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One of my biggest surprises from researching B2B growth is that 100% of successful bottom-up B2B companies eventually add a sales team. It's not a question of if – it's a question of when and how.
Below are my fav 5 tips from @Kazanjy for setting this transition up for success
Below are my fav 5 tips from @Kazanjy for setting this transition up for success
1/ First, do sales yourself. As a foremost expert in the problem space, you’re best positioned to have the first few dozen sales conversations.
Later on, these sales tasks will be handed to a specially hired salesperson but only after the initial motion has been roughed out.
Later on, these sales tasks will be handed to a specially hired salesperson but only after the initial motion has been roughed out.
2/ To get a sense of the need for a full-time salesperson, add a “Contact Us” or “Contact Sales” CTA to your home page in a place that wouldn't distract the user from self-sign up. Watch for inbound requests asking for large-company-type needs (e.g. SOC 2, consolidate billing)
3/ To figure out the ROI of a potential salesperson, use this model. Generally speaking, you want to see a salesperson delivering 4x their fully loaded cost in incremental revenue. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16NBOjE9Hpm4uexjslpYVDmidp3fIpDwmR3zRKieFgKM/edit#gid=0
4/ There are 2 reasons to add salespeople to a self-serve product:
1. “Scooping up” pods of successfully activated customers and facilitating expansion
2. Helping with conversion of unactivated customers
Before hiring, be clear on the initial focus of this salesperson.
1. “Scooping up” pods of successfully activated customers and facilitating expansion
2. Helping with conversion of unactivated customers
Before hiring, be clear on the initial focus of this salesperson.
5/ Avoid going top-down. Your current strength and asset is that you have a self-serve product that users love. A top-down motion will mean interacting with decision-makers who are so far removed from the day to day work your product facilitates. Do this later.
6/ For so much more, don't miss the full post below. And for EVEN MORE, don't miss @Kazanjy's definitive and highly-actionable book on startup sales: https://www.foundingsales.com/ https://www.lennyrachitsky.com/p/sales-bottom-up
