Dear SaaStr: We Have a Sales-Led Motion and SMB Customers And The Economics Aren’t Working. What Do You Suggest?
You have to be ruthlessly efficient with a sales-led SMB motion. It can be done:
Toast does it at a $10k ACV with fairly low gross margins:
Slice does the same:
As does Mangomint:
As does Gorgias to 20,000 SMBs:
But you can’t run the standard “tech sales playbook” at an ACV of $5k-$8k.
You can’t pay reps six figure salaries for all doing in-bound from a script.
You have to find SMB reps that will hustle to make an $80k-$100k OTE, and that often means early in their career, and/or outside the U.S. Many have parts of the sales teams in Latin America (Owner) or Eastern Europe (Gorgias).
Most importantly, you have to hire reps that you either train up yourself, or come from that environment.
Folks using to making $140k OTE’s selling standard tech deals will fail here.
What also doesn’t work is asking your existing sales team to work on these deals if your core ACV is much higher.
They just won’t do it. You need a 100% SMB-focused team handling SMBs.
