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You're deciding on Specialisation in Sales, AM and Success Teams -> every organisation is different and getting this right across the revenue bowtie is hard... Mark Roberge from Stage 2 Capital posted an article, which from my experience is essential reading before undertaking this task.

Check out the full article here.

My summary of his advice is pretty simple:

1. Don't just blindly copy past specialisation from previous roles or other companies, or just follow the trend

2. Consider how much of the LTV is captured in the initial sale

3. Factor in complexity of the cross-sell / upsell / renewal process

4. GTM Team structure and compensation schemes go hand-in-hand (he gives a great comp example )

2 & 3 are exceptionally helpful to determine when and how the handoff should take place.

For a leader making changes to this structure, I think it's as important to think about the behaviours and results you want to drive, as it is to consider the trade-offs you're willing to live with. There is no perfect.

Some more considerations:

❗ Once you make the change and commit to a structure + incentive strategy, it's so disruptive to roll it out there is virtually no going back for a while. Test this with reps and model out comp scenarios.

❗ Startups will typically optimise for the deal close when they begin, coming as a CS or AM Leader at later point means it's a vital discussion to align on with your VP Sales for future growth.

❗ I think the taboo subject sometimes in startups is how many non-ICP deals get closed in the early days of growth at all costs / GTM refinement. Optimising for LTV earlier (e.g. via a comp plan change) is critical to sustaining early moment.

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Getting this right requires time, effort, a lot of thinking and most importantly alignment across GTM and the Exec as to what is truly important to the company right now.

Expect this to adapt as companies grow, add more products and GTM motions...

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#NetRevenueRetention #CustomerSuccess #AccountManagement #NRR #GRR #Renewals #UpSell #CrossSell #GTM #GTMOps #Gotomarket #B2BSoftware #CSP #CustomerSuccessPlatform