Growth is often at the forefront of any value-creation strategy for many companies. While CEOs may successfully drive rapid growth over extended periods, eventually, an organization's very foundations must evolve to support more ambitious growth targets. For organizations that find themselves being outpaced by competitors and facing slowing revenue growth, it might be time for a go-to-market (GTM) revamp.
In this client spotlight, we explore how SBI helped a leading AI SaaS software provider transform its GTM organization to support its climb toward the next revenue milestone.
Poor Performance Compounded by Inefficiencies
After nearly a decade of explosive growth, this SaaS leader faced its first significant slowdown: its GTM organization and structure were holding back revenue growth. Rapid hiring had led to lower sales rep quota attainment and inefficiencies in GTM functions. In FY24 Q1, the sellers had an average attainment rate of 44%, significantly lagging behind the industry benchmark of 70%.
Seller performance issues were compounded by the lack of a clearly defined end-to-end sales process. Sellers struggled to understand their roles, responsibilities, and handoffs, which resulted in inefficient engagement with buyers and missed opportunities for cross-sell and upsell motions.
Additionally, the company’s GTM strategy hindered its growth potential. Outdated pricing structures and an overreliance on direct sales limited the effectiveness of segmentation models, making it harder to target high-potential segments. The slow pace of GTM execution allowed competitors to gain ground, reducing renewal rates and impacting new customer acquisition.
Opportunities for Transformation
The leadership team consulted with SBI to identify the objectives of their transformation and the methods that would get them there. There were three opportunities identified:
- Enhance seller productivity and quota retirement
SBI focused on improving sales productivity, with the goal of increasing attainment from 44% to industry benchmarks of 70%.
- Double cross/upsell captures effectiveness
By improving segmentation and prioritizing high-potential customer opportunities, the company aimed to increase customer growth productivity and achieve an additional 14% in add-on sales by FY25.
- Revamp the GTM strategy for long-term growth
Realigning the GTM organization to optimize layers and spans of control, with a focus on increasing selling time from 57% to the benchmark of 75%.
SBI’s Response: Improving Efficiency and Effectiveness
With clear goals in place, SBI worked closely with the company’s GTM leadership team to implement key transformation levers. The first step was redesigning and streamlining the GTM organization, aligning functions to better impact the customer lifecycle, and focusing on new, high-potential segments.
To improve seller productivity, SBI introduced standardized, data-driven approaches to quota setting and compensation plans, ensuring that territory assignments were balanced and equitable. Additionally, new enablement programs were developed to enhance seller effectiveness, with a focus on reducing non-selling activities and maximizing time spent on high-value deals.
SBI’s collaboration also involved creating world-class onboarding and training programs to support deal velocity and improve win rates. Sellers were equipped with tools and processes to engage more effectively with customers, helping them close more deals and improve overall sales performance.
The Results
The results of the GTM transformation were quickly evident. SBI identified over $14.2B in potential prospects, which were prioritized and segmented for the sales team to pursue. Additionally, the company anticipates a 14% increase in win rates for high-value opportunities, with an estimated 3-5% uplift in bookings as a result of these changes.
By overhauling the GTM foundation, the company not only reinforced its current revenue streams but also laid the groundwork for achieving its future growth milestones.
Explore additional success stories featuring clients who have collaborated with SBI, gaining insights into their achievements and experiences. Link: https://sbigrowth.com/success-stories.
