Jason M. Lemkin explains how to boost sales performance by aligning marketing and sales leadership. When a VP of Sales targets core metrics like revenue per lead, the fastest way to hit those numbers is adding marketing support or customer-assist resources. The conversation covers SDR and AE compensation structures and what separates a sales manager from a VP of Sales early on.
Let's assume that you're helping. You're doing everything you can. The sales are better than before, but not great. I'm going to suggest the problems on marketing. Get her more leads. Get her. You can't. The sales VPs sales. The VPs of sales job is to take your core metrics and improve them. Whether it's to improve Your revenue per lead 20% or 100% or 200% or 22%. It's situations can vary, competition can vary, product can vary. But it's to tilt the curve. Once your VP of sales has tilted the curve, if she's truly trying, if she's giving it her all, recruiting the best people you can, your job is to backfill. And the simplest, best way to backfill is with marketing or customer assist. Get her another ally on the team so that she can tilt even just a little bit more.
Got it. What's the best way to set up comp structure for the SDR for the AE and the sales leader? And the second piece to this is what's the difference between a sales manager and a VP of sales in the early stage?
