Ryan Roskovensky

GTM "best practices" have evolved significantly over the past 20 years The pace of evolution has never been faster. See below for a breakdown: 1. **2005 - Golf and Steak Dinners:**   - Reps from Oracle, IBM, etc. have a rolodex of enterprise CIOs.   - Success relied heavily on managing those relationships i.e. "schmoozing" 2. **2015 - Volume Cold Outreach:**   - With the rise of smaller, more agile tech companies, traditional giants faced increased competition from innovative upstarts.   - High-volume cold outreach became the dominant strategy, leveraging cheap, inexperienced reps and technology to reach target users.   - This method proved effective in driving top-of-funnel activity quickly and cost-effectively. 3. **2022 - PLG and Partner-first:**   - Market saturation and skepticism towards cold outreach necessitated new approaches.   - Product-Led Growth (PLG) and partnerships gained prominence.   - PLG allowed users to experience product value firsthand before committing, while partner intros helped reps get to executives and close deals, faster. 4. **2025 - Building the Founder Brand:**   - Recognizing the limitations of indirect sales motions like PLG and partnerships, companies are turning to building founder brands as THE inbound marketing motion.   - Executives engage in thought leadership on social media, establishing authentic connections with target buyers.   - This approach shifts the focus from sales reps creating demand to company leaders driving top-of-funnel activity, enabling reps to focus on solutioning and closing deals. The narrative underscores the need for adaptability in GTM strategies, as what works today may not be effective tomorrow. By anticipating shifts in market dynamics and embracing innovative approaches, companies can maintain a competitive edge and drive sustainable growth. *see full article link in the comments below*

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A poorly executed #customersuccess strategy will kill your #NRR for years to come. I've seen it first-hand too many times over the years. Here is how you deliver a well-executed CS strategy to drive great NRR and ultimately, business growth: 🛣️ 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝗗𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 & 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 The first step in any customer success strategy is understanding the full & dynamic revenue & customer journey. This means not just knowing what your customers do, but why they do it. How and why did they buy your services? How do they move through their journey with you (rarely ina straight line!)? By understanding their motivations, you can better anticipate their needs and deliver solutions that truly add value. And don't forget, the old-school customer journey is not the standard anymore, you need to use the full, dynamic revenue & customer journey to get the full picture. This stretches from pre-sale to post-sale and allows for the customer to move in and out of journey phases/stages dynamically. 📈 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 Customer success is not a reactive function. It's about being proactive, anticipating customer needs, and addressing them before they become issues. You have to ensure that your strategy is aligned around, and fosters, a proactive CS culture and process that allows your team to execute effectively. This not only improves customer satisfaction, but also reduces churn, and creates more expansion opportunities. Both key factors in improving NRR. 📊 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 In the #SaaS & #CS world, we have access to a wealth of data. By leveraging this data, we can make informed decisions that drive customer success. This could be anything from identifying usage patterns to predict churn, to understanding which features drive the most value for customers and beyond. And it needs to go beyond telemetry, usage etc. Also capture, track and understand customer goals and other qualitative data points. One problem is that this data is often siloed or hard to access, so make sure you have systems (like RevSetter) that can bridge that gap and allows CSMs to effectively action the data & insights. 🤝 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫-𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 Customer success should not be the responsibility of a single department. It should be ingrained in the company culture. When everyone in the organization understands the value of customer success, it becomes a strategic priority that drives business growth. This is why the dynamic revenue & customer journey, the engagement focus, and the proactive mindset are so important. When those are present - and a strategic & customer-centric approach is adopted by the CEO & leadership - the sky is the limit. Leverage these four building blocks and your CS strategy and execution will thank you for it ✅ *** 🛎️ If you enjoy my content, follow me for more ♻️ Repost to share with your network

