Hey there 👋
In today’s tech market, it doesn’t matter if your product:
- solves a real business problem
- is loved by users
- helps drive revenue
…if it’s not also directly driving down costs.
CFOs are watching like hawks. 👀
If it's not an easy "yes" for them, you're not getting the deal done no matter how amazing your champion is.
Companies just aren’t adding spend like they used to. They’re especially not open to adding new partners after tearing out a dozen others over the past few months.
Along with showing how your product fills a real gap – you need to make clear how it can do it more efficiently and consolidate / replace other spend.
No smooth talking & shiny features are going to change the math!
- Ross
In this newsletter:
🔮 Forecasting challenges & solutions
💪 3 tips for stronger executive summaries
📊 Data & insights from RevOps leaders
🔮 Drive predictable forecasting in an unpredictable world
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Forecasting… why is it so hard??
Between stakeholders leaving, misaligned expectations, deals stalling, subjective opinions about where deals actually stand, and other fun last minute surprises, getting an accurate forecast can feel nearly impossible.
5 common blockers to reliable forecasting:
- Lack of clearly mapped, outcome-based sales process
- Lack of shared framework / language to work & inspect deals
- “Forecasting for management” vs real deal execution
- Weekly vs daily exercise (always be inspecting your pipe!)
- Internally focused vs customer validated
But luckily, there are things you can control to increase forecast accuracy.
3 pillars to driving predictable forecasting in an unpredictable market:
🔁 Repeatable, enforced sales process & methodology with clear stages, milestones & qualification criteria
🤝 Customer-validated progress: proactive alignment with decision makers on business cases & buying journey
🎯 Reinforced & inspected daily across every rep and deal – ongoing inspection & actions across your pipeline
Setting this strong foundation with a repeatable sales process, consistent execution, and customer-validated, objective qualification will drive more accurate forecasts.
What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to forecasting? Hit reply to let me know – been chatting with a lot of sales leaders about this recently!
💪 3 tips for stronger executive summaries
A strong exec summary can mean the difference between a stalled/lost deal & a successful one.
3 tips for up-leveling your summaries 👇
1) Use your buyer’s language – not yours 📣
Include the words/phrases your buyer used when explaining their challenges & goals, even if it’s different from the language you’d normally use.
The summary is for THEM, so it needs to resonate with them.
(Make sure you’re repeating their words back during discovery, to make sure you understand and are aligned)
2) Include everything you need to make a strong business case 📈
The summary should answer all the key questions execs will have when evaluating & making a decision. Challenges, goals, quantified ROI (that you’ve aligned with the buying team on), scope, success criteria, basic proposal terms, etc.
3) Make it easy to share 🙌
Your business case should be thorough, but concise (it’s a summary, not a book). It should include all of the most important info in an easy-to-digest format for execs with very little time.
Your champion is doing the most heavy lifting by helping sell your solution internally – so take as much work off their plate as possible with the summary.
What do you always include in your business cases? Hit reply to share!
📚 What we’re reading
📊 Enjoyed reading Rattle’s 2023 State of RevOps Report recently – some super interesting insights from RevOps leaders in here.
A few callouts:
66% of RevOps leaders said they spend too much time fixing gaps in data
73% said they spend too much time on process adherence
96% said they felt their tech stack wasn’t being fully utilized
RevOps folks, you’ve got a tough but extremely important job, especially in today’s world. If any of y'all are reading this newsletter, I’d LOVE to hear what’s top of mind for you today!
Feel free to hit reply and share… I’ll respond to every note. 🤠
Thanks for reading From Vendorship → Partnership 👋
Feedback? Questions? Just hit reply :)
Ross Rich (CEO and Co-founder)
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