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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Aaron Ross
Read between
January 18 - January 21, 2019
A Base salary: $_______ A Commission of $______ (targeted to be about 50% of the base, or 1/3 of their total)
Commission Structure The commission is paid monthly. It is made up of two parts: 50% depends on a goal for the number of qualified opportunities generated this month.
50% is paid based on deals that close, such as a percentage of revenue. This structure balances short- and long-term goals. It incents Sales Development Reps to generate many opportunities now, while encouraging them also to focus on the size of deals and likelihood of closing.
SDRs: Account Executives Are Your Customers Your job as a salesperson is to establish such value with your customers that they tell everyone they know how good you are and what a fantastic job you’ve done. This is true whether you are a company or an individual. As an SDR, your customers are the Account Executives you support and work with. Make them successful, and they will make you successful. Your customers are always your greatest assets.
Example Simplified Training Plan For A New SDR Assumption: The first 2-4 weeks of their job are focused on general company training, product training, services, etc., before they focus on SDR training. Week 3 Every day: 3 Goals (see examples on the next page) Daily training Configure Salesforce.com, explore Salesforce.com Sit with an SDR and salesperson every day Add an account and contacts from your source of data Learn how to de-duplicate accounts (how to thoroughly check new leads to ensure they are not already in the system) Send a mass outbound email to 20-50 contacts Transition the prior
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Have a veteran SDR sit with you every day Draft a personal dashboard Discuss a new section of the training materials with the team Sample Beginning Daily Goals Pick a new online Salesforce.com training module to study Call five old (not cold) leads in the system, to practice discussing their needs in a business conversation "Ideal Customer Profile" discussion with teammate Learn about the "Account Status" stages Add five new accounts and their contacts into Salesforce. com Send a mass email Meet with a mentor Meet someone from another team Listen to a sales call Listen to a prospecting call
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assistant of the President, and ask for a referral to the right contact) Role play some calls with a teammate Large account mapping project (pick a Fortune 1000 account and map out 3-5 divisions) Draft your plan for the month — Vision? Methods? Metrics? Business Problems v. Business Solutions role-play exercise Run a "Dead Opportunities" campaign into accounts with old opportunities Remember again, you will have to experiment, test and measure to figure...
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the most effective days begin with prioritizing key goals for the day, then a morning of responding to leads ("important and urgent" work), and and afternoon of calls and preparation for the future ("important, not urgent" work).
demos and planning. Lastly, the SDR sends out an evening email campaign so that they have fresh responses waiting in their inbox in the morning.
“Did I catch you at a bad time?” This is my all-time favorite question for opening any conversation. In fact, I have a whole page about it a bit later here in the book. By asking “did I catch you at a bad time,” you are showing your respect for their time by asking permission to chat. It takes them off the defensive.
May I ask how your [sales teams | marketing organization | research efforts…] is organized? People like to talk about their business. It’s harder to begin with a “What are your top challenges?” question, because a) they don’t trust you yet, and b) they may not have thought about their challenges. Give them an easy question to answer, such
Using an open-ended question encourages them to talk about it and get warmed up, to start thinking of challenges. Also, sharing the structure or process of a part of their business will be easy for them
(not requiring much thinking), and will give you excellent
situational information on the...
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This is an excellent follow-up question after you tell them, honestly and directly, why you’re calling (“I’m doing some research on your company to determine if we’re a fit or not…”). If you were me, how would you approach your organization? A great question after you’ve talked with someone who’s helpful, but not the right person at that company. Do you have your calendar handy? Never schedule by email if you can help it. Get on the calendar (wh...
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Quick Prospecting Tricks 1. Call/Email High: Rather than going directly to your target, call above them and get referred down to the right person. 2. Attitude: You’re a non-threatening researcher, not a pushy salesperson. Favorite Questions (useful by phone or email): (Phone only): “Did I catch you at a bad time?“ "Who is the right person to talk to about _____?" "May I ask how your ___ [team/process/function] [is structured/works] today?" “Would it be a waste of time to discuss ____ to see if we could help?" 3. Think “Bite-sized Emails”: Keep it short and sweet! Assume emails are read on
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Is it worth your time to dig more, or should you move on? This insight is important because you will learn if the blocks are objections to overcome, ...
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5. Don’t Give Up Too Easily! (With Ideal Prospects): With ideal prospects, don’t disqualify them until you get a “no” from the decision maker (don’t take “no” from others, even other executives). If you sell to the VP Sales and feel the account is ideal, don’t assume that because the CIO says you’re wasting your time that you are. ...
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Always Set Up a Next Step What next step will both help your process and create value for the prospect? Always frame a next step in a way that is valuable to them: “The best way for us to save time…”; “Here’s how I can he...
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The other 75% of prospects will look to you to suggest the best next step. You’re there to walk them through an evaluation and buying process. So be prepared to have one or two specific suggestions based on what’s been most efficient for your other clients: “What we’ve found as a best next step is to…” Try out these tips, and keep track of your own "few, best practices
and questions" that work in your market. Put them into a cheat sheet that you can use in training new sales reps and helping veterans prepare for sales calls.
Time Management and Focus Tip: “3 Goals For The Day” One of my favorite time managemen...
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yourself, “If I could only get three things done today, what would they be?” It’s harder than you think to get three important things done! Examples of sales daily goals (keep them simple): Have and log five phone conversations. Send a campaign of 150 mass emails. Qualify a new sales opportunity. Schedule two Scoping/Discovery Calls. Map out a success plan (goals, activities, methods) for next month.
Example Dashboards In Salesforce.com For A Sales Team I encourage clients to generally set up their dashboards in a three column format, including: Left: Current month activity (amount of stuff going on). Center: current month results/deals. Right: Long-term results (year-to-date).
Example Sales Development Rep Dashboard Every sales rep should set up their own personal dashboard, so they can see the state of their own business at a glance (and it
makes it easier for their manager to coach/help them). Below, I have laid out a three-column dashboard with nine example reports, in a 3x3 matrix. Notice how the reports follow the same three-column format I suggested on the prior page. Left: Current month activity (amount of stuff going on). Center: current month results/deals. Right: Long-term results (year-to-date). Every team is different, and while for outbound sales you should use the above key metrics and reports as a foundation, you will have to customize everything to fit your own needs.
What Customers Care About (And It Ain’t Your Sale) Customers don't care at all whether you close the deal or not. They care about improving their business. It’s easy to forget this in the heat of a sales cycle. Okay, yes, you know that—but do you live it? Do you remember it? You or your team probably isn’t selling this way.
Sell Past The Close With A “Success Plan” Sell “past the close” to the prospect's own vision of their success—however they define it. Help them define it for themselves. Success is not when your service is launched; it's when your service is successfully impacting the customer's business, such as when your software is adopted (not just deployed).
Push Selling vs. Pull Selling
Selling to success helps pull a prospect through a buying cycle by helping tie their goals and desires to your company's ability to help achieve their goals.
