© 2020 BALDERTON CAPITAL
THE BALDERTON B2B
SALES PLAYBOOK.
SPRING 2020
Everything a founder needs to know about how
to build an efficient B2B sales team.
© 2020 BALDERTON CAPITAL
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THE BALDERTON B2B SALES PLAYBOOK
INTRODUCTION.
A complete Playbook for building an efficient B2B sales team.
Over the last two decades, the team at Balderton has had
the remarkable privilege of playing a role in the growth
journey of a number of highly successful enterprise Software
as a Service (SaaS) companies.
We, and those teams, would not have been successful were it
not for the advice and counsel from those who had done it
before. In turn, we believe we too must pay this advice
forward.
While there are many short articles and comment pieces on
enterprise sales, we have been unable to find a complete
Playbook that the founders and executive teams of early
stage companies can use as a core guide to setting up the
right foundation for efficient, rapidly growing sales teams.
We want to set that right with this document – the Balderton
B2B Sales Playbook.
We hope this Playbook will serve as a comprehensive guide
to everything a founder needs to understand about their
enterprise sales function. As well as hundreds of board decks
and dashboard reports we are eternally grateful to the
interviews and input we have received from our founders,
their executive teams and, of course, many of our
companies' excellent marketing, sales and customer success
representatives.
We salute you for your great work and for your willingness to
share what you have learned with those who follow!
© 2020 BALDERTON CAPITAL
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THE BALDERTON B2B SALES PLAYBOOK
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
1. THE BASICS.
a.
Sales team structure
b.
Process funnel
c.
Pipeline generation
d. Compensation mechanisms
2. THE DETAILS.
a. Optimal sales team structure
b. Compensation
c.
Timing it right
d.
Indirect channels
e. Case studies
What you should think about when it comes to building a sales machine.
3. CREATING A STRONG SALES CULTURE.
4. GOING GLOBAL.
a. How to start a new country
b.
Specifically the US
c.
Timing
5. KEY METRICS.
6. APPENDIX.
© 2020 BALDERTON CAPITAL
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THE BALDERTON B2B SALES PLAYBOOK
THE BASICS.
PART ONE:
© 2020 BALDERTON CAPITAL
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THE BALDERTON B2B SALES PLAYBOOK
SALES TEAM STRUCTURE.
Who’s who?
• Market Development Reps (MDR) focus on market
research and responding to inbound leads. The
marketing team might also have reps to focus on
marketing lead generation and lead development
• Sales Development Reps (SDR) generate leads for
outbound sales
• Sales Engineers (for technical products) answer all
technical questions, often run Proof of Concepts
(POCs), and provide support to AEs in the field
• Account Executives (AE) are responsible for getting
the customer commitment and closing the sale
• Onboarders (ONB) integrate clients and achieve
first use
• Customer Success Managers (CSM) orchestrate the
customer experience and ensure satisfaction; they
often focus on potential cross-sell and up-sell
opportunities together with the account manager
• Account Managers (AM) help the customer grow
their use of the product internally, primarily for
the purposes of cross- and up-sell as well as for
engagement reasons
• Head or VP of Sales leads the sales team and works
with other cross-functions to establish target
quotas, compensation, and the optimal team
structure
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PROCESS FUNNEL.
From inbound marketing to customer success.
*MQL stands for Marketing Qualified Lead; SQL refers to Sales Qualified Lead
MARKETING
SALES
CUSTOMER SUCCESS
TOP OF THE
FUNNEL FLOW
Targeted
prospects
REVENUES
Advocates /
loyal
customers
Leads / MQLs*
MDRs
SQLs*
SDRs + AE
Prospects
AE + AM
Clients
CSM + AM
PROSPECT
DEMO & PROPOSAL
NEGO
WON
CONVERSION RATE
– Inbound (organic
SEO, other paid)
– Outbound
– Growth (new rev)
– Up-sells / cross-sells
– Net churn
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THE BALDERTON B2B SALES PLAYBOOK
PIPELINE GENERATION. TIME AND CONVERSION ARE KEY.
Monitoring pipeline evolution (time and conversion rate) is key to
control revenue generation.
• Prospect clients might come from:
— Inbound (they reach out to you) or
—Outbound (your sales team reaches out to them)
•
Inbound is the result of:
—Word of mouth (organic growth) or
—Marketing strategies such as content generation, SEO,
SEA, display, account-based marketing or other paid
acquisition channels
• Salespeople usually have some type of lead qualification or
scoring, and they often use BANT qualification, i.e. does the
prospect have Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeframe to
make the purchase. This means that an SDR will not pass an
opportunity into the AE until the prospect is qualified. BANT
is especially helpful for an inbound strategy
• For outbound, another helpful framework is PACTT
(Pain, Authority, Consequence, Target Profile and
Timing). You can read more here
• MQL/SQL stages should ensure the fit is right to spark
enough interest to get the buyer into an 'intent' stage
• Then (post SQL) think of the movement from interest
to intent. Focus on optimising conversion rates on
buyers who have intent and heavily scrutinise reasons
for lost deals. You should monitor Sales Accepted
Opportunities (SAO) conversion
• A way to think about this is as follow: first, “Enquire”
(MQL), then “Desire” (SQL), and finally “Require” (SAO
and beyond)
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PIPELINE GENERATION — WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND.
Key points to always think of.
• Monitor the size of your pipeline vs target revenues
and account for historical conversion
• Control velocity to the different stages of the pipeline
• Monitor conversion rates and how they compare with
your plan to reach your target revenues
• Simplify this process as much as possible while
keeping team focused on their core expertise
•
Investigate and understand the reasons for won and
lost deals
• Provide your sales team with the best tools to boost
efficiency (CRM, automation, etc.)
• MONITOR PIPELINE SIZE
• CONTROL VELOCITY
• MONITOR CONVERSION RATES
• SIMPLIFY THE PROCESS
• INVESTIGATE WON & LOST
• USE TOOLS TO BOOST EFFICIENCY
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OPTIMAL SALES STRUCTURE.
Your optimal sales structure depends on your type of business model.
• High velocity vs long sales cycles
• Low touch vs several interactions and touch points
• SMBs vs Enterprise
• Small deals vs big contracts
• See the section ‘The Details’ in the slides following, for more on how
organisational structure, compensation mechanisms, choice of indirect
channels and other key decisions vary depending on your business type
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COMPENSATION MECHANISMS.
Build a compensation plan to drive the behaviours and results the
business wants to see.
Sales compensation is different from regular team
compensation.
Sales is more quantifiable than any other activity in your
company, and sales compensation should reflect that
direct, measurable nature of the job.
Sales is more short-term than everything else you do – a
sales teams need to be incentivized to deliver results
today, this week, this month or this quarter; not make
slow progress strategically.
1. Start with team structure and target earnings for
the different seniority levels and roles
2. Determine base vs variable (commissions) – variable
should be between 50% and 100% of base
3. Define the variable compensation system and the
targets (quotas)
4. Think of the different tools to drive behaviours and
ensure fairness
5. Think of the results the business wants to see, e.g. if
you want upfront billings, make sure commission is
rewarding for this
6. Ensure it is simple. Take your average type deal and
see if the reps can work out their comp on a
calculator for the deals
SalesHacker’s Sales
Compensation Blueprint
offers a good overview and
details of steps to consider
for compensation.
