Earlier this fall, we co-organised with Salesforce Ventures the first edition of Cloud Europe, a ½ day event preceding SaaStock 2017 and gathering the founders of the top 100 European SaaS companies. We were lucky to have as a keynote Chris Ciauri, EVP Salesforce EMEA, and he shared a few tips to check that your sales organisation is ready to scale. Here is a quick summary of the key insights with us, which hopefully will help you with your 2018 planning.
1) Balance your sales management ratios
As software companies scale, the question of span of control in the organisation becomes critical. There is no right or wrong answer and it will depends on your business. But here is what has worked well for Salesforce and is a good starting point for a SaaS business:
· 4-5 first line managers to 1 second line manager
· 6-10 reps per first line manager. 6-10 reps is a wide range: the right ratio will depend on the segment. For small businesses, the number will be closer to 10 and for enterprise, closer to 6
2) Figure the right formula for your sales support functions
For most SaaS companies, sales reps will be supported typically by Solutions Engineers (SEs) and by Business Development Reps (BDRs) who are cold calling and taking appointments. To be able to scale quickly, each company should figure out the right ratios of these support functions vs. sales reps. The formula will be heavily (Read more…)