Oz Merchant

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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The future of NRR: Will CCOs become the new CROs? (...a 7-figure ARR CCO asked me) A CCO recently asked me, "I've seen CCOs reporting to CROs these days and CCOs becoming CROs. What do you think the future holds? Is this going to be a trend to stay?" It's a fascinating question. Here's what I'm seeing: Companies are laser-focused on improving NRR. But who's directly responsible for it? Marketing, support, CS, AMs, strategic account sales...everyone influences NRR, yet no single executive owns it. That's changing. CCOs are emerging as the "Chief NRR Officers." Why? Because the CCO's ultimate goal aligns perfectly with growing NRR. CCOs are under immense pressure to drive new revenue. However, acquiring new customers is far more expensive than retaining and expanding existing accounts. Putting CCOs in charge of NRR makes strategic sense. But there's another strong candidate for owning NRR: The COO. Retention is a team sport. Every customer touchpoint impacts churn, including product, pricing, sales, onboarding, and support. The COO oversees all these critical functions. They're ideally positioned to drive NRR improvements. Mark my words: Having a dedicated NRR executive will soon become the norm. Will it be CCOs or COOs leading the charge? Only time will tell. I break down the full future of NRR in this video:

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SDRs need to learn automation Being an SDR without tools such as Korppi, Clay , Dripify Lead Conversations, you're gonna get outpaced, and out prospected. 🫡 💥 Korppi can now automate email sequences with personalisation, with infinite email warming and high deliverability. 💥 Clay can find the perfect prospects with the correct understanding of API, and data management. 💥 Dripify can build your Linkedin and get you conversations. SDRs isn't anymore just about sales. It's data analysis.

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ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and Buyer Persona are not the same. ICPs represent the companies that are an ideal match for your offerings, while Buyer Persona refers to the individuals who are likely to purchase your product. Here's a blueprint to help you identify your ICP: → The expenses they might face while transitioning from their existing solution → The ultimate objectives they aim to fulfill → The difficulties your product can help them resolve → The potential cost of inaction → Their typical buying process → The usual length of their sales cycle → Technographic details → Information about their revenue and budget → The size of their team → Their geographical presence → The sector they operate in If you are a first-time founder selling to b2b customers, it'd be bit challenging to define the ICP and buyer persona at first! If you need some help, leave a comment below and I will DM you! #founders #sales #b2bsales

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Companies with SDR teams are paying for conversations. Whether or not they realize it. Yet very few pay attention to CPC. (cost per conversation) Despite the fact that meetings can only occur through conversations. If we never converse we can never get a set. Similar to how if an ad never makes it in front of a prospect, they would never respond to it. (I'll bet you track cost per impression on FB, IG, and LI) Well if we never converse, a prospect can never book a meeting with us. The most important metric I pay attention to with my reps is conversations per hour. If we can't feed them enough high-quality conversations, dependably, predictably. Outbound will become to expensive and stop working. I did a poll the other day. And out of nearly 100 responses from SDRs & SDR leaders less than 15% of the respondees said they have more than 10 conversations/day. Let's assume you pay a rep $60,000 per year. They have an industry average of 3.6 QCs per day (Bridge Group). And work 20 days per week. That's 60 conversations/mo. Or 720 conversations/yr. At a cost per conversation of $83.3. (before accounting for tech & management). If you can get the same reps to have 7, 10, 15, 25 conversations/day your cost per conversation drops considerably. At 15 conversations/day, your $83 conversation becomes $16. The $800 sales-qualified opportunity becomes $160. And outbound may actually start to work for you ;)

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(Part 2/6) Your emails can help you increase AOVs.   Bring more $$$ from the same customer.   Here's #2 of #6 ways to increase your AOV 👇   #2: Use volume discounts. Sending a generic "20% off" email will NOT improve your sales. You need to be creative. You need to give them incentives. Volume discounts play with the brain like nothing else. It's simple psychology → SAVE MORE BY BUYING MORE. Nobody can resist this. Look at how Tradesy does it 👇 (This email works because it gives you different tiers to reach) Part #3-6 on the way! Part #1 in the comments!

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Are your renewals killing your quarter? Here are 10 ways to make sure you have a terrible Q2 10. Don't update them on new features they were asking for 9. Have a complicated renewal process. 8. Having misaligned data in the CRM  7. Mismanage your renewal process by not tracking discounts or giving away free services that weren't budgeted for. 6. Ignore them because usage is high, so "everything is cool" 5. Ignore them because it's auto-renewed 4. Never contact the Champion and just work with the admins 3. Don't have meaningful renewal conversations. 2. Start the renewal process in the same month its due 1. Never articulate the value they are getting from your product How are you going to have better Q2 numbers?

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MEDDIC 🤝 Customer Success webinar. 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗢𝗡 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗞𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗡 --> TODAY (10:00EST / 15:00GMT) hosted by Andy Whyte. This month's MEDDICC GTM Webinar is all about how MEDDIC supports Customer Success teams to: 1. Use #MEDDPICC as a common language to up-level value delivery, stakeholder engagement, and renewal process success 2. How MEDDIC enables the world's best AE 🤜 🤛 CSM handover 3. How MEDDICC 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 empowers CS teams to deliver the value promised by sales teams 𝗔𝗻𝘆 #GTM & #CustomerSuccess 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵: -💡 An understanding of what MEDDIC is and how they can use it in their role - 🗺️ How MEDDIC connects the entire customer lifecycle, from value discovery to value proposition to value delivery - 🤾‍♀️ Some CS 'plays' from the MEDDICC Playbook that you can deploy instantly ---> 𝗥𝗦𝗩𝗣 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 👇 #MEDDIC #MEDDICC #MEDDPICC

