Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems (Sales Comp series, First Verse)

Laying the Groundwork

Same Old Song and Dance

Early-stage B2B Revenue leaders need to set up commissions correctly. There’s a lot of money at stake, both for the company and sales reps. The more money you come across, the more problems you see, right? Not necessarily. Money isn’t the only thing driving sales rep behavior—the best are self-driven, results-focused achievers—but it does matter. Top sales reps make more than 50% of their earnings from closing deals, in some cases a lot more.

For companies looking to grow, setting up a plan that aligns incentives with growth goals is key. Put another way, a good plan is table stakes. A bad plan confuses, demotivates, and undermines the sales effort. But what makes a good plan? Every member of the Revenue team who has carried a quota or managed sales teams will have an opinion. Add to that the preferences and biases of senior leaders in HR and Finance, all of whom will want to weigh in.

So how is a revenue leader supposed to know what they want from you? Setting up good plans doesn’t mean overcomping reps for their work, setting artificially low quotas, or other worries that crop up during commission conversations. It simply means thinking through a few key areas.

The Sales Comp series covers all of the things that revenue leaders need to consider. The First Verse talks about having a process, setting a focus area, and keeping things simple.

A Change Would Go You Good

Want to guarantee a million sales, pulling all the love? Here’s how to approach commissions:

  • Process: Come up with a process for setting comp plans each year.  Start early, no later than the end of Q3/start of Q4.  Comp plans can take weeks or months to hash out all of the parts and get stakeholders to approve, especially when there are major changes. Starting early will improve your chances of getting plans approved by all parties and out for signature before the start of the next fiscal year. Your reps will know exactly what they’ll earn in advance or at least on time. While this doesn’t mean that they’ll be happy with the plan (we’ll talk about how to improve those odds in a later post), it takes dissatisfaction from receiving late plans off the table. Too many companies start off on a bad note by not releasing comp plans until weeks or months into the new year. Talk about destroying morale!
  • Focus: Keep your focus on what you want to achieve next year, then set up the plan to support that initiative. If it’s growth in a new product, make your payout rates higher on those deals.  If it’s upsells for current clients, do the same there. Remember that reps can only close so many deals, so prioritize the most important growth initiative for your company. Try to keep it to one. Having a focus area also makes it easier to explain the plan – this is the “why” behind the “what”.
  • KISS: speaking of making things easy, keep your plan as simple as possible. Too many sales and finance leaders try to be too clever when crafting plans: accelerators, multipliers, ladders… They throw in every trigger and trap door in the compensation arsenal, thinking that they can cover all positive and negative pitfalls. This often creates more headaches than imagined. Once a plan gets too complicated, no one (reps, leaders, Finance, RevOps, etc.) will be able to follow it. Confusion and disagreements between those functions will inevitably occur. These disputes can last all year, sewing distrust between and within teams. Do everyone a favor and avoid these problems by keeping it simple.

——-

About the author: Todd Rode is a longtime RevOps operator in early-stage B2B ventures. He discovered his parents’ eclectic record collection at a young age and has loved all things music ever since. His consulting company, Year Six, helps revenue leaders navigate the skips and grooves of growing their companies.

Seven Nation Army

How Many Sales Reps Do You Need?

Same Old Song and Dance

Early-stage B2B revenue leaders often don’t know how many sales reps they need to hit their goals.  Most are either pressured to hire more reps when things are growing and/or when they receive funding, or advised against hiring new reps because it might be too soon and there are other hiring priorities.  These mixed messages make it hard to know what’s right.  So, should you hire a Seven Nation Army or no one at all?

Everyone from the Queen of England to the Hounds of Hell knows that both overhiring and underhiring have consequences.  Bring on too many reps too quickly and you might face uneven performance and issues of not having enough opportunities for them to work.  Too few reps and you risk leaving growth on the table from not having enough reps out there working the straw. 

And if that ain’t what you want to hear, I’m gonna serve it to you: you need to decide how many to hire sooner rather than later.

