Naturally, in most cases, sales teams are mainly measured against revenue. This could come in many forms such as potential revenue such as leads, MQLs, SQLs, etc., or actual revenue from active and existing clients. I think there is one main KPI that is commonly overlooked, and that is the quality of the relationship with the client. This is a critical aspect that more often than not, is not measured. And I completely understand as it is incredibly difficult to do so. While a great and trustful relationship with a client will not always correlate with revenue in the immediate term, this is the key metric that will ensure long-term partnership and mutual accountability going forward. A great sales representative will forgo short-term gains in order to build a long-term partnership.

When determining whether someone should receive a pay increase, it's important to ask three key questions. 1.) Is the rep displaying the golden side of our values and behaviors? 2.) Did the rep achieve or exceed 100% of their target? 3.) Is the rep actively learning and applying lessons from their manager and sales enablement in their sales activities? The piece around values and behaviors is critical. Reps should not be eligible for a raise, no matter how much they’ve exceeded their goal, if they are not consistently showing up in a way that aligns with the values.

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. 

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.

One word: outcomes. Sales enablement should (and needs to be) tightly aligned to business objectives & desired outcomes of the business/sales organization. When you tie learning programs to tangible outcomes & KPIs, you get more accurate success measures. This translates to happy learners and happy business units: win-win.

Our top reps excel at spotting potential opportunities. Since we're focused on run-rate tactical deals in the form of additional license, new initiatives, and pilots, our main stakeholders are typically at the VP level or below. The key here is mastering the art of tailoring conversations - distinguishing between "above the line" and "below the line" discussions ensures that our messaging aligns with the audience. In larger enterprises, industry trends and company direction are often widely available. It's crucial to delve into these trends, gaining a deep understanding of industry challenges and directions. This forms the basis for crafting a unique perspective that resonates not only with the business but also its key players. Once everyone's on the same page and the problem is crystal clear, we can then propose a forward-thinking solution that drives them towards their desired outcomes. What sets this approach apart is its emphasis on discovery. Rather than leading with a product pitch, we invest time in understanding the company's priorities. This makes our interactions much more aligned with the client's needs, creating a more genuine and less "sales-y" experience. This method ensures that our solutions aren't just one-size-fits-all, but tailored to fit the precise needs of each client we engage with.

Thanks for the question! There are three ways that we go about this: Focus Groups, Open Requests, and Analytics. First, I'll mention that all content should point back to your team's goals and objectives. What are you trying to achieve as an organization and business? Who are your target audiences? Will you be focusing on your ICPs or perhaps reinforcing the weakest sales opportunity? Are there any spots in the buying journey that have gaps and need to be addressed? These will ensure the content and strategies are giving you a north star and some hypotheses for the tactics below: For focus groups, we typically do a quarterly check-in with leads and they will recommend a few folks who are passionate about content. This helps us to get a pulse on what their biggest pain points are and we then diagnose and prescribe content. Typically specific pieces here are more general, like requests for "case studies" - which require more digging. For open requests, this is a typical form that our reps can go in and request content throughout the quarter. We send out a blast to the team reminding them, which is typically paired with a survey. Lastly, for analytics, we take a look at some factors: * Content searches with no results (what they want but aren't available) * Content most used but with low engagement (to help us understand what needs to be edited or made more of) * Look for reps who are using your content the most and the least and go back to focus groups to interview them Hope these help!

My mantra on career advanement has been always around doing the role before you get the title. I have always asked my manager that apart from delivering on my targets what more can I do for him/her. Specifically around a sales manager moving to a sales director, the biggest difference is from moving to managing ICs to managing managers. It is a very different trait when you are leading 2 or more layers of sales people under you. The shift focuses a lot more from showing the reps how to run the deals to coaching your managers on how to run the business. It is a transition from being too much in the business to moving to being on the business. My biggest learning there is to build more on your Emotional Quotient and leadership skills as you strive for Director+ roles. Having said that, never move away from the customers. Always try to stay connected to the customers to understand the pulse of the market even if you are at a VP or above level. This way you will always stay relevant to the business and also able to make better GTM decisions

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.

"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.