Randy Seidl, Tony Jeary: Your Go-To Sales Advisor

Sales community advisory board member’s best ideas

Partnering in SMB by Aaron Mills

We develop industry personas to educate ourselves on key industry drivers, pain points, and ISV solution footprints, and develop value propositions, that addressed areas of critical customer need.

We identified and engaged leading industry ISVs with an offer to build infrastructure solution stack and reference architecture.

We developed an RFP process to identify and select regional VARs who would commit to developing an industry practice.

We aligned our marketing development, inside sales support, field sales team, lead generation, and ISV alliance expertise to the selected channel partners.

Selling in the Latin American Market by Alfredo Yepez

Diversity and inclusion must be at the forefront of each executive’s priorities.

Allow your country’s sales leader to “tropicalize” your sales plan, create the framework, but be flexible with he local implementation.

Playing for the Consolation Prize by Andy O’Brien

You want to win every deal you are engaged in, but how you lose and position yourself after that is very important.

Position yourself for consolation prize.

Reverse Timeline by Andy O’Brien

Once you win the deal, look at it from the closing date backwards and outline what needs to be happen, step by step, along the way.

The salesperson owns the process as the project manager.

When you share your timeline with the client, ask him/her to inspect it to see if you are missing anything and confirm that it is a reasonable timeline.

Making a Business Case/ROI Presentation by Ben Solari

Some questions to ask your customer: How they are making their customers money? How they impact their bottom line today? How they think our technology impacts the bottom line for our customers?

What to present. A business impact slide that shows assumptions on impacting the levers you have identified and says, “Here’s what it can mean for you.” Outline levers around cost/revenue that innovates faster, reduces costs, and improves the yield of the current team. An investment slide that outlines what the total cost of the investment would be.

Five Ways to Create a Wow! Customer Experience by Bill Hogan

Your customer should live in the center of your universe. Personal accountability. Be Authentic. Solutions/Result-Focused. Integrity.

Intelligent Mapping Framework by Bill Hogan

Partnering effectively by getting into a room and pairing up. Successful partnering is when you see each other as a true extension of your respective sales teams, and your behavior shows it.

Identify six people inside your organization (Super Six) and twelve people outside your organization (your Dirty Dozen).

What I Wish I Had Known by Bill Power

The most successful people listen more and talk less. The smartest people ask the smartest questions. Spend time thinking about what makes you great! What is your “value add”. A-quality people hire A-quality people. What you decide to read will influence how you think.

Set Clear Expectations on Day One by Bill Swales

Be consistent and predictable. To believe you cannot do a thing is a way to make it impossible. Give second chances. Quickly disengage from people of compromise. Explain the business on one piece of paper. Become a destination point.

There are 525.600 minutes in a year.

AHA Sales Practice: Managing TEAM Productivity by Bill Bob Brigmon

Resilient and adaptive sales leaders create the conditions for their teams to learn fast

Sales leader U Value Prop/Differentiation by Bill Bob Brigmon

The companies that sustain high growth are those that continuously make buying easier and customer success more likely.

Getting in Front of Your Prospect by Blake Galvin

Experiential Selling by Bob Horn

Experiential Selling creates an emotional attachment from the customer to the product itself and the sales team.

Customers buy on: trust, value, experience.

Do your homework. Create a story. Deliver your story. Be memorable. Continue to deliver great experience throughout the customer journey.

Six Pillars to Scaling Your Organization by Bob Horn

Talent. Experience. Value. Great outcomes. Process. Data.

Getting 5+ Percent More by Brian Bell

The 5+ percent comes from: leader, team and the GTM Approach.

It’s a Long Life in a Small World by Chris Lynch

Everything is built on relationships, and they are force multipliers. Frequency builds relationships.

The Power of Saying No by Chris Lynch

You need to learn when and how to say no to an opportunity.

Leadership Qualities by Chris Riley

Memorable bosses:

They believe the unbelievable.
They see opportunity in instability and uncertainty.
They wear their emotions on their sleeves.
They protect others from the bus.
They’ve been there, done that – and still do that.
They lead by permission, not authority.
They embrace a larger purpose.
They take real, not fake risks.

