SADSAAS

Account Executive

Pipeline Creation - Is the AE or Business more responsible?

There seem to be differing opinions on how much of a rep's pipeline should be self-created vs. driven by referrals, inbounds, and marketing.

I am curious to get your thoughts.

Let's assume a quota of 100K and management expects a pipeline of 5x quota in a SaaS organization.

How much 500K would you expect your AE to find via cold calling, email, and other outbound forms?

How much should the business be held accountable for creating?

What % of pipeline should an AE be responsible for creating?

Attached poll

100% (everything else is gravy) 80% self created and 20% from the wider business 50% / 50% 20% self created and 80% pipeline created from the business

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

🔎 Prospecting

☁️ Software Tech

🧢 Sales Management

33 comments

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TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

If im an AE im expecting that I need to create ALL my own opportunities unless i have an SDR that works with me. and even then im heavily involved.

I dont like the expectation that someone else will do my job for me. I should not EXPECT that marketing is sending me warm, ready to close deals.

but i also expect that marketing is doing stuff to make that happen, im just not going to count on it.

also if marketing is doing their job well their efforts will make cold outbound easier.....then your playing the "attribution" game and that sucks.

detectivegibbles

Politicker

Sales Director

Took the words out of my mouth.

Prospect like your life depends on it and anything inbound is dessert.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

I think any AE in this situation has to act this way. Anything else is a bonus/gravy/a nice surprise.

50/50 would be nice, but I don't think is realistic, and if it is, it's not sustainable.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

It really depends on so much more… personally, 50 / 50 would be great but I’ve never worked anywhere that got me close to 50% of the required pipeline to reach quota (even at 3x instead of 5x) regarding leads that were not self-sourced.

The only real gauge here is the expectations set during the interview process.

RandyLahey

Politicker

Account Executive

Which we can all agree is usually stuffed with bullshit

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

Absolutely

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

I work at a company that marketing directly builds 90% of the AEs pipeline. It's pretty impressive and it sucks to see those AE bitch and moan when they don't even set their own meetings. In my day we had to walk barefoot to a prospect in the snow uphill.

Space_Ghost20

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Currently I'm at 80% marketing leads and 20% SDR lead gen. It's...terrible. I've never had so many no shows, bad data, people trying to get something for nothing, and other various time wasters in my entire life. Today I made 75 calls (again all to "warm" leads) and booked 2 meetings from them (the only two who even answered the phone). Of my 4 scheduled meetings today, none showed.

Oh how I would love to do my own prospecting again.

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

Possible diagnosis: Check 2 things: 1. self-schedule form allows an appointment before requiring an email or number. People book- give bs data after. It should grab info first. 2, Weak SDRs- just booking to hit a number, not making it stick with value.

Or not- maybe marketing is fishing in the same pool.

Space_Ghost20

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

I honestly think it's the segment we sell into: self employed folks, or those who started a side hustle and want to grow it. It's only technically B2B, it feels very B2C day-to-day. Ironically the SDR meetings are usually better than the marketing leads.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

I'm responsible for my shit. End of story.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Really depends on the support of BDCs and the product, but I would say 50/50 is the norm

RandyLahey

Politicker

Account Executive

Always, ALWAYS rely on yourself for the entirety of your pipeline. Anything the SDR brings is pure gravy.

That’s the attitude I’ve seen with all of the top performers I’ve worked with over the years.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

One. Hundred. Percent.

If you’re not thinking that way, you’re either an order taker or a hack.

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

^^ this.

sketchysales

Politicker

Sales Manager

100% self created, the day you expect it to land on your plate is the day you become unemployable.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Like it or not, without you being 100% worried about your pipeline you probably aren't paranoid enough. if you look at everything else as gravy then it is somewhat helpful. I've additionally found that the pipeline I source usually has a higher close rate than the opps that are from Marketing or BDRs

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Pipeline is my responsibility. If I'm not getting the inbounds, I'd best be out there getting those opportunities. If I am getting the inbounds, I'm still prospecting. It's a muscle that atrophies without use.

