Salespreuner

Regional Sales Director

VP talking growth with Numbers ONLY : is it a concern?

Veterans, a quick understanding from how leadership styles work at your end

Does VPs only talk numbers with growth or is it numbers predominantly and attributes to support team , be able to navigate deal cycles better, etc been taken into account?

Would appreciate your inputs - which can be passed to leadership team as a part of OKR self objectives definition for next year as to what needs to be considered for growth

Please do drop your thoughts🙏

How's it at your org?

Attached poll

Don't care much, as long as I get in 💸 Numbers + growth mindset Only number, FTW!

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

👑 Sales Strategy

☁️ Software Tech

🚀 Career Goals

24 comments

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Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

At the end of the day the only thing which matters is Revenue. If a VP of Sales isn’t bringing in new revenue then it’s time for a new VP of Sales.

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

Well, that's 100% right! But to get in to that revenue, doesn't he or she need to spend time to work, understand issues of not being able to sell through or atleast try coaching like 30 min a week for 2-3 weeks ?

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

in my experience, the VP of sales job is to care about revenue. Coachings, 1-1's, trainings, etc is the job of the managers. That's the main reason there's multiple levels to management.

Managers make sure the team is properly trained, coached, and equipped to hit their goals. VP is in charge of determining goals to hit revenue target. In an ideal world, those 2 have an open line of communication so goals are realistic and necessary resources are being provided.

nomdeguerre

Executive

Account executive

Frankly, I’m not really sure what you’re asking. A VP of Sales will always monitor how his department is doing by monitoring lagging indicators, i.e. revenue, pipeline, conversion rates etc. But then he or she should be driving those numbers through leading indicators, i.e. behaviors, competencies etc.

Unlike what people think you cannot coach to a number, you can only coach to behaviors and competencies. If you drive good inputs, the outputs will take care of themselves.

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

That's so right!! My question was if a VP only chases numbers without spending time to even understand what's happening or what's not working in terms of pipe building happening at the team, does it make sense if he still pushes to deliver numbers alone and keeps that as the only component to growth of that AE/SDR
As you rightly mentioned, growth would heavily rely on numbers , as a VP , that's his or her job even to make sure the team delivers
My question more so was, if someone doesn't spend time understanding issues and towards the EOY just maps numbers made for the growth of his/her team, as a VP, is it right or what else should be done?

nomdeguerre

Executive

Account executive

Most VP don’t do want you are looking for, but they should. Frankly because most of them have no clue.

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

Insane truth this is 🤐

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Ned to worry about it, as comp structure can be thrown on its head and screw your over.

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

Valid point here @FinanceEngineer. Can hit back hard - gotta watch out

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

Chasing only revenue and not bookings can screw you as well. If they are singularly focused on the number they’ll never get to right mix of coaching etc that gets you there. Just because Nolan Ryan was the hardest thrower ever doesn’t mean he was the greatest pitched ever.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

You sure know how to paint a picture 🥳

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

Thanks! Autocorrect got me on pitcher but the story stands!

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

Your thoughts resonate right, thanks for chipping in and reiterating the importance out of numbers !

Sweetsuites

Valued Contributor

VP of Biz Dev

As a VP of Sales for the last 12 years, often we are required to report numbers “up.” But, an over fixation on numbers is problematic - just as an over fixation on activity for activity’s sake is problematic.
All of that said, if you do not have results you should expect to have to explain that in terms of both your numbers and your activity.

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

Yeah that's right. And do you spend time with the team to improvise or try to hit the numbers ? If your team doesn't do those numbers (like 15-20% drop to target), how'd you go about growth for the team?

Sweetsuites

Valued Contributor

VP of Biz Dev

If my team is hitting all of the metrics - meaning the are hitting all of their numbers except the revenue number, either they are lying or they are lacking skill.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Revenue is pretty much all the VP of Sales would care about, maybe revenue per deal and renewal rate. All other important metrics usually are tracked and talked about with director and below

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

Being in an approving authority as a VP , would it be better if he/she works with directors too to plan growth metric (majorly focused on rev/numbers, but include a few others too?)

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Absolutely I was more talking about what see from All hands calls and the few meetings we have with them. Typically we only talk about non revenue metrics if we missed our revenue goal to find a silver lining or area to improve

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

they only worry about numbers. it's their job

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

Hard truth, Amen!

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

I'd say revenue + growth

coletrain

Politicker

Account Executive

Everything should have numbers as an underlying focus. That's why the typical refrain of "make more calls, book more meetings, etc" gets tossed out.

However, I've found that when a growth mindset is encouraged, that propels numbers upwards due to a boost in morale and skills development.

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

True to every extent that growth mindset catalyses or propels numbers, big time. Sad reality is not many think that way 🙈

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Salespreuner

VP talking growth with Numbers ONLY : is it a concern?

How's it at your org?

24 comments

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