Scale With Strive

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  • Why empowering your salespeople should be your number one priority

    Why empowering your salespeople should be your number one priority

    SaaS companies that are looking to scale – or even achieve hypergrowth – in their near future should be aware of one key thing when deciding what to invest in: your employees are your biggest asset.

    Without a strong GTM team that has been trained, knows your product inside-out, understands customer pain points and works hard to achieve targets, your business will struggle to grow at the rate you’d hoped.

    However, SaaS company leaders can’t simply assume that salespeople will automatically stay motivated and invested in their roles. Sales isn’t that simple – it can be extremely challenging at times, particularly when considering the growing number of SaaS companies in the UK, US and globally.

    It is the responsibility of team leaders, managers and business owners in the SaaS market to consistently empower their salespeople in order to get the best results out of them.

    Let us explain further.

     

    1. EMPLOYEES WANT TO FEEL VALUED

    It’s no secret that feeling valued is one of the biggest motivators in the workplace. If an employee believes that their employer invests in their wellbeing, contributes to their career development and provides them with the training and support they need to do their job well, the possibility of them being successful is very high.

    If an employee feels like a cog in a machine, they are 34% less likely to achieve their sales quota. Therefore, by ensuring your go-to-market team members feel needed, valued and appreciated, this will have a direct correlation in regards to achieving their sales targets, and helping the overall growth of your SaaS business.

    Are you unsure how to measure if your employees feel valued or not? Ask them. Either through one-to-one meetings with managers, or through anonymous employee feedback surveys, give your team the opportunity to provide real, honest feedback. This will then give you the chance to see what needs to be improved, and how you can help every team member feel valued and empowered.

     

    2. THE ECONOMY IS IMPACTING SALESPEOPLE FROM ALL ANGLES

    Regardless of how well an employee is currently performing in their sales role, there will always be peaks and valleys when it comes to selling software. One of the biggest contributing factors to why salespeople struggle from time to time is, of course, the economy.

    Factors such as inflation, the cost of living crisis, Brexit, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic have all contributed to a very challenging economy to sell in over the last three years. Consumer habits have changed, achieving targets has become more difficult, the cost of living has increased so much that your employees may feel demotivated and burnout as a result of their personal lives, too.

    Employers have little control over how the economy impacts their employees – but they can be mindful of it, and act accordingly. In order to empower your employees and help them work to the best of their ability, it could be time to review targets, discuss salaries and offer additional support.

     

    3. HAPPY EMPLOYEES ARE MORE PRODUCTIVE

    One thing SaaS team leaders may notice about their GTM team is that the employees that are the happiest often achieve the most, and consistently reach their sales targets. The reason for this is pretty simple.

    Gartner states that by providing your employees with meaningful work, boundaries to limit risk associated with seller innovation, and leveraging the output of successful seller insights, sales people will automatically feel more empowered as a result.

    In simpler terms: if your salespeople feel important to your organisation and that their contributions are worth something, they will be happier as a result. Happier employees means an increase in productivity, due to feeling empowered by their employer.

     

    STRIVE WILL HELP YOU DEVELOP A BEST-IN-CLASS GTM TEAM FOR YOUR SAAS COMPANY 

    Here at Strive, we source top tier sales talent for scaling and hypergrowth tech companies. To learn more about how we can help your business scale, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com.

  • What will a successful Go-To-Market team look like in 2023?

    What will a successful Go-To-Market team look like in 2023?

    Attention SaaS company owners: 2023 is the year you need to pinpoint your precise go-to-market strategy, and develop a best-in-class GTM team.

    Why?

    Because if you don’t, you’ll fall behind the competition. It’s that simple.

    Despite factors such as the pandemic, Brexit, inflation and the cost of living crisis, the number of SaaS companies continues to rise globally – giving company owners both the opportunity to scale their businesses, and also the chance to be defeated by the competition.

    Without a clearly defined business growth strategy, and the talent in-house to help you achieve your business objectives, it is very easy for SaaS companies to fall behind and their growth to hit a wall.

    So, what exactly will a successful GTM team look like in 2023? To get ahead of the curve, make a note of the following points.

     

    YOUR EMPLOYEES NEED TO LIVE AND BREATHE YOUR USP

    In order to get your salespeople on board with scaling the business and how important their contribution as salespeople is, you need to clearly define what your product is, and why it has been developed in the first place. 

    Regardless of whether they are new to sales, have extensive sales experience, or they’re moving into management and training new members of your GTM team, it’s vital that all employees understand what it is that makes your software different, and better than your competitors’. Without this information, they’ll struggle to close deals.

    So, your first port of call when mapping out what a successful GTM team looks like in 2023 is: a team that understands and promotes your USP.

    Your employees need to understand your key target audiences

    Along with your USP, does your current GTM team understand who it is that you are trying to reach with the software you’re selling?

