Mike Harness

If you are responsible for enablement at your company, your #1 job beyond all others is to get a strong executive sponsor. It might be the CRO, it might be the COO, it might be the CEO, maybe by some miracle it is the CFO. Maybe it's a strong SVP. Title doesn't matter - organizational respect and resource gathering does. Trying to do ANYTHING in enablement without a strong exec sponsor to: 1. Get resources (people, money, attention) 2. Align teams (sales, success, marketing, product....not necessarily in that order) 3. Create priority (over the zillion other things that a company could do) Is a huge waste of time and energy. If you don't have it, create it. If you can't create it, find somewhere you can or accept that your results will be greatly diminished and your work will be generally uninteresting/frustrating.

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😬 One of the things that sales leaders definitely struggle with is setting up the comp plan for their BDRs. A lot of people get it wrong. And getting it wrong will most likely mess up your system of incentives and get your BDRs to underperform. I spent some time writing out ours deeply thinking about what I wanted to optimize for, and validated it with 5 sales leaders. We created a nice system that incentivizes our BDRs to get as many qualified pipeline as possible. And it works so far! 🚀 But also, they're incentivized on the medium term (leads that close with great ACVs), and the longer term (through equity). So this is how we pay Jake and Rory: Base -> straightforward. It's a function of seniority and location. Commission: this is the interesting part. Each company with less than $20k ACV counts as 1 lead Each company with a $20k-$30k ACV counts as 2 leads Each company with a $30k-$40k ACV counts as 3 leads Each company with a $40k-$50k ACV counts as 4 leads Each company with a $50k+ ACV counts as 5 leads Commission per lead: $50 per lead generated. $120 per lead that progresses to a demo. If over 110% quota achieved, qualified leads are paid $150 instead of $120. Additional commission: 2% of the total deal value once the deal is closed. If over 110% quota is achieved, commission on deals is 4% instead of 2%. Performance requirements: 50% of generated leads must be qualified (progress to demo). Ramp: they need to get a minimum of 40 leads by month 4. And we actually expect them to outperform that quota by 150%. Equity: they receive stock options. If they outperform their quota 3 months in a row by 200%, they get a one-time boost of an extra 33%+ of their stock options. It could sound aggressive, with high rewards behind these targets, but so far it's working. Am I missing anything? Would love to get your thoughts!

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At the Gainsight conference last week, I had several folks ask me some version of "everyone used to talk about adoption....now everyone says that it's just about outcomes and ROI. What's your take?" It is and has always been about both. Can you get ROI without adoption? No. Is adoption by itself sufficient to guarantee value realization? Also no. You have to have adoption of the right capabilities that tie to customer business priorities with attached measurable outcomes. That is and has always been the formula. This is easy to say, really hard to implement and manage at scale. Which is why very few companies do it.

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Most CROs and VPs of Sales at early-stage startups are set up for failure. This is not due to their lack of skill but to a lesser-known type of debt ⤵ 𝐆𝐨-𝐭𝐨-𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐭 Go-to-market debt refers to strategic gaps,  often stemming from a founder’s short-term objectives,  that lead to escalating costs as the business expands. When CROs and VPs of Sales assume their roles, they are often tasked with scaling operations that are missing crucial components. So, the more they try to start the engine, the hotter it gets,  yet it still fails to start—and might even risk blowing up. A common mistake among first-time founders  is accumulating GTM Debt through a 'short-term' hiring approach. They hire to address immediate needs (e.g., "We need more marketing, hire a CMO!") rather than considering the skills and experience needed for long-term success. Other common pitfalls involve poor hiring decisions stemming from inadequate sales vs marketing analysis: → Hiring a GTM team that doesn't know your TAM. → Hiring an expensive sales team before you've dialed in your messaging. → Hiring a sales representative when the real need is marketing/pipeline. → Hiring for marketing when the real need is investment in product. The longer a business operates under these conditions, the more it struggles, incurring greater losses. What should you do to avoid GTM Debt when hiring your GTM team? Well, firstly - get the right leader in place and give them the latitude to assess the situation honestly. Then, get really good at hiring. I wrote a post on building a talent acquisition function at a startup from scratch. You can check it out here: https://lnkd.in/g7sBN477 The point: make this a priority. It will make or break your engine in the long run. Shoutout to Wayne Morris for detailing GTM debt in each go-to-market phase and how you can uncover it. Make sure you read his original post here: https://lnkd.in/gJfreiu5. He explains everything related to GTM Debt. Very insightful! I built this diagram to help visual the components of this process. P.S. Need help hiring GTM talent for Data, AI/ML, Compute, and Cloud Infra? DM me. We've assisted successful early-stage startups (backed by Zoom, Norwest, and Two Sigma Ventures) in finding A+ hires. #GTMstrategy #GTMteam #recruitment #sales #strategy

