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Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com
GROW REVENUE BY 300% OR MORE AND MAKE IT PREDICTABLE...
"Alexander Graham Bell discovered the telephone, Thomas Edison discovered electricity and Aaron Ross discovered the Enterprise Market for Salesforce.com."
SHELLY DAVENPORT - VP Worldwide Sales at Replicon & ex-VP Corporate Sales at Salesforce.com
Discover the outbound sales process that, in just a few years, helped add $100 million in recurring revenue to Salesforce.com, almost doubling their enterprise growth... with zero cold calls.
This is NOT another book about how to cold call or close deals. This is an entirely new kind of sales bible for CEOs, entrepreneurs and sales VPs to help you build a sales machine. What does it take for your sales team to generate as many highly-qualified new leads as you want, create predictable revenue, and meet your financial goals without your constant focus and attention?
LEARN INSIDE WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT PREDICTABLE REVENUE
"I couldn't put it down. It's saved me so much time, and now revenue is ramping up. After reading the book, we closed major deals immediately with the strategies." KURT DARADICS CEO, Freedom Speaks / CitySourced.com
"Reading Predictable Revenue is like having a delicious conversation with a sales guru who generously shares his sales process, results and lessons learned. I'm so impressed, energized and refreshed to hear such relevance mixed with humor and unabashed logic. This book is honest, relevant and logical and it's rated A++ because it's guaranteed to make you think and convinces you to change things up....fast. Now, please excuse me as I'm running out to a funeral for my phone. After reading my favorite chapter on RIP Cold Calling there's no doubt its dead and gone and Aaron tells us why." JOSIANE FEIGON, CEO of TeleSmart and author of Smart Selling on the Phone and Online
"I just finished reading your book. Unbelievable! I now know what's wrong with our sales process..." PAT SHAH, CEO, SurchSquad
"I have read Predictable Revenue and it's Entrepreneurial Crack!" DAMIEN STEVENS, CEO, Servosity
"Working with Aaron Ross has been nothing short of amazing! His methods applied to our sales organization helped us produce a profitable and scalable new stream of predictable revenue. We saw at least 40+% new business growth. The best part is, we had a blast while doing it!" MICHAEL STONE, VP Sales and Strategy, WPromote (#1 ranked Search Marketing Firm on the Inc. 500)
For A Summary... google "Why Salespeople Shouldn't Prospect"
"Alexander Graham Bell discovered the telephone, Thomas Edison discovered electricity and Aaron Ross discovered the Enterprise Market for Salesforce.com."
SHELLY DAVENPORT - VP Worldwide Sales at Replicon & ex-VP Corporate Sales at Salesforce.com
Discover the outbound sales process that, in just a few years, helped add $100 million in recurring revenue to Salesforce.com, almost doubling their enterprise growth... with zero cold calls.
This is NOT another book about how to cold call or close deals. This is an entirely new kind of sales bible for CEOs, entrepreneurs and sales VPs to help you build a sales machine. What does it take for your sales team to generate as many highly-qualified new leads as you want, create predictable revenue, and meet your financial goals without your constant focus and attention?
LEARN INSIDE WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT PREDICTABLE REVENUE
"I couldn't put it down. It's saved me so much time, and now revenue is ramping up. After reading the book, we closed major deals immediately with the strategies." KURT DARADICS CEO, Freedom Speaks / CitySourced.com
"Reading Predictable Revenue is like having a delicious conversation with a sales guru who generously shares his sales process, results and lessons learned. I'm so impressed, energized and refreshed to hear such relevance mixed with humor and unabashed logic. This book is honest, relevant and logical and it's rated A++ because it's guaranteed to make you think and convinces you to change things up....fast. Now, please excuse me as I'm running out to a funeral for my phone. After reading my favorite chapter on RIP Cold Calling there's no doubt its dead and gone and Aaron tells us why." JOSIANE FEIGON, CEO of TeleSmart and author of Smart Selling on the Phone and Online
"I just finished reading your book. Unbelievable! I now know what's wrong with our sales process..." PAT SHAH, CEO, SurchSquad
"I have read Predictable Revenue and it's Entrepreneurial Crack!" DAMIEN STEVENS, CEO, Servosity
"Working with Aaron Ross has been nothing short of amazing! His methods applied to our sales organization helped us produce a profitable and scalable new stream of predictable revenue. We saw at least 40+% new business growth. The best part is, we had a blast while doing it!" MICHAEL STONE, VP Sales and Strategy, WPromote (#1 ranked Search Marketing Firm on the Inc. 500)
For A Summary... google "Why Salespeople Shouldn't Prospect"
213 pages, Paperback
First published July 8, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 292 reviews
December 25, 2013
There were only two points in this book, which could have been written in half a page:
1. Create a group of people sourcing for leads, separate from the people closing the deal.
2. When emailing people, use a gimmicky trick of asking them to forward your email to the correct person.
1. Create a group of people sourcing for leads, separate from the people closing the deal.
2. When emailing people, use a gimmicky trick of asking them to forward your email to the correct person.
June 17, 2016
Ugh. There were a couple decent insights here, but it was entirely too long (at 6h as an audiobook) and too obnoxious. I hate business books which would be better presented as a 5m talk or 1-3 page document.
