Another great question and one that will certainly differ from executive to executive. However, in my experience some of the top intangibles for the top performers I have seen include: - Confidence and a winning personality. Now, I don't want to confuse 'confidence' with 'ego'...to have 'confidence' is to believe in yourself and your own abilities. 'Ego' on the other hand operates out of self interest, and 'lone wolves' do NOT work in today's high performing sales teams. - Being a 'consultant' and expert in your industry. Now, I don't expect every seller on the team to be able to lead a 'Ted Talk', but do your homework with your top accounts - understand the top challenges and opportunities in the industry they are facing. Read up on the company and understand what they are trying to achieve in their current environment, and get to know the motivation for your contact - what are they trying to achieve and how can they be your champion? - Customer focus and appreciation. The sales teams I want to be most associated with are ones that realize the customer relationship truly begins once the deal has closed. Too often sellers are off to the next chance to retire quota, and they lose sight of the long term benefits of being customer centric. Think 'seed and grow', not 'sell and go'. Also, being responsive and available to your accounts, whether 'prospects' or 'customers' is also key. People will remember those who respond in a timely fashion to any outreach from their accounts - goes back to the earlier point of differentiating yourself in small, but significant ways, and helps grow customer confidence and retention.

To effectively define the metrics for which you should hold sales accountable, I look at a few things: 1. Understand the "Sales Math" of the business across some core universally applicable SaaS Sales metrics 2. Compare the performance of the top 1/3 AE's against the bottom 1/3 AE's and look for which metrics contribute the most to high performance. 3. Go deep in those categories and correlate the activities top performers do differently to achieve these results. Quantify these activities to define supporting metrics which will lead to success. To break this down, let's understand the foundational "Sales Math." This is the equation to hit quota. The equation is fairly simple, but everyone's vernacular is different. It is actually extremely important to have very well defined steps in the equation to get consistency across your entire team. For example, we use opportunity stages with clear exit criteria for the buyer & seller to provide consistent insight into our Sales Math. So I would actually use a Stage 1 Opp Created - instead of Discovery Call, and Stage 3 Opp instead of Demo. For the purposes of this article, I'll use general sales terms that each business should be able to use as a starting point and customize from there. Here are the metrics that go into the Sales Math equation: * Activities to create a Discovery Call * # Discovery Calls per quarter * # Demos per quarter * Discovery Call to Demo conversion ratio * # Closed Won Deals per quarter * Demo to Closed Won conversion ratio * Average Deal Size * Average Deal Cycle These metrics will allow you to create the math to hit quota. If the current team's metrics do not consistently lead to the results you're looking for, then the Sales Math may be aspirational. If your team is executing against plan, then this may be your actual current metrics. Regardless, this is what you should feel confident telling AE's is the realistic, attainable and surpassable way to hit quota. For example, it could look like: $250k Quarterly Quota Average Deal Size of $84k 3 Deals to hit quota Close ratio of 33% 9 Demos needed per quarter 60% conversion ratio of Disco to Demo 15 Discovery Calls needed per quarter 50 Activities to create a Disco 750 Activities needed per quarter* *one note on activity. It's a metric I'll always track to understand a baseline level of effort, but I will often leave this out of the Sales Math when dealing with higher complexity sales and more senior AE's. Up to you if this should be in your Sales Math equation. Now take your Sales Math, and map your high performers against your low performers to look for which metrics have a high correlation with success. This exercise can be extremely surprising, so be open to what the data shows you, and hold your strong opinions loosely. Let's extrapolate this exercise across two different scenarios: Scenario 1 - Enterprise Here's how the exercise played out when running it against a more enterprise business (numbers are directional): 1. Activity, Discovery Calls and Demos were almost identical across high & low performers. This told me that pushing "more activity" was only going to have so much impact on performance. 2. The Closed Won conversion of top performers was 46% vs. 25% for the low performers. This was a huge gap, and had major implications on the Sales Math. 3. The Average Deal Size of top performers was $160k vs. $70k for low performers. This is also a huge gap compounded the success or struggles of each group when combined with the stat above. So the key metrics to optimize were Average Deal Size and Demo to Close Ratio. We wanted to maintain our activity levels, but really lean into increasing ADS and strategies to help with Deal Execution. Based on this knowledge of what would have the biggest impact in high performance vs. low performance, we added in some metrics & activities that would contribute to these results: * Updated our account prioritization to ensure a focus on the top deals & tracked activity against Priority 1 accounts * We blocked off time each week to prospect into our top accounts & scheduled strategy sessions to help get more meetings with these accounts * We tracked # of Discos with P1 accounts * # of Demo's with $100k+ Opportunities For Deal Execution * We tracked multi-threading in each account * Have we made an executive connection? * We created a cross-functional meeting to lean into competitive differentiation strategy * We set a threshold for accounts that needed a key deal review & updated our process to improve efficiency and make room for more accounts reviewed each week. Scenario 2 - Transactional Here's how the exercise played out when running it against a more transactional business (numbers are directional): 1. There were two camps of high performers. Those with extremely high activity, and those with higher disco to demo efficiency. Our most consistent top performer was a combination of both. Low performers fell into a similar pattern of either low activity or low conversion of discos to demos. 2. Deal size and win rate didn't have dramatic differences outside of 1 AE who closed the largest deal in segment history. This wasn't repeatable so we eliminated that result instead of putting too much time in hunting whales. 3. Average Deal Cycle for top performers was 39 days vs. 52 days for lower performers. Top AE's were closing deals faster, which allowed for more time to close more deals. From this data we defined additional metrics and activities to drive better results: * Upped the baseline activity volume expectations - there is a diminishing point of returns, but higher volume was almost always a component of success. We raised the bar, but also coached our highest volume AE's to lean more into their efficiency metrics instead of pushing to just do more. * Managers went deep on quality of discovery calls coming into the funnel * Title & Seniority level of Prospects - lower conversion was correlated with lower titles. * Was the company in our Ideal Customer Profile? Quality of company greatly impacted conversion * Why now? Did we offer someone a gift card or just bug them until their defense was worn down? Or was this call predicated on funding, a new hire, an inflection point in the business, intent or some other business catalyst? * Managers inspected quality of prospecting messages * Managers inspected quality of discovery calls * We rallied around creative promos to help the team close deals faster * We replicated decks top AE's were using to build value and establish trust faster In both Scenario 1 and 2 - we started with the baseline Sales Math, and through comparison of top performers vs. low performers we were able to lean into the 2 key metrics that had an outsized impact on performance. We then defined key activities and additional metrics which we could hold the team accountable to, that we knew would correlate towards greater success across the team. How easy was that? :)