Don’t Forget What You Are Selling by Chuck Smith

You are selling: yourself, your company and its product or services and the outcome for the customer. Focus on being best in class in all three areas, and you will have long-term sales success.

You should not be the lone wolf especially in large value transactions.

Does Culture Impact Productivity? By Coley Burke

ONE (Ownership Needs Everyone). Telling people and their functional groups how they matter to the sales outcome instills ownership, pride, and willingness to go the extra mile.

Two Winners in Every Deal by Colin P. Mahony

These day, opportunity cost is everything. Qualify the opportunity as early as possible. Never be the sucker. The decision sounds easy, right? Wrong. Data, data, data. Post-mortem analysis. Share your qualifying-out logic with the customer.

Building a Repetable, Predictable and Scalable Revenue Engine by Craig Hinkley

In today’s digital world, how successful your company is at extracting value from your clients in the form of revenue is more a function of how multiple parts of the organization work together.

In the revenue engine model, the stages of the sales process form a revenue “butterfly.

The true power of a sales process is not the process itself, but the rigor, discipline, and commitment of the sales methodology you have chosen to use.

Metrics and measures at each stage of the butterfly can be defined and then operationalized and measured through the sales process it executes, thereby enabling the much needed ruthless, objective, and continuous inspection of the revenue engine, of the core metrics, and of the deals themselves.

The nine phases of the revenue butterfly:

Marketing campaigns and programs
Marketing qualification
Sales qualification
Sales process
Won deal
On-board
Value created/service delivered
Cross-sell/up-sell
Renew services

Share of Wallet (SoW) – Represents how much of the overall spend of the client’s budget you have for all the services you have that the client could purchase.

Penetration Rate (Pen Rate= – If a client is using you for a discreet service, how much of the total available spend on that service is being spent with your service/solution.

Determining What is Truly Important to You as a Sales Representative by Dave Casillo

Write down seven item that has importance to you. If for three consecutive weeks they don’t change and their priority don’t change they are your focus items.

“1,2,3” Rule: The Key to Partnering by Dave Casillo

The 1 intangible you always must provide is value.

The 2 sentiments your need to both foster and grow are trustworthiness and likeability.

The 3 principles you should never deviate from are simplicity, consistency and clarity.

Meet Your Commitments to Your Customers by Dave Donatelli

Meet your commitments before and after the sale.

Customer Success Framework by Dave Frederickson

The account plan rolls into a territory plan.

It’s Not Who You Know … by Dave Vellante

Deliver value, make a friend, and very often good things happen.

Situational Leadership by David Boyle

I frame up the feedback I want around: people, partners, customers and go-to-market.

Relationship Economics by David Nour

There are some universal laws in building business relationships: gratitude, reciprocity, and pay it forward.

We need to do a much better job asking questions: who do we need, who do we know and how do we connect the dots with value add between the relationships we already have and ones we need to accelerate out path to results.

Balance of Trade, A Win-Win by Eric Koach

Employee Purchase Program by Eric Koach

Leverage Spend by Eric Koach

Increase revenue and profit in the same account: create incremental margin dollars.

Accelerate your Sales Career by Embracing the Channel by Frank Rauch

The key attributes you should be looking for are peer and customer references, competitive positioning, resources, demand-creation capabilities, extensive customer base, and overall integrity.

This is a basic guideline to determine channel coverage. If you are an individual contributor/territory sales rep, you need 5x the channel reps and you need the channel to contribute at least 33 percent of your pipeline.

Build a Sales Execution Approach That’s Focused on Your Buyers by Grant Wilson

Four essential questions help companies lay the groundwork for buyer-focused sales execution:

What problems do you solve for customers?
How do you solve those problems?
How do you solve them differently and/or better than the competition?
Where have you done it before?

Define your company’s differentiators:

Unique Differentiators: Not available from any other competitors.
Comparative Differentiators: Superior in some specific way to competitive alternatives.
Holistic Differentiators: Company-level attributes that establish credibility and reduce the risk of choosing you.

