8 Ways SaaS Companies Move Forward After Sales Team Layoffs
If you work on the sales team at a SaaS company and have recently faced layoffs, you’ll notice the atmosphere of the organization has changed.
If you work on the sales team at a SaaS company and have recently faced layoffs, you’ll notice the atmosphere of the organization has changed.
I know from speaking with sales reps and VP’s of Sales across the country that following someone else’s blueprint for success can be a dangerous time-waster. Sales formulas, processes, and strategies can seem like the flavor of the season.
Changing things up and moving on when something doesn’t work makes sense. But chasing your tail in circles with information is a real career-killer.
One day it’s all about the Challenger Sales Model and next year it’s MEDDIC. Eat, sleep, breath the MEDDIC checklist. Until of course, we need more answers and then Scientific Selling comes along.
Telling candidates they won’t be moving forward in the interview process can be awkward, uncomfortable, or even something you tend to procrastinate. Some recruiters and hiring managers ignore providing feedback for candidates altogether. Others wait days, even weeks to reject candidates. Letting too much time elapse before delivering the “bad news” hurts everyone, including your company’s reputation.
Managing a sales team is a complex and challenging job. It’s also a very different job within companies of varying revenue sizes. In some cases, you’ll need to be a front-line seller, in others, you’ll need to be a sales strategy master. Yet in all sales leadership positions, you’ll have to have command of more than just sales skills, you’ll need to be able to lead others.
If I want to bake a chocolate cake, I’ll pull out a recipe book. Then I’ll follow the directions and in about an hour and a half or so I’ll have a cake. If you just follow a recipe, you’ll get predictable results. Right?
Except every time I try to bake a chocolate cake, it never comes out quite the same. Sometimes they’re good , sometimes they’re burnt, other times they just taste like a cardboard sponge. (Not sure I’ve ever eaten a cardboard sponge, but you get the point.)
Hiring can bring out your worst fears. Especially if you’re a new manager or just starting with a new organization. When your first goal is to immediately staff up—your reputation hangs in the balance. Everyone’s watching…quietly rooting for your success or failure.
Onboarding Counts John called me in the middle of the day. He’d just started a new role with a software start-up in San Jose, California.
Ever spend four months recruiting and hiring a sales rep only to have them quit in four weeks? Sometimes they leave because they received a better offer. But many times it’s because onboarding created doubts about the decision to pick your organization. Learn three facts about why onboarding matters and what you can do to make it more successful so you can engage your team, and achieve your sales goals.
I’ve interviewed more than 2,600 people in-person at all kinds of places: coffee shops, airport terminals, tiny interview rooms, bars, airport lounges, fancy offices, restaurants, city clubs, Starbucks, and more. I’ve video called and phone interviewed more than 5,500 sales candidates not including the 2,600 in-person interviews.
With rare exception, every candidate I’ve met in this population has had at least five years of experience post college. They are candidates from across the country, from New York to San Francisco. They’ve earned from 120K to 700K a year. Read More
Can You Solve This Puzzle? Let’s take a look at a sequence of numbers and determine the rational reason for the sequence. These numbers are