The essential information: specialize your sales team and separate out the new-leads prospecting ("SDR") from the rest of your sales team (AE, CSM, MRR). While it is fairly obvious that one might separate this out from account execs, separating it out from market response reps (who deal with inbound leads) is less obvious. Apparently at Salesforce.com this was validated experimentally.
The second piece is: have your SDRs do prospecting in a way other than making literal cold calls on the telephone. In 2016 I don't think anyone real actually picks up unsolicited phone calls, so this is obvious.
Other than that, the biggest insight from the book is: if you have a narrator of a different gender, you're stuck with either having her say "I" meaning "you", or referring to you in the third person a lot, which makes you seem like a pompous tool.
Warning: most of the book is an advertisement for other services this guy sells (sales consulting), and extensive references to the website.
Also, it should be obvious, but this sales process only works for products in the $1k to 100k LTV range. If you try it with cheaper products you burn too much money. If you try it with genuinely high value products, you'll piss off/lose the customer. It works for salesforce.com SMB/mid-market size.
Probably wouldn't bother reading/listening to this; just accept that sales team specialization is important. Maybe the book was groundbreaking when written (which was Some Time ago, given repeated references to "BlackBerry-sized emails")
The essential information: specialize your sales team and separate out the new-leads prospecting ("SDR") from the rest of your sales team (AE, CSM, MRR). While it is fairly obvious that one might separate this out from account execs, separating it out from market response reps (who deal with inbound leads) is less obvious. Apparently at Salesforce.com this was validated experimentally.
The second piece is: have your SDRs do prospecting in a way other than making literal cold calls on the telephone. In 2016 I don't think anyone real actually picks up unsolicited phone calls, so this is obvious.
Other than that, the biggest insight from the book is: if you have a narrator of a different gender, you're stuck with either having her say "I" meaning "you", or referring to you in the third person a lot, which makes you seem like a pompous tool.
Warning: most of the book is an advertisement for other services this guy sells (sales consulting), and extensive references to the website.
Also, it should be obvious, but this sales process only works for products in the $1k to 100k LTV range. If you try it with cheaper products you burn too much money. If you try it with genuinely high value products, you'll piss off/lose the customer. It works for salesforce.com SMB/mid-market size.
Probably wouldn't bother reading/listening to this; just accept that sales team specialization is important. Maybe the book was groundbreaking when written (which was Some Time ago, given repeated references to "BlackBerry-sized emails")
March 2, 2015
Predictable Revenue is one of the best kept secrets in business literature. I don't give five star reviews often, especially for business books, but this book earns it. The authors understand the real challenges marketers and sales executives face and articulate proven solutions eloquently. As much as I would love to tell the world about this book, I am struggling with the idea of sharing because I feel like I'll be giving away a huge competitive advantage. Consider this is my feeble attempt to say thank you to Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler.
July 25, 2018
I have built a sales department based on this book.
January 6, 2020
Livro muito bom para a implantação de prospecção ativa!
August 4, 2015
We all want predictable revenue right? We want to know that if we get 5 qualified leads we can turn 2 of those in to paying customers that are worth $XX over time.
We want to have a process to take leads and qualify them for our business to move them down that sales funnel.
If that’s what you’re looking for then this is a decent book to read. I say decent because it regularly feels like a ‘sales’ book for Salesforce.com (which was where this sales process was developed though the author is no longer employed there).
My favourite points were around how to nurture and qualify leads. It’s important not to just ABC (always be selling) and to ruthlessly qualify the leads that come in. You don’t have 50 ‘best’ leads you have 5 maybe 10 that you should be working on the rest are a waste of your time.
I feel that this book is better for larger organizations that have a dedicated sales team. Smaller business like mine (which is just me) can benefit from the talk of process and cutting leads so you only focus on the ‘best’ ones, but are going to struggle with parts of it since a 1 person business by definition struggles with having many duties divided up on one person.
We want to have a process to take leads and qualify them for our business to move them down that sales funnel.
