Hello and welcome to The GTM Newsletter – read by over 50,000 revenue professionals weekly to scale their companies and careers. GTMnow is the media brand of GTMfund – sharing advice on go-to-market from working with hundreds of portfolio companies and the insight of over 350 of the best in the game executive operators behind the fund. They have been there, done that at the world’s fastest growing SaaS companies.
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Covered today:
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The power of buying committees and the playbook from driving 270% greater revenue with them.
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More on GTM for your eardrums.
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More on GTM for your eyeballs.
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Startups to watch.
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Hottest GTM jobs of the week.
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GTM industry events.
The Power of Buying Committees and Stytch’s Playbook
Success hinges on more than just having a great product – something that GTMfund is premised around. It’s about how you go-to-market and a big part of that is understanding the multifaceted dynamics of the purchasing process. One proven strategy that has driven significant results is the implementation of buying committee playbooks. At Stytch, this approach led to a 270% increase in revenue, doubled win rates, and a drastic reduction in forecasted misses.
Let’s get into it.
Buying committees
The Impact: Implementing buying committee playbooks at Stytch increased revenue by 270%, doubled win rates, and reduced forecasted misses.
The Reality: No person is an island in B2B sales. According to the Harvard Business Review, software purchases over $100k involve an average of eight stakeholders. Navigating these group dynamics is even more crucial in a challenging macroeconomic environment, where only about half of the projects get funded, and roughly 30% more deals require C-Suite approval than during ‘boom times’.
The Concept: A “Buying Committee” helps sellers understand the personas involved in purchasing software, their roles, and their individual requirements. Unlike an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), which focuses on the product’s fit, a buying committee centers on how purchasing decisions are made.
The end-to-end steps of getting to a playbook
1. Deep Understanding: Understanding your buying committee and employing this knowledge in sales playbooks can unblock deals, prioritize resources, and create mutual close plans. Failure to do so leads to faulty forecasts, wasted efforts, and missed targets.
2. Beyond ICP: An ICP definition helps identify best-fit customers but doesn’t consider their purchasing decision process. Clarity on how a customer buys and aligning with their journey is crucial, especially in complex sales involving multiple stakeholders.
3. Buying Committee Roles: Typically, a B2B buying committee includes:
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Functional User: Hands-on with the product, ensuring it meets practical needs. Examples: Software Engineer, Product Manager.
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Functional Leader: Department head who secures funds. Examples: VP of Engineering, Director of Marketing.
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Executive Approver: Top executive who authorizes significant expenditures. Examples: CTO, CFO.
4. Investigate and Optimize: Start by analyzing top won and lost deals to identify common stakeholder titles at each stage. Interview salespeople to gain insights into deal dynamics. Regularly share findings with the go-to-market team and incorporate this knowledge into sales plays and forecasting.
5. Building a Playbook: Develop actionable insights for customer-facing teams, creating materials that address the needs of each persona in the buying committee. Regularly update sales and marketing collateral to reflect these insights, and ensure in-flight deals are aligned with the new findings.
How buying committees boosted sales at Stytch
Initially, Stytch struggled with forecasting and low win rates. An investigation revealed that engaging technical buyers early led to higher win rates. By focusing on technical buyers in sales plays and adjusting enablement and content strategies, Stytch saw a 270% revenue increase, doubled win rates, and more accurate forecasting.
Defining and understanding your buying committee is essential for repeatable and consistent sales success. This process, like defining an ICP, is ongoing. Regularly iterate on this information to stay ahead of changes in your buyer’s journey.
In summary:
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A buying committee focuses on stakeholders involved in evaluating and purchasing your product.
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Deep understanding of the buying committee enables better targeting, positioning, and forecasting.
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Neglecting this can lead to missed forecasts and opportunities.
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Continually update your go-to-market and product strategies based on evolving buying committee insights.
If you share on social, make sure to tag GTMnow so we can see your takeaways and help amplify them.
🗓️ Upcoming digital live event
Register to attend live on July 24th at 10am PST / 1pm EST or to receive the recording.
The Ultimate Cold Calling Playbook For Sales Leaders and Teams
👂 More for your eardrums
The GTM Podcast – subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
GTM 103: Blockchain’s Impact on Finance and Investing with Annelise Osborne
Annelise Osborne is Chief Business Officer at Kadena, a Layer 1, POW blockchain where she is focused on upgrading finance. Annelise has 20 years of experience in traditional finance and seven years in digital assets. She is a thought leader, board advisor, university lecturer and author. Her book, From Hoodies to Suits: Innovating Digital Assets in Traditional Finance, hit shelves in June. Annelise holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from The College of William and Mary.
👀 More for your eyeballs
Investor tips to founders: don’t go straight to the investors you want.
Words of wisdom from Elissa Fink, who served as Tableau’s CMO and helped take it from $5 Million in revenue to over $1 Billion:
“Always hire people whose best years are ahead of them.”
This approach ensures that the team is composed of individuals who are eager to learn, grow, and contribute to the company’s long-term success.
🚀 Startups to watch
Document Crunch – launched new features to provide the construction industry with end-to-end compliance tools and automated “jobs to be done” for better project outcomes. As the industry’s leading AI-powered contract intelligence and compliance provider, Document Crunch’s groundbreaking automation solutions are designed to revolutionize document review and project execution. These innovative features automate industry-specific tasks to support best practices for contract compliance throughout the entire project lifecycle.
Writer – dropped a mind-blowing AI update: RAG on steroids, 10M word capacity, and AI ‘thought process’ revealed. This broad rollout marks a significant leap forward in making sophisticated AI technology more accessible and effective for businesses of all sizes.
🔥 Hottest GTM jobs of the week
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Account Executive at Sapient.ai (Remote – US)
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Enterprise Account Executive (Oil & Gas Sector) at Rippling (Remote – US)
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Strategic Sales Engineer – EMEA at Atlan (London – Remote)
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Head of Marketing at Arrows (Remote – US)
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Customer Success Manager at Cube (New York)
See more top GTM jobs on the GTMfund Job Board.
🗓️ GTM industry events
Upcoming go-to-market events you won’t want to miss:
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Catalyst 2024: August 14 -16 (Chicago, IL)
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Live Book Summary on the Cold Calling Manuscript: August 14 (Online)
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SaaStr Annual: September 9 – 12 (Bay Area, CA)
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INBOUND: September 18 – 20 (Boston, MA)
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GTMfund Annual Retreat [community]: October 4 – 6 (San Diego, CA)
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GTM Summit: October 14 – 16 (Austin, TX)
Took some time off this week but as Newton’s first law goes, “an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an external force.” The momentum behind what we’re building is unbelievable. Grateful to you for being part of it.
Barker ✌️