So Clari put together the data that I’ve known and so many of us have known for a long time in B2B sales, across 10,000,000 opportunities it analyzed:
The best reps can closed 2x-9x more than “ordinary” reps. And the bottom reps often close close to nothing.
Clari found across 10 million sales opportunities:
- The Top 2% of reps close 37% of all revenue
- The Top 10% close 65%
- The Entire “Bottom 98%” close just 63%
- The Bottom 50% close just 7.6%
More on the math behind that in this classic SaaStr post:
Its’s been true everywhere I’ve worked and at almost every investment SaaStr Fund has made.
Now … now … there’s a big caveat:
- When a product has >massive< market pull, everyone closes more.
- And when times are tougher, often only the very best reps can close anything.
So yes, in the Boom Times of 2021, it really did seem like anyone could close.
And Clari’s data blends both types of scale-ups and start-ups, all of them. When the product basically sells itself, almost anyone can close a deal. Not everyone, but almost anyone. And when times are tougher, often only your top 10% can really sell anything.
Double down on your best reps. It’s not just you. It’s everywhere. The Top 2% are amazing, and The Top 10% are your closers. Yes, you need more capacity than that. All the rest still close 35% of your revenue.
But really, in the end, you’re just hoping the rest turn out to … part of the Top 10% reps.
And the smaller and earlier you are, the more brutal this revenue leakage is. You just can’t afford to send too many leads to anyone that can’t close. You just don’t have enough of them.
