The document provides 20 upgrades that a company can make in 2022. Some of the key upgrades mentioned include taking leads from the bottom 10% of reps and giving them to better reps, making sure the sales compensation plan rewards excellence and reps enjoy the VP of Sales, upgrading weak VPs and not waiting for any VP if they are not bringing good people with them. It also suggests raising prices strategically, revisiting variable comp plans, making sure sales reps are product experts, optimizing the SDR to AE ratio, hiring a real VP of product, doing more business development beyond direct sales and investing in word-of-mouth.

1. 20+ Upgrades for 2022
JASON LEMKIN
CEO & Co-Founder
SaaStr
@jasonlk

2. Best Reps Close So Much More
Need heads, BUT
Take leads from
bottom 10% of reps
and give ‘em to better
ones

3. Don’t Lose Any Great Reps
Does your sales comp
plan reward
excellence?
Do your reps love
your VP of Sales?
Zero Vol Attrition :)

4. Upgrade Your Weak VPs
Things should always
approve in 1 sales
cycle
Time doesn’t turn a
mediocre VPS into a
good one

5. Don’t Wait for Any VP
If they are great …
They are all accretive
Even at $1m ARR

6. VPS Has Bring Good Folks
Move on from any VP
of Sales, and
probably VP of Eng,
without anyone good
to bring with them
Ask, check, talk to
‘em

7. Drive Up Logo Retention
Don’t let 100%+ NRR
hide mediocre logo
retention
Don’t let CS cruise on
110%+ NRR

8. Raise Prices -- Strategically
More pricing
elasticity than most
of assume
But -- be thoughtful
about raising on
existing customers.
It’s too tempting.

9. Many Budgets Up
Some budgets are
down
But others are up
Cloud growing 20%+
… so, so are organic
budgets

10. Revisit Variable Comp Plans
Incentives matter
Do have right one for
CS?
For VPs?
For Renewals?

11. Are Your Sales Reps Experts?
Too many aren’t
Embarrassing emails,
bad answers
Can they rock a
demo?

12. Gotta Read Emails, Listen Calls
You’ll hear things
that make you cry
Watch everything get
better -- quickly

13. More Help for SDR Team
Training
15 meetings per
month
$2m a year
Level up outreach

14. Optimize SDR:AE Ratio
86% of have SDRs
Ratio varies, but
experiment to
optimize

15. Hire a Real VP of Product Now
A manager isn’t
enough
Your product is too
complicated
Can level up
connection with
customers

16. Drive Your Win Rate Down :)
It’s a bad sign if you
“Win every deal you
are”
Win rates should go
down as you scale,
until you dominate

17. Segment Your NRR + Churn
If you don’t, you
won’t drive up NRR or
drive churn down as
well as you could
have

18. Can’t Hit Plan if Don’t Have Reps
To double, you
need at least 2x
the reps
Probably more
Can’t cut way to
growth

19. Make Support More Important
Who report to?
Does report to right
place?

20. Pick Up the Phone
Support in general is
bad in SaaS
Is yours great?
Do you really know?
Try your own support
today

21. Do More Biz Dev
Selling direct is great,
but add to it
~50% of HubSpot,
RingCentral’s,
Shopify’s revenue, etc.
from the channel,
agencies, etc.
Don’t Go it Alone

22. Segment Your NRR + Churn
If you don’t, you
won’t drive up NRR or
drive churn down as
well as you could
have

23. Raise the Hiring Bar
We all lowered the
hiring bar in 2H’20-
’21
Didn’t help
Don’t hire reps that
don’t get the product

24. Invest in Word-of-Mouth
Get your customers
and prospects
together
It always works

25. HAVE FUN!!