A Change Would Go You Good

Want to keep from talkin’ to yourself at night about how many reps to hire?  Use the following steps to frame the discussion:

1. Determine how many deals you need and how long they take to close:

  1. Deals. Break down your sales new business goal into how many deals you need based on ACV.  Remember to split out by product / solution if you have more than one and they have drastically different values. 
  2. Sales Cycle. How long does it take to close a deal, on average?  Same advice for product.
  3. Stress Test #1. Combine the two as a first stress test.  Based on the number of deals needed and the average sales cycle length, how many reps does it seem reasonable to hire to close that number of deals in that amount of time?

2. Determine how much pipeline you need:

  1. Close Rate. What’s your close rate percentage for deals? Divide the number of deals you need by this percentage and this is how many deals you need in your pipeline to hit your number. 
  2. Total Dollar Value. Multiply by the ACV to get the total dollar value of the pipeline target.
  3. Stress Test #2. Does the total addressable market (TAM) for your target market segment(s) support that much pipeline?
  4. Stress Test #3. Check your current pipeline. How much do you have relative to what you need?

3. Decide if you have the capacity to support growth:

  1. Stress Test #4. Think about capacity in three areas: 1. Leads: based on how much pipeline you need, and how much you currently have, how are you going to source enough leads to keep your reps fed with new potential opportunities? (see starting a sales dev team and sales rep prospecting). 2. Client Success: if you close as many deals as you calculated above, will your CS team be able to keep the increased number of clients happy (on top of current clients)?  3. Sales Enablement: how are you going to create a consistent onboarding experience for your new reps? Tip: a single “no” to any of the questions in Stress Test #4 will likely require further investment of funds and/or personnel, process, and resource changes. Make sure you’re prepared to put in the commitment to give your new sales reps the best possible chance of success.

You Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (Sales Dev series, Part IV)

Aligning Goals and Incentives

Same Old Song and Dance

For those early-stage B2B revenue leaders who have started SDR teams, they know that the impact can be massive: many SDR teams become Top 3 sources of closed won deals for their companies. Equally true is that failing to set up an SDR team correctly can leave revenue leaders feeling too low to get under.

This series gives Revenue leaders the basics if they wanna be startin’ somethin’ with sales development. For the sake of simplicity, all references to individuals doing dedicated outbound outreach are based on the word “sales”: sales development representatives, sales dev, SDRs.

Once you’ve weighed the costs and returns and considered creating the team internally versus outsourcing (Part I), you’ll structure the role (Part II) and set your team up for success (Part III).  Next, you’ll need to establish goals and incentives. 

Part IV covers setting goals and tying them to variable compensation.

A Change Would Go You Good

Afraid of getting stuck in the middle when setting up sales dev?  Align the following two areas to get the results you want:

  • Goals: It’s important to set expectations around SDR activities and results.  Activities include creating new prospects, making calls, and sending emails.  Typical results are conversations, meetings set, meetings completed (show-ups), and deals created.  Start with the number of deals created that you need from your SDR team (covered in Part I) and work your way back through each result and activity until you calculate the number of each you’ll need.  Use reasonable conversion rates for each stage (e.g., 10% of calls will result in conversations). If you have actual numbers or close proxies, use those.  The end result will be a list of activities and results with conversion rates for each stage.  Do some quick math to see what the total conversion rate is from top to bottom. If the percentage makes sense, you’re good to go. If not, go back and adjust some of the stages to better align with reality.
  • Variable Pay: Once you’ve figured out your goals, tie them to your SDR variable pay by breaking it down based on the desired activities and results. For example, if your SDR(s) will mainly focus on creating net new meetings and deals for your company (outbound outreach), allocate a larger portion of the total variable pay amount to that area (say, 80%).  The remaining 20% can go toward processing inbound leads.  Note: Yes, you need to incentivize inbound lead processing with dollars. Otherwise, SDRs will do the things that get them paid first and respond to leads last, no matter what your SLA requires them to do. After you’ve split outbound and inbound, further split out activities and results for each. Ideally, you’ll keep this simple and have one quantity-focused activity (meetings completed) and one quality-focused result (deals created).  Deals created are ultimately what you want, so weigh them higher than meetings completed. When finished with this scenario, you’ll have four payout events: outbound meetings completed, outbound deals created, inbound meetings completed, and inbound deals created. Do a final check of the expected results from the goals section and the expected payout for each event. As long as it looks reasonable, you’re good to move forward. Adjust if not.  And remember that you can always adjust the variable comp table in the future if it’s not producing the right results.  Just be careful not to change it too often to avoid confusion within your team.
  • Tip: In addition to keeping compensation simple, focusing on the results you want, and balancing quantity and quality, it’s important to tie compensation to events that an SDR can influence. Using events like meetings completed and deals created makes sense: SDRs are responsible for getting the right person to show up to a meeting (meeting completed) and doing enough research and early qualification to increase the chances of the meeting converting to an early-stage potential sale (deal created). Anything beyond that will be too far outside of an SDR’s control to be meaningful.

You Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (Sales Dev series, Part III)

What Your SDR Team Needs for Success

Same Old Song and Dance

When early-stage B2B revenue leaders decide to start SDR teams, they’re screaming out to the world that they’re ready for growth. If done correctly, sales dev can quickly become a Top 3 source of closed won deals for some companies. Still, there are several factors that can be the difference between accelerating sales volume and fizzling out in frustration.

This series gives Revenue leaders the basics if they wanna be startin’ somethin’ with sales development.  For the sake of simplicity, all references to individuals doing dedicated outbound outreach are based on the word “sales”: sales development representatives, sales dev, SDRs.

Once you’ve weighed the costs and returns and considered creating the team internally versus outsourcing (Part I), you’ll need to think about how to structure the role (Part II).  After that, setting up your SDR team for success will take priority. 

Part III covers giving your team the right target, messaging, tech stack, and training.

A Change Would Go You Good

Afraid of getting stuck in the middle when setting up sales dev?  Make sure your team has the following to be successful:

  • ICP: Nail down your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Spend time thinking through exactly who you want your SDRs to prospect.  Narrow it down to a combination of industry, title/level, company size, and any other relevant criteria that help narrow down the field to specific people who have pain that your solutions could solve.  SDRs will search for the right people based on these criteria.
  • Message: Distill your messaging into 8 to 10-second soundbites, simple email subject lines, and to-the-point email body sentences. SDRs must be relevant quickly within a crowded space. Speak to the specific ICP’s pain point and how you could solve it.  No broad-based email blasts (Marketing will take care of awareness campaigns) and no click-bait. Prospects won’t thank your SDRs or your company for either.
  • Tech stack: Your SDRs must be able to verify that prospects match your ICP, obtain their direct email and phone details, consistently reach out, and log their activity and results.  This is why the basic SDR tech stack includes an information source, a cadence sequencer and dialer, and a CRM.  Many solutions are fully integrated now, so ask about these specific capabilities when you talk to vendors.  It’s possible to get everything you need with an all-in-one solution.  If you’re not impressed with any one option, à la carte best-in-breed solutions could work just as well. 
  • Training: Once you’ve established the areas above, your new SDR(s) will need onboarding and ongoing training to make it all work together. Plan to spend at least the first two weeks covering key motions like finding and verifying the right prospect, delivering messaging in real-time, and recording all activity in your CRM.  One critical area is call training.  The more time you spend running drills through the various types of objections SDRs will encounter, the higher their conversation-to-meeting conversion rate will be.  Practice, practice, practice.
  • Tip: Tech stack costs can add up quickly for SDRs.  Remember to cover the basics first (find, reach out, record activity) before adding in fancy functionality.  All the conversational intelligence or AI-suggested best outreach times in the world won’t help your SDRs if they can’t find the right person in the first place.

You Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (Sales Dev series, Part II)

How to Structure Your SDR Team

Same Old Song and Dance

Early-stage B2B revenue leaders often need to decide whether to start an SDR teams. The benefits can be massive if done correctly; SDRs teams are a Top 3 source of closed won deals for some companies.  However, even after choosing to move forward, the pain can be thunder when faced with setting up and running the team.

