January 4, 2024

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2024, and welcome back to The Weekly Pitch. In today's Feature Story, we predict five new in-demand sales roles by the end of 2024.

Our Weekly Chart shows how the culture is declining at Salesforce (and most tech companies).

In The Closer, we re-share some tips to handle year-end carryover discount requests.

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Regarding culture and leadership, the outlook is down for most of us in tech sales. Even more so at Salesforce.

From Businessweek's December 7 cover story on Salesforce:

"According to data provided by RepVue, a social network for salespeople, Salesforce has seen a uniquely steep drop in employee satisfaction during the tech downturn.

It used to be markedly above the rest of the industry. Now it’s just another big tech company. Morale has been further dented by a new expectation that salespeople work in person four days a week."

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Five In-Demand Sales Roles in 2024

The sales landscape is changing faster than ever. With the rise of new technologies and evolving customer expectations, businesses are rethinking their sales strategies and roles. In 2024, some specific sales positions will be in high demand, offering exciting opportunities for career growth and lucrative compensation.

Here are five of the hottest sales roles to consider in the coming year:

#1 VP Sales Acceleration

In today's environment, sales teams must close deals faster and more efficiently. That's where the VP of Sales Acceleration comes in. This role is responsible for optimizing the sales pipeline, shortening sales cycles, and increasing win rates.

Zendesk was one of the first companies to hire for such a role. They recruited Nikhil Sane from McKinsey last March. As SVP, he reports to the Chief Revenue Officer.

Top KPIs: Days-to-Close, Pipeline Velocity, Win Rate, Rep Quota Attainment

#2 Customer Development Rep

As reported in last week's issue, 72% of revenue comes from current customers, so most sales teams should dedicate more to this type of sales cycle.

Our take is outbound selling, and the resources it takes to make the unit economics work are on the brink of extinction. We should consider repurposing the traditional Outbound SDR into CDRs to drive expansion revenue.

They need to multithread and navigate thoughtfully through customer accounts. In 2024, CDRs who fearlessly prospect to identify and engage the right customer contacts beyond the original champion will be especially valuable.

Top KPIs: Customer Qualified Leads (CQLs), Expansion Pipeline, # of Customer Contacts Added, Net Revenue Retention

#3 Customer Success Advocate

In B2B, human-to-human relationships will regain prominence as we've over-automated too much. Too many customers are tired and fed up with chatbots, automated emails, and a lack of personal service.

The Customer Success Advocate will drive higher customer satisfaction and renewal rates by proactively seeking out problems before the customer encounters issues.

Strong communication, empathy, a lot of PATIENCE, and problem-solving skills are essential for this role.

Top KPIs: Customer NPS, Renewal Rates, Customer Qualified Leads (CQLs), Expansion Pipeline, # of New Products Sold

#4 AI Sales Coach

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the sales industry. AI Sales Coaches will be in high demand by the end of 2024 because sales teams need help understanding how to use it best.

If our sales game––copywriting, call scripts, account planning, pipeline management, forecasting, and closing––is already sloppy, AI and the large language models beneath it will only scale the sloppiness.

Coaches will help reps optimize tools like Google Bard and ChatGPT to understand prompts for tailored research, outreach, and analytics for real-time performance management.

For sales leaders, coaches will show them how to leverage AI for critical tasks from territory planning to forecasting to quota setting and even personalize coaching experiences and performance plans for each team member.  

Top KPIs: # of Qualified Opportunities, Lead Conversion Rate, Pipeline Generated, Rep Quota Attainment, Forecast Accuracy

#5 Field Sales Rep

Reps hungry to get back on the road to visit prospects and customers in person will be in high demand in 2024. They'll benefit from executives returning to a mostly-in-the-office routine.

Field sales reps have an assigned geographic territory to sell in person. Think medical devices, pharmaceuticals, consulting, or enterprise software sales.

Although similar, outbound selling broadly starts with any cold outreach and typically follows a virtual sales cycle from our home or work office.

Sellers who relish in-person relationship building will benefit from more executives returning to the office and a boomerang of trust and confidence from buyers reminiscent of previous decades.  

Top KPIs: Quota Attainment, Days-to-Close, Pipeline Velocity, Average Contract Value, Win Rate

These are just a few exciting sales roles in high demand in 2024. If we're looking for a challenging and rewarding career with the potential for significant growth, consider pursuing one of these positions. With the right skills and experience, you can be at the forefront of the sales revolution and build a successful career in the years to come.

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How to Handle Those Pesky Carryover Discount Requests

Prepare for it. Excuses, err, reasons customers or prospects will come back with a discount request after the late December deadline has come and gone include being out of office, the boss or signer(s) being out of office, or simply forgetting.

Let's revisit the 10 Ways to Handle Discounts. Those most relevant in the above scenario include:

• Say no :)

• Accept the discount in exchange for a 3-year deal.

• Ask, "How am I supposed to do that?"

• Request a customer testimonial and case study.

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Good luck to all the closers who are ready to make 2024 an epic year!