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More Rigor for Sales Teams per Amit Bendov and Marc Benioff   How do Gong and Salesforce respond to the “headwinds” and “budget scrutiny” mentioned in many B2B SaaS earnings calls earlier this month? More rigor, more discipline, focused enablement, and a refined GTM strategy are a major part of their approach. Gong’s CEO, Amit Bendov, last week on the SaaStr podcast episode 741, and Salesforce’s CEO, Marc Benioff, on the May 29, earnings call, stated similar approaches for how they plan to navigate current “headwinds” and “budget scrutiny” expressed by many B2B SaaS companies recently. Here are the approaches that Gong has put in place:  - Weekly KPIs, weekly results, and monitoring key activities   - Tracking every deal with MEDDIC  - Greater accountability for the sales team and sales management Amit also shared that at first some of his sales teams “didn’t love it” but now that they are hitting their numbers and seeing the results, they are warming to the additional structure and discipline. Salesforce’s CEO, Marc Benioff, interrupted his COO on the earnings call to reinforce the current narrative inside Salesforce to deliver “strong financial metrics” and a “high level of customer success” organized around the following three guiding principles: 1) Start every quarter with much higher pipelines, 3x vs 2x coverage (deeper inspection) 2) Need a much higher level of enablement (for gen AI models, data frameworks, etc.) 3) Level of stability (versus disruption of shifting strategy to meet fiscal demands) Marc sums up the Salesforce approach with this quote, “So, there is a level of balance that has to be achieved in regards to stability and disruption. And those three attributes, having 3x pipelines, having much higher levels of enablement, and having much higher levels of stability, that is the key to managing in this (more challenging) environment and this part of the (B2B SaaS) industry right now. Both CEOs talk about enhanced rigor, discipline, and a more structured approach to the sales process being a more effective path to navigate this current environment. From my perspective, this is a good example of two highly successful companies continuing to examine their internal GTM processes and experiment with adjusted approaches to achieve success. To what degree have you documented and effectively enabled your sales process for this more challenging environment? Will enhanced rigor, discipline, and a more structured sales approach help your sales reps ramp faster and/or close more deals? What are your thoughts?

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Hot Take… RIP #PLG, Long Live #SLG But before you throw shade, let me explain… 🔹 There are undoubtedly exceptions, I’m sure many will highlight monday.com, Freshworks, etc. 🔹 PLG works well for low ACV deals with low CAC… think SMB and mid-market customers. Target CAC payback <12 months 🔹 PLG is a fantastic top of funnel marketing channel for enterprise sales ⭐ But for 6-figure enterprise sales, you need enterprise salespeople pressing the flesh with customers

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LACK OF PRE-SALES TECHNOLOGY INVESTING OUTCOMES! +++ When start-ups, first-floor (under 100 employees or less than 10 million in annual revenue), or SMB company ownership do not invest sufficiently in presales prospecting technology, several negative outcomes will predictably happen. These adverse outcomes will impact the company's overall performance and future growth. Did you know? “In 2023, 91% of companies fail to achieve 80% or more of their quota targets.” https://www.quotapath.com Here are some of the negative outcomes: 1. Decreased Sales Pipeline Quality and Quantity: The sales team may struggle to identify and qualify leads efficiently without advanced prospecting tools. This can lead to a decrease in the quantity and quality of the sales pipeline, as the team may spend more time on leads less likely to convert. 2. Ineffective Targeting and Segmentation: Modern prospecting technology allows for sophisticated targeting and segmentation based on various criteria. SMBs risk focusing on less ideal customer segments without these tools, potentially missing out on more lucrative opportunities. 3. Lower Sales Efficiency and Productivity: Sales teams that rely on manual processes or outdated tools for prospecting are often less efficient. This can result in longer sales cycles, lower overall productivity, and, ultimately, diminished revenue growth. 4. Competitive Disadvantage: Competitors investing in the latest presales prospecting technologies will likely gain a competitive edge by leveraging data analytics, AI, and automation to streamline their sales processes and more effectively reach potential customers. 5. Reduced Customer Insights: Advanced prospecting tools can provide valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends. However, SMBs that underinvest in these technologies may lack the depth of customer insights necessary to tailor their sales strategies effectively, impacting conversion rates and long-term customer relationships. 6. Higher Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC): Efficiency in prospecting directly correlates with a lower CAC. Without effective prospecting tools, the cost of acquiring new customers can increase significantly, negatively impacting the company's profitability. 7. Difficulty in Scaling Sales Operations: Manually managed sales processes can become increasingly untenable as the business grows. Lack of investment in technology makes scaling sales operations difficult, limiting growth potential. 8. Increased Sales Staff Turnover: Sales professionals may feel frustrated if they lack the tools necessary to succeed, leading to higher turnover rates. This affects sales directly and incurs additional costs in recruiting and training new salespeople. +++ #SalesPipelineIssues, #TargetingChallenges, #SalesEfficiencyDrop, #CompetitiveDisadvantage, #ReducedCustomerInsights, #HighCAC, #SalesOpsScaling, #StaffTurnoverChallenge, #rubencoronacontent

