A former MongoDB sales account executive told me his story of covering a territory that spanned a few states on the East Coast. At the time, the open-source version of the product had about 40 million downloads. With a little hard work, there were endless opportunities for this sales exec to get meetings with users/companies that loved the product. That said, since Mongo is an open-source product, there were only a few use cases where users/companies would actually pay for it.
After weeks of cold calling, emailing, and meeting with prospects in his territory, he felt good watching the number of meetings and pipeline continue to rise. Then, in the last two weeks of the quarter, when everything was on the line, a lot of those prospects informed me that they decided to continue using the product for free — essentially, invalidating his forecast. Here he was with the most net new meetings and pipeline on the team, but with the lowest amount of closed business (also known as annual contract value or ACV) that quarter to show for it.
2 costly mistakes that can easily get a seller fired or a founder in trouble:
1. Confusing lots of activity (meetings) with progress (qualified opportunities)
2. Not using a defined and repeatable qualification process
If this salesperson had been using a qualification process from the start, he would have uncovered that a majority of those opportunities in his pipeline never had a compelling reason to convert to paying customers.
Fixing these two areas — qualified opportunities > more meetings and using a repeatable, scalable qualification process — were critical adjustments that allowed him to go from the bottom half of sales reps to the No. 1 rep in North America that year.
Here's an outline of how early-stage founders can experience a similar transformation from many meetings with little closed business to clear definitions of what a qualified opportunity is and a process to meet/exceed sales targets.
As an entrepreneur, when you receive your first round of funding, you become a first-time salesperson at the same moment you become a first-time CEO/CPO/CTO. Therefore, like any salesperson, you now have a revenue target to hit and need to set up your sales go-to-market process, which includes organizing your meetings by stage.
Most founders start by running searches about how to structure a sales funnel, or they might recall examples from their previous companies, and the results usually look something like this:
Below is a more simplified version:
Then, the team along with their board typically set a goal for a number of meetings (aka, the “top of the funnel”) for the next quarter with the idea that, if they can get a certain number of meetings, it will naturally lead to a number of opportunities, then POCs, and then paying customers.
So, founders do what most people would do — they reach out to any and all contacts in their network, ask for introductions to second- and third-level connections, do some cold outreach, and/or potentially use an internal SDR or outsourced lead-gen firm.
When the next board meeting happens at the end of the quarter, the founders pull up their sales forecast and talk about positive traction, represented by a ton of meetings, which could look like this:
Stop: Can you identify what’s wrong with the above forecast?
Including meetings in your sales forecast funnel is one of the most common examples of confusing activity with progress
In the funnel above, the difference between a meeting and a qualified opportunity is that the latter has made it through your qualification process while the former has not yet answered the necessary qualifying questions to be considered an opportunity; it was merely a conversation with a new prospect.
It’s very common for founders and board members to stare at versions of this funnel where the number of meetings is 5x or 10x the amount of qualified opportunities. Detailing what good conversion metrics look like and how to review a forecast deserves its own separate post, but the biggest takeaway here is meetings should never be represented in a sales forecast funnel.
By including meetings here, you potentially give yourself, your team, and your board a false sense of progress by focusing on the high number of meetings (activity) and not the low number of qualified opportunities/POCs (progress).
Note: The number of meetings should be represented in a sales outreach funnel.
So, next time you prepare a sales forecast slide for a board meeting or team review, it could look like this:
[Takes off rose-colored glasses and squints] Do you feel the difference in the sense of urgency around creating more qualified opportunities, aka “top of the funnel,” when you take out the number of overall meetings?
All of this is not to say that meetings are not important — meetings are crucial, but should be seen as a sales outreach metric and not a forecast component. Separating them forces you and your team to track all other associated outreach metrics to see where there might be areas for improvement:
Then, if you show both side-by-side in a deck, you can also analyze the conversion rate of meetings to qualified opportunities (8 out of 56 in this case, or 14%) which is an important conversion metric:
Now, being able to separate meetings and qualified opportunities into two separate funnels is predicated on having a process to do so.
There are numerous qualification methods you can research and apply, and some may be better for your product/industry/buyer persona than others (I personally like MEDDPICC).
The key isn’t so much which method you choose. The key is having a method you adhere to and stick with for every opportunity, company-wide.
Your process can evolve along the way, and it will, but there needs to be agreement across everyone involved in customer acquisition on what a qualified opportunity means at your company, so you can speak a common language when reviewing/discussing deals.
Below (and in the accompanying tool) I'll outline my take on qualification criteria that early-stage founders can use for every opportunity, which are also generally applicable across industries, products, buyers, etc.
