Hey - Marc here.

Happy Saturday morning, motivated B2B SaaS Founders!

Here's at least one tip to keep in mind as you grow your B2B SaaS company:

Today's issue takes about 5 minutes to read.

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In today's issue, I share some key takeaways from GetAccept CEO and co-founder Samir Smajic’s presentation at Nathan Latka's "SaaS Open 2023" in New York. He discussed how they built a successful sales team and scaled to +$10m in ARR.

Samir is a first-time entrepreneur. Although he went through Y Combinator back in the day, they scaled GetAccept from zero to $200k in two months, and now they have almost 200 employees and $15m in ARR.

About GetAccept

GetAccept is a digital sales room platform empowering revenue teams to increase win rates by engaging and understanding buyers from opportunity to signed deal. Their platform provides features such as:

Proposals & Contracts
CPQ (Configure Price Quote)
Analytics & Tracking
Mutual Action Plan
Sales Content Management

Today, they are the fourth fastest growing SaaS company in the world and their platform is used in over 50 countries. They started from four founders to over 100 employees worldwide in five years.

What they did:

In the early phase of a startup ($0-$2m), it's essential for the Founder to do sales. Avoid hiring high-level positions like C-level executives at this stage. Instead, find someone with full sales cycle experience who can handle calls, meetings, and closing deals, and make sure they are not too far from your business domain.

During the $2-$10m phase, you can consider hiring someone with experience in quickly hiring sales reps. Also, avoid individuals who have only worked in small, slow-growing environments. You'll need someone with experience in building diverse sales teams that can adapt when things don't go as planned.

In the $10-$15m phase, you might need to add new revenue streams or explore new markets. Ensure you hire people with the expertise and willingness to embrace change and try new strategies.

Advice to Other Founders

Not all growth comes from inbound marketing.
About 50% of the pipeline source for high-growth companies comes from marketing, so you need to supplement it with an outbound strategy. An SDR team can play a crucial role in generating outbound leads.

Maintain a balanced ratio between AEs and SDRs to optimize productivity.
As you grow, it's essential to keep AEs and SDRs successful and motivated. Keep the team structure efficient by having an appropriate number of AEs under each manager. Avoid having too many AEs under a single manager, as it can significantly impact their effectiveness.

Focus on leading metrics rather than relying solely on lagging indicators.
Track relevant web visitors, pipeline generation, gross churn, activation, and product engagement to understand the direction the business is heading. This data-driven approach allows leaders to make informed decisions quickly and course-correct when necessary.

Build a Sales Bible.
Document successful sales calls and insights in a sales bible to help new hires learn from experienced team members. Creating profiles of good sales reps and data-driven assessments allow for more effective hiring decisions and tailored training plans for different individuals.

TL;DR

Samir Smajic, CEO and co-founder of GetAccept, reveals the key strategies behind building a successful sales team and achieving over $10 million in ARR at SaaSOpen 2023 in NYC. He emphasizes the importance of hands-on involvement in sales during the early stage, hiring the right people at each growth phase, tracking leading metrics, setting up a Sales Development Representative (SDR) team, and implementing a data-driven recruitment process. Samir highlights the significance of a well-structured onboarding process and building a sales bible to support new hires effectively.

PS Here is a link to the full interview if you are interested in listening to the full episode: How they built a successful sales team and scaled to +$10m ARR

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See you again next week.

Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

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