Over the last two months, we’ve been traveling the country to meet up for good food, cocktails and conversations with VPs of sales and leaders of revenue organizations.
Nearly 180 executives across 6 dinners have (finally) gotten together again in person.
And it’s been invigorating to hear what’s top of mind for them.
Things like:
- How do you restructure comp plans to incentivize more annual deals?
- Has anyone made the move to multi-product sales and adjusted the teams set up to support a new sales motion?
- Building a tech stack: what’s a logical order for buying tech tools to support the full revenue org?
- Hiring leaders: what are the changes in comp structure as the market has changed?
- What’s the proper leader/director employee ratios?
- How can we get together in person more often??? (this last one’s true … the energy at these dinners is palpable and prove we all want and need more IRL connection)
And some common trends are bubbling up that tell us about what’s ahead for revenue leaders in SaaS.
What VPs of Sales and Revenue Leaders talk about over dinner
Transforming from single product to multi-product is hard, but doable. Everything from sales cycle to comp structure, AE and CS alignment to discounting is impacted when you make the switch. But sales leaders are thinking ahead and leading their organization’s growth strategies with sound plans to go multi-product.
Staffing, not just hiring, continues to be opportunity – and challenge – #1. VP’s leadership teams have been spending more time than ever recruiting, sourcing and building a pipeline of top talent. But for some companies, that’s come to a screeching halt as people look ahead to an uncertain market.
And even amidst some pauses, RIFs and pullback on new roles … the “great shakeup” isn’t done yet. Some high quality candidates who just took recent jobs or left downsizing companies are potentially back on the market.
Remember: you may have started conversations with your best next hire months or years ago. They may be back on the market, reconsidering a move or open to a conversation.
Relationships and your network matters to building the best team. And making the best hires right now couldn’t be more critical.
Tuning-up your business economics is a required exercise in 2022. Times of market uncertainty and rumors of investment changes are top of mind for SaaS leaders. And even those with strong growth forecasts are making sure the foundations are right. (we know these are obvious … VPs rolled their eyes as they shared them)
- Double checking LTV : CAC ratios,
- Beefing up annual and multi-product commitments and honing in on customer retention
- Taking another look at rep productivity and balance across seller types
- Pushing on the fundamentals, like leadership training, performance management and the ins and outs of how their teams work (enablement and revenue operations)
Here’s a look at what all of this dinner conversation and connection looks like in action:
We’ll still be on the road over the next few months–from Denver to Boston, Salt Lake City to Toronto–and we’ll be monitoring how the conversation shifts, changes and what’s top of mind for leaders.
P.S. If you’re a revenue executive and want to join us at one of our upcoming VP dinners, reach out to [email protected].
