sales-and-revenue-operations

Sales & Revenue Operations Full-stack sales playbook: founder-led sales, team building, enterprise deals, RevOps, ICP definition, buyer personas, and compensation design. Quick Start Assess stage — Founder-led, first reps, or scaling? Define motion — Inbound, outbound, PLG, or hybrid? Build ICP — Who are you selling to? Design process — Discovery → Demo → Close Instrument RevOps — Lead lifecycle, scoring, routing ICP & Buyer Persona ICP Stack (build bottom-up) ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ BUYING CENTER │ ← All decision stakeholders ├─────────────────────────────┤ │ USER PERSONA │ ← Daily user ├─────────────────────────────┤ │ BUYER PERSONA │ ← Signs the check ├─────────────────────────────┤ │ COMPANY PROFILE │ ← Firmographics └─────────────────────────────┘ Company Profile: industry/vertical, size (employees/revenue), stage, geography, tech stack Buyer Persona: title/role, seniority, goals & KPIs, decision authority, what they care about User Persona: daily workflow, pain points, tech savviness Buying Center Roles: Champion, Economic Buyer, Technical Evaluator, End User, Blocker ICP Scoring Factor Weight Problem severity 25% Budget available 20% Champion identified 15% Technical fit 15% Decision timeline 15% Expansion potential 10% The 50-Company Test List 50 specific companies that fit. Find the buyer's name at 20 of them. Reach out to 10. If you can't do this, your ICP isn't specific enough. For full persona canvases, buying center maps, interview questions, and fit scoring: see references/full-guide.md Founder-Led Sales Core principles: The founder IS the product — your credibility closes deals early competitors can't Your biggest competitor is indecision (40-60% of B2B purchases end in no decision) Sell before you build — Figma mockups can secure first customers Close the laptop — focus on diagnosis, not demos Book next meeting on the current one to maintain momentum When to hire: Wait until ~$1M ARR and a repeatable process. Hire in pairs — you need an A/B test. Hiring framework: Stage Who to Hire When Founder-led Nobody Before $1M ARR First AEs 2 reps After proven repeatability SDRs 1-2 When inbound overflows VP Sales 1 When 2+ reps hitting quota Enterprise Sales Buying committee roles: Champion (internal advocate), Economic Buyer (signs), Technical Buyer (evaluates), End User (uses daily), Blocker (can say no) JOLT method for indecision: Judge level of indecision Offer a firm recommendation Limit exploration by building trust Take risk off the table — de-risk the deal Key tactics: Identify and arm the champion — they sell internally for you Address FOMU (Fear Of Making a Mistake), not just FOMO Make procurement's job easy — prepare all documentation upfront Sales Qualification BANT: Budget · Authority · Need · Timeline MEDDIC: Metrics · Economic Buyer · Decision Criteria · Decision Process · Identify Pain · Champion Rule: Qualify ruthlessly. "No" is a successful outcome. Disqualify on the first call if fit isn't there. Sales Enablement Sales Deck (10-12 slides) Current World Problem, 2. Cost of the Problem, 3. The Shift Happening, 4. Your Approach, 5. Product Walkthrough (3-4 workflows), 6. Proof Points, 7. Case Study, 8. Implementation, 9. ROI/Value, 10. Pricing Overview, 11. Next Steps/CTA Demo Structure Opening (2 min) → Discovery Recap (3 min) → Solution Walkthrough (15-20 min) → Interaction → Close (5 min) Objection Handling Category Response Approach Price ROI angle, payment terms Timing Urgency, cost of delay Competition Differentiation, unique value Authority Arm the champion Status quo Cost of inaction Revenue Operations Lead Lifecycle Stages Stage Owner Entry Criteria Subscriber Marketing Opts in to content Lead Marketing Basic info provided MQL Marketing Fit + engagement threshold SQL Sales Accepted, qualified via call Opportunity Sales AE BANT confirmed Customer CS Closed-won MQL = Fit Score (who they are) + Engagement Score (what they do). Neither alone qualifies. MQL-to-SQL SLA: Contact within 4 hours; qualify or reject within 48 hours. Lead Scoring Explicit (fit): Company size, industry, title, tech stack Implicit (engagement): Pricing page visits, demo requests, email clicks, product usage Negative: Competitor domains, student emails, unsubscribes Lead Routing Methods Method Best For Round-robin Equal territories Territory-based Regional/vertical teams Account-based Named accounts / ABM Skill-based Complex deals, multi-product Speed-to-lead: Contact within 5 minutes = 21x more likely to qualify. After 30 minutes, conversion drops 10x. For routing decision trees and automation playbooks: see references/routing-rules.md , references/automation-playbooks.md Pipeline Stage Hygiene Enforce required fields per stage to block advancement with bad data Flag stale deals (2x average time in stage) automatically Alert on stage skips (Qualified → Proposal without Discovery) Require reason codes on close date pushes RevOps Metrics Metric Target Lead-to-MQL rate 5-15% MQL-to-SQL rate 30-50% SQL-to-Opportunity 50-70% Win rate 20-30% Speed-to-lead <5 minutes LTV:CAC ratio 3:1 to 5:1 For scoring models and lifecycle definitions: see references/scoring-models.md , references/lifecycle-definitions.md Sales Compensation Standard structure: 50% base / 50% variable (OTE). This is a starting point, not a law. Modern comp plans align with customer outcomes, not just bookings. Reps who close churny deals should earn less than those who close sticky customers. Ramp periods: 3-6 months for SMB, 6-12 months for enterprise. Provide guaranteed draw or reduced quotas during ramp. Simplicity rule: If reps can't instantly calculate how an action affects their pay, the plan is too complex. Common mistakes: Incentivizing only bookings without customer quality Over-complicated plans with too many variables No ramp protection for new hires Ignoring churn in comp design For detailed comp frameworks: see references/guest-insights.md Sales Metrics Metric What It Tells You Win rate Sales effectiveness Sales cycle length Process efficiency Pipeline coverage Forecast reliability (target 3-4x quota) Lead-to-Opportunity Qualification quality CAC Acquisition efficiency Quota attainment Rep performance