V. Frank Sondors 🥓

🚀 Sales Confidence 2.0: Get SDRs Who Hit the Ground Running! 🚀 Tired of spending weeks onboarding new SDRs, only to realise they aren’t a fit for your fast-paced team? I know the challenges of hiring SDRs—getting the right person who’s not just great on paper but ready to sell from day one can be tough. Let’s face it, traditional CVs don’t tell you if someone has the grit to go out there to the market and have conversations. We provide pre-trained and pre-screened SDR candidates, ensuring your next hire can deliver results immediately, without the lengthy training process. Our Sales Confidence 2.0 ranking system highlights the most proactive, self-taught talent, so you can skip the guesswork and bring on SDRs who are proven to thrive in sales. 🌟 Meet Our Top Talent of today🌟 Jalil- an experienced B2C sales professional with entrepreneurial passion, showcased resilience and bravery in handling tough objections during his role play. Enrike -A charismatic listener who builds trust with strong questions, creating powerful, results-driven conversations. Zuhair- An adaptable professional with retail experience, skilled at handling tough conversations and solving problems creatively. Ali - An aspiring sales professional who thrives on the thrill of winning deals, bringing energy and enthusiasm to every prospecting challenge. Jiya - A versatile professional with a strong background in events, her energy and bubbly character from the role play can allow her to use humour to establish trust. Avishai- A future leader with a background in music, is a well-spoken and articulate professional who excels at getting to the point and handling objections with ease. If you are hiring reach out, remember 50% reduction fee.

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Founders ask me all the time about using third party SDR agencies. I'd be cautious here, especially if you're early in your company journey pre-PMF. Jason Bay outlines a great framework here for how to think about this.

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SDR Dashboards - what do you want to see? Gimme your top 3 stats/charts/reports you like to see on YOUR dashboard for pipeline gen. There's the obvious activity levels and SQL/SAL volumes but what else do you like to see.....

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When RevOps is really just SalesOps (And the CRO is really just the VP of Sales) 𝗦𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗦 𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗘 - Closing deals should work - Clear pipeline management process - Forecasting is as accurate as possible - But everything before & after is an issue 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 - Has different goals - Maybe the target is MQLs - Has their definition of MQLs - And their definition of SALs, SQOs - Has systems with different metrics - Their reports don't match sales' reports - Leads routed from one system to the next - With lots of things falling through the cracks - Classic case of marketing/sales misalignment 𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 - Do SDRs report to marketing? - If so, we're misaligned there too - The goal may be meetings booked - So AEs have lots of leads and meetings - But maybe not the ones they really need - The ones that convert to pipeline/revenue - We have more misalignment & finger pointing - Do SDRs report to sales? - What content do they have? - What events and assets do they share? - What visibility do they have into engagement? - How does marketing align with their outreach? 𝗢𝗡𝗕𝗢𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 - Sales is paid to close deals - How do they hand off customers? - What is the onboarding process? - Who builds/maintains that process? - What is done if sales drops the ball? - What is done if sales overpromises? - How are incentives and comp aligned? 𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 & 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡 - Which customers are easiest to retain? - Which customers are most likely to churn? - Which customers are the easiest to expand? - How is this data used to improve sales targeting? - How do we maximize NRR if sales is in their own silo? For me RevOps drives value by getting into the weeds and finding ways to generate more revenue with the resources available. That includes SalesOps and optimizing the sales process to close more deals. However, if we stop there we end up with an expensive and inefficient revenue engine with high CAC, high Churn and low LTV. We end up with different departments chasing different goals in different systems with different reports and different definitions of success. What would you add to this? Anything I missed? ✌️

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How to unlock sales insights with Clay and Perplexity: A Basic ICP Exercise 📈 Want to better understand your ideal customer profile? Here's a quick guide on how to leverage Clay and Perplexity to gain valuable insights: 1. Export contacts from closed deals in your CRM, including:   - First name, last name, company name   - Job title, LinkedIn URL   - Deal variables (close won reason, total amount, qualification info) 2. Import the exported data into Clay and enrich any missing data points:   - Find the person's job title and start date   - Enrich company details:    - Industry    - Number of employees    - Location   - Add any other relevant data points 3. Export the enriched data from Clay as a CSV file 4. Upload the CSV file to Perplexity AI 5. Query the data in Perplexity to uncover insights:   - Geographical distribution of companies   - Average company size by segment   - Common job titles Identifying patterns and trends among your best customers helps focus your marketing and sales efforts for maximum impact. 🎯 Have you tried using Clay and Perplexity to build your ICP? Let me know your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! 💬 #ICP #IdealCustomerProfile #DataAnalysis #MarketingStrategy #SalesOptimization #Clay #PerplexityAI

