Always be recruiting but know your ideal seller

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Interestingly, in my last two VP Sales roles, I uncovered a data trend that was both scary and fascinating. When I measured the amount of time we were spending in the discovery phases of our sales cycles I found we were spending three times longer doing discovery for deals that we ended up losing compared to deals we won! I also found that sales reps who were able to keep their pipeline “fresh” by moving their deals through the sales funnel faster and deading-out poor fit deals sooner had higher levels of quota attainment.

These trends are consistent with a story one of my clients shared with me after working with his company on their discovery approach. He said that during the first month after implementing the focusing strategy we covered, he deaded-out 75% of his pipeline and focused his energy on the remaining 25%. In that month he hit a whopping 304% of his quota and the trend continued into subsequent months as he maintained his focus on high potential opportunities. The take-home message; make sure you’re losing fast, staying focused, and ensure you’re spending time on the RIGHT customers.



When I was at Salesforce our leadership team would benin telegram data often joke (with a strongly serious undertone) that missing your hiring target was just as bad as missing your revenue target. And with good reason. According to research from Bridge Group, typical sales rep turnover within sales organizations is about 33% annually (with 2/3 of that being involuntary) and on average a rep takes 3-6 months to ramp. In fact, the same research suggests that one in ten companies experience turnover rates above 55% and one in six reps will take over seven months to fully ramp. Of course, that means you should always be cultivating a bench of top-shelf sales reps you can call when needed, but our group identified a hidden nuance to this strategy.

But the type of rep and skill set required to effectively drive your business forward might be different based on the stage of your company or the evolution of your product. For example, in my start-ups I would often interview sales reps with a solid foundation of skills and experience, but who lacked the entrepreneurial toolset needed to be effective in the early days of operation. In short, they would be great as the 20th sales rep on my team but not the second.

Keep in mind though, that the ideal customer profile for your business will likely change over time. For example, many B2B technology companies start out selling their solution to SMBs but later decide to pivot to large companies due to a rising cost of sale relative to the price point of their solution. While some of these less experienced SMB reps may be able to make the shift to longer, more complex sales cycles, chances are most won’t. In order to keep up with the pace of your business, you must always build a broad bench of talent for when a new skill set is required.