Had a hybrid enterprise sales team worked for anyone?
Where an AE is a Hunter and a farmer with some support from a customer success resource in the day to day.
keen to hear your thoughts!
sfdc
Hunter Farmer hybrid role
15
I mean I have cold accounts and accounts that are current customers where its more "farmer" sales but we arent enterprise
I have a handful of growth accounts, but I mostly work on net new opportunities.
It works if you can think strategically for the existing customers and go beyond order taking. It can be a nice change from pure hunting.
It works if you can think strategically for the existing customers and go beyond order taking. It can be a nice change from pure hunting.
Same. The benefits are a little more than standard too.
I'm in this position now and I love the mix. I can focus on upselling existing clients and know I have a level of earnings when I go and hunt new business.
My comp is tiered, anything past historic rev levels gives me pretty good returns. Makes it fun to look for new revenue sources.
My comp is tiered, anything past historic rev levels gives me pretty good returns. Makes it fun to look for new revenue sources.
I know you’re in a bit of a different space than SaaS but how are you comped on recurring purchases with existing clients? (Ie: effectively your version of a SaaS renewal)
Yes I'm comped on every sale, recurring or new. Recurring is usually based on our customers having contracts with the govt but we can lose our orders anytime.
When I was originally hired the boss tried to negotiate to me not getting any comp on recurring or existing customers. I flat out refused as that would mean I have no incentive to service any of those accounts.
Since joining I've already increased one of our legacy customer's rev by over 63%.
When I was originally hired the boss tried to negotiate to me not getting any comp on recurring or existing customers. I flat out refused as that would mean I have no incentive to service any of those accounts.
Since joining I've already increased one of our legacy customer's rev by over 63%.
Any differentiation in comp percentage between existing versus new? Or is it comp on net new revenue?
No my comp is the same between recurring and new.
I've been pushing lots of existing customers into multi-year agreements which works great for me as it lets me focus on bringing in new business and diversifying our customer base.
I've been pushing lots of existing customers into multi-year agreements which works great for me as it lets me focus on bringing in new business and diversifying our customer base.
Yeah, this is how it should be. The pure hunter roles are easy to cut or move around as it’s just buying a Rolodex. Being able to maintain those relationships past close is important for growth and future sales (when you or your customer moves to a new company).
yes this has worked. the comp has to align for it to make sense, but it can work.
key things to look at:
- case load, how many accounts is the AE looking over
- what is the day to day expectations of the AE for existing customers?
- how is comp aligned? if the AE is getting 8% on new deals and 2% on renewals, thats not going to work.
Here is how it worked at a former company (ill try to summarize best i can)
The quota is a TOTAL revenue number. Lets say $1MM.
Every deal you sign ADDs to the number,
Every current customer you sign takes AWAY from the number.
So if all current customers = $500K then you need to renew 100% of them, and close $500K to hit quota.
If $100K does not renew, then you have to hit $600K to make quota.
im not saying this is ideal, but it did a great job of motivating AEs to take renewals very seriously.
key things to look at:
- case load, how many accounts is the AE looking over
- what is the day to day expectations of the AE for existing customers?
- how is comp aligned? if the AE is getting 8% on new deals and 2% on renewals, thats not going to work.
Here is how it worked at a former company (ill try to summarize best i can)
The quota is a TOTAL revenue number. Lets say $1MM.
Every deal you sign ADDs to the number,
Every current customer you sign takes AWAY from the number.
So if all current customers = $500K then you need to renew 100% of them, and close $500K to hit quota.
If $100K does not renew, then you have to hit $600K to make quota.
im not saying this is ideal, but it did a great job of motivating AEs to take renewals very seriously.
Getting hit with a negative in the renewal is not fun. My favorite is when an account that was going to cancel was handed off to another team by the previous team a month before the renewal: "Oh, this is no longer enterprise. Here you go, commercial! A great account!"
* grumbles *
Sales managers are semi-feral in many organizations.
haha ughhhh yikes!
That’s fairly normal for enterprise
I mean, it's pretty normal from what I have seen.
If you have geographic territories then hunter/farmer roles make sense. You land into the account and then expand as your solution enables you to do so.
Yes, a lot of small to medium sized businesses thrive with this type of model.
I've been at an org that did this successfully. Won't lie, it was nice to have the balance of prospecting and building relationships/growing accounts.
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