Research on Making the 2020 Number
Q1 is in the books. And you likely have a good idea of where Q2 will land.
Last week, my team shared research we co-authored with RevOps Squared. We asked B2B revenue leaders:
What actions they have already taken, future actions they are considering, and their outlook for the remainder of calendar 2020. I want to highlight a few points.
Overall sentiment about making the 2020 number
We asked revenue leaders how confident they were about hitting their pre-COVID quarterly revenue plans for 2020. We heard:
· Q2: 15% are confident
· Q3: 41%
· Q4: 63%
The chart below shares sentiment by company ACV. Controlling for all other factors, high-ACV companies are the most optimistic. Companies with $100K+ ACVs are significantly more optimistic about Q3 and Q4.
How widespread have layoffs been
As anyone on LinkedIn would have noticed. April was particularly painful for seeing friends and colleagues posting about layoffs. As bad as it was, and it was bad, layoffs weren’t universal in B2B tech.
Roughly 30% of leaders reported reducing the number of AEs. This affected big companies and small companies equally. We did note that companies selling into Midmarket and Commercial segments ($10M-$1B) were much more likely to than companies selling into Enterprise and Strategic ($1B+).
Next week, we’ll be releasing new data on the pace of layoffs and new posts for sales hiring for SaaS. We are still early days in all of this, but we’re already starting to see positive trends.
My two new favorite words are “pivot” and “iterate”
Sales teams that embrace both are the ones that will be in the best shape tomorrow, next quarter, and beyond. I love this line from Jim Rohn:
Everyone has to get good at one of two things: planting in the spring or begging in the fall.
No doubt that things are tough right now. Sales cycles are longer, “no decision” decisions are driving down win rates, and inertia is a tough adversary. That should not deter us. We need to plant those seeds of interest and value so that when the time is right, we are ready.
Here is one example of the pivot some companies are making: Inbound Leads being redirected from SDRs to AEs.
An inbound lead has always been precious, but never more so than now. Are you still deriving value by having SDRs sit in between prospects and AEs? Maybe, maybe not. There is no one answer to this question. But nearly one in three respondents have already changed their inbound qualification motion.
I hope you are staying safe and sane out there.
Managing Director @ NayaOne | GTM Advisor for #FinTech #InsurTech | Investor, Author, Speaker. Ultra-Marathoner, BJJ Practioner. #GoFarther | (415) 596-0804
4 年“…nearly one in three respondents have already changed their inbound qualification motion.” Hmmm… I don't like this. 1. Why the lack of confidence in an SDR to qualify and quickly respond to leads? That’s a primary function of an SDR.? 2. Just b/c it’s inbound, doesn’t mean it’s qualified.?Why tie up AE time doing that work when an SDR is designed to do just that. 3. Have AEs qualify = potential moral hazard. Do you get bias on deals qualified by an AE? They are often measured by pipeline in the short-run. In a world where sales are slower, will they stack an unqualified lead into the pipeline to pump up their numbers.?
Managing Director @ NayaOne | GTM Advisor for #FinTech #InsurTech | Investor, Author, Speaker. Ultra-Marathoner, BJJ Practioner. #GoFarther | (415) 596-0804
4 年“Companies with $100K+ ACVs are significantly more optimistic about Q3 and Q4.” Is that an indicator that higher price = larger problem. Big problems are harder to live with, so deals will get done even if delayed. Or could also be that longer sals cycles mean that the $100k+ deals were sourced and qualified pre-COVID. Buyers are still communicating intent to sellers to buy, just delaying the decision. Q2 deals pushed out to Q3 and Q4.
Author, Named Top Women in Sales and Most Influential Women in Sales. Passionate about helping tech companies realize the full power of Virtual Selling, Inside Sales and Sales Development. Board Member.
4 年There is a ton of good intel in our report! Thanks Ray Rike for partnering with us to get this out.
CEO of Sales Talent Agency | Co-host of Topline ???
4 年Very insightful! Thanks Trish!!
I Help Founders/CEOs Confidently Hire Executive Sales & CS Leaders Without Costly Pitfalls · 98% Interview-to-Hire Success Rate · Redefining Startup Hiring · Stage 2 LP · ?? 1st Book About Hiring · Windex Obsessed
4 年So much intel here ???? “Roughly 30% of leaders reported reducing the number of AEs. This affected big companies and small companies equally. We did note that companies selling into Midmarket and Commercial segments ($10M-$1B) were much more likely to than companies selling into Enterprise and Strategic ($1B+).”