SaaStr

JANUARY 9, 2025

Dear SaaStr: What Are Some Successful SaaS Leaders Without Sales Teams? Many that are self-serve and SMB-focused can start off without a sales team … for a while. But almost none stay without a sales team … forever. Yes, Atlassian since well past its IPO had almost no direct sales team.

Scale 274

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 274

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

But to Go Big, almost everyone in SaaS at least eventually adds a sales team. But to scale it quickly added a very effective sales team : Yes, Atlassian for a long time had almost no “direct” sales team, well after the IPO. Yes, Twilio started off as self-service.

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Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 341

SaaStr

JANUARY 18, 2021

Later, you may develop a team that manages your channel. Once you do, if the revenue from a channel is large enough, you can often pay lower commissions that you do for your direct sales team. A related post here: We are a SaaS company. E.g., perhaps a channel manager can own a $2m quota, vs. $500k for an AE.

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Sales Direct Sales Team Revenue Development 261

SaaStr

AUGUST 2, 2021

Partnerships drive business and thriving ecosystems for SaaS companies unlike anything else. Also, they had a direct sales team mainly selling to enterprises in a top-down sales motion. “[The But developing solid partnerships takes vision, grit, time and patience.

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Outsourcing Services Scale Scaling Outsourced Development 284

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 19, 2016

The same idea holds in SaaS. If a startup decides to sell their product through a channel partner in addition to their direct sales team, they add another layer of complexity. It builds products of the highest quality often with innovative and novel manufacturing techniques. And it’s price points top the market.

Pricing 127

Pricing Startup Strategy Development 127

OpenView Labs

MARCH 15, 2019

Some of the most successful and influential SaaS companies include channel sales in their go-to-market strategy. For the uninitiated, channel sales refers to the process of partnering with third parties to get your product into the end user’s hands. Channel – Pros. Is your interest piqued?

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Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team 108

Kellblog

JULY 8, 2020

DK: if your SaaS bucket is too leaky , you can’t build value. Having a bunch of customers paying $10K/year (or less) might make you feel good, but you’ll get crushed if you have a direct sales team acquiring them. (DK: Don’t ignore it — fix it ASAP at all costs.

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Sales Hiring Startup Software Review Enterprise 145