Mastermind Army Nick Rundlett

Alec Ryncavage is a serial entrepreneur, elected public official, and cybersecurity expert -- at 19 years old!  He's the founder and CEO of Cybiot - a revolutionary cybersecurity technology for small businesses that protects their retail storefront, office, guest network, employees, and customers while removing the friction of cost, time, and talent.  We rallied the troops to solve sales problems together in his business.  
https://www.cybiot.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alecryncavage/


Timestamps:
1:10 - Alec's EPIC origin story 3:38 - How did the skills you built early as a teenager tee you up for entrepreneurial success?
5:08 - How Alec founded Cybiot at 14, revamped it twice, and got VC-funded 5 years later
7:11 - How hackers use your thermostat to steal your credit card... 9:37 - Lessons learned pivoting B2C to B2B
10:38 -  Cybiot's value proposition compared to Cisco
17:00 - Value proposition to MSP's 18:07 - Problem Solved : Low outbound activity
19:02 - "How do I get my new prospects to do a PAID pilot of my software?" 21:34 - Problem Solved: "Can't I just automate my sales outreach?"
22:22 - Problem Solved: "Is it true if I get a 'NO' I can never reach out again?" When they say "No", the sale begins.
25:45 - Mindset Shift: "No is meaningless, unless you know they REALLY mean it."
29:54 - How do you handle sales calls today?
31:23 - Use the "Up Front Contract" to move "Maybe's" to YES or NO.
35:32 - Alec's #1 Founder Takeaway from the Mastermind
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🔥 LEARN SALES FAST
👇 Join the Mastermind Army!
🔥 https://mastermind.army

Jonathan Green joined MongoDB at 32 years old as a Lead Development Representative, the lowest role in Sales. He could've continued being an Account Executive or Sales Manager somewhere else, but he chose OPPORTUNITY over on-target earnings.

4 years,  8 role changes, and 10,000 hours of selling later...

He's the Regional Director of Sales at MongoDB, a $21B tech company.

In this conversation, we talk about how Jonathan cold-called his way into the best opportunity of his life, what hidden traits he looks for when hiring new sales reps, and how you can create a vision for your career in sales to succeed.

Jonathan's hiring @ MongoDB!
Hit him up on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanlgreen/

Timestamps:

2:01 - How did Jonathan make a career shift to sales? in his early 30's?

4:47 - How Jonathan cold called his future boss and landed a job offer as an LDR.

7:05 - What were the early lessons learned in your career?

8:19 - Complex technical sales is more like project management.

9:13 - INTERNAL relationships are everything for your career advancement in sales.

12:42 - Success in developing yourself starts with a clear vision.

14:43 - What advice would Jonathan give to himself at the beginning of his career?

14:57 - PICK THE OPPORTUNITY, NOT THE ON-TARGET EARNINGS!!!

17:45 - Picking the right career path boils down to asking hard questions.

19:25 - 8 role changes wasn't glorious; it taught me to stay level-headed.

20:09 - Look for sales candidates that overcame adversity; it's a solid indicator.

23:55 - Q&A begins

24:23 - I'm a new LDR doing qualification and prospecting. What would you suggest I keep in mind as I'm having discovery calls and trying to qualify leads for the sales team?

24:48 - BANT is great, but you need to ask the 3 WHY's: Why Us? Why Now? Why Anything?

27:02 - Look for GRIT, INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY, and a TRACK-RECORD of being interesting for new sales candidates.

29:30 - Presentation skills are over-rated. You don't need great hair or a great slide-deck. You need to have genuine curiosity and genuine care for your customers + great work ethic.

What you didn't get to witness in this conversation:


How Jonathan helped another Sales leader develop a new compensation plan that eliminates tension between Account Executives who sell $10k deals up-front only to have Account Managers get commission for $100k up-sells within 6 months..

What cutting-edge prospecting, enablement, and scheduling tools we recommended to a new VP of Sales looking to hire his first SDR and build a sales org..

And much, much more!


To listen to the full Mastermind session, go to www.mastermind.army and sign up to our email list.

Jed Mahrle is a beast. At just 17, he was hired on to be PandaDoc's youngest-ever LDR. 

He immediately crushed it, got promoted to SDR, and has been crushing it ever since.

Jed's now booking 17-35% of ALL outbound meetings for the company.
How? Relentless curiosity and experimentation.

He scans Salesforce to see how other meetings are getting booked. He asks himself "What CTA's are working? What industries are AE's having success in closing? What language are they using to close them?".

He documents his learnings, and immediately tests them out himself. Doing so gives him a new tool every week that makes him 1% more effective.

Add up 20, 30, 40 weeks of experimentation, and he's slam-dunk crushing it - because he knows 40 different tools to book a meeting in almost any conceivable circumstance.

If you're an SDR looking for new ways to smash your quota, you've got to check out Jed's newsletter: Practical Prospecting
Every week, he shares what he's learning and experimenting WITH YOU!

https://jed.substack.com/

Step 1:  Define your Ideal Customer Profile 🏦

Just like sales, don't reach out to companies that don't fit your ICP. It's a waste of your time and their time if you

What are the demographics of a company you'd be excited to work at?


Geographic Location
Company Size
Industries you're a great fit for (not necessarily have experience in)
Funding stage

What cultural traits and characteristics would make you feel welcome?