Selling Products Vs. Selling Value by Greg Calhoun

How CEO measures success.

Focus on the Why Versus the What by Greg DiFraia

It is not important what product does, but why we developed it in the first place.

Product Features Don’t Win Deals – They Lose Deals by Greg DiFraia

It’s crucial that we dig in to understand the requirements that is driving our customers to ask for a specific feature.

The Three Ps Are Your Friend: Purpose, Process, and Payoff by Greg DiFraia

Simply define the purpose, the process, and the payoff in the body of your invites to partners and customer for every meeting or call; make it a best practice.

Advice I Would Give Myself Starting Out Twenty to Thirty Years Ago by Greg Scorziello

Start at the top whenever possible, provided you can articulate the material benefits you can deliver around profit, time to market, and risk mitigation. Underpromise and overdeliver. Focus on the problem, not the product. CIO measures: reduce costs, improve quality of service, accelerate application time to market, and reduce security exposure.

A lot of time and money can be burned hiring mediocre to average sales executives.

Fundamentals to Winning Large Deals as a Technology Start-Up Company by Greg Scorziello

Most companies develop their solution/product pricing based on what their competitors are charging, and not necessarily what value their solution delivers to their client in terms of increased revenue, profit, and operational efficiency.

Building a Network by Gregg Ambulos

Everyone needs a strong network; it is imperative to their success.

Servient Leadership: What Do You Need to Master? by Jack Schwartz

Basic definition of servient leadership: As leaders, we are here to help our employees be as successful as possible.

Keep a Good Network Going by Jas Sood

Common-Sense Practices by Jay Snyder

IC Fridays by Jay Snyder

Driving Continuous Sales Transformation by Jeff Casale

A key characteristic of any high-performing sales organization is consistent execution.

The challenge is that the same process that creates such predictable results can also produce a resistance to warning signs that the landscape is shifting.

The existing GTM strategy, current state and future state.

Adding Value to the Role of Partnership in the One-to-One Category by Jeff McCullough

Partnering extends your sales organization. Define what your channel value proposition is.

There is also the question of distribution partners.

Virtualization of the Selling by Jeff McCullough

It has become increasingly important to modernize the proposition for the cloud era.

It’s a matter of being great at helping your partners sell their own products/services around what you are trying to sell to a customer who has a lot of options.

Building a Territory Revenue Plan (TRP) by Jeff Miller

This is the foundational key to how you as a rep should run your franchise.

Research the accounts, reference them against like-minded customers to verticalize and understand the buyer in the market, and then sell into that market.

Life on the High Wire: Questions to Ask When Thinking of Joining a Start-Up by Jennifer Haas

Joining a start-up is very different from joining a large company.

The Three Ships: Mentorship/Sponsorship/Leadership by Jennifer Haas

Each type of ship needs different type of support.

Top Tips for Sales Professionals by Jesse Ouellette

If there is no emotional impact, the person will not push to make the purchase.

A great process is amplified by technology. Many reps use technology to amplify a bad process.

Identifying Buyers Looking for Sellers by Jimm Ball

Today’s market is increasingly becoming “buyers looking for sellers”.

Brand Identity/Brand Leadership by Jim Hart

Brand identity is a salesperson’s trademark. It’s how others view us, perceive us, and draw opinions about us as individuals.

We tend to morph into who we are plus who we desire to be more like.

Reverse Timeline by Jim Murphy

If you can get customer agree to the date they want to start recognizing value from your solution, you can build out all the necessary steps that have to happen in order to achieve the stated goal.

Use MEDDICC to Sell More by Jim Sullivan

Qualify the customer with a value-based conversation:

What are your goals?
What are your ideal business outcomes?
What are the required capabilities to make this work?
How will you measure your successes?

Key points to all the relevant parts of the equation: problem, impact, future state, outcome.

