Leadership & Strategy

Building a small sales development team from scratch will cost your organization about $11K per SDR per month during the first year.  Most organizations underestimate the true cost of building this function, and overestimate productivity benchmarks and ramp time.  This happens most often due to lack of experience, or outdated ideas of what it takes to be successful today.   So, let’s look at the true…

We have heard a lot of talk about what the “new normal” is going to look like when the current pandemic ends. Restaurants and bars out of business, no live concerts, no sporting events with fans, no more movie theaters, businesses shedding office space with most employees working from home, airlines going out of business and airplanes less than half full, retail stores closing, and…

Most business leaders today, particularly those heading up venture-backed startups or bootstrapped businesses, are looking to preserve capital.  None of us is sure how long this environment will last, and we may need to extend our cash reserves to be able to bridge to a point when we have more clarity. If you spend any time scrolling Linkedin these days, you will likely come across…

In my last two blogs, I talked about the importance of continuing to develop pipeline and to nurture your existing pipeline prospects during this crisis. Well, you probably ignored my advice because your board told you that it was important to conserve cash so that your company can survive. You and your board felt that you could save cash by laying off some of your…

The number of leads generated every day, week, month by your sales development team is of course an important measure of the return you are getting for your investment in lead generation. But it's not the most important measure. Too often I have seen heads of sales, sometimes CEOs, and even boards of directors, come to the conclusion that their lead generation 'isn't working', and…

How do you get 150 SDRs out of the office, into their homes and producing at a high level? People often ask me what’s Reveneer’s secret? Or even more commonly what is Reveneer’s secret ingredient? Collaboration. Collaboration is what drives our reps to overcome the most complex challenges every day and weathering the virus is no different.  With our reps working 100% remote, we had…

Have you ever noticed that competition evolves naturally where there is quantification? Put up a fundraising goal and show the amount raised by each team, and they will likely compete to be the best.  Do the same for a weight loss goal, or consecutive days without an accident in the factory, or time to complete an obstacle course at the company picnic, and you will likely…

In my last blog, I recommended that companies make sure that they continue to build pipeline during this Coronavirus hiatus, so that they are not caught flat-footed when this finally ends. But building new pipeline is hard work and it may seem to be a futile exercise when potential customers are understandably reluctant to make a purchase. Despite the reluctance, we’ve found our connect and…

“Houston, we have a problem.”   It’s a classic line delivered by Tom Hanks during a tense scene in the 1995 movie Apollo 13.  Astronaut Jim Lovell, played by Hanks, informs mission control that a cabin filter has failed.  The astronauts are breathing dangerous levels of CO2 and will die if nothing is done soon. Ed Harris’s character, in charge of the mission, pulls together the…

Amid all the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty of the Coronavirus pandemic, only one thing is certain—this will end at some point and life and business will continue. Many companies are “sheltering in place” by marking time and putting much of their sales and marketing operations on hold. This is a big mistake. When we finally do come out of this crisis, companies who have stopped…