Get answers from sales leaders
Roee Zelcer
TikTok Head of Sales, Products & Services • February 9
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.
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Shahid Nizami
Braze APAC Vice President of Sales • January 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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Adam Wainwright
Cacheflow GTM Leader | Formerly Clari, CallidusCloud (SAP), Selectica CPQ • January 11
Here are some helpful things I recommend doing in preparation for an interview - I'll add some correspoding resources as well. 1. Research the company and its products or services: It's obvious - but it's understanding of the company you are interviewing with, however, don't try to become an expert - where you lack knowledge, double down on how you plan to learn more about the companies product and its differentiatiors in your first 30 to 90 days - do this by 1. Research on Linkedin, Crunchbase, RepVue, Glassdoor, Company website (a must) 2. Outline who in the business you might tag team to learn about aspects of your GTM responsibilities "i.e - In my first 60 days i'll do some lunch and learns with [Sam Customer Success] to better understand our pre to post sales transition process so I am enableed to hel pthe customer feel comfortable with our post-sales processes." 2. Review the job description and requirements: Do this for your job AND do this for cross-functional jobs that you'll likely interface with. Pull out 1 -2 items of interest and share that you've researched job reqs of folks that you will likely engage with, this will give the hiring manager confidence that you're resourceful and are capable of understanding how you fit into the larger org. 3. Know your numbers and history: Many sales interviews will include historical or behavioral questions, which ask you to describe specific situations and how you handled them. Demonstrate your skills and abilities in areas such as problem-solving, time management, and customer service by having some anecdotes loaded up and ready to go - the more life you bring your resume easier it is for the interviewer to visualize you being a part of the business. 5. Seek feedback from peers or mentors: The single best way to prep for an interview is to ask others for feedback - They may be able to provide valuable insights and tips for improvement as well as give you more and more confidence as you work through how you plan on responding to different questions that could arise - practice is everything Always be honest, authentic, and prepared to demonstrate how your skills and experience make you a strong fit for the position.
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Jessica Holmes
Adobe Director, Adobe Sales Academy • August 29
The most important skills for account executives are also the most important skills for many roles. I believe a successful AE needs to be great at the following: 1. Active listening: first rule of sales is to listen to your buyer and truly comprehend what they are saying and what they need 2. Problem solving: handling the many challenges, distractions and roadblocks that come up in the sales process 3. Storytelling: relaying information in an engaging, authentic manner that drives the point across 4. Mentalizing: understanding non-verbal queues, empathizing, emotional intelligence, etc. Process and product can be taught by the company that you sell for - but the above skills, no matter the company or the role, will be invaluable in your career.
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George Cerny
Iterable VP, Growth Sales, B2B2C Sales & LATAM • November 15
By far the most over-hyped KPI is total pipeline created. This is certainly a key metric to track week over week as a health check, but it provides little insight into what's actually going on. The problem with total pipeline created, is at no point should the conversation end with that KPI. If it's low - why? If it's high - why? Was it one large opp? Was it a bunch of baby opps? Was it quality pipeline? Was it from one AE/Segment/Business Unit - or is everything firing on all cylinders? At best it provides directional guidance to tune into major variances and inspect. At worst it provides false confidence in a pipeline that won't get you to goal. Typically addressing total pipeline creation falls into one of two camps: 1. Mention & move on. These are meetings where the metric is called out, compared to last week and it's either * Good - "great job, let's see if we can stretch this 10% higher next week" * Bad - "we really need to prioritize pipe gen this week. Get on it." 2. Paralysis by analysis. These meetings show the metric, and then dive into 40 slides with individual permutations of how everything performed over the past week; leading to information overload and very little insight into what actually needs to change. This is why instead of just tracking total pipe creation - we want to take a three-pronged approach: 1. How are we tracking towards our pipeline generation goal (which is a leading metric against future bookings)? 2. Identify the factors that are contributing to the current results. 3. Define strategies to optimize the path to goal The standard discussion described above hits the first objective, skips number 2, and the only strategy is often "do more." We could write an entire post on steps 2 and 3, but here are a few variables that can take your basic "total pipeline creation" reporting to the next level * # of opportunities created & average opportunity value. This controls for the one big opp skewing results. You generally want more big deals, but don't want to have to rely on only one big deal to hit the goal. This helps monitor quality & quantity. * Split by region/segment/AE's - this allows you to identify people and parts of the business that are doing well and understand why (do more of it, share learnings, double down). It also ensures that those who aren't doing well don't hide behind overall success of the business and get neglected. We want to identify why they're struggling, and ideally get them unstuck to improve performance. * Pipeline by opportunity source - attribution can lead to some sticky conversations, but tracking where the pipeline is coming from is necessary to improve the overall output. This isn't meant to start a blame game, but you can't optimize something you don't measure. So if AE's, SDR's, Marketing, Partnerships, or PLG is slacking - what can we do about it? If something is working incredibly well - how can we do more? * Pipeline conversion metrics - how is the pipeline that's coming in converting through the funnel to closure? Are disco to demo conversion rates improving, declining or staying the same? What about win rate? Any new trends where we should ride the wave? Anything that's not working which we should stop doing? These metrics will give you a much deeper understanding of the factors that contribute to current results and lay a strong foundation so you can define strategies to help optimize results. With a strong team and partners in marketing, partnerships, SDR and RevOps leadership - you're a brainstorming session away from having your best pipeline generation quarter yet.
