Show Notes:

This episode discusses best practices around responding to RFPs (requests for proposals), including when to bid or not bid, managing internal collaboration, maintaining relationships even if declining to bid, and leveraging AI for efficiency and learning. Listeners can gain insights into strategically approaching RFPs.

Key Discussion Points:

• Starting an RFP process - focus first on content library and single source of truth
• Signs an organization needs a formal RFP process - inconsistencies, lack of process
• Determining whether to bid on an RFP - alignment with goals, capabilities, profitability, competitive landscape
• Making the bid/no bid decision - account team spearheads but cross-functional collaboration
• Maintaining relationships if declining to bid - treat everyone respectfully
• Using RFPs for market learning even if unlikely to win
• Trends in RFP space - AI for efficiency, reporting for optimization

Brad Rosen Bio:

Brad Rosen is President at Sales Assembly, which provides skill development for go-to-market teams. He focuses on sales effectiveness and process optimization.

Tony Germanario Bio:

Tony Germanario is the RVP of Enterprise at Responsive (formerly RFPIO), a software company providing RFP and proposal management solutions. He has over 15 years of experience in sales leadership.

Company Bios:

Sales Assembly - Services firm focused on sales skill development through workshops, custom training, and coaching. Helps teams sell more strategically.

Responsive - Software company with solutions for streamlining and optimizing RFP response and proposal processes. Enables efficiency through content collaboration and AI.

This session of Sales and Stuff and Things discusses how revenue organizations can scale through developing seller skills, rather than solely through adding more headcount. The guests provide historical context on why sales leaders often default to hiring more, despite data showing skill development is needed. They outline essential modern seller skills like decision science, writing, active listening, and empathy.

Main Discussion Points

- Many sales leaders are not formally trained for their roles, so they default to hiring more reps rather than prioritizing enablement (Sam McKenna)
- Throughout history, sales training and education has often declined during economic downturns, leading to more reliance on quantity over quality (Todd Caponi)
- Leaders and boards often prioritize short-term results over long-term enablement due to lack of experience with previous economic cycles (Todd Caponi)
- Sellers today often lack skills like writing, active listening, and intellectual curiosity that are essential for modern sales (Sam McKenna)
- Foundational understanding of decision science and empathy are key for applying modern sales techniques effectively (Todd Caponi)
- Sales messaging and outreach should focus on buyer challenges and perspectives, not just product features (Sam McKenna)

In this episode, Michelle Vu discusses the current state of B2B SaaS sales and customer success with Jonah Mandel of Capchase and Brad Rosen of Sales Assembly. They dig into findings from a recent survey conducted by Capchase on sales procurement in the B2B SaaS space. Key topics include increasing sales cycle length, rising customer acquisition costs, and decline in LTV:CAC ratio. Listeners can expect to learn strategies for optimizing sales processes, managing discounting, improving customer retention, and more in today's climate.

Main Discussion Points:

- Factors contributing to longer sales cycles and how some companies are bucking this trend
- Rising CAC and how to optimize spend on customer acquisition
- Managing discounting behaviors of sales teams
- Turning customer success into a profit center with skills for upsell
- Getting ahead of churn risk before renewal conversations

Guest Bios:

Jonah Mandel is the VP of Sales and Customer Success at Capchase, helping businesses grow through non-dilutive financing. He previously led go-to-market efforts at Alibaba for 5 years and worked in mobile payments at Square and ShopKeep.

Brad Rosen is the President of Sales Assembly, which helps teams build foundational sales skills for greater efficiency. He previously led G2's go-to-market team for 7 years after a long career in finance.

Company Bios:

Capchase: Provides non-dilutive financing to SaaS companies through options like revenue-based financing and a buy now, pay later purchasing tool.

Sales Assembly: Offers sales training and coaching to help companies scale through the development of foundational selling skills.