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I stood on stage at SaaStock US last week to present 'Six ways to help your sales team close more deals this year'. Here is what I shared: 1. Focus on the follow ups In my last company, the conversion ratios of prospects who were in their 2nd, 3rd ,or even 4th cycle with us, converted at a significantly higher clip each time round. Summary? Timing is everything, but you need to create awareness first. Fortunes are made in the follow ups. Get your reps to focus on 'Closed Lost' opps before they focus on new prospects. 2. Four killer question deal scorecard Do they have a problem? How big is the problem? Are they motivated to solve that big problem now? Do they understand why you are best to solve it versus the others? Simple sales deal qualification, but its staggering how much time is sank into deals where those questions simply aren't answered. Get your reps focused on the deals where they are answering 'Yes' to the above questions, and less time focused on the deals where the answer is 'No'. 3. Create 'What I heard you say' and 'I will show you today' slides for their demos. Use these before the demo or at the start of each call in the deal cycle. Show the prospect you have listened and that you understand their problems (the first slide should basically provide the answers to the 'Four Killer questions'). Then show them the 3 or 4 things you will focus on during the demo. Don't stray away from the 3 or 4 things on the 'I will show you today' slide. Prospects will love you for this. 4. Start with the money shot. Make sure your reps are starting their demos with the big head turning feature your prospect will most care about. Get them excited from minute one versus waiting ten minutes to get there. Simple. 5. Creative deal structure. Prospects crave this in today's economy more so than ever. Move away from rigid contract terms. -Incentivise early renewals by giving additional users at a discounted rate for a short period of time. -Leverage buy-outs to get commitment, where you are dealing with an incumbent vendor with time left on their contract -Create 15 month subscriptions with break clauses after three months, Meaning you can do 'paid pilots' but you're only having to sell the deal once versus twice. Get creative and make it easier for people to buy from you. 6. Double down on coaching. Your sellers are 33% more likely to hit their quota if coached. Companies with dynamic coaching programmes achieve 28% higher win rates. 82% of sellers want MORE than they are getting today. Struggling to do this effectively? Ask me how we can help.

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How far away from $1M ARR are you? As a Founder, knowing when to make your first sales hire is crucial. Typically, it's about 3-6 months from $1M in ARR. While some companies will bring in a BDR/SDR prior to that, beyond that, you really need someone dedicated to managing a sales pipeline. But, Founders often expect immediate results when they bring on their first AE, not considering the ramp period while they're learning the company, product, and building a pipeline. How can you reduce that ramp time? Set them up for success by having a solid go-to-market strategy in place and creating a reproducible sales process and playbook. Outsourcing this can help. I'd be happy to have a conversation about what that would look like!

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Stop letting junior SDRs reach out to your C-Suites. Buyers don’t want to talk to salespeople anymore. They want trusted advisors. Domain experts.  Yet, for some reason, 99% of sales teams completely ignore this fact and let their junior SDRs reach out to C-suites — then they sit back and wonder why their outbound doesn’t work. The WHO factor is more important today than ever before. Here’s what it means moving forward: 1. Trusted Advisors vs. SDRs: Would you take medical advice from a first-year med student? Probably not. In the same vein, expecting a junior SDR to convince a C-suite executive is a flawed strategy. Buyers today want insights from those seeped in the industry, not those reading off a script. 2. The New-Age SDR: These SDRs have authority in their field and are the ultimate subject matter experts. They possess a highly relevant audience of ICP and excel in content creation and audience engagement. They understand the nuances and pains of the prospects and create value-driven conversations, not just touchpoints. 3. Team-Selling is a Necessity: If a CFO checked your website, why in the world would you let your SDR reach out? Facilitate outbound requests to your CFO and ask them to personally connect with the prospect from their profile. It’s about leveraging the right person at the right time to build trust and relevance. 4. Signal-Based Selling: Your outreach should be driven by real-time data and intent signals. Spot the triggers: website visits, content downloads, recent funding, etc. Engage with the right person, when the timing is perfect, with the right message from the right person. This isn’t about volume; it’s about precision. TAKEAWAY: In this new era, it's not about how many emails you send, but WHO is sending them and WHY. In 2024, the most successful companies will have GTM teams that look more like consulting firms than old-school sales orgs. The next-gen of successful sales orgs will be the ones that evolve beyond the old playbooks and focus on trust, relevance, and the power of human connection. The future isn’t just lean. It’s personal.

