When Times Are Tougher, The Best Still Way Outperform

Especially in sales, the best often still do very well. Even when things are tough.

Jason ✨Be Kind✨ Lemkin  @jasonlk

When times get a little tougher, There will be plenty of folks to tell you why it’s harder. Plenty. Just a few though will tell you and show you how to do actually do >better< Follow those leaders into the light

So times are tougher for some in SaaS, but not everyone. On the public side, Salesforce is struggling, but Samsara and Cloudflare are up. It really varies.

On the SaaS start-up side, I’d say roughly say 20% are growing even faster than earlier in the year, 20% are having a tough time, and 60% are somewhere in the middle.

But whether it’s now or later, you are eventually going to have tougher times.  Even, sometimes, a Year of Hell.

Here’s one big mistake I see all the time, though.  Folks aggregate performance.  In sales, in particular, I usually see even more bifurcated performance in tougher times.

In tough times:

• I often see the worst sales reps stop closing at all.  They can’t close anything anymore when it gets harder. Literally nothing in many cases.

• But the best reps often close as much, or often more than ever in tougher times.  They often get even better at listening, at refining the value prop, at doing more.  The best reps are smart and agile enough to rapidly tilt with the times, and come out even stronger often.

• And the mid-pack reps decline, say, 15%-30%.  They just start accepting more excuses, and give up a little more at the end of the quarter.  Especially if their manager does a bit.

Add all three together, and you see a net decline in sales.  But not in everyone.  You gotta segment it.

And then focus.  Learn all over again from your best reps.  Make sure their new playbook is disseminated to everyone. Make sure their bar is still the stretch bar for others.  Make sure, most importantly, that everyone knows it still can be done.

Because even 10 months ago, half your reps were, say, closing $800k, and now it’s just a few.

Well, it can still be done.  So at least make sure you are doing the right root cause analysis.

Because when things are good, you often don’t actually know why.  And when things are tougher, the best … get going.  They step it up, or at least, they find new ways to win.  Again, and again, and again.  Follow them.  They will light your path back to more growth and success.

A related post here:

And …

Why a Great Rep Can Close 9x More Than a Poor Rep, and Even 2.5x More Than a Good Rep

We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about great sales professionals, on driving up Revenue Per Lead, on not capping sales comp systems, and on why you need to manage out your worst reps (because leads are precious).

What we haven’t done yet is put it all together in a simple, quantitative spreadsheet.  Let’s do that — it is eye-opening:

This is what happens in the real world.  A great rep often literally closes 9x more than a poor rep.  And even 2.5x+ that of a decent, mid-pack rep.  With the exact same number — and same quality — of leads.

But how?  How does this happen?  It’s several factors compounding:

• First, the best reps close more seats / more revenue per deal.  They are better at mapping out business processes, at discovering how many seats, units, whatever there is to sell … and they just sell more.  Like clockwork. The great reps truly and quickly and effectively learn how much each prospect really can buy — and they get that much.  Without fear, and without ripping the customer off.

• Second, the best reps generally discount less.  Not always, but usually.  The best reps get very confident in the value proposition.  And poor reps and even mediocre reps fall back on the only arrow in their quiver — A Discount!!  But discounting a product a prospect doesn’t really want doesn’t really work.  In fact, it can harm close rates.

• Finally, the best reps close faster and close more.  They don’t mess around, or play games.  They know time is the enemy of deals.  They get very good at key objections.  The know the product and the pitch and the value prop cold.  They build strong relationships with prospects, and add enough value they can ask for a favor back — the sale.  They close better and faster.

These 3 factors together have a compounding effect, which is key.  You can still be a good rep and just be good at some of these 3 factors.   If you are great at all 3, then magic happens.

The top reps close larger deals than a mid-pack rep, discount just a bit less, and close faster … and the three factors together pull them far, far ahead of the pack.  For the same amount of effort (and often, even less total time).

This is also why you have to fire the poor reps fast.  You need to see if they can deliver.  But if they can’t, they don’t just miss quota.  They leave all the money in the spreadsheet above on the table.

Put differently, in the above scenario, the above Poor Rep left $160,000 on the table ($189,000-$20,790). In just one quarter.  Revenue that was there for the taking.  The leads were there.  Waiting to be sold to.

Route those leads to someone better, and magic will happen.  Fast.