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THE BALDERTON B2B SALES PLAYBOOK
THE DETAILS.
PART TWO:
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SALES TEAM STRUCTURE: THE SALES POD.
• This can be done for the entire time or for
some segments (called sprints)
• For example, in a 2×2 POD an MDR/SDR is
partnered with 2 AEs. The MDR/SDR combo
can set up 40-60 meetings for the AEs
each month, and for these, the AEs close
c.6-8 deals
• PODs can be structured in different ways
depending on needs (as shown in the chart
on the right)
Different team members (roles) can be grouped to create a sales POD that is focused
on a particular area (market or region, type of customer/segment, etc.).
STANDARD
INBOUND
OUTBOUND
TARGET
Used for a
regional approach
or large vertical
market. One for
the West Coast
and one for the
East.
Used with an
inbound biz where
lots of inbound
leads are
generated often
with a low ACV.
Used with an
outbound
approach often
with a high ACV
due to the high
cost of the ACV.
Used to go after a
few hand picked
large accounts with
a dedicated SDR
identifying people
in a targeted
account.
ONB
MDR
AE
AE
ONB
SDR
SDR
AE
ONB
SDR
AE
P O D S
MDR
SDR
AE
AE
ONB
See page 5 for a reminder of ‘who’s who’ on the sales team. Infographic
courtesy of Saleshacker’s ‘How to structure your sales organization for
maximum efficiency’. Link.
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SALES TEAM STRUCTURE. HOW TO PLAN. (1/2)
We recommend you work backwards from your goals and past experience and plan
for your sales organisation structure at least one year in advance.
• Start with your next twelve months goal: what do you
want to hit next year?
• Then split that into what will come from expansion
and what will come from new sales
• Net expansion includes churn (lost customers) and
current customers growth. You can use prior year
number as the base and tweak it in light of possible
improvements
• The difference between your goal and expansion
revenue is the new ARR $ you need this year
• Then look at historical conversion rates to know how
much pipeline you need, how many reps you should
have, etc.
— c.30% of inbound leads tend to qualify and c.15-
20% of these will close. c.5-10% of your outbound
prospects will end up becoming your clients. Note
that these are averages and will vary depending on
your business model and sales structure
—Outbound conversion rate (from prospects to won
clients) tends to be 2-3x lower vs inbound qualified
leads. However, the overall conversion (from top of
the funnel to closed) should be fairly similar for both
channels
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SALES TEAM STRUCTURE. HOW TO PLAN. (2/2)
• Split into quarters if sales cycles are long (enterprise) or
months if they are short (SMBs)
• This will help you answer key questions to plan for your
sales organisation and structure
– How many reps will you need by Q3? When do you need to
hire them in order for them to be fully ramped up?
– What volume of pipeline will they need to have access to
from SDRs or Marketing in order to have enough
opportunities to close?
– Do not forget to plan for a certain level of salespeople
attrition
Read more about planning and demand generation on Dave
Kellogg’s blog ‘Why every startup needs an inverted demand
generation funnel’. Link.
We recommend you work backwards from your goals and past experience and plan
for your sales organisation structure at least one year in advance.
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TEAM STRUCTURE BENCHMARKS.
Team structure will vary depending on type of business (velocity of sales, complexity
of product, etc.). Below we show an estimated range of FTEs per function.
ROLE
SEED
SERIES A
SERIES B+
VP Sales / CSO
0
0
1
Sales Managers
0
0-1
3
AEs
0-3
2-10
18-24
Pre-sales / Sales engineers
0
1-2
4-5
SDRs
1
1-4
9-12
Source: Microsoft’s Research. Link.
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VARIABLE COMPENSATION. (1/2)
Variable compensation should be designed to drive specific behaviours. Attention to
details is very important, although simplicity is key.
• Metrics to be targeted on (ARR, New, Upsell,
TCV, etc.)
– Usually new ARR; upsell and expansion / churn
usually for customer success
– You want sales to focus on getting more logos in
but be incentivised to help grow accounts too, so
pay on expansion but make sure the rates on new
ARR are higher
– Consider multi-year contracts and how you want
to drive behavior to foster these
• Monthly vs Quarterly
– Quotas are often distributed quarterly but evenly
spread across every quarter to recognize
seasonality
– Monthly incentives are quite common
– You want people to close deals now and focus on
those opportunities, not be rewarded for chasing
big deals that may never happen, so pay
quarterly but have monthly incentives or even
weekly for SDRs
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VARIABLE COMPENSATION. (2/2)
• Linear commissions vs accelerated
– Low commission to start, then increasing with level of performance
• Cap vs uncapped
– Commissions are usually capped at 200% or 300% of target
• Cash flow related incentives
– Tilt the variable comp to encourage upfront payments, multi-year deals, etc. This should help
you manage better your cash flow and finance part of your growth with your own revenue
generation paid upfront
• Ramp up time
– Quota in initial periods (AEs should ramp in under 6 months)
• Levels of commissions will have a substantial impact on the profitability of the model.
– Try to target <15% (10%-12% ideally) for the whole ‘food chain’ (sales, sales management, etc.)
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VARIABLE COMPENSATION: AN EXAMPLE.
• Let’s take a very simplified example — in real life plans will have quarterly goals and all other considerations
described earlier
•
Imagine a scenario where fixed comp is $80,000, variable comp is $80,000 (i.e. OTE equals $160k) and quota is
$800,000
Depending on percentage of quota attained and commission accelerators, variable
compensation can change a lot.
Sales Closed Deals
350,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
800,000
900,000
1,000,000
1,100,000
Sales Closed As % Quota
43.8%
62.5%
75.0%
87.5%
100.0%
112.5%
125.0%
137.5%
% Commission (as % of Quota)
0.0%
2.0%
5.0%
7.5%
10.0%
12.5%
15.0%
17.5%
Achieved Variable Comp
0
16,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
140,000
Achieved Total Comp
80,000
96,000
120,000
140,000
160,000
180,000
200,000
220,000
© 2020 BALDERTON CAPITAL
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COMPENSATION BENCHMARKS.
Compensation will vary depending on location and size of the company; below we
show an estimated range of what is common in Europe (UK, GE, FR) and the US.
EUROPE
ROLE
OTE
% OTE IN VARIABLE
VP Sales
€130-200k+
30% - 50%
Sales Manager
€80-120k
30% - 50%
AE
€70-125k
40% - 50%
Pre-sales /
Sales engineer
€40-90k
NM
SDR
€30-45k
10% - 30%
US
ROLE
OTE
% OTE IN VARIABLE
VP Sales
$250-450k
40% - 50%
Sales Manager
$250-300k
40% - 50%
AE
$80-$150k
c.50%
Pre-sales /
Sales engineer
$70-150k
c.20%
SDR
$40-70k
c.20%
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RAMP UP TIME.
Shortening ramp up time is important, but more so accounting for it when building
your team.
