Get answers from sales leaders
Alicia Lewis
Alicia Lewis
Culture Amp Senior Sales DirectorJanuary 13
To be an effective sales leader, you must have strong communication skills and be driven by data and process. Strong communication, especially a coach-like mindset, is extremely important in terms of supporting reps to achieve quotas. Positive and effective communication between a leader and their reps allows for a smooth flow of information, which creates an environment that motivates the team to work towards achieving goals. More than ever, being analytical and process driven is key to creating and scaling a high performing team. It’s important that leaders understand the story in the data, make impactful decisions based upon it and motivate their team with data. In terms of nice to haves, having an eye for great sales talent is something that can take time to develop as a sales leader. I’ve been in sales my entire career and being able to identify great talent is something I'm always working on. If early on in their tenure a sales leader can hone in on a candidate's desire to learn and succeed, they are set up for success.
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3863 Views
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Andrew Zinger
Andrew Zinger
Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales EnablementJanuary 11
First off, for those serious about a career change to sales, I would start off by building (or rebuilding) your network. This can be done is a number of ways including: - attending conferences and industry training events (virtual or in person) - focus on joining relevant industry and/or company groups on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Slack - do an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses. Successful sellers are not born overnight and constantly are curious on how they can improve themselves. In your current role, you may possess traits similar to those individuals, but you will likely have weaknesses that you need to address before you can start that growth. - take a training course. Trust me, you indeed can teach an old dog new tricks...especially because these types of training experiences come in many forms to suit your taste, including 'on demand'/'just in time' training (think LinkedIn Learning/Coursera) and of course 'in person' options. - work on your 'executive presence' and 'relationship building' skills. In today's selling environment and competitive landscape, customers have a multitude of options to choose from, and sales has really become about building and maintaining strong relationships. No doubt an actual deal involves your business selling something of value, but that doesn’t happen unless you have a strong relationship with your potential buyer.
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2723 Views
Charles Gryor Derupe
Charles Gryor Derupe
accessiBe Director of EnablementFebruary 8
This answer is purely based on opinion, so please keep this in mind. I believe that any new tactics and strategies need to be relevant to the sales methodology set by the enablement team. Why? Reps, especially those that are "green" to the field, need a repeatable, consistent skill development structure. Additionally, this methodology should be where onboarding, ongoing reinforcement training, and content should map to. Adding new sales tactics and strategies are most effective for experienced reps who have already mastered their own selling methods. This doesn't mean you shouldn't or can't share some cool articles or resources for these new tactics and strategies - especially cool non-enablement resources and tools they can use to implement those methodology-mapped skills. A good example of this is how to sell through social media, where selling skills like good discovery, creating interest, and driving the next steps, etc. can still be incorporated into this new selling channel. Sharing knowledge should be part of the Sales culture. However, enablement programming should prioritize established methodologies for consistency and to make your impact measurement as easy as possible. 
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1500 Views
Roee Zelcer
Roee Zelcer
TikTok Head of Sales, Products & ServicesFebruary 10
Coming into an organization as the first sales hire puts a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. You are basically in charge of proving the validity of this function within the company. There are a few things that I would consider and act on in this position: Start with the short term. As a first hire in a sales organization, you are required to deliver results that have a very immediate impact that meets the business needs. This means focusing on some low-hanging fruits in order to deliver results within a short time frame. Build a framework. As a first hire within the team, you should make sure you document your work, and create clear guidelines and processes, with the expectation of adding additional members to the team in the future. This will ensure a smooth expansion of the team while positioning you as a thought leader and a pivotal member of this function. Go beyond your scope. As a junior sales hire, never underestimate the power of tenacity. I always invite my team members to push the boundaries and look for additional scope and responsibilities whenever they feel capable. This is a very strong signal that you are willing to take on more, and when management will face a new task at hand, they will know they can count on you.
