Zach F.

In 2024 sales leaders are being asked to hit bigger targets with tighter budgets. On a macro level this can feel daunting, but if you boil it down team by team, rep by rep– the answer clearly sits in the efficiency and productivity of your rep’s day. And in order to drive that daily efficiency and productivity, you need to deeply understand the foundational systems + processes that actually allow your team to spend the bulk of their day talking to customers and prospects. If I’m a frontline manager or Dir of sales right now, I am revisiting this checklist quarterly to drive that efficiency and productivity within my teams: 1.) Revisit your deal cycle workflows and ensure your reps understand the ins and outs of the tooling and sales process. ↳They need to know how to navigate the sales methodology you use ↳They need a deep understanding of your CRM and entry and exit criteria for deal stages ↳They need to have clarity around forecasting expectations and how to keep their pipeline clean ^ All the logistics of getting the job done. 2.) Skills assessment/reinforcement and training around how to make sales conversations meaningful. ↳Revisit messaging and positioning ↳Regular objection handling practice ↳Understanding each persona, their problems and buyer signals that indicate it’s time to reach out to that specific prospect ↳Value, benefits, ROI, differentiation matters Fewer tools means less complexity. See where you can cut standalone tools and consolidate to more comprehensive and all-in-one tools (like Apollo) to give your reps a more centralized operating system and reduce the time spent navigating their tech stack. Simplicity will help your reps win. 💪🏼 The market and selling environment is changing rapidly. Your teams are growing and shifting constantly. These things should be top of mind and regularly revisited at the team and rep level to ensure they are as equipped and empowered to do what they do best (sell!) at all times. How often are you running enablement sessions with your team? Do you focus on process or skills more? #salesexcellence

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The SDR-AE collaboration & relationship How should they work together? How do you define what good looks like...and what the hell DOES it look like? How do you document that, make a framework out of it, and scale it across the org? From there, how do you track & measure success? I hit on each point with Brian Dietmeyer on the CloseMode podcast 👀 Find it at all the usual spots: Spotify, YouTube, Apple, Amazon, etc. Link below in comments P.S. SDRs, AEs, Leaders - Would love to hear how you're doing this. Give it a listen & share your thoughts.

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Sales folks especially SDRs and AEs I will tell you a hack about how to achieve more in less time ↓ "Start blocking your calendar thoughtfully and strategically every single day" Working out of whims & fancies and adhocism will not get you the desired result you aspire to achieve. You need to have a plan for your day even before starting the day. Every time you block your calendar make sure you block it for a single activity and you define what output you want to achieve out of this activity. Have a time block for at least Prospecting, Identifying new accounts, and Follow-ups on a daily basis, the rest you can block based on your roles and KRAs. Remember: "You cannot control time but you can surely control how you want to spend the time"

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Tired of losing hard-earned deals? Solve for Revenue Leak. In Clari’s 2024 Revenue Leak Report, RevOps leaders said leak happens at every stage of the funnel. - Creating: Poor and slow upsell pipeline tracking - Converting: Unsure where pipeline is dropping off - Closing: Slipped deals Don’t let Revenue Leak drag down another quarter – or another year. Download the Revenue Leak Report for more: https://lnkd.in/g9gnGrdz  

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One of the biggest disconnects preventing an AEs ability to provide a world class buying experience to prospects is this ⬇️ No visibility of marketings influence on the prospects journey prior to their first call with Sales 👀 By the time and AE speaks to a prospect they may have… - Opted out of a marketing list ✉️ - Had zero dwell time on a number of display ads 😢 - Skipped by video ads on social channels 👀 - Been to an event 3 years ago 😱 BUT 🥊 If you ask any AE do they have this information prior to their meetings 🙃 The answer is NO 🛑 That’s why connecting Marketing and Sales is more important than ever before 😀 Stellar advice to any AE in SaaS is to spend time with your Marketing team. It should be part of all companies onboarding programmes tbh 😎

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Renewals are the new GOLD. It will be THE top growth initiative in 2025 says Gong Do you want to grow at 25% plus in 2025? You better have a comprehensive Renewals plan. This is where #RevOps can step in. 🚀 CSM's are trained and fully enabled with the tools they need 🚀 Customer insights are regularly being shared with Product Team 🚀 Regular interaction with existing customers is being tracked as a KPI 🚀 Dashboards to proactively identify potential churn 🚀 Creation of innovative usage-based pricing alternatives The company that is truly paying attention to their existing customers will win. If you think Renewals is a simple 30 day email reminder ... then you will lose. What would you add to make your Renewals program the center-piece of your growth in 2025? #renewals #growth #customers

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What most teams use to scale sales teams: Tools, Process, Methodologies. What ACTUALLY scales sales teams: Team culture, Buyer language, Guiding Principles. I had a really fun conversation with Dannii Mathers on ‘The State of Sales Enablement’ podcast about how to use your call recording data to build a culture that scales. If you’re a fan of IKEA or Mark Cuban, it’s worth the 28 minute listen. (Sidenote: for some reason there’s a bunch of silence at the end of the episode, so if it looks like it’s 55 mins, just know it’s not that long).

