Amber Bellaire

A question for Sales Leaders re: quotas - A friend in Medical sales just got their quota...halfway through May (almost halfway through the year). As a territory manager they hustled in 2023 and achieved 111% to quota. They were #4 in Canada and #1 in Ontario. Great, right? Wrong... As a reward, they were gifted with a 12% increase in quota not from previous year's quota, but from previous year's achievement, and to me this just doesn't make sense. 👉 This type of quota calculation rewards those who achieved 90% (or even lower ) 👉 Demotivates those high achievers - They used their relationships to get orders in before quarter/year end and those doctors won't be needing those products perhaps for 18 months 👉 Promotes #quietquitting - doing the minimum requirements of one's job and putting in no more time, effort, or enthusiasm than absolutely necessary 👉 Promotes mediocrity - the more I sell the more will be expected of me next year My friend is understandably demotivated. They are the first ones to help with any events, often being away from home on a weekly basis to help other colleagues with their events/sales. They no longer want to put in any extra work and are questioning the company and whether it may be time to leave. I would love to hear from Sales Leaders out there as to how you calculate quotas, what systems/products you use, and how you deal with employees who have questions.

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11 things world-class sales development teams DO—and what the worst teams DON’T Insights from... → Outbound Squad's experience working with world-class teams at Gong, Shopify, Rippling, and more → Orum's 2024 State of Sales Development report Commentary on how the best sales development teams... ✅ Use AI responsibly ✅ Retain top talent SDRs ✅ Align with AEs ✅ Deal with low-pick up rates ✅ And plenty more 👇 P.S. Watch this video for our full commentary: https://lnkd.in/eBFYfnU3

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To all SDRs or anyone entering B2B sales, read this post to avoid falling into common traps. 1. The most successful AEs I have met were the best SDRs. 2. SDRs who didn’t excel in the role and are now AEs are still struggling to generate their own pipeline. 3. AEs who skipped the SDR role, often due to an MBA or strong interview skills, fear switching jobs and roles without inbound leads. They’ve never faced the grind of building a pipeline from scratch, filled with rejections. 4. AEs who have never been an SDR majorly rely on their SDRs or Inbound leads from marketing to help them build pipeline and if any Quarter they don't get inbound or enough meetings from SDRs they sh** in their pants. 5. When these AEs become managers, they often question their team—"Where are the numbers?" or "Why isn’t there a pipeline?"—instead of guiding them on building it. Lacking experience in pipeline generation, they fail to lead by example and eventually lose the respect of their team. Learn the art and science of being an SDR and excel at this job at any cost, you will never have to look back or depend on anyone for pipeline EVER. Prospecting and Generating Pipelines is fundamental to Sales whether you are an SDR, AE, Sr Manager, or VP if you don't know how to do OUTBOUND you will continuously live a sales life of fear and anxiety. So SDRs ask yourselves do you want to be such AE and Managers in the future who depend on others to determine their performance and faith or would you like to own your job? #sales #prospecting #outbound #pipeline #sdr #ae #b2b #saas

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"One of the best things you can do as a manager is hire people who are smarter than you". Bless Edward W. for sharing this with me. Klue is hiring SDRs in Vancouver and Toronto. I'd love to find some people are who smarter than me and hungry af to join an SDR team that prioritizes learning and development in: --> prospecting: value based prospecting pitching multiple products to multiple personas over the phone, Linkedin, and email --> real discovery: SDRs run 20-30 min discovery calls to ID pain, the impact of that pain, and pitch to that pain to excite prospects to book a demo... they then get to sit on that demo for exposure into the sales cycle --> business acumen: learning the ins and outs of a start up and B2B SaaS sales, in short, I want you to be a better seller when you leave SDR'ing at Klue Link in bio if you want to apply. Tip: pls try to stand out if you apply. If you don't showcase your personality, genuine interest, and smarts, I can assure you it won't cut through the noise. #sdr #hiring #salesdevelopmentrepresentative