If that’s what you’re looking for then this is a decent book to read. I say decent because it regularly feels like a ‘sales’ book for Salesforce.com (which was where this sales process was developed though the author is no longer employed there).
My favourite points were around how to nurture and qualify leads. It’s important not to just ABC (always be selling) and to ruthlessly qualify the leads that come in. You don’t have 50 ‘best’ leads you have 5 maybe 10 that you should be working on the rest are a waste of your time.
I feel that this book is better for larger organizations that have a dedicated sales team. Smaller business like mine (which is just me) can benefit from the talk of process and cutting leads so you only focus on the ‘best’ ones, but are going to struggle with parts of it since a 1 person business by definition struggles with having many duties divided up on one person.
August 27, 2018
Author makes several good points about how to create a sales organization and what it takes to generate predictable revenue. Unfortunately, the book is muddled by repetitiveness, poor editing, unreadable diagrams, and the fact that the whole thing reads like an ad for Salesforce.com.
January 28, 2019
Livro prático e com dicas muito úteis tanto para quem está iniciando na área de vendas, quanto para quem já trabalha com vendas.
February 23, 2017
Awesome book. Seriously.
December 20, 2016
If you manage a large sales force or if you run a small business, this book should be able to help improve sales prospecting. It would help if you use systems, such as a database for sales and marketing, but even if you are self-employed and have to sell on your own to expand your business, you can gain some new thoughts here.
Prior to the new century, the average sales rep kept track of prospecting via a manual process of index cards and notebooks, showing the name of a potential client including such important data as phone number, address, needs, and personal information. Then SalesForce came along in the late 1990s. Originally used as an online Tickler System for sales, it has since expanded into its own industry, turning the entire CRM (Customer Relationship Management) process on its head. Now it's difficult to imagine any business operating without SalesForce as part of the selling flow.
In this book, Aaron Ross, who helped grow the revenue for SFDC (salesforce.com) exponentially, provides a clear explanation of how he and his team accomplished that while teaching the reader some very good tips and tricks. Eschewing the old world concept of cold-calling a Lead in the hopes of eventually getting a sale, Ross takes us through a more holistic approach, by using warm marketing to reach the prospective client. There are helpful suggestions for re-evaluating the sales funnel and sales pipeline while also showing the main metrics to be tracked.
I live and breathe within SalesForce, so the book was easy to read. But given the expense of SalesForce for smaller businesses, the book can still be used as a clear explanation to tackle the always needed task of selling to new clients. The idea is to triple your revenue and to do so predictably. That is, if you have a firmly established sales hunting system, you can more reliably predict future bookings and have fun doing it.
Book Season = Year Round (B2B, B2C, C2C)
Prior to the new century, the average sales rep kept track of prospecting via a manual process of index cards and notebooks, showing the name of a potential client including such important data as phone number, address, needs, and personal information. Then SalesForce came along in the late 1990s. Originally used as an online Tickler System for sales, it has since expanded into its own industry, turning the entire CRM (Customer Relationship Management) process on its head. Now it's difficult to imagine any business operating without SalesForce as part of the selling flow.
In this book, Aaron Ross, who helped grow the revenue for SFDC (salesforce.com) exponentially, provides a clear explanation of how he and his team accomplished that while teaching the reader some very good tips and tricks. Eschewing the old world concept of cold-calling a Lead in the hopes of eventually getting a sale, Ross takes us through a more holistic approach, by using warm marketing to reach the prospective client. There are helpful suggestions for re-evaluating the sales funnel and sales pipeline while also showing the main metrics to be tracked.
I live and breathe within SalesForce, so the book was easy to read. But given the expense of SalesForce for smaller businesses, the book can still be used as a clear explanation to tackle the always needed task of selling to new clients. The idea is to triple your revenue and to do so predictably. That is, if you have a firmly established sales hunting system, you can more reliably predict future bookings and have fun doing it.
Book Season = Year Round (B2B, B2C, C2C)
January 18, 2020
This book was recommended by my dear manager and I could see how my company is applying Salesforce's sales process.
Some take-away notes:
- Specialize each position to get the best results. Typical sales team should compound: inside SDR, outside SDR, Account Executive, CSM.
- Measure by results, not by quantity. Be specific with number. For ex: conversion rate, number of qualified leads, number of bookings/ contract.
- Inside SDR are a very important role. Though it's a very first touch point, the more info they can get, the shorten life cycle it is. Sweet and short email works ways better than a mass lengthy one. Also, inside SDR should develop a bant scores for each prospect to support Account Executives assess which one will become leads and treat leads differently based on the score.
- The company should develop a learning cycle for sales, giving them chances to learn from each other and see their personal career path.