• New sales will take time to ramp up until they are at
their “full” potential
• For enterprise SaaS ramp up time can be around 6
months on average; for SMBs SaaS that time is
reduced to c.3 months
• Ramping up time is an important factor to consider as
it is a “hidden” cost for your business – base salaries
are paid fully and resources are allocated to the sales
person
•
Investing in training is a great way to reduce ramp up
time -- while it might look like an even higher upfront
cost, it is more of an investment, as a good initial
training program can considerably reduce ramp up
time
• Therefore, thinking of a sales academy for your sales
team, especially for new hires, is a good idea
• You cannot help people leaving your sales
organisation, but you should try to hold on to your
best people as it can have a much larger effect on the
cost of churn
•
Integrate recruiting with growth strategy and
expected churn – your talent and sales teams should
always have a pipeline of potential good candidates
to move forward fast
• Offering a good career progression is another way to
keep and attract talent (as well as the company’s
culture and compensation mechanisms described
earlier on)
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COST OF SALES FORCE CHURN.
The cost of churn is the “invisible” cost associated with the churn of your
salespeople and ramp up time.
•
Imagine one of your sales leaves the
team in month 1. That person was
doing 100 sales / month (in line with
target) the previous month (Month 0)
•
For about 3 months, you might end
up not making these 100 / month
considering the time necessary to hire
a new sale an onboard him or her
•
Then, the ramp up time will also
penalise your sales, as the new hire
will take some time to hit the target
and will only start selling say 25 /
month, then 50 / month, and if you
are lucky he will hit the target by
month 6
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
Month 0
Month 1
Month 2
Month 3
Month 4
Month 5
Month 6
AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE COST OF CHURN
Actual Sales
Lost Sales
© 2020 BALDERTON CAPITAL
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SALESFORCE EFFICIENCY. (1/2)
Carefully monitoring salesforce efficiency is essential.
• Watch distribution of sales achieved
• Look for a bell curve, that is your ideal scenario:
most of your sales are around target, with some
overperformers and a few below target
• Avoid the double hump
—Many underperformers
—Many overachievers
• Think what might be driving the double hump
—Unevenness of territory allocations?
—Poor sales training or best practice sharing?
• Consider hiring a Sales Ops to manage all data and
ensure data entry is excellent always
• Consistent over or underperformance may be a sign
of unrealistic quotas
Number of sales people% quota achievement
Bell curve
Double bump
THE IDEAL SCENARIO IS A BELL CURVE
Double bump
Double bump
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INDIRECT CHANNELS: WHY.
Why you should consider using indirect channels.
• Multiply your reach
— Extend your salesforce and reach verticals and / or geographies you
cannot yourself reach efficiently. They can boost your brand and product
awareness very efficiently
• Lower your initial investment
—Reduce direct hiring costs, ramp up time, and all costs associated with
building a team indirect channels are a fully variable cost rather than a
semi-variable cost (think of it almost like opex vs capex)
• Fully align incentives
— Ideally, you will compensate your indirect partners only on success,
making it very cost efficient
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INDIRECT CHANNELS: WHEN AND HOW MUCH.
When to sell through indirect channels.
• Most companies should have a component of their
sales coming through indirect channels
• Some people believe indirect channels should only be
used after reaching a certain scale, but we encourage
you to think about these sales channels early on as it
can have a phenomenal power to boost growth and
awareness
• Often indirect channels can help you get to a new
country much faster than by using your own sales
force and be first to market without investing a lot
upfront. Some geographies strategically need
partners, especially in Asia
• However, for strategic geographies we recommend
you build your own sales force and potentially
complement it with partners sales
• How much to sell through indirect channels and when
to start using them depends on:
—Size and maturity of your business
— Type of company, customers, and complexity of sales
cycle
—Need of services associated to the product(s) sold
• The choice of type of indirect channel will also depend
on the above
© 2020 BALDERTON CAPITAL
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INDIRECT CHANNELS: WHO.
Who are your best partners.
• Right choice of partners depends on your business
model and sector
— Options vary, including OEMs, VARs, consulting
firms, system integrators and others
— For example, if your product has a strong service
component, your best partner might be a company
that is precisely good at providing the ongoing
service post sale. Those partners make their
revenues in the servicing so they are often willing to
take a smaller commission to promote your software
so they can sell their service as an add-on
— You might be able to tap-in into their own customer
base that is not currently reachable to you directly
•
Indirect sales channel is a professional sport: hire
an experienced leader who has done it before
— Watch out for ‘Big Deals’ that end up delivering
nothing
— An investment might be needed to enable a channel
partner -- they can sell products of many
companies, so you need to make sure yours is the
one their reps want to sell and can do so with as
little friction as possible. This effort (and cost) should
be considered in the decision making
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INDIRECT CHANNELS: TYPE OF CHANNELS.
There are 5 main types of channels.
1. Resellers
• They act mostly as a marketing channel but do not provide
added-value services
• They get a commission on the product sales (usually in the 10-
20% range)
2. Value-added resellers (VARs)
• Usually provide additional services wrapped around product to
deliver a more complete solution
• Their revenues are mostly driven by the services delivered rather
than margin provided from reselling
• VARs tend to think of the customers as their own
• They are often great partners as commissions tend to be lower
given that product selling is their way to get into new customers
and sell their own services
3. System integrators:
• Partners who develop more complete solutions by integrating
product with others
• These partners make most of their revenue through services and
little through product resale
4. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)
•
ISVs sell their product directly but integrate your technology in
their application
•
In exchange, they pay a royalty fee
• This is an interesting channel as requires no selling effort and
provides an ongoing revenue stream
5. OEMs
• Partners that sell their own product but are looking to expand
their offering with other products (like yours) not developed in-
house
• Living exclusively through OEM licenses is unlikely for most big
software companies but it can be a significant part of the
revenue
•
In OEM distribution sometimes the supplier (you) is not visible to
the end customer, as the solution is white-labelled, which is not
ideal for brand awareness
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CASE STUDY: LOW TOUCH, HIGH VELOCITY SAAS COMPANY (1/3)
Every company is different, but we want to provide you with one example of a
successful sales organisation for a low touch, high velocity sales business.
• Context: SaaS business selling mostly to SMBs (20-200
FTEs); ARR of c.25-30m; ACV of c. $10k/year and contract
length of 1 year on average (c.20% paid upfront); sales
cycle varies from c.2 weeks or less (for ACV <300/month)
to up to 2 months (for accounts paying up to >3k/month)
• Sales team structure
— 10-15 CIT (Customer Intelligence who find deals for SDRs
checking the right prospect and who to target within the
organisation)
— 20-30 SDRs (hunting based on CIT information)
— 20-30 AEs (demos, closing, and inbound with help from 1
inbound SDR)
— 1 country manager per key geo (4 total) + 2 US managers
— 1 VP Sales in the US + Head of Sales in Europe
• Customer success is a separate team, in charge of
onboarding and ongoing support, as well as upsell
and cross-sell. Compensation in this team is based on net
churn (expansion), with a junior team member in Europe
making c.€40k in fixed salary and c.20% in variable comp
• Everyone in this sales team has monthly quotas
— CITs have more qualitative quotas
— SDRs’ quotas are based on number of demos done
— AEs’ quotas are based on new MRR generation
— Country Managers’ quotas depend on AEs results
• Target quotas of c.5x OTE. e.g rep on €50k base and €50k
Comp (€100k all-in) should have a €500k quota minimum
• When starting a new geography, this company kept the
sales team lean: 1 AE, and afterwards 1 AE + 2 SDRs; as the
market matured, the ratio AE:SDR got close to 1:1
© 2020 BALDERTON CAPITAL
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CASE STUDY: LOW TOUCH, HIGH VELOCITY SAAS COMPANY (2/3)
Quotas and commissions for European sales.