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Calling All SALES People – YOU HURT YOURSELF WHEN YOU DO THIS!! A huge piece of advice to all of you included in SALES process for your business including CEO’s, MD’S, SALES Directors, Client Directors, Head of Sales, EVP’s, VP’s, SVP’S…I think you get the drift. If your business is taking part in an official RFP process and the RFP states the lines of communication to be used (which it will) i.e. people you should contact (probably a #Procurement person or maybe a Stakeholder)…then abide by it! Now sometimes during the RFP process you may learn of other more senior people who may have an impact on the RFP outcome. This may be via demos or chemistry sessions, or your senior people already know and have a relationship with senior people in the business… BUT please, no matter how desperate or brilliant you think you are…. DO NOT CONTACT THOSE SENIOR PEOPLE DIRECTLY (unless requested to by the contact in the RFP!) It may in your mind seem like a smart thing to do, as you can influence the outcome and get advantage…and I get that is the SALES person in you, and you’ve seen it pay off sometimes… But here’s what actually happens: If the Procurement team are valued and are in charge of doing the official RFP - then take it as given!! All that will happen by your actions is that the senior person will reach out to the Procurement team and tell them…. and guess what that does to your proposal…? Don’t think for one second, your proposal goes to the top of the pile. IMHO, IT’S A HUGE BLACK MARK! What your actions have actually managed to achieve are: 1.     You will have annoyed the Procurement person managing the RFP 2.     You will have annoyed the CPO or Head of Procurement 3.     You will have annoyed the Senior stakeholder who is sponsoring the RFP 4.     You will probably annoy the Senior person you contacted… after all there’s a Procurement function to deal with this stuff! So, SALESPEOPLE…no matter the temptation, do yourself a favour and abide by the RFP rules of communication. You have been warned! _________________________ 😃 Hi I'm Steve Walton. I help companies to fully realize the value procurement brings in terms of cost savings, risk mitigation, supplier innovation and sustainability. DM me if you’re ready to move procurement beyond a tactical purchasing function, and need consultancy and training. 💸📉📊

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What is the number 1 thing the top sales rep at Gong focuses on in demos? 🛑 Its not building rapport 🛑 Its not showing off the coolest features ✅ Its Aligning to a strategic priority. People don't make budgets for new priorities. But there is always budget for existing ones. Especially ones that are driven from the top down. My last quarter at Chili Piper I jumped back into sales and carried a quota. I knew I had to knock off some rust quick and my first stop for quality sales content was none other than the 30MPC podcast. Listening to Brian LaManna's episode I was able to grab 4 key takeaways from this 4x President's Club winner: 1 - Come with a point of view on what their top priorities might be. It might sound something like "Hey Nick, I was doing some research and noticed you were rolling out MEDDIC methodology to the sales team. Is that the #1 priority for you all or does anything else trump that?" 2 - Never ask "any questions?" Instead => reframe it to "what has stood out the most so far?" Put someone on the spot to think of a question creates a ton of friction. Asking them to share their experience so far lets them speak to what they are feeling and opens up the conversation. 3 - For any secondary calls start with a "What I've learned Slide" Bullet out points that share where they are at today And begin to map out the desired future state that you uncovered in the first call It creates a great baseline to pick up the conversation and see if anything has changed in terms of priorities. 4 - End call with “On a scale of 1-10, how compelling is what you saw today?” Understand where they sit after your demo. And follow up by asking "what would make it a 10 in terms of priority?" This episode was littered with sales nuggets that I was able to implement right away (and helped me hit 280% of my quarterly number) It's also a full circle moment now that we have become partners with 30MPC and helps our mission of levelling up the b2b sales community! #sales #b2bsales #30MPCxAligned

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The Power of Team Building: More Than Just Fun and Games In the fast-paced world of sales, where targets dominate, it's easy to overlook a mission-critical component of success: team building. At Vendasta, we live by "work hard, play hard." Our sales team balances relentless dedication with a vibrant culture that fosters camaraderie and innovation. Can you guess the theme in this picture? These fun days are vital for: - Enhanced Communication: Breaking down barriers for effective communication. - Increased Motivation: Building loyalty and motivation to achieve goals. - Creativity and Innovation: Encouraging fresh ideas and approaches. - Trust and Collaboration: Fostering a supportive, collaborative environment. So, what's the theme of this picture? Drop your guesses below! 👇 #TeamBuilding #SalesTeam #WorkHardPlayHard #CompanyCulture #TeamSpirit #SalesSuccess #Vendasta

