So it was just the other day Salesforce somewhat stunned the tech world by announcing it would hire 1,000 folks in sales and marketing to sell AgentForce and its AI products — while keeping other hiring, including engineering, flat.

Well that must have gone well as Salesforce is now hiring 2,000 (!) in sales to sell AI.

Per The Information, Benioff has also instructed his sales team to go all-in and put AI and Agentforce into every deal possible.

It’s a bit counterintuitive at first — isn’t AI replacing people? But we all know enterprise software. It doesn’t sell itself. Not really.

Salesforce and Benioff are all in on agents and AI for its platforms. They know they can sell it, and they need to sell it now.  They need 2,000 new sales execs for that.  And while Salesforce’s growth has slowed dramatically the past 2 years, it did bounce back a bit last quarter, and its stock is up 33% this year.

Don't miss your chance to join 13,000+ SaaS founders, executives, and investors at the world's largest B2B SaaS conference. For a limited time, secure your spot at SaaStr Annual 2025 and enjoy Holiday savings.

So we have a classic set of New Year’s Resolutions in SaaS that we update every year. Over the years, so much has changed in SaaS. The best grow faster than ever. And yet, many are still struggling to get over the Crash of 2022. AI is remaking so many categories, but it’s often murky exactly … how.  And while unicorns are back in force, IPOs and Big M&A isn’t.  Not yet, at least.

So with that … here are Your Top 10 New Year’s SaaS Resolutions for 2025.

More than you probably would think.  Even in this age of more efficiency, at least at scale.

You can back into how many sales reps you’ll need in SaaS. Not enough founders especially do this during the annual planning process:

First, figure out how much revenue you need to close in the next twelve months. Because that’s more than now.

Second, calculate a reasonable attainable quota for your closers, your Account Executives. This is generally derivate of your deal size. If you do small deals, reps may struggle to close $400k a year. Middle size deals, $600-$700k. Bigger deals? Maybe $1m+.

Third, multiply a yield factor. Not all reps will work out. And they will take at least some time to scale. To be conservative, assume 75% yielded quota.  I.e., that only 75% of your reps, as a group, hit their quota.  That may actually be high, especially if you are scaling quickly and make a few hiring errors.  60% is OK, too.

Fourth, add “load”. Your VPs and Directors of Sales and sales ops and rev ops leaders and sales engineers are cost centers here. Assume 1 sales manager for each 8 sales professionals.

Fifth, the more specialized the sales process is, the more folks you’ll need. SDRs, BDRs, SEs, etc. In theory, higher quotas should “pay” for specialization, and this wouldn’t impact headcount too much. But in practice, you can’t ask AEs to pay for the help they can closing.  So it often adds at least 20% or so to the model.

This edition of the SaaStr Daily is sponsored in part by Prismatic

Stop letting your lack of integrations block deals and derail your product roadmap. Learn how to build a scalable integration strategy with this guide.

Former Head of Revenue at BILL and HubSpot Americas leader Michelle Benfer recently joined us on a SaaStr Workshop Wednesday share her insights on one of the most critical roles in any SaaS organization: the frontline sales manager. Having led sales teams of 500+ at BILL and 800+ at HubSpot, Michelle has unique insights into what makes great frontline managers and why investing in them is crucial for sustainable growth.

So SaaS is back. Perhaps Databricks isn’t really SaaS, it’s Cloud + AI/Cloud infrastructure. But close enough for purposes of this post. The meta point is after a tough late 2023 and into 2024, SaaS, Cloud and more is back:

• In some cases, AI is the driver (Databricks, Palantir).
• In others, AI is a boost (Salesforce, Asana, HubSpt) to buying that has bounced off lows after Q3’24.
• In some cases, like vertical SaaS and B2B2C, it’s a combination of the strength of the economy plus automation (Samsara, ServiceTitan, Shopify, Klaviyo).

So SaaS is back. Top SaaS stocks are on fire the past few months, and the SaaS downturn in B2B2B appears to be behind us.

And as stock prices rip higher, growth VC floods back in. It’s natural.

But how aggressive will late stage investors be? 

In AI, it’s insane.  As is growth, in some cases.  The 300x ARR round is here.  It’s 2021 but all over again, and different.

But in SaaS overall, the growth playbook hasn’t totally worked out on the last 4 SaaS IPOs.  All of which are epic companies with epic metrics.

Some rough metrics for the last 4 SaaS IPOs — which again are epic ones.

At SaaStr Annual, Jason Lemkin, SaaStr CEO and Founder took questions from founders on everything from product-led growth to knowing when to sell your company. If you missed part one of the AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) catch up here.

In this Ask Me Anything Part 2, Lemkin answers the questions: 

• As a bootstrapped company at $35M ARR with 60% gross margins but slower growth, should we raise venture funding?
• What’s your view on product-led growth (PLG) for early-stage startups?
• How do you know when you’ve reached product-market fit in SaaS?
• What do you recommend for scaling beyond a founder-led sales motion after attaining $1-2M ARR?
• When approached by a larger competitor with a “build or buy” narrative, what should a founder consider?
• What’s Jason’s take on bootstrapping versus VC funding?

Let’s find out the answers. 

• SaaStr 782: How to Train Your Sales Leaders: Key Learnings from HubSpot and BILL with Michelle Benfer

• SaaStr 781: How to Think About Product-Led Growth, Bootstrapping vs VC, and Early Exits with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin

• SaaStr 780: From Outbound to Channel Partnerships: Your Burning Sales Questions Answered by SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin

Listen on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcasts

I've had 3 friends ask me to be LPs in their new venture funds

And then quit those funds within 24 months

Not worth the endless headaches to make 2.5x in 15 years

If the time comes when the company decides to hire above you ...

Give it 3 months. Do your best. Be a team player. Make it work.

Then decide after that what, if anything else, you want to do next.

You never know where it will go.

© SaaStr 2024

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