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For sales leaders only: During my time at Gong ($200k ARR to $7.2 billion valuation), I was mentored by the top revenue leaders on the planet. I reported to the CRO for three years (former LinkedIn exec with a 400 rep org). I reported to the President and COO for a year (from Tableau EVP Sales who took the company public). And I learned a ton from the VP Sales who built the entire thing at Gong. Along the way, I learned 128 priceless revenue leadership lessons. Documented every one of them during those 5.5 years. And turned it into a PDF. Want to see those 128 revenue leadership lessons free? I'll send them your way right now. Hit "like" and comment "revenue" and I'll DM you the PDF for free. Here's a preview of a few of them: 1. Create unmistakable clarity in your hiring. This is by far the most powerful thing you can do to improve your hiring. Get crystal clear on three things: A) Role outcomes B) Ideal rep profile C) Evaluation methods 2. Realize that coaching is more about self-discovery than instructing. Great coaching is about asking questions, guiding self-discovery, and creating new possibilities with your reps. The most effective coaching focuses helps your people think, analyze, and figure things out for themselves. 3. The behaviors you recognize, repeat. You will see the behaviors you recognize repeated more often. Reinforce best practices by recognizing your people when they do them. When you recognize a specific behavior, the person will know what to do next time. 4. Do not split your coaching time across reps evenly. You don’t get paid for splitting your time evenly across your reps. Split your reps into groups based on their desire and ability to change and spend time staggered towards the most coachable folks. 128 more revenue leadership tips if you want them. Hit "like" and comment "revenue" and I'll DM you the PDF for free. P.S. Want to upskill your revenue team and boost win rates to new heights? Explore pclub.io for teams, here: https://lnkd.in/g2CkE295

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I meet and talk with 5-10 of the greatest GTM minds on the planet every week. CRO’s, VPs of Sales, CMO’s. 100% agree that getting outbound right is one of the hardest parts of their business, why? 1. Recruiting is hard again The same voices that sold tech sales as an easy path to 6 figures are now the voices saying the BDR role is dead. They sold a bill of goods to people who didn’t understand how hard this role is, are surprised these people who chose a path because it was sold as “easy” aren’t performing, and now have ulterior motives to pivot to a new message. Hard jobs are hard to recruit for. 2. Lack of Leadership 2020 through mid 2022 we had a bunch of capital bloat and talent bloat enter the market. Just like we have overvalued “zombie” companies we have overvalued “zombie” leaders who don’t know how to coach good habits for this type of market. Outbound was easy from 2014ish to summer 2022. 8 years is a long time, most of the voices we hear only know those times or only know what type of sales motion. 3. Absolute statements muddy the waters I've been around the block enough to click on their profile and see their track record. 99.9% of folks make these statements only sold transactional commodity technology, sold to GTM teams, or in most cases – only both. What works depends on multiple factors: ASP, buyer persona, and complexity of your sales process/customer’s buying process. Depending on what you sell – sometimes you are going to need to pick up the phone or send a note to get someone’s attention. That will NEVER change. 4. Generational consideration for career pathing is key BDR is still hands down the best route to market for future AE’s. You have to learn to prospect and get meetings before you can run a meeting, qualify, and manage a deal. No argument from me on CAC math – thousands of products require veracious qualification, deal management, and creating customer consensus. You can not run those types of deals and prospect. If any Voice had EVER done that type of role or ran a team that did, they wouldn’t say what they are. For BDRs to stick around for more than 14 months, you need steps in the BDR path where comp, responsibility and role grow over time. 5. Results are tanking Point 1&2. You are the equivalent of a fire fighter that starts a fire then takes the glory when you put it out. I absolutely loved the movie Backdraft – but stop it. These are the ideas of “not famous” GTM people. People who spend all day serving their customer and developing their people – not posting on this platform. They don’t care about clicks, followers, or impressions. They care about revenue and earnings. Outbound is hard. It (almost) always has been. Ya’ll need to block the noise and focus on what works for your business and try everything. Even the hard stuff. #AllGasNoBrakes #DialedIn