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Ashi from Gong is fast (😮‍💨10k) But not as fast as Gong Engage users when they use Lavender. Access to your Gong calls in our personalization assistant ✅ Access to our coach & "Ashi fast" personalization in Gong ✅ Better 🤝 Faster 3.0 (and so much more) coming soon

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Without GTM leader support, your enablement efforts are DOA. Here’s how I use AI to get buy-in from GTM leaders without tons of meetings... 1) Identify the key players. For me, it’s typically: Product Marketing (PMM) RevOps Frontline Sales Managers CRO 2) Create LIVE personas. I use Replicate Labs to pull in data from: LinkedIn Top Voices Industry-leading podcasts Profile searches My notes on key initiatives This builds a living persona for each stakeholder. 3) Start “conversations” with these personas. Some go to prompts I like to use: Which industry trends are threatening your effectiveness? How often do you collaborate with [insert another key stakeholder]? When you learn something new about our sales process, who do you share it with first? Use the input to build an enablement program plan draft. 4) Cross-reference with actual stakeholders. Here’s the trick: Present your enablement program draft to team members before the CRO. Tag them in areas that impact the metrics they care about. Refine based on their feedback. 5) Deliver a 1-page business case to the CRO. Include: Quotes & examples from your internal conversations. A link to the full project plan. Clear impact on executive-level metrics. Result: After signoff, have the CRO announce the project to the team noting that you’ll be the project lead. 🚀 Before using AI, this process took hours. Now, I can chat with personas in minutes, just like I would on Slack. If you try to avoid meetings like the plague, but need to get a better understanding of the challenges facing internal stakeholders, use AI to do the preliminary research. Then send them a project plan to comment on rather than a calendar invite. Your team will thank you. #Enablement #SalesLeadership #AI

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Just wrapped up an outbound training with 64 EMEA AEs & SDRs at Shopify. What a fun group! They really nailed the cold calling portion of the training. Shopify has 20+ openings right now for SDRs, AEs, and leadership right now across the entire globe. Why you should consider joining their team: ✅ Shopify is an absolute 🚀 I've said this before. They're growing 25%+ year over year. Very rare for a company their size. They made 150+ product updates in Q2 alone. Over $1 TRILLION has been sold through their platform. ✅ Their SDR org is top 1% Matt Saxon heads up the SDR org in EMEA. You get all of the tools, support, training, and coaching you need to be world-class. They're using AI better than anywhere I've seen. ✅ Great front-line leaders Birk Angermann heads up the EMEA team. Shout out to all their front-line leaders/coaches: Matthias Kleven, Hisham Khan, Anastasia Sfregola, Dominik Moecklin, Paul Storton, Rich Mason, Marion Escaffre, Dominik Moecklin ✅ World-class enablement Siobhan Sweeney, Brittany S. S. H., and Dan Wetton did an excellent job of setting up the program, building buy-in, and making sure everything went smoothly. ~~~ Check out Shopify's careers page here: https://lnkd.in/egjix93v Tag someone you know this could be a great opportunity for.

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Attention SDRs and Sales Reps🎙️ If you are not getting enough coaching, use Chat GPT to supplement the lack of support - P.S sorry you aren’t getting support 😥 Paste a transcript of your recorded call or role-play you did with a co-worker into ChatGPT (check with legal if you can do this) Ask ChatGPT to: • Analyze your call based on your call framework or script • Identify areas for improvement by asking Chat GPT (or whatever tool you may use) questions • Suggest alternative phrases to communicate value better Prompts you could use: "What did I do well on this call?” - Start off feeling good "What did I not do well?” "How could I have dug into the pain more? Please provide questions I could have asked?” “Can you give me 3 ways I could have handled the objections?” "Suggest alternative ways I could have gone for the close?” “Did I miss anything in the call that could have helped me go for the close?” A.I. will not replace you; the Reps who learn how to use it to help them improve will. If you are a sales or enablement leader and want to learn more about how you could leverage A.I. to help improve your team. Come to the Allego Sales Success Summit, where Sam Richter CSP, CPAE, will discuss how to use AI to help improve your sales team. https://lnkd.in/eKg3w7w2