    Having a full understanding of who your software is for, how it can solve their pain points and why they need it in comparison to other software on the market is all equally important. Having key target audiences in place (speak to your marketing employees about how best to communicate these to the business) will ensure that your marketing messaging, sales conversations and account management is always centred around the same values.

    When you know specifically who your target audiences are, you can then determine where you will sell your software, which markets you want to pursue, and what the current demand and competition looks like in those markets. When you have these factors in place, you can then devise a strategy on how to reach your target customers and generate ongoing demand for your product.

    So, your second port of call when mapping out what a successful GTM team looks like in 2023 is: a team that can identify and communicate with your key target audiences.

     

    WHO SPECIFICALLY SHOULD I HAVE ON MY GTM TEAM IN 2023?

    Every SaaS company is different, but in terms of who should (generally speaking) be on your go-to-market team, Strive Sales recommends the following:

    New logo hunters – regardless of how much experience they have, your salespeople are one of the most crucial elements to any SaaS business. Without them, your product will only go so far

    Digital marketers – having marketing employees in-house will not only keep sales and marketing teams aligned, but it’ll help when developing your content strategy and campaigns. Your marketing employees will be the ones nurturing your audiences and generating leads

    Product managers – championing the users’ experience and providing your software engineers with regular feedback will ensure your product is continuously improving based on UX

    Account management and customer success – without employees to manage customers’ expectations and provide top-level service, your business will struggle to stay afloat. Customer retention is just as important as customer acquisition and satisfaction

     

    STRIVE CAN HELP YOUR SAAS COMPANY DEVELOP A BEST-IN-CLASS GTM TEAM 

    Here at Strive, we source top tier sales talent for scaling and hypergrowth tech companies. To learn more about how we can help your business scale, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com.

  • Why career development opportunities are vital in SaaS businesses

    Why career development opportunities are vital in SaaS businesses

    SaaS companies that are either a) scaling, or b) on track to achieve hypergrowth, should be aware of one very important factor: providing your employees with career development opportunities is vital.

    Regardless of how big your team is – whether you’re currently a team of 10, 50, 100 or 1,000 – there should always be the space and opportunity for your employees to develop their careers and grow both personally and professionally.

    Let’s take a look at why it’s one of the most important aspects of your SaaS company’s overall business strategy.

     

    YOUR EMPLOYEES WANT TO FEEL VALUED

    Put yourself in your employees’ shoes. When you were early on in your career, what was it that you wanted? For some, the main answer might be money – and understandably, most people working in a sales role do so because the rewards can be very lucrative. 

    But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

    For the vast majority of salespeople, career development is a very important part of why they do what they do. Feeling valued within a company comes in many different forms, one of which is being given the opportunity to contribute to the company you work for, for as long as possible. 

    If your employees feel like they’re hitting a wall in terms of their career development opportunities, this is likely to make them feel unvalued, which will then result in them feeling unmotivated. This knock-on effect also impacts your overall business growth, meaning the negative implications of a lack of career development opportunities comes full circle.

     

    SCALING YOUR SAAS COMPANY = THE NEED FOR MORE PEOPLE

    If you are in the process of growing your SaaS company, this will inevitably lead to a need for more people at different levels within the business. With more business comes more responsibility, and the only way to manage the success of selling your software to more customers is to hire enough people to not only sell, but to manage your existing customer accounts.

    SaaS company owners need to map out how they see their business growth going, and how this will help different teams and roles develop. This will then give you an idea of how your employees can progress into new roles as they gain more experience, as well as where you will need to recruit new employees.

    Make sure you communicate your growth plans with your employees, no matter how big your SaaS company currently is – this will give them visibility of the career development potential ahead of them.

     

    CAREER DEVELOPMENT LEADS TO EMPLOYEE RETENTION 

    The opportunity for career development within your organisation will lead to an increase in employee retention. This is beneficial for two reasons:

    Employee retention is an excellent recruitment tool. Informing your potential employees about how many people who work at your company have worked there for a significant amount of time and how they have progressed demonstrates your investment in your workforce.

    Employee retention is also beneficial for your customers. Knowing that your salespeople and account managers are still working within your company demonstrates to customers that your business is thriving, and that they will be taken care of by people they know, trust, and have developed long-standing relationships with.

     

    CAREER DEVELOPMENT IS A SOUGHT-AFTER BENEFIT

    According to a survey conducted in 2019, if a company is recruiting and is known for investing in employee learning and development, 70% of respondents said they are at least somewhat likely to leave their current employer to join a company where they can progress.

    Given that since this survey was conducted there has been a pandemic, inflation has risen and the cost of living has increased, it’s highly likely that these statistics have also increased as a result. Candidates will now be more inclined to work within a company that not only pays them well, but that gives them the opportunity to develop their skills, progress their careers and ultimately earn more money as a result.