For every qualified opportunity, you need to be able to fully answer the first four questions:
I’ve “mandated” the first four questions in order for an opportunity to be considered qualified since they are the building blocks of any sales opportunity. The qualifying components after those (5–9) can be discovered as you progress through the sales stages, but the first four are the hurdle you need to clear for a meeting to become qualified.
I’ve included detailed definitions for each qualification criteria in this accompanying tool (below), which I encourage you to look through and apply to your current opportunities/pipeline.
Once you’ve checked off the qualifying aspects you know for each opportunity, I would sort them by the “Score” from highest to lowest, prioritizing ones where you know the most information (closest to new revenue) and working your way down to those where you know the least (furthest from new revenue).
How you spend your time and where you spend your time in any given quarter will determine its results, so utilizing a systematic way to qualify your time (i.e., should I keep engaging with this prospect?), and therefore your opportunities (based on what I know, what is the chance they turn into a paying customer this quarter or next?) is a great first step to directing your time where to go instead of wondering where it went.
Going To Market
Product testing process
Copyright © 2023
Unusual Ventures.
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2021
Unusual Ventures.
All Rights Reserved.
Table of contents
Starting Your Company
start-your-company
Jan 27, 2023
#3d38b8
false
1
Customer Discovery
finding-product-market-fit
Jan 27, 2023
#54bb69
false
2
Going To Market
going-to-market
Dec 15, 2022
#faba25
false
3
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
fundraising-series-a-beyond
Dec 03, 2022
#f4843a
false
4
Scaling Your Organization
scaling-your-organization
Dec 15, 2022
false
5
Startup Glossary
startup-glossary
Dec 03, 2022
false
6
Startup Glossary
startup-glossary
Dec 03, 2022
false
6
Starting Your Company
start-your-company
Jan 27, 2023
#3d38b8
false
1
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
fundraising-series-a-beyond
Dec 03, 2022
#f4843a
false
4
Scaling Your Organization
scaling-your-organization
Dec 15, 2022
false
5
Customer Discovery
finding-product-market-fit
Jan 27, 2023
#54bb69
false
2
Going To Market
going-to-market
Dec 15, 2022
#faba25
false
3
Customer validation: Going from idea to sellable product
customer-validation-going-from-idea-to-sellable-product
false
2.1
Customer Discovery
John Vrionis
Build a sales motion
build-a-sales-motion
false
2.4
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Segmenting early markets
segmenting-early-markets
false
1.2
Customer Discovery
John Vrionis
Define a GTM framework early
define-a-gtm-framework-early
false
1.3
Customer Discovery
John Vrionis
Working with design partners
working-with-design-partners
false
2
Customer Discovery
John Vrionis
What are design partners?
what-are-design-partners
false
2.2
Customer Discovery
John Vrionis
Qualifying design partners
qualifying-design-partners
false
2.3
Customer Discovery
Unusual Ventures Sales Team
Prospecting for design partners
prospecting-for-design-partners
false
2.5
Customer Discovery
Innovator outreach
innovator-outreach
false
2.4
Customer Discovery
Outreach tactics
outreach-tactics
false
2.6
Customer Discovery
John Vrionis
Outreach playbook
outreach-playbook
false
2.7
Customer Discovery
John Vrionis
AppDynamics case study
appdynamics-case-study
false
2.8
Customer Discovery
John Vrionis
Messaging
messaging
false
3
Customer Discovery
Scott Schwarzhoff
Intro to messaging
intro-to-messaging
false
3.1
Customer Discovery
Scott Schwarzhoff
Why buy anything?
why-buy-anything
false
3.2
Customer Discovery
Scott Schwarzhoff
Why buy now?
why-buy-now
false
3.3
Customer Discovery
Scott Schwarzhoff
Why buy you?
why-buy-you
false
3.4
Customer Discovery
Scott Schwarzhoff
First Customer presentations
first-customer-presentations
false
3.5
Customer Discovery
Scott Schwarzhoff
Iterating to MVP
iterating-to-mvp
false
4
Customer Discovery
Wei Lien Dang
Shape your MVP with design partners
shape-your-mvp-with-design-partners
false
4.1
Customer Discovery
Wei Lien Dang
A practical example: Traceable
a-practical-example-traceable
false
4.2
Customer Discovery
John Vrionis
Building a product roadmap
building-a-product-roadmap
false
4.3
Customer Discovery
Jyoti Bansal
Early-stage pricing
early-stage-pricing
false
5
Customer Discovery
John Vrionis
Pricing your product
pricing-your-product
false
5.1
Customer Discovery
John Vrionis
Case studies
case-studies
false
6
Customer Discovery
Startup Field Guide Podcast
startup-field-guide-podcast
false
6.1
Customer Discovery
Marketing
marketing
false
1
Going To Market
Bill Hodak
GTM funnel stages, metrics, goals
gtm-funnel-stages-metrics-goals
false
1.1
Going To Market
Bill Hodak
Sales leads! How do we get more leads?
