Jason (Jay) Webb’s Post

[Tech Sales in 2024: My Top 10 Predictions 🔮] 2023 was a rollercoaster for tech sales, but 2024 is where the real game begins. Here’s what I predict will happen in 2024: 1. The tech sales market is going to be better than in 2023 but not good enough. Budgets will slowly open up for spending on tech. We are already seeing this trend. 📈 2. Essential tech takes the front seat in 2024. Expect a surge in demand for tech that’s not just good to have, but a must-have. You will hear a lot of - ‘Is this a vitamin or a pain killer?’ conversation (Interestingly the market for vitamins is much larger than that of pain killers 😉 Just saying). 3. Layoffs will slow down in 2024 and at least half the companies on a hiring freeze will open limited roles due to better demand signals in the market. One of the aims of the essential tech mentioned above would be to make the limited team more efficient. 4. 2023 was a lot to process for tech salespeople due to hiring freezes and layoffs. Given the emphasis on mental health and work-life balance, more companies are expected to implement supportive policies and flexible working arrangements. 5. Hybrid selling is here to stay. Adapting to remote and hybrid sales models isn’t an option anymore; it’s essential. Buyers are used to it, and so must be the sellers. 6. Old sales strategies aren’t going to work in 2024. Inboxes are overloaded across channels. Gone are the days of generic pitches. It’s time for value-driven, problem-solving narratives. 7. 2024 is gonna be the year of bundling. The larger players are playing a consolidation game across the sales stack. With companies trying to cut costs, this bodes well in the short term. But I’m afraid this will result in companies having tools that do a below-par job across the board. And then the unbundling will start again. As Marc Andreessen said - “only two ways to make money in business: One is to bundle; the other is unbundle.” And unbundling will happen again. 8. AI tools are set to redefine customer interactions. I see some smart usage of AI in prospecting, sales training, and pitching. We at Luru use it for deal insights. How are you leveraging AI? 9. Even without substantial value additions, most SaaS pitch decks will include an AI slide, aligning with current trends. 10. Sales leaders will realize the underutilization of AI by their teams. More sales training sessions to focus on reskilling and upskilling to enhance human-AI collaboration as AI’s role in CX and sales grows. What do you predict 🔮 will happen for tech sales or sales in general in 2024? #2024Predictions #TechSales

If you are not cleaning and analysing your existing customers database regularly, you are definitely leaving a lot of easy money on the table. Your database is usually filled with opportunities. People change jobs all the time and cleaning your database helps you keep track of your past or current customers who have changed jobs, as well as people who have replaced them in their previous role. It provides you with 2 opportunities. You can target that customer again in their new position and company based on their needs as well as target the person who has replaced them in their past role or company. This is easy money because you already know about the person and their past company; both, and based on that data you can easily pitch to both. P.S. if you need help with cleaning and updating your customer database, or automating list building for your sales team, feel free to DM. #sales #listbuilding #prospecting #salesleadership #saas #dataanalysis #databasemanagement #closingsales #prospects

Q1 Revenue Risk & How To Fix • 9/10 Sales Reps only have 1 solid Client Contact. • 25% B2B revenue is lost by simply losing touch with Contacts. • And January sees the Biggest Spike in Director+ (Buyer) Job Changes. ⚠️ B2B Purchases are increasingly consensus driven, with 11.2 Key Contributors involved on average. However, due to the static nature of CRM contact data, 80% of companies report their data as being inaccurate for sales planning! 🚀 It's never been more crucial to get things right. Companies that effectively leverage LinkedIn's 1B network news and alerts to inform commercial activity are rewarded with larger deal sizes, improved win rates, shortened sales cycles and improved productivity. 🙌 And of course have a happier teams and form customer relationships. 💡Example - Use Sales Navigator Advanced to identify and auto-track all key contact job changes across your customer base and market. People who change jobs are also more receptive to new ideas and see higher rates of message/connection acceptance. Especially if they're Past Customers, Have a Mutual Connection, Have Shared Interest, Show Buyer Intent... Check Out This Mini Demo: https://lnkd.in/dQNTuFNN #linkedin #salesnavigator #deepsales #salesinsights