     

    THERE’S A LOT OF COMPETITION IN THE SAAS MARKET

    With more than 30,000 SaaS companies globally in 2022, competition is fierce. An increase in the number of SaaS companies means that there is also an increase in the opportunities for salespeople. 

    If your organisation is yet to map out specific career development plans for your employees, it’s highly likely that your talent will look elsewhere for the opportunity to progress their careers at some point in the future. If their development is halted by the lack of opportunities within your organisation, there is a surplus of businesses in the UK, US and worldwide that would be willing to hire your employees and benefit from their sales skills to help scale their business.

     

    STRIVE CAN HELP YOUR SAAS COMPANY BUILD AND RETAIN YOUR GO-TO-MARKET TEAM

    Here at Strive, we source the best software sales talent to help you scale your tech company. To learn more about how we can help your business grow, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com.

  • How to help your Go-To-Market team avoid seller drag

    How to help your Go-To-Market team avoid seller drag

    There are many contributing factors as to why salespeople within SaaS companies may find themselves hitting a barrier in terms of motivation and drive. 

    Working in sales within any industry can be challenging – which for many, is a motivator in itself – but with the increasing number of scaling SaaS companies in the market, competition is high for GTM teams.

    Along with the growing number of competitors, business leaders also need to take inflation, the cost of living crisis and Brexit into consideration. With numerous reasons why your GTM team members might be experiencing seller drag, team leaders and managers need to combat any problems proactively to ensure business success isn’t negatively affected.

     

    WHAT IS SELLER DRAG?

    Seller drag is, ultimately, when sales employees are experiencing demotivation at work. According to Gartner, it manifests as “the tendency to procrastinate, feel bored, avoid work, struggle with focus and go through the motions”. 

    Members of your GTM team experiencing seller drag are more likely to “achieve lower quota attainment, have higher burnout, and are more likely to express intent to leave and have shorter expected tenures than those who don’t”. 

    The four main causes of seller drag are:

    1. Lack of development opportunities
    2. Feeling like a cog in a machine
    3. Vague, unactionable manager feedback
    4. Administrative burden

    SaaS business leaders being aware of the main reasons for their employees experiencing drag will enable them to avoid it altogether, by planning ahead to ensure their people feel valued, and thus, more motivated.

     

    HOW TO AVOID SELLER DRAG AND MOTIVATE YOUR GTM TEAM

    First of all, let’s look at the lack of development opportunities that could potentially be demotivating your salespeople. 

    For scaling SaaS companies, there is likely to be a business growth plan already in place, and with that will come an idea of the range of roles available at all levels. 

    An estimated number of salespeople will require enough team leaders, managers and senior management to service the sales progress of your software, which also provides your GTM team with possible progression opportunities.

    Ensure that a set career development plan is in place for all employees, with specific targets to achieve in order to receive a promotion. If your workers constantly have goals in place to achieve more and progress in their careers, this will hopefully help with avoiding seller drag.

    In relation to this, feeling like a cog in a machine can be avoided by ensuring all employees feel valued within your company. If they feel replaceable and aren’t receiving the rewards or recognition deserved for their hard work, they will likely look for a sales role elsewhere, where they will be recognised for the part they play within your organisation. 

    In terms of vague, unactionable manager feedback, this often comes down to the training your managers are receiving. 

    If a manager is having regular one-to-one meetings with each member of their GTM team, every employee should know specifically how their performance is being monitored and what they need to do to improve. 

    If they’re unsure exactly what is required for them to improve their sales figures and exceed their targets, they will be unable to progress which will lead to seller drag, and eventual burnout.

    Lastly, if administrative burden is what is impacting your GTM team’s motivation to perform to the best of their ability, this can be eradicated with either a) additional employees, specifically responsible for administrative tasks, or b) a tech platform that will enable your salespeople to minimise their admin tasks. 

    A large part of sales enablement for your GTM team is ensuring that all tech platforms are easy to use and make the sales process more efficient and streamlined. 

    Therefore, if your employees are spending too much time on admin which is impacting their sales productivity, this can easily be addressed by reviewing the step-by-step process your GTM team goes through on a daily basis. Ask for feedback from your team members, and assess where processes can be improved, and time saved.

     

    BUILD AN ELITE GTM TEAM FOR YOUR SAAS COMPANY

    Here at Strive, we source top tier sales talent for hyper-growth tech companies. To learn more about how we can help your business scale, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com.

  • Why SaaS companies need to prioritise employee retention

    Why SaaS companies need to prioritise employee retention

    In the current economic climate, SaaS companies are constantly on the lookout for top tier sales talent to join their go-to-market team, whilst also needing to keep an eye on spend – particularly due to inflation, and changing buyer habits.

    There isn’t a requirement for organisations to put a pause on all recruitment plans, particularly if they are looking to scale their business – but there’s one thing that SaaS companies need to prioritise if they are looking to achieve hypergrowth.

    Enter: employee retention.

    So, why is it that employee retention is so important for SaaS companies?

