Jacco vanderKooij - Blueprints for a SaaS Sales Organization

Blueprints

People:

AE - Account Executive

AM - Account Manager

BDR - Business Development Representative

CSM - Customer Success Manager

CEO - Chief Executive Officer

CRO - Chief Revenue Officer

CCO - Chief Customer Officer

FAE - Field Account Executive

MDR - Marketing Development Representative

PM - Product Manager

SDR - Sales Development Representative

SE - Sales Engineer, sometimes refers to a web developer

VPM - VP Marketing

VPS - VP Sales

SaaS Lead Definition:

Suspect - A person who may be interested

Prospect - A person who expresses interest

MQL - Marketing Qualified Lead, a person who expresses interest and fits the profile.

SQL - Sales Qualified Lead, person who is interested

SAL - Sales Accepted Lead

WIN - A client who commits to the service

LIVE - Client who has been onboarded

SaaS Business:

ACV - Annual Contract Value

ACRC - Annual Customer Retention Cost

ARR - Annual Recurring Revenue equal to12 times MRR

B2B - Business to Business

B4B - Business for Business

B2C - Business to Consumer

CAC - Client Acquisition Cost, the amount to acquire a single client

CR - Conversion Ratio, the amount of leads to produce one SQL

CRC - Client Retention Cost, the cost to retain a client for 12 months

CRM - Customer Relationship Management (platform)

CSM - Customer Success Management (platform)

ENT - Enterprises, companies with over 5,000 employees

LOGO - Common use term for a high value client

LTV - Life time Value of a client, often between 3- 5 times ACV

MAS - Marketing Automation Software (platform)

MRR - Monthly Recurring Revenue

PTC - Refers to the combined cost of (P)eople, (T)ools, and (C)ontent

RoI - Return on Investment

SaaS - Software as a Service

SC - Sales Cycle

SMB - Small to Medium Business(es) often between 50-500 employees

SME - Small to Medium Enterprise often between 500-5k employees

VSB - Very Small Business often between 2-50 employees

PRO - Prosumer, a single user who behaves like a business user

WR - Win Ratio, the number of accounts it takes to produce one WIN

The lessons contained in this book are the aggregated learning from years spent building sales teams for high growth SaaS startups. As sales leaders and consultants in this constantly changing space we have seen firsthand the effects of building sales teams correctly, which leads to explosive growth, and incorrectly, which almost always leads to an existential crisis.

What we noticed is that the companies that do it right are doing a few things consistently. We have reduced those best practices to a system which we believe sales leaders can implement. The blueprints presented in this book form the basis for that system and for all the work we do to scalably grow revenue. We hope they can do the same for you.

That said, this book is more relevant to some businesses than others. In particular, our blueprints cannot be applied to help you find out your business model, or align it with a strategy*. The lessons contained in this book can only be applied when you are ready to scale your SaaS business. How do you know if you are ready to scale? Read on:

The kind of business you are:

- B2B or B2B2C

- Offering an online service

- With recurring fees

The elements you have in place:

- Your price list is established

- Your first salespeople are in place

- Your target markets are identified and proven

- Your product is nailed down - in short, you are out of beta

The kinds of goals you have:

- Help customers by solving or preventing a problem

- Rapid growth, as measured in monthly revenue

- Increasing valuation of your company

As consultants, our prototypical client meets all of the above criteria. In the shorthand of capital raises, this book is most pertinent to your company if you are post-A round. That is because it is normal for you to still be tinkering with your sales model at A.

In this context, this book lays out step by step instructions to build a scalable customer centric sales organization that will help you develop the revenue stream needed to achieve your hopes and dreams.

* Recommended reading: Aligning Strategy and Sales: The Choices, Systems and Behaviors that Drive Effective Selling by Frank V. Cespedes

In our work helping companies create scalable salesforces, we have identified a recurring problem. The problem is that the way we sell in B2B has made little progress since the early 1900s. As outlined in the book B4B* there may have been several changes in activities from the days of solution selling, and many new tools, but no significant change in the approach and the methodology.

All of us are B2C customers, and today we use that as the point of reference for a great sales experience. This B2C experience provides, instant pricing, peer references, access to online support, and the ability to make a purchase decision without talking to anyone. Try CustomInk.com or Amazon.com and youll see what we mean.

Fast moving markets force B2B customers to look for the same experience, only to find that most B2B providers have a very poor sales experience. There is big gap between the buyers expectations and what they actually experience. This gap is not only big - it seems to be growing.

Do not misunderstand us; great tools are entering the market, from email tracking to workflow management tools and more, all in an attempt to close the gap.

But you cant close that gap by building a 10-story apartment complex on a foundation designed for a single car garage. You need a blueprint that you can work from. A blueprint based on best practices from others that went before you. Because, in a business environment that is moving ever faster, you are most likely to only get one shot at it.

Almost all our clients face this issue: they do not build their teams with process to scale. Instead, they follow a predictable pattern which has been summarized into an industry truism that it takes at least two if not three Sales VPs to get things right.

The first VP takes three to six months to hire. He buys tools on an ad hoc basis to fit the budget. He establishes a once-a-year training program that includes lead development, closing, and negotiation skills. Staff turnover begins because quotas go unmet. Belatedly, he attempts to deploy processes too late.