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I Listened to 1000 B2B SaaS Sales Calls

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Re: I Listened to 1000 B2B SaaS Sales Calls

#121

Post by fphhotchips »

rocmcd wrote: post #112
version_five wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> opportunities that progressed past that demo are much less than 50% Any sense of what industry norms are? 50% sounds astonishingly high to me. For most products I would have expected a pre-sales demo to be a pretty early step. 50% basically means everyone you talk to is committed to buy something and is only looking at 2 vendors.

It varies drastically by the business but I would say that it’s more on the magnitude of 10% or less (for enterprise sales, IME). If you’re getting a 50% conversion on your demos then either your sales org has _really_ dialed in the target persona (qualifying everyone else out early) or your market is very wide.

I would suggest that there's a subtle difference between "progressed past the demo" and "converted". 50% progression past the demo is reasonable. 50% conversion would be amazing.

Re: I Listened to 1000 B2B SaaS Sales Calls

#122

Post by kinj28 »

CPLX wrote: post #43
cercatrova wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone that's done sales, it is very important to qualify even incoming leads. I can't count how many times I wasted my time because the person who thought they wanted the product actually wasn't a good fit. After I implemented a lead qualification pipeline, that number dropped dramatically and the leads that did qualify were, predictably, much more likely to buy.

Yeah but qualify them by showing them the fucking software. It's gotten so bad out there that I've gotten to the point where I just refuse to do qualifying calls. When I can smell one brewing I just email and say I'd like my first call to be one where I can see someone using the software via screen share, or be given the opportunity to log in or have a test account myself. I don't care if I'm talking to a high school…

As some one running growth for a low code/no code platform for internal tools - we would want a qualification call to help the demo team with info that can then allow demo team to prep a demo which can make the call really relevant. Given how crowded our space is most of the times customer would have seen atleast 2-3 tools before and learning what they liked or didn’t like is very important.

Re: I Listened to 1000 B2B SaaS Sales Calls

#123

Post by fphhotchips »

mbesto wrote: post #53
CPLX wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but qualify them by showing them the fucking software. It's gotten so bad out there that I've gotten to the point where I just refuse to do qualifying calls. When I can smell one brewing I just email and say I'd like my first call to be one where I can see someone using the software via screen share, or be given the opportunity to log in or have a test account myself. I don't care if I'm talking to a high school…

> Yeah but qualify them by showing them the fucking software. As a potential buyer, I immediately ask to get a pre-sales person on the call otherwise I'm not joining the call. Get's them to move pretty quickly.

The fact that you know to say that is a good enough qualifier in my mind. Only people who know how to buy know what presales even is.

Re: I Listened to 1000 B2B SaaS Sales Calls

#124

Post by sneak »

bstpierre wrote: post #89
CallMeJim wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These calls exist because companies have learnt from wasting their time talking to people who can't afford it, aren't the decision maker and aren't interested in purchasing any time soon. The conversion rate of the sales profession is really low, and it can easily get an order of magnitude worse without qualification.

These kinds of calls should really just be emails. Forcing a synchronous meeting to essentially fill in a form is dumb.

Just turn down the calls and ask them to use email instead. You’re the customer, you make the rules.

Re: I Listened to 1000 B2B SaaS Sales Calls

#125

Post by jiveturkey »

seanherron wrote: post #6

I didn't expect to learn much from this article - but it actually really resonated with me. I often am responsible for purchasing decisions and found much of the advice to sales reps really insightful. (1) The number one thing that bothers me is when I reach out to a company to explore their product and I get scheduled with a BDR who's sole job is to "qualify" me as a lead. I know BDRs are in a tough spot - but if yo…

(1) The sales and SE time is very expensive in both direct and opportunity cost. If you were on the sell side you would appreciate this. Leads, even incoming, absolutely need to be qualified.

I'm with you on the rest, maybe not all the way on (3) though.

Re: I Listened to 1000 B2B SaaS Sales Calls

#126

Post by wizofaus »

0x457 wrote: post #65
jedberg wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't that depend on how they know that information? If that's Jenny's boss on the phone and she shared that with her boss so she could claim FMLA benefits and days off for health reasons, doesn't her boss have a duty to keep it private?