     

    THE ONGOING CANDIDATE SHORTAGE

    There has been plenty of discussion about ‘The Great Resignation’ post-pandemic, and the problems this caused are still having an impact on businesses today. Employees quit their jobs in their droves – many were also made redundant – resulting in people changing the direction of their careers en masse. 

    Promoting your EVP and giving your existing employees a variety of reasons to stay with your company will prevent you from having to consistently recruit new talent in an already challenging market. Although there are great salespeople out there looking for jobs, it’s best for SaaS companies to retain their existing employees in order to minimise the need for ongoing recruitment.

     

    COMPETITION IS HIGH

    There are currently more than 17,000 SaaS companies in the US, and 2,000 SaaS companies in the UK. This means that competition is high; not only from a product perspective, but also when recruiting and retaining talent.

    With the number of SaaS companies consistently growing, it’s vital for employers to understand the importance of retaining their salespeople. Not only are they your biggest asset, but they could quite easily move to a competitor if another company offers better benefits, more flexibility or additional earning incentives. Make sure you look at what your competitors are doing for their workforce, and ensure that what you’re offering your employees is hard to turn down.

     

    CAREER DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

    One of the most common benefits candidates are looking for in the current market is the opportunity to develop their career, both in terms of training and by being able to progress to higher levels within the company. Research conducted by The Harris Poll found that 70% of US employees say that if a company is known for investing in employee learning and development, they are ‘at least somewhat likely’ to leave their current employer.

    When looking at your own employee retention, ask yourself: does our SaaS company offer enough training and career development opportunities? If not, put steps in place to change this. Your organisation will struggle to scale if you aren’t presenting your employees with options for development, as they will most likely look elsewhere for the opportunity to do so.

     

    BETTER CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

    Retaining your employees is not only a benefit for your salespeople, but also for your customer base. If your customers are contacting your company to discuss your product or additional services they might require, it is beneficial for them to be able to speak to a salesperson they have spoken to previously, to be able to maintain the same level of customer satisfaction.

    If, for example, your SaaS company has a high turnover of workers and your customers often speak to different members of the team about the software they have purchased, this could result in mixed messages and a confusion in communication. Although it’s likely that all customer comms will be recorded to make existing accounts easier to manage internally, this doesn’t necessarily mean the customers will have the same experience. Try to ensure, where possible, that customers speak to the same members of your GTM team whenever possible.

     

    LOWER EMPLOYEE TURNOVER = BETTER COMPANY CULTURE 

    Are you currently prioritising your company culture? Because if not, you should be. Employers with a strong company culture are less likely to lose people to their competitors as they will feel valued where they currently work. 

    Many employers are still mistaken in thinking that ‘company culture’ refers to pool tables in the office and company nights out. Whilst these things are nice to have, they don’t contribute to your retaining your employees. People want to feel valued, listened to, and have the opportunity to progress. Without these core values, your company culture will eventually hit a barrier when it comes to employee satisfaction.

     

    STRIVE CAN HELP YOU DEVELOP A TOP TIER GO-TO-MARKET TEAM FOR YOUR SAAS COMPANY

    Here at Strive, we source the best software sales talent to help you scale your tech company. To learn more about how we can help your business grow, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com.

  • How to set targets for your GTM team

    How to set targets for your GTM team

    Knowing how to set targets for your SaaS company’s GTM team is key to achieving your overall business goals. Not only is it vital for business owners wanting to scale their business, but it’s also essential for salespeople to know what they are aiming to achieve, and what they need to do to achieve it.

    However, setting targets shouldn’t just be guesswork, or determined by what you ‘think’ you should be giving to your employees. Targets need to be reflective of market conditions in order for them to be attainable and sustainable, whilst also helping your business to grow.

    Here, we look at how you should set targets for your GTM team, and how SaaS companies should monitor performance, along with the market, to maintain momentum during growth periods.

     

    1. SET TARGETS PER PERSON, NOT PER TEAM

    Setting team-wide targets is often the go-to for SaaS business leaders, and for good reason. It gives team members flexibility if anyone is off sick, on holiday, or simply has a bad month – their team members can pick up the slack, and they can repay the following month by putting in the extra hours to exceed targets.

    With that being said, team-wide targets often means those who are consistently working hard, meeting or exceeding their targets, and wanting to develop their career, aren’t given the recognition they deserve because their hard work is marked as a group effort. Ensuring targets are set per person will mean your GTM team members each have to work individually and together to contribute to your business growth.

     

    2. ENSURE TARGETS ARE BASED ON DATA, NOT GUESSWORK

    Giving everyone the same blanket target to hit, or simply guessing what your team members’ targets should be, isn’t going to be manageable or sustainable. Work backwards – decide where you want your business to be one year from now, then work out what you need to get there. 