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Plenty of SaaS companies hiring right now.   I curated some RevOps, Growth, and Marketing roles that look interesting.   All of these companies have positive 6-month headcount growth, have open role todays, and are tracked in the PeerSignal.org B2B Software index.   Spreadsheet has 50 with details --> https://lnkd.in/gEq2zZGp   Next month I'll feature sales roles.   -- Chainguard is hiring Senior Customer Marketing Manager. Remote - US. 140 employees, +56% last 6-mo.   -- Zapier is hiring Sr. Product Marketer. Remote - NAMER. 1218 employees, +12% last 6-mo.   -- Jasper is hiring Director of Product Marketing. Remote US. 793 employees, +14% last 6-mo.     -- Keyplay is hiring Demand Gen / Growth Lead. Bellevue, WA or Remote US. 6 employees, +20% last 6-mo. 🚨 THIS ONE IS EXTRA GOOD!! NO BIAS. WORK W ME!! 😱     -- Drata is hiring Sales Operations Manager. Remote US. 619 employees, +12% last 6-mo.   -- Hyperproof is hiring Revenue Operations Manager. Remote US. 164 employees, +21% last 6-mo.   -- Karbon is hiring Growth Marketing Manager. Remote US. 198 employees, +24% last 6-mo.   -- Navan is hiring Revenue Operations Manager. CA. 2302 employees, +4% last 6-mo.   -- Postscript is hiring Senior Director of Growth Marketing. Remote. 272 employees, +3% last 6-mo.   -- Zip is hiring Sr. Marketing Operations & Analytics Manager. Remote US or Hybrid SF office. 505 employees, +1% last 6-mo.   -- Limble CMMS is hiring Sales Operations Manager. Remote. 219 employees, +20% last 6-mo.   -- WellSaid Labs is hiring Senior Content Marketing Manager. Remote US. 82 employees, +14% last 6-mo.   -- Fountain is hiring Customer Marketing Manager. Remote US. 347 employees, +1% last 6-mo.   -- Kentik is hiring Director of Revenue Marketing. Remote US. 199 employees, +4% last 6-mo.   -- Cribl is hiring Director, Marketing Operations & Technology. Remote US. 743 employees, +12% last 6-mo. p.s. If you want your SaaS company tracked, tag them here or go to peersignal dot org /suggest. #hiring #SaaS

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The #Salesblazer community is launching NEW biweekly coffee chats and would love for you to join! 🎉 💙 Up first on June 18: How to make outbound sales work for you in 2024. Jason Bay, CEO of Outbound Squad with 15+ years of sales experience, will be taking the mic, so make sure you attend! 🙌 Here’s how to participate: 1. Join the #june-18-coffee-chat channel in the Salesblazer Community on Slack. Not a member of the Community yet? Fix that here: https://sforce.co/June18CC 2. Ask your outbound prospecting questions in the channel above before the coffee chat starts. 3. You’ll be notified to join the huddle when it kicks off June 18 @ 1pm ET. 4. Grab your coffee and join as soon as you’re notified — capacity is limited to 200, and it’s first come, first served.

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At ZoomInfo, we don’t settle for fool’s gold. Or bad data. And you shouldn’t either. With ZoomInfo Copilot, unrivaled buyer data and signals, tailored engagement recommendations, and AI-powered personalized outreach mean you’ll strike gold every time. 💰 Fueled by ZoomInfo’s best-in-class B2B data, ZoomInfo Copilot has the power to turn every seller into your best seller. DM me to learn more or visit our landing page 👉 https://lnkd.in/gJbMg4WZ #ZoomInfoCopilot 

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Top 5 key metrics I recommend CROs use for inside sales professionals: 1. Speed of response 2. Efficiency of progression through the process 3. Number of calls per day 4. Number of positive outcomes 5. Demo sets As a CRO leader, these are five metrics that I live by. 

