Part 2: Building a Sales Org from Scratch
Welcome to day 31 of being a VP! At this point in your journey you should’ve accomplished a few things:
Assessed and rated the team
Reviewed and configured the tools and softwares you will use
Set up your KPIs to track and monitor progress
If you’ve done all these things efficiently and correctly then you are now set up to start “doing some of that VP of Sales stuff.” Welcome to part 2 of my 3 part writing series on building a sales organization from scratch. Let’s dive in.
Now if I have been properly assessing my team then I have been on calls with prospects and customers. I have a sense of where my key deals are as well as getting feedback from my top customers. It should give me a good sense of where enablement is needed to raise up my B players.
I’m also going to start delivering PIPs (if needed) to my C players. Remember, you are 90-120 days out from a new rep being fully ramped. You need to get with your recruiters to start building up your candidates.
Set up Enablement ASAP
I have scrubbed my pipeline and know where the deals are at. I also know where my skillset gaps are and now I am going to roll out some training. I want to get a sense of the talent level of all my sellers.
Additionally, I have a baseline of my KPIs and I can measure them against models that have been developed. Or worst case scenario, there aren't any revenue models and I need to draft them. In either scenario you know where you stand metrically, know your pipeline and key customers… and which sellers you are going to focus on.
Having a demo certification or a sales pitch certification process will quickly separate the great from the good and most importantly highlight the bad. I can now build my roster to align with my vision of what I want.
Pipeline Strategy
If you’ve been hired into the VP role then you are the catalyst for the company to bring in more revenue. You’ll need to understand where you can push more opportunities. I am going to review my ICP and make sure it is solid. I will probably also run some cohort analysis just to double check the ICP theory.
Once I have established and confirmed that I want to look at our sales collateral. Is it up to snuff? Does it need some polishing? What are we sending at what stage and how does it accelerate the deal? If I am running enablement, bringing in better talent and improving the collateral then I am focusing on increasing my closure rates.
Additionally, I want to establish an ABM strategy to drive the pipeline. I am going to do this with Marketing, with my Outbound strategy as well as my customer strategy. I want to identify a set of accounts that, with my partners in Marketing, should be our customers.
I am also going to focus my SDRs and AEs on having a tiered based outbound approach. We are going to have 25 tier 1s, 50 tier 2s and 100 tier 3s. We’ll define what each looks like but we want a focused approach to driving the pipeline. Also, since I have set up my KPI expectations the reps know how much they need to source as well as how much activity is expected.
Lastly, my account managers need to tier out their accounts as well. I want to have a good understanding of which ones have the most opportunity for upsell, which are at risk for renewal and which ones are the marque accounts.
If I’m successful in this I should be driving more pipeline as well as closing more business. Essentially, more pipeline and better close rates equals more revenue.
Creating the Sales Calendar
What does this mean? Essentially, created repeatable processes every day, week, month and quarter for the sales teams. You want to create predictability during the quarter.. It helps sellers focus on what they need to do on any given day.
I’ve written about this at length here but from the leadership standpoint you are creating a culture of accountability. Everyone is prepared for their calls, forecasts, 1:1s and team meetings. Each one feeds off the last thing then starts all over again.
The simpler and more effective you make it then the better results you get. Don’t create a meeting for the sake of the meeting. Nothing irritates a good seller more than being stuck in a meeting that isn’t doing anything for them. They want to make money and you want them on the phones.
Final Thoughts
I always loved this stretch because you can start to pull some levers. The first month is really just setting up the chess board. The next stretch is where you can start flexing some of those VP muscles to influence the org.
At the end of the day you want to make sure that you have the proper people and systems in place as well as how you’ll measure performance. That you know the pipeline as well as customers and where to focus energy. An easy process for everyone to follow so they are doing what they are supposed to do.
The last push of 61-90 days is about refinement and setting up the next quarter. Stay tuned for part 3 next week.