Q1 Revenue Risk & How To Fix • 9/10 Sales Reps only have 1 solid Client Contact. • 25% B2B revenue is lost by simply losing touch with Contacts. • And January sees the Biggest Spike in Director+ (Buyer) Job Changes. ⚠️ B2B Purchases are increasingly consensus driven, with +11 Key Contributors involved on average. However, due to the static nature of CRM contact data, 80% of companies report their data as being inaccurate for sales planning! 🚀 It's never been more crucial to get things right. Companies that effectively leverage LinkedIn's 1B network news and alerts to inform commercial activity are rewarded with larger deal sizes, improved win rates, shortened sales cycles and improved productivity. 🙌 And of course have a happier teams and form deeper customer relationships. 💡EXAMPLE - Use Sales Navigator Advanced to identify and auto-track all key contact job changes across your customer base and market. People who change jobs are also more receptive to new ideas and see higher rates of message/connection acceptance. Especially if they're a Past Customer, Have a Mutual Connection, Have Shared Interest, Show Buyer Intent... Check Out This Mini Demo: https://lnkd.in/dGTMzpaH #linkedin #salesnavigator #deepsales #salesinsights

SaaS Sales Stats 2023 -7 decision-makers involved in buying process -60-90% of the journey complete before buyer interacts with sales rep -Best-time to cold call is 4-5PM -7% of sales reps engaged in social selling outsell peers -91% of customers would give referrals, but only 11% of salespeople ask -67% of the buyer’s journey is now done digitally -55% of salespeople lack basic sales skills Surprising or telling ? #saas #sales #b2b #tech #hiring

Interested in market insights and salary bench-marking for SaaS GTM? Here is a break down of 2024 so far. This data is based of hires we have made since Jan 2024 in the UK, with SaaS vendors. 👉 Average salary for SDR/BDR hires in the UK > £40,666 👉 Average salary for a Mid Market AE in the UK > £70,000 👉 Average salary for Ent AE in the UK > £120,000 👉 Average salary for Pre-Sales in the UK > £87,000 👉 Average salary for a Customer Success Manager > £60,000 👉 Average salary for a Account Manager > £70,000 Commission & bonus structures: 👉 Lowest was 6% of the deal value 👉 Highest was 20% of the deal value 👉 Highest with accelerators was 25% of deal value 👉 Average comms structure was 15% of deal value The most asked for criteria by candidates: 👉 Hybrid working 👉 Office location 👉 Enhanced pension 👉 Private health 👉 At least 25 days holiday 👉 Recent funding 👉 % of team performing 👉 A short demo of the product 👉 The current sales culture Perk of the year (could be hard to beat) 👉 Full coverage for IVF/fertility treatments If you're searching for next role, or a business considering re-viving your offering - feel free to reach-out for a "no cost" chat about UKs SaaS GTM positions and positioning!

Here is some candidate data I've collected from my recruiting pipeline over the last 6 months on where sales reps are at in their sales journy I thought was interesting. Percentage of reps entering the pipeline who are: - Brand new to sales: 8.9% - Not new to sales but new to High-Ticket: 33.9% - 1-3 years in High-Ticket: 26.4% - 3-5 years in High-Ticket: 9.1% - 5 years + in High-Ticket: 5.8% I asked ChatGPT to dissect this data and this is what it told me: From the data provided on the sales representatives entering your pipeline over the last six months, we can infer several key points about the talent pool and potential areas for strategic focus. Here are some insights: Talent Pool Composition: Majority with Experience in Sales: +++ A significant portion (91.1%) of the candidates are not new to sales, indicating that your pipeline attracts individuals who already have a foundation in sales. High Proportion New to High-Ticket Sales: +++ 33.9% of the candidates are not new to sales but new to high-ticket sales. This suggests that many sales professionals are looking to transition into higher-value sales roles, possibly seeking better opportunities and higher commissions. Experienced High-Ticket Sales Reps: +++ About 41.3% of the candidates have 1-5 years of experience in high-ticket sales. This indicates a healthy middle level of experience in your pipeline, with individuals likely having developed some level of expertise and success in high-ticket sales. Veteran High-Ticket Sales Reps: +++ Only 5.8% of the candidates have over 5 years of experience in high-ticket sales, suggesting that highly experienced high-ticket sales professionals might be rarer in your pipeline or possibly more selective in their job searches. What are your thought on this?