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B2B SaaS investors... For your last handful of *seed* deals... What was MRR, rough growth trajectory, pre-money and total size of the round? Where do you feel like seed is at the moment? Either comment, or if you wanna DM me, I'll aggregate them into an average...

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Not many sales leaders can say they helped build a unicorn... But Paddy O'Neill already has 2 under his belt so far 🤯 Joining both Intercom & Spendesk whilst still early stage start-ups And leaving after they had reached €1bn+ valuations We talked about how he: ✅ Started out as an SDR ✅ Built Spendesk's UKI team ✅ Became VP Sales at Metomic And a whole lot more... On Episode 9 of Sales Leader Stories Links to watch and listen in the comments 🎙

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Should AE's be prospecting? Or should they have full SDR support? I'm torn between this. More pipeline - no matter where it comes from - usually solves most problems But also, you want your best AE's focusing on closing & managing deals. And then there are cost implications of having an AE & SDR overlapping on the same accounts (big deal sizes would offset this I imagine) But I'm hearing mixed things. In this market, should AE's be prospecting or do they need to be supported by SDRs? #saassales #pipegen

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Almost 2 years ago, I abandoned the SDR model But that does not mean that SDRs have no more place They certainly have in some environments Here are the criteria I would use to evaluate whether the SDR model makes sense for you 1️⃣ Customer Acquisition Costs: I would not use SDRs for low ARR contracts. Here is my rule of thumb: < $5'000 ARR 👉🏻 Product-led & marketing $5'000 - $20'000 ARR 👉🏻 Full-cycle sales roles $20'000 - $100'000 ARR 👉🏻 AE/SDR model with a 2:1 ratio 2️⃣ Complexity of the sale: If sales are really complex and SDRs face a lot of technical, complex questions early on and need industry knowledge, the full-cycle model might make more sense. This typically means: > $100'000 ARR 👉🏻 Full-cycle sales roles However, you can always hire SDRs for a specific product that is much easier to sell than the rest. If you sell several products 3️⃣ Availability of salespeople: AEs who can and want to do outbound are a rarity. You might not find anyone, or it takes months. Hiring hungry SDRs you can develop to AEs later can bridge that gap. And you teach them your philosophy of "always be prospecting" from the start. Additionally: If you personally know a really good person for either role, prioritise hiring that person no matter the environment. Hiring salespeople is a costly, high-risk game. 4️⃣ Availability of knowledge: Do you have the capacity and capability to train new salespeople? What exactly can you train them really well? If you can provide a great environment for coaching and development, the SDR model is still interesting, given the other points above You can train them, test your ICP and give them more and more responsibility If you have no sales skills yourself or in the company, go for an experienced full-cycle AE and add SDRs later Bonus: Always hire two people at the same time so that you can benchmark them

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Great sdr's underestimate how many B2B businesses are too small for agencies & don't want to manage full-time SDRs but would happily hire an experienced SDR & pay them for outcomes, not hours - allowing them (you) to create leverage.. How? Again, 95% of b2b service & SAAS businesses still need support prospecting. Too small for agencies & don't want to hire full-time employees. Find 1 of these businesses. If you have a full-time job but are on the East Coast: dial late into the West. Vice versa if you are in the west. If you are midwest best of both worlds. I know some American guys who are contract sdr's who crush it in the Uk which is early morning hours in US. Use an outcomes-based pricing model to uncouple your time from the $ you'll earn. Under promise and grossly over-deliver. Create leverage so you produce a higher yield in less time. Enjoying this? Find 2-3 of these businesses, get paid for outcomes not hours, and you'll make $15-25k/mo doing exactly what you're doing now. So how do you create leverage? One way is by learning from the mistakes of others. Otto von Bismarck said “Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” I'm helping 2 more individuals this month learn from my mistakes & add an extra $5-$10k/mo to their monthly income statement before 2025. Dm me privately and I'll show you how to apply.

