyers (except the PayPal payment comment, ew.) I'm fluent in both the infrastructure (sales tech, frameworks, positioning, pricing) and the tactical side of sales. And perhaps most importantly...in 10 years of carrying a quota I have missed a quarterly number in only one role. Maybe I should look into this... Real equity is attractive, but I want to work with people who despise the VC/PE backed "grow at all costs" model and instead want to build a profitable business with happy long term clients. You don't have to build a 1B business to be ludicrously successful financially...

If you are serious about breaking into Tech Sales you need to give this a watch……… I want to break into tech sales is arguably one of the most used phrases in 2024 but in my mind…. It’s lazy, generic and likely to set you up for failure. Let me explain…….. If you are serious about breaking into tech sales I would really think about these three factors to give you clarity and the competitive edge 💪🏻 1) What kind of tech do I want to be selling- physical product, saas, big tech 🧐 2)What industries do I want to sell to…. Ideally based on passion or prior industry experience ⚽️ 📺 🍱 3) What personas do I want to to sell to… Sales, HR, Finance 📞 👨⚕️ This will really help you focus on the right roles and really impress when you are in front of the right businesses.

You’re thinking short-term ❌ Seriously, for being a demographic that is inherently focused on “solving big problems” I see so many founders that don’t think through the long run when it comes talent. One example I see in (almost) every company: Hiring sales leaders + reps without understanding what made them successful in their previous experiences Does this story sound familiar? 🤔 Company raises a Series A/B round (or bootstraps to a few mil ARR) and excitedly brings on the ‘hotshot sales leader’. You know the one, the guy that “led the growth” at the Enterprise from $100M to $1B+ and has the boardroom stories to prove it. Do you see the problem though? That guy didn’t take a company from $1M to $5M..or from $5M to $20M.. or even $20M to $50M. The motions and tactics that made someone an all-star at a previous company might not make them an all-star at your company. What you need to do is drill down into their roles and responsibilities (and into the tactical level) to better understand? i.e., If you hire a guy that consistently closed 7-figure deals for Microsoft, but he hasn’t sourced a cold lead in a decade (or more), that’s a ~very~ different skillset than the guy that has been knocking down $100k deals for 5+ years, but he’s ran the end-to-end sales cycle for 3 companies growing from $1 > $10M acting as BDR, AE, Acct. Manager, CSM, etc. This is just one example, but one that so many founders and CEOs run into. Building a company isn’t easy, but being overly thoughtful with who you hire ought to always be a top priority 💯 Who else has run into this? 👀 #talent #sales #growth 

So you're investing in an SDR team... Before you hire any reps, are you going to hire a Director or a consultant to establish what your strategy is going to be? It seems simple because your strategy should be 'We generate quality opportunities through tailored outreach to our key personas at high value companies anchored to our ICP that fill the pipeline and lead to progressively more revenue.' Even if you were to copy and paste that as your strategy statement, how do you execute on that? Most teams will: - Hire reps - Onboard tools - ??? - Profit? It takes about 18 months to fully realize that you've been leaving the strategic decisions up to reps and it's not generating the revenue you need to justify the cost of the team. Additionally, your competitors are taking the opportunity to outpace you. Don't waste your time making the same mistakes 80% of SDR teams make. Build your sales process starting with strategy followed by a plan that you can track and evaluate consistently. At Full Pipeline Consulting, we guide our clients through a sequential program to help them build a successful organization that's driving consistent and progressive revenue ASAP. #SVPsales #CRO #salesstrategy #SDRstrategy #growth #salesdevelopment #salesprocess #sdrmanager #sdr #salesefficiency