    For example, if you want to hit £1 million in profit a year’s time, you need to work out:

    • What this looks like in revenue
    • How much you need to sell to reach that goal
    • How many GTM team members you have
    • What they are currently achieving 
    • What they would each need to achieve on a monthly basis to reach your goal
    • How to factor in possible market changes

     

    3. ENSURE YOUR LEADERSHIP TEAM IS EXPERIENCED

    Although this may sound like an obvious one, ensuring members of your leadership team are experienced in either a) business growth, b) setting targets for SaaS company salespeople, or c) both, is vital. Repvue found that of the 330 sales organisations published on their site, only 7 of those 330 businesses had more than 75% of their team members hitting their targets.

    Repvue also stated that when referring to their top 20 sales organisations list, there are noticeably more public companies than VC-backed. There is a strong correlation between the number of public companies and those that employ tenured leadership, all of whom have experience navigating critical challenges, whilst scaling a business. Ensuring your SaaS company employs experienced leadership with the knowledge on how to set targets reflective of market conditions will have a noticeable impact on your organisation.

     

    4. REVIEW TARGET FAILURES AND MAKE IMPROVEMENTS

    If your GTM team is consistently missing targets, or specific team members aren’t reaching their goals whilst others are, this needs to be addressed. Continuous improvement does not just apply to those looking to achieve the targets – it also applies to those setting the targets, and how they can best support their employees.

    Speak to the salespeople who are struggling to achieve their weekly or monthly targets. Is there anything in particular they’re struggling with? Do they need extra support, or more training? Are the tools they’re using helping or hindering them? Get feedback directly from your employees.

     

    5. ADJUST / UPDATE TARGETS QUARTERLY, BIANNUALLY OR ANNUALLY

    Keeping your targets the same will put a very noticeable barrier on your business growth, very quickly. When you get to a point where your GTM team members are achieving their targets consistently, it’s time to update your targets to continue with your business growth and revenue/profit goals.

    After a period of consistency, speak to your GTM team about increasing their targets, not only to keep them motivated to work hard and feel challenged, but also to help them earn more money, whilst also improving the number of sales for your SaaS company. Review how many people are achieving their targets regularly, so you can see when you need to put new challenges in place.

     

    STRIVE CAN HELP YOU BUILD A BEST-IN-CLASS GO-TO-MARKET TEAM FOR YOUR SAAS COMPANY

    Here at Strive, we source top tier sales talent for scaling and hypergrowth tech companies. To learn more about STRIVE CAN HELP YOU BUILD A BEST-IN-CLASS GO-TO-MARKET TEAM FOR YOUR SAAS COMPANY about how we can help your business scale, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com.

  • How to Close Deals in a Tough Economic Climate

    How to Close Deals in a Tough Economic Climate

    All SaaS company owners and managers will have either a) already seen the problems the economy can cause and the impact it can have on their business, or b) be anticipating any potential issues on the horizon. 

    In a tough economic climate, SaaS business leaders want to do what they can to proactively avoid a decline in sales, and to do so, communication needs to be clear with your GTM team. Buyers are more reluctant to make purchasing decisions when the economy is unstable, but there are various ways to ensure your business doesn’t suffer too much.

    Here, we look at the best way to continue closing deals in a tough economic climate.

     

    PROVIDE FURTHER OR ADDITIONAL SALES TRAINING

    No matter how long your employees have worked for you, there is always a valuable piece of information they could learn, a skill they could improve on, or a process they hadn’t used yet. Providing your sales team with regular training will not only refresh their memories in regards to closing deals, but it’ll also give them the boost of motivation they need when closing deals might be tougher than usual.

    Your best option would be to analyse your numbers prior to training sessions to see what needs to be improved – and we aren’t referring to your sales figures. Take a deep dive into your data and see where gaps can be closed. For example:

    Are your salespeople making enough contact with leads via email or telephone?

    Are they following up with people who wanted a period of time to decide on a purchase?

    Is there an alternative product your salespeople could offer buyers who are unsure?

    Is there any flexibility on pricing for startups businesses wanting to buy your software?

    Do your salespeople know how many leads are coming through from marketing each week?

    Are all your platforms and tools efficient and user friendly?

    By answering these questions ahead of, or during, training sessions, you’ll be able to tailor training per team or even per employee.

     

    OFFER YOUR GTM TEAM REGULAR SALES COACHING SESSIONS

    How often do your sales managers provide your sales employees with robust, motivational, informative sales coaching sessions? Along with a sales enablement strategy, sales coaching is one of the most important factors to increase your sales, or at least avoid a decline in sales during an economic downturn.

    According to Korn Ferry, sales coaching has an incredible impact on sales success, including:

    +32.1% win rates

    +27.9% salespeople make quota

    -29.0% voluntary turnover

    +8.3% revenue attainment

    2x more seller engagement

    If your sales managers are yet to provide coaching sessions for their team, invest in training for them, first and foremost. Despite knowing how to close deals themselves, it is a completely different skill being able to pass the baton to team members and enable them to make as many sales as possible. Sales coaching is invaluable to all SaaS businesses; reinforcing skills to keep teams motivated and increasing sales is on a par with teaching new sales skills from scratch.