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Whenever we are asked by clients to source SDR candidates with a bit of experience, we always get this reply from SDRs... "Do you have an AE role I could be considered for instead?" The answer is always no. Right now, the market has an over supply of available AEs. The quality varies quite a bit. And employers are looking to check off all their hiring requirements for this position. They are looking for AEs who are a perfect fit on paper, not an SDR with potential. It's an employer's market. These perfect AE fits can be hard to find but they're out there. That's why companies work with us. Anyway, as an SDR with no AE experience, you're in a tough spot. You have two realistic options. 1) Stay with your current company, continue to kill it, and hope an AE role opens up internally that you can get promoted into. Alternatively, there might be a non AE opening or SDR Manager position that you can seek out at your company that is a promotion form your SDR role. You should have a decent understanding if this is a realistic path. 2) Take another SDR job at a rocket ship or a company with a clear path for an AE promotion. There aren't a ton of these but they exist. If you do well, there's a decent chance you'll see a promotion at the rocket ship and we work with companies that do stick to the "hit your goals and get a promotion" promise. The silver lining here is that a lot of the currently frustrated SDRs were able to get a foothold in the tech sales world before the ZIRP gate came crashing down. You do not want to be someone trying to break into tech sales now as an SDR. It's the same situation SDRs are facing trying to get an AE roles, but for an SDR role.

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"Should my company still do outbound with SDRs?" Here is the first question I would ask you: ⬇ What is your deal size? All the noise on LinkedIn about outbound being dead... It is just that outbound is not profitable the way VC backed SaaS companies do it. If your deal size is 2,5k, 5k, 10k etc. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do the maths. In what year would you make a return of investment? (considering life-time-value) (given real, current conversions) Most companies have not done the maths until recently. Why? Because it was like the wild west. Growth at all cost. We pump in as much money as we want - to grow. These times are over. Jason Lemkin (famous software investor) has said this 5-10 years ago: If you are below 20k deal value, then don't do outbound. And if you are below 20k deal value, do everything you can to get up to 20k deal value. 🤣 Mind you, considering inflation too, I would rather make sure to get to more than 20k on average. The thing is, the way how most SaaS companies approached outbound was never rational. There were no efficiency or profitability calculations behind it. It was crazy 5 years ago and it is still crazy now. By the way, this is also why the quality of outbound has been so low...

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🔥How to repel top saas sales talent🔥 Part 1: ICP A clear Ideal Customer Profile is crucial. An ICP defines your perfect customer. The customers your product solves problems for best. Without a strong ICP? Sales hiring gets way harder. Why? Top salespeople want to win. An unclear ICP means... ❎Chasing bad-fit prospects that won't buy ❎Wasting time on crappy leads ❎Low close rates and commission checks No clarity on who to sell to? Top reps will bail for better opportunities. But with a tight ICP? Salespeople know exactly who to pursue. Pitches improve. Closes get easier. Reps earn more. A solid product with a tight vision and ICP will have a much easier time attracting and retaining talent then a company throwing sh*t against a wall hoping it sticks.

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An SDR cold-called me... SDR: ''Is that Chris?'' Me: ''Yep, who's calling?'' SDR: ''It's James, here at XYZ we help companies like yours automate payroll, is this something you'd like to discuss more?'' Me: ''I don't have any employees for payroll but I'm happy to spend 5 mins with you now to help you improve your cold call opener, open to it?'' SDR: ''Erm...okay''. Me: ''So, here's 3 things you can try today... 1. Don't say ''is this Chris', if you don't know who you're calling they won't trust you. 2. Give me more about you in your intro. E.g. It's Chris, I'm an AE at XYZ. A touch more context = more trust. 3. Don't pitch straight up. Switch to a clear reason for the call. E.g. Calling as I know CEOs like you find [insert thing] time-consuming. Would love to chat more, got a minute now, or is later in the week better? We practiced twice, they were immediately better and we parted ways. Everything is a learning opportunity. Just gotta be open to it. PS. Outbound Systems [my new course] is 50% off until Friday. Click here to learn more: https://lnkd.in/e8YfMAyd

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The traditional sales funnel is dead in PLG. Long live the growth loop! HubSpot's freemium model helped them grow from $255 million to $1.6 billion in revenue in just 5 years. Key elements of the PLG loop: 1. Acquisition through product value 2. Activation focused on 'aha moment' 3. Retention driven by ongoing value delivery 4. Referral built into core product use 5. Revenue expansion through usage and features PLG companies with strong growth loops see 50% lower customer acquisition costs. Is your growth strategy still stuck in an outdated marketing funnel, or have you embraced the continuous growth loop?

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