SaaStr

JULY 25, 2021

Your VPs and Directors of Sales and sales ops leaders and sales engineers are cost centers here. Assume 1 sales manager for each 8 sales professionals, and 1 head of sales development for each 10 SDRs. Fifth, the more specialized the sales process is, the more folks you’ll need. Fourth, add “load”.

Scale 285

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 285

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. With, and through, a sales team. You don’t need 100% sales-driven revenue to Go Big.

Scale 334

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 334

SaaStr

MAY 12, 2021

Your VPs and Directors of Sales and sales ops leaders are cost centers here. Assume 1 sales manager for each 8 sales professionals. Fifth, the more specialized the sales process is, the more folks you’ll need. But in practice it often adds 20% or so to the headcount in the model. SDRs, BDRs, etc. 22 heads /.75

Scale 297

Scale Sales Hiring Headcount Sales 297

SaaStr

JUNE 27, 2022

Dear SaaStr: How Many Sales Reps Do I Need? You can back into how many sales reps you’ll need in SaaS. Your VPs and Directors of Sales and sales ops and rev ops leaders and sales engineers are cost centers here. Assume 1 sales manager for each 8 sales professionals. 1 Sales/Rev Ops (at least). =

Scale 213

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Headcount 213

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

Some of the changes we’ve seen in the last year or two include: CAC reduction Headcount optimization Price complexity Quality of revenue A different environment means a different strategy, and Notion Capital lays out four business model changes that could be helpful based on what peers are doing. You don’t want to be there.

Business Model 248

Business Model SaaS Payments Payments Headcount 248

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

They discuss Sam’s learnings at Founders Fund, what the 2024 playbook looks like, hiring and motivating sales teams, and a handful of audience questions. On the sales side, people hired way too much. More salespeople do not equal more sales. Do you have to double your headcount to make it from $10M to $20M or even $2M to $5M?

Sales Hiring 255

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 255

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 7, 2022

The promise of live chat for sales teams is being able to connect faster with higher quality leads. But any target-focused sales professional will want to know: how well does live chat actually work? Want to get started with live chat for sales? Why live chat is the missing ingredient in your sales funnel. Opportunity.

Sales Funnel 245

Sales Funnel Sales Headcount Subscription 245

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2023

At least in the short term, it is turning most of us can do more with about the same headcount in SaaS. #4. Product expansion key to its growth — its new Sales CRM already seeing very rapid adoption. Headcount Growing, But Slowly. Staying basically flat in headcount for 3 quarters while growing a stunning 50% (!)

Headcount 287

Headcount Sales Hiring Scale Enterprise 287

SaaStr

MAY 30, 2023

And very few of you are doubling headcount, vs everyone in 2021. Eventually, efficiency in sales and marketing hits its limits. Hiring has way slowed down, but many folks are still hiring, albeit at a reduced rate. 56% of you aren’t hiring, or barely hiring. But a good chunk of you are still hiring, albeit in moderation.

Sales Hiring 229

Sales Hiring Headcount Engineering Revenue 229

SaaStr

AUGUST 18, 2023

Yes many public SaaS companies have done some sort of layoffs the past 12 months, they were often more really reorgs, though, without any net decrease in headcount. Monday has always been a break-out leader but has invested heavily in sales and marketing to SMBs. The key was “simply” keeping headcount flat. #3.

Scale 200

Scale Headcount Point of Sale SaaS 200

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

There is almost no software and non-headcount budget for CS. 64% of CS teams spend $200,000 or less a year on non-headcount, with growth stage companies spending the least, just 0.1% Having Sales own them usually creates the most pain. Having Sales own them usually creates the most pain. This data is interesting.

Customer Success 300

Customer Success Headcount Churn Revenue 300

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 13, 2022

So, did headcount at the Series A. In 11 years, the median headcount at Series A swelled from 15 to 28. [1]. Fewer person hours means less marketing, sales pitches, & bookings. 1] Thank you to the Pitchbook team for running the headcount analysis data. [2] Founders declared a maximum acceptable dilution instead.