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Something that I see new SDRs and AEs missing is "Nurturing the prospect" It's completely different from follow-ups In follow-up, you generally ASK the prospect for something or there is a CTA involved in it. BUT When you are Nurturing the prospect there is NO ASK or there is no CTA involved in it You simply GIVE them something that's relevant to them or something that helps them to make a better decision in future like 1. Case Studies 2. Success Stories 3. Ebooks / Informational Videos etc The idea is to stay on top of the mind of the prospect during the non-buying seasons or to stay connected with them when they have already told you that buying will take time. Try making a nurturing sequence just like a follow-up sequence, you will see a good difference in your sales and sale cycle. #b2b #saas #sales #nurturinglead

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Sales leaders - looking to boost win rates in 2025? Here's the top skill to train your AEs on in 2025 ⬇️ Uncovering The 'Need Behind the Need.' Top salespeople just get to the "heart of the problem" FASTER. Speed to uncovering the 'real' business problem matters. Here's why: Avg salespeople don't uncover even the tip of the ice berg until late in the discovery process (if at all). So they never get beyond the surface. They run out of time. Great salespeople get to the heart of the matter (without jumping in "too" quick) fast. That gives them TIME. Time to explore negative impact. Time to shape the root cause. Here are four questions (in order) that get to 'the heart of the deal' fast: 1. Tell me about the biggest challenges in X-area you'd regret not solving six months from now? Easy enough. This question is a filter. Buyers talk about 'must solve' problems only. But you still have work to do. 2. What's going on in the business that's driving [what they shared] to be a priority? Ask this, and your customers will CHUCKLE half the time. Why? Because you are striking a CHORD when you ask that. You're getting to the 'need behind the need.' That's where big money lives. Getting closer. 3. What metric is suffering most as a result of that? Avg sellers struggle to quantify pain. You walk into a different world when you go from expressed pain to quantified pain. Your customer's urgency ramps up. And spending money to solve the problem begins to look REAL good. 4. What's driving you to solve all this now rather than later? Ask this too early? And the answers will be weak. BUT... If you ask this AFTER those first three questions... Your customer now has the FULL CONTEXT of the problem top-of-mind. And now... their answers to THIS question will be far, FAR richer. Give those 4 questions (in order) a try. P.S. Upskill your SaaS AE team on virtually any topic or skill gap with the top 1% of revenue experts as instructors here: https://www.pclub.io/

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Can we turn frontline sales leadership on its head? 🙃 I propose we change what metrics we celebrate. These metrics can immediately tell anyone what kind of leader you are Ironically, metrics like ARR, ACV, TCV, YoY Growth, and Pipe Generation are nowhere to be found on this dashboard 🤔 But...I bet you could tell how well these teams/leaders have performed historically by the answers to these questions. Here are 4 of the most underrated leadership metrics: 1️⃣ How many previous direct reports would fight to work for you again? - Most reps would not opt in to being a part of a 💩 situation if they had the choice. 2️⃣ How many reps have you promoted? - Bonus points if you have promoted a rep into leadership. This says that you are focused on your reps career development over hoarding talent to support your own career aspirations. As such, you are focused on skill development and coaching over everything else 3️⃣ How many reps have gone on to take multiple promotions since being on your team? - This tells me that the effectiveness of your coaching and skill development. How well did the coaching stick? Was the coaching applicable for just the moment or the market conditions right now? Or was it foundational to the reps process and able to be applied to multiple roles? 4️⃣ How many reps voluntarily left your team/company for something better? - I understand that this is sometimes unavoidable and there are a lot of factors at play when someone leaves a company or team (anybody remember the Great Resignation? 😅 ) but...this speaks to the environment you create as a leader. If this number is low, you probably lead with clarity. Coaching and development are probably top priorities. And your people are seeing success. Lets normalize these kind of leadership metrics on a dashboard. It actually tells you everything you need to know about a leader!