QUOTAS
COMMISSIONS
SDRs
Based on number of demos generated
100% quotas = 10 points = x1 commission
If 20 points are reach, sales gets x3 commission
For each demo generated, points follow as:
— <500 ARR generation / demo -- 0.5 points
— 500 - 2k ARR generation / demo -- 1 point
— >2k ARR generation / demo -- 2 points
€500/month for most junior team members
€1k/month for more senior team members
+ 4% commission on ARR closed by AE that came from their leads
AEs
Target of €7k/monthly + accelerator
€1k/month when on target
Accelerator based on bell curve x2 gap:
— <75% target: 0
— @ 75% target: 50% of €1k
— @ 80% target: 60% of €1k
— @125% target: 150% of €1k
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CASE STUDY: LOW TOUCH, HIGH VELOCITY SAAS COMPANY (3/3)
From marketing to sales and timing.
•
Inbound target at c.70%
• Strong focus on having a predictable pipeline and
controlling conversion rates
• Moved inbound interest forward selectively to avoid
wasting time
• Common marketing strategies include webinars,
partnerships (with integration partners, resellers, other
SaaS companies complementary in terms of offering to
similar customers, etc.), add words, and events
• The first SDR email is personalised, but based on a
template to boost efficiency
• Two first contacts are often done by email, then goes the
phone call. Having c.5-10 touch points with SDR is normal
to properly understand the prospect’s needs before
passing to the AE phase
• The AE does the demo, offers a trial (1 week on average)
and encourages usage
• To reduce ramping up time, a sales academy was
implemented. SDRs used to take 6 months to ramp up and
that time has been reduced since the sales academy was
put in place
• During the first 2 weeks to 1 month, productivity from SDRs
was low
• The company in this example has seen 0 churn in their
sales team, the only people leaving the team were fired
• Average quota achievement is at c.85%-90% with a
distribution as follows:
– <75% -- c.5% of sales
– 75%-100% -- c.40% of sales
– 100%-150% -- c.45% of sales
– >150% -- c.10% of sales
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CASE STUDY: HIGH TOUCH, LOW VELOCITY SAAS COMPANY (1/3)
Similarly, here is another example of a successful sales organisation for a high
touch, low velocity sales business.
Context
• SaaS business selling mostly to large enterprise (Fortune
500, expanded thereafter to Fortune 2000);
• ARR of c.$30m (today having grown to c.$100m); ACV of
c.$175k/year (later on, as they moved towards mid-market
too, ACV closer to $100k) and contract length of 1 year on
average (all paid upfront); sales cycle of c.4 months, varying
from companies) to up to 12 months (for customers more exposed
to regulation). One rule kept in mind was “$100k in 100 days”
• This business focused on the US market since day one, with
Europe remaining opportunistic. It sells a highly technical
product, so the role of the ‘sales engineers’ is key
• POC process was key — nailing it was a big driver for growth
Sales team structure
• Big changes when company went from $10m to $30m ARR
• Originally only 1 VP Sales, c.4 AEs, and 1 sales engineer
• Then VP Sales had c. 10 direct reporters, mostly AEs (all US
but 1 for Europe) + a small team of BDRs (3 BDRs +
manager)
• When the company hit the c.$30M mark, VP Sales had
only 4 direct reports (managers: lead presale, Director EU,
2 Directors for North America, East and West Coast), c.15-
20 AEs reporting to Directors, and 5 sales engineers
• Location was viewed as an important factor for team size
(direct supervisor). When in the same location, a manager
helped develop c.8-12 people; that number dropped to c.6-
8 if the team was spread geographically
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CASE STUDY: HIGH TOUCH, LOW VELOCITY SAAS COMPANY (2/3)
Compensation structure.
• Quota of c.5x OTE (e.g. if OTE is $200k, quota should
be $1M)
• More senior sales OTE of c.$150k-250k; 50% fixed,
50% variable (performance)
•
Internal rule for commissions: “salespeople should get
paid when the company gets money; and they should
not get paid if they do not make money for the
company”
• Commissions paid on a monthly basis when deal
closes for AEs and BDRs, quarterly for management
and sales engineers
• Accelerators and super accelerators for top
performers, often 1.5x-2x when quota between 100%
and 110%, and 2x-3x when above 110%
• Fully loaded commission (including all food chain)
kept around c.10%
• Quota achievement split:
— <75% c.30% of sales
— 75%-100% c.35% of sales
— 100% or more c.35% of sales
• The above is the reflection of a very ambitious culture,
where making the impossible possible is a motto
• To compensate for these challenges, shorter term wins
and contests were put in place to keep motivation
high. Also people <75% were not laid off (only bad
performers) as management was aware of high
ambition setting quotas
• This team never accepted draws (i.e. guaranteed
commissions for the first months / quarters as pipeline
gets built). Instead they would reduce quota if
needed, but would not agree on a guaranteed comp
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CASE STUDY: HIGH TOUCH, LOW VELOCITY SAAS COMPANY (3/3)
Indirect channels and sales culture.
Indirect channels
• This team only started working on indirect channels
when the company reached c.$30M ARR
• For this team, having indirect channels up and
running was a c.3 years process. The first year was
about getting it all up and running (getting low to no
return on all efforts). The second year was when it all
started working, and they saw the proper growth
acceleration in year 3
• According their experience, indirect channels were a
fantastic growth lever but not always yielded high ROI
•
In this case, using specialised software resellers was
the best option, given the company sells a technical
product (therefore generalist resellers are less helpful)
Sales culture
• Excellence always: bottom 10% performers likely to be
let go
• “Make the impossible possible”, with the support of
the team and a collaborative environment. This is
reflected by ambitious quotas while keeping
motivation and incentives top of mind (sales president
club, quarterly recognitions, etc.)
• A sales culture where ethics is key: only sell if we can
solve the customer’s problem
• They also built a culture where sales people should be
“humble, hungry, and smart; and also self-aware” --
ask for help when needed, be aware of weaknesses,
be entrepreneurial, and always willing to go the extra
mile
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CASE STUDY: METRICS TO TRACK.
Some key metrics to track*.
From a sales team performance perspective, the most
relevant metrics to track include:
• Number of demos done for low touch, high velocity, while
PoC data (technical wins vs sales wins, length of POC, and
learnings) is key for low velocity high touch SaaS
businesses
• Win / loss ratio
• Conversion rate
• Average Sales Cycle and Average Deal Size (for pipeline
risk measurement and focus of efforts)
• MRR (new, growth); for low velocity high touch businesses
stronger focus on ARR
• Churn (1%-2% monthly is acceptable for low touch
businesses; 10% annual is great for high touch companies,
and should remain < 15%) and net churn
• Ramp-up time and cost
• CAC and payback
• Growth is key, and keeping in mind the T2D3 rule*
• The rule of 40*, quick ratio*, and magic number* are
financial metrics that are more often top of mind of the
CFO than the sales team per se. As the company scales,
the VP Sales gets more involved in the tracking of these
metrics too
• Some additional benchmarking data focused on
the US market here
* See the section ‘Key Metrics’ for definition of metrics.
