Dear SaaStr: Why do customers hate salespeople?
Disalignment.
A truly great salesperson is a resource. They help you:
- They educate you on the product.
- They honestly answer your questions.
- They address your concerns, seemingly patiently.
- They help you pilot / test the product first, in a way that drives things forward without too much pressure.
- They push the learn, buy, deploy process along, but don’t pressure you to buy if you aren’t ready.
- They ensure you get a fair price.
The best sales reps, well they are your agent. They help you make a buying decision. And yes, it benefits them. But they provide so much value during the process, you are appreciative.
Now … How often have you felt that way? Especially these days?
Not that often. When sales incentives and training aren’t aligned to deliver the value above, it’s just … uncomfortable. And low value-add.
But the best sales execs in SaaS make you feel that way.
And that’s why enterprise buyers are happy to “talk to sales”. They’re looking for this sort of help.
OK so what’s actionable here? A few thoughts:
- First, you gotta, gotta, gotta listen to your reps calls. Do more of this. Make sure they are truly the ally of the customer.
- Make sure you have incentives right on renewals and upsells. Way too many VPs of Sales and CROs are pushing the existing base too hard. Don’t allow this unless you really want it.
- Train your team every single week. Too many startups don’t do this. Too many companies in general don’t do this. Train them on something once a week.
- Do a weekly webinar where prospects and customers can come to get their questions answered. This always works. Make it an open forum where they can come to ask questions where it doesn’t have to be 1-on-1, but is still live and personal. Every week.
- Be careful about turning your customer success team into a weaponized arm of sales. I know many of your now have Customer Success report to Sales to get more revenue out your base (see point #2 above). I don’t like it, but whatever you do, make sure CS remains the true ally of the customer. Join their QBRs yourself as founders. Spend more of your time in meetings with customers.
- Give your VP of Sales and sales team a “CEO + CTO” meetings quota. Where they have to bring your into say 4 deals a month for each of your CEO and CTO. Customers love to talk to the founders, and they know the product cold. Give your VPS a quota. They have to bring each of you into 4 meetings a month (or more).
A bit more here: The Best Sales Reps Get Customers to Buy. Even When They Don’t Need to Right Now. | SaaStr