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According to Gartner, 75% of B2B buyers today prefer a rep-free buying experience. Here’s the catch… 43% end up with buyer's remorse. Who do you think’s to blame for this trend…? 👇 That’s sort of a trick question… we’re all part of the problem. Over the last 20-years, Sales & Marketing have destroyed the buying experience. The result… buyers want to do it on their own.  The problem… most buyers have no idea what they’re buying, why they’re buying it, or how to properly use it.  This has created an opportunity where top Salespeople can THRIVE! Here’s how to do it: 𝟭. 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: ↳ Salespeople engage with what’s convenient, not how the buyer wants to start engaging… it should be the opposite. ↳ Don’t automatically hammer them with calls, emails, or texts. Use multiple communication channels to find out how they want to talk to you. 💡 SMS is a TERRIBLE cold outbound channel, however, many buyers would prefer using SMS to get basic questions answered after their initial contact. It’s a great way to move the sales process into a qualified sales call. 𝟮. 𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺: ↳ You’ve now proven you’ll communicate how they want to talk to you… here’s the huge opportunity to build upon that trust with value-insights! ↳ Ask questions to diagnose the situation and uncover costly misconceptions. ↳ Guide them with insights so they understand what they need to do, what they need to buy, and how to use it.  ❗ Do NOT start spewing out marketing jargon here. Keep building on the educational foundation to help the buyer learn. 𝟯. 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: ↳ Now, you’re no longer viewed as a product pusher, you’re a trusted advisor. ↳ Now, the buyer realizes they DO NEED you! ↳ Now, you’ve removed one of the biggest barriers slowing down the sale! 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁: 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗜𝘀 𝗮 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺, 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗪𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 So, why are buyers so eager to avoid salespeople in the first place? The answer lies in decades of bad sales practices. Pushy reps, obnoxious communication methods, manipulative tactics, and a focus on closing the deal rather than solving the problem. Sales has ALWAYS been about creating value, not just completing transactions. We’ve destroyed the practice with decades of automated point solutions that do a fraction of the work here… a fraction there… Salespeople and Sales Management now bury their heads in SaaS platforms, instead of working with customers in a conducive, common-sense fashion. The truth is, when sales is done right, it’s focused on serving rather than selling. The rep becomes an indispensable asset. #salesstrategy #customerexperience #b2bsales 👉 Follow me for more insights👈 👉 https://lnkd.in/gnQKQFQm

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Enterprise sales reps, hear me out -- you've got to stop thinking that "Proficient with Microsoft Word" is a differentiated selling skill. What I mean: Ten years ago, you could build a really unique account plan by doing google+social sleuthing because it was (a) relatively hard work that (b) not everyone would do even if they could. Today, I'm still seeing Enterprise sellers stand out from the pack by doing hard work that their peers won't — specifically, by going hard after primary sources instead of using the web. In other words, they're not settling for "Proficient with Microsoft Word." 3 approaches I've heard in the last month of discussing this with leaders of enterprise sales teams: 1. Sales rep using their 1st+2nd degree network to contact and interview literally anyone with recent work experience at the target company. Doesn't matter if they have to start below the line in the wrong department — they turn one referral into another and eventually have account insights that no competitor does. For penetrating a huge org this is invaluable. 2. Having the sales rep and SDR pair up on calling into the Sales organization of the target company, and just nicely ask for insights "sales rep to sales rep". The advantages of calling the sales org, despite not being your actual persona, are that (a) they pick up the phone more than other depts and (b) as sales reps they know how to be helpful if they want to be. I didn't personally expect this to work that well and was surprised how well it did when we tried it. 3. Hiring former employees of the target company as consultants for building account plans and/or designing RFP responses. This is harder work than sending out AirPods, champagne bottles, or gift cards in exchange for meeting — but you get a willing coach, maybe even a former executive, helping you sell. That's huge. (Obviously I'm biased toward using Emissary.io to simplify this.) There are no shortcuts in sales but there is always "doing what others won't." Would love to hear other under-utilized, hard-to-do tactics!

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Love the many practical SDR/BDR tactics documented here. What others would you add?

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Your AEs not generating enough pipeline? Too dependent on SDRs? Some thoughts and suggested actions: ➡ Insufficient Training & Enablement Outbounding and selling are distinct skills, and over 80% of reps aren't proficient in both. Without a compelling talk track, AEs won't confidently pick up the phone. Solid email coaching is essential for generating responses. Action: Create a practical playbook for AEs and offer weekly or bi-weekly training sessions on the latest best practices. ➡ Lack of Accountability Outbound efforts are challenging and often unpleasant, much like exercising. Accountability is crucial as most people won't do it on their own. Action: Schedule weekly 1-hour blocks dedicated to pipeline generation. Assign a team lead or a rep with leadership qualities to ensure adherence and report on daily results. ➡ Misguided Sales Math Avoid setting arbitrary activity targets. Instead, help reps determine the precise outbound activities needed to hit their sales targets. Action: Calculate the necessary outbound activities starting from revenue and deals closed to the number of meetings needed. ➡ Inadequate Coaching & Feedback Pipeline and deal reviews dominate most managers' 1-on-1s and team calls, leaving little room for pipeline generation discussions. Provide guidance on target accounts, approach strategies, and messaging feedback. Action: Dedicate 10-15 minutes of your weekly 1-on-1s to focus solely on pipeline generation. What did I miss? #sales #outbound #pipeline #salestips #outboundsales

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Revenue pros need to get ahead of the renewal conversation. Don’t take your renewals for granted. Instead: (1) Understand what’s going on with the business. Where are they winning and where are they struggling? (2) Demonstrate the impact you’ve had on their business. Make the case for renewal plain and simple. (3) Bring a point of view to the renewal conversation. This may mean restructuring to find an agreement that works for everyone. How are you getting ahead of renewals?

