Overheard At Jurassic (Q1 ‘23)

We kicked off the new year last month with our first Quarterly Operating Advisor Town Hall of 2023. The rich discussion with founding members of our recently announced Operating Advisor (OA) Program was centered around managing sales cycles, recruiting, culture and employee morale amidst the current economic conditions. We did our best to summarize a few of the highlights that we overheard from our OAs; check them out below and join in the discussion!

Top 10 Takeaways from Jurassic’s Q1 ‘23 Operating Advisor Town Hall

On counteracting the extending B2B sales cycles, specifically enterprise sales, in this economic environment…

1. Focus on all influencers and decision makers in a company, not just the champion; all-to-often this is not the case.

2. Use current network and referral sources to position as a trusted source to reduce sales cycle time.

3. Consider playing with term and termination in pricing strategy to address concerns about long-term commitments.

4. Instead of selling on price, position the company as the best solution to the client's problem through assessments that evaluate clients against defined best practices and collateral, such as case studies and references, that can provide credibility in a competitive market.

On the current recruiting environment and wage expectations amidst widespread layoffs…

5. Companies are facing challenges finding high quality candidates for engineering and technical roles across the board; commanding really high prices nationwide and remote work almost 100% of the time.  

6. Presumably more affected by mass layoffs than technical talent, companies are experiencing more success with finding available, quality talent for non-technical roles (ex. sales & marketing employees) with more reasonable compensation expectations relative to 6-9 months ago; but also demanding remote work across the board. 

7. Internships have been effective in recruiting and training new engineering talent; hire strong interns and establish connections with universities to secure top talent. (Local shoutout from OAs to NCSU ePartners Program).

On managing employee morale amidst the economic downturn…

8. Identify critical employees and explore salary adjustments for them first, potentially targeting opinion leaders to achieve a multiplier effect.

9. Management training for first-time managers is a must; provide manager training for all levels. (Local shoutouts from OAs to Bottom Line Technologies NC, Crucial Conversations, Catapult)

10. Be transparent, proactive, overly communicative, and human if you are expecting a RIF (reduction in force); after a RIF, focus on… 

• reinforcing the future

• coaching management 

• maintaining consistency with day-to-day operations and communications

• gauging morale through pulse surveys, focus groups, listening tours

• prioritizing mental health (ex. explore benefits such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), subscriptions to Calm App, BetterHelp).

Bonus: The OA team identified two pointed, exciting use cases where emerging Artificial Intelligence solutions, like ChatGPT, can augment startup team capabilities:

• Writing simple software programs and checking code for bugs

• Content creation and marketing copy