Sales

The GitLab Field team includes multiple functions: Enterprise Sales, Commercial Sales, Customer Success, Channel Partners, Alliances, Field Operations

Welcome to the Sales team homepage!

The GitLab Field team includes multiple functions: Enterprise Sales, Commercial Sales, Customer Success, Channel Partners, Alliances, Field Operations.

Quick Reference Guide

Where to Begin Field Enablement Resources Sales Processes & Standard Operating Procedures Sales Meetings & Events
Sales & Customer Success Onboarding Sales Training Sales Order Processing President’s Club
Commercial Sales Sales Enablement Sessions Engage & Educate the Customer Sales Kickoff
Enterprise Sales Command of the Message Facilitate The Opportunity Sales Meetings
Inside Sales Most Commonly Used Sales Resources Deal Closure
Channels Field Certification Program Retain and Expand
Sales Territories Sales Manager Best Practices Forecasting
Sales Term Glossary Field Flash Newsletter Investor Sales Support
ACV Deep Dive Field Team Recognition Programs Customer Planning
ARR Deep Dive Highspot - GitLab Sales Asset Management Tool Rules of Engagement for Selling GitLab & Partner Professional Services
Field Operations Teams and Resources Customer Success Resources Helpful Sales Handbook Tips Sales Resources Outside of the Sales Handbook
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Field Operations Customer Success Groups FAQ from Prospects Resellers Handbook
Sales Operations How to Engage a Solutions Architect Client Use Cases Customer Reference Sheet
Deal Desk Account Planning Template for Large Accounts Dealing with Security Questions From Prospects Customer Reference Case Study Dynamic Board
Field Enablement How to Engage a CSM/CSE How to conduct an executive meeting GitLab Support Handbook
Sales Strategy CEO Preferences when speaking w/ prospects/customers
Sales Systems Best Practices for Building Value with Customers
Commissions Understanding How Our Customers Use GitLab
Customer Success Operations Prospect Engagement Best Practices
Account Ownership Rules of Engagement
Parent and Child Accounts
Opportunity Stages Growth Resources (Finding Seat Count)
Record Ownership
Routing Rules
Forecasting Definitions and Processes
Data Intelligence
Associating emails to Salesforce
Early to Mid-Stage Late Stage Post Sales Processes Team Member & Manager Resources
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Opportunity Types Submitting an Opportunity for Approval How to Amend a Subscription Quote Leadership Handbook
Opportunity Naming Conventions How to Handle Vendor Setup Forms How to Renew a Subscription Quote GitLab Values & Certification Process
How to Create an Opportunity True Ups GitLab Competencies & Certification Process
MEDDPPICC Qualification Contract Resets GitLab Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
Sales Discovery & Qualification Questions People Business Partner Alignment for Sales
GitLab ROI calculator Women in Sales Mentorship Pilot Program
Proof of Value Women in Sales Project
Creating a Quote
Quote Approval Matrix
Delivering a Quote via DocuSign
Marketing Resources Strategic Marketing Product Resources
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Marketing Strategic Marketing Handbook Product Team Handbook
Sales Development Handbook Product Marketing Manager Assignments Engaging Product Management
GitLab Value Proposition Customer-Facing Presentations Asking Questions/Giving Feedback on a Feature
Lead and Contact Statuses Print Collateral Product Categories
Inbound Lead Generation Sales Collateral Google Drive Features by Group
Finance Process Business Operations Process Legal Process
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Deal Desk: Assistance with Quotes Business Operations Handbook Collaborating with Legal - Sales
Deal Desk: Approval Process Data Team Handbook Legal Page
Sending a Quote to Zuora Data Quality Process Engaging Legal in Deals
How to Initiate a Refund IT Ops Handbook
Access Requests

Who We Are

The Sales team is led by the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Reporting into this individual are the:

The Sales team is organized into Large, Mid-Market, and SMB segments. (Descriptions of Sales segments can be found in the Field Operations Handbook - Segmentation section.)

