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Commercial Sales

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Welcome to the Commercial Sales Handbook

About

The Commercial Sales department is part of the overall GitLab Sales functional group. We focus on SMB and Mid-Market customers to deliver maximum value throughout the entire journey with GitLab.

Center of Excellence

The Center of Excellence (COE) in the Commercial Sales context refers to the team's research and development of a particular focus area to drive new initiatives and improvements across the organization.

Why call it Center of Excellence?

How?

  1. Choose one of the active Topics currently available below. Refer to the team list to see what is unassigned. Note, to take a topic you do not have to be a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in the area or DRI as they may belong to a different functional group.
  2. Pick an achievable set of commitments and nail it. These should be forecastable and not something too aspirational for the timeframe
  3. Decide for yourself if you want that same topic for 3 or 6 months
  4. Start with the problem related to your subject that you think needs to be solved

Commercial COE Topics

Here are the current active topics for individual team members on COE alignment. This center in its first iteration started with the team's QBR in 2019.

Events

When traveling please consider ROI of both any costs plus your time: If you are going to an event you think first:

Given the rough calculation above, you've to be committed driving/booking enough iACV at the event prior to you going to the event Note: this doesn’t mean you can’t get travel approval without booking meetings. It means once you get travel approval it is on you to go get people to the event/meetings to create pipeline.

Trip Notes

The ultimate purpose of attending any GitLab field event is to gain insight and add value. Sid Sijbrandij, our CEO, talks about the importance of conferences and events here. He believes the main goal of GitLab team participation should always be to connect with our customers and prospects and not to solely attend presentations. Trip notes are our internal process for tracking and capturing this data.

Why and When?

Trip notes are required for the entire Commercial Sales Team anytime a team member travels for the company while working at GitLab. We believe it would be fun and valuable if you also shared trip notes when you traveled for personal reasons; however, that is up to your discretion.

How to properly document your trip notes?

Please follow the best practice process and use the trip note template as a format to prepare for your future trip.

Trip Notes Best Practice

  1. Commercial attendee will write up their notes in a google doc.
  2. Please save your notes as GitLab internal read only for Commercial Team review in the Commercial Sales Drive Trip Notes Folder.
  3. Once saved, please slack and share a link to your notes in the commercial_global_all channel to alert the team of your recent trip.
  4. Finally, please share your Post Trip feedback for the entire company and the Field Marketing team directly in the specific Event Issue on the ‘Post Event Recap & Feedback’ spreadsheet.

Give Back Project

What is the Give Back Project?

Why is there a Give Back Project?

How does the Give Back Project differ from the Center of Excellence?

How to properly document a Give Back Project

Give Back Projects

Customer AMAs: Meetings for GitLab team members with current customers that provide an opportunity to ask them about anything in regards to their experience with GitLab

Customer Meetings: Sharing the best practices for conducting any kind of external meeting at GitLab

Trip Notes: allows team members who attend field events to track and capture data in order for the rest of the team to gain insight

Doing Business with Partners/Channels: Guidelines on how to work with partners and resellers in order to ensure value is maximized in these areas

How to Handle New Customers After They Purchase: Best practices for handling new GitLab customers based on the scope of their purchase

Technical Evaluation of Customers: How to properly evaluate a customer’s current technical environment in order to create organizational alignment and prescribe how GitLab can best solve their problems

For a complete list of our Give Back Projects and other Onboarding assignments our team is working on, please click the private link here.

Continuous Learning

Below is a list of resources considered highly valuable for continuous learning and development by Commercial Sales team members at GitLab. Note that some of these resources are not publicly available, so consult a fellow teammate for access where necessary.

Commercial Team Groups

Getting Started as a New Hire

Please ensure you read the Commercial Sales onboarding page.

Top Tips to Onboard Quicker

  1. Bookmark the relevant SalesForce dashboard for your region, this is essential to your success. Your Manager will give you the link when you first join.

  2. Get familiar with the close date conventions used in Commercial Sales.

  3. Ensure you fully understand the Required 7. Your teammates and manager are more than happy to help you with this if you need it.

  4. Read through reviews of GitLab to get an idea of what customers think about the product. Two good places to start are Softwareadvice.com and Gartner Reviews.

  5. Watching videos is core to your onboarding. You can watch YouTube & Chorus videos at 1.5x or 1.75x speed to get through them efficiently, you can still retain the information but in less time. Go to the Settings widget > Playback speed.

  6. When you first start, searching through Slack is a great way to find useful information as it's our primary method of asking questions and announcing things to the company. Some channels that are particularly good for information:

#questions
#smb
#sales
#smb_amer
#international-smb
#smb_training_support
#competition

  1. Use BuiltWith.com to get an idea of what technologies a customer is using currently (though be sure to verify this with them)

  2. You might find it useful to create a Google doc to document all your learnings in your first 30 days, as you will get a lot of information to remember and it will also get you in the habit of taking notes, a key part of GitLab’s culture.

  3. You can never have too many coffee chats with colleagues. You don’t need to ask permission from people, just put some time in their diary.

  4. Make sure your calendar is always up to date so that you can get meetings from SDRs without having to moving them around.

