The Riptide Effect: A Sales Shift from Geographic Alignment to Vertical Alignment

The world of work has been forever changed over the past several years. The shift started before the pandemic as emerging technologies enabled remote work. Additionally, a focus on life/work (a Claude Silver take on Work/Life) balance has become increasingly important. Many leaders and organizations have tried to fight this current, but as a surfer I know that fighting the current is an impossible task. Surfers know that when you get caught in a riptide, the smart move is to paddle diagonally with the current which conserves energy, gets you to you out of the current and makes use of the pull to your advantage. Business leaders need to stop fighting the pull for permanent remote work and embrace it.

A paradigm shift in thought can drive a shift in company structure and alignment too. Groove Management works with several SaaS companies who have had to pivot during the pandemic to fully virtual work. Rather than viewing this as a threat, we have helped several clients to rethink their “go to market” approach. In most growth oriented SaaS companies sales teams are aligned by geographies with sales leaders owning territories. This model made sense when salespeople were physically calling on prospects and clients. Being located in the same city, state or general territory saved on travel costs and allowed for more efficient visits to prospects. That approach is no longer relevant with everyone working from home. While being in the same geography has had its benefits there have always been downsides as well. The biggest downside is that the seller must become an expert of several different industries, learning the jargon and understanding the buying cycles.

We helped several clients turn the threat of remote work into an opportunity by rethinking the “go to market” sales model. Rather than aligning salespeople by geographies we re-aligned them around verticals. We created healthcare, automotive, CPG, services, financials, manufacturing, food and beverage and other category sales focus areas. We shifted sales sub-teams from a geographic focus to a vertical focus. This enabled sales team members to build greater industry intimacy, learn the jargon, become industry specialists and to be more focused in their sales approach. Two other major outcomes of this shift were the ability to hire expert sales people regardless of their physical location and the ability to hire people with less sales experience but with deeper industry knowledge from particular verticals.

Rather than fighting the current, these agile SaaS companies embraced the change and learned to leverage the shift to their advantage. Selling today looks much different than it did just a few years ago. Onsite demos, dinners and golf outings have been replaced by video demos and deeper conversations led by subject matter expert salespeople who have a greater understanding of their client/prospects needs. Sales engineers have become hot jobs because of this shift. An indeed search on the job title “Sales Engineer” yields 7,800 results. This shows that buyers want to hear from sellers who truly understand their industry and solution needs. The sales generalist in your city is no longer relevant. This vertical approach scales better, has higher efficiency and has proven to have a higher close rate.

At Groove Management we refer to this shift as “The Riptide Effect”. When an organization recognizes that fighting the current is a mistake and instead makes a shift to leverage the current to move the organization forward. While the example above is related to sales, this approach can be applied to any headwinds a business faces. Change is difficult and the sooner an organization recognizes that resisting is the worst strategy, the sooner the organization can begin to shift and move forward. We have all heard of “going with the flow”. The concept of flow is a good one for organizations to embrace. I was recently with a CEO client who told me that flow is one her company’s themes for 2022. She described flow as a rhythm or cadence for the team and the organization. She said is was about finding their groove which of course resonated with me.

Recognizing riptides from the beach takes a trained eye. Likewise recognizing riptides in business is not easily done until you are caught in one. Astute leaders recognize the currents early and proactively react leveraging the shifts to their organizations’ advantage. While this approach is ideal, it is never too late to stop fighting the current and to pivot.