Setting up Inside Sales to sell SaaS into US – Learning's from iSPIRT #PlaybookRT

Inside Sales was presented as one of the strategic levers for SAAS companies selling to the US market at a recent Google Accel event. no wonder when

iSPIRT arranged for a round table on this topic there was a buzzing interest.

If you are not familiar with the round tables of iSPIRT check them out here. (Highly recommended)

Suresh of kissflow.com who has been successful in cracking the US market with his DIY Self-service workflow product conducted this round table.

Agenda

What was interesting is when the group was setting an agenda. It sort of covered areas from the complete funnel from marketing to Sales. Here are the sections and key learnings that were discussed in each. End of the article we also have links to tools and resources that can help.

Leads/Marketing
This is concerned with generating leads. These might be signups on your free-trial self-service product or request for demos. [Inbound]

These might also be leads that you have gathered by list building/event which you might be nurturing through email marketing or Inside Sales for outbound.

Learning

SEO is a must and early start helps
Start with a keyword list (Commercial intent) and then keep building backlinks and writing content. In Suresh’s words its do-able and needs discipline and not hacks. [In my own opinion we as Indian entrepreneurs have done a shoddy job in this area and need to learn this fast]
Keywords, which you cannot rank on, go with PPC. The typical signup costs discussed were between 50 USD – 200 USD per signup / MQL
Data for outbound prospecting is very important; Mass Emailing does work but it is super important to spend time on defining segment well and crafting messaging which is relevant.
[In my opinion one would actually have to go a step further with personalization if you are not a mass market solution and selling to mid-large markets]
Having a strong Web Engineering team which works on Google Analytics and conversion optimization is a must

Inside Sales

Roles

You may be calling this team with different names. In theory the following are possible

Lead Development Rep – Qualify Inbound leads
Sales Development / Account Development – Generate Qualified meetings from outbound
Other names discussed were BDRs (Same as SDRs or some times channel)
Account Executive – Someone who closes
Product Specialist – Someone who knows product well and closes
Should you have a product specialist closing or Account executive?
Self-Serve product with low complexity AE (sometimes even an SDR) can close
If a product requires mapping use cases configurations (Like KissFlow) then Product specialist are in the best position to close
If you selling 50K + ACV then a field Sales or experienced AE in the US is recommended.

Where to Hire Inside Sales

There were different thoughts and opinions on what talent can fit into this role. Typically the options are

Someone who has been in a BPO
Fresh Graduate who wants to build a career in Sales
Experienced Lead Generation in IT Services / SaaS

It was recommended that if you are starting out get someone who is more experienced and can then train new members. Training was an important aspect of Inside Sales and once you have 2-3 members it’s best to invest into training.

One of the learning I have had is that the player coach model does not work. If you are getting someone to manage / coach a team do not have a individual quota for them.

Compensation Structure

At one point this became a discussion of Chennai vs RoW ☺
SDRs should be compensated and evaluated on meetings / opportunities passed and accepted.
AE should be compensated on MRR addition (and may be a bonus on long term contracts)
The starting costs of SDRs discussed varied from 4L – 8L [Inbound is far easier than outbound]

Metrics discussed

Inbound leads per Rep per month – 200 – 300 this is for ACV <10K kind of deals. Larger deals lesser leads
Outbound accounts per SDR per month – 200 – 300 and aim for 1-2 meetings per day
Email Open Rates for Cold Emails – 20% – 30%
Right party Conversations per Day – 8 – 12

Tools discussed