The Five Pillars for Building Your Best Salesperson Avatar by Joe Flanagan

There are five basic characteristics that make up the best salesperson avatar in this industry: an undying positive attitude, exceptional at the art of asking good questions, ability to shut up and listen, understanding of the product, grit.

When Clients/Customers Are Ready to Buy by John Clavin

Clients/customers buy when they can answer the following three questions: why do it, why do it now and why do it with you.

Taking an Organization from Early-Stage/Turmoil Through Turn-Around by John Jake Cleveland

The four A’s: assess, assist, adjust and achieve.

Leverage Cloud Marketplaces by John Jahnke

Sales Words of Wisdom by John Judge

98 percent meritocracy and 2 percent dictatorship.

Proven methodology for handling objections: acknowledge-clarify-collect-challenge-redirect or reply.

Organizing Your Time and Schedule by John McCarthy

Organization=efficiency=productivity=effective time utilization.

I am not impressed with hard workers. I am impressed with smart workers.

Five Best Practices for World-Class Sales-to-Presales Relationships and Performance by KC Choi

Focus on three basic: training, compensation and recognition.

The Power of a Follow-up Email Process by Keith Roseland-Barnes

This process shows the customers you are hearing them. It’s a great way to provide detailed documentation of the entire sales cycle. These notes keep you both on the same page.

Three “Wov!” Sales Best Practices by Ken Grohe

The best practice allows the company to have consistency of message.

To create a wov, ask your customers six months after they install what the business impact really has been.

Always Lead with the New Product/Solution or Acquired New Technology/Solution by Kevin Delane

The best AEs and leaders always hit the new platform metrics.

No Lone Wolfe by Kevin Haverty

There should be no lone wolves in sales. Sales is a team sport.

Vision, Strategy, Execution, Metrics (VSEM) Approach to Growing Your Business by Kevin Purcell

A sales leader requires collaboration from the team to build the VSEM model so everyone owns it.

Building a Better Interview System by Kevin Scannell

What do you ask your reps to do every day?

Can they drive activity?
Do they know the right thing to say when they get in front of someone?
Are they likeable?
Do they bring in deals when they say they will come in (predictability?

Inside Sales Is the New Trend by Kristen Twining

Inside sales is the new trend. In 2017 Forbes article stated that field sales made up 71.2 percent of sales force. They projected that inside sales would increase by over 2 percent YoY. Large organizations trying to achieve 40 % mix.

As virtual sales becomes more prominent, inside sales will be the conduit for success.

Sales Value Realization by Larry Irvin

Everyone does an ROI and various forms of analysis to show what benefit the customer will receive from the service/company.

Build credibility by:

Know your product.
Know your industry.
Understand your client’s industry, challenges, and their business drivers.
Do more questioning and listening than talking and selling.
Underpromise and overdeliver.
It’s okay to walk away from an opportunity.

Golden Rules for Running a Sales Team by Marco Mohajer

Dumify it. Know your audience. Know when to call it quits.

Designing a Sales Compensation Plan in a Data-Driven System by Mark Roberge

From a high level, sales compensation needs to be aligned with lifetime value, not total contract value.

Organizations need to identify their leading indicators to customer retention. This leading indicator is a factual, inspectable event that ideally occurs in the first six days of a customer’s lifespan.

Adapt Great Leadership Advice from Those Who Have Been Successful by Mark Stephenson

Good values attract good people. Love is the most powerful four-letter word. Emotion is your enemy. Little things make big things happen. No one is excited to be mediocre. Do it right or don’t do it.

The harder you work, the luckier you get. Never confuse activity for accomplishment.

Developing a Sense of Urgency in Your Teams by Marty Sanders

Quarterly Business Reviews don’t work anymore. We need a high-performance culture that embraces a sense of urgency.

Hire right, sleep at night. People matter.

Managing New Enterprise Reps Calling on Large Accounts with Long Sales Cycles by Marty Sanders

Study your KPIs and establish measurable activities:

Number of net new meetings
Number of second and third meetings
Proposal generated
Executive briefings
Getting senior leadership on calls
Project identification
Validated pipeline names and numbers
Number of marketing events attended

First Discovery Call Meeting Framework by MaryBeth Vassalo

Position of Cold Outreach.