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Below average salespeople: Starts a conversation with the "about us" slide No joke: This slide is still in use in the discovery of some companies. A remnant of the days when order takers had their place Average salespeople: Ask their prospects "what their challenges are" This approach shows they have no clue what is going on in the market They run the risk of hearing challenges they cannot help solving. Happened to my teams all the time. And they cannot position the differentiators of their product by asking a question the competitors ask in exactly the same way Above average salespeople: Share a specific belief about a specific challenge their ideal clients face (while talking to an ideal client) Example: "We are working with a lot of publishing houses and educational institutions that believe there is a better way than using single or multiple choice exercises for exams. These types of exercises not only are much harder to construct properly, they also do not measure the knowledge of students well. There is a 25% they are right by luck and you do not really see how they got to their result. What do you think about that?" The last approach sparks an interesting conversation around a topic that is relevant for you and your product Ideally, it is about a topic only you can really help with That is how you win during difficult times

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Salesforce Sales Cloud just released its 6th State of Sales report last week aggregating insights from 5500 sales professionals across 27 countries 🌎 Sales growth is back where 79% of sales leaders say revenue has increased over the last year 📈 Sikkkk! But the "how" looks different this time around... For example: Partner selling is contributing to growth in meaningful ways. Enablement is rightfully emerging as a top growth lever 🔑 Another surprising stat: 83% of teams that adopted AI saw an increase in revenue over the past year vs 66% of teams without AI. Causation or Correlation? 🤷‍♀️ Yet another stark reality is that 70% of a sellers time is spent on non selling tasks. 😫 Everything from researching accounts to manually entering things into the CRM to sitting in hours n hours of internal meetings... I dream of a world in the future where AI can help us with rethinking : 1️⃣ Smart list building 2️⃣ Automated pipeline management and 3️⃣ Real time enablement in the future!! Just imagine a world where you don't need to trainings or the same forecast call every week!! 🔥 Check out the report in the first comment for more sales insights!! #stateofsalesreport #salesforce #genai #salesorgs

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The first version of the SaaS GTM playbook was written twenty years ago. Salesforce championed it. Mark Roberge published The Sales Acceleration Formula about Hubspot’s journey. Over the next two decades, we analyzed, quantified, instrumented, & optimized many aspects of the SaaS GTM. Account executive to SDR ratios, sales cycle lengths, conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, customer lifetime values, net dollar retention. The new software GTM playbook has yet to be written. But the companies who figure it out will become the next wave of massive businesses. On Tuesday, Theory held an event with [Dave Morse] formerly at Hebbia & Scale AI, Flo Crivello from Lindy, Paul Yacoubian from Copy.AI, & Chris Changfrom Gradient to discuss how AI changes these practices. These were my take aways : - Selling AI is being discovered because the technology is new. Buyers don’t know how to use it or how to buy it. - Because the sales motions are new, we can’t apply the previous playbook to the new sales process. The CEO/founder should hire a sales leader that they fully trust who focuses on ultimate success. The sales process is a part of the product : using both the customer’s language & the ultimate use of the product through success efforts - Between PLG vs sales led, more companies were sales-led. If starting with PLG, the template sells the product. Fight the empty box problem with great concrete templates that demonstrate how to use AI. If selling top-down, most of the conversations today are at the C-suite rather than the mid-market predominantly because the buying process is new. - Figuring out how to consistently produce wow moments with non-deterministic software is essential. - The room was split on pricing model : seats, usage, or some hybrid. Ultimately, pricing captures 15-30% of the value the software/AI creates. Developing a strong case for this with buyers will be key because the ROI question from buyers is real especially as the broader software market feels pressure. - Only VCs care about the word agents / agentic : for most enterprises, agents mean a customer support agent. Many teams don’t care about the underlying technology, they seek a solution to their problem. Tomorrow, we’ll be publish the results of the 2024 GTM Survey which we’ll reveal at Saastr in which we dig into the use of AI on sales processes & the impact to efficiency. Thanks to the panelists & attendees for a great discussion.

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When Stephanie White 🩵 drops truth bombs about modern sales enablement, you better take notes! "Nothing is seamless in enablement" is just the start. Join us as we dig into why traditional sales methodologies might be holding your team back, and what Steph suggests instead. The full episode -> Catch it tomorrow, October 22 at 8am.

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“What do they do again?” is the kiss of death! “What do they do again?” is intellectually lazy! “What do they do again?” screams I didn't care enough to spend an ounce of time looking them up! “What do they do again?” is disrespectful to relationships who believe in you, recommend you, or advocate on your behalf. Read this post and then watch the podcast interview by Jason M. Lemkin and commit to yourself to never stop growing, learning, or losing your edge. https://lnkd.in/exuuntYg? #GreatSalesLeaders #LeadersWhoWantToSell #SaaStr #NeverStopGrowing

