Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Ryan Koontz: Super helpful. Thank you.

Ashley Fieglein Johnson: Great. Thank you, Ryan.

Operator: Thank you for your question. [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Greg Mesniaeff with WestPark Capital. You may proceed.

Greg Mesniaeff: Yes, thank you for taking my question. In light of the cost cutting measures you’ve implemented, including the headcount reduction, how have those measures impacted your sales and marketing effort? Have you guys perhaps shifted more of that effort to a third-party reseller model, or are you maintaining the current template with a different number of support staff? Any color would be great. Thanks.

Will Marshall: Maybe you can start at a high level. I mean look, in that restructuring, we took a deep look at all of the projects and programs and which ones were the most effective, especially in terms of the growth areas on our go-to-market and same was true in our go-to-market effort. And of course, the decision to make — do a restructuring and the reduction in force is really hard. But I think it positions the company in the right place going forward. Yeah, on the go-to-market side, it’s not a fundamental change in strategy, but it is operational focus on these core vertical markets, on streamlining small deals and other operational efficiencies, which can speed up time to value and speed up sales cycles. Yeah, that’s what I would say, at a high level. Ashley anything to add?

Ashley Fieglein Johnson: Yeah, in terms of your question around, do we see a shift of moving to more of a reseller model, that’s not really how I would think about the change in focus. Obviously, relying on our partner ecosystem for solution selling and for some of the smaller deal opportunities and really more leveraging the capabilities of Sinergise and Sentinel Hub is the shift on the small deals side. But on the majority of our business, certainly from an ACV perspective, the direct model continues to be the focus. And really, it’s been about narrowing the focus of our teams around those markets that the product market fit and the maturity of those markets as much farther along so that we can see acceleration in the deal cycles, sales cycles, and do that through a focusing of the direct sales efforts. Does that makes sense?

Greg Mesniaeff: Yes. Got it. Thank you. And just a quick follow-up. You mentioned some slowdown, obviously, in the commercial sector. With that, have you guys changed or shifted any of the contract terms to your customers’ future contracts that would perhaps address any potential cherry picking of deliverables or alternatively give some inducements to increase the size of the contract? Thanks.

Ashley Fieglein Johnson: So, we’re definitely — as part of the efforts that we’ve been doing in assessing our go-to-market motion, certainly looking at the packaging of our products, to obviously ensure that we continue to drive up average deal sizes. As Will said, we did see average deal sizes tick up again in Q2, so back to kind of what we had seen in our historical averages. But as we continue to focus on those opportunities in those markets where we have proof points and we know we drive value and we can drive value quickly, there’s obviously an opportunity in the packaging of our solutions to drive higher overall average deal sizes.

Greg Mesniaeff: Great. Thank you.

Ashley Fieglein Johnson: Thanks, Greg.

Operator: Thank you for your question. There are currently no further questions at this time. So, I’ll now turn the line back to the management team for closing or additional remarks.

Will Marshall: Thanks everyone for joining today. As you heard, the opportunity for our business is robust and our team is focused on executing. We are strengthening our go-to-market strategy, and we’ve increased company-wide focus on operational efficiency. The tailwinds for our business, the sustainability, digital transformation, as well as piece of security are driving demand, and we see AI as a further accelerant. In-all, we are confident in the market opportunity and our team’s ability to execute. I look forward to seeing you at our Investor Day on October 10, where we’ll share lots of exciting details about our product and business strategy. Thanks for joining today.

Operator: That concludes the Planet Labs PBC second quarter of fiscal 2024 earnings conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your line.

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