This series gives Revenue leaders the basics if they wanna be startin’ somethin’ with sales development.  For the sake of simplicity, all references to individuals doing dedicated outbound outreach will be based on the word “sales”: sales development representatives, sales dev, SDRs.

First, you’ll need to weigh the costs and returns, and consider creating the team internally versus outsourcing (covered in Part I of the Sales Dev series).  If you choose to move forward, the next step is to determine how you’ll set up the team. 

Part II of the Sales Dev series covers variable pay, management, and what to call your team.

A Change Would Do You Good:

Afraid of getting stuck in the middle when setting up your team?  Make sure you spend some time thinking through a few things:

  • Variable Pay: Like sales reps, SDRs receive variable pay for performance.  We’ll cover how to tie pay to specific goals in Part III of the series.  Before that, you’ll need to determine how much variable pay to set aside out of an SDR’s on-target earnings, or OTE—the total amount (base plus variable) that an SDR could make at 100% attainment of goals.  We recommend targeting a base-to-variable split of anywhere between 70/30 and 50/50.  Any lower than 30% variable and the financial incentive isn’t there to drive results because the base is too high.  Any higher than 50% and the base is too low to cover the many background tasks that SDRs often take on.  Not to mention that a variable split that high creates undue pressure on SDRs and sales reps to push unqualified meetings and deals through to “toss the SDR a bone”.  That won’t boost your reps’ pipeline the way you want.
  • Management: SDRs need to report to someone, receive coaching, and be held accountable for results. Too many revenue teams leave this as an afterthought and then wonder why results don’t align with expectations.  Remember that you’re bringing on entry-level hires who have no experience working in a high-rejection, external-facing, big impact role.  SDRs don’t necessarily need a dedicated SDR manager from the start, but they do need direct management from someone.  Designate a member of the team to take on this responsibility.  Note: Whether the role sits under Marketing or Sales depends on a variety of factors, to be covered in Part IV of this series.
  • What to call your team: There is often debate within revenue teams about what to call the outbound outreach team.  You may have run across many acronyms for the role, including SDR, BDR, MDR, and ADR.   It’s true that there are subtle differences between these.  MDRs (Marketing Development Reps) might spend most of their time qualifying inbound leads versus finding and reaching out to cold prospects (SDRs, BDRs). ADRs (Account Development Reps) could have a specific account-based (ABM) focus.  Ultimately, it’s more important to define their responsibilities and goals than to worry about what to call them.  Any of the options will work fine.
  • Tip: One of the best reasons for creating an internal SDR team is to start a sales talent bench.   Be realistic about the progression from entry-level salesperson (SDR) to sales rep.  If you sell in a complex environment (expensive solution, multiple decision-makers, lengthy deal cycle, complicated value proposition) it may difficult to bridge the capability gap during an SDR’s typical tenure of 15-18 months.  Consider creating meaningfully progressive roles and experiences for promising SDRs, such as sales rep mentorship, smaller deal ownership/ride-alongs, inside sales, team leadership, etc.  Without these career-enhancing opportunities, your best SDRs will be much easier to poach by companies who do offer them. 

You Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (Sales Dev series, Part I)

Should You Start an SDR Team?

Same Old Song and Dance

Most revenue leaders at early-stage B2B ventures have heard of outbound sales development. Whether they worked directly with an SDR as a sales rep, were part of a larger team that included outbound outreach, or just heard about the idea from a peer or new board member, the majority of revenue leaders are aware of the concept. Just like Marketing and Sales Reps, dedicated outbound reps – commonly known as Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) or Business Development Representatives (BDRs)—can be a valuable source of leads. In fact, pipeline goals often can be too high to get over without this addition to the team.

It seems so simple: designate team members, usually entry-level sales resources, to find and reach out to specific decision-makers to qualify their interest in purchasing your company’s solutions. But if you’ve never started such a team from scratch, the sheer number of questions to answer could cause you to have a breakdown: How much do SDRs cost? How should you set up their comp plan? Is the return worth the investment?  Should you create the role internally or outsource it? Which team within Revenue should own the role? 