Template for Invite.

Sales Research and Preparation.

The Discovery Call.

Post Call (Internal).

Salesperson Interview Process by MaryBeth Vassalo

Sales Process Flow Chart by MaryBeth Vassalo

Stages – Activities, Deliverables, Floating Deliverables, Validation.

Australia by Michael Burnie

70 to 80 percent of technology sales and installs come from three cities on the east coast: Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne. Sydney is the recommended location to effectively cover all three cities.

Sell the Value by Michael Burnie

Selling value should focus on financial and business benefits/savings and additional benefits and ROIs, versus focusing on price or discounts.

Success by Michael Burnie

Success has many failures; failure is an orphan. JFK[1]

Focus on your strengths, not on your competitor’s weaknesses.

Trust, Transparency, and Accountability – Pillars of a High-Performing Sales Culture by Mike Duran

Transparency leads to a proper forecast, and transparency leads to having customers who will build career-long relationships that have depth.

Building Trust with Your Customer by Nick Oberhuber

I believe good sales professionals should be able to run their own first calls and often their own second calls without help from systems engineers (SE).

The quality of your questions will show the customer whether you know your stuff or not.

Diversity in Building Teams by Paola Doebel

The goal is ultimately to build the most capable team responsible for the future development, direction, and execution of the company’s strategy and mission.

Creating a High-Performing, Diverse Team by Paola Doebel

Simply putting people on the same team under the same leader does not mean they will work together, share ideas, or contribute in impactful ways.

Unless strong leadership builds trust and dependence among the team, diversity alone can be as destructive as it can be productive.

First Date by Paul Salamanca

You should really be worried if the prospect does want to marry you after the first date.

Building Big Teams and Relationships: Adjusting for Today’s World by Pete Friedman

Some of the tools that help you with successful strategies: strategic account planning sessions, workshops, and listening to the voice of the customer.

The Sales Cycle by Peter Baglieri

The sales cycle is a journey. Know when to talk business and when to go off topic to other interests, personal, etc.

It’s good to call someone when you don’t need him/her.

Hiring Practices for the Sales Person (For Earlier-Stage Companies) by Peter Bell

Ideally, the founder/CEO should be a sales person. If the people who founded the company can’t sell their product, it is unlikely they can get someone else to.

Performance Management for Leadership by Peter Bell

Lay out the same chart for sales as you do for product, and have equally good systems/processes in place.

Look at what is costs to win a customer vs. what the customer spends over time.

Sell Yourself, Sell Your Company, and Then Sell Your Product by Peter Bell

Understand Your Strengths and Weaknesses by Peter McKay

In tech everyone wanted everyone to be the same.

The diversity factor has brought about a need for different skill sets and sharing best ideas, because selling today is very different than it was ten or twenty years ago.

Sales Management Best Practices by Peter Quirk

Time is your enemy; manage it well.

You are not as good as you think you are, but you are not as bad as they say you are. Lou Holtz[2]

Protect your people, but hold them accountable.

Become comfortable being uncomfortable.

Turn over 10 percent of your sales team every year.

Spend the company’s money like it’s your own money – don’t waste it.

In-Quarter Close Plans by Phil Castillo

JEP (joint engagement proposal) to share with a customer for an ongoing agreement on key steps needed to complete a project/purchase.

Sales Leaders: Having a Model for Success by Phil Harrell

Sales leader have to not only be able to achieve revenue targets, but hey also have to be able to understand and explain the system they’re using to make revenue production repeatable and predictable.

Sales strategy, organizational design, talent management, demand generation, sales execution, and sales productivity.

What Do the Best Reps Do? By Phill Harrell

Time is a sales rep’s most precious asset.

Relationships by Piyush Mehia

Key points: know your customer, put yourself in the customer’s shoes, get through the right door to build the right network, align your solutions with your customer’s goals, when doing business, expect to run a marathon and not a sprint, be nice and build friendships.