No. HIPAA is about sharing PHI between covered entities. P stands for Portability. Unless Jenny is working in one of those covered entities and Jenny's boss learned about her covid and pregnancy by pulling PHI - then no, it's no under HIPAA. Her boss doesn't have a duty to keep it private in any legal sense. Jenny can ask not to tell anyone, but legally, it doesn't matter.

To clarify, the P in HIPAA is "portability", in PHI it's "protected". Confusingly there's also PII where it's "personally".

Re: I Listened to 1000 B2B SaaS Sales Calls

#127

Post by CPLX »

kinj28 wrote: post #122
CPLX wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but qualify them by showing them the fucking software. It's gotten so bad out there that I've gotten to the point where I just refuse to do qualifying calls. When I can smell one brewing I just email and say I'd like my first call to be one where I can see someone using the software via screen share, or be given the opportunity to log in or have a test account myself. I don't care if I'm talking to a high school…

As some one running growth for a low code/no code platform for internal tools - we would want a qualification call to help the demo team with info that can then allow demo team to prep a demo which can make the call really relevant. Given how crowded our space is most of the times customer would have seen atleast 2-3 tools before and learning what they liked or didn’t like is very important.

If you insist on scheduling two calls with me where it’s a guarantee one of the two is completely fucking useless and irrelevant for me then you’ve maxed out your potential mean highest average relevance of a sales call to 50%. That’s your best case.

Maybe just work on a couple common use cases and get your team able to pivot and share the more relevant examples on a demo in the first call and aim a little higher.

Your software’s various applications are probably not each the special precious unique snowflakes you think they are. Just a guess.

Re: I Listened to 1000 B2B SaaS Sales Calls

#128

Post by leviathant »

fphhotchips wrote: post #123
mbesto wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah but qualify them by showing them the fucking software. As a potential buyer, I immediately ask to get a pre-sales person on the call otherwise I'm not joining the call. Get's them to move pretty quickly.

The fact that you know to say that is a good enough qualifier in my mind. Only people who know how to buy know what presales even is.

After doing dev work for nearly two decades, I've been in presales for the last six years. I've definitely had a one or two intro calls with tech-savvy people who bullied their way past the BDR. These were smart people with good ideas, who had no idea what procurement at the enterprise company they just started working for even begins to look like, and it was 60-90 minutes none of us will ever get back, for a project that's never going to happen anyway.

I worked at a company where we jumped at every opportunity that we got, it's real nice to be somewhere now where there's a little more of a vetting process.

Re: I Listened to 1000 B2B SaaS Sales Calls

#129

Post by leviathant »

noirbot wrote: post #117
duxup wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Offer to send some swag to the implementing team at your customer - not just your champion. This seems weird to me. I guess if it works to send some trinkets to people you do it… but if it makes a difference to them I’d be kinda judgmental about that fact ( not really related to the sales process). Personally I don’t want more trinket crap in my life but maybe other folks feel differently.

Yea, maybe not a shirt, but hell, send them some nice coffee or some snacks or something. My current job is probably at least 50% implementing stuff my company bought, and for one of them, they had an on-site meeting about the implementation/proof of value stuff and they offered to buy everyone coffee/tea/whatever at a coffee shop by our office before the meeting and that definitely helped me be a bit less grumpy abo…

>Yea, maybe not a shirt, but hell, send them some nice coffee or some snacks or something.

So. Tired. Of swag. But food? Even when it's crappy, I appreciate it, and at least it ends up in sewage processing instead of a landfill.

Re: I Listened to 1000 B2B SaaS Sales Calls

#130

Post by grecy »

seanherron wrote: post #6

I didn't expect to learn much from this article - but it actually really resonated with me. I often am responsible for purchasing decisions and found much of the advice to sales reps really insightful. (1) The number one thing that bothers me is when I reach out to a company to explore their product and I get scheduled with a BDR who's sole job is to "qualify" me as a lead. I know BDRs are in a tough spot - but if yo…

For 5, I can’t tell if you’re being serious?

Swag is the scourge of the earth. It’s almost always cheap junk made overseas and goes directly into landfill. It’s the kind of stuff I would never spend my own money on, so by definition I don’t need it. I literally walk away whenever I see it, avoid at all costs.

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