When an executive is looking for a way to simplify how they manage their company or a business unit, I recommend the following system that I’ve used consistently over the years. You can use the following simplified 6-step Management System to run a business function and it covers…
Building Teams: Creating a Successful Organizational Culture
A couple of years ago I wrote “What is a Company Culture and why CEOs must care?“. There I mentioned that there is no universal definition of an organizational culture. But how can we then define culture? Let’s start with Wikipedia – Wikipedia defines Organizational Culture as follows: a company…
Organizational Issues That Prevent Effective Leadership
There are several problems that organizations face with a typical/average manager based on research published in the Harvard Business Review. It turns out that many “leaders” are actually not able to perform a leadership function effectively. It is a real obstacle for companies if someone who is supposed…
What is Sales Strategy?
Every successful Sales Leader knows what “Sales Strategy” means. But this term is sometimes over-used or thrown around in ways that don’t really refer to the correct definition of Sales Strategy. So what is the correct definition of Sales Strategy? To state simply, it’s an operating plan for…
Building Teams – Don’t Over-Index on Industry Experience (Insights from Jason Lemkin at SaaStr)
Jason Lemkin is the “the Godfather of SaaS” and he knows a great deal about hiring best-in-class A-level talent. I agree with how Jason Lemkin thinks about building great teams. In many of his articles he talks about how to hire a VP of Sales or other sales professionals…
3 Phases of Opportunity Management
In every Sales Pipeline you have multiple stages of the Sales Process but there are 3 over-arching phases of managing every Opportunity (aka “managing a sales cycle”). Opportunity Creation I use the PIF approach Opportunity Pursuit Opportunity Closing These 3 phases are the big part of selling. In each…
“IF” – Simple Criteria for SDRs to Pre-Qualify Meetings for Your Account Executives
An SDR (Sales Development Rep, the junior sales role whose job is to help set up meetings/calls for the $ARR quota-carrying reps) – aka BDR – needs to decide if the lead can qualify as a good first call for an AE (Account Executive, the quota-carrying sales rep)….
What Exactly is B2B Demand Generation / Lead Generation?
Leads are the fuel for a successful B2B sales team. And leads are generated via a solid Demand Generation / Lead Generation function which is usually part of marketing. Jason Lemkin and Aaron Ross wrote in their best-selling book “From Impossible to Inevitable”: “Lead generation is the #1…
Scaling Revenue Starts at the Top of the Funnel (and 3x-5x Sales Cycles ago)
When I meet other CEOs or CROs to share ideas about scaling revenue, we always talk about how closed-won deals really start at the very top of your “Marketing & Sales Funnel” and the starting point on the timeline is typically about 3x-5x of your Sales Cycle (i.e….
Demand Generation is Not the Same as Content Marketing or Inbound Marketing
B2B Demand Generation is a “Revenue-focused” B2B Marketing function that creates targeted interest and inquiry in the company’s product or service and directly drives sales pipeline and accelerates revenue. Demand Generation is a very strategic and complex B2B function and requires a lot of deep domain expertise. Demand Gen…