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I am not trying to create "balanced" sellers Im trying to help create unfair advantages in the marketplace for the sellers I lead Finding different ways to say and teach the same two things is ultimately my enablement plan. Yes I said "my enablement plan" because enablement shouldn't be outsourced or delegated. Frontline leaders should own this but... Its not about a peanut butter spread of enablement topics to check a box that "we are enabled" across everything you could possibly be enabled on It has to start with identifying the 2 or 3 most impactful areas to focus that will drive the majority of forward progress If we break it down to its simplest form, sellers do this: Generate Pipeline --> Progress Pipeline --> Close Pipeline This year (and for the past 5 years) I have planted my enablement flag squarely in the first 2 buckets. I have found that if you can get really good at - Generating Pipeline - Progressing Pipeline Then the 3rd bucket takes care of itself 21 trainings delivered this year around those 2 topics As a result... We are damn good at pipeline generation We are damn good at creative contracting (pipe progression) Being damn good at those two things means that we always have deals to run at because our pipeline is full... And we have have the skills and tools necessary to create a win/win for any customer no matter the customer situation because we understand finance, cashflow, and how to structure deals to get the customer what they want, when they want it Let me keep it all the way real for a second though. There is a downside to this approach We are NOT very good at a lot of things Some would say that my team is a little out of balance with lots of improvement areas Public Service Announcement: Its intentional that we are good at the things we are good at which means that Its also intentional that we are NOT good at the things we are NOT good at because we dont focus on being good at those things. Not telling you what to do, just showing you that the 80/20 rule applies in frontline sales leadership too!

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PE investors / operators: have "hire additional sales capacity" on your VCP or annual plan? HIRING new reps is only half the battle. For the ROI math to math, gotta then make 'em productive. As quickly as possible. But when it comes to making reps productive quickly, B2B companies face two big challenges: →The average tenure of a B2B sales rep is less than two years, YET... → Reps hit their peak performance two to three years in. Translation: Most reps leave before they’ve reached max productivity. Eek. In many cases, weak sales onboarding is to blame. But taking a more intentional approach to sales onboarding has a bevy of obvious benefits: • Reducing sales turnover • Shortening time-to-revenue • Higher odds of achieving your rev targets Hit on this in the book in Winning Move #32, but check out the vid below for a deeper dive on the P's and Q's of sales onboarding ▶️ * * * * * Found this helpful? Plenty more where that came from. Check out the Winning Moves Platform: the ambitious PE leader's toolkit for accelerating value creation. ↳ A digital arsenal of resources, how-to's, and tools to help private equity leaders make value-generating Winning Moves with confidence. Link in the comments below. ⤵️

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Here is the real impact that value selling is having for revenue teams: Tom Pisello David Yockelson 🔑48% improvement in winrate 🔑35% increase in deal size 🔑25% reduction in sales cycle time BUT...... ⛔️ only 19% of reps and 19% of pipeline is using value selling today. BIGGGG opportunity here...!

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To all SDRs or anyone entering B2B sales, read this post to avoid falling into common traps. 1. The most successful AEs I have met were the best SDRs. 2. SDRs who didn’t excel in the role and are now AEs are still struggling to generate their own pipeline. 3. AEs who skipped the SDR role, often due to an MBA or strong interview skills, fear switching jobs and roles without inbound leads. They’ve never faced the grind of building a pipeline from scratch, filled with rejections. 4. AEs who have never been an SDR majorly rely on their SDRs or Inbound leads from marketing to help them build pipeline and if any Quarter they don't get inbound or enough meetings from SDRs they sh** in their pants. 5. When these AEs become managers, they often question their team—"Where are the numbers?" or "Why isn’t there a pipeline?"—instead of guiding them on building it. Lacking experience in pipeline generation, they fail to lead by example and eventually lose the respect of their team. Learn the art and science of being an SDR and excel at this job at any cost, you will never have to look back or depend on anyone for pipeline EVER. Prospecting and Generating Pipelines is fundamental to Sales whether you are an SDR, AE, Sr Manager, or VP if you don't know how to do OUTBOUND you will continuously live a sales life of fear and anxiety. So SDRs ask yourselves do you want to be such AE and Managers in the future who depend on others to determine their performance and faith or would you like to own your job? #sales #prospecting #outbound #pipeline #sdr #ae #b2b #saas

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