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Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com Paperback – Illustrated, July 8, 2011

by Aaron Ross (Author), Marylou Tyler (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,143 ratings
See all formats and editions
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
  • How an outbound sales process ("Cold Calling 2.0"), that without cold calls or a marketing budget, can generate a 9% response rate and millions of dollars from cold prospects.
  • The Seven Fatal Sales Mistakes CEOs and Sales VPs (even experienced ones) make time and time again.
  • How outbound sales and selling can be friendly, helpful and enjoyable.
  • How to develop self-managing sales teams, turning your employees into mini-CEOs.
  • And more...
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"
Previous page
  1. Print length
    213 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pebblestorm
  4. Publication date
    July 8, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.48 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0984380213
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0984380213
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

A Video From The Author, Aaron Ross: 

About the Author

Before Predictable Revenue, Aaron worked at Salesforce.com, where he created a revolutionary Cold Calling 2.0 inside sales process and team that helped increase Salesforce.com's revenues by $100 million.  The same process has since also helped companies like Responsys (sold to Oracle to $1.5 billion), and Acquia (named the #1 fastest growing company in North America) dramatically speed up new sales growth. 

Aaron graduated from Stanford University, is an ex-Ironman triathlete and graduate of the Boulder Outdoor Survival School. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and five children (also expecting two other kids coming the way via adoption), loves motorcycles, and he keeps his work to 25 hours a week.

His next book is underway with Jason Lemkin, The Predictable Revenue Guide To Tripling Your Sales.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pebblestorm; Illustrated edition (July 8, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 213 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0984380213
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0984380213
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.48 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,143 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Previous page
  1. Aaron Ross

    Aaron Ross

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Aaron Ross helps founders craft books that make millions. He is the author of "Predictable Revenue" and "From Impossible To Inevitable" (with Jason Lemkin), called the Sales Bibles of Silicon Valley. His newest book, due 2024, is "Income Operating System: Win Financial Freedom, Earn Like The 1%" Aaron is married with 10 children (half through adoption), and lives in Scotland.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Marylou Tyler

    Marylou Tyler

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Marylou Tyler, is Founder of Strategic Pipeline, a Fortune 1000 outbound sales process improvement consulting group. Her client list includes Apple, Bose, AMA, Talend, CIBC, Prudential, UPS, Orkin, AAA and Mastercard.

    She’s also the co-author of the #1 Bestseller Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into A Sales Machine With The $100 Million Best Practices Of Salesforce.com. It’s sold over 50,000 copies and has over 250 reviews on Amazon averaging over 4.3 stars. Predictable Prospecting: How to Radically Increase Your Sales B2B Pipeline, her new book published by McGraw-Hill, is already being touted as a must-read book for any sales professional or business owner who prospects for new business.

    In 2016, she was nominated to the 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
2,143 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Casey Kerr
5.0 out of 5 stars Lead Gen & Sales Process 101
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2013
Verified Purchase
I definitely enjoyed the book Predictable Revenue and really like the author's style. Ross did an amazing job helping Salesforce.com generate its opportunities, and this book tells his story of building the lead generation function from scratch and gives some great examples of his leadership style.

I would have liked it to have been more specific, but it still fully deserves a 5 star rating for being the course on "Bay Area Lead Gen Scaling 101." Having built and managed a 5+ member lead generation team from scratch exactly like the author, here are my thoughts on the book:

Ross' Vision:
1) Don't let the so-called "reality" stop you. (Love this comment)
2) Subteams and miniCEOs, cool idea for teams within companies. (Great vision, his best)
3) Design CEOs and VPs of Sales out of the sales process. (Hmm, interesting. Agreed)
4) The future of sales is on new user acquisition and important titles like VP of Lead or Demand Gen. (Agreed)
5) Design self-managing teams. (Good)

The 4 things Ross nails especially well:
1) "Prospects should earn proposals." (This is the best line ever, I always say this)
2) Always get prospects to talk about their business, not selling the product. Ask "why" 3x or more. (Great!!)
3) In 6 months, follow-up on all past opportunities. (Important)
4) Ask yourself in order, "what can I:"
A. eliminate
B. automate
C. outsource
D. delegate

Some facts:
1) "Short and sweet" emails get over 9% open rate vs. sales-y at 0%.
2) Responsibilities of VP Sales includes: goal setting, involvement in big deals, culture, etc. (See full list)
3) Most inbound leads come from small businesses, not enterprises.

Things I found interesting:
1) "Send messages before 9am or after 5pm and avoid Monday and Fridays." (It would be interesting to see these stats in much more specificity)
2) "Did I catch you at a bad time" is best intro line. (Hmm, maybe, need to think about)
3) "Return on Salesperson's time." (Very interesting concept and would be interesting to track both to company and as an individual)
4) Ross says: don't assume sales people will find deals by Rolodexes and cold calling. (Great!! Yes)

Parts of Ross' Process:
1) Define what companies are most similar to the top 5-10% of your clients. (Good)
2) Voicemail and email combinations are effective. (Ok)
3) Create a "success plan" for after product is sold. (Good)
4) Always start high 1-2 levels above decision maker. (Maybe. Good rule of thumb, but I don't like the word "always." Finding influential people is key)
5) Free trials - help create "what defines success" and make sure there is follow-through. (I like paid trials better)
6) Track call conversations with DM's per day for sdr team. (Yes)
7) Always set up a next step with qualified dms. (Very important)
8) Need a market response rep for every 400 leads. (Ok, maybe)
9) Metrics to track at board level: new pipeline generated per month. (Good)

Some additional thoughts:
1) Scaling is "not about hiring more salespeople." (Agreed. Ideally this process would be systemized and automated)
2) Hubspot's suggestion on blogs: Participate with others' blogs, comment, and make it a 2 way conversation. (Very good!)
3) The trends in sales & marketing are: more accountability on marketing budgets and lead generation teams on ROI. (Yes)

Recommended products to check out:
1) Landslide - design your sales process for free.
2) InsideView
3) Connectandsell.com - ondemand conversations
4) How Marketo uses Marketo:
a. Lead scoring breakdown. Very cool!!
b. An email is sent 11 min after web form..

