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?
We have challenges we are uniquely positioned to focus on
We aren’t the Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) but it is a challenge to get this prioritized
This is our current platform for collaboration
How?
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.
Pick an achievable set of commitments and nail it. These should be forecastable and not something too aspirational for the timeframe
Decide for yourself if you want that same topic for 3 or 6 months
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.
Communication and Collaboration Support on communication and tools to stay better connected as a remote Commercial Sales organization
Customer Advisory Board Capturing direct feedback for interaction and organizing customers selected
Feedback Loop Improvements to feedback channels to document structured data for all customer interactions
Hosted gitlab.com Ramping new customers and users on gitlab.com, our hosted product offering
KISS enablement Keep it simple. Focus on process including managing tasks, training GitLab, and new release features
Marketing campaigns
Sales content/collateral
Sales process - BDR Improvements to the BDR to AE collaboration and working agreement
Sales process - SDR Improvements to the SDR to AE collaboration process
Services Improvements to the Professional Services offering
Ultimate Improvements to the full pitch including Why Ultimate
Give Back Project
What is the Give Back Project?
The Give Back Project is a self-selected opportunity to help the Commercial Sales team achieve better results. It is a finite project that, upon completion, is to be adopted by no less than 70% of the Commercial Sales team and used at least once a month.
The Give Back Project is assigned to all new Commercial Sales team members and is required to be completed as part of their on-boarding process.
Why is there a Give Back Project?
The goal of the Give Back Project is to allow new team members to be able to instantly contribute to the Commercial Sales team
Fosters GitLab’s values of collaboration and results
The Give Back Project gives team members the opportunity to be exposed to problems on the team today and will allow the team to look back and see how we addressed shortcomings in the past
How does the Give Back Project differ from the Center of Excellence?
The COE is assigned while the Give Back is self-selected
During team QBRs in February 2019, it was determined that there were certain aspects that made selling at GitLab difficult. Those aspects were divided into categories and those categories were assigned to different team members to become experts at, forming the Center of Excellence
The COE has already been determined by the team as areas where the team needs improvements while the value of a team member’s Give Back Project needs to be realized
A Give Back Project can be working on a portion of the COE
If it is something that needs to be repeated (like a customer AMA) an associated handbook entry is created with a description on how a new person could achieve this
Although the Give Back Project is designed to be finite, there is always room for iteration at GitLab. Be sure to include any necessary instructions on how a different team member would be able to add to your project if necessary
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
Commercial Team Groups
SMB Customer Advocates
Mid Market Account Executives
Area Sales
SMB Customer Advocates
SMB Advocates act as a primary point of contact and the face of GitLab for SMB prospects and customers. They are responsible for working new business in their territory as well as handling the customer journey for new and existing customers. SMB Customer Advocates will assist prospects through their evaluation and buying process and will be the customer's point of contact for any renewal and expansion discussions.
Zendesk: Managing incoming requests received through support@gitlab.com.
Provide response correlated with the account assigned SLA.
If the account is within SMB segmentation, respond directly within the ticket if the account belongs to you. If it is owned by an alternate SMB Customer Advocate, cc them within the ticket and submit as open.
If the account is outside of SMB segmentation, cc the appropriate account owner within the ticket and submit as open. Ping on Slack to that account manager notifying them of the active ticket which requires their response.
If the account is requesting a refund or billing support, disposition the ticket to the Accounts/Receivable Refunds form on the left panel and submit as open.
Account Management Queue: Managing incoming requests received through renewals@gitlab.com
Provide a response within 24 hours of time received.
Assign all cases within the queue to the appropriate account owner by selecting the change icon next to the case owner within the case detail.
To those cases assigned to you, respond and disposition the case to closed by selecting close case within the case detail once resolved.
Licensing/Subscription Management
License Key Management for On-Premise Trials & Subscriptions
Access the LicenseApp to resend or provide changes to a license key or trial evaluation.
GitLab.com Trials & Subscription Management
Access the Customer Portal to provide changes to a user, group, or subscription.
Troubleshooting Resources for Licensing/Subscription Management
Upgrades
All upgrades are processed manually for both on-premise and GitLab.com customers. To provide an upgrade quote, follow the instructions below:
Locate the customers account detail in Salesforce.
Navigate to Opportunities located in the account details.
Select the earliest opportunity.
Create New Add-On Opportunity.
Once the new add-on opportunity is created, select New Quote.
If a customer requests to downgrade the product they are currently using, communicate that we are unable to process refunds within 45 days of purchase; however, we are able to downgrade their plan.
True-Up Error
We currently charge 100% for users added during the year of their subscription. At renewal, it has become a common occurrence that our customers have miscalculated the number of true-up users required for their license.
The true-up must match the number of users over license data collected on their admin dashboard or else the license will fail to register.
Example:
Customer purchased 10 users at the start of their subscription; during the year of their subscription, they had 12 total users in license, adding 2 additional. Their admin dashboard would read 2 users over license. At the time of their renewal, they will be responsible for paying for those 2 users over license in addition to however many users they want to renew for, and once paid for, those 2 users will be added to their new subscription license key. If the true-up is not added or has the incorrect number of users over the license, the license key will not work.
The customer is always free to renew for as many users as they would like, even if this number is lower than the previous year; the true-up amount just needs to be paid for in full.
If a customer is having issues obtaining the number of licenses needed to purchase, you can request a screenshot from them or else access their usage ping data through https://version.gitlab.com/. If there is no data available through usage ping, we can conclude that the usage ping has not been enabled from the customer, and you will need to obtain this information manually.
Refund Request
For all refund requests, send an email to AR@gitlab.com to request a refund for the customer. Include all subscription information and link to SFDC account record.
Quotes | Sales Order Processing
More information about sales order processing can be found in the Business Ops handbook section.
