I get hassled for this all the time, but I am proud to admit that I am a cost evaluating, penny-pinching, profit-margin-analyzing geek to the core.

Early in my career, I saw firsthand how a $20M funded company went from startup to NASDAQ IPO to being delisted in the span of three years due to frivolous spending (but that’s a story for another day).

My cost-conscious lens (plus our proven outbound sales program) has served my company, Leadium, well. We grew over 600% last year and hold steady at a 40% profit margin. I attribute a lot of that success to evaluating the value of every dollar we spend for every decision we make.

I am passionate about helping small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) accelerate their growth with outbound sales. And while strategy is incredibly important, considering the cost of every piece of that strategy can be a game-changer to your bottom line.

The SMB Decision: In-House vs. Outsourced Sales Development

As a high-growth SMB, your number-one focus is consistent...

There are many levers a sales leader or organization may pull to gain scale, accelerate revenue, drive cost savings, or augment sales team structures. A viable and proven option is handing over some or all of your sales efforts to outsourced sales professionals.

It’s true that outsourcing your sales to a third-party provider can yield favorable results. However, the process may not happen smoothly without preparation and the shaping of expectations by both parties.

• There are many outsourcing companies, but which of them can actually hold a sales quota and get results?

• How can you be sure you’re choosing the right one?

• Will partnering with an outsourced sales provider really impact your top and bottom line?

• And once you select a sales partner, how can you be sure you’re getting the most out of the relationship?

Consider the following do’s and don’ts to make sure you select the sales solution provider that best fits your needs, and starts building revenue.

1)...

To personalize or not to personalize—that is often the question for today’s sales professional.

Sending a one-size-fits-all email to your entire lead list certainly seems like the most time-efficient option. But, is doing so the most effective way to drive engagement? Probably not.

Your gut tells you that personalization is a much better approach, but you don’t have time to send hundreds of one-off emails. Even if you did, how would you measure personalization’s impact on building pipeline?

Back in March I hosted a webinar with Craig Rosenberg, Chief Analyst and Co-founder at TOPO (recently acquired by Gartner -congrats!) on 'The Secrets for Driving Prospect & Customer Engagement at Scale'. I think the tips we shared on the webinar are timeless and can benefit sales teams of all sizes.

Building Relationships through Personalization

There’s no doubt that email, social media, and digital advertising have changed the face of sales forever. That being said, the basic fundamentals of sales have...

Why isn't most software sold based on a subscription model? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Ajit Kulkarni, VP of Product at Chronicled, on Quora:

When you bought your last laptop, chances are, you paid a one-time fee to download a software onto your computer—think Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop. And now, you simply use your applications without worrying about paying for them again.

A few years down the road, you may want to upgrade to the newest version. In this business model you’d pay another one-time fee, essentially buying the newer product.

But the business model used by most Software as a Service (SaaS) providers is a subscription-based model.

And this model is different. Instead of one large upfront payment, companies generally charge a small monthly fee. If a customer wants to quit using the service, they simply notify the provider and stop...

This article is by TalentBin Co-founder Peter Kazanjy (@kazanjy), based on his upcoming book on sales for startup founders and other first-time sales staff. TalentBin was acquired by Monster Worldwide in March 2014.

When TalentBin first started to take off, and we realized how fast we needed to build our sales team, we made a landmark choice: Instead of hiring seasoned sales execs out of the powers that be in the recruiting world (think CareerBuilder, Indeed, and so on), we focused all our energy on landing new, hungry grads out of high-caliber universities like Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA and more — with preference to athletes and others who had demonstrated grit and success on a team. We also looked for proactive junior staff out of companies like LinkedIn who were ready for the next step, but not afforded the opportunity.

The difference this made was clear. This fresh blood was willing to go after new waves of customers instead of focusing on maintainin...

Improving your SaaS sales process is hard. Conductor explains how to optimize your sales process for the needs of your customers using SEO & enablement.

To succeed in the world of SaaS (software as a service) sales, you need an optimized sales process. The longer your Sales team has to spend educating prospects on your solution, the more friction in the process for both Sales and prospective clients. Prospects may lose interest in the product due to lack of education. Sales may spend too much of their time with prospects who are not the right fit for your solution. At the end of the day, you don’t want to waste your prospects’ time or your own time.

Recording, sharing, and scaling customer data is the key to a better sales process. When your sales process is a well-oiled machine, Sales records customer insights, Sales Enablement communicates those insights throughout the organization, and SEOs scale those insights. In order to understand how these roles fit together, it’s important to un...

Great SaaS sales reps can change your entire business.

The best ones are efficient, motivated, effective, and creative in how they operate on a day-to-day basis. They have a knack for identifying quality prospects, making strong impressions quickly, and closing deals that seem out of reach.

So what is it about these SaaS sales reps that differentiates them from the rest? What do they know about the industry that mediocre sales reps don’t?

Let’s break down a few things that all the best SaaS sales pros understand.

1. Upselling value to existing customers is key

Tomasz Tunguz explains that the fastest-growing SaaS businesses rely much more on upsells than their slower-growing competitors. And the larger the business, the greater the impact of upselling. While SaaS salespeople know that there are significant growth opportunities in upselling, far too many overlook it for one simple reason:

It’s hard.

Integrate the product into your efforts.

Upselling is hard because when a relationship...

The idea of having staff working in different locations around the world was once the domain of the large multinationals.

Now with high-speed internet accessible by more people every day, more and more businesses are taking advantage to snatch up the best talent from around the world.

Recruitment is now a worldwide net. Sometimes the idea of remote work is less about bringing in international staff and more about letting staff work from home.

But remote teams aren’t without their challenges. Earlier this year it was reported that IBM was reversing their policy on remote work and banning telecommuting, with staff told they’d need to either work from a main location or quit.

Does this mean that it’s impossible to effectively manage remote sales teams?

Having worked with remote sales teams for close to ten years, my experience is it’s not only possible to run a remote team, but when done right they’re a powerful asset for your company. They’re an asset that’s integral to Reply.io’s success.

So...

A Founder’s Guide to the First Sales Hire

Congratulations, founders, you’re ready to make your first sales hire! It’s an exciting time, you are now ready to embark on the next stage of growth. As early stage investors, we meet a lot of founders who are ready to make their first sales hire, but are unsure how to approach the process. It’s a surprisingly complicated decision and we thought we’d share some thoughts on the topic.

What does the business need right now?

Before even meeting with sales candidates, we think it’s incredibly important that founders assess the state of their business and answer three critical questions:

· What is our current sales growth trajectory?
· What is our ideal customer profile (ICP)?
· What are my personal strengths and weaknesses as an operator?

Answering these questions will help define the type of salesperson your company needs. Your sales traction, revenue growth, and ideal customer profile will dictate the types of salespeople best suited for the rol...

SaaSySales believes all children, regardless of their gender, socioeconomic background or circumstances, should have access to free, compulsory and quality education. A portion of profits will go towards

• RCEF: nonprofit committed to raising gap funds for all public schools in the Redwood City School District

• FilRose Peralta Foundation: nonprofit supporting elementary schools in Tabuk, Kalinga, Philippines.

Last year, I read a Fortune article about the importance and impact of building a culture around philanthropy, volunteering, and giving back: ...Most companies have something more to give the world than their products. That could be their position to advocate for worthy causes, the expertise of their employees, or the financial resources to help a community project succeed...Fostering that connection can generate more than temporary good vibes: Research behind the Best Workplaces list revealed an important relationship between the way employees...