- When the team gets bigger than 10, it's advised to build team lead and rotate their roles sometimes so everyone can learn from the others.
- Care about your team member. Care about your core customers. Closing a deal is just a very first step. Supporting them to be successful with the solution you sell to them is what matters.
--
4.5 stars, minus 0.5 star for the authors' lengthy explanation.
Some take-away notes:
- Specialize each position to get the best results. Typical sales team should compound: inside SDR, outside SDR, Account Executive, CSM.
- Measure by results, not by quantity. Be specific with number. For ex: conversion rate, number of qualified leads, number of bookings/ contract.
- Inside SDR are a very important role. Though it's a very first touch point, the more info they can get, the shorten life cycle it is. Sweet and short email works ways better than a mass lengthy one. Also, inside SDR should develop a bant scores for each prospect to support Account Executives assess which one will become leads and treat leads differently based on the score.
- The company should develop a learning cycle for sales, giving them chances to learn from each other and see their personal career path.
- When the team gets bigger than 10, it's advised to build team lead and rotate their roles sometimes so everyone can learn from the others.
- Care about your team member. Care about your core customers. Closing a deal is just a very first step. Supporting them to be successful with the solution you sell to them is what matters.
--
4.5 stars, minus 0.5 star for the authors' lengthy explanation.
July 7, 2021
Pretty good for the genre. As with all of these “look how I did it“ business books there is a healthy dose of survivorship bias and self confirmation bias. You don’t seem to realize that a lot of success is sometimes despite negative things you do.
but this book is the OG for a reason. Good, slightly outdated advice.
but this book is the OG for a reason. Good, slightly outdated advice.
September 15, 2021
I was expecting a lot less. I was expecting some clues, ideas and navigation towards a so-called predictable revenue. What I got is a dense book based on experience that is filled with actionable points. It includes also tips and mistakes for C-level people!
The beginning it was a bit confusing as author jumps right into the middle of the sales. He introduces a lot of new vocabulary. After a few pages this feeling is gone and you bath in the sales wisdom. I wish more books were written in that manner.
Finally, I'm glad that this book ends with a bit of mambo jumbo management. Otherwise it would be 6 out of 5 stars.
The beginning it was a bit confusing as author jumps right into the middle of the sales. He introduces a lot of new vocabulary. After a few pages this feeling is gone and you bath in the sales wisdom. I wish more books were written in that manner.
Finally, I'm glad that this book ends with a bit of mambo jumbo management. Otherwise it would be 6 out of 5 stars.
March 19, 2019
Believe me, this is not a sales book that promises you and misleads you with party tricks like "the 10 secrets to sell more" and all that jazz. Predictable Revenue is a guide on how to create killer sales teams with proven tactics that come from no other than the mastermind of sales at SalesForce. Reading this book you really understand why certain roles are crucial in the sales team of a company (a startup, a big corporation or even your own small business) and why lines have to be drawn and tasks must be assigned.
Great read, motivating.
Great read, motivating.
June 3, 2021
Go-to book for a SAAS entrepreneur.
Shatters many myths about sales that the new age SAAS businesses helplessly inherit from traditional sales.
Being a been there done that ode to building saas sales function, this is extemely insightful.
What stood out the most for me are:
1. Cold calling 2.0
2. Need for Specialization in sales roles
3. Focus on metrics, the right metrics and the need for a CRM tool
4. Seeds, spears and nets (analogy of marketing channel)
5. Chapter 7 (bang on!)
(though this book, with no offence, shamelessly acts as a marketing mouthpiece for salesforce)
Shatters many myths about sales that the new age SAAS businesses helplessly inherit from traditional sales.
Being a been there done that ode to building saas sales function, this is extemely insightful.
What stood out the most for me are:
1. Cold calling 2.0
2. Need for Specialization in sales roles
3. Focus on metrics, the right metrics and the need for a CRM tool
4. Seeds, spears and nets (analogy of marketing channel)
5. Chapter 7 (bang on!)
(though this book, with no offence, shamelessly acts as a marketing mouthpiece for salesforce)
May 23, 2017
One of the best sales books I've ever read. Aaron offers very actionable strategies and provides a good overview how a complete sales process should work in order the revenue to be predictable. This book is a must read for everyone in sales- from the SDR-s to the CEO-s.
March 18, 2018
An essential book about sales.
If your startup is expanding, you are growing but you need more control over your lead generation and how to reorganize the sales team, this is the book for you.
I enjoyed every page, read it in less than a week and I already implemented several things.
