Get answers from sales leaders
Roee Zelcer
TikTok Head of Sales, Products & Services • February 9
This is a very important question and one that not everyone will see eye to eye with me on this. But personally, it has never failed me up until now. There are a few elements that are common to candidates that have been proven to be successful: The first is tenacity. It is that inner hunger to learn new topics or master new skill sets. One who always finds ways to be proactive and push boundaries. When talking to candidates, I always look for a potential team member whom I will need to restrain rather than one I will need to nudge forward. The second is communication skills. A great seller is someone who you talk to and immediately comes off as connectable and relatable. Someone who has a clear understanding of the person in front of them. The third aspect would have to be very strong social and emotional intelligence. This goes hand in hand with having a client first mentality. A great candidate is one who will give the client the true sense that he puts their interest above anything. Earning that trust is key to building a long-term, healthy relationship.
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Maria White
Cornerstone OnDemand Vice President Sales Enablement and Education • April 6
Better Together - Collaboration with other departments and Sales Enablement If you have not already started to build out councils with your core heads of department this will allow for set times for you all to meet to collaborate on the enablement priorities and build out RACIs to outline who is responsible during each phase of each project. Below are three steps that can help you start one 1. Meet with all the key department heads that you need to collaborate with to effectively manage or funnel all the information that is required for sales enablement to build strategy and enablement for the field. Explain what your organization is responsible for and how you can partner together 2. Schedule regular cadence with one representative from each group and form your sales enablement governance council - this allows each head of the department to delegate someone to represent that group in any or all projects that require you all to work together. 3. Keep it documented, share the successes, take input and build together The above is the most efficient to build credibility, trust and collaboration with your department heads, remember they will be talking to the sales leaders in other meetings just like you so building your collaboration and trust will help you all partner better together for the benefit of the sales and the organization.
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George Cerny
Iterable VP, Growth Sales, B2B2C Sales & LATAM • November 15
Since nearly everything is quantified in sales, OKR's can sometimes come across as redundant and inconvenient to manage to the uninitiated. But OKR's are an amazing vehicle to drive focus on the core strategic initiatives that will generate greater success, and gain cross-functional alignment, visibility and support in achieving these goals. There are two major benefits IMO opinion in defining Sales OKR's: 1. Clarity - the process of defining Objectives and Key Results, if applied with rigor and assistance from someone truly knowledgeable in the process, can provide immense clarity into what you're looking to achieve and how to achieve it. The question was about the output, but let's not overlook how valuable the process can be to get really crystal clear on the Objectives that will have an outsized impact on team results. 2. Cross-functional alignment - OKR's are a company initiative, not a Sales initiative. This means it's a common language across departments, that can be used to unite teams in a shared mission, and increase visibility in what other departments can do to help each other out in achieving their objectives. There are few other tools that are as impactful as a supporting team attached to one of your KR's having to read out progress each week to their leadership. Every sales person wants more support from the company to sell. If it's possible to define exactly what that support is, who it's from , and tie it to a KR... drumroll please... you just got the support you needed via OKR's! So what defines good Sales OKR's? First step is in accurately defining the highest priority Objectives, that if achieved, would have a greater impact on Sales than anything else this quarter. A couple nuances to address: 1. Typically there are top line company objectives that are rolled out first, and then all departments (including Sales) localize their objectives to support some or all of the overall company objective. This is important to call out, as this exercise of connecting Sales goals to Company goals helps define the focus of OKR's. 2. The localizing of company objectives should generally just change the wording of the Objectives to ensure they align, but the big rocks that sales should focus on are typically in the following categories * Building a High Performance Sales Culture (hiring, ramping, setting a high bar for execution, focus on improvement of the culture) * Building Pipeline * Deal Execution - win rate, competitive win rate, utilizing resources more effectively to improve results, closing bigger deals/more deals * Executing new strategies to increase deal size, improve velocity, or open up new markets to increase TAM. Under those big rocks, you'll need to define the KR's that get you there. They need to be measurable, a stretch but achievable, and simple to track. This is harder than it sounds - but the process of refining these helps you gain that clarity. This is where you can really lean into intentionally setting up cross-functional goals, and align the support of the company to help Sales achieve their Objectives. A few examples: * If the goal is getting more customers in an industry - one KR could be to sign up 3 current referenceable customers for case studies. This aligns sales and marketing to build assets so you have more stories and social proof to help you sell into this industry. You could then have an additional KR on how many net new customers you are closing that quarter in that industry. * If you're looking to increase ACV as part of a Deal Execution objective, often there is a KR related to selling add-on products. You could align with the Product & Solutions Engineering teams to produce more assets, custom demo environments, or a new Guru card to improve sales' ability to sell this feature. Paired with an attach rate goal, this can be a powerful combo. * If there is a Culture objective, and you have a Culture survey in your org, addressing one of the key items that has been flagged by the team is a great way to show commitment towards improving the environment. For example there could be a new tool that addresses a major gap or point of friction for AE's. Setting roll out dates with RevOps that map to improved productivity is motivating to the team. While every company is different, sales Objectives are going to generally fall into one of 4 major categories outlined above. These need to be mapped to the company Objectives, and then it's important to lean into the benefits that the OKR process provides when defining KR's. Clarity in how to hit your Objectives. Visibility across the org of the key strategies you're leaning into the hit your Objectives. Cross-Functional alignment to get all teams rowing in the same direction to achieve shared Objectives.