Headcount 284

Headcount Venture Capital Finance Startup 284

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Three overarching learnings from incredible sales leaders who have lived through the ups and downs of growing sales teams at some of the fastest growing SaaS companies is exactly what we’ll dive into today – so you can get the learnings and insight without being in the driver’s seat. This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Flex.

Sales Hiring 105

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Sales 105

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to hire a Great VP of Sales. And we’ll keep talking about it — so long as 70% of first-time VPs of Sales don’t make it 1 year. I wanted to take a moment to explore the flip-side … a guide to why first-time VPs of Sales that finally get their shot — fail.

Sales Hiring 351

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Headcount 351

OpenView Labs

OCTOBER 2, 2019

This time every year, sales and sales operations teams work with their business partners in finance, marketing and other functions to set their annual sales plan for the coming year. One way to approach this complexity is to separate out the three key components of sales planning. Headcount Planning.

Headcount 41

Headcount Sales Hiring Scale Sales 41

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2023

Everyone is basically doing more with not much more headcount (see next point). #4. Growing Headcount, But Much More Slowly That Revenue. Headcount is up 29% year-over-year, but revenue is up 50%. Also you can see sales & marketing headcount is basically flat, while hiring is almost all in engineering / R&D.

Headcount 204

Headcount Scale Sales Hiring AWS 204

SaaStr

AUGUST 31, 2021

In the run-up to the 2021 SaaStr Annual , SaaStr’s very own Poya Osgouei sits down with Bryan Elsesser, VP of Sales at SaaStr. Bryan shares tips and his perspective on what’s been effective and useful during his first few months as the VP of Sales at SaaStr. Join us at SaaStr Annual at the end of September.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Headcount Sales Branding 246

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2023

So what should earlier-stage companies do: immediately build out a big sales team or focus on product-led growth? Now they have sales reps, but still consider themselves PLG. Directly through sales teams. Unlike many sales teams, this one only engages with existing customers of a certain size. Here’s why.

Sales Hiring 222

Sales Hiring Enterprise Headcount Scale 222

Sales Hacker

JULY 24, 2018

As sales leaders, most of us assume that many aspects of our sales machine will become inefficient during hypergrowth. As we think of ways to improve sales performance, a number of growth pains may come in the way: High acquisition costs. Decreased revenue per rep, High turnover as you scale headcount. It’s a byproduct.

Scale 55

Scale Headcount Sales Hiring Scaling 55

SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2023

A nice sweet spot for a mix of inside and outside sales. #3. Slowing headcount growth — like lots of others. Okta headcount grew 32% year-over-year, fairly consistent with revenue growth, but then Okta like others slowed down hiring. And that’s up from 118% at IPO. #2. ProServ is only 3% of Okta’s revenues.

Scale 281

Scale Headcount Sales Hiring SMB 281

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 23, 2020

Massive headcount growth presages large software purchases and expansion. This data collection is one reason salespeople are critical to many sales processes. To scale, a company must find customers in ever larger numbers. The ideal scenario is one where purely external signals confer a prospect’s propensity to buy.

Scale 221

Scale Headcount Sales Startup 221

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 25, 2020

It contains data on go to market team structure, performance by sales function, marketing spend benchmarks, and customer success priorities. 1:1 AE/XDR ratios are the most common in both inside and outside sales teams. Sales teams with spans of control under 7 attain 80-95% of quota twice as frequently. Just pick a metric.

Headcount 364

Headcount Scale Benchmarks Retention 364

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

Same Sales Commissions for Upsells as Net New Deals Always interesting to see what folks do here. #8. Adding Back Sales Capacity Now. Keeping headcount flat got everyone to be more efficient. Keeping headcount flat got everyone to be more efficient. But you can be too efficient in sales. I.e., Hiring More Reps.

Sales Hiring 237

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Engineering 237

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 6, 2022

Surprisingly, PLG companies’ profitability has suffered more than sales-led businesses. Product-led growth (PLG) companies - those who educate & convert buyers with product rather than sales & marketing (SLG) - operate at about 5% to 10% less profitability than sales-led motions.