The people working with each segment and their quota are:

How We Work

The GitLab Sales team embodies our CREDIT values in every aspect of our work. Specifically, we constantly work to overperform and achieve strong results. We prioritize efficiency in our processes and operations. We succeed because of transparent, cross-functional collaboration. We are committed to hiring for and celebrating diversity, and we strive to create an environment of inclusiveness and belonging for all. And, we embrace a spirit of iteration, understanding that we can always improve.

Sales Tech Stack

For information regarding the tech stack at GitLab, please visit the Tech Stack Applications page of the Business Operations handbook where we maintain a quick reference table of who should have access to various tools and the designated owner for each to contact with questions. To see a full list of the tools that make up our tech stack, visit the Tech Stack Details page.

Collaborating with the Team

Please use the Handbook as much as possible to document important information. You should also use the Handbook as a starting point for any questions. Read here for guidance on how we take notes on the GitLab Sales team.

Dogfood GitLab whenever you can – to collaborate on ideas, gather feedback, organize projects, and more.

When you have to use office applications, always use G Suite applications instead of Microsoft Office; for example, Google Sheets instead of Excel, Google Docs instead of Word, and Google Slides instead of Keynote or Powerpoint. Give the entire company editing rights whenever possible so everyone can contribute.

Communicating with the Team

  • The Sales team primarily communicates via Slack in our day-to-day work. Our main team channels are #sales, our general channel, and #field-fyi, our read-only channel for official field team announcements.
    • Email is used in some segments where customer privacy dictates additional security measures.
    • For a full breakdown of all Field Slack groups and the hierarchy of our Google Groups, see the Communicating with the Field Handbook page.
  • Please reference the Sales Support and Sales Operation Handbook page for a summary of how to engage with deal desk resources.
  • Chatter @contracts on the specific record in Salesforce where you will need assistance from the legal team.

Please avoid contacting individuals directly so that discussions can be available for everyone to review and learn from. We strongly encourage every team member to review the GitLab Communication Handbook page upon joining the team, and occasionally return to it during your tenure here as a refresher. (You can also get certified on communication at GitLab.)

Supporting Teams

The Sales team works cross-functionally, both with teams within and outside of our organization. These teams include:

Customer Success

The Customer Success department is part of the GitLab Sales function and partners with our large and strategic customers to deliver value throughout their journey with GitLab. See our Customer Success page in the Handbook for more details.

Inside Sales

The Inside Sales department is part of the GitLab Sales function and partners with the sales and customer success teams to deliver maximum value to GitLab customers throughout their journey with GitLab. See our Inside Sales page in the handbook for more details.

Channels & Alliances

These teams help accelerate GitLab’s trajectory by connecting our business and customers to companies that can help compliment our product mission and/or drive customer adoption and usage of the GitLab platform. See our Channel and Alliances Handbook pages for more details.

Sales Development Organization

Sales Development Representative (SDR) - focused on inbound leads

Business Development Represenative (BDR) - focused on outbound leads

This team sits within the Marketing department and provides territory support to Sales team members through outreach, prospecting, and lead qualification. Key priorities include:

  1. Align on accounts and prioritize prospecting targets (both on the account and title levels).
  2. BDRs and SDRs are to set ‘at bat’ meetings utilizing sales development best practices
  3. Drive brand awareness within target accounts

See the Sales Development page in the Handbook for more details.

Support

This team provides technical support to GitLab.com and Self-Managed GitLab customers. For an overview of support levels based on plan tier, see the Support Page. The Support → Customer Success Manager (CSM) escalation process can be found here.

During the sales cycle, potential customers who have questions that are not within the scope of Sales can have their queries escalated in different ways depending on the account size:

  1. For Strategic/Large accounts that will have a dedicated Solutions Architect, engage the SA so that they can triage and develop the request.
  2. For questions that you think technical staff can answer in less than 10 minutes, please use the #questions Slack channel. For more information, see the internal support section of the Support Handbook.
  3. By default, trial licenses do not include support. If you’ve been contacted by a prospect whose evaluation of GitLab includes evaluating support expertise or SLA performance, as a member of the Sales team you can grant temporary support for their trial license. See the Internal Support Handbook for more details.
  4. If your customer contacts you requiring technical support, please immediately direct them to open a ticket through the Support Portal(https://support.gitlab.com/). Please do not open a support ticket on behalf of a customer. More details here.
  5. For escalating a Support ticket, see the I want to escalate a ticket section.

