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New template: Hire best-fit salespeople to scale your GTM
Are you ready to scale your sales team?
Or maybe you have a sales team but something isn’t clicking and they aren’t performing to your expectations.
Or maybe you have a new product, or a new line of business.
Don’t assume that the sales skills that got you to where you are now will take you where you need to go next!
Working through the following four areas (that line up to the first four pillars of our GTM Operating System) will allow you to identify exactly what kind of people you need on your team.
Audience: selling to C-level buyers requires different skills than selling to managers-make sure your team has skills matched to the level you’re selling to.
Product: your product’s ROI, technical complexity, and other factors impact what seller skills you need.
Pricing: whether or not you are selling something that has an established budget line item (and whether it’s a large percentage of budget or not) requires different sales skills.
GTM Motions: An inbound strategy suggests different attributes than a partner-led sales strategy. A sales-assisted product-led-growth strategy requires different talent than a mature outbound strategy.
These are all important considerations! Let’s dig in.
1. Finding the Right Sellers for Your AUDIENCE
Consider the differences in selling to various levels within an organization. Each group has distinct needs and priorities, so your sales team needs different skills and approaches.
Selling to Executive Teams:
Relationship-building and networking skills
Executive Experience
Has their own network and prioritizes managing their own reputation
Adept at discussing high-level business objectives and ROI.
Excellent communication and negotiation skills
Deep understanding of industry trends and competitive landscapes
Ability to articulate how your solution aligns with the organization's broader goals
Selling to Department Leaders:
Very similar to the previous list but can be one notch less experienced
Relationship-building and networking skills
Ability to tailor solutions
Understanding of the specific challenges and pain points within the department they are targeting
Selling to Managers:
Focus on operational and efficiency improvements-able to build the business case
Strong understanding of the day-to-day workflows and processes within the manager's area of responsibility
Ability to teach the buyer
Strong technical capabilities
Effective time management and multitasking skills
Selling to End Users:
Ability to teach and educate the buyer
Able to build a strong business case
Technically proficient
Can teach buyers how to position the product to their bosses and economic buyers
Excellent product knowledge and the ability to provide hands-on demos
If you are going up market or down market, do not expect your existing sales team to be able to sell to an entirely new audience when it clearly requires different skills.
2. Finding the right sellers for your PRODUCT
ROI Clarity
Simple ROI: If your ROI is clear and easy to explain, your sellers will need to spend less time on discovery. Their conversations will be more product focused and they’ll be able to rely more on supporting materials.
Complex ROI: Selling something with more complex ROI requires a seller more comfortable with deep discovery. They will also need to be able to make custom materials for each prospect (or direct sales engineering on how to help).
Technical Complexity
More technically complex products require more risk management and deep understanding of specific personas. Sellers will also need to be able to make custom business cases which may not be needed as often with more straightforward products. They will need to be able to get more into the weeds than someone selling a more straightforward product.
People Implications
Think about whether your product will require huge shifts in employee behavior or complex training. If so, you’ll need sellers who can manage risk effectively while being able to navigate complex internal politics and fears about change management. They may also be require to navigate a larger buying committee.
Industry Specifications
If you’re selling into a specific industry, you’ll need sellers with expertise and credibility with buyers. Many industries have entirely unique vocabularies, and someone who doesn’t speak the right language will instantly lose credibility.
Note: we didn’t call this out, but just as certain industries require knowledgeable sellers, certain geographic regions do too. Do not expect to enter new markets without local talent that understand cultural norms and expectations.
3. Finding the right sellers depending on your PRICING
Is whatever you’re selling an established line item on the budget?
If so, is it a high-end item or a low-end item?
High-end products or services that are new line items will require a seller very comfortable with the c-level, talking to boards, and convincing a diverse buying committee.
Whereas a seller selling something with an existing line item will need to be more adept at competitive positioning against other companies your prospect might be considering.
4. Finding the right sellers depending on what GTM Motions they’ll need to use
Inbound sellers need to be efficient, process-oriented, and have excellent qualification skills. Depending on other attributes of your product and pricing, these can often be more junior sales people, but don’t assume closing an inbound deal doesn’t take talent!
Outbound sellers need to be more proactive and willing to hunt for their dinner. They need to understand how to leverage intent data and be comfortable with the full funnel.
Product-Led Growth sellers using a sales-assisted PLG motion need to build business cases and be very comfortable with product data. Pure PLG sellers will be more focused on upgrade paths and educating buyers.
Partner-Led Growth sellers using an ecosystem/affiliate model need to be process-oriented, detailed, efficient relationship builders.
Event-Led Growth sellers need to love to schmooze. They need to be charismatic, love talking to people, and love to sell based on relationships.
Community-Led Growth sellers need to be great conversationalists, good listeners, and adept at building and managing their own reputation
Bringing it all together
We made a handy cheat sheet to help you pull all these dimensions together.
Just circle where your company is on all the attributes we described, and voila, you have a job description and you know what experience to look for.
And if you’re a sales person, figure out where you are and it might help you figure out how to position your skills for the right company.
There are no perfect sales people. But understanding what attributes YOUR company should be looking for should help a lot.
Welcome to our new partner: Regie.ai!
We are excited to announce our latest partner, Regie.ai, who cares deeply about helping sales teams win more.
Regie.ai’s solution allows sales people to automate all the repetitive parts of prospecting that bog them down today, burn them out, and take them away from high-value sales activities.
Think list building, sequence and message generation, task management and prioritization; all of it is now executed 100% autonomously thanks to Generative AI and automation.
The result? Happier sales leaders who have a more predictable lever to pull to book meetings, and happier reps who can spend their limited prospecting time working warmed up leads, instead of cold outbound.
Learn more about how to leverage ROI studies
Last week, we hosted an incredible panel with three talented GTM experts: Corrina Owens, Tim Hillison, and Chris Voce.
We talked about
The pros and cons of case studies, testimonials, and ROI studies
How to choose customers to be involved, and how to approach them to increase the chances they’ll say yes
How to set your sales and customer success teams up for ROI success
How to turn one ROI asset into 12 weeks of product marketing
Hope to see many of you in Tampa later this month!
Love,
GTM Partners