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Grant Glaser
Salesforce Director, Sales Leader Excellence Coach • January 10
Sales is an ever-evolving sport and there is no sitting on your laurels if you want to stay ahead. Companies are constantly on the look-out for cutting edge technology to train & tune sales skills, increase industry knowledge, and show-up well in-front of customers. Adoption of new tools, tactics, & strategies include: * Understanding the role of AI in sales interactions * Finding ways to uncover customer pain-points before hearing it directly from a prospect/client * Staying on top of best-in-class sales methodologies (or often creating their own) * Leveraging a simple, clear, and efficient sales process that maps to the buying journey of clients
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Alicia Lewis
Culture Amp Senior Sales Director • April 24
In order to get a better understanding of what you could be walking into, I suggest asking the question "What is your biggest problem and can I help solve it?" It shows genuine interest in the interviewer's pains/goals and enables you to see how you can make an impact. Aside from this key question, always make sure to check out these resources before stepping into the interview. 1. Company Website: Familiarize yourself with the company's products or services, mission, values, financials and recent announcements. 2. LinkedIn: Research the hiring manager and other key stakeholders to gain insights into their backgrounds and professional interests. 3. Glassdoor or RepVue: Read reviews from current or former employees to learn about the company culture, interview process, and potential interview questions.
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Eric Martin
Vanta Head Of Sales • November 28
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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Sarah Mercedes (Osborne)
HubSpot Head of Corporate Sales, West Coast • September 3
* Not doing enough research on the company they're interviewing with * Not anticipating the questions the interviewers will have * Not coming prepared with their own questions for the interviewer * Not coming with multiple examples prepared or not having results and metrics at the ready to speak to in the interview * Not leveraging their recruiter as a resource to adequately prep for the interviews * Not asking for feedback from their interviewer to apply to the next interview * Not closing their interviewer * Not sending a follow up email post-interview * Not practicing concise answers ahead of the interview
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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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Charles Gryor Derupe
accessiBe Director of Enablement • February 7
Great question! There are three specific ways I do this: 1. There are some annual reports done for Sales Enablement that come from third-party sources like Forrester and Gartner. These may be gated, but sometimes they are sent by tools vendors. 2. Use your tool vendor resources! I always ask my CSMs for all the tools we own if they've created an annual trends report or a "best practice' doc for their specific tools whether it's outbound tools, content engagement, knowledge, etc. They have these for their own product/core marketing behind gated sites but since you're already a customer, they should be accessible to you without the barrier. 3. Forums - one I follow is the Sales Enablement Society forum where professionals ask questions. And, I guess we should give Sharebird a shoutout too!
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Michael A. Rosenberg
RocketReach VP, Sales • May 24
I see 2 different places that sales is headed: 1. Do more with less. Brute force (hiring more) used to be the answer to growing sales. Now the strategy is to load up the top reps, keep them busy, and get the best from them before we even think of hiring someone else. Sales efficiency is key from a profitability standard which is where the market is right now. 2. AI. Not saying the robots are coming for our jobs just yet, but with technology now that automates so many manual processes, is it so far fetched that in the next 5 years technology can tell us who to sell to, how to contact them, and write the email itself? What about AI images that talk and you don't realize that they are not actual people? Does it feel so futuristic to believe AI can dial or Zoom someone, respond based on what is said, overcome objections, negotiate pricing, and automatically send out order forms? There will always be a place for sales in some industries, especially emerging technologies where everything is new.
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