30 Minutes to President's Club | No-Nonsense Sales 30MPC

FOUR ACTIONABLE LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS

Designate specific people to cover very specific topics in the interview process so they can get really good at those core competencies. Leave the generic questions to another company.

When you got them hooked, talk them out of it. If you can talk them out of it, they wouldn’t have worked out anyway.

Sell early, grill after. Get someone to opt in by selling them on your goals and your mission. Then, gain their respect by grilling the heck out of them.

Each step in the process should test for different dimensions of sales and should be handled by different people with that expertise.



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FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS

If you feel like you have leverage in a deal, but haven't gotten in front of the right stakeholders to progress the deal, use that as a non-negotiable to begin negotiations

Sit down and write down your own "Gives" and "Gets" that you can trade with your buyer during a sales cycle

Someone liking your offering does not make them an effective champion, ask questions like "Is {title} aware of these conversations?" to test them

When trying to get access to power use labelling statements like "I often hear {title} likes to weigh in, is that the same for you?"


PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB

Account Executive @ Webflow

Account Executive @ SafeGraph

Account Executive @ Procore Technologies


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FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS

Start with a menu of pain: the 3 biggest problems that any given persona can face.

Once you align on the problem, ask, “What’s prompting that need?”.

You can start talking about solutions once you have an executive-level problem (e.g. down round, churn problem).

Use individual contributors, like AEs, for inside intel on the organization. Then use their quotes on 1-2 slides when meeting with VP or CXO.


PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB

Enterprise Account Executive @ UserGems

Enterprise+ Account Executive @ Outreach

Enterprise Accounts, Financial Services @ Tableau Software

Strategic Accounts @ PowerSchool


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FOUR ACTIONABLE LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS

Name and define your competencies

Be extremely intentional about how you are going to interview those competencies. Get into the nitty gritty about how you are going to assess for work ethic.

Test for traits like IQ, EQ, coachability, and work ethic earlier in the process as they are the hardest to teach. Industry domain expertise and even skills like prospecting are much easier to teach.

Match sales cycle and sales environment. Don’t put an SMB rep into an enterprise role and don’t put an Oracle rep into the first sales hire role at a startup.



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FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS

Break into prospects when they are speaking at conferences. If you see somebody from the really-tough-to-break-into account speaking at a conference, go to their talk and sit in that talk. At the end, introduce yourself to the speaker and make a point of connection with them.

Avoid name-dropping obscure customers. When you are prospecting into more sensitive industries, don't name-drop non-publicly referenceable customers.

Your goal is to get into the talk-to folder. You want to be in that folder so that they know who to contact when something bad happens.

Think creatively with your outreach. We are not just limited to emails and phone calls and DMs. Be present where they're coming together.



PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB

Strategic Enterprise Sales @ Rubrick, Inc.

Strategic Enterprise Sales @ People.ai


Enterprise Sales @ App Dynamics

Enterprise Sales @ Xactly Corp



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FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS

Start your email with research personalization to stand out in the inbox (vs generic greeting).

Quote the prospect/company directly by researching where the company is investing its money (e.g. in job postings, funding announcements).

Use a more humanized approach when prospecting. Sharing something you both have in common in the P.S. is a great place to add a human touch.

Reach out to your prospect immediately after they engage with your content - no need to wait for the next sequence step.


PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB

Senior Account Executive @ Salesloft

Team Lead, Sales Development @ Integrate

SDR @ Akkroo, an Integrate company

Enterprise SDR @ PatSnap


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