Product

We work with the Product team to help drive the GitLab Direction based on customer feedback and needs.

When you hear of feedback or you personally have feedback, you are encouraged to comment within the issue, if one exists, or create your own issue on our Issue Tracker.

When you have an organization that is interested in a feature and you have commented in the issue and added a link to the account in Salesforce, please follow the process outlined on the Product Handbook to arrange a call with the product manager and account to further discuss the feature request.

If a client has a question or suggestion about a particular part of the product, find out which individual on the Product team you need to speak by looking under DevOps Stages on the Product stages, groups, and categories page.

Coronavirus Impact to Business Tracking

To standardize our messaging around Coronavirus and the impact it is having on our prospects and customers, please reference the below processes:

  1. Blank: No conversation or insight has been gathered yet
  2. Pending: Engaged with customer to validate current situation
  3. No impact: Oppty proceeding on close plan in customer’s words
  4. Med: Customer validates change to budget or timing but some “high priority” purchases still happening
  5. High - Budget Change: Customer’s words: all budget gone in formal response to economy
  6. High - Priority Change: Customer’s words: Timing must push in direct response to economy
  • Add high-level summary of impact to “COVID Comment” and original amount prior to impact in “Pre-COVID iACV” SFDC fields on the opportunity
  • A note for Commercial Account Owners: add the string c19 to any activity record where a discussion was held.

Export Control Classification, and Countries We Do Not Do Business In

GitLab’s Export Control Classification (or ECCN) is 5D992.c. As a consequence of this classification, we currently do not do business in: Iran, Sudan, Syria, North Korea, Cuba and the Crimea, Donetsk, or Luhansk regions of the Ukraine.

Performance Indicators

Sales KPIs are Not Public and documented in the Internal handbook.