     

    SOLVE PROBLEMS FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS

    One missed opportunity SaaS companies are facing when wanting to close more deals is solving problems for customers when they have volunteered the information to your salespeople. It may take some project management and software development time on your end, but the long-term value in solving problems for your customers is far greater than the investment you make to create the solutions.

    For example, if your software offers everything a potential customer needs, apart from one thing – say a built-in calendar and daily schedule – this could result in your customer either not buying your product at all, or buying yours along with someone else’s. If your salespeople provide regular feedback directly from customers to their managers and/or the development team, this could help them to close many more deals in the future.

    Provide incentives for all sales employeesOffering incentives, or compensation on top of existing salaries and bonuses, doesn’t always immediately jump out to business leaders who are keeping an eye on their budget. However, in the grand scheme of things, there will be no budget without your sales staff selling your product – so if incentives are the best way to motivate them to make as many sales as possible, it’s an investment worth making.

    Don’t simply offer all salespeople the incentives based on one specific target – decide how to do so based on what your data is telling you, as well as what your employees are asking for. If they would benefit from an additional day’s holiday per quarter if they exceeded a certain target, weigh it up and see if the financial gain for the business is worth an additional day’s annual leave for your employee. 

    STRIVE CAN HELP YOU DEVELOP A BEST-IN-CLASS GTM TEAM FOR YOUR SAAS COMPANY

    Here at Strive, we source top tier sales talent for scaling and hypergrowth tech companies. To learn more about STRIVE CAN HELP YOU DEVELOP A BEST-IN-CLASS GTM TEAM FOR YOUR SAAS COMPANY about how we can help your business scale, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com.

  • Five tips for SaaS companies wanting to scale fast

    Five tips for SaaS companies wanting to scale fast

    With the SaaS market expected to reach a valuation of $307 billion by 2026, it’s safe to say that not only is competition for SaaS companies on the rise, but so is the potential for organisations to scale and grow. 

    The customer demand for software is consistently growing; in the last year alone, as of September 2022, there have been 377 new SaaS companies founded, and the cloud application market is valued at approximately $146.6 billion.

    Understandably, startups and SMEs are now looking to scale their businesses to keep up with market growth.

    So, how should business leaders best approach and achieve their growth plans?

     

    1. MAINTAIN A CUSTOMER-FIRST MENTALITY

    In order to ensure your product is always in demand, it’s vital that you keep in mind exactly what it is that your customers want. The projected future growth rate for software developer jobs is 22%, meaning that if your customers want additional features or an improved experience, it is possible to meet their needs.

    If your SaaS company remains hyperfocused on an original or outdated business model, it is likely that your target audiences will either:

    • Use additional tools as opposed to investing more into your platform, or
    • Look elsewhere for an entirely different piece of software that encompasses all their requirements in one place.

    Maintaining a customer-first mentality is a vital element to scaling your SaaS business; ask for regular feedback from your customers and ensure any trending comments are taken on board, and changes are implemented.  

     

    2. HIRE THE RIGHT PEOPLE

    Investing in the right people is crucial. Not only do you need tech experts, digital masterminds and savvy salespeople, but it’s likely that as your company grows you’ll need critical thinkers, commercially-aware business leaders, and marketing specialists.

    In order to ensure your software is being sold in the most effective way, you need to focus on one or all of the following:

    • Hiring experienced salespeople with demonstrable, successful experience
    • People who are new to sales, but are keen to develop a sales career with heaps of potential 
    • Experienced sales managers who have the ability to coach and guide their sales teams

    There are various challenges that come along with SaaS recruitment, which is why it’s best to work with a specialist software sales recruitment company. Understanding how best to organise your people structure during periods of growth is vital; if you put time, money and effort into the wrong areas of the business, you’re unlikely to scale at the rate you want.

     

    3. FOCUS ON BUSINESS STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE

    Establishing a clear business strategy and growth plans are imperative to having full visibility of scaling a SaaS company. Without a strategy in place, it’s impossible to monitor and measure performance.

    Make note of the following:

    • Why your software exists 
    • What you are offering your customers
    • How you will target your key audiences
    • Targets you need to work to
    • How often you will review performance
    • Who will be responsible for implementing changes and updates
    • How often you will update your strategy as time goes on

    By understanding the bigger picture, you will be able to better serve your customers as well as improve your ROI and achieve your growth objectives.

     

    4. MONITOR COMPETITORS FOR POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS

    Understanding what your main competitors are offering their customers doesn’t just tell you who and what you are up against; it keeps you up to speed with market trends, evolving customer demand and how you can improve your USPs.