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CREATING A STRONG
SALES CULTURE.
PART THREE:
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BUILDING A STRONG SALES CULTURE.
A strong sales culture is essential to become a successful SaaS company.
• Put a high-performance model in place to manage
salespeople:
—High performers are highly rewarded
— Low performers need to improve fast or leave
• This model usually relies on two main levers:
—Compensation scheme; salespeople’s behaviour will
heavily depend on it
—Other motivation initiatives for the sales organisation
• Your company’s culture is key: a strong sales culture
implies building an overarching culture with a high
focus on performance
• To enhance salesforce motivation you should think
about:
— The company’s vision communication
— Training
—Holistic understanding of competition
—Key decisions that define your sales culture
—Quotas: how hard they are to achieve
—Variable compensation as % of base
—How long you keep a salesperson when
underperforming
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AND A WINNING MENTALITY.
Everyone has ups and downs, so building a team that believes the impossible is
possible is critical to execution.
• This includes weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual
incentives
• You can use trophies for top performers, SPIFs (sales
performance incentive fund) for driving specific
campaigns, and Premier Club dinners or trips
• Additional recognition programs are also helpful,
including:
—Win reports (via slack, email, others)
—Big gong hit when closing a deal
—Best Practice Fridays with other execs joining to elevate
a few reps having delivered great meetings, superb
proposal, won a deal etc.
—Competitor Kills (shout outs for switch-outs of
competition)
• Promote a good understanding of the “SaaS Trinity”,
i.e. Product, Sales, and Marketing. Having a sales
team that works well with the product, customer
success, and marketing team is crucial
• Set clear and transparent expectations on
Performance and Values. This allows performance
management to be much easier as everyone knows
the rules
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REWARDS AND HIGH-PERFORMANCE CLUBS.
Think of additional motivation initiatives for your sales organisation.
• Think of rewards that can be appreciated by your
sales organisation and resonate with your overall
company’s culture, like quotas club
(a reward trip for all the salespeople who have
achieved quota)
• Being part of the quota club for several years is often
seen as a big differentiator among salespeople
• Other more informal awards are also helpful (smaller
team basis, monthly frequency, etc.)
• Our recommendations:
— Focus on positive incentives
— Attainable quotas
— Celebrate and reward aggressively
— Be fair but do not keep underperformers
— Focus on great hiring
— Focus on onboarding
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GOING GLOBAL.
PART FOUR:
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HOW TO START A NEW COUNTRY.
START SELLING
FROM HQ
PUT IN PLACE LOCAL
INFRASTRUCTURE
USE INDIRECT CHANNELS
TO START
• Keeping the sales team centralised in
the HQ and adding people to cover
other geographies from the HQ
• We recommend hiring native people
who can speak the language, and
understand the culture and how to
sell in the new market
• Consider how easy it is to get people
to the new region and at what cost
• Often this is a good option for high
velocity low touch sales models to
enter a new geography
• Starting with one sales POD based in
the new country
• Often best for low velocity high
touch sales businesses where local
presence (in-person meetings) to sell
and close deals can be key
• Setting up focus partners in new
countries to represent your company
• Often a good option to start a new
country with minimal investment and
for ‘second-tier’ geographies where
best to have partners than not being
present at all
There are three main ways to start a new country.
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STARTING FROM THE HEADQUARTERS.
Selling from the HQ is often a good strategy when starting a new European market,
especially where resources are limited, and for high velocity low touch sales businesses.
• Start creating a POD locally (in the HQ) that is
dedicated to selling into the new market
• Understanding the local culture and ways to best sell
in the new market is key, so we recommend hiring
local people; language can also be a barrier when it
comes to selling
• Think about the entire funnel, from leads generation to
customer success; the way to generate leads might be
very different in each country (PR, events, marketing)
• At a certain size, (3-4 PODs dedicated to a particular
market) you might want to build a local team based in
the new country
• Any country will be a big investment for the
management. You can start several markets in parallel
but do not try too many. Put your sales management
in a position to succeed
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BUILDING A LOCAL TEAM.
There are three main things to think about when building a local team.
1. Structuring and managing the team
— Look for people who are truly independent and who
you can trust
— This way you can start a country with a very small
local team (1-2 POD) at least
— The team should be supervised by a local sales
manager based in the country
— Think about how to onboard the new hires and
whether it is worth for the local team to spend time in
the HQ for knowledge sharing
2. Doing lead generation
— You need to have a local lead gen quickly; it is hard
to generate leads from a different country
—Once again, think about the entire funnel, from leads
generation to customer success; the way to generate
leads might be very different in each country
3. Keeping motivation high
—Sometimes the local (and small) team feels isolated
and not connected to the rest of the team (devs,
businesspeople, office) as remote offices often have
less access to the HQ-based teams. This can lead to
a failure in your new sales organisation
—An extensive onboarding program and some time
spent in the HQ beforehand help facilitate future
interactions, teambuilding, and share the company’s
culture
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USING INDIRECT CHANNELS.
A great way to build local presence at a minimal initial investment.
• When going global, indirect channels are especially
relevant for low velocity high touch sales models
where having local presence and in-person
interactions are more important
• Rather than building a local team (often too
challenging given capital required), setting up focus
partners in the new country to represent your
business in the new geography is a great option -- it is
best than not being present at all
• Partners are also great in ‘second-tier’ geographies --
similarly, it is best to sell through partners than not
selling at all
• Build a small team in the HQ to manage partners; this
structure will help set up and coordinate distribution
partners, and provide the necessary training and
support
• Partners can allow you to start selling in 4-5 different
countries in parallel with only a small group of c.3
people and a very small direct investment
• The main trade-offs are not being physically present
in the market with your own team and the commission
you will have to pay that often ranges between 30%
to 50%
• Very few companies leverage the full potential of
using indirect channels to go international at early
stage -- we encourage you to look into this option
early on
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GOING TO THE US. DO IT EARLY.
Think about going to the US early – here is why.
• The US continues to be the driving market for tech and
it is a large homogeneous market
• The world keeps on getting smaller: new products and
services can be found and used globally, at an
extraordinary speed, regardless of where they come
from
• Entering the US early enables you to have first mover
advantage in this key region and to compare your
business to the best products, avoiding a “false” sense
of leadership
• The country by country conquest of Europe is hard
and slow; each country is different -- winning
Germany might not be easier than winning the US
(and the former is a much smaller market)
• Success in the US is seen as the landmark of global
success and is key to attract global Tier 1 VC investors
and top talent
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GOING TO THE US. THE OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES.
The potential opportunities will likely outweigh the challenges.
The opportunities
• US customers make decision faster and are used and
ready to buy from start-ups; they take more risks than
European companies
• Deals can be a lot bigger
• You can build a brand faster (most influencers are
there)
• Responding to US’ expectations will make your
product and services globally better
The challenges
• Customers are very demanding. The product must be
flawless but also the service needs to be on par with
the best companies (speed of delivery, response time
on the phone, resolution time for bugs, etc.)
