By Greg Casale and Adam Coughlin
It’s always a good exercise to be looking at ways to be more efficient with capital — particularly in your go-to-market strategy.
We’ve gone from an environment where capital was essentially free for companies to today, where funding is down and everybody’s looking at ways that they can save capital. It’s been turbulent for any companies that are funded by the private capital markets, and no one knows how long that’s going to last.
How to Create an Efficient GTM Motion
Here are five things your startup can do to make your sales motion more efficient:
1. If you’re selling a product that goes into a stack, know what other tools in the stack you can replace. Sales conversations today aren’t typically about what the buyer can add to their stack. They’re about what they can take out.
2. Understand the CFO perspective. CFOs are involved in purchases more now than they ever have been. Talk to your own CFO, because they’re probably involved in buying products right now. Ask them, “What’s most important to you?” They might say, for example, that they’re willing to pay more in order to have a shorter commitment. So that’s something you can adopt in your own sales tactics.
3. Avoid free trials as a way to drive more opportunities. Free trials are not efficient. They just end up consuming more resources. And that’s not what you want to be doing in these times.
4. Shorten sales cycles by reducing customers’ choices. When you’re in the negotiation stage, you can say, “These are the things we don’t negotiate, but we will negotiate on these other things.” Now it takes less time for the customer to come to a decision.
5. Incorporate outbound sales into your strategy. Every sales development representative or business development representative should be doing outbound for at least half of their activities, and every sales rep should be doing some element of outbound also. Give them the right training and technology to make it more efficient.
Focus on Your Customers
When capital dries up, the instant reaction is often negative. But the glass-half-full perspective on the current environment is that it forces startups to rethink what it means to build a good company.
There was a time not too long ago when a lot of entrepreneurs were measuring themselves against vanity metrics and setting their milestones based on their next fundraises. But now, as demonstrated by the five tips shared above, there’s a need to focus inward — on your company and on your customers.
What are your customers looking for? What are their challenges? How do they go about buying new products?
If you start focusing on those questions, you’re going to build a healthier business in the long run.
Greg Casale is CEO of inside sales services provider Reveneer.