I loved how tracking got narrowed down to
- new leads this month
- new opportunities this month
- conversion rate lead to opportunity
- conversion rate opportunity to customer
And the all discussion about Account Executives (Sales) being separated from SDR (outbound) and MMR
If your startup is expanding, you are growing but you need more control over your lead generation and how to reorganize the sales team, this is the book for you.
I enjoyed every page, read it in less than a week and I already implemented several things.
I loved how tracking got narrowed down to
- new leads this month
- new opportunities this month
- conversion rate lead to opportunity
- conversion rate opportunity to customer
And the all discussion about Account Executives (Sales) being separated from SDR (outbound) and MMR
July 27, 2020
why the hell did I read this?
November 11, 2020
A required reading for SaaS sales! Finally understood fully why Salesforce exists
November 26, 2020
É um livro que muda sua mentalidade sobre como otimizar processos. Faz a ideia de especialização do trabalho entrar na sua cabeça mais que Adam Smith!
January 15, 2021
Great insights, aligned with the new marketing strategies. Really worth reading.
July 12, 2019
It's an interesting look inside the world of sales and an origin story for Sales Development. Authors explain the need + the perks of such approach in a simple way, showing ways how to do it and why you should've considered it a long time ago. Cold Calling 1.0 is dead. Long live Cold Calling 2.0 :)
February 23, 2022
Through this book, I realized that whatever your position is, you must find a way to be involved in the decision making process of your company. Speak up because that’s how you create an Impact.
August 16, 2019
Definitely dated but still has a lot of good advice
May 21, 2021
Esse livro é simplesmente FODA!
Pra vc que esta comecando a estruturar um time de vendas, ou quer instalar um processo de escala do seu time, leitura mais do que obrigatoria!
Pra vc que esta comecando a estruturar um time de vendas, ou quer instalar um processo de escala do seu time, leitura mais do que obrigatoria!
October 24, 2020
Very good for sales operations. The whole book can be written in 2 chapters, the rest is just writing them in different ways.
April 7, 2021
Definitely a good book for anyone selling, structuring a selling pipeline or becoming a CEO. The book it’s very straight forward like “have a person to do this” “write an email like this” “send between x hours and y hours”. Very practical.
The authors have a great experience earned in Salesforce, talking to many companies, I could experience the results in practice and really it’s a powerful book.
The authors have a great experience earned in Salesforce, talking to many companies, I could experience the results in practice and really it’s a powerful book.
August 23, 2023
I'm a SaaS bro now.
Solving problems > selling solutions.
If you're a church or a Christian non-profit, hit me. WeGive on LinkedIn. We prioritize donor/church engagement and automate systems and have a sleek checkout too ;)
Solving problems > selling solutions.
If you're a church or a Christian non-profit, hit me. WeGive on LinkedIn. We prioritize donor/church engagement and automate systems and have a sleek checkout too ;)
June 23, 2021
Content is great. The form is terrible (poorly written, too many advertisements for a book, some huge images wouldn’t add anything to the content, etc).
February 24, 2022
Writing: 4/5
Knowledge Gained: 3/5
Enjoyment: 3/5
The author started early in salesforce.com. Has a couple of insightful ideas, such as:
-separating sales people into outbound lead acquirers, inbound lead qualifiers, and a general "account executive" to nurture and re-qualify the lead. Thus, specialization leads to high efficiency.
-focus on getting lots of leads into the pipeline, and mass e-mail, and find the decision makers in the company.
-build your target customer list. What is the best customer that you envision? be specific, and hunt from there.
-start/build/manage a sales process that is both repeatable and consistent.
-focus on WHY the customer needs to buy from you, what is their TRUE pain points, you have to dig deeper. in both B2B and B2C, especially B2B, they have a pain point which they prob don't know yet, help them grow with your solution/product.
At 2011, and at 2022, this books still works quite well, although 2/3 of the book is elongation of the book, can be written in a few pages.
Knowledge Gained: 3/5
Enjoyment: 3/5
The author started early in salesforce.com. Has a couple of insightful ideas, such as:
-separating sales people into outbound lead acquirers, inbound lead qualifiers, and a general "account executive" to nurture and re-qualify the lead. Thus, specialization leads to high efficiency.
-focus on getting lots of leads into the pipeline, and mass e-mail, and find the decision makers in the company.
-build your target customer list. What is the best customer that you envision? be specific, and hunt from there.
-start/build/manage a sales process that is both repeatable and consistent.
-focus on WHY the customer needs to buy from you, what is their TRUE pain points, you have to dig deeper. in both B2B and B2C, especially B2B, they have a pain point which they prob don't know yet, help them grow with your solution/product.
At 2011, and at 2022, this books still works quite well, although 2/3 of the book is elongation of the book, can be written in a few pages.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 292 reviews