Today’s leading technology companies face many challenges in the new era of XaaS. As XaaS adoption accelerates, the question on every sales leader’s mind is, Are we keeping pace? As hybrid companies move towards XaaS, they face bookings and cost challenges due to smaller deals and an increased need for specialized sales roles. XaaS organizations face stiff competition from startups and hybrids and invest heavily in sophisticated post-sales models to retain and grow customers.
Alexander Group’s recent 2018 XaaS Sales Strategy Market Study reveals that, despite growing impact from post-sales investments, both Hybrids and pure XaaS firms struggle to optimize sales organizations to fit emerging XaaS buyer journeys.
Based on findings from 50+ XaaS executive interviews, the study details five critical XaaS leadership priorities for XaaS model optimization:
- Adapt revenue motions and roles to emerging XaaS buyer journeys
- Invest in digital engagement and roles to acquire and grow new customers
- Instill a culture of growth-oriented customer success
- Align talent profiles and incentive compensation with XaaS selling and
- Deploy and coach to new metrics/tactics for XaaS buyer journey optimization
The study also presents key XaaS benchmarks such as:
- Bookings and sales costs per seller
- Customer growth and account expansion rates
- Customer acquisition costs
- Coverage models and headcount ratios
- Salesforce turnover and seller ramp times
- Sales compensation design and pay levels
How do you measure against your competitors? Are you keeping pace? Schedule time to review the study findings and benchmark yourself against your peers.
Read subsequent parts to the overview of this series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
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Technology companies must adopt to the XaaS evolution. Revenue leaders share how change is impacting their companies in the technology industry.
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About the Author
Davis Giedt is a director in the Atlanta office and leads the Commercial Analytics, Research and Benchmarking practice, as well as the Executive Access Subscription Program. His team provides industry-specific insights across many of the firm’s projects and initiatives. Davis focuses on marketing, sales and service investment analysis, sales and support role optimization, incentive compensation and management trends.