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How can AEs 3.1x WinRate AND close deals 4.7x faster? Analysis of 4 million opportunities on $54bn of B2B sales pipeline shows preparation pays...   The better you prepare, the more you get to work great deals.  But what is the preparation to 3.1x WinRate?    → Prospect your ICP + Ideal Personas. - It's crucial to know your ideal customer profile.  - It's crucial to know the best personas to target.     →Top Performing AEs Disproportionately prospect both.     - They source less deals but close more self-sourced revenue.   - Most AEs half heartedly prospect "big accounts".  - The most successful AEs whole-heartedly prospect "ICP accounts".       → Preparing the list of ICPs + Personas is hard work.   → That is the best part, most don't do it.     Give yourself a fair advantage.     1. Discover the criteria of ICP & personas. 2. Apply the criteria to your prospects. 3. Target the top 20% of accounts that meet the criteria.   It sounds simple, but most people give up half way through.     So once you find deals.... what then? How do you close opportunities 4.7x faster?    The Answer? → Be Prepared to Hard Qualify.    → Apply the sales methodology you follow.     If you don't have 80%+ of MEDDPICC or SPICED by the end of Discovery... Sounds harsh, but without it at discovery deals slow down and often don't close.   Seriously consider walking away from the opportunity.     → The best AEs close deals at discovery 3.1x more than average AEs.     Hard to do with pipeline at a premium.    → In 2024, AEs don't have time to waste on unqualified opps.     → The big thing is PREPARATION for qualification and discovery calls.    Research the prospect, bring a perspective on the methodology.    e.g. following MEDDPICC?    I'm guessing your trying to solve X, because of the comments your CEO recently made.     What company initiative/OKR does this align with?    What business metric does this help?      Now you’re a step closer to M. (Metrics)      I'm guessing you've tried to solve this problem before?    What else are you considering?    Drilling into this brings you closer to C. (Competition)      When we send across paperwork...what happens?    Starting to understand the P. (Path to Paper)      If doesn't matter if your using MEDDPICC, SPICED or an internal custom sales process.    What matters is your prepared to use it in qualification and discovery.     Know the questions, form a POV on each from research.     If you’re an AE in 2024, then use the data to improve you're attainment.     Hat tip to Guy Rubin and the team at Ebsta for their AMAZING B2B Sales Benchmarks 2024 Report. p.s. want to fast track your AE Skills? I've one spot left for an AE to join my coaching program in July, send me a dm saying "90"🔥

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What should you do when a promising deal goes dark? 🧐 I have the pleasure of working directly with Sales Manager David Mansfield and here he shows how ZoomInfo Copilot can help you identify and re-engage with key contacts to get your deal back on track. Don't let a stalled opportunity mean a lost deal. Learn how ZoomInfo Copilot's AI capabilities make it easier to multi-thread, connect with decision-makers, and keep the momentum going. ⬇️ #ZoomInfoCopilot

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The first rule in sales leadership? Never miss your number. The second rule? See rule #1. But even the best sales leaders go through a bad month or a bad quarter. So what do you do when you are forecasting a miss? 1. Be honest about your forecast to your team and to your CEO. Don’t lie to yourself (or to anyone) about your forecast number. if you are expecting a miss for the bookings period, communicate the news as soon as you can. This is the kind of information that spoils very quickly when it’s hidden from view You might think you are helping yourself or your team by withholding your forecast. Maybe you are trying to project strength by sharing a forecast that’s filled with “hope-ium”. Believe me, it worse to miss your inflated forecast than it is to admit your team is going miss the revenue plan. 2. Get help from your leadership team. When you are honest about your forecasted performance, you attract the help of your peers. I’ve seen this so many times. Sales is the “tip of the spear” for most organizations. When sales are up, everyone is excited. When sales are down, everyone wants to help. So let them! Let marketing lean in to produce a few extra webinars or team events. Pull the customer success team in to find referrals or secure those key customer reference calls. You don’t have to go it alone. You have a team around you, so ask for help! 3. Find revenue wherever you can. This one may seem obvious, but it’s important. Don’t give up on the month/quarter. There is still time. You have pipeline that you can work. There are deals in next quarter that you can pull forward. You can re-engage with closed-lost deals from past quarters. Those can have a faster sales cycle than net new opportunities. You can get creative with deal structures to encourage customers to commit sooner. You can find new upsell opportunities with your best customers. The point is: don’t give up on the month. I’ve hit the number on the last day of the month/quarter so many times in my 10 years of running a revenue team. The period not over until it’s over. ______ If you are staring at a gap to your revenue plan for Q2, let me help you. Dozens of sales teams have used my 4 Keys playbook to increase sales velocity and volume. Get it for free: https://lnkd.in/gsAHGBSH