This series will give Revenue leaders the basics if they wanna be startin’ somethin’ with sales development. For the sake of simplicity, all references to individuals doing dedicated outbound outreach will be based on the word “sales”: sales development representatives, sales dev, SDRs.

Part I covers costs and returns of setting up an SDR team and creating an internal team versus outsourcing.

A Change Would Do You Good:

Afraid of getting stuck in the middle with sales dev? Here are a few areas to think about:

-Cost: Overall comp varies depending on location and experience, and responsibilities. Coastal hires, SDRs with experience, and advanced responsibilities like team leadership and early-stage deal qualification will cost more. Budget roughly 1.6x what you think the base salary will be. This will account for variable comp, benefits, and other employment expenses.  We’ll cover base/variable splits in Part II.

-Return: The value of deals generated through SDR efforts will vary based on your ACV and the SDR’s volume. Without citing specific dollar amounts, here are a couple of rules of thumb to keep in mind:

  1. Results vs total cost: Each SDR should generate enough total pipeline and closed won deals to cover their total cost. Use a minimum baseline of 5x total pipeline to total cost, and 1x closed won deals to total cost, and go from there. Anything less than this means that you might see a higher return from other lead sources.
  2. Results as a percentage of pipeline needed: Each SDR should generate enough total pipeline to account for a meaningful amount of the total pipeline your reps need to cover their quota for the year. Put another way, SDRs should be a Top 3 source of pipeline relative to other lead sources like Marketing, sales reps, channel partners, client referrals, etc.   If other sources round out the Top 3 spots, congratulations. You probably have enough good lead generation sources without investing in an SDR team at this time.

-Outsourcing: Here are things to keep in mind with outsourcing SDRs: compare their costs and estimated return to your internal costs and return; ask how they manage their SDRs; ask if SDRs are dedicated to your company or have split focus; ask what metrics are tracked and if you’ll have access to reports and dashboards; get referrals. 

Tip: Remember that this route means you don’t have to directly manage SDRs, but it also means that you’re not building your sales bench with future talent. And you’ll still need to keep an eye on results. Not all outsourced SDR teams will produce the high-quality leads you’re paying them to generate. 

In the end, you’ll need to weigh the pros and cons of everything above relative to where you are as a company and make the call.

Hungry Like the Wolf

Why Your Reps Need to Source Their Own Leads

Same Old Song and Dance

Revenue leaders at early-stage B2B ventures constantly worry about lead generation and pipeline volume.  Their reps can’t close deals they don’t have, after all.  Reps are always wolfishly hungry for more “at-bats”, and sourcing quality leads is tough.  Given this reality, some leaders and reps become convinced that the only way to get more leads is to funnel more money into Marketing campaigns. 

Here’s why that won’t work.  Inbound leads from Marketing will only get reps so far.  Even if those juices are flowing like wine now, most will get lost in the crowd and not turn into potential deals, let alone go all the way to Closed Won.  Plus, early-stage leaders don’t have unlimited funds for anything, Marketing or otherwise.

Reps need multiple lead sources, and one of the best is a rep’s own outbound efforts. It makes sense.  Reps are in touch with the ground on the market, the buyers, and your product—no one is closer than the people out there selling every day.  Reps also tend to place greater trust in their own leads, having qualified the prospects themselves.  This means they’ll work these deals more carefully than those from other sources, at least until they have proof (meaning several Closed Won deals) that other lead sources are more than a scent and a sound.

Yes, it takes time and effort.  No, reps don’t like doing it.  Let them howl and whine all they want, but they won’t generate enough pipeline coverage to hit their quota unless they diversify their sources and pursue this one themselves. 

