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Experienced hires: would anyone be willing to have a quick chat sometime next week about how you made the transition? Advice on the application process is great, and I’m also interested in hearing about your goals and experience now that you’ve joined. Just looking for an honest conversation! More below McKinsey & Company Boston Consulting Group
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Microsoft why are you damn obsessed with making so much of your software “start on startup” by default?
It’s so annoying and Microsoft teams is the LeAST efficient chatting app out there so it’s awful on resources. Slack is SO much faster and doesn’t start on startup (I don’t think ?)…
you’re really quite something to blatantly copy the competition, make your product more sluggish, and then add in your nasty ass dark patterns. Microsoft teams = bloatware 90% of the time. Stop prioritizing it
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Does anyone have a referral for Five9?
Data definitely helps, my suggestion would be to reach out to folks in our Sales & Service Excellence Practice. I was part of the team before I left for bschool but worked with some folks on a Tech Sales Benchmarking study that might be helpful for you. Also they have lots of maturity frameworks that can form the basis of your analysis. If it were me I’d start by looking to benchmark/understand key metrics in their sales funnel like number of leads generated per FTE, leads converted to sales calls, calls converted to quotes, quotes converted to sales, and renewal business generated off those customers (if they use Salesforce or similar CRM you can get this data). It’ll help you understand where the problem is. I’d also look at their coverage model to understand how they’re going to market (use of account managers, specialists, etc) and if there’s opportunity to bifurcate roles (lot of sales folks have to do everything and it takes their eye off of just selling), how sales territories are assigned and the relative balance, and level of quota attainment. I’d also want to understand basic operating metrics like sales cost as a % of revenue generated, attrition rates, spans of control, etc. I’d look at compensation next to understand the structure (fixed vs variable and formulaic vs. discretionary) and how their mix and pay level compare to market and what you’re trying to achieve. Lastly I’d evaluate their enablement tools and the value they’re delivering (CRM, Analytics and Forecasting, Compensation, etc.). If you’re hard pressed for data you could also try to do a time study which might reveal a lot about where folks are spending (or wasting their time). If you don’t have time to sit with folks, interview someone on what they do on a typical day, bucket the activities, and survey the broader team. Hope some of this helps. Good luck!
Thank you so much! This is incredibly helpful. Wishing you best in your B school journey.
I have been part of core sales, core strategy, operations and strategic alliances.
Some guidelines:
1. Design of Core Sales team and managing territories and accounts and Key accounts.
2. Inside sales team for coverage.
3. Operations, Order2Cash process and Billing. Plus Comp management.
4. Strategic alliance teams - selling with partners, GSIs.
5. Presales and architecture teams. May include Customer Success.
6. Marketing teams and Virtual events teams.
This is the structure.
Salesforce effectiveness should be embedded in the design to data input to reports process.
Thank you PTC. Very helpful. :)