• Competitors are everywhere. There is virtually no
uncontested deal. But battling these competitors and
finding ways to win will make your company better
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GOING TO THE US. EAST OR WEST?
What to consider when thinking of West vs East coast.
Go East because…
•
It is closer (and the perception of distance is
disproportionate much lower vs the West Coast)
•
It is easier to communicate with the HQ (time difference)
•
It is easier to relocate Europeans there
• Costs are lower: talent and cost of living are cheaper vs
the West Coast
Go West because…
•
It is still the center of the tech world
• The talent pool is top quality
• You can have access to all key partners
• You will be closer to top tier investors
Distributed teams are also an option
• Especially as the organisation grows. You can imagine
having support team in Kansas or Austin, the Head of
Sales based in Colorado, and core sales team in SF or
NY
• Keep close to customers, especially for low velocity
high touch businesses
• Having distributed PODs in key cities is the best
strategy (for example, if you are selling to tech
companies, you would likely want to start with PODs
in SF and Boston)
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GOING TO THE US — SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS.
To set yourself up for success going to the US, the following are must do’s.
• Adapt to the US landscape and culture
— Europeans often tend to believe that they have a
superior technology that will win against their US
counterparts
—Unfortunately, Sales, Marketing and Customer
Service will often defeat best in class products
• Upgrade your business to higher standards, and
transform it back home at the headquarters
— The level of service needs to be upgraded — response
time to issues, delivery times, bug fixes, quality levels,
all needs to operate at a higher level and faster
— The product team needs to look to the US and listen
to the US customers
• Organise your company to be closer to the US
— The CEO or a co-founder may have to move to feel
the market, bring back to HQ the market
requirements, and take the company’s core DNA to
the US
— It is critical to send the right person there, someone
who has a sales management skill set, and an
understanding of the US
• Be ready for fundraising
— You will need to raise more funds as growing in the US
is a worthwhile but expensive investment
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GOING TO THE US — SALES TEAM STRUCTURE (1/2).
Our top recommendations to start building your US sales team.
• Going to the US needs a local presence, it cannot be
done from the HQ
• Think about the whole sales funnel, from market to
customer success, and adapt it to the US market —
your marketing strategy and leads generation may
need to change, similarly your support service may
have to be adapted
• Do some PR. We recommend you get someone locally
to help you
• Recruiting is hard as competition is high. Hire a search
firm to help you find the top key hires
• Your first sales manager / leader is your most
important hire as he or she will be the one building the
rest of the team — hiring the wrong person is setting
the organisation for failure as you may need to
rebuild the team from scratch
• Having one of the co-founders locally will help notice
potential mistakes much quicker, be reactive, and
take control if necessary. You can even start selling
yourself if needed, while looking for the next sales
manager
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GOING TO THE US — SALES TEAM STRUCTURE (2/2).
Our top recommendations to start building your US sales team.
• Start with a sales manager, a couple of PODs, and a
person focused on lead generation. Then you will grow
the team to 3-4 PODs. If a high touch sales model,
divide PODs by geographies
• Do not create management layers, you will burn too
much cash and de-focus the organisation from its
main goal: sell, sell, sell
• A good sales leader (VP or Manager) is more important
than a US GM early on. Hiring someone too senior too
quickly is often a mistake as those profiles tend to
want to build the perfect organisation, hire different
VPs for different teams, who also want to hire their
own team, and so on… -- that means $10M burnt and
no sales yet…
• You want people who want to sell and do not need
much support, who are entrepreneurial, driven, and
very ambitious, and who come knowing already who
to sell to. Having done software sales before is a must,
and if possible, in a related field
• After c.1 year, you will start thinking of hiring your VP
of marketing and US GM
• Once you have 4-5 PODs and 2 key leaders onboard,
coming back to Europe may be OK if that is what you
want to do. Make sure the organisation runs without
you physically there and your Head of the US has the
ability to run everything and be the person all local
teams report to. This can often take up to 3 years
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GOING TO THE US: EUROPEAN EXAMPLES.
Some of the companies we have worked with before have successfully
expanded to the US — some examples on the following slides.
Business Objects
• Business Objects was founded in Paris in 1990
• A year later, it started an office in Menlo Park
(California, US), and an office in London (UK). At that
point, the CEO moved to the US to help grow the
business and hire the first sales teams in NY, Chicago,
Dallas and San Francisco
• Two years later, in 1992, Business Objects had 30% of
its revenues coming from the US, 25% from the UK,
and 45% from France, the home market
•
In 1994 the company went public on the NASDAQ and
became the global leader in business intelligence
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GOING TO THE US: EUROPEAN EXAMPLES.
Talend
• Talend followed a similar path to Business Objects
• Bertrand, the CEO, moved to California very early in
the history of the company
• Fabrice the co-founder and CTO stayed in Paris to
manage product and R&D
• The company is now the global leader of open source
big data management software and is now publicly
traded on the NASDAQ
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GOING TO THE US: EUROPEAN EXAMPLES.
Aircall
• Aircall also understood the importance of the US
market very early on
• With barely $25k of MRR, the team hired the first
employee in the US. This was in 2015
• As early as Dec-2016, following its series A, Olivier, co-
founder and CEO, moved to NY
• Today, more than one third of their revenue comes
from US and more than 10% from other
geographies outside of Europe
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GOING TO THE US: EUROPEAN EXAMPLES.
Workable
• Workable started in Athens 2013, and in the first year
50% of business was from the US before having any
operation in North America
• Nikos (CEO) moved to Boston in 2014 to build
commercial HQ, while Spyros (CTO) stayed in Athens
to manage R&D
•
In 2018, Workable opened satellite office in SF due to
increasing business in the West Coast
•
In 2019, the US is home to one third of the company’s
headcount, half of the executive team, and 60% of the
revenues
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GOING TO THE US. EUROPEAN EXAMPLES.
Contentful
• Contentful’s team launched globally on day one as
their first product was freemium and users could just
sign up for on their site
• Then they hired AEs who upsold those users but they
did that globally from desks/phones in Germany —
they hired native English speakers, did calls in the
evening, etc.
• As a result, by the time the company reached the $3M
ARR mark, it had already 70%+ of revenues coming
from the US despite not having salespeople on the
ground there
• After raising more capital, they built out a sales team
by first hiring an experienced VP of Sales in the US
who built a more traditional sales motion for enterprise
sales out of the US
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AND HOW ABOUT ASIA?
Do not wait too long and find the right partners to get started.
• European companies and VCs have been looking
essentially at the US as the big market to conquer, but
Asia is also an amazing opportunity for international
scaling
• Unlike the US, Asia is not a single market — China,
India, Japan, South East Asia… each of the different
regions operate very differently, with distinct codes,
languages, and regulations
• Local competition is now very strong, and local
companies often like to buy from local suppliers
• Do not wait too long before establishing a presence in
Asia
• Having a small team located there who can start
reviewing the market and establishing partnerships in
various geos is a good way to start
• Asian partners are key to succeed as a B2B SaaS
player
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TIMING.
