Cody Bernard
Do more with less.
This is the mantra for all sales and marketing teams as we head into the new year. Even given the current economic climate, GTM leaders are still on the hook to hit their goals. But with less budget, people, and resources than ever before, how is it possible?
The old “growth at all costs” mindset of doing whatever it takes to hit your number is gone. You can’t just throw money at something to see if it sticks. Today, it’s about strategic and efficient growth.
For sales teams, that means prioritizing the most valuable accounts, and focusing all their resources on closing those deals. And for marketers, that means being more selective with their program spend, only choosing to invest in those with the highest ROI potential.
So how do you grow thoughtfully and responsibly? Here are 10 things you can do today that will help you do more with less
The first thing you need to do is assess your current situation. Do a deep dive and see where you can trim fat without sacrificing progress. Use that data to make informed decisions about where to focus your resources. Anything that you can bring in-house, do it. That consultancy you want to hire? You don’t need it. That lead list people in your LinkedIn DMs are pushing. You don’t need it. There’s so much that you and your team can accomplish yourselves when you narrow the scope.
You can’t just stop at budget cuts. It’s also important to do a deep analysis of your current sales and marketing efforts. Look at which programs are performing well and which aren’t. Cut those that aren’t moving the needle and double down on the ones that are. It sounds simple, but focus is key here. Seeing a high return on LinkedIn but not on Facebook? Reallocate those dollars. It doesn’t make much sense investing in a bunch of channels if you haven’t cracked the code on one or two first. Even if your CEO asks why you aren’t on TikTok .
It’s widely known that it’s 5x more expensive to acquire a new customer than retaining an existing one. One thing you can do is look for untapped potential within your existing accounts. Can you lock anyone into an early renewal? Are there any happy, successful customers that have expansion, upsell, or cross-sell opportunities you could capitalize on? Even if it’s not a good time to grow the account, you can still try to build your library of social proof with new case studies and success stories that will be useful to fuel your campaigns, programs, and conversations with prospects.
I thought we left the concept of ‘spray and pray’ back in 2016. The reality is, sales and marketing teams are still doing this today whether they know it or not. You might have a lot of accounts to go after, but do they really fit your ideal customer profile? Are you targeting the right buyer personas? Are those people decision-makers or just people who happened to download a piece of content?
Take a deep look into your closed won data for common attributes to define your real ICP and look for real buying indicators to score and segment your accounts so your team is going after the right ones. After doing this exercise, you might find that you have a smaller number of accounts to engage. But that’s okay! Your success rate will skyrocket leading to a bigger pipeline filled with qualified opportunities that are a perfect fit for your business and who are ready to buy now.
Who are your best reps and what is it that makes them so good at what they do? Understanding how top performers operate is the key to unlocking growth for the rest of your team. Some might be great at pitching your product, others might be good at presenting and negotiating pricing. Find out who these reps are and jump on their calls to see what makes them so successful.
Once you figure out what that is, document it. Then build a plan to enable the rest of your team like conducting role playing workshops or having 1:1 coaching sessions on those focus areas. This will help drive a change in behavior that will deliver better results for your team. This doesn’t have to cost much at all – the only thing it requires is time and effort. And if you already have a tool like Gong or Chorus, that will make all of this even easier.
There are a few ways to empower your people. First, give them the power to make decisions, take risks, and move fast. Empowering your team to do more not only takes some weight off of your shoulders, but it also gives them the opportunity to grow and learn from their mistakes.
Second, if you have people that are not fully utilized or overlap on tasks, look for ways to reassign responsibilities so that everyone is fully engaged and contributing their unique skills to the team in the best way possible.
Third, empower your people to make their voices heard by building their personal brand. Rather than investing in pricey ad campaigns, tap into the power of your team’ social networks by encouraging them to share their point of view on a topic that they’re passionate about. The network effect is a glorious thing.
Everyone can have a great idea. What separates the best from the rest are those that don’t wait to act on them — even when faced with obstacles. Don’t have the technology to do what you’re looking to do? Open up that google doc or g-sheet and just get started. Always try to prove that something can work without putting money behind it first. It’ll help you weed out what you should continue doing vs. what you can stop doing.
For example, let’s say you need more G2 reviews. Go to your product team, pull a list of active customers (+users), segment that list by those with a high NPS score, and then send a personal email to each one making the ask. It might take some time, but you’d be surprised at how willing people are to talk about your product if you give them the right opportunity. Especially if they don’t think it’s just another automated ask coming from a marketing email.
What are some things that you spend the most time doing that keep you from doing high value work? We live in a world where we have plenty of free tools that automate just about anything you can think of. For example, I’m writing this blog using an AI copy tool called Jasper. Did you notice? Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t . The point is that you can automate specific workflows so you can focus on the work that will drive the most results. All you have to do is look for inefficiencies in how your team operates. For example, one of the biggest ways reps waste time is manually doing research on their accounts. Google searches, going to a prospect’s website, navigating LinkedIn profiles – there’s only so much they can do in the little time they have between meetings. Why not automate it?
The first place revenue teams are looking to cut costs is their tech stack. Whether it’s an upcoming renewal or a tool that you’re paying month-to-month, it doesn’t hurt to see if you can negotiate better terms. Start by looking at your tech stack and identifying which tools are necessary to your business vs. those that are nice-to-haves. Then dig even deeper by looking at usage and seat coverage across all your tools to figure out if you’re getting the most out of them. If there are any gaps, go back to your vendor and see if there’s anything they can do for you when it comes to refunds, discounts, or credits for any unused seats. It never hurts to ask. At the very least, you should get more training for those people who aren’t using the product all that much which will help make them more productive.
This concept goes hand in hand with getting better at targeting. Don’t make your team boil the ocean. Look for ways to simplify things for them with targeted sales plays. Does your product work really well with another in your space? See if there’s any interest in a partnership, or at the very least, pull a list of accounts that have that tool for your sales team to prospect into. What about closed-lost opportunities? Pull a win/loss report, filter that list by lost reasons, and look for areas where your company has improved or solved that problem. Send that list to your team to start working.
In the new year, revenue teams need to do more with less. There’s so much you can do that requires very little time and effort, you just need to get started.
Interested in how CloseFactor can help you do more with less? Book some time with one of our GTM experts today.