Suggestions for improvement:
1) Would have likes to have seen more specific examples of success at Responsys, HyperQuality or other clients rather than vaguely "tripled results."
2) How important is predictable revenue? Is there a trade-off between predictable revenue and more revenue? I wonder. Maybe, maybe not. I know that I've seen AEs (ClearSlide is one example) incentivized to sandbag to hit 120% of monthly quota rather than have wild swings of 300% ten 40%. That's terrible.
3) Didn't include: process for data management, recommended software for deduping, or how leads and accounts were structured.

Connect with me at LinkedIn.com/in/caseydkerr or on Twitter @drcaseykerr
150 people found this helpful
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Amazon customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Sales strategy plus tactics for teams that want to decrease sales chaos
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
This book is a good mix of strategy and tactics. Ross provides several principles for success and then backs it up with a lot of implementation detail. The fundamental problem he addresses is how to turn a haphazard and unpredictable sales process into a visible, manageable, and predictable revenue generator. There's a lot of detail in the book about sales metrics, roles, pipeline phases, hiring, and executing marketing programs. He also covers usage of sales force automation tools.

If you're looking for an effective sales philosophy as well as actionable steps, this book will deliver. It's written for sales leaders and would be a good for an environment where more structure and visibility are needed.

Much of this book is a counterpoint to old school sales techniques ("Always Be Closing") which hope that brute force cold calling and cajoling customers will result in big deals. Ross believes that carefully designing a sales pipeline with associated metrics, investing in the sales team and focusing on the customer relationship will yield predictable revenue. He includes "selling selfishly, rather than solving" as one of his "how to make things worse" bullet points.

Ross tackles several common misconceptions about sales: hiring more sales people will result in more sales, account executives should be cold calling, and sales teams can take care of themselves.

Throwing more people at the problem will not help. Creating predictable revenue requires creating a metrics driven sales process. Key metrics must focus on lead scoring and defined phases. He emphasizes the role the process and planning take in creating predictable revenue. He contrasts this with old school “Always Be Closing” which favors the close at the expense of everything else. Ross is a proponent of solution sales and says that sitting with your customer to craft a joint vision of success is much more powerful because it establishes a partnership focused on business outcomes rather than order document.

He counters the second issue by creating a separate team with a very specific role and process to conduct “cold calling 2.0”. The key to effective Cold Calling 2.0 is to screen all prospects against a well defined ideal customer profile.

Finally, effective sales requires investment in the team. This includes hiring, training, incentives, and executive support.
4 people found this helpful
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Rishabh Rege
5.0 out of 5 stars Great insights and writing style
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2023
Verified Purchase
Great book. I love the coaching style. This is a great guide for sales teams, technologist and managers leading digital automation such as sales force automation in todays turbulent business world. The key to business growth is a foundation built upon predictable and repeatable processes. This in turn leads to self managing teams that drive business value through greater scalability and specialization.
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Luis B
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2023
Verified Purchase
I ve been working with similar approaches for half a decade and when reading the book I realized about many things going on within my organization. A great point to start organizing your workforce specially for software and licencing businesses
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Carlos Nuño Langre
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro para aumentar las ventas y su predictibilidqd
Reviewed in Mexico on April 25, 2023
Verified Purchase
Inicia diciendo que para vender más nos solo metiendo mas vendedores y de ahí desarrolla todas sus teorías creo que ha cambiado mis estrategias y visión este libro. Gracias
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Manuel
5.0 out of 5 stars Super interessant und praxisnah
Reviewed in Germany on January 23, 2024
Verified Purchase
Tolles Buch. Gut zu lesen und sehr praxisnah. Die Gedanken und Informationen sind ein echter Mehrwert und mach Lust darauf einiges davon auszuprobieren. Ich freue mich darauf.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Got insights into B2B sales
Reviewed in India on April 25, 2023
Verified Purchase
This book was really insightful. I learnt a lot from this book. The author has put down his practical experiences in managing teams which was a superb value add.
One person found this helpful
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Maria A.
5.0 out of 5 stars ESTUPENDO LIBRO!
Reviewed in Spain on January 3, 2023
Verified Purchase
Me ha recordado a los tiempos de la universidad. Podría decirse que el autor nos da una auténtica clase magistral con este libro lleno de buenas lecciones! lo recomiendo!!!
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Matheus Melo
5.0 out of 5 stars Be open to test
Reviewed in Brazil on December 6, 2019
Verified Purchase
Awesome good - a lot of good tips and pratices to test while selling. Nice cases as well. Still trying to put that content into practice, but already collecting results. Easy reading - recommend to any CEO or Sales representatives.
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