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Marleyna Mohler
Attentive Sr. Director of Inside Sales • May 16
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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Sarah Mercedes (Osborne)
HubSpot Head of Corporate Sales, West Coast • January 24
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.
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As a Sales professional we are often under a lot of pressure to close deals and meet our targets. If you're not careful you can quickly burnout especially when quotas reset each month or quarter. Over the years I’ve had to become more intentional in creating boundaries and finding new ways to recharge. Here are some ways that I’ve found success to prevent burnout and recharge: 1. Prioritize self-care: Prioritize self-care activities such as exercise, meditation, and getting enough sleep. Pay yourself first physically and mentally to stay energized and focused. 2. Take breaks: Take regular breaks throughout the day to rest and recharge. This could include going for a walk, having lunch with a friend, or breathwork between meetings. I also plan a trip each quarter to make sure I'm spending quality time with the family. 3. Set Boundaries: Improving my time management skills and creating clear boundaries between working hours and personal/family time. This can help you prioritize tasks and manage your workload more effectively.
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Eric Martin
Vanta Head Of Sales • November 28
Great question. The way that we've thought about shared KPIs has evolved over the years, and continues to evolve, as I think is true of most companies. One of our mottos here at Vanta is to "never win alone" and that also applies to all things demand generation. While we can cut the data a hundred ways, sales and marketing are still very much on "the same team" and hitting the company pipeline goal trumps everything else. As for which KPIs sales teams often miss, it depends. I've been at companies where "marketing" often misses and companies where "sales" often misses. I will say, being in the sales org, we think a lot about outbound SDR and outbound AE-sourced pipeline, and how we can continue to drive efficiencies there. My advice, focus on the things that you and your sales team can control.
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Alicia Lewis
Culture Amp Senior Sales Director • April 24
1. Tell me about a deal that you were particularly proud of closing. How did you overcome obstacles to secure the deal? Proper Answer: The candidate should describe a specific sales challenge they faced, such as a tough negotiation or a difficult client objection. They should then explain the strategies they used to overcome the obstacle, such as active listening and creative problem-solving. 2. Tell me about the most challenging part of your current role and how you’ve overcome or mastered it. Proper answer: We’re looking to see an answer representative of a growth mindset. We want to hear examples of the individual overcoming adversity and sharing how they adapt and evolve in the face of challenges. 3. Tell me about a time when you received negative/constructive feedback from your manager, how you respond? Proper answer: This question aligns to the value of “learning faster through feedback”. How did the individual respond to the feedback and implement action (if any) in order to develop. 4. Explain concisely how your company creates value for customers. Proper answer: We’re looking to see if the individual can provide a short, easy to understand and memorable description of the product or solution. This is an indicator of strong communication skills. 5. Tell me about an opportunity that you lost that really hit hard. What did you learn? Proper answer: The answer should illustrate humility and resilience. Did they learn what to do next time to ensure a better outcome? Do they have an example of implementing the learnings?
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