  5. Listen to as many Chorus calls as possible. We only record calls with the customer's permission in the US, but they are an excellent way to onboard even if you are not based in the US yourself.

  6. Add your own tips to this page as you onboard to pay it forward for the next new rep!

SMB Account Executives

SMB Account Executives "SMB AE" act as Account Executives and the face of GitLab for SMB prospects and customers. They are the primary point of contact for companies that employ between 1 to 99 employees. These GitLab team members are responsible for working new business in their territory as well as handling the customer journey for new and existing customers. SMB Account Executives will assist prospects through their evaluation and buying process and will be the customer's point of contact for any renewal and expansion discussions. Please read through the SMB handbook page for more information.

Responsibilities

The Required 7

New team members should familiarize themselves with The Required 7. These are the 7 tactical skills are required to be an excellent Commercial Sales Account Executive:

  1. Logging your call notes - (video here on taking efficient notes during a meeting and top tips from a top performer here)
  2. Ranking your accounts - (video here)
  3. Updating your next steps (video here)
  4. Keeping your opportunities up to date at all times (video here)
  5. Writing full command plans for all deals over IACV in SMB or Mid-Market and the top section for all deals (training session here and training deck here)
  6. Building your custom deck (video here), and be sure to check out this video on creating an effective ROI slide deck and this supporting deck
  7. Capturing key information:
    • How did the customer/prospect hear about GitLab and what is their understanding of what we do?
    • Meaningful information on why we won/lost a deal

Inbound Queue Management

New Business

Customer Journey

Inbound Queue Management

Zendesk: Managing incoming requests received through support.gitlab.com, support@gitlab.com and renewals@gitlab.com

The goal and focus of working Zendesk tickets for the SMB team is to help with upselling and renewals

Within timezone (WIP), the Support team is responsible to take the lead on all incoming ZD tickets in the Upgrades, Renewals, and AR (refunds) queue. In off-hours, the SMB team will triage and handle any tickets which will breach during their timezone.

Support will take the lead on all incoming requests in the queue and only forward to the sales owner when:

Salesforce Hygiene & Activity

Opportunity Management in Salesforce

  1. Sort by stage, placing highest priority stage at the top
  2. Prioritize the opportunities you are going to work on first by stage, amount, and close date
  3. Ensure "Next Steps," "Next Step Date," and "Next Steps Owner" are current with actionable and informative information that helps guide you on how to move the opportunity through the pipeline
  4. If a potential future opportunity that require action greater than 30 days out create an event with detailed notes on your agenda or action items
  5. Once stages Discovery - Awaiting Signature are updated, begin working on Pending Acceptance. Prioritize with the same criteria as above, rinse and repeat

Opportunity Next Steps Best Practices

  1. Always keep Next Steps Date and Next Steps up to date as an assignment to a future version of yourself on how you will take action to continue the customers buying process.
  2. When you start your day you need to check all inputs like email, zendesk, and lead queue so you can triage those requests into your priorities for that day.
  3. Allocate times of your day in four ways:
    • Customer meetings scheduled
    • Proactive email and internal efforts
    • Proactive calling efforts
    • Time to check inputs again
  4. When beginning a proactive time block, open your opportunities view and sort by Next Steps Date.
  5. Your Next Steps should be specific and compelling so that you can take action on them within 3 minutes of reading.

Overdue Opportunity Process

  1. An overdue opportunity report goes out every Tuesday to managers.
  2. An email alert goes out directly to the opportunity owner when the oppty is past due upon edit of the opportunity. Ex: an action needs to happen to trigger the email.
  3. Sales Operations will give until the 15th of the month and then forklift any opportunity with a close date in the past month to a future close date.
  4. Managers have "over due" reports on their dashboards for review as needed.

Web Direct Oppty Management in Salesforce

  1. Check that there are no open opportunities that could have been a duplicate by viewing the opportunities listed under the Account
  2. If not a duplicate, place the main contact in the opportunity on the outreach sequence "SMB_Web Direct Outreach" - by: Madeline Hennessy
  3. Dependent on the opportunity and company if personal outreach is preferred, you must log your activity and have a next step date to follow up on your activity

Licensing/Subscription Management

Note: if you need access to a system, open an Access Request

License Key Management for On-Premise Trials & Subscriptions

GitLab.com Trials & Subscription Management

Troubleshooting & How-To Resources for Licensing & Subscription Management

Detailed instructions on how to handle problems with licenses and subscriptions can be found in these instructions and resources.

Quotes | Sales Order Processing

More information about sales order processing can be found in the Business Ops handbook section.

Mid Market Account Executive

Midmarket Account Executives are the primary point of contact between prospective and existing customers of GitLab within a space defined as mid-market, which currently works with companies that employ between 100 to 1,999 employees. These GitLab team members manage the spectrum of project sizes, ranging from small fast growing teams in smaller agile organizations to complex enterprise projects advising on the journey with GitLab to achieve specific business outcomes.

Mid-Market AEs work closely in tandem with the business development team and sales management to manage a broad book of business spread over a large opportunity value range and focus on exceeding client expectations.

