Andy Byrne’s Post

I talked to a CRO at a $300m ARR company last week. His team was 106% to goal last quarter and the forecast for the rest of the year is strong. He’s laser-focused on preventing even a single drop of revenue leak. He knows: - Revenue leak comes from not protecting your customer base - Revenue leak comes from inertia and lack of proactivity (lagging vs leading indicators) - Revenue leak comes from breakdowns in communication To lockdown his revenue, this top CRO runs a strong playbook. 1. Protect your revenue. The customer base is always important – even more in today’s environment. Over-rotate toward the customer business to make sure you have solid value delivery plans, outcomes, and reviews. Make sure your customer health scores are adjusted to include relevant signal from the last few quarters. Don’t be overly optimistic – approach every customer call like you have to re-sell your solution. 2. Drive your deals. Active pipeline you’ve got is worth more than new pipeline you could create. Dive into all your early stage deals and make sure the right processes exist to move deals forward. Don’t wait for lagging indicators (like revenue) – find the leading indicators that serve as signals for driving action. 3. Back to basics. Make sure your messaging meets the moment. And even further, make sure your reps are saying and showing the right things in all their prospect and customer interactions. A lot is being thrown at reps right now, your job as a leader is to over-communicate, cascade information, and reinforce all the key messages. Pretty solid list. What would you add? #revenue #sales #sdr

I don't like to brag. ♥️ Because that's not me. But when he asked for advice, I couldn't resist but pat my back. We don't share a typical client relationship. Yet, come back to each other for help. This time, he wanted me to audit the sales cycle for his latest SaaS product. In just 10 mins in the call, I said: **You only got 6 weeks runway before you're out of the race** ➡️ You got too long of a sales cycle. ➡️ You got too much of unqualified leads. ➡️ You got too high of customer acquisition costs. ➡️ You got too low of prices to get any margins. ➡️ You got too much of nothing in pockets. He hated the feedback to be too true. But left the call with a lovely comment. *YOU KNOW YOUR WORK, Neha* ♥️ P.S: Have clients who lift you up? Tell me in the comments.

Sales crushes quota. Customer Success spends all day long fighting fires. The core of this problem? I think a lot of it has to do with comp plans... You get what you optimize for. If you optimize someone's compensation plan for one-time sales, that's exactly what you're going to get: one-time sales. Contracts will be signed, no doubt. But churn will happen just as fast. And, little by little, you'll burn through your TAM. The alternative? To optimize for QUALITY sales. Meaning, some percentage of the commision goes to closed/won deals, and the rest of it is given at some renewal point point in the future -- say, at six months. What you'll find is interesting: Salespeople will start to sell to the right people, they'll follow up with them during onboarding, and they'll be a resource for customers as they fully get up to speed. The relationship will feel less transactional to the customer. And your churn, retention, and LTV metrics will reflect it. #b2b #saas #churn #retention #sales #customersuccess

Friday drop: Here's a list of metrics you should track for your AE team. Track these weekly, monthly, and quarterly: - Sales Revenue: Total revenue generated by the AE team within a specific time frame, typically monthly quarterly - Sales Conversion Rate: % percentage of leads or opportunities that an AE successfully converts into paying customers - Average Deal Size: Average deal size calculates the average dollar amount of sales closed by each AE. - Sales Velocity: Sales velocity measures how quickly deals move through the sales process, from initial contact to closing. - Win Rate: Win rate calculates the percentage of opportunities or leads that an AE successfully closes as customers. - Sales Cycle Length: The average time it takes for an AE to close a deal from the initial contact with a prospect to the signed contract. - Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) per AE: This metric calculates the cost of acquiring new customers specifically attributed to the AE team. - Customer Satisfaction and Retention: While not solely the responsibility of AEs, they play a role in maintaining customer satisfaction and retention. These metrics are more outcome/output-based. There can be more metrics in terms of the inputs like: - Number of calls made, emails sent, meetings held, and demos conducted - Lead Response Time - Activity to Close Ratio We have a Google Sheets template to help you track these metrics. Comment below to tell me if you want it. #sales #salesoperation #revops #kpis #metrics