Motivation/Reward by Prentiss Donohue

In addition to recognition and reward, top performers need three things: purpose, mastery and empowerment/autonomy.

Long-Term Mindset Outweighs Quarter-End Performance by Riccardo Di Blasio

Selling is Not Just an Attitude – It’s Precise Science by Riccardo Di Blasio

Tools and sales organizations are still being managed mainly by perception.

Enterprise Sales: It’s Not about Selling – It’s about Enabling People to Buy by Rich Napolitano

The sales process is not the lone-wolf activity of a sales hunter.

Mutual Accountability: How It Becomes a Basic Component of Success by Richard DiGangi

Accountability involves the ability of a person to provide a focus on an initiative, make necessary decision, and garner support from his/her customer to achieve success.

Mutual accountability is something that needs to be practiced in order to be successful.

Self-Awareness by Richard DiGangi

It is one of the most important aspects of sales success.

Creating a Viable Compensation Plan Process by Richard Dyke

When the comp is all properly aligned, the customer-facing, quota-carrying go-to-market teams does a lot of good for company.

Effective Training/Motivating, Training/Testing, and Certification of Training by Richard Dyke

When you go through the process of basic company sales education, especially in organizations at the start-up level, there are a lot of holes in the program.

Maximize Effort and Results: Pushing Beyond First-Level Management Goals by Richard Dyke

Set up a format for goal reviews with the levels of high, medium and required deal numbers (worst case scenario).

The Seller’s Journal by Richard Geraffo

I have in my journal the definitions of strategy and execution and why they are different. I have also captured the most interesting interview questions.

Be Proud of Being a Salesperson by Rick Ruskin

Make Training a Way of Life for Your Company by Rick Ruskin

Training is never complete; it cannot be a one-shot deal. Business, messaging, and the competitive landscape are always changing so training needs to be done on a regular basis.

Perspectives and Philosophies: Leading from the Front by Rick Ruskin

My people know I am in it with them, because I understand their issues and challenges; and I understand who they are because of the way I work with them.

Change Management: Exporting Best Tech Sales Practices to a Traditional Industry by Robert Chu

The principles, systems, and processes used in the IT sales world can be applied to other industries.

The Microsoft Server Incubation Business in the Asia Pacific Region, 2003-2006 by Robert Chu

Adapt to Survive by Roma Randhawa

We must continually adapt to survive.

Assessments: Knowledge is Power by Sal Maita

The best way to attain that all-you-need-to-know status is to build out a strong assessment practice.

The Most Important Tool: It’s About What You Ask, Whether You’re a Sales Leader or in Sales by Scott Anschuetz

Six important questions:

What is the number-one priority, objective, or goal?
What are the biggest problems/challenges they will face in trying to achieve this objective?
What might they be looking to do?
What would be the impact/value if they solve those problems?
Who are the people in addition to themselves who need to say yes?
What steps do they need to go through with you to be convinced?

Partner with Your Customer on a Timeline and Execution Plan by Shannon Seidl

The joint evaluation plan should state the dates for each step to be completed what each step entails, and who is involved. The key is to have an agreed-upon timeline.

Quality over Quantity in Prospecting Efforts by Shannon Seidl

Creating specific repeatable messaging is what develops a quality pipeline that will progress. Target personas and industries wit a message that is relevant and top of mind.

New Sales Model (Go-to-Market Strategy) by Steve Corndell

Compensation by Steve Dietch

Culture is important; you have to design your compensation plan within the framework of your company.

Early-Stage Company: How Do You Kickstart Your Sales Engine

Successful early-stage companies have discovered that relying solely on their own pipeline development is tough.

The better approach to hack the sales motion is to use what we would describe as sales advisors. These sales advisors. These sales advisors are former executives or consultants within your target verticals who posses strong connections to senior executives at companies that fit your ideal customer profile.

Deal-Close Pipeline by Steve Sullivan

For each committed opportunity for any given quarter, the sales team would map out a timeline, from start to close, for all high-six-to low-seven-figure commit engagements.