Core Responsibilities

The Required 7

New team members should familiarize themselves with The Required 7. These are the 7 tactical skills are required to be an excellent Commercial Sales Account Executive:

  1. Logging your call notes video on taking efficient notes during a meeting and top tips from a top performer here
  2. Updating your next steps - video here
  3. Ranking your accounts - video here
    • Rank all accounts and explain why; log your sources for future efficiency; this needs to be your (recent) tiering, not the previous owners, nor the tiering from the prior fiscal. If it’s unchanged, make the note that it is unchanged and why
  4. Keeping your opportunities up to date at all times video
  5. Command plans, what needs to be filled in:
    • $10k amount - All fields in opportunity overview (the whys) and close-plan
    • $20k iACV - Full Command Plan
    • If you don’t yet know the answers or have the data, you will populate the Command Plan fields with your script and next steps to get that information
    • Exception to command plan: for channel managed opportunities we may not have access - put Channel-Managed in the opportunity title
    • (training session here and training deck here)
  6. Building your custom deck for any opp amount over $10k amount (n.b. amount, not iACV) that:
    • Calculates the ROI of using GitLab vs. next best option (this might be vs. do nothing)
    • Provides the 2 options for the customer going forward - normally both with GitLab (example: Ult or Prem)
    • Demonstrates a customised vision for the customer: “what if you used all of GitLab to do Devops in a single app?”
    • Capture the full response, in the customers’ words to that vision and the reasons why they think it is possible, or not possible. This capture can be done in the speaker notes so your customer can validate and then copied into an activity after the call.
    • video here, and be sure to check out this video on creating an effective ROI slide deck and this supporting deck
  7. Capturing key information:
    • How did the customer/prospect hear about GitLab and what is their understanding of what we do?
    • Meaningful information on why we won/lost a deal

New Business

Selecting Target Accounts for marketing

Customer Journey

Account Ownership Rules of Engagement for Commercial Sales

It's expected from the Commercial Sales Team to follow the Account Ownership Rules of Engagement This section provides step by step clarity on how to follow the ROE.

Process to follow:

  1. Check Datafox data - wholly wrong? Go to step 2
  2. Check DiscoverOrg data - wholly wrong? Go to step 3
  3. Check LinkedIn Data - wholly wrong?
  4. Search for 3rd party resources which provide SMB/MM segment prove (only needed when 1 of the above resources do not provide leading data to go with)
  5. Paste the source and the gaps all found that led you to it in Chatter on the Account level and cc VP Commercial Sales to review
  6. VP of Commercial Sales will provide the leading decision

Note:

Opportunity Next Steps Best Practices

  1. Always keep Next Steps Date and Next Steps up to date as an assignment to a future version of yourself on how you will take action to continue the customers buying process.
  2. When you start your day you need to check all inputs like email, zendesk, and lead queue so you can triage those requests into your priorities for that day.
  3. Allocate times of your day in four ways:
    • Customer meetings scheduled
    • Proactive email and internal efforts
    • Proactive calling efforts
    • Time to check inputs again
  4. When beginning a proactive time block, open your opportunities view and sort by Next Steps Date.
  5. Your Next Steps should be specific and compelling so that you can take action on them within 3 minutes of reading.

Account Ranking

It is a requirement for the Commercial Sales Team to tier their accounts using the fields on the Account Object. This helps prioritize the accounts to go after when prospecting for new or expansion. Please see below definitions specific to SMB and Mid-Market AEs.

Ranking Training and Definitions

Commercial Sales: Account Ranking Training Clippet

Small Business Account Executive Definitions for Account Ranking

Mid-Market Account Executive Definitions for Account Ranking

Opportunity-Specific Slide Deck

It is required that all opportunities above $10,000 (Mid Market) and $5,000 (SMB) in total amount (not iACV) will have a custom slide deck that is shared with the customer or prospect. The custom deck must be attached to the opportunity by pasting the deck link in the SalesForce field 'Link to Custom Pitch Deck' on the opportunity home page. This will enable Mid Market Account Executives and SMB Account Executives to capture critical account information. Additionally, this will facilitate selling on value rather than features.

Custom Deck Requirements

  1. Visual Requirements
    • Deck's main color will match or resemble that of the customer's.
    • Where possible, use the customer's logo.
    • It is appropriate to ask the customer for a blank template.
  2. Calculated ROI of GitLab v. Next Best Option
    • For New Business the next best option could be 'do nothing' or our competition.
    • For Renewals the next best option could be to go back to what they were doing before.
  3. Two options (rough plans) with GitLab going forward
    • For new business this takes the form of Two Lane Selling where we give them a high engagement and a low engagement option.
    • For a renewal, this could be a one year v. a three year option, or Premium v. Ultimate.
  4. Non-Custom Single Application pitch to the customer
    • This slide should have a visual representation of using GitLab as a single application for the entire software development life cycle.
    • The intent of this slide is to have the conversation with the customer on 'what is possible', and to capture their feedback
  5. Full capture of the customer's feedback on the 'Single Application' slide
    • Capture the customer's actual words in the speaker notes of the 'single application' slide
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