Only go global when you are ready to, but make sure you are ready early on.
• Often SaaS businesses time execution of their
internationalisation plan when approaching $200k
MRR. But first you need to have the cash to enter the
market so plan for this when fundraising
• Then you need some support, especially from your
board and investors — surround yourself with people
who share your ambition and can empower you to
think big
• Your product should be ready (although it will keep on
evolving and improving) and the headquarters should
be prepared for the change (devs, support, etc.)
• Do not underestimate cultural differences and ensure
the terms of use for your product fit the market (legal
costs can catch you out especially given data privacy)
• A SWOT analysis can help to maximise strengths and
opportunities and better caveat weaknesses and
threats. This will also help set up tactics and budget
correctly to launch a new market successfully
• Be aware of potential quick wins (existing live
opportunities, analytics on traffic, customers having a
network in new market for referrals, etc.)
• For European companies, considering whether to go
to the US or another big European country (UK,
Germany, or France, for instance) first is often a
question
• We recommend going to both markets in parallel
whenever possible, this can become your greatest
decision. But if it feels it is too much, going to the US
early is very important to establish your presence
there as soon as possible. So go for it!
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GOING GLOBAL IS A MINDSET.
It starts by setting a clear ambition: to be number 1 globally.
•
International expansion is a big strategic task, one
that can make or break a company
• Wanting to be a global business from day 1 is a
mindset
•
It starts by setting a clear ambition: to be number 1
globally — not number 1 in one country, or in Europe,
but to be number 1 in the world
• Put in place all the elements to succeed, searching for
excellence in everything you do:
—Hiring the best executives
—Raising from the best investors
—Building the best possible board
—And continuing to build the best product and service
• Setting the highest bar may not be a guarantee for
success, but it will for sure enhance your chance to
reach that elusive number 1 position
Read the six-part series on Balderton’s site: The Balderton
Playbook for Internationalisation. Link.
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KEY METRICS.
PART FIVE:
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WHAT TO MONITOR.
Different focus at every stage.
• At early stage your focus should mainly be on growing
your pipeline and revenues – growth, growth, growth
• But make sure you are not losing your customers:
monitor your churn closely and do not let it control
you
• Measuring sales team efficiency based on quotas’
achievement is essential
• Avoiding team related costs is also important at early
stage (excessive ramp up times driven by high
turnover of sales team, inefficient salespeople
constantly below quotas, etc.)
• While not overspending is important, we do not think
you should be looking at metrics like the rule of 40 too
early on
• Also bear in mind that the most relevant metrics for
your sales team on an on-going basis might differ
from what investors / finance people will look at most
closely
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FOR SALES TEAM LEADERS.
Think of the different operational metrics you need to monitor to evaluate the
performance of the different teams and individuals in more granularity.
• Examples of metrics to evaluate SDRs performance
—Number of demos/months, % of pipeline created and
pipeline closed, pipeline created won, email open
rate, number of phone calls, reply email rate
• Examples of metrics to evaluate AEs performance
—Won deals value, upfront payments, win/loss ratios in
value and in volume, pipeline creation, live pipeline,
deal size
• Examples of metrics to evaluate Sales Team Leaders
performance
—Revenue generation, churn, ramp up time and cost
Use this tool on Chorus.AI’s site to review the efficiency of your
sales process. Link.
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REVENUES: ARR, MRR, GROWTH.
Top line is king.
• Strong ARR growth is the first thing you should focus
on
• You need to monitor separately the new ARR (ARR in
new customers), the upsell ARR (expansion ARR in
existing customers) and the churn ARR (lost ARR in
existing customers)
• The aggregate is your Additional ARR for the period
• When building plans and assessing performance,
focus on the growth of Additional ARR (vs. the growth
of ARR - see next slide) and the Net Retention Rate
(i.e. the net additional ARR per customer on a yearly
basis - more on net retention later on)
• Jump at the opportunity to lock in longer
subscriptions (consider potential discounts for longer-
term contracts, paid upfront, etc.). If you think of
discount vs potential churn, you might end up
mathematically ahead offering discounts to lock in
some longer-term additional revenue
• As per Bessemer’s benchmark, best companies take 2
years to reach $10m ARR and 5 to get to $100m,
better companies take 3 and 7 years respectively,
while good companies need 4 and 10 years
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REVENUES: ADDITIONAL ARR.
Simplified example of the importance of additional ARR growth vs ARR growth only.
• A company growing ARR from $2m (Year 0) to
$8m (Year 2) to $16m (Year 3) has an ARR
growth of 100% in Year 2, but in fact, in this
example, only 33% of Additional ARR
• The Additional ARR should grow as fast, if not
faster, than the Sales and Marketing expense
• Here, the additional ARR growth is very
expensive, as Sales & Marketing costs have
increased by 100% in Year 2 vs an additional
ARR growth of only 33%
YEAR 1
YEAR 2
BoP ARR (A)
$2M
$8M
New ARR (B)
5M
6M
Upsell ARR (C)
2M
3M
Churn ARR (D)
(1M)
(1M)
= ADDITIONAL ARR (B+C+D)
$6M
$8M
Additional ARR Growth (%)
-
33%
EoP ARR (A+B+C+D)
$8M
$16M
Total ARR Growth (%)
300%
100%
Sales & Marketing (S&M) Costs
$6M
$12M
S&M Costs Growth (%)
100%
100%
S&M Costs / Additional ARR
1.0x
1.5x
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PIPELINE AND CONVERSION.
As well as building a good pipeline and executing well.
• As important as revenues is building a good pipeline
and keeping a healthy conversion rate
• The optimal pipeline size depends on your business
model, sales cycle length, and conversion velocity (3-
4x target new and upsell ARR is on average a good
benchmark)
• Remember that your pipeline is your first step towards
revenue conversion
•
It is important to also consider your sales team ramp
up time when building the pipeline as it will affect the
conversion velocity
• Conversion rates also vary depending on business
model, but on average you should target north of 5-
10% from free trials to paid customers. The higher the
quality of inbound leads and lead generation through
outbound, the higher the conversion should be
• This is different than the sign-up rate, which tends to
be lower (closer to > 3%-5%) and represents the
website visitors converting into sign-ups
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GROSS MARGIN.
Healthy gross margins at 75%+ are expected.
•
It is important to understand what is driving your COGS
• Some costs can be semi-variable and seem high early on, but at scale margins can improve considerably
• High infrastructure costs (e.g. data centers) can drive lower gross margins, and that is fine as long as cash flow
generation is healthy
•
It is also important to understand how other ‘temporary’ costs that might be increasing the COGS can be
reduced over time (e.g. some manual-like processes, like printing)
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CHURN.
Keeping churn low will always help unit economics, with negative net churn and net
expansion rate at 125% as target.
