The world of B2B SaaS sales can be demanding. You need to scale your outbound function quickly, but you also need to hire the right reps and take the time to do it right. It’s a balancing act. And if you don’t take enough care, it can come back to bite you.
But learning from mistakes can transform the way you sell and put you on the path toward astronomical growth. In this post, we’ll look at some of the biggest sales mistakes you can make, and how you can learn from them.
Mistake #1: Neglecting Culture When Rapidly Scaling Your Outbound Function
When scaling your outbound function, culture is a huge factor that affects performance and your ability to hire the best talent. Scaling your outbound too quickly can lead to hiring the wrong reps, resulting in a disengaged, unmotivated, and unproductive team. This can quickly have a negative effect on even your best reps.
Developing a positive, symbiotic culture within your sales functions is key for keeping your reps engaged, motivated, and productive. You’ll see a stark contrast in your revenue when you have the right culture.
So if you’re expanding fast and find your sales team isn’t coping well, go back to the basics. Fix your culture at the very ground level by hiring the right mix of reps and rectifying any errors you may have committed.
Mistake #2: Making Compromises in Hiring
The demands of B2B SaaS sales often force you to hire a lot of people quickly. This can lead to making compromises on quality, and you might find yourself hurriedly hiring reps who aren’t necessarily a good fit for the organization. This cycle is a huge waste of time, money, and resources, and you should really be taking the time to hire the right reps.
Additionally, it’s important to hire sales reps at least two quarters in advance. Sales reps need a ramp-up period to familiarize themselves with selling a product and reach optimum levels of productivity. You don’t want to be caught out when marketing has a great month and sends a flurry of leads your way.
Mistake #3: Not Making Prospecting Calls
Cold calling has a bad reputation because it often involves a spray-and-pray approach to calling as many potential customers as you can in a day, and annoying the heck out of most of them in the hopes you’d find a handful of receptive potential buyers.
Many companies are ignoring cold calling to focus entirely on LinkedIn and email outreach. But prospecting calls are a direct way to get relevant people’s atte