Account Planning
Account planning helps the SAE and the larger account team elevate opportunity-driven conversations into value-based conversations that focus on the customer's value drivers.
Associating emails to Salesforce
A quick guide on associating emails to Salesforce
Best Practices for Building Value with Customers
An overview of some of the GitLab Field team's best-practices to build value with customers.
Channel
Channel at GitLab
Command of the Message
GitLab has adopted Force Management's Command of the Message customer value-based sales messaging framework and methodology
Commercial Sales
Welcome to the Commercial Sales Handbook The Commercial Sales department is part of the overall GitLab Sales Division. We focus on delivering maximum value to SMB and Mid-Market customers throughout their entire journey with GitLab. Commercial Team Groups SMB Account Executives Mid Market Account Executives Area Sales Managers Getting Started as a New Hire Please ensure you read the Commercial Sales onboarding page. Top Tips to Onboard Quicker Bookmark the relevant SalesForce dashboard for your region, this is essential to your success.
Commissions
Charter Sales Commissions is a part of Field Operations, reporting into Sales Operations. Our goal is to incentivize the field to close business, process commissions in an accurate and timely fashion to help make GitLab more successful. We aim to be viewed as a trusted business partner for Field Sales, Lead Generation and management. Quota setting and Compensation Design are led by the Go-To-Market Planning & Operations team. This team sits under Sales Strategy & Analytics, also a part of Field Operations, and work hand-in-hand with the Sales Commissions team.
Communicating with the Field
Guide to communicating with and within the GitLab Field team using both Slack and email
CRO Career Development Day
CRO Career Development Day is a direct result of the feedback we received from you in our FY22 Engagement Survey on Career Development. It will include time to think big about your career, hear from team members across GitLab, and guidance to help you get your plan into writing and talk about it with your manager.
Customer & Partner Fireside Chat
What is a fireside chat? Fireside chats are less formal than an interview but more structured than a typical GitLab AMA. The fireside chat series with key customers is meant to be informal yet structured chats between a moderator and their guest. In this scenario, the guest is a current GitLab customer or partner and the moderator is a member of E-Group or Senior Leadership. Contrary to its name, there is no fire or flames involved, and the term “fireside chat” was first used to describe a series of evening radio addresses given by U.
Enterprise Sales
The Enterprise Sales department at GitLab focuses on delivering maximum value to strategic and large prospects and customers throughout their entire journey with GitLab.
FAQ from prospects
See FAQs about GitLab's features, user management, statistics/logs, performance, installation, and support
Field Communications
The Field Communications team is responsible for creating effective, timely, and easily consumable communications with Sales and Customer Success audiences
Field Manager Development Program
The Field Manager Development Program equips managers with a foundational set of skills & practices for effectively managing remote teams across GitLab’s field organization
Field Operations
The Field Operation team's vision is to manage field business processes, systems, architecture, enablement, champion data integrity, provide insights and predictability through analytics
Field Team Meetings
Overview of the primary meetings for the worldwide GitLab Field team
GitLab Field QBRs
Overview of GitLab's Quarterly Business Review process
GitLab Sales Team READMEs
Idea to Production Demo
Inside Sales Department
The Inside Sales department is part of the GitLab Sales function who partners with the sales and customer success teams to deliver maximum value to GitLab customers throughout their journey with GitLab.
Interview with an IT Agility Director
Clips from an April 2020 interview with an IT Agility Director at a Fortune 500 energy company
Manager Operating Rhythm
A consistent management operating rhythm (MOR) fosters efficient, predictable growth by codifying best practices for how front-line managers in GitLab's field organization lead their teams
MEDDPPICC
MEDDPPICC is a proven methodology used for strategic opportunity management and complex sales process orchestration for enterprise organizations
Negotiate to Close
A sales negotiation is a strategic discussion (or series of discussions) between buyer and seller that ideally leads to a deal being closed. The main goal of the negotiation process is to reach an agreement that's acceptable to everyone.
President's Club
Predident's Club at GitLab
Public Sector
Public Sector at GitLab
Sales Assistance from Investors
This page provides details about how GitLab's investors can assist in deals
Sales Discovery and Qualification Questions
An effective questioning strategy is critical to engaging customers in dialogue to truly understand their needs, build credibility and trust, and qualify the opportunity
Sales Forecasting
This page details the Sales Forecasting process
Sales Operating Procedures
GitLab sales process documentation
Sales Order Processing
This page has been deprecated and moved to Business Operations
Sales Processes
Sales Prospecting
Prospecting is the process of initiating and developing new business by searching for potential customers, clients, or buyers for your products or services
Sales Quick Start
Sales and Customer Success Onboarding at GitLab is a blended learning experience focused on what new sales/ customer success team members need to know, do, and be able to articulate within their first 30 days or so on the job
Sales Renewals Process Guide
Renewals Lifecycle Management Process Guide for GitLab Sales
Sales Revenue Programs
The purpose of GitLab's Revenue Program is to improve the quantity of opportunities and closed business with defined, cross-functional sales motions to ultimately generate more ARR for GitLab.
Sales Term Glossary
Definitions of key terms for the WW Field Team
Sales Territories
Please see the Sales Handbook Definitions Document
Sales Training
GitLab's sales learning framework and sales training resources
Self-Service at GitLab
The Self-Service Team is responsible for delivering a cohesive GTM that enables customers and prospects to self-serve: from discovery and adoption, purchasing, expanding, and managing their GitLab subscription
Territory Planning
Overview Every Strategic Account Executive in Enterprise Sales should have a plan for how they’re approaching their patch. A sales territory plan is a workable plan for targeting the right customers and implementing goals for income and consistent sales growth over time. It’s usually done annually and updated throughout the year. It can be used for plotting a specific geographical location, or for different industries, customer types and other segments.
The Customer-Ready Shadow Program
The Customer-Ready shadow program offers a hands-on way to learn how different GitLab roles represent GitLab. We often learn best when we have the opportunity to learn from our peers, practice, and get feedback in an interactive way. It’s also a great way to make new hires feel welcome and a part of our sales culture at GitLab.
Tips for Selling GitLab or Partner Professional Services
Please see the Internal Sales Definitions Document
Total Addressable Market
Please see the Sales Handbook Definitions Doc
Understanding How Our Customers Use GitLab
Guidance to GitLab sales team members to gain a better understanding of how customers are using GitLab
Using Gainsight at GitLab
The key aspects of using Gainsight at GitLab to drive success for your customer