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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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Hey RevOps - here's a hack for you to eliminate all the time and money you are spending on your sandbox environment 👇 Test in production. 😏 Follow me for me RevOps hacks...and have a good weekend y'all ✌️ #revops #revenueoperations #salesops #salesoperations #sfdc #salesforce #salesforceadmin #sfdcadmin

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👋 Are your sales reps consistently missing quota targets? The solution may not lie in more training, but in revamping your coaching approach. 🎯 Numerous studies highlight a direct link between excellent sales coaching and top-performing teams that crush their numbers quarter after quarter. In this great discussion with Kevin Mulrane, you'll uncover the secrets to elevating your coaching game through high-impact activities like roleplay, simulated practice, and individualized development plans. Discover the proven framework elite sales managers use to rapidly upskill reps and ingrain quota-busting habits that drive sustained success. Gain access to the full webinar: https://lnkd.in/e-5DtHky #SalesCoaching #QuotaAttainment #SalesPerformance #SalesLeadership #salestable #sales #salestips

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35-50% of b2b buyers choose the vendor that is fastest to respond. But, most vendors are still forcing buyers to: Fill out a form Wait for a response  Talk to an SDR So, It can take buyers weeks to: See a product demo Learn about pricing Talk to subject matter experts If buyers choose the vendor that is fastest to respond… Why are we still forcing buyers to jump through so many hoops? *(Source: InsideSales.com)

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Want to elevate your sales game and win over C-suite executives? 📈 Learn from the best with ZoomInfo's top sales tips, including insights from our CEO and Founder, Henry Schuck!  Discover the definitive guide to selling to the C-suite in 2024: bit.ly/4aSCL3i

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see that over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one; the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but is not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points: "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically, companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators (adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators (retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there, you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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Is this how your sales managers support your reps? Is this how your rev ops relate to your sales team? When data or sales enablement helps nail a deal? If not, there's an opportunity to improve. https://lnkd.in/e3fhGEak #RevOps #RevenueOperations #MarketingOps #SalesOps #SalesManagement #SalesCoach #RolePlay #SalesEnablement #SalesEnablementContent

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Buyer enablement: End-to-end in a #digitalsalesroom❗ As you might already know...in today's complex sales environment, it's crucial to streamline the buying process and ensure all stakeholders are aligned (otherwise you'll get hard times to close the deal!)... A digital sales room or collaborative space can support here... Two key benefits for your process 🔽 ✅ Buying center alignment Ensure all decision-makers and influencers are on the same page, facilitating smoother decision-making processes. ✅ Multithreading Engage multiple stakeholders across various functions and levels, driving comprehensive and informed buying decisions. We tried with the attached graphic to illustrate the journey of a digital sales room or collaborative space, showcasing its evolution from initial contact with the prospect to successfully closing the deal. Each phase highlights the crucial role of stakeholder collaboration in advancing and finalizing the deal... So...by leveraging a digital sales room / collaborative space, you can for sure: ➡ Enhance communication and transparency with your prospects ➡ Provide a centralized hub for all sales-related content and discussions ➡ Accelerate the sales cycle by addressing stakeholder concerns promptly and efficiently Let me know what you think or what your experiences are...if you want 😉! #buyerenablement #salesenablement #b2bsales

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You're tiering accounts in your new territory.. You have three levels, Tier 1, 2, and 3. Tier 1 - Strong ICP/high propensity to buy, high touch/customization Tier 2 - Decent ICP/medium propensity to buy, blend of custom and automated Tier 3 - Poor ICP or low propensity to buy, high automation Typical distribution of tiering would be something like this: Tier 1 - 10% of accounts Tier 2 - 30% of accounts Tier 3 - 60% of accounts What's the typical distribution you see?

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SDRs are so critical to success, depending on company size, yet like many GTM functions, they too are under reduction pressure. Data from Jason S. of Live Data Technologies (article in comments) showing that SDR function may be normalizing some, not wholesale decreases like the headlines suggest. SDRs are the glue between the Marketing and Selling function. 3 years ago on one of my LI posts, we all said that SDRs would be future CEOs. Now the headline is cut them. It's an incredibly challenging job for a junior person. And may be better suited for inbound and/or transactional type selling with narrower buying committees. What are you experiencing with your SDR function? ___________ 👏 Follow B2B Fusion on Go To Market best practice strategies. 👍 Like and subscribe to B2B Fusion YT videos, 200+ GTM best practices! 🤙🏽 Struggling with faster, more efficient growth? Let's talk.

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"It's awesome to see companies are finding solutions for more efficiency - I don't actually find the numbers that crazy." This was the response from one of our HubSpot partners 😍 when I shared the link. 🙀 400% ! I still, find the numbers crazy! I am well aware that we are one of all, as important pieces, of the 🧩. I am BEYOND proud that one of the pieces is thanks to vloxq CPQ , integrated to HubSpot. But most of all, I am SO happy for the journey we have done together with the team of Retriever. With Alexander Mason in the lead, Ludvig Ljungström having perfect control of all details (the devil is in the details, right!) and brilliant Klas Hellqvist. Together we have challenged our self, our colleagues and our systems to work smoothly and efficient. To support the overall goal, and to be user friendly. We, and the setup up, can and will be improved. But for now 400% increased profitability is definitely something to celebrate! Well done team Retriever! You are really role models for working in a efficient way to enable customer centricity 🤸‍♀️ 💸. #efficiency #customercentricity #opex #cpq #hubspot #profitability

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