Business acumen is vital for your business. But how do we obtain it? The skillset of the reps at the front end, since the split out or predictable revenue, and still to this day in tech saas, has been entry level. We only need to learn back into other industry verticals, or simply remember what it was like prior. Reps at the front end were seasoned veterans with a well honed skills. Why? Coming up in the early 2000s.. you first had to prove yourself in CS first. Which meant dazzling on the phones -Activation  -Onsell  -Upsell  -Opportunity spots.  -Increasing Contract penetration for 1-2 years for a CHANCE to be a Full Cycle rep. What did this give us? Complete commercial line of sight. -We didn’t push up deals that wouldn’t align with CS.  -We didn’t push up deals that wouldn’t pass credit.  -We didn’t push up deals that wouldn’t pass legal. This gave you a higher degree of commercial acumen. This gave you a better business impact brain. This enabled, far better business case / proposals to be presented. -These are the talent that can speak with your CEO -Talk cost saving analysis with your CFO -Speak to end to end service delivery with your CRO.  -This isn't entry level folks. So what does this look like in everyday business?? Founders with funding ramps, that have never worked in sales or marketing, or CS. -They have the best idea.  -They get funding. They hire SDR, AE, CS. They dont know the job functions. They rely on the machine, everyone just looks at each other and points in a circle, and all that transpires is a churny mess of no one actually knows what they are doing. -Funding ramp gone.  -Reps fired. Process starts again. End the madness. Backwards to go forwards. Highlight taken from upcoming episode on the The B2B Playbook with George Coudounaris #B2BPlaybook #B2B  #Marketing #Deals #Sales  #ClosedCircuitSelling #Revenue 

Ever wonder why your competitors are closing the big deals while your team is struggling to keep up? Here’s the truth: the difference isn’t in the size of their company or the flashiness of their product — it's in the performance of their sales teams. Underperforming sales reps are costing you, not just in missed deals, but in lost market share. In fact, companies lose at least $1 trillion annually due to poor sales productivity and mismanaged leads. Let that sink in — $1 trillion. But why does this happen? ➡️ Outdated Sales Processes: High-performing businesses are 2x more likely to automate their sales processes, giving their teams the tools they need to close faster and more efficiently. Meanwhile, if your sales reps are bogged down by manual tasks, only 35.2% of their time is spent actively selling. ➡️ Lack of Follow-Up: Most sales are lost in follow-up failure. 92% of salespeople give up after four “no’s,” but 80% of deals require at least five follow-ups. How many deals have you lost because your team didn’t push that extra mile? ➡️ Hiring the Wrong Salespeople: A single underperformer on your sales team can cost your business hundreds of thousands in missed opportunities. Without a strategic approach to hiring, you risk missing out on sales talent that could transform your business. So, ask yourself: Are you equipping your team to win, or are you watching your competitors eat your lunch? If you're serious about growth, maybe it’s time to stop guessing and start hiring top sales talent who can drive results. Need help? Get in touch today. #sales #hiring #performance #revenue #growth

Yesterday, I heard two #b2bsaas founders speak about the same challenge: Getting from #founder led #sales to having a sales leader manage the sales team for them. Actually, there's many more who struggle with exactly that. Here is how it often goes: - The founders hire an experienced sales person/manager - The person earns the top salary, usually more than the founders themselves - The person brings experience in a glorified field called "sales" and that field is still new to the founders - The founders trust the person with "all things sales" and hope for the best A few months later, you will find (some of) the following: - Sales results are behind expectation/plan, although you've hired more sales people than ever before. - Your sales spent is dangerously high. - Your culture is suffering. - Your customers are not as happy as they used to be. - Your instincts tell you that something is wrong. There's no silver bullet to solve this challenge, but maybe the following advice is helpful: - Look for people who are curious about how you sell. Even if you do not force your knowledge on them, they should be coming to you with a ton of questions of how you won your first customers. - Stay close to sales, even after the hire has started (no micromanagement). Join the weekly forecast meetings all the time (no forcast? -> warning sign). - Offer your help in critical deals. A founder can build relationships with executives like others can't. Don't take over the deals though. If there's no interest in that from sales -> warning sign. - Proove before scale: New roles in sales should demonstrate success before hiring a lot of them. - Set a clear target and hold sales accouteable. If it's not achieved, ask for a root cause analysis and a plan to course correct. - Be ambitious: Your sales results should accelerate within 6 months, otherwise something is wrong. Be prepared to fail, maybe a few times. But make sure you're learning a lot everytime you do. Happy #selling !