Outside Eyes... In every company's journey to scale, fresh perspectives are game-changers. Thinking back to my time of being in-house and leading a team, I was definitely guilty of being blinded. I also found a ton of value in getting feedback from boards and advisors. It's been fascinating for me to get an "outside" look into numerous sales organizations. I've personally witnessed some remarkable transformations by inviting external experts to assess, provide feedback, and offer insights. Here's a specific example. I found a client that was holding AE's accountable to early customer churn and clawing back commissions, but not allowing them to be involved in the onboarding, implementation or early customer success. I asked them, "why aren't the AE's more involved early if their commission is tied to early churn?" The response was "I'm not sure, that's how it's always been." Having outside eyes looking in provided a quick change to better tie commission to the behaviors we were looking for. Another example. I found a client that wasn't doing discovery as part of their sales process. They have a dynamite product but don't really tie the value of the solution to the challenges or opportunities that their prospects face. Close rates were dipping a bit. We decided to add a few technical and business based discovery questions to kick-off the demo. Then trained them on tying what was uncovered back to the solution. Small tweak, but we're already seeing close rates increase. These "outside eyes" bring invaluable clarity, revealing blind spots and untapped opportunities we might have missed internally. From refining strategies to fine-tuning approaches, these collaborative efforts have led to significant increases in revenue. Let the outside eyes in!

I had a conversation with a company that was in transition and was telling me that they had partner leads just sitting in their CRM waiting to be handled. 😱 😱 😱 Every interaction you have with a partner referred customer has a direct impact on your relationship with that partner. If a partner has done you a solid and sent you a lead, your best next move is to treat that lead like a gold nugget. Do not wait to get them into the process. Do not give them to an under performing seller Do not make them wait to hear back on pricing or features or anything else that they're asking for. Treating a referred lead like garbage is a sure fire way to never get another.

Remember - All Net New Sales are Someone Else’s Churn! As we celebrate our "net new sales", there's a side of the story we often overlook - every new client or customer we acquire represents a churn from another company. Why does this matter? Understanding this dynamic compels businesses to dig deeper into the 'why' behind their new acquisitions. It's not just about the effectiveness of our marketing or the appeal of our products. It's also about understanding the gaps or shortfalls in our competitors that led these customers to us in the first place. Seeing net new sales as someone else's churn can be enlightening in several ways: Empathy - It reminds us of the ever-present threat of churn in our own business. Today's loyal customer can be tomorrow's churn if we become complacent. Competitive Intelligence - It provides valuable insights into areas where our competitors might be lacking. Is it customer service, price, ROI or product quality? Retention Strategy - It emphasizes the importance of post-sale engagement. If they churned once, without the right care, they more likely to churn again. To thrive in today's competitive landscape, it's not enough to merely celebrate the win. We must strive to understand the journey that brought each customer to our door and ensure we offer an experience compelling enough to keep them. Next time you toast to a new sale, take a moment to ponder…🤔 What made them churn elsewhere? And how can we make their experience with us so memorable that they never consider leaving? #revops #partnersuccess #customersuccess #customerretention 💬 comment 👍🏼 Like  📢 share  🔔 ring the bell

Sales crushes quota. Customer Success fights fires. The core of this problem? I think a lot of it has to do with comp plans... You get what you optimize for. If you optimize someone's compensation plan for one-time sales, that's exactly what you're going to get. Contracts will be signed, no doubt. But churn will happen just as fast. And, little by little, you'll burn through your TAM. The alternative? To optimize for QUALITY sales. Meaning, some percentage of the commision goes to closed/won deals, and the rest of it is given at some renewal point point in the future -- say, at six months. What you'll find is interesting: Salespeople will start to sell to the right people. They'll follow up with them during onboarding. They'll be a resource for customers as they fully up to speed. And your churn, retention, and LTV metrics will reflect it. #b2b #saas #churn #retention #sales

Why isn't your closing rate in sales calls reaching 60-80% yet, even though you can't find any obvious mistakes? Let's explore the overlooked friction points in your customer acquisition process that might be holding you back. It's the friction points in your customer initiation process that you're overlooking. Which ones exactly? I can't tell you that. I don't know your situation well enough. It could be many different things: - Your target group - Inaccurate positioning - Inappropriate pricing - Weak or unclear messaging - Your sales scripts are not effective - No clear lead journey from contact to sale - Objections not addressed in advance Typically, you only need to adjust 2 to 3 settings to see immediate sales success and significant revenue jumps within a few days. So how do you improve now? Simply by testing one after the other. Ask your network and run your a b testing on these areas. By this you simply cannot fail. So check your data and start improving now! Have fun with it. #sales #closingrate #smallbusiness #lead