Meritocratic culture, where high performance is rewarded
Ability to make an impact if your ideas are sound
Remote friendly with an office nearby
Catered meals and regular company outings

What income potential would compel your motivation and hunger to grow?


$60k base with $120k OTE
SMB or Mid-Market Account Executive role
Competitive equity package
401k with at least 3% company match

Step 2: Define activity levels and outcomes to create a sales funnel💪

Just like sales, your activity serves a purpose: book meetings. Use math to project your desired outcomes from your activity levels like so:

(2+2)*5 = 20 touches per week. 80 per month.

Assume a 10% touch point to meeting conversion rate.

2 meetings per week. 8 per month.

Assume a 50% first interview to follow-up interview conversion rate.

4 per month.

Assume a 25% follow-up interview to job offer conversion rate.

1 per month.

Step 3: Create a system to track your progress 🧠

Just like sales, you don't rely on memory or luck to win a new customer. You have a CRM, and you track every prospect in a system to see where they're at in the sales cycle.

Use Google Sheets to track your progress, with the following columns:


Company Name
URL
Careers Page
Role
Economic Buyer (name of the VP of Sales, CEO, Sales Director, etc)
Their Email
Their LinkedIn
Their Twitter
Your Mutual Connections
Opportunity Status (To Do, Applied, Pitched, Interviewing, Closed Won, Closed Lost)

Dr. John Musser is the founder and CEO of Enhanced Sales Potential.
He shared a TON of invaluable wisdom on so many questions.
Just listen to the whole darn thing. It's worth it!

1:52 - What are the most common dysfunctions in Sales organizations?

5:55 - What are quick fixes can a Sales organization make to improve?

7:53 - How can we drive internal change as Salespeople?

9:43 - Forming internal alliances by treating other teams like internal customers.

11:47 - Watch out for VP's that do this... you might have to leave.

12:51 - What are "Green Flags" in sales leadership - traits that the best leaders embody?

16:17 - "I work at a startup. It's just me and the CEO! What can I do to set realistic expectations and get real results?

19:15 - "How do you give healthy accountability to your team?"

22:00 - "This is my first sales role! How do you think about the closing process.. Is 'Always Be Closing' valid?"

30:19 - Keep exploring the buyer's reluctance and resistance. There's a REASON they're not taking action.
Push through the discomfort, and seek to truly understand. Provide an open space and listening ear for them.

32:02 - "How do you ask for a raise?"

35:40 - How the heck do you get past Google Assistants? (AI phone screeners)

41:45 - Management is telling us not to call inbound leads that unsubscribe to marketing emails. But they're still good leads!
How can I convince my boss to let us call them?

46:00 - My prospect is a VP, but not the ultimate decision maker. The meeting went well, but when I followed up she replied "It was great to have you and we appreciate you taking the time to talk to our team" … what can I do to get the deal back on track?

55:00 - Don't turn prospects off by being needy and desperate. Remember you're on equal footing and equal status. Always "give to get", and ask them to invest in the partnership proportionate to you.

59:18 - Dr. John Musser parts with an extraordinarily inspiring message!

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Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-john-musser-he-him-his-10390/

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Join the Mastermind Army!

www.mastermind.army

Ryan Zadrazil asks: How do I send a follow-up email to gain intel on the deal I sent a proposal for without annoying the customer and "just checking in"?

I had a call on Monday with the customer where we went over 2 pricing options, and they asked for a contract!
I feel comfortable emailing him, but I don't know what to say.

1:30 - Logan Westberg responds:

Your next step depends on setting up expectations right correctly.

On that first meeting, you need to identify where you're going to go from there, and propose the exact day you're going to follow-up.

Don't let them leave it open-ended with them saving "We'll review and get back to you".

Ask "What's a good time to follow-up? Next Wednesday at 2:00 PM?" - Set a clear next step.

On your next meeting, you can recap what you've shared, and add another piece of content they'd find helpful.

You can ask "What else should we discuss, or are you ready to move forward to the next stage?"

5:53 - When you don't really have anything new to add, you probably shouldn't send an email.

"Typically, these are reviewed and filled by legal within a week or two.
Is there any issue with the terms as it stands or anything I can help with?"


3:08 - Nick Rundlett responds: 

Never "just check in" on a sales prospect after you send a proposal.

It reeks of sales breath, and immediately turns people off.

Instead, serve them as "subject matter expert" of the buyer's journey.

Proactively help them overcome internal challenges and roadblocks they haven't thought of.

"At this phase, your IT/security team will likely want oversight before we can resolve the commercial aspects. They probably have a cloud vendor form we'll want to complete for you; can you share a copy?"


7:25 - Matthew Binder adds:

Don't follow-up if you don't need to.

Your sales process has 2 discoveries: identifying pain and solution, and identifying how to implement change in the company.

Ask what metrics their security/IT/legal/procurement (whatever internal stakeholder) teams will be evaluating the proposal by.

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Every Thursday at 8:00 PM EST, the Sales Mastermind meets to help each other LEARN SALES FAST.

Want us to take a stab at solving YOUR problems?

Join our community at https://www.mastermind.army !

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Connect with Ryan Zadrazil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanzadrazil/
Connect with Logan Westberg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loganwestberg/
Connect with Matthew Binder: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-binder-22946215a/
Connect with Nick Rundlett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-rundlett/