A Change Would Do You Good

Tired of being hungry for leads?  Have your reps try this to get back on the hunt:

  • Dedicated Time: Reps should set time for prospecting on their calendars.  As with prospect calls and meetings, this time should be untouchable by others.
  • ICP: Make it count by identifying the right titles, company sizes, industries, etc.  Specialty tools like ZoomInfo can help, but LinkedIn and internet searches work well too if you’re budget conscious.
  • Outreach: Like with prospecting, have your reps block off dedicated time each week to reach out to prospects.  Tell them to plan for multiple touchpoints – no one picks up on the first ring or answers the first email.  For simplicity’s sake, start with a basic 3 + 3 x 3 cadence.  Three calls paired with three emails over three weeks (one call/email pair per week).  Follow up 4-6 weeks later with anyone who didn’t respond.
  • Tracking: Have reps log each call, email, or social touch in a CRM, if possible.  Set up a spreadsheet if necessary.  The important thing is to capture key data like date, time, and number of attempts.
  • Expectations: Make it known during the interview process that a certain percentage of deals (you’ll decide the amount) need to come from reps.  Coach your current team on the importance of generating their own leads if you haven’t already.
  • Compensation: Consider paying higher commission rates for rep-sourced deals to align incentives with behavior. You’ll need to balance this with other drivers in your plan, while remembering how important definitions and tracking are when counting lead attribution.
  • Tip: For inspiration, have your reps read Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount.  It’s been a go-to resource for SDRs and sales reps for years.

Shout

What Are the Best Lead Sources?

Same Old Song and Dance

Revenue leaders in early-stage B2B companies have limited budgets.  One of the hardest choices they make is where to invest when it comes to generating leads.  It isn’t black and white: there are a seemingly endless number of sources: SEO, social media, form fills (website and social), conferences, webinars, white paper downloads, etc.  Leaders really, really ought to know how to make the right decision.

Aside from the most obvious reason (attracting new clients), leaders must answer the question when seeking funding.  Often the first thing investors ask when talking to you is “Where will you source your leads?” or “What are your best lead sources now?”  Leaders need to have a good, fact-based answer.  This can be the difference between building confidence in your company’s growth potential or having would-be backers break your heart because they don’t believe that you have a plan to generate reliable (and convertible) customer interest.

Even before courting VCs, revenue leaders need to know how to let it all out to increase growth.  It’s a matter of survival for early-stage B2B companies: once the first small set of channel partners or early adopters signs up, how does the next, larger wave find out about your company?  Companies won’t live to tell the tale if they waste valuable months of discovery. Those seed dollars and early customer payments burn awfully fast.

A Change Would Do You Good

Not knowing where to source leads is a thing you can do without.  Try this instead:

  • Tracking: Start measuring a couple of key things: conversion rates and cost per lead.  This means you need to track each step in your lead funnel and attribute costs correctly. The easiest way is in your CRM because it provides a reliable way to capture the info each time.  Marketing (demand gen leader) or a trained BDR are usually the most consistent with entering the information relative to other options like sales reps.  Automate as much as you can.  If using your CRM isn’t an option, a spreadsheet is better than nothing.
  • Metrics: As mentioned, the most important metrics to track are conversion rates (total and stage) and cost per lead.  The math is simple for each: total conversion rates (how many leads made it to that stage divided by the total number of leads, stage conversion rates (how many leads made it to the stage divided by leads that made it to the prior stage), and cost per lead (dollar spent on the lead generation campaign divided by the number of leads that made it to a certain stage, like Closed Won). 
  • Definitions: When tracking conversion rates by source, clearly define each step so you know what went into the top of your funnel and what converted to each step (Lead, MQL, SQL, etc.).  It’s important to do this all the way to Closed Won.  That way, everyone is on the same page and has a common understanding when you talk about “cost per” metrics.
  • Tip: Find the balance between conversion rates and cost per lead. Typically, lead conversion is a single-digit number, meaning the degree of difference between sources is often one or two percentage points.  This is where cost per lead comes in.  Having the highest conversion rate out of all the sources is meaningless if the cost per lead is several times that of other sources.  You’ll need to find a better lead source or get the cost down.

A Little Less Conversation

How to Focus Your Deal Reviews

Same Old Song and Dance

One thing that causes endless aggravation for early-stage B2B revenue leaders is deal reviews with their sales reps.  Whenever these meetings take place, one thing is typically guaranteed to happen: the leader walks away having heard a lot of words but not getting a lot of answers about deals: are they going to close, when, how confident is the rep, what are the next steps, does the rep need help…?  Not getting answers doesn’t exactly spark confidence.