sales-leads-how-do-we-get-more-leads
false
1.2
Going To Market
Bill Hodak
Building awareness with B2B target users
building-awareness-with-b2b-target-users
false
1.3
Going To Market
Bill Hodak
Convert targets into trial/freemium
convert-targets-into-trial-freemium
false
1.4
Going To Market
Bill Hodak
From trial to aha! land
from-trial-to-aha-land
false
1.5
Going To Market
Bill Hodak
Build an open-source community
build-an-open-source-community
false
1.6
Going To Market
Bill Hodak
Sales
sales
false
2
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Fixing seed-stage sales
fixing-seed-stage-sales
false
2.1
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Picking a GTM motion
picking-a-gtm-motion
false
2.2
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Math of sales
math-of-sales
false
2.3
Going To Market
John Vrionis
4 boxes of discovery with prospects
4-boxes-of-discovery-with-prospects
false
2.5
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Qualification before discovery
qualification-before-discovery
false
2.6
Going To Market
Discovery 101
discovery-101
false
2.7
Going To Market
Deal qualification & forecasting
deal-qualification-forecasting
false
2.8
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Product testing process
product-testing-process
false
2.9
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Closing after testing
closing-after-testing
false
2.91
Going To Market
The Modern GTM
the-modern-gtm
false
3
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Introduction to the Modern GTM
introduction-to-the-modern-gtm
false
3.1
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Organizing Modern GTM teams
organizing-modern-gtm-teams
false
3.2
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Modern GTM planner
modern-gtm-planner
false
3.4
Going To Market
Scott Schwarzhoff
Product-led growth
product-led-growth
false
4
Going To Market
Sandhya Hegde
Introduction to PLG
introduction-to-plg
false
4.1
Going To Market
Sandhya Hegde
Nail your self-serve product
nail-your-self-serve-product
false
4.2
Going To Market
Sandhya Hegde
Free plan vs. Trial plan
free-plan-vs-trial-plan
false
4.3
Going To Market
Sandhya Hegde
Self-serve user/buyer journey
self-serve-user-buyer-journey
false
4.4
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Drive adoption with tutorials
drive-adoption-with-tutorials
false
4.5
Going To Market
Hiring your first sales leader
hiring-your-first-sales-leader
false
5.1
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Scaling your sales team
scaling-your-sales-team
false
5.2
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Recruiting your SDR team
recruiting-your-sdr-team
false
5.3
Going To Market
Jason Dorfman
Fundraising guide
fundraising-guide
false
1
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
John Vrionis
Raising Seed and Series A capital
raising-seed-and-series-a-capital
false
1.1
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
John Vrionis
Pitch and process
pitch-and-process
false
1.2
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
John Vrionis
How Vivun raised a Seed round
how-vivun-raised-a-seed-round
false
1.3
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
John Vrionis
Hiring
hiring
false
1
Scaling Your Organization
Chris Marty
Holistic hiring for hyper-growth
holistic-hiring-for-hyper-growth
false
1.1
Scaling Your Organization
Chris Marty
Three traits in early-stage hires
three-traits-in-early-stage-hires
false
1.2
Scaling Your Organization
Chris Marty
Develop your recruiting brand
develop-your-recruiting-brand
false
1.3
Scaling Your Organization
Jon Volk
Write great job descriptions
write-great-job-descriptions
false
1.4
Scaling Your Organization
Jon Volk
Hiring product designers
hiring-product-designers
false
1.5
Scaling Your Organization
Suraj VenkataRaman
Messaging for hiring first engineers
messaging-for-hiring-first-engineers
false
1.6
Scaling Your Organization
John Vrionis
An end-to-end hiring process
an-end-to-hiring-process
false
1.7
Scaling Your Organization
Jon Volk
Selling while you hire
selling-while-you-hire
false
1.8
Scaling Your Organization
Jon Volk
Make an attractive job offer
make-an-attractive-job-offer
false
1.9
Scaling Your Organization
Jon Volk
Founder's guide to equity
founders-guide-to-equity
false
1.91
Scaling Your Organization
Lars Albright
Leadership
leadership
false
2
Scaling Your Organization
Billy Bosworth
CEO/founder prioritization
ceo-founder-prioritization
false
2.1
Scaling Your Organization
Billy Bosworth
DataStax case study
datastax-case-study
