Great question and something I love talking to (and sometimes 'debating') our leaders about - the idea behind 'what's the characteristic (or two) of your best seller you would want to clone?' For me, at the top of the list are 2 attributes I look for in potential sales team members: 1) 'Customer first' mindset: I don't want to lead or support a team of 'vendors' who are only interested in selling 'licenses'. I want to enable a team of 'consultants' or 'trusted advisors' that are not interested in selling 'licenses', but providing 'customer solutions' built on value. I want sales teams built on the belief that they can differentiate themselves by showing up to a prospect/customer meeting with curiosity and a perspective on what is happening in the particular industry and company...prospects will pick up on the fact that you seem genuinely interested in understanding their reality. 2) The ability to be a master customer storyteller...something I call 'storyselling'. To me this is an important attribute if you are hoping your sellers show up like 'consultants' and sell on value. Think of how you like to be sold to...most want to partner with someone who understands their current situation, and desired future state. You typically buy from someone you trust, and that trust is typically built out of 'experience' or 'subject matter expertise'. Finally, you want someone who can paint a picture of the future, to get you excited about the 'art of the possible' and nothing means more and comes off as 'authentic' than hearing stories of how other customers, of a similar size and industry, or facing the same challenge, have transformed their business in the way you are looking to do so.

LIke most professions, you can not lead a team well if you haven't done the job yourself. Must Haves : * You should have been a quota carrying sales rep for at least 3 to 5 years before you can transition into sales leadership. * Have a good understanding of the product. You don't want to be in a meeting with your sales rep where you are not able to answer the use cases and functionalities of your profuct to the customer without any hesitation * Good understanding of the market you operate in * Ability to motivate the team and shield any unnecessary pressure from top management * Good analytical skiils would always help you to identify trends in the market place as well as your own internal metrics * Listening skills : They are both important as a sales rep as well as a sales leader. * Focus on Culture :Though some people might put this under "Nice to Haves", I strongly feel that being focussed on culture and building a strong team culture helps a sales leader a lot. Nice to Haves * Some experience around areas of business development and customer success is always helpful * Project management skills can come in handy as you go up the hierarchy and need to work across cross-functional teams

I often hear a few common concerns from enterprise prospects. These usually revolve around worries about the price, potential risks, getting locked into a single vendor, and status-quo objections. Cost Worries: When prospects bring up cost concerns, I like to highlight the value our solutions bring. I show them how our offerings are designed to solve specific issues and bring tangible returns. Plus, I work closely with our financial experts to offer flexible pricing options and demonstrate the long-term benefits of their investment. Mitigating Risks: It's only natural for enterprises to be cautious about adopting new tech. To address this, I point to our track record of successful implementations, backed by glowing customer testimonials and case studies. I also stress how adaptable and scalable our solutions are, fitting seamlessly into their existing setup and future growth plans. Avoiding Vendor Lock-In: Some prospects worry about being stuck with a single vendor for the long haul. I reassure them by emphasizing our focus on interoperability and open standards. I highlight our wide range of integrations and partnerships, underlining the flexibility and freedom our solutions offer. This way, they know they can integrate with other platforms and technologies if they need to. Validating with Proofs of Concept: Given our emphasis on proofs of concept aligned with the customer's future goals, prospects often want to see real results. I suggest starting with a smaller pilot project or proof of concept that's tailored to their specific needs. This hands-on experience helps build trust and confidence in our solutions, often leading to broader adoption. By addressing these concerns with a mix of personalized value propositions, strong case studies, and adaptable implementation strategies, we can show how our solutions align with the prospect's big picture vision while easing worries about cost, risk, and vendor lock-in. This approach ensures that our tactical opportunities lead to long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with our enterprise customers. Status Quo Resistance: Another common objection we encounter is a hesitancy to disrupt the status quo. Many enterprise prospects are comfortable with their current processes and systems, even if they may not be fully effective. To tackle this, I approach it as an opportunity for growth and improvement. I share success stories of similar organizations that made the leap from their familiar routines to our solutions, showcasing the positive impact it had on their operations. By highlighting the potential for transformative change, we can overcome the inertia associated with maintaining the status quo and inspire prospects to embrace innovative solutions aligned with their strategic vision. This approach empowers them to envision a future state that not only meets their immediate needs but also positions them for long-term success. By addressing these concerns with a mix of personalized value propositions, strong case studies, and adaptable implementation strategies, we can show how our solutions align with the prospect's big picture vision while easing objections about cost, risk, vendor lock-in, and status quo resistance. This approach ensures that our tactical opportunities lead to long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with our enterprise customers.

Be transparent and share the “why”: Each SDR should be able to articulate the purpose of their role, the rationale behind their goals, and the methodology used to calculate key performance indicators (KPIs). While many teams have robust processes to determine these factors, they often fail to provide transparency to their teams. When metrics are perceived as being dictated without explanation or “handed down”, they become less motivating. Encourage individuality- Find areas where SDRs can flex their creativity, contribute to experiments, and express their opinions. When you go overboard with processes on an SDR team, it takes away the joy from the work and lowers the possibility of discovering impactful ideas. Create a team that defaults to collaboration and praises readily- While a slack channel, shout-out specific application, or kudos google form can be well intentioned, they often go underutilized. We know that if our team has downtime, they are probably using it to update Salesforce. Make giving praise part of an essential process that is already done!

Staying up to date on industry trends and sales enablement best practices is something that needs time to absorb the information to analyze if your organization needs to adjust any of the current or future programs. Below I have outlined a few ways to stay up to date on both industry trends and best practices. Industry Trends Sales Enablement is accountable for providing the GTM customer-facing teams with the current information and training to assist them in their customer engagements. Below are some of the Industry Trends to review based on your business needs. * Vertical Markets - Sign up to industry papers, forums and magazines to stay ahead * Personas - Sign up to any CSuite forums, magazines and blogs to stay informed of the thinking * Technology - Sign up to the technology forums that align with your solutions, preferably your own company's customer early adoption, or customer forums or developer communities * Purchase Industry Benchmarking Reports : Forrester or Gartner to assist in your efforts There are alot of vendors that offer enablement and insights for the enablement practioner. Below are the top three enablement professional networks that would help you. SalesEnablement Pro ATD (Association for Talent Development) Sales Enablement Society (Chapters are local in your area)

I don't have a favorite question but I do prefer open ended questions in discovery. Close ended questions start with helper verbs. Every question beginning with these words(Am, Are, Is, Was, Were) can be answered by a buyer with a yes or a no. Even when folks give you more than a yes or no they will always be giving you less than a response to an open ended question. To get the most information and provoke deep thought from a prospect. I coach my team to leverage open and command open questions. For example questions that start with Who, What, Where, Why, Tell Me, Explain, Describe, Help me understand ETC. When you construct questions that are "open ended" buyers will elaborate and provide answers with a lot of detail.

I stole the idea of “WGLL” from Kevin Dorsey, who works across his leadership structure in sales teams to be maniacally focused on what good looks like, and work backwards from there. As such, I’ve rooted our metrics in support of WGLL - not from the perspective of “Amy & Bobby are the best, let’s have everyone do what they’re doing!”, but rather in using WGLL activities across my sales leaders to understand specific wins from the sales funnel and the supported customer experience to drive those metrics of success. For an example: we found that Amy is delivering a lot of value in the on-sites she’s running in her territory, let’s equip the team with her model (How far out she schedules, targeted personas, decks + sequences to set the meeting) and then hold them accountable to a number that Amy has driven to: 2 on-site meetings per month. Bobby is doing fantastic work top of funnel, and so we’ll capture what personas he’s engaging, what content and sequences he’s sharing, and communicate that as the KPI to the rest of the team.

From a mental perspective burnout is definitely a real challenge in sales. I answered another question in how to handle burnout, as a career in sales is a marathon not a sprint. From a tactical perspective, one of the biggest frustrations I have experienced as an AE are constant book-of-business (BoB) or territory changes. AE's can really hit their stride when they can consistently work their BoB, and sudden, unexpected changes can be disruptive to productivity and revenue. Building a strong BoB is one of the hardest part of sales, once the foundation is set I like to give things time, watch reps cook and allows the “magic” to happen. *This is of course if the current BoB/Territory alignment is working.

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. 

I'm going to include some red flags on resumes since I have already talked about common mistakes people make in sales interviews. Some resume red flags: * Resume is multiple pages long (people pay most attention to the first half of the resume so if it's very dense, you will lose your audience) * Having every single job the person's ever had listed on there (relevant job experiences only please) * Having little-to-no quantitative results (e.g. % attainment, conversion rates, etc.) on the resume, especially for sales roles * Basic spelling or grammar mistakes (shows that there was no detail to attention if you have a lot of them)