“In software if your payback period is more than two years in North America, then you are in a world of hurt. Under two years you are in the ballpark, and if it’s less than a year you’re in the sweet spot. Other regions and countries vary somewhat, but in our experience, most large enterprises want to see a relatively fast payback on their purchases of intellectual property such as software and AI technology.” — Jean Belanger, Cerebri AI “Aim to have 50 percent of deals coming from inbound and the other half from outbound – that’s the holy grail for sales.” “In software sales attrition is high. Always be at around 120 percent of the headcount you need. Make fast decisions on sales performers.” — Edward White, Interana “It is best practice that the first ten to twenty contracts have to be done by the founders themselves. Only if the founders have closed ten contracts will they have the ability to teach it to somebody else.” “Up to 5-6 salespeople can be led by one of the founders. If you have multiple founders, the most communicative should have clear responsibility over the team.” — Jens Hutzschenreuter, Digital Business Group 73