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5+ Basic Tips to Assigning Leads to Your First Sales Reps
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And now, a few more nuanced thoughts: “Use Going or Chorus or whatever, but you have to listen to them.” Carefully monitor leads per rep. Some reps can handle more leads than others. Notwithstanding round robin, if you are “lead rich”, you may not want to split the volume of leads 50/50.
A few fundamental thoughts on lead routing: “Territories certainly make sense with field reps who … go to visit customers in person.” Segment your leads as soon as you are big enough to, at least into Small Medium + Large. This is often around reps 4-5. Start with round-robin, but as soon as your leads start to bunch into different sized companies — Small, Medium and Large — you want to begin the process of specializing. Some reps will be better with the bigger leads. They have longer sales cycles, more decision-makers, and more complexity in questions and decisions … but also a bigger check size. Get the folks good at high velocity doing the smaller deals, and the folks better at solution sales doing the bigger deals. But you can’t specialize here with 1 or 2 reps. Reps #4 and #5 are usually about as early as you can start to do this. Maybe rep #3. I’m surprised how many SaaS companies wait even until $20m ARR or beyond to do this.
A few fundamental thoughts on lead routing: “They also sort of make sense even with inside sales, and most bigger companies arrange teams in “patches”, even if those patches are often very far away from their geographical location.” Segment your leads as soon as you are big enough to, at least into Small Medium + Large. This is often around reps 4-5. Start with round-robin, but as soon as your leads start to bunch into different sized companies — Small, Medium and Large — you want to begin the process of specializing. Some reps will be better with the bigger leads. They have longer sales cycles, more decision-makers, and more complexity in questions and decisions … but also a bigger check size. Get the folks good at high velocity doing the smaller deals, and the folks better at solution sales doing the bigger deals. But you can’t specialize here with 1 or 2 reps. Reps #4 and #5 are usually about as early as you can start to do this. Maybe rep #3. I’m surprised how many SaaS companies wait even until $20m ARR or beyond to do this.
A few fundamental thoughts on lead routing: “First, start with round-robin. Like almost always.” Segment your leads as soon as you are big enough to, at least into Small Medium + Large. This is often around reps 4-5. Start with round-robin, but as soon as your leads start to bunch into different sized companies — Small, Medium and Large — you want to begin the process of specializing. Some reps will be better with the bigger leads. They have longer sales cycles, more decision-makers, and more complexity in questions and decisions … but also a bigger check size. Get the folks good at high velocity doing the smaller deals, and the folks better at solution sales doing the bigger deals. But you can’t specialize here with 1 or 2 reps. Reps #4 and #5 are usually about as early as you can start to do this. Maybe rep #3. I’m surprised how many SaaS companies wait even until $20m ARR or beyond to do this.
A few fundamental thoughts on lead routing: “Instead, until you at least have a team of reps, just route the leads automatically, in order.” Segment your leads as soon as you are big enough to, at least into Small Medium + Large. This is often around reps 4-5. Start with round-robin, but as soon as your leads start to bunch into different sized companies — Small, Medium and Large — you want to begin the process of specializing. Some reps will be better with the bigger leads. They have longer sales cycles, more decision-makers, and more complexity in questions and decisions … but also a bigger check size. Get the folks good at high velocity doing the smaller deals, and the folks better at solution sales doing the bigger deals. But you can’t specialize here with 1 or 2 reps. Reps #4 and #5 are usually about as early as you can start to do this. Maybe rep #3. I’m surprised how many SaaS companies wait even until $20m ARR or beyond to do this.
A few fundamental thoughts on lead routing: “First, start with round-robin. Like almost always.” Segment your leads as soon as you are big enough to, at least into Small Medium + Large. This is often around reps 4-5. Start with round-robin, but as soon as your leads start to bunch into different sized companies — Small, Medium and Large — you want to begin the process of specializing. Some reps will be better with the bigger leads. They have longer sales cycles, more decision-makers, and more complexity in questions and decisions … but also a bigger check size. Get the folks good at high velocity doing the smaller deals, and the folks better at solution sales doing the bigger deals. But you can’t specialize here with 1 or 2 reps. Reps #4 and #5 are usually about as early as you can start to do this. Maybe rep #3. I’m surprised how many SaaS companies wait even until $20m ARR or beyond to do this.