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Last week, I meet with 20 of the greatest GTM minds on the planet. CROs, VPs of Sales, CMOs, CCOs, trainers, talking heads. 90% agreed that the SDR role is basically dead. Why? 1. It's been used incorrectly. It's pretty much been proven that an AE without and SDR is just as productive as one with an SDR. Funny. AEs will find their way to their quota given limited resources. The constraint was thought to be time, but many AEs did not invest more in their deals bc they were spending less time prospecting. They ended up doing side hustles, making courses, working out, etc. Works for the person, not for the company paying them (and the SDR). 2. The economics are off in most cases. Having a $100k SDR, $200k AE, $125k SE, $130k CSM, and a $110k Onboarder team up on sub-$10k ACV deals is comical. The CAC payback period is too long for the current churn and contraction rates. In general, it's a bloated structure that caters to AEs who don't want to prospect or move with their customers into post-sales. My first sales job I was a one-man wrecking crew. I prospected, closed, onboarded, success-ed, renewed, and supported every account I signed. It was hard work, but I did it. 3. It's a vestige of the ZIRP/Grow-at-all-costs era. When cash is easy and money is flowing, there are certain investments which help you grow faster, even though they do not help you economically. Growth isn't king, cash is. Luxuries go away in lean times, and many people consider SDRs to be luxuries. 4. They aren't staying with their employer. The idea was hire a young sales professional. Teach them some basic sales skills. Give 'em an email account and a phone and have them ease into sales by doing one of the most basic parts of it - prospecting. Then, as you needed to hire AEs, you could promote the SDRs you'd invested in...kinda like the farm system in Major League Baseball. But, most SDRs leave before 14 months, so the talent pipeline has a major leak in it and all your effort benefits another company who hires them as an AE first. 5. Results are tanking. Many SDR teams are doing significantly less than they used to. The math doesn't work when you aren't booking tons of meetings. It makes more sense in true enterprise (10k+ employees) when the value of a deal is huge, but in SMB and MM, the results are so low that many companies would barely notice. These are the ideas of famous GTM people. People who spend all day thinking about this stuff and implementing it in their companies or their customers. If SDR leaders want to change this line of thinking, y'all better start evolving and finding a way to make $1 invested in SDRs turn into $5 of ARR.

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A commonly overlooked cause of missing sales targets: Failing to account for AE ramp and turnover in sales capacity planning. I see this happen at companies at every growth stage—from Series A to Enterprise. To illustrate how AE ramp and turnover impact sales capacity, let's look at this math example based on a generic Enterprise sales team of 10 AEs. To keep it simple, we're only looking at AE sales capacity here; we're ignoring quota capacity and sales productivity for now. Assumptions: - 8 existing AE roles; 2 newly created AE roles - 2 months AE recruiting/hiring timeframe - 6 months AE ramp to 100% capacity - 25% AE turnover during the year Individual AE roles: AE1: Tenured rep at 100% capacity AE2: Leaves in April; backfill joins in July AE3: Tenured rep at 100% capacity AE4: Leaves in January; backfill joins in April AE5: Tenured rep at 100% capacity AE6: Left in the prior year; backfill joins in February AE7: Leaves in June; backfill joins in September AE8: Tenured rep at 100% capacity AE9: Newly created position, joins in March AE10: Newly created position, delayed start in July Three things that jump out: - The entire AE team is at 70% average sales capacity for the year (see bottom right corner of the chart) - An AE departure cuts the role's annual sales capacity nearly in half (from 100% to 54%) - This AE team is under 100% capacity during every month of the year (bottom row in the chart) Does your company track sales capacity? How do you account for AE ramp and turnover on your sales team? Do you analyze ramp and turnover overall or by segment? What data do you use? How is the data gathered? Who gathers it? How often do you refresh it? Do you account for changes in GTM strategy, sales cycles, deal sizes, sales processes, etc.? #CFO #CRO #CMO #CCO #RevOps #RevenueOperations #SalesOps #GTM #Finance #RevenuePlanning #RevenueForecasting #Marketing #CustomerSuccess #SalesQuotas #SalesTerritories #SalesProcess #CapacityPlanning #ResourceAllocation #VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #StrategicFinance #FPandA

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The SaaS experts are coming! Sales comp design? The relationship between Sales and Finance? You asked, so I'm bringing in the experts for these exclusive events. June 25 – Building a Scalable Sales Comp Plan: Fundamentals & Best Practices This is a top question, so I brought in the experts from QuotaPath. You won't find this exclusive training elsewhere unless you hire a Sales coach. June 26 – The Relationship Between Sales and Finance – How Should This Really Work & Subskribe Overview I'm joined by Prakash Raina, Co-founder @ Subskribe and John Medeiros, Group Product Manager @ Subskribe. Save your seat here: https://lnkd.in/g-hGh3r5 #SaaS

