Common Challenges
You aren't alone.
Emerging Growth Entrepreneurs have a lot on their plate.
Defining the right sales system for a business is new territory for a lot of entrepreneurs and it often leaves gut (or worse, ‘hope’) as the primary indicator of health. Common pain points we are often asked to address when we engage with entrepreneurs:
The shift away from founder-led sales. It is common for early-stage companies to have their founder very active in the selling process, then taking on the role of the first sales leader. This often becomes problematic because the founder isn’t skilled/experienced in building a sales function, and it takes a lot of time and energy which distracts from their other duties.
Expensive talent misses. Hiring an expensive “industry person” is a common strategy for early-stage companies, but it often backfires when the person may not be a good fit for company culture, or they fully rely on legacy personal connections instead of skills and competencies. Market knowledge is just 1 of 4 key talent-evaluation areas to ensure sales success.
Their ‘proven’ head of sales is stuck. Many early-stage companies invest a large salary in a proven head of sales from a larger company for their experience and learn that it’s fairly common for them to be unable to adapt to the unique needs and constraints of a scrappy, growth company.
Lack of passion by the sales team. The best salespeople are motivated differently than most other roles and it’s rare that they will share the same passion for the product as the founder. It takes experience to operationalize salespeople’s motivators in a way that drives engagement and results.
Can’t get sales traction. Many early-stage companies have good products but struggle with focus in the market, often adopting a ‘try everything and see what works’ approach. This can lead to lack of direction, misaligned efforts, and a ‘water pump’ effect in which a lot of effort is expended without gaining traction.
Low accountability across the team. Poor definition of roles and responsibilities impacts morale, focus, and sales results. Structured accountability through well designed coverage and capacity, territory logic, defined rules of engagement, and comp modeling have significant impact on sales efficiency and team engagement.
Poor lead conversion. Many companies operate with unpredictable lead flow and disconnected sales and marketing processes, creating misalignment in expectations and lack of revenue delivery.
Low Integrity Pipelines. Forecasting is a hard discipline to master but is necessary for any growth organization if they want to remove the ‘game of chance’ when planning investments for the business.
Too many technology options. Sales and marketing technology landscape is fast-evolving, making it extremely challenging to select what is right for a business. The process of evaluation is daunting, and the cost of choosing incorrectly can be costly and distracting.