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3266 Views
Eric Martin
Eric Martin
Vanta Head Of SalesNovember 29
It's a great question. I believe that all reps are continuously motivated by earning potential and career growth opportunities, regardless of the stage of the company. To get more nuanced, you'll see earlier hires more motivated by the combination of equity and cash, and you'll also see earlier hires hoping to leverage their early arrival to accelerate their career growth (vs later hires). As an aside, one of the real joys of leading and scaling sales teams is rewarding those deserving early hires with promotions, additional equity grants, etc. We've had the opportunity to do a lot of this at Vanta. More broadly, my advice is to spend a lot of time thinking about the design of your compensation plans (revisiting them at least annually) and also to map out levels and definitions for career growth sooner vs later. Make sure that you're putting your team in a spot where they believe they can hit their goals, and where they understand intimately what career growth means for them, and how to unlock it. Easier said than done. :)
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791 Views
Marleyna Mohler
Marleyna Mohler
Attentive Sr. Director of Inside SalesMay 17
Staying up to date: It’s important to pick a medium that you like for content. Whether it is Linkedin, podcasts, email newsletter, or chat based slack groups, you want to make sure you are setting yourself up for success. If the content goes unread or unlistened to, you won’t build a consistent learning habit. Personally, I find the most value in content forums where you can engage and ask follow up questions, hear multiple opinions on a particular matter, and even reach out the the original writer for a 1-1 chat! Another underutilized source of knowledge for industry trends is content from Sales Development technology vendors. It’s imperative that they stay on the cutting edge, so following a few top vendors on Linkedin will allow you to see what future the tools are preparing for. Avoiding the noise: There can be a great amount of value in public best practices. That said, there is risk in assuming that something that works for someone else will also work for you, or for implementing changes to something when you are already seeing above-average results. For example, if your content is getting a 20% reply rate, you may not want to adopt the “best practice” that moved someone else's team from a 10% to 15% reply rate. Having your own benchmarks and running your own A/B tests can help you determine where you should be altering your SDR motion, and where you should keep yours in place. Then, you can proactively search for interesting ideas to test in areas you are performing below benchmark. 
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1230 Views
Shahid Nizami
Shahid Nizami
Braze APAC Vice President of SalesJanuary 10
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
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2461 Views
Sarah Mercedes (Osborne)
Sarah Mercedes (Osborne)
HubSpot Head of Corporate Sales, West CoastJanuary 25
Sponsors are critical for career progression. When you think about the best persons to lean on for sponsorship, you should be thinking about someone who is already bought into you and would endorse you to others within the business. You want to also ensure that this person is well connected and has a "voice at the table" that you don't have a "seat" at yet. Then, you need to ask that person for their support. Most importantly, you then need to create value and as mentioned in another response, ensure the things you are working on and focused on to create value align with what is important to the business and will create impact at scale. 
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1606 Views
Beau Noonan
Beau Noonan
Matterport Enterprise Sales DirectorJune 8
Here are a few good OKRs that I focus on within my region: * Objective: Increase Revenue Growth * Result: Increase sales stage conversation rate by x % * Result: Increase average deal size by x % * Objective: Enhance Customer Retention & Satisfaction * Result: Increase net dollar retention rate for existing enterprise clients * Result: Generate a certain percentage of revenue from upselling and expanding customers. * Objective: Optimize Sales Process & Efficiency * Result: Decrease sales cycle duration by x % * Result: Improve win rate of inbound qualified leads * Result: Implement a new tool such as CI to improve productivity
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863 Views
Brian Tino
Brian Tino
AlphaSense Director of Strategic Sales, EMEAJune 30
YES! I highly encourage candidates go "above and beyond" in preparing for interviews, because the interview is your opportunity to show the best version of yourself, and I want to build a team of incredible salespeople who are willing to do "above and beyond" for our clients and prospective clients. If you're not willing to go "above and beyond" to get a job, then how I can trust you are going to be willing to go "above and beyond" to close a deal? This can be done before, during, and after an interview: * Before - connecting on LinkedIn or finding their email ahead of time to convey your interest in meeting with the interviewer & aligning on expectations * During - creating a presentation to showcase a deal review or outline your 30-60-90 day plan in if you were to be successful in landing the role * After - by sending a personalized follow up email with any relevant content (leave behinds, blog posts/articles that related to the discussion, etc.) from the conversation and clarifying your interest & next steps Always look for those ways to standout as the best-of-the-best!
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509 Views