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The skills to be an effective SaaS CRO have changed. That's not my opinion, but that's basically the crux of what bona fide CROs, and those that hire them, are telling me. Just a few years ago these were 5 desired skills when hiring a CRO. --Proven "scaler", which often meant doing more with MORE (people) --Willing to take calculated risks to and set ambitious goals --Ability to thrive in unpredictable environments with frequent changes (sadly lots of change was caused by literal CRO changes) --Laser focus on achieving revenue targets no matter the cost  --Inspire and motivate large sales teams These are 5 desired skills when hiring a CRO today: --Analytical with the ability to interpret data and identify trends to make decisions --Deep understanding of sales methodology, customer segmentation, and pricing strategies  --Financial acumen to understand unit economics --Customer focused to build long term relationships and loyalty  --Cross-functional relationship builder That said, in MY opinion, the skills needed few years ago are still necessary, but the trick is finding people, or becoming, the person, who straddles both profiles. Those people are also known as The GOATS of Growth, or at least well on their way.

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By simplifying their Quotes, we saved over $300K for our first client at RevSolutions. If you’re a VP, you know that: Accurate quotes close deals. But getting them right is a major challenge. Sales teams often struggle with: → Inconsistent pricing, → Manual errors, and → Lengthy approval processes. These issues erode trust and can cost you business. That’s where the Q of the CPQ system comes in handy; Especially if you’ve complex pricing structures. CPQ tools make the quoting process efficient, ensuring consistency and accuracy across the board. → Automate complex pricing calculations → Standardize discounting practices → Speed up quote approval times With accurate quotes, you build trust with your clients. They know they can rely on your pricing, which makes them more likely to do business with you. Moreover, your sales team can respond faster, turning leads into customers with minimal friction. Accuracy in quoting means credibility and efficiency. How reliable are your quotes? #cpq #quote #pricing

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There’s a dirty secret in Silicon Valley - we make money when you don’t show up. I spoke with John McCauley, CFO of Calendly, who, after scaling companies in the Enterprise SaaS world, now leads one of the most recognizable PLG powerhouses. He observed the differences between the two worlds: “I think the not-so-dirty little secret of SaaS at enterprise companies is we make money in the same way that the gym does. We make a lot of money off people that don't show up. You don't get that luxury in PLG. They're constantly auditing their users and making sure that people are actually using it. And so I find it to be the purest form of software where you're only getting paid if you create value. Where at Enterprise, that can be dubious at times, but at PLG, you’ve got to show up every day for work and prove that value to your customers.” Product Led Growth, for better or worse, trained CFOs to push for the following when evaluating a buying decision: 1. Get me to value fast, and preferably before I buy 2. Make it easy for me to buy more (or less) 3. Show me clear value, on a regular basis These asks play out in de-risked buying decisions, clear ROI, and shorter contracts. It’s a brave new world. The Planet Fitness Era of SaaS is over. Read the full post and analysis: mostlymetrics.com

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5 signs a rep takes ownership: - They treat their territory or portfolio like their own business.  - They drive results regardless of what’s going on externally.  - They think strategically about how to grow and optimize. - They take a data-first approach to decision-making.   - They articulate their vision for future growth. I call this a GM mindset. And it’s essential to our hiring process. We’ve learned the best reps for our organization own every single part of their success. They don’t wait for directions. They don’t take a back seat. That’s what a winning mindset looks like. 

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Enterprise AEs, what advice would you give to an SMB rep looking to work their way up? Top of my list: 1. Get experience/mentorship in a true outbound-first sales org. You might be able to sell yourself into an ENT role without this but it’ll be tough to last 3 quarters if you’re inbound dependent. 2. Seize opportunities to forge strong working relationships with other departments vs relying on your manager to smooth things out. Do you have equity with people in Legal, in CS, in Product who want to do you favors? If you can’t orchestrate internal stakeholders you definitely won’t know how to in prospect accounts. 3. Learn to plan a year at a time instead of a quarter at a time. The time management is similar but the mentality is totally different. What did I miss?

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CS teams NEED to start "managing up" with execs and the board by talking about REVENUE. Yes, you can keep talking about sentiment and feelings, but start with the $. Don't lead with churn- Bottom-line-focused execs don't like that headline, so you need to tell the story better. An informal poll had CS teams owning over 50% of the revenue of many SaaS companies. Lead with this and have it be your first talking point. From there you will be able to get more things done with other departments, as your requests will be revenue-focused Need to get a Customer Success Platform as you scale? Point to revenue and the potential to lose revenue without efficiencies Need to hire more to prevent burnout? Point to Revenue potential with renewals and upsells Talk in the language your execs and board want to hear.

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