Quick and Easy Forecasting Questions by Steve Sullivan

Make sure each sales team can answer the following seven forecasting questions:

Budget
Compelling event
Internal champion
Trial close
Decision maker
Does the project require PoC/testing
If no PoC/RoC is required, has the technical approval been given

Start Each Quarter with a Focused Sales Communication and Operation Plan by Steve Sullivan

At the beginning of a new quarter (for each week):

QKO – Quarterly kickoff. QBR – Quarterly business review. Partner QBR. Sales All Hand. Starte sending out Anatomy of a Win report celebrating large wins or first wins.

Consultative Approach by Steve Tepedino

Curiosity is a big asset. Customers always want improved service; that doesn’t mean it isn’t good already, but it can always be better.

Trust but verify. We have to ask, what do we actually know, and what do we remember to be true?

Relationship Management by Terry Richardson

Enhance strategic partnerships through a disciplined approach to relationships management. The critical elements:

Document a Success Plan
Take a Long-Term View
Focus on Value-Add
Review Lending Indicators
Make It Personal
Work with Urgency
Lead Transparently

Recognition by Tom Haydanek

For recognition to have the greatest impact, you must know your team and what drives and motivates them individually.

Setting Goals and Developing Your Plan by Tom Haydanek

Walter Brown Dedication by Randy Seidl

I would consider Walter Brown the father of direct technology selling and a main pillar of EMC’s success.

The book Chasing Quota.

Chasing Quota by Walter Brown

Avoid part-time sales management.

Build common language.

To be a top sales manager you will need to: read people, lead people, feed people and weed people.

Training is done in a classroom, coaching is done on the street. Both are necessary.

A good coach repeats lessons until everyone gets it right.

Pipeline additions must match pipeline subtractions.

If reps don’t have enough motivation, don’t supply it for them.

It’s hard to crush your numbers without winning some really big deals along the way.

Only sell proposals you would buy.

There are no excuses for holding a boring sales meeting.

If a rep isn’t selling ask yourself is it the problem in finding deals or in closing them.

Never let a rep stay below quota for two consecutive reporting periods without taking actions.

Chasing Quota 2 by Walter Brown

Don’t expect a big inheritance. Build your own pipeline.

You don’t learn much about your prospect when you are talking.

Sell to your prospect’s emotions. But supply a rational wrapper.

Too much optimism means you will stay with bad deals too long.

If you lose, you lose. Leave your relationship intact for tomorrow’s business.

Selling inside your own organization is just as critical as selling in the field.

If you are not winning, is anybody winning and what’s different about them.

In sales, time is nearly always your scarcest resource. Treat it with great respect.

Randy’s Success Ideas

What Winning Leaders Do from Jack Welch’s Book Winning

Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team.
Leaders live and breathe vision.
Leaders get into everyone’s skin.
Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency, and credit.
Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions.
Leaders probe and push with a curiosity.
Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example.
Leaders celebrate.

There are two very effective ways to give ongoing feedback:

Ask, “May I give you some feedback?”

Say, “When you …., I feel …., because ….”

A stack-ranking process is a must-have for any sales leaders to know objectively the status and quality of their team.

Plan for new CRO.

First thirty days: Listen, gain trust, assess, and create wins.
Next thirty: Diagnose, focus on what you can control, give open feedback.
Next thirty: Create a game plan with messages and actions, involving the right people in the right roles.
Beyond three months: Execute and exceed plan.

Fast-start-plan:

Observations: Things to build on, things to work on.
The Process: operational processes, people, portfolio.
The Approach: predictability, profitability, growth.

You can quickly change your company’s culture and values by acknowledging, measuring, and rewarding the behaviors you want.

The blog written by Aja Frost, is called “The Ultimate Guide to Sales Metrics: What to Track, How to Track It & Why”

Total revenue
Revenue by product line
Market penetration
Percentage of revenue from new business
Percentage of revenue from existing business
Y-o-Y growth
Average life time value (LTV)
NPS
Number of deals lost to competition
Percentage of sales reps attaining 100 percent quota
Revenue by territory
Revenue by market
Cost of selling as a percentage of revenue generate

Board level review (on top of MRR/ARR) from SaaStr.

