Conversation with a SaaS Sales Consultant

Bridge Group is a B2B SaaS sales consultancy, and we chat with them quarterly about the sales environment.? Below is our latest conversation.? They do strategic assessments, write playbooks, and can also do management training and coaching.? Connect with Kyle Smith ([email protected] ) if you need help building or re-building your sales processes.? We’ve hired them for our own portfolio needs multiple times.?

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What is the state of the software market? The state of the market is healthy.? Buyers pulled back in 2022 and 2023, and it was largely driven by the rapid rise in interest rates.? Now that it’s been 12+ months, buyers have settled into this environment.? That said while we still have many clients achieving growth goals, albeit it has been harder to achieve the growth given elongated sales cycles, more individuals in the buying process, etc.? And insane rocket ships still exist; look at Whiz who just turned down a major M&A deal from Google.

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We see companies adding headcount, adding entire teams of SDR’s, and they’re poised to capitalize on growth.? 2023 made software companies trim fat, so they’re being intelligent and intentional about what they add to the sales and marketing function.? The fat trimming led to learnings that is now resulting in more intelligent and controlled growth in 2024.?

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Tell us about the sales process getting harder.? The buyer has changed over time; there are significantly more decision makers in every process, and more and more of them are millennials that are tech savvy.? They don’t care as much about a consolidated product.? They’re more willing to cobble together a best in breed in solution even if it means multiple vendors.? The consolidator saying “we have one invoice” isn’t resonating like it used to.? The customer wants best in breed of everything, and the customer has the tools to make disparate offerings blend together.

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If you have a good ACV of $40k, but some clients paying 6 figures, is it worth getting an SDR team? If an AE thinks they can get one whale a year at $250k and can get a few $150k deals as well, there is a case to be made for an SDR team.? An ACV of $50k+ can make the case for an SDR team.? You of course want that SDR team going whale hunting.? Large deals take a lot of grunt work and nurturing, account mapping, and getting through a number of calls before you even get to a discovery call.? SDR’s do that work.? If you don’t have SDR’s and you’re just relying a lot on inbound marketing, then AE’s are just taking what they can get.? SDR’s give you the ability to whale hunt as opposed to just hoping the whale swims to you.?

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Let’s suppose you have whiffed on the past 2 sales leaders.? What do you do? Hire a professional search firm.? Period.? Everyone shows really well in an interview and clearly their salesmanship is working, to your detriment.? A professional search firm is a second set of eyes to not only help you identify the great sales reps posing as sales leaders, but they can also bring you higher quality candidates so you’re less likely to whiff.?

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You need to know where you are and where you are trying to go.? Going from $0 to $5mm ARR, $5mm to $10mm, $10mm to $50mm, $50mm to $100mm, and so on requires different personnel. ?The individual that got you to $10mm is unlikely to be the same person that gets you to $100mm.? ?Whiffing is very expensive.? Ask yourself ‘what does it cost to get the sales leader wrong?’ It’s much better to overpay for a sure thing on the front end versus continuously whiffing quarters.? It’s just too expensive to whiff, especially if you’re within 24 months of acquisition.? So bring in a pro recruiter and/or consultant to help.? And keep in mind that hiring a great candidate is going to take 5+ months, so during that time a consultant like Bridge Group can help get current systems in better shape.

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Any hiring tips? Ask the individual to assess the business before they know as much as you do.? If they get much of the assessment right, it means they’re experienced and may be the right fit.?

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Bridge is an outstanding firm for righting or building the enterprise sales engine.? Reach out to them.? We’ll continue to interview Kyle quarterly and share data they release.?

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Thank you for your readership.? See more blogs and SaaS data at blossomstreetventures.com .? Email the author at [email protected] .