• The churn rate is the percentage at which customers
are lost and is calculated dividing the revenue lost
from customers (churned users and contraction in
existing accounts) by the revenue at the beginning of
the period. It is also helpful to divide this calculation
into ‘pure churn’ (lost customers) and ‘contraction
churn’
• Churn is a key indicator of customers’ satisfaction
and product stickiness
• Make sure your very high growth efforts are not taken
away by high churn (or you will likely be burning a lot
of cash inefficiently)
• Negative churn is ideal as it indicates that the
expansion revenue (up-sells and cross-sells) is higher
than the revenue lost from churn (churned customers
or contraction)
• Monthly gross churn of 2-3% for SaaS companies
targeting SMBs as customers, 1-2% for mid-market
sized users, and 0.5-1% for enterprise clients are
reasonable targets
• When it comes to renewals, differentiate voluntary
renewal vs payment of a ‘contractual commitment’
(multi-year contract where there is no actual renewal).
This is important to calculate real retention on an
available-to-renew (ATR) basis vs ARR-based
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QUICK RATIO.
To check how churn might affect growth.
• The quick ratio is a simple metric to monitor how churn might affect growth and anticipate potential product
issues that are driving high churn
•
It is calculated as follows: (New Revenue + Expansion Revenue) / (Cancelled Revenue + Contraction Revenue)
• The target should be above 4x, and of course the higher, the better
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CAC.
Make sure you calculate it right.
• Make sure your CAC is consistent with the way you
are selling
• Consider how long it takes between your marketing
/sales touch points and when someone becomes a
customer
• For example, if your sales cycle is 3 months, your CAC
in Quarter n (Qn) would be: Sales & Marketing (S&M)
Expenses Q(n-1) / New Customers Q(n)
• This means that you should allocate your S&M
expenditure to the new customers coming from that
S&M effort
• Expenses should include the cost of promotions and
free trials as well as the costs and support allocated to
those non-paying customers
• Think of what expenses you should include; fully
loaded CAC includes S&M salaries, related overhead
costs, and tools required to operate the sales machine
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LTV.
A tricky one… and here is why.
• LTV or lifetime value of a customer is the metric that
shows how much a customer will generate while he is
a customer to your company
• Sounds like a great metric to consider, but a difficult
one to compare and have a very high degree of
confidence is correct
• The way to calculate LTV varies a lot
— The basic formula is very simple: ARPA * % Gross
Margin / Churn Rate
—As it considers time, the first big question is how long
will they customer be a customer of yours – is it 7
years? 5 years to be conservative? Maybe 3?
— You should consider margin expansion over time and
how churn might also evolve
• That is why at Balderton we believe that, while LTV is a
metric to keep an eye on, it may not be the one to
focus on
• For benchmark purposes, CAC:LTV should be above
3x and 5x+ is ideal
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PAYBACK PERIOD.
We believe payback time is a more accurate metric to look at across the board.
• Payback period can be calculated in slightly different ways but the underlying objective is the same: how long
does it take to pay back the CAC costs considering the customer’s revenue generation and the current gross
margin
• CAC on Period(n-x) / New MRR Period(n) * GM% or S&M Expenses on Period(n-x) / New CMRR Period(n-x) *
GM%
• Period n refers to month or quarter (or even year), depending on the sales cycle; similarly x could be 1 but could
also be anything that accounts for the reality of the company’s sales process (e.g. period could be quarter with
x=2 if it takes about 2 quarters to convert the customer into a generating revenue customer)
• The lower the payback period the better; on average for SMBs it is around 6-18 months and 24-36 months for
enterprise clients. Best-in-class companies will always be in the low end of the range and might even be shorter
than that
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MAGIC NUMBER.
To understand your sales efficiency.
• One of the best metrics to understand your sales
efficiency
•
It basically tells you how much ARR is generated for
every $ spent in S&M
• To calculate it, take the additional ARR in the quarter
(ARR end of quarter minus ARR beginning of quarter)
and divide it by Sales and Marketing of the prior
quarter: (Qn Revenue – Qn-1 Revenue) / Qn-1 S&M
• For example, if at the start of the period your ARR is
$5M and it increases to $8M at the end of that period,
and you have spent $2M in S&M, the magic number is
1.5 (you have spent $2M to generate $3M of additional
ARR)
• Usually, if above 0.75, it means you can spend more in
S&M to foster growth
• A more purist way to calculate the magic number is to
base it off the additional gross margin (instead of
ARR)
• Taking the same example above, and at 80% gross
margin, the magic number would be 1.2
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RULE OF 40.
Making sure growth is sustainable.
• The rule of 40 states that revenue growth (in %) +
profit margin (in %) should be equal or above 40 for
growth to be sustainable
• Lots of people argue the rule of 40 shouldn’t be
considered at early stage, given the focus should be
on growth and customer acquisitions and initial costs
might be very high and not a reflection of the real unit
economics of the business further down the line
• Others think that keeping the rule of 40 in mind since
early days is a good discipline exercise and its
evolution an indicator of quality of decision making
• For us, rather than asking when your company should
be Rule of 40 compliant, you should wonder what the
Rule of 40’s glide path should look like -- remember
that several successful SaaS IPO-ed companies were
not even Rule of 40 ‘compliant’
Read this post on Dave Kellogg’s blog ‘Rule of 40 Glideslope
Planning’ to learn more. Link.
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CASH CONVERSION SCORE.
An indicator of a company’s returns.
• Calculated as: Current ARR / Total Capital Raised to Date - Cash (Equity + Debt - Cash)
• Best companies have a CCS of 1.0x+ (best-in-class) and investing in these companies at early stage yield
c.120% internal rate of return (IRR); better companies usually have a CCS of 0.5-1.0x and yield an approximate
IRR of 80%. Good companies’ CCS is 0.25-0.5x (yielding IRR of c.40%)
Read this post ‘Cash Conversion Score for Cloud Companies’ to
learn more. Link.
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APPENDIX
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DASHBOARD EXAMPLE (1/2).
An example of what to track
in your sales dashboard.
$#M (#%)
$#M (#%)
$#M (#%)
$#M (#%)
$#M (#%)
$#M (#%)
Closed Lost - Nurture
Closed Lost - Dead
Negotiation/Review
Vetted
Validated
SAO
SQL
Sum of Reporting Amount: $#M
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DASHBOARD EXAMPLE 2/2.
An example of what to track in your sales dashboard.
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OUR FAVOURITE BLOGS.
There are lots of great posts and books to help you think through building a sales
team. We have listed our short collection of favourites below.
• Kellblog — Dave Kellogg covers topics related to starting, managing, leading, and scaling enterprise software
startups. His favorite topics include strategy, marketing, sales, SaaS metrics, and management. He also provide
commentary on Silicon Valley, venture capital, and the business of software.
• Christoph Janz — Partner at Point Nine Capital, Christopher shares regular posts on SaaS on his blog.
• SalesHacker — the community site for sales professionals.
• The SaaS CFO —Ben Murray's blog on his favourite topics: numbers, SaaS/subscription metrics, and forecasting.
• For Entrepreneurs - SaaS Section — David Skok, serial entrepreneur and VC, gathers a wealth of information
about SaaS.
• The Sales Leader — resources from sales leader Colleen Francis.
• HubSpot Blog— sales resources from Hubspot. Hubspot also offers a plethora of resources on marketing too. And
also from Hubspot, the top sales blogs and websites they advise every sales pro should bookmark.
• Make it Happen — blog from John Barrows, which includes podcasts and interviews on sales topics.
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THANK YOU
For any questions, please reach out to Caye Hurtado.
balderton.com
@balderton