Navigating The New Wave. How I Would Run and Lead a Sales Team in 2024.
I have taken a week off this end of the year to recharge and spend time with my family.
As always, I have looked into things I can improve next year.
Productivity, new trends, and how to improve my business in general.
I learn, change, and adapt during a holiday or downtime.
But something has been on top of my mind since.
How sales are evolving and what we (sales leaders) should do.
As a Fractional Sales Leader, I have had the luck to work with many early-stage startups.
Most are below €5M ARR, and some are just born.
They all seek my knowledge and experience in building and leading sales teams.
They have high expectations, and I’d like to fulfil those expectations.
The reality is that 99% of them are struggling.
They struggle to position their products and understand who the best buyer is.
How to interact with them, and where to find prospects. How to deliver great discovery calls and demos. How to close.
There is a myriad of questions that sometimes are truly overwhelming.
But if 2023 were complex and assuming 2024 would be better, how?
As part of the Pavillon community, I have read multiple articles and LinkedIn posts and chatted with many leaders.
They all agree that what worked in 2023 will not likely work in 2024.
Or if it works, it’s going to be different. Cash reserves are going to dry, and many startups will fail.
The path to productivity is a must-have.
Many leaders have shared publicly their thoughts on what’s coming.
I loved this article from Adam Robinson and his 2024 predictions. Also, Sam Jacobs, CEO and founder of Pavillon, shared his thoughts.
As the year ends, I keep asking this question:
How am I going to run my sales teams in 2024?
Here is what I will focus on and what you should consider.
1. Existing Business is the new New Business.
Monitor churn, NPS, renewal rate, and upsell. Have somebody within your team with these goals assigned.
Map down your top 10 customers, and have a plan to increase their spending by 20%.
Now that there are increased challenges to acquiring new business, you should maximise your existing one.
Onboard them effectively, chat consistently, and help them adopt and use your product.
Ensure you have a low churn rate and upsell; your future investors will be glad.
2. Outbound but Different
Be meaningful and have a system that helps your sales team consistently reach out to prospects. But don’t spam people; build conversations.
It’s essential to rethink outbound as we used to know. Use a dual approach for your tier 1 and tier 2.
Tier 1: top clients, a manual and personalised approach driven by insights.
Tier 2: automated but with a 20-30% customisation to find relevancy.
You can do the numbers, but you must stay consistent and add value. Otherwise, you end up in spam. (look out for increased spam detection from Google and Microsoft).
3. Build and Maintain a Sales Playbook
Teach your team what to do for each stage of the sales cycle. From cold outreach to upselling your best customers.
They may know how to do it, but write down and coach them relentlessly.
Now more than ever, it’s essential to coach your team and, more importantly, to coach them on your playbook.
You can’t copy and paste other companies’ way of selling; you have to build yours.
Salespeople, by definition, need boundaries and building a playbook will guide them through the uncertainty.
Summary
Sales are evolving. The business, in general, has evolved.
From large amounts of money thrown at people in 2020 and 2021 to restrictions and revenue focus of this year.
But most importantly, sales and GTM teams are evolving faster.
I can’t predict the future, but if you keep doing what you do, you will probably get the same results.
Adapt, change, test, and you will get ahead of the curve.
This is my last newsletter this year; thank you for being with me on this journey; see you all next week, ciao!