A few fundamental thoughts on lead routing: “Instead, until you at least have a team of reps, just route the leads automatically, in order.” Segment your leads as soon as you are big enough to, at least into Small Medium + Large. This is often around reps 4-5. Start with round-robin, but as soon as your leads start to bunch into different sized companies — Small, Medium and Large — you want to begin the process of specializing. Some reps will be better with the bigger leads. They have longer sales cycles, more decision-makers, and more complexity in questions and decisions … but also a bigger check size. Get the folks good at high velocity doing the smaller deals, and the folks better at solution sales doing the bigger deals. But you can’t specialize here with 1 or 2 reps. Reps #4 and #5 are usually about as early as you can start to do this. Maybe rep #3. I’m surprised how many SaaS companies wait even until $20m ARR or beyond to do this.
A few fundamental thoughts on lead routing: “Territories certainly make sense with field reps who … go to visit customers in person.” Segment your leads as soon as you are big enough to, at least into Small Medium + Large. This is often around reps 4-5. Start with round-robin, but as soon as your leads start to bunch into different sized companies — Small, Medium and Large — you want to begin the process of specializing. Some reps will be better with the bigger leads. They have longer sales cycles, more decision-makers, and more complexity in questions and decisions … but also a bigger check size. Get the folks good at high velocity doing the smaller deals, and the folks better at solution sales doing the bigger deals. But you can’t specialize here with 1 or 2 reps. Reps #4 and #5 are usually about as early as you can start to do this. Maybe rep #3. I’m surprised how many SaaS companies wait even until $20m ARR or beyond to do this.
A few fundamental thoughts on lead routing: “They also sort of make sense even with inside sales, and most bigger companies arrange teams in “patches”, even if those patches are often very far away from their geographical location.” Segment your leads as soon as you are big enough to, at least into Small Medium + Large. This is often around reps 4-5. Start with round-robin, but as soon as your leads start to bunch into different sized companies — Small, Medium and Large — you want to begin the process of specializing. Some reps will be better with the bigger leads. They have longer sales cycles, more decision-makers, and more complexity in questions and decisions … but also a bigger check size. Get the folks good at high velocity doing the smaller deals, and the folks better at solution sales doing the bigger deals. But you can’t specialize here with 1 or 2 reps. Reps #4 and #5 are usually about as early as you can start to do this. Maybe rep #3. I’m surprised how many SaaS companies wait even until $20m ARR or beyond to do this.
Listen to their calls. Use Going or Chorus or whatever, but you have to listen to them. Listen to at least 5-10 calls a week. You’ll be shocked by what you hear. And you can jump in and help. “Carefully monitor leads per rep.” Make sure meetings are being set up fast. Is the prospect process friction-free? It should be. No one should have to wait days for a demo or more than really a few minutes for an email back.
Make sure meetings are being set up fast. Is the prospect process friction-free? It should be. No one should have to wait days for a demo or more than really a few minutes for an email back. “This alone can boost your revenue per lead 20%+.” (note: an updated SaaStr Classic post)
A few fundamental thoughts on lead routing: “First, start with round-robin. Like almost always.” Segment your leads as soon as you are big enough to, at least into Small Medium + Large. This is often around reps 4-5. Start with round-robin, but as soon as your leads start to bunch into different sized companies — Small, Medium and Large — you want to begin the process of specializing. Some reps will be better with the bigger leads. They have longer sales cycles, more decision-makers, and more complexity in questions and decisions … but also a bigger check size. Get the folks good at high velocity doing the smaller deals, and the folks better at solution sales doing the bigger deals. But you can’t specialize here with 1 or 2 reps. Reps #4 and #5 are usually about as early as you can start to do this. Maybe rep #3. I’m surprised how many SaaS companies wait even until $20m ARR or beyond to do this.
Promote SDRs quickly. The best source of new account execs are the best SDRs you already have. If you see an SDR quickly being able to close the smallest deals herself, give her a shot. They are already half-trained, after all. One big advantage in the early days is SDRs have an easy and clear promotion path. Later, it will get more crowded. “Assign the leads that haven’t been touched quickly enough, or recently enough, to the newest sales pro.” There’s a lot of complexity here, and it makes sense these days to add a full-time sales ops person as early as say, rep #10.
A few fundamental thoughts on lead routing: “Instead, until you at least have a team of reps, just route the leads automatically, in order.” Segment your leads as soon as you are big enough to, at least into Small Medium + Large. This is often around reps 4-5. Start with round-robin, but as soon as your leads start to bunch into different sized companies — Small, Medium and Large — you want to begin the process of specializing. Some reps will be better with the bigger leads. They have longer sales cycles, more decision-makers, and more complexity in questions and decisions … but also a bigger check size. Get the folks good at high velocity doing the smaller deals, and the folks better at solution sales doing the bigger deals. But you can’t specialize here with 1 or 2 reps. Reps #4 and #5 are usually about as early as you can start to do this. Maybe rep #3. I’m surprised how many SaaS companies wait even until $20m ARR or beyond to do this.
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