false
2.2
Scaling Your Organization
John Vrionis
Managing a Series A board meeting
managing-a-series-a-board-meeting
false
2.3
Scaling Your Organization
John Vrionis
Startup glossary for Founders
startup-glossary-for-founders-2
false
1
Startup Glossary
Startup glossary for Founders
startup-glossary-for-founders
false
1.1
Startup Glossary
Ideal customer profile and personas
ideal-customer-profile-and-personas
false
1.1
Customer Discovery
Identifying initial customers
identifying-initial-customers
false
1
Customer Discovery
Dakota McKenzie
Guide to Pre-Seed funding
guide-to-pre-seed-funding
false
1.1
Starting Your Company
Sarah Leary
How to raise Pre-Seed funding
how-to-raise-pre-seed-funding
false
1
Starting Your Company
Sarah Leary
The Modern GTM user/buyer journey
the-modern-gtm-user-buyer-journey
false
3.3
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Hiring your first sales leader
hiring-your-first-sales-leader1
false
5
Going To Market
John Vrionis
Startup glossary for Founders
startup-glossary-for-founders-1
false
1
Startup Glossary
How to raise Pre-Seed funding
how-to-raise-pre-seed-funding
false
1
Starting Your Company
Iterating to MVP and beyond
iterating-to-mvp-and-beyond
false
1
Customer Discovery
Sarah Leary
Beachheads and vertical expansion
beachheads-and-vertical-expansion
false
2.5
Going To Market
Andy Johns
Hiring
hiring
false
1
Scaling Your Organization
Chris Marty
Holistic hiring for hyper-growth
holistic-hiring-for-hyper-growth
false
1.1
Scaling Your Organization
Chris Marty
Leadership
leadership
false
2
Scaling Your Organization
Andy Johns
Startup glossary for Founders
startup-glossary-for-founders
false
1.1
Startup Glossary
Guide to Pre-Seed funding
guide-to-pre-seed-funding
false
1.1
Starting Your Company
Sarah Leary
Three traits in early-stage hires
three-traits-in-early-stage-hires
false
1.2
Scaling Your Organization
Chris Marty
Consumer subscription
consumer-subscription
false
1.2
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
Rachel Star
From idea to product launch
from-idea-to-product-launch
false
1.1
Customer Discovery
Sarah Leary
Pitch and process
fundraising-pitch-and-process
false
2.2
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
John Vrionis
Milestones and valuations
fundraising-milestones-valuations
false
2.1
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
John Vrionis
Write great job descriptions
write-great-job-descriptions
false
1.4
Scaling Your Organization
Jon Volk
Positioning to win
positioning-to-win
false
2.1
Customer Discovery
Josh Grau
Messaging
messaging
false
2
Customer Discovery
Josh Grau
An end to end hiring process
an-end-to-end-hiring-process
false
1.5
Scaling Your Organization
Jon Volk
When are you pitch-ready?
when-are-you-pitch-ready
false
1
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
Haley Daiber
Consumer social
consumer-social
false
1.1
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
Haley Daiber
Managing a Series A board meeting
managing-a-series-a-board-meeting
false
2.4
Scaling Your Organization
John Vrionis
CEO/Founder prioritization
leadership-ceo-founder-prioritization
false
2.3
Scaling Your Organization
Billy Bosworth
Moderation and maintaining quality
moderation-and-maintaining-quality
false
2.4
Going To Market
Andy Johns
Solving the cold start problem
solving-the-cold-start-problem
false
2.3
Going To Market
Andy Johns
Accelerating your content flywheel
accelerating-your-content-flywheel
false
2.2
Going To Market
Andy Johns
Flywheel fundamentals
flywheel-fundamentals
false
2.1
Going To Market
Andy Johns
Product development for innovation
product-development-for-innovation
false
1.2
Going To Market
Andy Johns
A/B testing
growth-optimization
false
1.1
Going To Market
Andy Johns
Running effective product meetings
running-effective-product-meetings
false
2.2
Scaling Your Organization
Andy Johns
What makes for a good PM?
what-makes-for-a-good-pm
false
2.1
Scaling Your Organization
Andy Johns
Make an attractive job offer
make-an-attractive-job-offer
false
1.7
Scaling Your Organization
Jon Volk
Selling while you hire
selling-while-you-hire
false
1.6
Scaling Your Organization
Jon Volk
Develop your recruiting brand
develop-your-recruiting-brand
false
1.3
Scaling Your Organization
Jon Volk
Raising a Seed or Series A Round
fundraising-seed-or-series-a-round
false
2
Fundraising Series A & Beyond
Creating content communities
growth-content-communities
false
2
Going To Market
Andy Johns
Optimization vs. Innovation
optimization-vs-innovation
false
1
Going To Market
Andy Johns