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Spring is officially here! Maybe you’re the same as me – the rain might get you down, but you know that warmer weather is on its way! Are your revenues growing as well as your garden?
Give this song a listen as we see what the experts are saying this week:
Cultivating Larger Deals
Is your enterprise sales team leaving money on the table? We find in much of our work with B2B SaaS scaleups and mid-sized tech firms that many of their sales teams are closing smaller deals and not focusing enough on developing larger ones. This can result in slower growth rates for the company and extended time to build a profitable revenue engine. According to Chasm Group, this may be part of the reason B2B SaaS companies tend to take a decade or more to build a profitable revenue stream!
Think about it: increasing your average sale within those enterprise accounts is an easy way to grow overall revenue. We talk a lot about targeting and managing accounts in ABM strategy, but in reality, our AEs may not be focusing on where they need to be.
So how can we generate more strategic and substantial revenue faster?
- Set aside ‘product-centric’ approaches; focus on strategic problems to solve.
- Ensure you are selling ‘high’ enough – selling to middle management or lower means you are addressing tactical problems or simply responding to RFPs.
- Connect the dots between departmental problems and larger problems that jeopardize your customers’ overall business performance.
Companies whose CEOs and sales teams work to figure out the high impact problem that they help customers solve tend to become winners in their space! Think of your customer like that spring garden – nurture those accounts, and they will grow to be great producers!
Feuds, Synergies and the Common Good
The history of rock and roll is filled with examples of collaborators with deep hostilities between them. Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, the Robinson brothers from the Black Crowes, and of course, the public feuds of Noel and Liam Gallagher from Oasis.
This article got me thinking… if the Gallaghers can resolve their very public arguments to work together again, what enables this? In spite of their personal differences, these songwriting teams have all had successful careers, and created inspiring work. Perhaps there needs to be some friction in the process to get that ‘spark?’ Is it purely a monetary thing – and the potential financial benefit far outweighs the personal conflicts? And doesn’t this say it all: “It’s gonna happen very f%#%$ soon because [Noel]’s greedy and he loves money.”
In B2B, we see a similarly contentious relationship between sales and marketing. What is it about sales and marketing teams that causes this misalignment? I recently addressed this as part of a larger demand generation discussion with Alisa Groocock from Forrester. Our good friend Darryl Praill also has his own thoughts on the subject.
Whatever the reason, the underlying culture of the organization is an integral part of aligning sales and marketing. Having joint goals, service-level agreements, and a leadership team that is aligned all help. Having a CRO that manages both functions and ensures consistency can be a huge advantage.
Sure – a little friction can definitely maybe add excitement and creativity to the relationship, but if sales and marketing aren’t working toward a common goal, the whole thing will fall apart. The typical left-hand/right-hand misalignment can cost you revenue AND clients in a demanding, client-centric environment.
Grow Your ABM Strategy with Forrester SiriusDecisions – April 8
Need to grow your sales? Develop your ABM strategy? Validate those ABM initiatives you’ve already implemented? Our webinar with Alisa Groocock from Forrester, “Are You Ready for B2B Account-Based Marketing?”, is coming up soon! Sign up and we’ll send you the Forrester research report too!
As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.
Looking forward,
Rick
Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat