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Last week, I introduced the concept of Profitable Outcome Selling — a guiding compass for B2B SaaS enterprises in the growth stage and beyond.
In this post, I’ll delve deeper into actionable steps and real-world illustrations that demonstrate the tangible impact of Profitable Outcome Selling. See how organizations are using this approach to streamline sales and elevate their position in the market.
The Value of Profitable Outcome Selling
Value to Buyers
- Expand thinking: Broaden perspectives on challenges/opportunities and available solutions.
- Make life easier: Simplify and de-risk the buying decision by getting everyone onboard.
- Deliver results: Ensure the realization of expected business outcomes from the investment.
Value to Sellers
- Sell more: Elevate the company’s brand and positioning to generate more demand and increase competitive win rate.
- Sell larger: Sell multi-product, complex solutions to more senior executives across multiple buying centers.
- Sell more efficiently: Codify learnings from strategic deals into playbooks that sales teams can apply consistently while reducing deal workload.
Real-World Examples
Reframing and Broadening Customer Needs
A mid-market SaaS Platform asked for a proposal on the base product, and was only interested in comparing features and rates. The Outcome Sellers came back with a personalized, value-first vision and strategy to transform their entire infrastructure, on a broader scope than their initial request. It intrigued them. The Outcome Sellers then refined this vision, strategy, roadmap, solution, and business case with the business and technical buyer organizations, and with key influencers. The SaaS company won the deal on a bigger scope, despite being the most expensive.
From Upsetting to Upselling
A large enterprise wasn't seeing the value from the products they bought from a SaaS company, and was considering a de-booking. The Outcome Sellers met the customer’s executive buyer to understand their top three priorities, and then came back with an hypothesis of how they could help them address these priorities with their platform — while also addressing the relationship challenges. This led into a series of envisioning, solutioning, and readiness activities, including:
- Shared roadmap and future state
- Personalized digital experience showcasing the solution to the CEO
- Implementation plan
- Business case
As a result, the SaaS company closed one of the largest deals in Europe that year, with a four-year revenue commitment, as well as a follow-up large deal the following year.
Making QBRs CEO-Grade
A mid-market company had been using a SaaS platform for years. The account team was preparing for the next Quarterly Business Review (QBR), which was going to be focused on operational performance. The Outcome Sellers built the QBR narrative around the top three priorities of the new CEO, and managed to get them invited — including an inspiring vision of their platform powered by the SaaS platform in three years, and outside-in estimates of additional revenue they could generate with the SaaS platform. This resulted in four net new sales opportunities for a two-day investment.
How to Get Started and Deliver Impact — Fast
Step 1: Find Your Champions
Bring together people that bring a mix of strategic thinking, customer-centric design, technical proficiency, sales acumen, and stakeholder management skills:
- If you don’t have a presales team: Appoint sales managers and/or reps with a track record of closing large or strategic deals in the organization.
- If you have a presales team but no sales overlay teams (Product Sales, Value Consulting, Executive Advisory, Enterprise Architecture, etc.): Appoint presales managers and/or consultants with a track record beyond technical selling.
- If you have both a presales and sales overlay teams: Appoint leaders from within the sales overlay teams and presales champions.
Adjust the capacity model and align incentives; ensure the appointed Outcome Sellers have the bandwidth to focus on strategic or large deals, as well as growth and efficiency incentives aligned with the overall GTM goals of the organization.
Step 2: Strategically Scale Capabilities
Partner with sales enablement (if possible) to build and roll out a tiered enablement model:
- One-to-one — Supported deals that meet certain criteria (e.g., size, access to power): Conduct “on-the-job” learning, including “stretch” responsibilities for activities like workshop facilitation and business cases.
- One-to-few — Target account cohorts: Train leaders who will train and coach their teams.
- One-to-many — Target markets and industries: Share successes and best practices in town hall meetings, sales forums, etc.
- One-to-all — Entire GTM organization: Integrate best practices and assets in Learning Management Systems, Certification Programs, etc.
Step 3: Learn and Adjust
Set lagging/output and leading/input objectives and key results, like:
Y1, first 6 months: Influenced deal progression.
- Net new executive relationships
- Coverage (accounts, deals, enablement)
Y1, last 6 months: Influenced deals closed.
- Win rate
- Internal self-serve adoption
Y2: Influenced YoY net new revenue growth, net dollar retention, and sales efficiency improvements.
- Repeatability
- Influenced product ships
- GTM partner enablement
Track progress against quantitative metrics and obtain feedback from field sales, GTM managers, customers, and partners.
Adjust the operating model every six to 12 months (e.g., target accounts and deals, resourcing success metrics).
Conclusion
This article outlines tangible Profitable Outcome Selling practices that can be rolled out at scale by B2B SaaS businesses at or beyond growth stage who serve upper-mid-market and enterprise customers, to balance accelerating scaling with higher sales efficiency.
Profitable Outcome Selling is a vast subject with an endless amount of literature and opinions, impacted by rapidly evolving trends such as the macro-economic environment and the introduction of generative AI.
About Nic Delaye
I am an executive advisor and B2B tech Go-To-Market (GTM) executive with 30+ years of global, hands-on experience in Digital, AI, Fintech & ESG with Stripe/ServiceNow & PwC/KPMG/EY across most industries and segments. Special thanks to Lionel Berger for his contribution to this piece.
My professional purpose is: "Put technology in service of people to drive net positive impact at scale."
Last week, I introduced the concept of Profitable Outcome Selling — a guiding compass for B2B SaaS enterprises in the growth stage and beyond.
In this post, I’ll delve deeper into actionable steps and real-world illustrations that demonstrate the tangible impact of Profitable Outcome Selling. See how organizations are using this approach to streamline sales and elevate their position in the market.
The Value of Profitable Outcome Selling
Value to Buyers
- Expand thinking: Broaden perspectives on challenges/opportunities and available solutions.
- Make life easier: Simplify and de-risk the buying decision by getting everyone onboard.
- Deliver results: Ensure the realization of expected business outcomes from the investment.
Value to Sellers
- Sell more: Elevate the company’s brand and positioning to generate more demand and increase competitive win rate.
- Sell larger: Sell multi-product, complex solutions to more senior executives across multiple buying centers.
- Sell more efficiently: Codify learnings from strategic deals into playbooks that sales teams can apply consistently while reducing deal workload.
Real-World Examples
Reframing and Broadening Customer Needs
A mid-market SaaS Platform asked for a proposal on the base product, and was only interested in comparing features and rates. The Outcome Sellers came back with a personalized, value-first vision and strategy to transform their entire infrastructure, on a broader scope than their initial request. It intrigued them. The Outcome Sellers then refined this vision, strategy, roadmap, solution, and business case with the business and technical buyer organizations, and with key influencers. The SaaS company won the deal on a bigger scope, despite being the most expensive.
From Upsetting to Upselling
A large enterprise wasn't seeing the value from the products they bought from a SaaS company, and was considering a de-booking. The Outcome Sellers met the customer’s executive buyer to understand their top three priorities, and then came back with an hypothesis of how they could help them address these priorities with their platform — while also addressing the relationship challenges. This led into a series of envisioning, solutioning, and readiness activities, including:
- Shared roadmap and future state
- Personalized digital experience showcasing the solution to the CEO
- Implementation plan
- Business case
As a result, the SaaS company closed one of the largest deals in Europe that year, with a four-year revenue commitment, as well as a follow-up large deal the following year.
Making QBRs CEO-Grade
A mid-market company had been using a SaaS platform for years. The account team was preparing for the next Quarterly Business Review (QBR), which was going to be focused on operational performance. The Outcome Sellers built the QBR narrative around the top three priorities of the new CEO, and managed to get them invited — including an inspiring vision of their platform powered by the SaaS platform in three years, and outside-in estimates of additional revenue they could generate with the SaaS platform. This resulted in four net new sales opportunities for a two-day investment.
How to Get Started and Deliver Impact — Fast
Step 1: Find Your Champions
Bring together people that bring a mix of strategic thinking, customer-centric design, technical proficiency, sales acumen, and stakeholder management skills:
- If you don’t have a presales team: Appoint sales managers and/or reps with a track record of closing large or strategic deals in the organization.
- If you have a presales team but no sales overlay teams (Product Sales, Value Consulting, Executive Advisory, Enterprise Architecture, etc.): Appoint presales managers and/or consultants with a track record beyond technical selling.
- If you have both a presales and sales overlay teams: Appoint leaders from within the sales overlay teams and presales champions.
Adjust the capacity model and align incentives; ensure the appointed Outcome Sellers have the bandwidth to focus on strategic or large deals, as well as growth and efficiency incentives aligned with the overall GTM goals of the organization.
Step 2: Strategically Scale Capabilities
Partner with sales enablement (if possible) to build and roll out a tiered enablement model:
- One-to-one — Supported deals that meet certain criteria (e.g., size, access to power): Conduct “on-the-job” learning, including “stretch” responsibilities for activities like workshop facilitation and business cases.
- One-to-few — Target account cohorts: Train leaders who will train and coach their teams.
- One-to-many — Target markets and industries: Share successes and best practices in town hall meetings, sales forums, etc.
- One-to-all — Entire GTM organization: Integrate best practices and assets in Learning Management Systems, Certification Programs, etc.
Step 3: Learn and Adjust
Set lagging/output and leading/input objectives and key results, like:
Y1, first 6 months: Influenced deal progression.
- Net new executive relationships
- Coverage (accounts, deals, enablement)
Y1, last 6 months: Influenced deals closed.
- Win rate
- Internal self-serve adoption
Y2: Influenced YoY net new revenue growth, net dollar retention, and sales efficiency improvements.
- Repeatability
- Influenced product ships
- GTM partner enablement
Track progress against quantitative metrics and obtain feedback from field sales, GTM managers, customers, and partners.
Adjust the operating model every six to 12 months (e.g., target accounts and deals, resourcing success metrics).
Conclusion
This article outlines tangible Profitable Outcome Selling practices that can be rolled out at scale by B2B SaaS businesses at or beyond growth stage who serve upper-mid-market and enterprise customers, to balance accelerating scaling with higher sales efficiency.
Profitable Outcome Selling is a vast subject with an endless amount of literature and opinions, impacted by rapidly evolving trends such as the macro-economic environment and the introduction of generative AI.
About Nic Delaye
I am an executive advisor and B2B tech Go-To-Market (GTM) executive with 30+ years of global, hands-on experience in Digital, AI, Fintech & ESG with Stripe/ServiceNow & PwC/KPMG/EY across most industries and segments. Special thanks to Lionel Berger for his contribution to this piece.
My professional purpose is: "Put technology in service of people to drive net positive impact at scale."
Last week, I introduced the concept of Profitable Outcome Selling — a guiding compass for B2B SaaS enterprises in the growth stage and beyond.
In this post, I’ll delve deeper into actionable steps and real-world illustrations that demonstrate the tangible impact of Profitable Outcome Selling. See how organizations are using this approach to streamline sales and elevate their position in the market.
The Value of Profitable Outcome Selling
Value to Buyers
- Expand thinking: Broaden perspectives on challenges/opportunities and available solutions.
- Make life easier: Simplify and de-risk the buying decision by getting everyone onboard.
- Deliver results: Ensure the realization of expected business outcomes from the investment.
Value to Sellers
- Sell more: Elevate the company’s brand and positioning to generate more demand and increase competitive win rate.
- Sell larger: Sell multi-product, complex solutions to more senior executives across multiple buying centers.
- Sell more efficiently: Codify learnings from strategic deals into playbooks that sales teams can apply consistently while reducing deal workload.
Real-World Examples
Reframing and Broadening Customer Needs
A mid-market SaaS Platform asked for a proposal on the base product, and was only interested in comparing features and rates. The Outcome Sellers came back with a personalized, value-first vision and strategy to transform their entire infrastructure, on a broader scope than their initial request. It intrigued them. The Outcome Sellers then refined this vision, strategy, roadmap, solution, and business case with the business and technical buyer organizations, and with key influencers. The SaaS company won the deal on a bigger scope, despite being the most expensive.
From Upsetting to Upselling
A large enterprise wasn't seeing the value from the products they bought from a SaaS company, and was considering a de-booking. The Outcome Sellers met the customer’s executive buyer to understand their top three priorities, and then came back with an hypothesis of how they could help them address these priorities with their platform — while also addressing the relationship challenges. This led into a series of envisioning, solutioning, and readiness activities, including:
- Shared roadmap and future state
- Personalized digital experience showcasing the solution to the CEO
- Implementation plan
- Business case
As a result, the SaaS company closed one of the largest deals in Europe that year, with a four-year revenue commitment, as well as a follow-up large deal the following year.
Making QBRs CEO-Grade
A mid-market company had been using a SaaS platform for years. The account team was preparing for the next Quarterly Business Review (QBR), which was going to be focused on operational performance. The Outcome Sellers built the QBR narrative around the top three priorities of the new CEO, and managed to get them invited — including an inspiring vision of their platform powered by the SaaS platform in three years, and outside-in estimates of additional revenue they could generate with the SaaS platform. This resulted in four net new sales opportunities for a two-day investment.
How to Get Started and Deliver Impact — Fast
Step 1: Find Your Champions
Bring together people that bring a mix of strategic thinking, customer-centric design, technical proficiency, sales acumen, and stakeholder management skills:
- If you don’t have a presales team: Appoint sales managers and/or reps with a track record of closing large or strategic deals in the organization.
- If you have a presales team but no sales overlay teams (Product Sales, Value Consulting, Executive Advisory, Enterprise Architecture, etc.): Appoint presales managers and/or consultants with a track record beyond technical selling.
- If you have both a presales and sales overlay teams: Appoint leaders from within the sales overlay teams and presales champions.
Adjust the capacity model and align incentives; ensure the appointed Outcome Sellers have the bandwidth to focus on strategic or large deals, as well as growth and efficiency incentives aligned with the overall GTM goals of the organization.
Step 2: Strategically Scale Capabilities
Partner with sales enablement (if possible) to build and roll out a tiered enablement model:
- One-to-one — Supported deals that meet certain criteria (e.g., size, access to power): Conduct “on-the-job” learning, including “stretch” responsibilities for activities like workshop facilitation and business cases.
- One-to-few — Target account cohorts: Train leaders who will train and coach their teams.
- One-to-many — Target markets and industries: Share successes and best practices in town hall meetings, sales forums, etc.
- One-to-all — Entire GTM organization: Integrate best practices and assets in Learning Management Systems, Certification Programs, etc.
Step 3: Learn and Adjust
Set lagging/output and leading/input objectives and key results, like:
Y1, first 6 months: Influenced deal progression.
- Net new executive relationships
- Coverage (accounts, deals, enablement)
Y1, last 6 months: Influenced deals closed.
- Win rate
- Internal self-serve adoption
Y2: Influenced YoY net new revenue growth, net dollar retention, and sales efficiency improvements.
- Repeatability
- Influenced product ships
- GTM partner enablement
Track progress against quantitative metrics and obtain feedback from field sales, GTM managers, customers, and partners.
Adjust the operating model every six to 12 months (e.g., target accounts and deals, resourcing success metrics).
Conclusion
This article outlines tangible Profitable Outcome Selling practices that can be rolled out at scale by B2B SaaS businesses at or beyond growth stage who serve upper-mid-market and enterprise customers, to balance accelerating scaling with higher sales efficiency.
Profitable Outcome Selling is a vast subject with an endless amount of literature and opinions, impacted by rapidly evolving trends such as the macro-economic environment and the introduction of generative AI.
About Nic Delaye
I am an executive advisor and B2B tech Go-To-Market (GTM) executive with 30+ years of global, hands-on experience in Digital, AI, Fintech & ESG with Stripe/ServiceNow & PwC/KPMG/EY across most industries and segments. Special thanks to Lionel Berger for his contribution to this piece.
My professional purpose is: "Put technology in service of people to drive net positive impact at scale."