RckChlkG33k

Big Shot

AE (Account Executive)

There’s a difference between lead generation from marketing and having a presence within the market.

MQLs are nice, but usually useless. Having a marketing presence is vital.

RedLightning

Politicker

Mid-Market AE

Are there BDR's involved?

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

If no BDR then 100%. Depends what type of environment you are in and the type of product you sell. There are many companies that have a lot of inbound/mix and many only focus in outbound!

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Usually I’d say the AE is 100% responsible but the company has a duty to provide (1) a viable product & (2) some basic tools for prospecting (email access, conferences, etc).

StringerBell

Politicker

Account Executive

I have trouble believing people in SaaS source 100% of their leads and hit their number. People buy differently than they did 10 years ago. It feels like a lot of "I'm a bad ass sales person" talk. If your company can't drive any inbound then I feel there's a problem with your product:/fit.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

All should be responsible for his own.

fidelcashflow

Catalyst

Account Executive

Not gonna say it’s not possible but there is a tiny tiny # of AEs whose quota was hit by their own outbound and only their own outbound. What company are you working for that provides not a single lead from marketing? Prospecting on your own and generating your own pipeline is going to give you longevity and guarantee that you hit your number continuously. If you do zero prospecting, you’re gonna have a bad time. Sure you may hit at an inbound machine company but I promise you will have bad months and quarters if that is solely what you rely on.

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

Boss, I had a bad month and missed quota because marketing sucks. Try that on a seasoned manager. Call me when the swelling goes down.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

I put 50/50, but in the SaaS world it usually falls into 33 outbound/33 partner or channels/33 marketing (or inbound).

kittychachas

Valued Contributor

VP/Director of Sales

I’ve never been in a role where it was anything other than 100%. It would be nice to have more sales or marketing support. It’s much easier to close new business when they’re already further down the buying funnel vs contacting them in the unaware stage.

ChumpChange

Politicker

Channel Manager

70/30 is what I've seen. My mindset has always been to rely on my actions before I factor in the contributions of others.

IronPhi4

Good Citizen

CRO

This is a good question. Here is how I think about this... sellers need to prospect and build pipeline. We need good marketing and demand gen to help that. Good marketing and demand gen is the engine that is always running that keeps the top of the funnel full when we are in discovery, proposal , and/or close mode. If the seller is 100% responsible for this, then it turns into a cycle where we move to discovery, propose, and close stages and there are so many hours in the day so we are giving up prospecting time so when you close things you could come back to a really thin pipeline.

WeAllSell

Enterprise Account Executive

As an AE, the 100% rule and everything is gravy is has been my most reliable approach. IMHO pipeline growth is best left to an experienced AE. SDRs are typically undertrained, and left to be guided and mentored, while the company's marketing team is not always effective in driving marketing demand for entire sales team. Successful AEs efficiently connect to their ICPs/personas with the right messaging thru the right channels to create their own opportunities

ZVRK

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

I`ll go with "it depends" :)

I worked as an AE for 7 years in the events industry - generated 95% of my pipeline on my own, with marketing throwing in the occasional stray lead.

I`m in Enterprise SaaS right now, and it`s something like 90% Partnerships/Leads/Marketing, and 10% on me, and I can`t really see it happening any different. It`s just a different space where cold calling, cold emailing are just not time productively spent by an AE (myself).

It really depends on what you`re selling, who are you selling to, how your buyers are buying etc.. I can`t see how there should be one rule that applies to all :)

CRAG112

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

I believe that both parties should view this as their 100% responsibility. With the organization delegating said responsibility to both areas of the business.

In effect. If both sales and marketing are working to meet a goal of 500K, the company is going to win, sales are going to be great, and that's a train we are getting on all day.

But if responsibility is shirked or passed off to someone else, then nobody wins.

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SADSAAS

Pipeline Creation - Is the AE or Business more responsible?

What % of pipeline should an AE be responsible for creating?

33 comments

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