Headcount 282

Headcount Market Research Acquisition Investment 282

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2021

Flock Safety’s Founder and CEO, Garrett Langley, and its VP of Growth, Alex Latraverse, know a bit about sales. Enough to go from 0 to 100 sales reps in about 18 months — and they’re looking to be well beyond 100 by the end of this month. The three things that led to ramping up sales at Flock Safety were: Achieving product-market fit.

Sales Recruiting 172

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 172

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 31, 2023

We should expect the advances in AI to improve sales efficiency, even if modestly. AI Efficiency Gains +2% Headcount Reduction ? Headcount reductions in the last year, which impacted every company, should increase the pipeline coverage ratios for the remaining team members. Napkin-math suggests quotas should increase about 20%.

Headcount 162

Headcount Sales Hiring AI Cloud 162

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 5, 2020

But starting that week, startups began reducing headcount by about 700 per day. ClassPass, one of the fitness startups to reduce headcount, reported a 95% drop in sales in 10 days. Because sales cycles in software are slower, we should expect a higher latency before seeing reductions in force in those categories.

Sales Recruiting 304

Sales Recruiting Startup Headcount Transportation 304

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 22, 2023

B2B companies have reduced headcount to a greater extent than at any time since 2020. The main challenges facing B2B startups today are decreases in seat counts as their customers downsize & slower sales cycles which creates volatility in bookings , which has caused more layoffs than an anytime in the last four years.

B2C 254

B2C B2B Headcount Innovation 254

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Hiring a VP of Sales isn’t new, but the conversations have evolved as the world has. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive.

Sales Hiring 146

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 146

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

Building revenue operations to support sales Deel had onboarded nearly 100 clients, reports showed good traction, and it was time to leverage this opportunity. Deel scaled the sales team from two to 250 account executives, but issues with productivity and enablement of the account executives cropped up. Support sales early.

Sales Hiring 230

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 230

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2021

The other day I saw a VP of Sales flame out and resign with no notice from a SaaS company doing $10m ARR growing quickly. So I thought it might be helpful to brush off the topic of alignment between Sales and Marketing by updating a classic post on the topic. The original version here on Lattice Engines’ Sales and Marketing Hub.

Sales Recruiting 297

Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring Revenue 297

SaaStr

MARCH 1, 2022

Not having a traditional sales team sure helps. Headcount up 7%, while revenue is up 37%. But that only increases total headcount 7% which revenues went up 37%. Channel partner sales growing 130%. It’s new customer base is growing at a very impressive rate at $4B in ARR. Generating incredible free cash-flow.

Scale 297

Scale Marketplace as a Service Headcount Cloud 297

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 26, 2021

Getting the team right is one of the hardest parts of scaling sales. But no sales team can afford to grow without intention. While building a sales team, we’ve focused a lot on our sales culture. Here’s how we went about growing a sales team that is both world class and culture-additive.

Scale 160

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 160

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

Sales teams have started using software that identifies leads, researches them, identifies commonalities (a shared university affiliation or a passion for a sports team), drafts the email, & sends it. how will sales teams restructure as a result of the mechanization of outbound email? What about an artisanal email?

Artificial Intelligence 143

Artificial Intelligence Scale Headcount Scaling 143

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 20, 2020

We can derive the table above if we look over the entire respondent base and bucket headcount by ARR. The median startup with between 1-5M in ARR will have 12 engineers, 6 in sales and 3 in marketing. Meanwhile, the size of the marketing team increases only by 4X, compared to a 10X increase in sales and a 5X+ in engineering.

Scale 337

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Software Review 337

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2019

And often, if you are capital efficient, your marketing cost will be close to $0 at this point (you are barely spending anything to acquire most customers), and your sales costs are pretty predictable. Generally speaking, one Director of Sales can manage about 8 closers, account execs, max. Why would this be? Maybe 10 SDRs.

Sales Hiring 234

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Venture Capital 234

Tom Tunguz

JULY 21, 2022

Management teams expect to reduce operating expense by 20% predominantly through headcount reductions or hiring freezes - everyone from sardine startups to public megalodons. Software automates manual work, provides leverage, and the total cost is often less than a headcount. Software does more with less.

Sales Hiring 131

Sales Hiring Headcount Software Finance 131