I definitely enjoyed the book Predictable Revenue and really like the author's style. Ross did an amazing job helping Salesforce.com generate its opportunities, and this book tells his story of building the lead generation function from scratch and gives some great examples of his leadership style.
I would have liked it to have been more specific, but it still fully deserves a 5 star rating for being the course on "Bay Area Lead Gen Scaling 101." Having built and managed a 5+ member lead generation team from scratch exactly like the author, here are my thoughts on the book:
Ross' Vision:
1) Don't let the so-called "reality" stop you. (Love this comment)
2) Subteams and miniCEOs, cool idea for teams within companies. (Great vision, his best)
3) Design CEOs and VPs of Sales out of the sales process. (Hmm, interesting. Agreed)
4) The future of sales is on new user acquisition and important titles like VP of Lead or Demand Gen. (Agreed)
5) Design self-managing teams. (Good)
The 4 things Ross nails especially well:
1) "Prospects should earn proposals." (This is the best line ever, I always say this)
2) Always get prospects to talk about their business, not selling the product. Ask "why" 3x or more. (Great!!)
3) In 6 months, follow-up on all past opportunities. (Important)
4) Ask yourself in order, "what can I:"
A. eliminate
B. automate
C. outsource
D. delegate
Some facts:
1) "Short and sweet" emails get over 9% open rate vs. sales-y at 0%.
2) Responsibilities of VP Sales includes: goal setting, involvement in big deals, culture, etc. (See full list)
3) Most inbound leads come from small businesses, not enterprises.
Things I found interesting:
1) "Send messages before 9am or after 5pm and avoid Monday and Fridays." (It would be interesting to see these stats in much more specificity)
2) "Did I catch you at a bad time" is best intro line. (Hmm, maybe, need to think about)
3) "Return on Salesperson's time." (Very interesting concept and would be interesting to track both to company and as an individual)
4) Ross says: don't assume sales people will find deals by Rolodexes and cold calling. (Great!! Yes)
Parts of Ross' Process:
1) Define what companies are most similar to the top 5-10% of your clients. (Good)
2) Voicemail and email combinations are effective. (Ok)
3) Create a "success plan" for after product is sold. (Good)
4) Always start high 1-2 levels above decision maker. (Maybe. Good rule of thumb, but I don't like the word "always." Finding influential people is key)
5) Free trials - help create "what defines success" and make sure there is follow-through. (I like paid trials better)
6) Track call conversations with DM's per day for sdr team. (Yes)
7) Always set up a next step with qualified dms. (Very important)
8) Need a market response rep for every 400 leads. (Ok, maybe)
9) Metrics to track at board level: new pipeline generated per month. (Good)
Some additional thoughts:
1) Scaling is "not about hiring more salespeople." (Agreed. Ideally this process would be systemized and automated)
2) Hubspot's suggestion on blogs: Participate with others' blogs, comment, and make it a 2 way conversation. (Very good!)
3) The trends in sales & marketing are: more accountability on marketing budgets and lead generation teams on ROI. (Yes)
Recommended products to check out:
1) Landslide - design your sales process for free.
2) InsideView
3) Connectandsell.com - ondemand conversations
4) How Marketo uses Marketo:
a. Lead scoring breakdown. Very cool!!
b. An email is sent 11 min after web form..
Suggestions for improvement:
1) Would have likes to have seen more specific examples of success at Responsys, HyperQuality or other clients rather than vaguely "tripled results."
2) How important is predictable revenue? Is there a trade-off between predictable revenue and more revenue? I wonder. Maybe, maybe not. I know that I've seen AEs (ClearSlide is one example) incentivized to sandbag to hit 120% of monthly quota rather than have wild swings of 300% ten 40%. That's terrible.
3) Didn't include: process for data management, recommended software for deduping, or how leads and accounts were structured.
Connect with me at LinkedIn.com/in/caseydkerr or on Twitter @drcaseykerr
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