I stronly believe that sales people are one of the most likely people to get to the highest position in any business right upto the role of a CEO. In fact, many CEOs in global companies either come from either sales or product background. * A sales person would start their sales career somewhere as a SDR/BDR. * And then move into an account executive quota carrying role. * From there, they would either branch into management or continue to be a senior Individual Contributor (think about a Key Account Director) * I have seen successful sales people eventually getting into GM, CRO or even CEO roles

As mentioned earlier, KPIs vary depending on the business and teams specifically. Below are a few metrics that I find businesses neglect to prioritize: * Employee satisfaction * Retention * Burnout and mental health are critical topics managers should be maniacally focused on * Manager call reviews (Gong, Chorus) * Managers should be constantly providing constructive feedback and hearing more from the customers' voice in order to improve performance and sales motions * Delineating engagement by location and persona * Far too often I see leaders report total metrics without the proper insights into trends by geo, title, etc. * Discounts * How often are you bringing in revenue at your list price? * Are we losing deals due to costs? Budget? * Why, how, and when are we discounting and how does that impact the business? * Proposals sent * I’ve seen frontline managers assume that their reps have sent a quote or order when a buyer has reached a certain stage. Never assume. * SLA * How long does it take for your inbound team to follow up with a lead? * What percentage of leads are followed up with? * How quickly do your AEs follow up via email with a summary from a discovery call? * Meeting acceptance rate * % no shows * % conversion by title and location * Conversion rate * Lagging and leading indicators/trends * Opportunity lifecycle * % of opps by stage * Length of stage progression * NPS * Promoters vs. passives vs. detractors * Customer lifetime value

Be prepared: C-Suite folks are busy people- don't waste their time. Ensure you are prepared for every meeting you have with them. Anticipate the questions you would expect them to ask and have your answers ready to reply with in real time. Be clear and concise: It goes a long way in terms of how you show up to the C-Suite if you can articulate what you need to say in a clear and concise way. If you are taking the time to prepare, this should be easy enough to accomplish. Properly prepare them: If you are running a meeting or call together or simply need your C-Suite's involvement in a deal or project you're working on, it is critical to properly prep them for it. Take the extra time to build out a pre-read that outlines the background of the deal or project, who's involved, the goal of their involvement, what you actually need from them, and in some cases suggested ghost written content (i.e. ghost written email in a deal for exec to exec alignment). Simply put, if you are asking something of them, make it as easy as possible for them to get up to speed and execute on it. Be confident: The C-Suite are people too! Of course, have respect, but also have confidence in you and make sure that shines through. 

This is a great question and a task that I was asked to take on for Vanta twice over the past two years - first helping us break into the mid-market, and later helping us break into the enterprise. My first piece of advice is to make sure that there's cross-functional alignment in your company around the desire or need to move upmarket. It's really important that the entire company is on board with this decision. From there, I'd have representatives from GTM and EPD take a long hard look at any "upmarket at bats" that your company has had to date, listening to Gong calls, reviewing Salesforce data, etc to see what's working and what isn't working. You'll want to have the best assessment that you can have on whether or not your product is ready to move up market, where the gaps are (or might be), and whether or not those gaps can be resourced and built. You'll also want to make sure that you have the best initial pulse possible on who your upmarket ICP is. i.e. How are they similar or different to your current ICP? You probably won't know this initially, but you'll figure it out. Finally, you'll want to make sure that you're being thoughtful with how you (in sales) are going to approach generating and working these deals - probably setting aside a small team of sellers to help with the testing. Moving upmarket is generally a tough assignment from my experience and one that really only has a shot of "working" or "feeling good" if your company allocates real cross-functional dollars and resources to it.

The best way to improve interviewing skills is super simple - and this is going to sound reductive - Go ask your most respected colleagues & peers to interview you - just get creative with it. But the take away should be Develop a point of view on your history. what motivates you, what makes you succesful and how you plan to harness it and systematize it going forward. The practice with trusted colleagues will arm you with newly developed point of view about yourself and how you fit inot the bigger picture - this is the ultimate skill you're practicing for in an interview. 

Many of the large research firms (ex: Gartner) and other smaller societies exist. They put out interesting reports, whitepapers, and findings that showcase new enablement technology, sales trends, and changes in the learning space. I'd recommend: * Check-out new & topical books * Subscribe or review these firms/sites from time to time * Join a community (Slack or LinkedIn) with like-minded folks

There's a few different ways to gauge a candidate's autonomy in a sales interview. 1. Behavioral Questions: Ask situational questions that require candidates to describe times where they had to work independently to achieve sales targets or overcome challenges. For example one of my go to questions is, "What's the most creative, out of the ordinary, or above and beyond thing you’ve done to win a customer?" 2. Past Experience: Review the candidate's resume and ask about specific examples where they demonstrated autonomy in previous sales roles. Inquire about their sales process, strategies they implemented independently, and decisions they made autonomously. 3. Problem-solving Scenarios: Present examples of current sales scenarios and ask how the candidate would approach them. Evaluate whether they demonstrate the ability to think critically and make decisions independently in real life situations that arise. 4. Role-play Exercises: Conduct role-playing exercises where the candidate must handle a sales scenario independently. We ask candidates to run a discovery call and give them basic information on the team. Observe how they handle the situation and objections without much assistance or input.

I avoid burnout in 3 ways: 1. Make your job easier by always having pipeline ready to go. Burnout is most common when a rep feels they need to start over, and then think that maybe they should just start over somewhere else. Always have good prospects to call, pipeline to win, or customers to contact and sell to. 2. Try new sales tactics, but don't stray too far from what has made you successful. Testing and trying new things is fun and spices things up, but do not overhaul your entire approach. Ask that one question you never do and see what happens. 3. Take time off. Salespeople can have major FOMO. I'm going to miss an inbound opportunity if I take off, I know it! If you follow #1 above, vacations, even small ones, will be your best friend. My first 10 years of working, 3 and 4 day weekends were my best ways to recharge!