A big part of the problem is that these calls are too conversational and unstructured.  When offered up 30 mins to “talk about their deals”, many sales reps do what many sales reps do: they show up and throw up. Meaning that they talk about every conversation, email, and call they’ve ever completed with a prospect, tossed around with a heavy dose of anecdotes and rose-colored predictions. This leaves revenue leaders longing for a little less conversation and a little more action.

Deal reviews need to occur, and they need to be meaningful for the leader and the rep.  To get a little less bark and a little more bite out of them, the discussion should center on movement: of a rep’s active deals, which ones were created, which ones advanced, and which ones closed or are close to closing?  Leaders typically know about Closed Won deals, and often about those that are about to close (especially the bigger ones).  But they’re less likely to know about ones that are newer to the pipeline.  Those deals, if nurtured correctly over time, could become wins.

A Change Would Do You Good

Tired of talking about deals without results?  Don’t procrastinate or articulate.  Try this instead:

  • Weekly Cadence: Meet once a week.  Regardless of how many deals there are or the average deal cycle length, meeting once per week keeps the emphasis on results and movement.  It also gives reps enough time to do the activities (calls, emails, virtual meetings, site visits, conferences, etc.) that lead to deal movement.
  • Expectations: In addition to defining the verifiable outcomes that identify the correct deal stage, set clear expectations for what you expect in the meeting.  When the meeting ends, what information needs to be exchanged between leader and rep.
  • Format: Use the same format each time, and let the agenda drive the meeting so you don’t get off track.  The best I’ve seen comes from Mike Weinberg’s Accountability Meeting agenda.
  • Movement: Keep the focus on what’s moved…and what hasn’t.  Stalled deals (age, pushes) might be ready for the Closed Lost pile or may simply need some direction or help from leadership.  Use this time to figure out which. 

Push

Why Deal Pushes Might Signal Bad Pipe

Same Old Song and Dance

For early stage B2B revenue leaders, one of the hardest things to determine consistently is which deals are real and which aren’t.  Whether leaders are following 20 deals or 220, their situation is the same: they’re trying to match reality versus what their reps are telling them across a variety of deal stages, values, close dates, and products, all within a complex selling environment.  That’s enough to make anyone question if their deals have ever been good enough. 

Add to that the common practice of pushes, and any revenue leader is bound to get a little bit angry.  Pushes are when reps move the close date of a deal anywhere from one to several months into the future, typically right before the end of a reporting period (like a month or quarter).  When this happens, the pipeline and forecast can kinda fall apart and things get so crazy: leaders demand deal reviews, RevOps and FP&A scramble to redo forecasts and reports, and marketing gets called in to generate more demand to fix the lower year-to-go coverage.  Everyone feels like they’ve been taken for granted by the sales reps.

As much of a pain as this is, the truth is that pushes happen.  They’re not a red flag by themselves, but they could be a yellow one.  Too many pushes typically signal that the deal is in danger of not closing.  Combined with the deal stage (especially early stages) and age (older is worse), multiple pushes almost always mean no deal.

A Change Would Do You Good

Tired of feeling cheated and wronged with deals?  Here’s how to avoid pushes:

  • Normalize: Deals push. It’s normal, especially in a complex B2B deal cycle. Have your RevOps team or an analyst figure out the average number of pushes per deal. Tip: Break down by product or other meaningful segment if needed, but be careful to have a viable sample size so you’re not drawing the wrong conclusions from a small number of deals.
  • Monitor: Set up a report to track the total number of pushes. You’ll likely need to do this manually unless you upgrade your CRM or buy a pipeline analytics tool. Most CRMs don’t have this as part of their basic out-of-the-box functionality.
  • Redefine: Consider reviewing your deal stage definitions and verifiable outcomes.  Too many pushes might be a sign that deals are being added to the pipeline and advanced prematurely.