Let's play 2 truths and a lie. 1.  Most sales opportunities end up in ''close lost'' status. 2.  Most opportunities lost in later stages are worth revisiting down the road. 3.  Most salespeople love taking detailed notes and having them available in CRM. 1. Truth. 2. Truth. 3.  Lie. I took the leadership role of a sales team in early 2015.  Focused on building processes, hiring, training up the sales team, aligning internally with the other functional areas. I did not focus on CRM upkeep and playing the long game. One day, in 2018 when we were having a particularity tough quarter building pipeline, I looked inside the closed lost opportunities in our CRM.  There were over 15,000 lost ops sitting in there.  At this stage of the business we were signing about 100 new customers/month. I was certain the most-qualified 1% of opportunities would buy if we tried them again, provided we had context and knew how to approach the deal.  1.5 months worth of revenue.   And what did I know about this closed-lost base of 15k - this mountain of opportunities??? • Documented qualification criteria.  No. • How far down the decision process?  No. • Did we have a committed champion?  No. • What were the strong points in late stage deals?  No. • What was missing in late stage deals the landed them closed lost? No.  Of the 94 reasons what Nate Nasralla and the team at Fuint are building delivers tons of value, this is the one that resonates with me the most.   Assisted business plan building does the high-value work that AEs typically hate to do.  And that work builds what I call information equity into your closed-lost base.   Oh what a deadly web we weave when we fail to document needs. Go Fluint! #salesprocess   

Are you aligning the ‘ideal sales rep’ with your sales structure? An ideal rep profile is a blueprint of the ‘performance DNA’ reps must have to deliver to plan. It delivers because it's performance-validated and field-hardened. And purpose-specific for a go-to-market structure. Embedded in a predictive algorithm, an ideal rep profile means a sales org can identify a performer or a liability in a heartbeat, prehire! Hiring against a list of attributes believed to deliver performance such as resilience, grit, coachability, accountability or adaptability has in fact delivered inconsistent results. With the right tools, any team can measure the unique and complex combination of traits and attributes that will deliver your plan. Without that insight, your sales operation is blind to critical intelligence. And too many sales orgs are blind. Top sales teams can accurately identify the right reps that will perform and stick BEFORE they ever get near a hiring decision. The right toolset enables recruiters and hiring managers to instantly curate an interview-ready pipeline of 'best bet’ rep hires for their sales structure. Tools that accurately calculate rep performance versus your KPIs within 15-20% of actual performance, prehire. DM me to learn more about the tools available for sales orgs to define their ideal rep profile. #sales #salesenablement #salesleadership #salesforce #salesdevelopment #data #ai #machinelearning #analytics #predictiveanalytics #performance #hiring #recruitment #humanresources #recruiters

Nearly all B2B PLG companies hire their sales teams too soon, before their product-led sales pipeline is ready to be tapped into. Consequently, sales layoffs often become an unfortunate reality for most PLG businesses. Let's be clear: sales teams won't be able to generate a pipeline cold turkey from your self-serve usage. This isn't a top-down sales approach, folks. If the product can't sell itself and spark sales conversations, the sales team will find themselves stuck. However, since sales are driven by quota-based incentives and there are no ripe leads to pursue, sales teams often switch to survival mode. This leads them to disrupt the go-to-market strategy with rash decisions, short-term thinking, and a whole lot of emotions. Many even try to shut down self-serve and PLG altogether in a bid to gain more control over the customer... Eventually, this madness has to stop, and the sales team is let go, leaving lasting damage in their wake. From my experience in assisting companies to either initiate or refine their product-led sales strategies, I've identified a critical sequence of steps to build a predictable and sustainable sales motion on top of PLG: 1. Know the Sales Team's Value: It's crucial to define and communicate the unique benefits that the sales team brings to the customer journey, particularly in areas that cannot be addressed through self-service. 2. Prioritize Hand-Raisers: Focus on users who show a clear interest in expanding their use of your product and need your assistance to do so. This is a sign of genuine demand and should be the starting point for any PLS strategy. 3. Begin Prospecting with Product Qualified Account (PQA) scoring: Who looks like a hand-raiser, acts like a hand-raiser, but is not raising their hand? 4. Regularly Iterate on When, Who, Where, and What: Review and adjust your strategy based on outcomes and feedback. More here: https://lnkd.in/eparb_RA #growth #b2b #plg