Sales is changing. Again.
Shocker, I know.
H1 was good to most of our clients. Certain industries are thriving and have avoided setbacks that others were unable to escape. Some clients have had the toughest first part of the year due to the macroeconomic landscape, difficult targets, pulled budgets, amongst many other things.
My conversations within the last two months have been oriented around keeping the consistency or making up for lost time for the back half of the year. H2 is notoriously the most stressful time of the year.
If you’ve spent H1 building your team, ironing our process and ramping up your sales motions, you’re probably being challenged with “How do I go faster?”
If you’ve spent H1 shedding the weight of over-indexed hiring in the past and slimming down your P&L, you’re probably thinking “How can I hit these numbers while I am running leaner?”
If you’ve spent H1 on pace with your goals but you’re feeling the slowing down in the summer, you’re probably asking yourself “What levers do I need to pull to ensure we stay on top of this?”
H2 is intense – and this year, it’ll be even more intense thanks to the pending election. I am writing this from the perspective of a woman who sits between 36 sales organizations every month. There’s undoubtedly a difference in sales organizations that are in control of their months vs. those that are uneasy and unpredictable.
With this checklist, join the leaders with confidence and control going into their H2.
Top Funnel Strategies:
- Cycle time analysis: Run the numbers for your fastest-moving deals. What personas/industries lead these deals?
- What channel produced those initial meetings?
- Was there a specific campaign or sales motion that converted these?
- How many prospects in your existing lists can run these same plays?
- ➡️ These are your priorities early in H2
- ➡️ These are your priorities early in H2
- Average deal size analysis: Run the numbers for the largest opportunity the same as above
- What personas/industries lead these deals?
- What channel produced those initial meetings?
- Was there a specific campaign or sales motion that converted these?
- How many prospects in your existing lists can run these same plays?
- ➡️ These are second priority in H2 to build your biggest contributing deals to the pipeline for a lucky EOY win or Q1 kickstart close.
- Sweetspot analysis on GTM campaigns for everyone else (regardless of size or TAM characteristics)
- Run the numbers of what contacts should be doubled down on now so we still account for the time it will take to close the deal.
- How many touches does it take to book the first meeting? (Most of our clients are 9-13 touches for Enterprise)
- How many contacts are currently sitting between 7-10 touches (aka nearing that sweet spot)?
- From Meeting Held, what is your average cycle time?
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➡️ This is your gauge on how long to run the Sweet Spot push. If cycle times are 100 days, then we need to deprioritize this strategy in Q4.
Pipeline Strategies:
Team influence on pipeline coverage:
- Coordinate internal coverage on the existing qualified pipeline
- Bring in a Client Success manager into the next meeting – allow them to establish a relationship. They must be more than a silent attendee.
- Ask leadership to accompany you in a closing call, connect with leadership via Linkedin with a gentle note, or send them introductions to your prospect's leadership team so they can establish an executive relationship and build a partnership early.
- Example: “Amy, please meet Ken Powell, the CRO of K1x. I have been working with his sales leader Chris Capko to establish a partnership to help them drive a faster pipeline. From what I’ve learned so far, I believe K1x is right up our alley and will be excellent partners so it’s my pleasure to make this introduction! - Mallory”
- External coverage of the deals is essential
- Commit only deals with several members of the buying team involved
- This does not necessarily mean we’ve attained verbal commitments from them all, but they’ve been involved enough to establish a reasonable opinion on the pending partnership.
Stay relevant with honest, consultative content:
- Share road-mapped ROI in the pipeline - demystify the impact (and when) should they sign this month. Real dates build confidence.
- Reference calls and pre-emptively ask if they’d like to connect with a peer/your existing customer
- Be frank with your expectations vs reality with your bottlenecks
- Example: “Typically when we’ve been working together for 30+ days, we know at this point if this is a viable partnership. I’d expect us at this point to have met other members of your team as we know you have substantial pain that we can solve. I’d certainly love to win this partnership, but if it’s not right or you’re not feeling comfortable for whatever reason, I will totally understand and trust your lead. At this point, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to know you.”
I’ve written to exhaustion about the disciplines it takes to build a pipeline as a lean sales organization this year. Here are my top 3 current favorites if you’re ready to dive in a little more.
Because you’re already on our site, you know we do this for companies all the time. If you’re curious about what it’s like to become a client, check out The 411 on AK Ops Partnership Structure.
Happy selling in H2 2024!