The unhappy path to quota:
⛔️ Work account list from top to bottom
⛔️ Work a ton of smaller deals
⛔️ Waste a lot of time chasing unqualified deals
The happy path to quota:
✅ Work accounts most likely to engage
✅ Work a balance of large and small deals
✅ Invest all your energy into qualified deals
This starts with territory planning. Play the odds and invest energy in accounts with the highest likelihood of closing.
Sales leaders, provide guidance for reps so they spend time on the right accounts.
Here's a 3-part strategy you can use for QBRs later this month and next:
1/ Analyze every deal worked in the last 6 months:
↳ What are the top two industries where you win the most?
↳ For the closed/won deals, what persona(s) was the first meeting with?
↳ What personas mobilized the deal internally?
↳ What use cases/solutions did you sell the most of?
↳ For the closed/lost deals, what made them a bad fit?
↳ What size were these companies?
↳ Were there patterns in specific department headcount or growth?
↳ What triggers did they have in common?
2/ Make a list of closed/lost deals to re-approach:
↳ Timing was bad
↳ Contract renewal dates are coming up
↳ Missing features or capabilities
↳ Didn’t get access to power
↳ Lost to a competitor
↳ Lost to no-decision
3/ Add your accounts into Sales Navigator, and run these searches:
↳ Accounts with prospects who are past employees of current clients
↳ Accounts within industries where you have the most success stories
↳ Accounts with newly hired executives that match your personas
↳ Accounts with good emails/phone numbers of your ideal personas
↳ Accounts with ideal triggers (hiring, etc.)
↳ Accounts where you have intro opportunities through teamlink
↳ Accounts where your leadership has connections
↳ Accounts where you have 1st-degree connections
↳ Accounts with contacts in your local geography
↳ Contacts who follow your company on LinkedIn
↳ Contacts you’ve had past interactions with on LinkedIn
↳ Contacts who are newly promoted into a leadership position
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A proper territory strategy goes narrow and deep—not wide and shallow.
Future efforts should be informed by your org's past successes.
Use this list as a cheat for your next QBR.