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cover of episode Perfecting a Bottoms Up & Top Down Sales Motion w/ Chris Merritt (Founding CRO, Cloudflare)

Perfecting a Bottoms Up & Top Down Sales Motion w/ Chris Merritt (Founding CRO, Cloudflare)

2025/4/9
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The Science of Scaling
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Mark Roberge: 我认为构建一个不谈论价格和包装，甚至不在第一次电话中进行预算或权限资格预审的销售团队是可行的。 此外，构建一个与技术买家同等地位的销售团队，其唯一目标是回答买家的问题，也是可行的。Cloudflare 首席营收官 Chris Merritt 就成功地做到了这一点，他的灵感来自公司博客。 在大型企业销售中，需要考虑决策单元（DMU）中的不同角色，例如经济买家、最终用户、技术买家、拥护者和教练，并针对性地沟通。 传统的销售佣金制度与新型销售模式（例如产品导向型增长）之间存在冲突，需要调整佣金制度，激励销售人员创造价值，提高客户留存率。 创业公司不应盲目模仿大公司的年度计划，而应根据实际情况灵活调整季度目标。快速销售周期可以加快学习速度，避免过度销售，但在后期阶段，需要重新考虑销售周期，适应大型企业的节奏。 在销售流程中，需要谨慎地引入解决方案工程师，避免降低客户体验。 Chris Merritt: 我在 Cloudflare 的早期销售团队建设中，将所有员工视为客户开发人员，专注于帮助客户解决问题，建立价值交换。 我们处理的客户咨询涵盖范围很广，从个人博客到大型出版商都有，需要建立一个高效的流程来处理这些咨询。 通过解决客户的技术问题，建立价值交换，即使没有明确谈论价格，客户也会愿意付费。很多网络工程师和安全工程师有自主的预算支出权限，可以快速解决问题。 在早期阶段，将初始交易规模控制在一定的范围内，并适当让利，为后续合作奠定基础。在后期阶段，需要与高级管理人员沟通预算和投资回报率，并依靠早期建立的良好关系和拥护者。 采用季度目标设定，可以更快地获得反馈，并调整销售策略。快速销售周期可以加快学习速度，避免过度销售。 在销售流程中，早期引入解决方案工程师可以提升客户体验和信任度。如何将解决方案工程师融入销售流程，而不降低客户体验，是一个挑战。

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Chris Merritt, Founding CRO at Cloudflare, built a sales team that prioritizes answering customer questions over traditional sales tactics like discussing price or qualifying leads. The team's focus is on peer-to-peer interaction with technical buyers, and the company's blog served as inspiration for the team's culture and hiring.
  • Sales team doesn't discuss price or packaging on the first call
  • Focuses on answering buyer questions
  • Cloudflare's blog inspired the sales culture and hiring process
  • Salespeople are considered "customer development" rather than salespeople

Shownotes Transcript

 What if I told you to build the sales team that doesn't talk about price or packaging? That doesn't even do discovery or qualification on budget or authority on the first call?

You'd think I'm crazy.

Chris Merritt (Founding CRO, Cloudflare) built a sales team that's a peer to its very technical buyer, whose first and only objective is to answer the buyer's questions.

He actually looked at the company's blog as inspiration on the type of salespeople he would hire and the type of sales culture he will build.

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