What Is Telecommunications Sales?

What sort of bookings/sales ramp rates do you see throughout the year in B2B Sales?

• Everyone - For the purposes of benchmarking I'm wondering what typical B2B software/SaaS/Services companies see in terms of their quarterly sales rate as a % of total annual sales. Not necessary during the $0-$2.0m stage but when you start having a more mature/predictable sales model. It seems even is the favorite for projections but reality is lumpy and you need to be able to plan for that. As an example, Cornerstone on Demand in their S-1 recently reported that a "substantial majority" of their sales are in Q4 with most coming in the last two weeks of the quarter based on procurement norms and seasonality of when their tools are needed. Background check companies have 50% of sales in Q1 (give or take), public HR technology companies seem to have 10/10/20/60%+ over the course of the year (% of sales/total sales found in quarter). Obviously this greatly increases required capital to pay for Q1/2/3 (feels like retail!). Companies with a big federal focus have a strong Q3 to reflect the October fiscal of the federal government. In different technology verticals what do you see? B2B specifically? Hardware vs Software? Even (25%/quarter) over the course of the year or lumpy with specific quarters being 2-4x others based on your sales targets?

• Answer:

  Credentials: Ex-equity analyst that spent some time covering the enterprise software space It's the most lumpy thing I've ever seen. The only way analysts get anywhere close to reality is though company guidance. I've seen some models that try to aggregate and weigh a bunch of economic indicators (I worked with one that had ~20, the other one had ~45), both were only used as a guide as one large deal could account for a few % change in quarterly revenue. Depending on when that deal hit, it could throw off any kind of seasonal forecast. It became an exercise in futility to go through and back out large deals to get some kind of baseline. Then there are acquisitions to layer on, etc. My advice, benchmark against yourself, not others. There are too many factors to take into account to get an answer to "are we doing better than X?" Your question should be "are we doing the best we can?" If you need any help in creating a bottom up forecast or modeling your business, feel free to reach out http://pinnacleanalysis.com Good luck!