Decreasing churn
Increasing deal size
Increasing revenue per lead
Growing qualified leads month-over-month
Increasing net negative churn
The number of logo accounts you have
Customer referrals
Capital efficiency and sales efficiency

Benchmarks:

MQL to SQL – 30%
SQL to SAL – 80 %
SAL to WIN – 1:5 deals

Customer face time is vital.

Know where to sell and where not to sell.

If your want to help your sales cycles go faster and free up your time so you can sell more, never end a meeting or a call without agreeing to a day and time for next meeting.

Sales Methodologies

Challenger.

Force management: Command of the message®, Command of the Sale®, Command of the Plan®.

Value selling.

Sandler Selling System.

SNAP selling – Keep it Simple, be Invaluable, always Align, and raise Priorities.

Tony’s Sales Best Practices

A Stakeholders Matrix is a document that documents every person who can ultimately influence result.

Your presentation is not just an event you do; rather it is a strategic process that should not be about you.

Companies don’t buy, individuals do.

Make a habit of becoming super aware of what you want out of each presentation and out of each relationship.

In 2004, I authored a best-selling book called Life Is a Series of Presentation. In the book I introduced a concept called Planned Spontaneity.

Know your message. Know your offering or request.

The type of client we want to serve – ADOME

A – Aggressive, abundance thinker, and appreciative. We want clients who are able to make decisions as we drive their Strategic Acceleration.
D – Desire to do business with us.
– Open-minded.
M – Millions to be made.
E – Equity play. We like to have the opportunity for some kind of success fee.

We use a Statement of Work (SoW) template that clearly lays out the following:

Situation – A detailed recap/overview/summary (proves you know the deal).
Needs – What we can uniquely provide and how it will help them.
Outcomes – The bigger picture of what they want.
Deliverables – Exactly what the prospect will receive.
Terms – The business agreement.

The 3-D Outline: What, Why, How + When and Who.

Creating an Objections Matrix in advance.

Before any deal crashes, there are signs.

Often the one who articulates the best why wins, and that is a skill you want to leverage. Make sure to give the why by using words like “because” and “so that”.

Understanding personality styles will help you excel at business, because you can communicate with people in the way they will best understand.

DISC Model of Human Behavior: Driver, influencer, stable and steady and very cautious.

One of the most frequently overlooked opportunities is creating a system for capturing testimonial notes, quotes, and letters, and then making them usable on an individual and/or organization-wide basis.

People often lack clarity regarding what they most need to communicate.

Excellence adds value; perfection just add time. Rule of 87 percent. 87 percent is just fine.

What are you known for? You don’t have to be good at everything, yet you should be excellent in at least one area.

Since most people’s favorite subject is themselves, one way to make an immediate impact is to ask them about their life. No one likes to be ignored.

Listening is the key to excellent decision-making. There is no greater sign of disrespect than ignoring someone’s needs, words, or wishes. Listening involves concentration and contribution.

Sometimes you can help people win if you know what their goals are based on how they are being measured.

To get better results, you have to have better execution, and better execution comes from knowing the right actions to take.

Being intentional is different from having clarity or focus.

The requirements for clarity are specific with respect to three issues:

Purpose – relates to the “why” of things.
Value – relates to the real benefits that can be acquired.
Objectives – relates to the premise that unless objectives are stated clearly and understood by all, the likelihood of achieving them is slim.

Three primary force-multiplier components: preparation, connections and tool chest.

It is worth noting that a coach is different from a mentor. Coaches offer paid advice, mentor is generally free advice from someone who wants to give back.

AMC stands for Attitude, Motivation, and Commitment.

The smartest people we’ve met, advise, and work with love to learn – they thrive on new ideas, read a ton of books, study videos, and pore over articles that help change and challenge their thinking.

There are three factors that inhibit most humans from reaching their goals and achieving their potential: fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD).

Whether you did it or didn’t do it, own up to it and say.