Will Scott

Your CSM just renewed 95% of their book, but their expansion revenue was 3%. So you're paying someone $85K to be a really expensive customer support agent with a fancier title? Most CSM comp plans reward one thing: keeping customers from leaving. So that's exactly what you get. At the same time, more and more leaders are pushing their CSMs to focus on driving expansion revenue. If you want CSMs who actually drive growth, you need to pay them like growth matters. Instead of $75K base + 10% of renewals, try: - $65K base + 5% renewals + 15% expansion revenue. - $1K SPIFF for every expansion conversation that moves to proposal stage. - $500 bonus when they identify and introduce a new stakeholder to the AE. - Quarterly bonuses tied to account health scores that predict future expansion. Some teams add expansion readiness gates: - 80%+ of accounts with documented expansion opportunities unlocks 1.5x expansion multiplier. - <50% expansion pipeline coverage? Your renewal rate drops to 5%. With this structure (and the proper enablement), your CSMs will stop avoiding pricing conversations. They'll start thinking like account managers. They'll map org charts. They'll identify budget cycles. They'll become expansion hunters, not just churn preventers. One team we work with made this shift last year. Their CSM-driven expansion went from 12% to 43% of total growth. Same people, different incentives. If you pay CSMs to prevent churn, they'll prevent churn. If you pay them to drive growth, they'll start driving growth.

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89 Comments

Partnerships compensation is broken. 99% of businesses pay partnerships teams peanuts while throwing money at sales reps. Here's why that's backwards: Partner-sourced deals beat sales-sourced deals. Every. Single. Time. - Lower acquisition costs - Better retention rates - Shorter sales cycles - Higher win rates  - Bigger contracts But here comes the objection: "Partnerships people don't close deals, salespeople do." That's complete BS. Partnership people close the BIGGEST deals. They don't close transactions. They close relationships. Relationships that generate revenue for YEARS. Relationships that engage dozens of stakeholders across multiple companies. Relationships that turn into exponential revenue engines. Relationships that deliver your best LTV/CAC ratios. Sales reps close customers. Partnership leaders close ecosystems. The math is simple: Partnership deals > Sales deals  Partnership skills > Sales skills Partnership impact > Sales impact Partnership compensation < Sales compensation The equation is broken. And it's costing you millions. Want to see what happens when you pay partnerships teams what they're actually worth? What happens when you give them the resources they deserve? Try it. I guarantee your ROI will be massive. It’s time to fix the equation. Your bottom line is begging you to.

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47 Comments

I’ve reviewed 100s of discovery calls. The #1 difference between AEs converting 40% and AEs converting 70%+ of first calls is the number of problems discussed. And the top reps discuss fewer. Reps that don’t convert go wide, trying to find anything and everything to tie their product to. They think: “The more problems I find, the better chance I have of solving some of them.” Reps that convert go deep into the most important problems uncovered. They think: “I need to attach to a problem worth solving.” I built a discovery capture sheet that will help “guide” your conversations to go deep, instead of wide. You can get it here in this blog post (ungated and no cost - just make a copy): https://lnkd.in/gCaUJ4ZD

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Coaching your frontline sales managers can increase the entire sales team's performance by as much as 20% Some other data points: 👉🏻Companies that invest in coaching see an 788% ROI through increased productivity and employee retention. 👉🏻Reps are 21% more likely to hit quota with the right leadership. 👉🏻Revenue per seller can jump as much as 50%. Compelling, isn’t it...？ So why is it that sales management training & coaching comes so low down on the priority list when the results are so impactful? In many cases sales managers have been promoted because they were top salespeople, but the skills needed to be a high performing Individual Contributor (IC) are very different to those needed to lead a team (where you go quite literally from 'I' to caring about 'We'). Without the right training and coaching, most are left to figure out on the job - neither of which is optimal for the individual or the company. Ok, so yes, at this point there is a shameless plug for my revenue coaching services, but the results are truly special when a revenue leader with potential and talent (but still learning on the job), can fast track through effective coaching... So what does coaching with me look like: 🌟Personalised 1:1 sessions tailored to your needs 🌟Assessment of skill & knowledge gaps against a revenue leadership maturity model 🌟Clear coaching plan with tangible outcomes 🌟Access to best-in-class playbooks & frameworks (as well as practical guidance on how to execute on them).  Who's my coaching for: ✅First-time sales leaders stepping into new VP/CRO roles ✅Experienced SaaS leaders taking on new functions or geos ✅Ambitious leaders with an 'always learning' mindset ✅SaaS companies that want to increase sales performance by 20% 🎯This quarter’s offer: Book five coaching sessions and your sixth is on me. If you are interested in finding out more, please email me at [email protected] Apologies for cringy photo - it's me at my desk following a coaching call - tenuous link to the post I know :)!! #thefemalesalesleader  #softwaresales  #salesleadershipcoaching  #saas

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How to retain salespeople: 1. Don't mess with their money 2. Great coaching and feedback 3. Majority of the team hitting quota 4. Opportunities for internal promotions 5. Top performers hitting 200% (or more) 6. Listen to feedback and improve things That's it. That's all you gotta do. - Mike G 👉 Get The Best Sales Newsletter delivered straight to your inbox for FREE: https://lnkd.in/g-dHTj7s

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78 Comments

Founders: How NOT to role model for your SDRs 1. Don't research your customer's business model 2. Sarcastically respond to objections 3. When corrected, don't apologize / say thanks, just move on 😂

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Please, for the love of revenue, stop opening your pricing call by pulling up the proposal and running through the price. You’re not a waiter dropping the check at the table. If the prospect says, “We just want to review the price,” that’s your signal to slow down and give context to the conversation. Every pricing call should start by confirming: - current challenges or problems to be solved - desired outcome for their business - how your product or service is going to deliver the outcome for them Once you are aligned on these three things, you can move forward with showing the price. This is especially important when a new evaluator joins the call. For example, you have been working with a champion who gets to the point where they want to see the price. You schedule the call to review the commercial terms. They invite the CFO or the economic buyer. That CFO has no context for value that you are going to deliver. They haven’t felt the pain you’ve been unpacking over the last few weeks. That's your job to give them the right context. Price only makes sense when you understand the current challenges and desired outcomes. That’s why I always start pricing calls the same way: “Before we jump into numbers, I just want to make sure we’re aligned on the goals of this partnership. Can we quickly revisit the challenges you’re solving and the outcomes you’re targeting? I want to make sure the proposal maps to that.” It’s a hard thing to say no to. And it does two important things: It gives you a chance to reinforce the value. It opens the door for new information or things the buyer hasn’t told you yet, but that will matter in the decision. I have lost many sales opportunities in my career by rushing to show the pricing. I thought moving fast meant being efficient. But I skipped the context. So the next time you have a pricing call, slow down. Frame the conversation. Align on the value of the partnership. Then move on to the commercial terms. ______ If you need help structuring that conversation, I’ve got an executive summary template that makes this easy. Comment "Summary" and I'll send it to you.

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