    Keep an eye on their website to see exactly what it is that they’re providing, but also keep an eye on their salespeople’s LinkedIn pages. When you see how they manage their personal brands and engage with their networks, this will give you a clear picture of things your employees both should and should not be doing. Not everything your competitors are posting on LinkedIn is something your workforce should try to emulate; it could be the complete opposite.

     

    5. INVEST IN MARKETING

    Providing your sales team with multiple lead streams will maximise the number of deals they can close, and a key way to do achieve this is to invest in your marketing function. Whether you hire internal marketing professionals or you outsource your marketing to a specialist agency, lead generation is one of the best investments SaaS companies can make in order to scale.

    If you can’t afford to spend hundreds of thousands on marketing (yet), your best bet is to ensure your marketing team is, at the very least:

    • Sharing regularly on social media, and positioning your software in front of your target audiences
    • Updating your website to ensure it’s SEO-friendly and will appear high up on SERPs
    • Directing people back to interesting and/or informative content on your website that is relevant to your audiences
    • Regularly including CTAs and data capture forms (where necessary)
    • Investing in paid advertising 

    As time goes on and your business scales to plan, you will be able to invest more in marketing in order to further your business growth plans. One mistake many SaaS companies face is focusing 90% on their sales team and 10% on their marketing function, whereas the split should be almost equal in order to scale fast.

    GET IN TOUCH

    Here at Strive, we source top tier sales talent for scaling and hypergrowth tech companies. To learn more about GET IN TOUCH about how we can help your business scale, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com. 

  • The three main challenges SaaS companies face during hyper-growth

    The three main challenges SaaS companies face during hyper-growth

    SaaS companies around the world are experiencing a variety of challenges in the midst of so many changing economic climates. For organisations preparing for hypergrowth, there can be additional bumps in the road on top of economic pressures, as finding the best talent on the market and retaining your employees is vital to ensure your growth is sustainable.

    Currently, there are around 30,000 SaaS companies – 60% of which are based in the US – and 14 billion SaaS customers globally. For business owners, this means two things: there’s plenty of customer demand, but there’s a lot of competition out there, and business owners need to take this into consideration when preparing for hypergrowth.

    The global SaaS market is predicted to reach a valuation of $307 billion by 2026. How will you stand out, and what are you offering that’s different, for your growth plans to be a success?

    Most importantly, you need to enable your go-to-market team with the training, tools and guidance to be successful and sell your software. 

     

    PROVIDING THE RIGHT TRAINING

    In order to be able to provide sufficient training for your GTM team, firstly you need to understand the entire sales process from start to finish. Once you’ve determined the full sales cycle, you’ll be able to make note of every tool that is used and all the skills that your staff need to be trained on

    There are numerous benefits to providing your employees with training, including:

    • An increase in productivity
    • Making the sales process more efficient
    • Trained employees are more likely to spot upsell opportunities in a sales cycle, increasing order value
    • Ensuring employees are held accountable for their tasks
    • There is less ongoing support required
    • A set standard for training all employees with the same structure 
    • Employee career development opportunities

    Implementing a training process for all employees, as well as refresher training to update their knowledge at least every year, will ensure everyone is given an equal opportunity to be successful in their role. Plus, it’ll help you determine where there are gaps that need to be filled.

     

    IMPLEMENTING AND MANAGING YOUR TECHSTACK

    This may seem like an obvious one, but implementing a fit-for-purpose techstack is vital to enabling your GTM team to achieve their goals. All SaaS companies are different, and there will be a variation in terms of precisely what is needed based on your business requirements, but your techstack will be one of the most important components to assisting with hypergrowth.

    The main challenge SaaS business leaders face when it comes to their techstack is the initial investment it can take to get to where you need to be. One of the biggest financial overheads for organisations in most sectors tends to be the tech platforms required to scale at the rate their business strategy requires. However, research has shown that companies innovate and scale almost 20% faster when they licence existing technologies, as opposed to building them internally.

    In terms of managing your techstack, asking your employees for regular feedback on the platforms they are using is imperative. If you receive feedback that a particular platform or tool isn’t enabling your team to perform to the best of their ability, it may be time to go to the market and look for an alternative.

     

    PIPELINE GENERATION

    Pipeline generation also depends heavily on how well your techstack is implemented and managed. In order to stay in line with your hypergrowth goals, providing your sales team with the ability to build their pipeline and generate more leads is one of the biggest challenges SaaS organisations face.

    Sales targets are only achievable by providing your GTM team with leads, which are found through a variety of channels including marketing, referrals, social media, networking, product trials, or consultations. To give your employees the best chance of maximising the amount of sales they make, every channel possible needs to be utilised. Ensure the following is being directly forwarded to your sales staff:

    • Website enquiries
    • Email responses
    • Social media enquiries
    • Paid ad responses
    • Attendees from roadshows/events
    • Referral program responses
    • Software trial completions

    If your employees aren’t receiving the number of leads to stay on track with the overall business growth goals, investment will need to be made into alternative or additional channels to enable them to make sales. 

