# Top 10 in SALES - What to know for Week ending September 6, 2019

Published: 6 September 2019
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/sales-week-ending-september-6-2019

In a similar vein to [last weeks newsletter](https://www.jonnydavies.com/top-10-in-tech/top-10-in-customer-success-what-to-know-for-week-ending-august-30-2019). As I spent the latter part of last week in Auckland hosting a Sales Management workshop with the ever-impressive, SaaS sales guru [Matt Cameron](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcameron2007) and the topic is fresh, we’re dedicating this week’s newsletter as a [SaaSy](https://saasysalesmanagement.com/) Sales-focused special:

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK - ARPU

Average revenue per user (ARPU) is one of the most important measures needed to understand the **quality** of revenue SaaS companies generate and how that quality can shift over time. [This article and Animal:ARPU chart](https://blog.chartmogul.com/arpu-average-revenue-per-user) is really informative to help determine how to validate the right-size of customers.

Link: https://blog.chartmogul.com/arpu-average-revenue-per-user

## 2. ENTERPRISE SALES

Moving upmarket into larger organizations is a [pretty standard SaaS growth strategy](https://tomtunguz.com/when-to-move-up-market/). Increasing ARPU (Average Revenue Per Customer) is good! But there is [a lot to learn](https://www.proposify.com/blog/saas-moving-upmarket) and a bunch of time required to be successful in this market segment. It's not easy, but it can be done. [Here is a great guide from Outreach](https://www.outreach.io/blog/how-to-close-enterprise-sales-deals) on breaking into deals over $100k ARR.

Link: https://tomtunguz.com/when-to-move-up-market/

## 3. ENRICH SALES

Want to get better at sales (or get someone else better at sales)? Saleshacker have [these 4 fundamental tips](https://www.saleshacker.com/improve-sales-skills) to put to work as well as [top tips on language to use](https://www.saleshacker.com/persuasive-words-phrases).

Link: https://www.saleshacker.com/improve-sales-skills

## 4. SALES COACHING

This is something Matt really hammered home. The best Sales Teams have access to great coaches. Saleshacker cover the fundamentals in [this article](https://www.saleshacker.com/coaching-salespeople-into-champions) and Matt Cameron has [more to say on it here](https://blog.chorus.ai/the-b2b-sales-show-the-pillars-of-effective-sales-coaching).

Link: https://www.saleshacker.com/coaching-salespeople-into-champions

## 5. PRICING

From HBR [an article on the psychology of pricing](https://hbr.org/2002/09/pricing-and-the-psychology-of-consumption) (and perceived value).

Link: https://hbr.org/2002/09/pricing-and-the-psychology-of-consumption

## 6. GROWTH

I hear this complaint a lot: Companies are expected (mainly by investors) to start measuring the right things at the wrong stage. In the SaaS world this is compounded as it is such a metric-heavy industry. Without any metrics though, regardless of stage, it’s hard to measure the things you want to improve. So here is advice for everyone (especially early stage investors): [Don’t focus on metrics like MRR too early on](https://conversionxl.com/blog/saas-metrics/) (but qualified leads - for sure!). And here is how to [measure product-market fit](https://www.dropbox.com/s/a7p6pjc3q5l8akk/Growth_for_Startups_SUS.pdf?dl=0) (reposted deck from past weeks).

Link: https://conversionxl.com/blog/saas-metrics/

## 7. COMPENSATION

Compensating SaaS Sales Reps is complicated and expensive. [This blog post from Kyle Racki](https://blog.kyleracki.com/how-to-compensate-your-saas-sales-reps-4f26e29240) of [Proposify](https://www.proposify.com/) is a pretty comprehensive guide from how to set quotas and commissions.

Link: https://blog.kyleracki.com/how-to-compensate-your-saas-sales-reps-4f26e29240

## 8. SALES ENABLEMENT

What are the best practices for optimizing performance with revenue teams? Sales Hacker have their [5 Do’s and Don’ts](https://www.saleshacker.com/sales-enablement-best-practices) for peak results as well as [an infographic](https://www.saleshacker.com/sales-enablement-content) (BTW [61% of organizations have a dedicated sales enablement person](https://www.csoinsights.com/sales-enablement-grows-up-4th-annual-sales-enablement-report/)).

Link: https://www.saleshacker.com/sales-enablement-best-practices

## 9. SDR RAMP

According to [past studies](https://blog.bridgegroupinc.com/hubfs/resources/SDRMetricsReport_TheBridgeGroup.pdf), time to ramp for an SDR [averages about 3.2 months](https://medium.com/north-america-tech-for-kiwis/2018-sdr-metrics-report-from-the-bridge-group-f7fee0ad46df). From Saleshacker [here are some tips and tricks](https://www.saleshacker.com/5-sdr-onboarding-ramp-hacks-sales-managers/) to make this ramp time as effective and successful as possible.

Link: https://blog.bridgegroupinc.com/hubfs/resources/SDRMetricsReport_TheBridgeGroup.pdf

## 10. SECURITY

Yup - I’m still talking about Sales. Being leaky at the seams is something that can become a real anchor in the sales cycle as SaaS companies start selling into larger (more enterprise) customers. Demonstrating that your team, code, and processes are secure is [an important part of the enterprise sales process](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/cybersecurity-linchpin-of-the-digital-enterprise). Openview have a [great overview](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/heres-what-you-need-to-sell-your-saas-product-to-enterprise-customers/#.XW7YypNKgWq) and HeavyBit are committing [an entire event to it](https://www.heavybit.com/devguild/enterprise-security/) in November.

Link: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/cybersecurity-linchpin-of-the-digital-enterprise

## POD OF THE WEEK

Of course this includes Matt Cameron and it’s an expansion on Article #4 above covering his [2 pillars of effective Sales Coaching](http://b2bsales.libsyn.com/16-sales-coaching-to-win-w-matt-cameron)

Link: http://b2bsales.libsyn.com/16-sales-coaching-to-win-w-matt-cameron