From tweet:
Deliberately Undersizing as Sales Strategy https://t.co/CyAtx0DbYo pic.twitter.com/OfL1ccQCAO
— Tomasz Tunguz (@ttunguz) July 11, 2022
"Deliberately Underselling as Sales Strategy" by Tom Tunguz:
https://tomtunguz.com/deliberately-underselling/
I have been guilty of knowingly overselling in my Sales career.
100% agree with the strategic approach outlined, though challenge is implementation, ie driving the right behaviour from sales reps.
Thoughts:
- AE comp structure could be based on a fixed commission per new logo (the core of the strategy) + variable commission on lifetime of contract, with accelerator based on growth.
- in SaaS, CSMs play a huge role in account growth (and churn) so comp logic should be aligned.
And beyond comp, culture needs to be aligned: overly celebrating the huge deals closed with a new logo (when no usage/customer success yet) would be detrimental.
Valid counterpoint:
On our side we just see that some companies are just flat in terms of growth, so the whole thing depends on whether you over/under sell at the beginning.
— Romain Lapeyre (@Romain_Lapeyre) July 12, 2022
... so would leave some revenue on the table for some deals, in exchange for higher NPS / customer satisfaction across the board and more sustainable/natural growth.