    GET IN TOUCH

    Here at Strive Sales we source top tier sales talent for hypergrowth tech companies. To learn more about how we can help your business scale, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com. 

  • Enabling and Motivating Your Team in a Challenging Economy

    Enabling and Motivating Your Team in a Challenging Economy

    When it comes to enabling and motivating your go-to-market team in the current economic climate, there are numerous challenges SaaS companies will be facing. One of the main thing’s employers need to be aware of is that it is currently a candidate-led market due to the global talent shortage, so employee retention is just as important as employee attraction. 

    To ensure you keep your GTM team motivated, there are various factors to consider to ensure your workforce isn’t tempted elsewhere in the current challenging economy. 

     

    MAKE PIPELINE BUILDING AS EASY AND STRAIGHTFORWARD AS POSSIBLE

    If your salespeople are struggling to build or maintain their pipelines, they could require simple guidance and advice, or possibly additional training to bolster their own processes. How do you currently enable your existing team to build a pipeline of customers or clients? Do they have multiple streams of leads coming in from marketing and direct sales activity? Are there tools they are currently using that they need to utilise in a more effective way?

    The best way to determine if your team needs guidance on how to maximise their pipeline building is to ask for feedback from your most successful team members. What are they doing that other members of the team could be doing? Are they mapping effectively? Is their mentality right when it comes to the importance of having a constant pipeline in place? Get feedback from your employees to discover how and where pipeline building can be made easier.

     

    IMPROVE TIME MANAGEMENT AND PRIORITISING TASKS

    When it comes to sales enablement, one of the most straightforward ways to empower your GTM team is to ensure they’re using their time effectively. Anyone working within a SaaS company knows that no two days are the same and keeping on top of the volume of tasks at hand can be a challenge. 

    In order to service customers in the most impactful way whilst also staying motivated, your team members need to possess the skills to prioritise their tasks and manage their time. If they lose track of where they are up to, over time this can lead to burnout. Review your current reporting processes, ask your salespeople if the tools they are using are saving them time, and review the entire sales process end-to-end to see where time can be saved. It may simply be that your team members need to use a project management system that is more streamlined to be able to stay on top of their work – the best way to find out is to communicate with your team members and ask where they need help.

     

     SHORTEN THE SALES CYCLE TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

    Similar to improving time management and prioritising tasks, when it comes to increasing productivity amongst your team members, asking them for feedback is invaluable. They are the people using the tools available and processes they have learnt in training to complete their daily tasks. So, if something can be improved to shorten the current sales cycle and increase what they can achieve on a daily or weekly basis, they will be the ones who can tell you what needs changing.

    Create a survey and send it to your GTM team asking for feedback on the current sales cycle and what they think needs to be updated, improved, or removed altogether to help them be more productive. Analyse the general feedback and implement any improvements needed to keep your team feeling motivated, and most importantly, listened to.

     

    OFFER INCENTIVES BASED ON THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS

    Salespeople aren’t strangers to KPIs and targets, but unless they’re the kinds of targets that will keep them motivated, they will soon become uninterested in maximising their sales. 

    Review what is currently in place and suggest a variety of new incentives for your team members and ask them which they would prefer. Simply offering a quarterly bonus, a team night out or gift vouchers based on their performance might not be the way to go – after all, different people are motivated by different things.

     

    PROVIDE YOUR GTM TEAM WITH RECOGNITION 

    It might sound obvious but providing your employees with recognition is a vital tactic when it comes to keeping them motivated, particularly during challenging times. 

    A 2020 survey conducted by Kelton Research found that when asked about ‘expressions of appreciation for their loyalty during times of organisational difficulties’, employees wanted verbal recognition for their performance (32%) and company-wide recognition for their accomplishments (24%).

    Whether it’s during team meetings, via email or as part of a company-wide presentation, providing your employees with recognition is a key factor in keeping your salespeople feeling motivated and appreciated for their hard work.

     

    CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAN

    One of the biggest challenges for SaaS companies when it comes to retaining staff is losing their employees to organisations with a structured career development plan in place.

    Your team members will want to know how they can effectively do their job, what they can do to earn more money, what their future at the company looks like, and how they can develop both professionally and financially. Having a clear understanding of what is required of them to be promoted, and what the next steps in their career will specifically look like, is one of the most effective motivational tools an organisation can provide. 

    After all, unless your GTM team knows what is expected of them, what they are working towards, and what they are provided with to achieve these goals, it will be difficult to stay motivated and keep productivity moving in the right direction.

     

    SUPPORT IN DEVELOPING A BEST-IN-CLASS GTM TEAM FOR YOUR SAAS COMPANY

    Here at Strive, we source top tier sales talent for scaling and hyper-growth tech companies. To learn more about how we can help your business scale, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com.