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These are 5 qualities every sales leader at a pre-IPO tech company should have 👏 Building sales teams at pre-IPO tech companies is hard. I know and after building sales teams at 8 startups, these are the 5 qualities I figured out that all high performing sales leaders should have. Hire for these. 1️⃣ NO FEAR OF FAILURE Sales leaders have to be willing to fail. We don't know what's around the next corner. We must take our best shot and learn from what doesn't work. Every leader at a startup is not only comfortable with that notion, but they embrace it. We never lose, we win or we learn. 2️⃣ DATA DRIVEN Obvious right? Yeah, but I know not all of your leaders are really data driven. Every leader at a startup is adept at assessing information and turning information into action. Many of them are spreadsheet jockeys. 3️⃣ MISSION ORIENTED Every leader at a startup has created a clear vision for what they want to achieve. Usually at startups, we're moving so fast that the CEO isn't going to do this. Sales Leaders must create it for your team. What is your team mission and does your team know it? 4️⃣ HIGH PERSEVERANCE The thought of not always progressing towards their goals is more painful than giving up. Armed with this desire, they are unstoppable. Every day is hard at a startup...Having perseverance keeps us moving forward daily. 5️⃣ STRONG COMMUNICATOR Again, obvious. Without good communication skills, it's impossible to paint the vision for others. Have you created really clear expectations for your team....in writing? Great leaders communicate their mission, vision and expectations in no uncertain terms. 💡Learning Lesson: If you focus on hiring sales leaders at your startup that have these 5 qualities, you'll be well on your way to building a high performing sales team. What do you think? What qualities are missing? If you found this post helpful - here's something else that can help you. Figure out if your new Head of Sales is going to work out or not with my free guide: https://lnkd.in/gtUG5-Qa

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These are 5 qualities every sales leader at a pre-IPO tech company should have 👏 Building sales teams at pre-IPO tech companies is hard. I know and after building sales teams at 8 startups, these are the 5 qualities I figured out that all high performing sales leaders should have. Hire for these. 1️⃣ NO FEAR OF FAILURE Sales leaders have to be willing to fail. We don't know what's around the next corner. We must take our best shot and learn from what doesn't work. Every leader at a startup is not only comfortable with that notion, but they embrace it. We never lose, we win or we learn. 2️⃣ DATA DRIVEN Obvious right? Yeah, but I know not all of your leaders are really data driven. Every leader at a startup is adept at assessing information and turning information into action. Many of them are spreadsheet jockeys. 3️⃣ MISSION ORIENTED Every leader at a startup has created a clear vision for what they want to achieve. Usually at startups, we're moving so fast that the CEO isn't going to do this. Sales Leaders must create it for your team. What is your team mission and does your team know it? 4️⃣ HIGH PERSEVERANCE The thought of not always progressing towards their goals is more painful than giving up. Armed with this desire, they are unstoppable. Every day is hard at a startup...Having perseverance keeps us moving forward daily. 5️⃣ STRONG COMMUNICATOR Again, obvious. Without good communication skills, it's impossible to paint the vision for others. Have you created really clear expectations for your team....in writing? Great leaders communicate their mission, vision and expectations in no uncertain terms. 💡Learning Lesson: If you focus on hiring sales leaders at your startup that have these 5 qualities, you'll be well on your way to building a high performing sales team. What do you think? What qualities are missing?

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Sales reps spend just 20% of their time on the phone selling to prospective customers. New innovations from @Salesforce are designed to help sellers: ✅ generate call summaries ✅ identify actionable insights directly from their teams’ calls ✅ accelerate call preparation and follow-up through automated agendas and to-do lists Learn more:

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Looking to move beyond strategy calls and start running revenue like a pro? With Clari's Run Revenue Program, revenue leaders are able to tackle inefficiencies head-on, turning chaos into clarity and revenue risk into growth. You'll discover how to align your team, eliminate risks, and create a repeatable system for predictable success. We outlined it all for you in our Run Revenue Guide here: https://lnkd.in/gQt3wxkd

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7 observations from a guy leading a global sales org in a brutal economy: 1) The list of “essential” technologies gets shorter every quarter. 2) Top reps are still having massive success. Everything is “figure-it-out-able.” 3) Cold outreach only works if you combine problem, person, and timing. 4) Rep desperation is at a high, which is matched by increased buyer skepticism. 5) Buyers don’t want to take a risk to “make a splash.” They want to keep their jobs. 6) No one’s buying because you “might” be able to help them. Prove it, or move on. 7) It’s never been easier to personalize outreach, so it’s never been harder to stand out. What would you add? p.s. I more than doubled the content when I replaced my AE Frameworks with AE Frameworks 2.0, but kept the price the same. That changes in less than a week. Take advantage of the original price at hitmyquota.com

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