If you run a B2B business, ask yourself: “Does my sales operation look more like 1990s Oracle or more like Crowdstrike, the fastest-growing SaaS company to IPO last year?”
If you are like 1990s Oracle, you probably have:
• A large and well-paid field sales force
• Large average initial deal sizes (>$100K)
• 9-12 month sales cycles
• Lumpy bookings on a quarterly basis
• Poor bookings forecast accuracy
• Difficulty knowing what each rep is doing on any given day / week
If you are like 2020 Crowdstrike, you probably have:
• A large remote sales team, complemented with field sales
• Highly active marketing and demand generation
• Smaller average initial deal sizes (<$50K)
• 3-6 month sales cycles
• High expansion rates
• Smooth bookings growth, quarter to quarter
• Consistent bookings forecast accuracy
• Complete visibility into daily and weekly sales activity
The world has moved on. Modern B2B companies are maintaining growth rates of 40% and higher (Crowdstrike was 107% in their IPO quarter), and the modern engine room of growth is:
• Demand generation
• Inbound and outbound prospecting
• Remote sales
• Customer success
Many companies have laid off or “retired” large portions of their field sales forces, in favor of inside sales. If you think the world will return to field selling after the 2020 pandemic subsides, you will be waiting a long time. Sales is never going back!
To discover more about the modern selling techniques that will enable your team to achieve revenue targets, please review the complete brief below:
