Get answers from sales leaders
Brian Tino
Brian Tino
AlphaSense Director of Strategic Sales, EMEAJanuary 25
In my experience, two of important KPIs that most sales teams miss are: * Number of purposeful conversations * Number of experiments And it makes sense because both of these metrics harder to 1) define and 2) measure over time. However, if done well they can be can be two of the biggest unlocks and fastest ways to progress a developing go-to-market motion. Number of Purposeful Conversations Many sales teams measure number of contacts sourced, outreaches made, calls/demos completed, etc. While these metrics all help better understand the economics of your sales funnel, they all miss the context of the conversations your team is having (ie. the quality). In order to measure "purposeful conversations", first you need to define what that means for your organization and sales motion. Each company may define "purposeful" slightly differently, but ultimately it needs to be a conversation in which both parties were engaged, explored problems that your solution could solve for the customer, and lead to an honest discussion about the viability of your product or service helping that customer's specific pain points. If there are tweaks or additional critieria you need to add on to customize the definition for your organization, go for it! The next step is to determine how you’re going to measure it. Usually I've seen this done as a new "Activity Type" in Salesforce (or whichever CRM you use). It requires training your team on what qualifies/does not qualify as a "purposeful conversation" and then enablement on how to properly log it in your CRM. By orienting your team around this type of a metric, it unlocks the quality of conversations and gives you as a sales leader the opportunity to probe in more deeply with your reps to understand why certain conversations were purposeful while others were not and allows you to begin to see patterns to focus your efforts towards generating more purposeful conversations. Number of Experiments Whether you’re first getting started and in the early stages of validating product-market fit, identifying your ideal customer profile, or refining your sales motion; or even as you mature as an organizion and are looking to move into Enterprise, launch new products, or break into new markets...experimentation is critical. To find the right recipe for success, you're likely going to need to test different personas, outreach techniques, messaging, narratives, objection handling, etc. The more experiments your sales team is able to run, validate in the market, learn from the results, and share those learnings, the faster your sales team is able to find success. Work with your team to build a light weight framework for tracking & documenting the experiements you have in flight. At the very least, make sure you capture: * What you want to test? (Hypothesis) * How you plan to test it? (Experiment) * What did you learn? (Learnings) * How those learnings will affect your next experiment? (Next Steps) If your sales team gets great at documenting your go-to-market experiments & learnings and is able to scale the number of experiments running at anyone time, there is no greater unlock to your velocity. 
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Shahid Nizami
Shahid Nizami
Braze APAC Vice President of SalesJanuary 10
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
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3222 Views
Andrew Zinger
Andrew Zinger
Fastly Senior Director, Global Sales EnablementJanuary 10
The topic of 'feedback' is a passionate one with many people. For me, feedback is fuel, but at the same time it needs to be actionable and agreed upon for it to be that 'fuel' for change/innovation. My advice for if you don't understand, or agree with, the feedback you're receiving would be to start with checking your understanding with the individual providing the feedback. Just like in a customer/prospect discovery call, you can start off by summarizing your understanding of the feedback. This will give you the opportunity to validate your understanding of what you have heard and it will prove helpful to ensure you are both on the same page. Also, don't be afraid to be honest - tell your boss that you are committed to improving, but you want to be sure you know what to focus on, and you need to better understand what is being asked of you. This will allow you both to agree on the steps required to set up a course of action. Finally, if you are confused with the feedback, or not in agreement with what has been presented back to you, ask for clarification through specific examples. In my experience this helps to unpack the feedback and clarify what you've heard.
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2297 Views
Lucy Ye
Lucy Ye
Square Head of Sales, Services & General BusinessFebruary 23
In my experience, the best sales candidates are not necessarily people with the most years of sales experience. I've noticed the best sales candidates all have these qualities in common: * Insanely Driven and Hard-Working (folks who are intrinsically motivated to double down on KPIs to exceed their goals if that's what it takes) * Adaptable (people who can think on their feet, and adjust their sales motion/process to best hit their sales targets) * Inquisitive (excellent salespeople know that the key to selling is listening, not talking. So people who are naturally curious about their clients' pain points are generally much better at prescribing solutions and highlighting impact for the client) * Self-Sufficient with Outbound (the top 1% sales talent I've seen will always find ways to exceed their number beyond what's given to them. They know how to go creatively source for leads and go outbound to feed themselves, and not just rely on an inbound pipeline)
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Jon Boyer
Jon Boyer
Zapier Director of SalesApril 25
One of the key attributes I like to test for in interviews is the candidates self awareness and grit. My favorite question to ask here is "What is the most difficult feedback you've received professionally? How did it shape your career?" The quality of the answer demonstrates the candidates ability to internalize feedback and take action.
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Charles Gryor Derupe
Charles Gryor Derupe
accessiBe Director of EnablementFebruary 7
I'll be honest, I've been in the Sales Enablement industry for a while and this is something that takes so much time to master and has so much nuance depending on your organization's structure. Here are some tactics I use that have helped me get 80+ people in my last annual strategy review. It boils down to these three things: 1. What you did: I LOVE quarterly business reviews. Now let's be honest, I HATE writing them, but they are very effective in getting engagement. The two questions you want to ask here are: 1) Who's the audience(s) I'm trying to activate? 2) What information are they looking for that would gauge proof of investment return and guidance? For me, I typically stick to a common format: * Divide the document by program * In each program, share objectives that you've set at the beginning of the quarter/year, what major projects were activated to address these, achievements, key insights and feedback, and next steps (how you're building on it, how you're pivoting away from it, and what you need help with by cross-functional department) * Tag specific people you know that would be interested in areas that pertain to them * Create a read-through event and ask folks to add comments and tag others who would be interested * Leave room for discussion of key themes at the end 2. What you're going to do: In addition to the quarterly business review, I do an annual review that considers any strategic plans for our key audiences, mostly this will be Sales Leadership's north stars. If you don't have these plans, go off of the business goals and vision for the year (team restructuring, market expansion, change in target audiences, etc). Here's my typical format: * Goals and objectives from the previous year and share loosely what your team achieved * Key insights that are going to guide you in the new year - changes in team habits, cross-functional partnerships, industry changes * Identifying those business objectives and the strategies (the direction, not the roads) you'll be taking to get address them - focus on why you are doing this from an enablement professional perspective * Divide the following sections by quarter, refer back to the objectives and strategies and key initiatives. Make sure to call out dependencies, financial/cross-functional resources needed, priority levels. This is a great place to be clear about who you need these from and ask for DRI's from their teams through comments * Give gratitude to your partners for making this happen and look forward to the collaboration needed to make this happen 3. How it's doing: These are weekly or monthly updates on those objectives and key initiatives. Share your current state in achieving those objectives and the deliverable progress for key initiatives. I also include some key themes and insights that we see in the data and feedback we hear from reps. This is also a great place to share what you're hearing from the industry/enablement world and how you plan to integrate them. All of these have really jumpstarted interest in our programs by being clear on guidance for why and how your partners can help will get it going. Make sure that you secure clear partners, project owners, and recurring times set to meet with them. Hope these help!
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1466 Views
Alicia Lewis
Alicia Lewis
Culture Amp Senior Sales DirectorApril 24
The biggest mistakes that we see from candidates are related to not being prepared for the interview. Failing to research the company, role, or industry before an interview can signal a lack of genuine interest and initiative. Thoroughly research the company, its products or services, industry trends, and competitors, and come prepared with thoughtful questions to demonstrate engagement and enthusiasm. We expect candidates to do their homework on the role, the interviewer and the company, just like we expect of our Account Executives prior to a prospect meeting. Asking questions when the answers could have been easily found online and not showcasing knowledge when they should have studied up on the company is a clear sign of not being prepared.
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596 Views
Adam Wainwright
Adam Wainwright
HubSpot GTM Leader | Building Products that help Sales teams win | Formerly Clari, CallidusCloud (SAP), Selectica CPQ, CacheflowJanuary 11
This comes up a lot - and I have a POV on this. This is hard to do - but I have coached colleagues over the years to do the following when they told me that they had a "top job" in mind regardless of whether the company was hiring or not. 1. Find the hiring manager you want to work for (in-network introductions will yeild the highest return) 2. develop a really strong point of view on the business and how you'll fit into it 3. develop a really strong personal philosophy that you stand by - this will give the hiring manager ammo to make a strong case to open up head count. This is actually how I got my job wat Clari so many years ago. First some background: I knew I wanted to work for Clari and about 6ish y/ago because I was a manager who felt the pain that Clari was solving for in a super compelling way. So, I applied through a hiring manager by connecting with him on LI and sharing my epxerience to date and shared how inspired I was by Clari's mission and GTM thesis. He gave me a shot and even helped me get to Andy Byrne, the CEO. At the time Clari was roughly 70-80 EE's. I did my research but I really only came into the first interview armed with the ambition to work there. I didn't yet posses mature enough an understanding of how I was going to make an impact. When I got to Andy Byrne, the CEO of Clari AND final decision maker, he asked my to share my sales process, my philosophy for being successful and driving large deals to close. At, the time, I didn't have a good answer. --- I was told 'no thank you' So, I made it my mission over the next year to do everything I needed to do in order to win over the final decision maker, the CEO Andy Byrne. Here's what I did. First, I new I needed to crush my quota and 'know' my numbers - I got maniacle about understanding my conversion rates, my territories, how I helped my team hit their numbers, how I hired, and what I looked for in candidates. I got to club, again, I got some awards and recognition. I did everything I could to not only perform, but be able to articulate why I performed well. Second, I developed a philosophy (I called it the Sales Uniform, a collection of best practices, and tactics that helped me win and helped me train my team) - This gave me massive confidence for my next interview with Clari (would be about 1 1/2 years later). Then, I reapplied for Clari and when I go to Andy Byrne as the final interview in a round of 4, he asked me "Adam, what are the three things you consider to be important for driving success in your career as a seller?" ... This time, I had an asnwer!! I said "Andy, I think there are a ton of things that have benefited me over the duration of my career, but If I had to distill it to three things I would share that they are the 3 things I make a part of my ethos for my reps: 1. Be incredibly resourceful - never wait for guidance, go out and figure out what you need to do to win. what ever it takes - this requires ambition an, curiosity and creativity, but it ultimately is up to you (me) to go ask the questions, get the answers, and drive sucsess. 2. Practice 'Executive Pressence' - Being mindful about how you present yourself takes time and commitment - practice this by working with those you respect and command a strong sense of executive pressence. And yes, you can ask your lcurrent leaders for guidance on this - they often will appreciate your genuine interest if you ask how you can improve this and if they could share their thoughts. 3. Having incredible curiosity - Sales ppl must be curious - it is without a doubt one of the foundational principals of being successful - but the caveat here is not only being curious (about business, about success, about process) but also poses the tenacity to apply learnings that your curiosity produces. Needless to say - I won over Andy and was offered a closing role with Clari! 
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Sarah Mercedes (Osborne)
Sarah Mercedes (Osborne)
HubSpot Head of Corporate Sales, West CoastSeptember 3
I think finding ways to give yourself an edge is always in your best interest. You want to avoid creating too much work for yourself, but there are needle-moving ways to get this edge that don't require a massive lift. If you're in a role play interview, treat it like a real sales process. Send a pre-call email with the agenda and goal of the call outlined and send a follow up email in the format you typically would in an active deal. Prepare thoughtful and custom questions to ask each of your interviewers that show how you think, what you care about, and your business acumen and/or natural curiosity.
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George Cerny
George Cerny
Iterable VP, Growth Sales, B2B2C Sales & LATAMNovember 15
"You can't improve what you don't measure" - Peter Drucker. When starting out in a new market, there can be lots of uncertainty. This uncertainty is the starting point, however, for a fun and exciting journey to figuring this new market out. But uncertainty can be the enemy of action, so you want to remove as much uncertainty as possible, as quickly as possible, so you can get out there and start driving results. A few places to look for data in the planning and early implementation phase to eliminate uncertainty: 1. Your network - while you may not have a network of people in this new market already, you should be able to define a couple people who would be willing to speak with you who can help get the ball rolling. One or two quality conversations with your network can lead to a number of intros, and increase your network size overnight. If these people already know you, they'll also be kind if you fumble through your first conversations or have some misconceptions going in. 2. Interviews - when I was opening the Latam team, I learned so much from the interview process. I spoke with dozens of the top leaders in the industry and the vision became more and more clear each conversation I had. They helped me calibrate the resources needed for success, nuanced buying characteristics in each country that I was unaware of, partners and strategies that I wouldn't have learned about without their expertise, and more. I approached the process humble, and was honest about where I was at in my journey of learning the landscape, and so many people were happy to help fill in the blanks. 3. Online research - there's no shortage of information online. This is an obvious step and a great place to get a baseline before you test it out in the wild. This can get you past the initial uncertainty phase pretty quickly, and put you in a position to take action. That action COULD be to hire someone who IS certain and can go build out the appropriate KPI's based on their vast expertise in the the new market you're looking to enter. If this is an option and makes sense for your business - then this is a short answer. Go hire a superstar and let them do what they're great at. Get them what they need and get out of the way. If that's not the appropriate action, then you need to establish a baseline to measure against - so you can improve and re-calibrate along the way. A few things I would consider in going through this exercise: 1. Prioritize winning early, over winning BIG early. You want to prove concept, validate the mission and get people fired up for the cause early. You want positive visibility across the org, and an infectious enthusiasm in this new market. If you shoot too high, do a good job, but don't quite hit your big lofty goals, you'll move slower, dampen the enthusiasm of the team, and may even get skeptics on if it's the right bet. Set very attainable goals, crush them, and ramp the goals up quickly from there. 2. Think long-term revenue, short term activity. The short term revenue will come as a natural output from intense focus on activity. As stated there will be some uncertainty early on - especially around when/where/how that first deal will come in. So instead of overanalyzing it - go out and get data. Lots of data. Set intense activity goals and talk to as many prospective customers as possible. Don't overqualify when you still aren't positive what you're qualifying for. Every conversation is valuable early on. If you hit your lofty activity goals, and have a solid product market fit, you should naturally hit reasonable revenue goals in the first year. Year 2 is really where you want to ramp up expectations after validating assumptions in year 1. 3. Re-calibrate, re-calibrate, re-calibrate. Every week you should review what we learned week over week. Trends, competitors, partners, what's resonating, what's not, resource needs, etc. Your ICP will likely fluctuate during this time, which will inform the types of prospects you'll want to go after. You may adjust this as often as weekly early on. This is also where you review your achievement against your baseline metrics, and may adjust these KPI's if they're not the right ones. But you need a starting point. TL;DR When entering a new market you want to eliminate uncertainty as quickly as possible so you can take action. Hire or network with top talent in this new market to improve your ability to define starting KPI's that make sense. Prioritize high activity and achieveable revenue targets early to collect more data and build momentum. Re-calibrate often based on your initial KPI's and adjust as you continue to get real data about your product in this new market.
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