The FireOne team was introduced to a privately owned B2B software company with new ACV sales of approximated $18 million per year. The concern for the Board of Directors was that sales were stagnant, and the CEO had departed. The company had no leaders that could relate to the sales team and no one to drive sales accountability. There was an urgent need for implementing the necessary processes to drive sales and, more importantly, to inspire and instill a passion and purpose in the sales organization.
This company’s use case was exactly in the FireOne wheelhouse, with our decades of deep sales experience with turnarounds and expertise working with early stage companies. I was brought in as an Interim Sales Leader to quickly stabilize the organization and put improved sales strategies in place to move the company towards its revenue and profit targets.
Transforming a sales organization is about truly understanding the current state of its culture, people, and processes. It’s also critical to learn the value proposition of the company to the market and fully analyze the sales track record and existing gaps. After the early discovery process is done, the initial step is determining where successful and profitable revenue has been derived. Then it’s taking action to assure the appropriate sales resources, internal and external, are in place to be able to maintain a consistent baseline of revenue while driving incremental growth.
Our approach for this B2B software company that delivered testing solutions to the mark was to:
- Identify target verticals
- Design new Go-to-Market plan, including direct and channel strategy
- Create inside sales organization, processes, and team
- Build strategic account management team
- Engage with new clients, close accounts
- Re-engineer presales and value-based selling approach
- Accelerate revenue cycle with improved sales processes
- Develop metrics to manage and monitor sales performance
- Refine forecasting and compensation models
- Establish Deal Desk model and CRM system
- Grow sales team from 5 to 11 salespeople over engagement
- Grow revenue from $11M to $18M in US
- Grow revenue from $5M to $9M in EMEA
“Our revenue grew dramatically while working with the FireOne leader to re-engineer our sales model. Sales were stabilized and then accelerated by the creation of both Inside Sales and Account Management functions, while including sales methodologies that can be consistently executed and measured.”
CEO, Global B2B Software Company
