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Put yourself out of a job: moving past founder-led sales
signalfire.com
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Segmentation “Based on factors like cost per lead, you can use different tactics to convert these segments.” For example, Stripe initially sold to developers in startups, but as those companies scaled and more mature companies were targeted, CFOs became the new decision-makers and a new Head of Payments persona emerged as a key champion. Evolving the segmentation helped Stripe invest in new messaging and tools to better sell to these more specialized roles.
The differences between sales issues and a lack of product-market fit “The sales operating model and revenue predictions” After your research has validated these elements, you can take a customer-centric sales approach, focusing sales resources on your most promising opportunities.
Sales research “While you may be blessed with inbound interest and leads, you’ll need to build a solid outbound engine to continue to scale your revenues—and you should start early.” The validity of your ideal customer persona and sales pitch
“It’s not sustainable for founders to lead every key sales call forever.” To successfully hand off the sales function, you need a plan to codify your process, establish your funnel, hire the right talent, measure and incentivize them, and build a positive sales culture.
It’s not sustainable for founders to lead every key sales call forever. But moving away from the founder-led sales approach that delivered your initial revenue can be tricky—even a brief dip in growth could wreak havoc on your plans and spook investors. “To successfully hand off the sales function, you need a plan to codify your process, establish your funnel, hire the right talent, measure and incentivize them, and build a positive sales culture.” SignalFire mentor and Stripe Chief Business Officer, Jeanne DeWitt Grosser, sat down with our founders and sales leaders to explore ways to problem-proof the transition. Jeanne has deep experience leading sales at Stripe, Google, and Dialpad. This is how she tackles evolving the sales motion.
1. Develop (and evaluate) your sales operating model “A sales operating model quantifies how your sales team turns leads into conversions.” Your operating model informs everything, from your high-level vision and operational process to hiring, training, and metrics. It’s both a predictive and a diagnostic tool. To build it, you should establish and clearly document a set of reasonable assumptions based on a combination of any early data you have, industry data, and benchmarks appropriate to your category and selling motion. This will allow you to diagnose any deviations from the model and adjust your selling motion and tactics to improve outcomes, ultimately enabling you to build predictability into your plans.
A sales operating model quantifies how your sales team turns leads into conversions. Or, as Jeanne calls it, “your funnel math in a large spreadsheet.” “Your operating model informs everything, from your high-level vision and operational process to hiring, training, and metrics.” As you reach replicability in your founder-led sales—winning with the same pitch with the same ideal customer persona (ICP)—you should have a strong enough understanding of your funnel math to use actual data to refine your operating model, including:
A sales operating model quantifies how your sales team turns leads into conversions. Or, as Jeanne calls it, “your funnel math in a large spreadsheet.” “It’s both a predictive and a diagnostic tool.” As you reach replicability in your founder-led sales—winning with the same pitch with the same ideal customer persona (ICP)—you should have a strong enough understanding of your funnel math to use actual data to refine your operating model, including:
Moving from founder-led to sales-led: The first steps “Founders and sales leaders must take some steps to build a culture where operational rigor and tracking are at the center and where the founder is still in the loop.” 1. Develop (and evaluate) your sales operating model
“But moving away from the founder-led sales approach that delivered your initial revenue can be tricky—even a brief dip in growth could wreak havoc on your plans and spook investors.” To successfully hand off the sales function, you need a plan to codify your process, establish your funnel, hire the right talent, measure and incentivize them, and build a positive sales culture.
1. Develop (and evaluate) your sales operating model “A sales operating model quantifies how your sales team turns leads into conversions.” Your operating model informs everything, from your high-level vision and operational process to hiring, training, and metrics. It’s both a predictive and a diagnostic tool. To build it, you should establish and clearly document a set of reasonable assumptions based on a combination of any early data you have, industry data, and benchmarks appropriate to your category and selling motion. This will allow you to diagnose any deviations from the model and adjust your selling motion and tactics to improve outcomes, ultimately enabling you to build predictability into your plans.
A sales operating model quantifies how your sales team turns leads into conversions. Or, as Jeanne calls it, “your funnel math in a large spreadsheet.” “Your operating model informs everything, from your high-level vision and operational process to hiring, training, and metrics.” As you reach replicability in your founder-led sales—winning with the same pitch with the same ideal customer persona (ICP)—you should have a strong enough understanding of your funnel math to use actual data to refine your operating model, including:
A sales operating model quantifies how your sales team turns leads into conversions. Or, as Jeanne calls it, “your funnel math in a large spreadsheet.” “It’s both a predictive and a diagnostic tool.” As you reach replicability in your founder-led sales—winning with the same pitch with the same ideal customer persona (ICP)—you should have a strong enough understanding of your funnel math to use actual data to refine your operating model, including:
It’s not sustainable for founders to lead every key sales call forever. But moving away from the founder-led sales approach that delivered your initial revenue can be tricky—even a brief dip in growth could wreak havoc on your plans and spook investors. “To successfully hand off the sales function, you need a plan to codify your process, establish your funnel, hire the right talent, measure and incentivize them, and build a positive sales culture.” SignalFire mentor and Stripe Chief Business Officer, Jeanne DeWitt Grosser, sat down with our founders and sales leaders to explore ways to problem-proof the transition. Jeanne has deep experience leading sales at Stripe, Google, and Dialpad. This is how she tackles evolving the sales motion.
Moving from founder-led to sales-led: The first steps “Founders and sales leaders must take some steps to build a culture where operational rigor and tracking are at the center and where the founder is still in the loop.” 1. Develop (and evaluate) your sales operating model
Moving from founder-led to sales-led: The first steps “It’s important not to move to sales-led too quickly.” 1. Develop (and evaluate) your sales operating model
“But moving away from the founder-led sales approach that delivered your initial revenue can be tricky—even a brief dip in growth could wreak havoc on your plans and spook investors.” To successfully hand off the sales function, you need a plan to codify your process, establish your funnel, hire the right talent, measure and incentivize them, and build a positive sales culture.
“It’s not sustainable for founders to lead every key sales call forever.” To successfully hand off the sales function, you need a plan to codify your process, establish your funnel, hire the right talent, measure and incentivize them, and build a positive sales culture.
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