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Now more than ever, sales teams need every advantage to close deals faster and more efficiently. The days of ZIRP, with over-inflated teams and healthy budgets are a distant memory. Gong has proven itself a strong player in sales forecasting, customer interactions and deal flow management. With 4000+ customers globally and a valuation of $7.25 billion, Gong has immense revenue growth potential. How are they adapting their go-to-market strategy for international audiences? 💡 Navigation Gong supports 3 languages (English, French, German) on their website. They currently default to English, regardless of browser language settings, choosing to rely on IP location to set the right language. It's a step in the right direction, but prioritizing browser language is a better option. 💡 Localization & Hyper-Localization Gong excels in localizing its website, ensuring that images and screenshots are adapted for each language. This attention to detail creates a seamless and immersive experience for users. However, there are areas for improvement, such as ensuring the end-to-end customer journey remains fully localized, especially for key interactions like sign-in processes. Hyper-localization is another area where Gong can enhance its strategy. By showcasing local customer logos and case studies, Gong can provide social proof and validation in different regions. Highlighting region-specific compliance and security credentials, particularly for markets like Germany, can further build trust and credibility. 💡 Monetization and Market Adaptation Gong's product-led growth strategy is complemented by its support for multiple currencies, reducing friction for new users and facilitating smoother transactions. However, there is room to expand payment method support to cater to local preferences, which can significantly improve conversion rates and reduce churn. 💡 Usability and User Experience Ensuring a consistent and high-quality localized experience is crucial. Gong should conduct immersive, end-to-end customer journey QA reviews for each language to identify and rectify any gaps. This includes localizing product demos and ensuring that all navigation elements are fully translated. 🌎 Gong is still in the early stages of its international expansion journey. As it continues to grow, focusing on improving language detection, embracing hyper-localization, and leveraging AI localization technologies will be key. By learning from the international strategies of companies like Salesforce and HubSpot, Gong can further refine its approach and accelerate its global growth. Want to read more? Check out my full teardown of Gong's international UX, with screenshots, in my latest article below.

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The same page… AEs, SDRs, CSMs & renewal managers How are you tracking to your goal achievements 🎯? Some mid-year reminders for the team. - Re-align to find out what has changed in your shared account(s) - Stay connected on a regular cadence - Build report and trust - you want to rely on each other - Meet in person if possible - see previous bullet - Enable tough feedback sessions - so important - Share current customer status and revisit top priorities - Strive for a unified front & strategy - Known when to engage leadership - target this as a step - Share your success metrics, KPIs, and percent to goal Success is a #team sport Have a great day!

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I've promoted 30+ SDRs to AEs 🥳 (how to do it and hit the ground running) 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲: 1. Learn how to do discovery calls and demos. Study calls. Make this the focus in your 1:1s with you AE buddy. Do mock calls with your peers. Prepare ahead of time so you're not scrambling. 2. Focus on performance. Do whatever it takes to get great results in your current role. Easiest way to stand out and get the opportunity to interview. 3. Know your numbers and strategy. Be able to speak in detail about your results to date, where you stack up, why that is and what you're working on to improve. 𝗢𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲: 1. Commit to working as hard as possible. SDR to AE is the biggest jump in sales in my opinion. Especially if you're selling a complex product with 1, 2 and 3 year commitments. 2. Be super proactive. Ask your manager/team a ton of questions. Loop your manager into calls. Ask them to review calls and give you their harshest feedback. Use every single resource at your disposal. 3. Be ruthless with your calendar. Only go to meetings that are absolutely necessary. This means saying no to things that are great and really blocking time to study, drive revenue and outbound. What tips would you give SDRs looking ot make the jump to AE? - Mike G 👉 Join 5,000+ sellers getting my (free) sales newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/gwQVvVBK

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Let's talk ICP. This week I have spoken with 3 clients about it, and it was a topic of conversation with a couple folks at a recent GTMfund dinner in Toronto. The common thread is that most Sales orgs are not getting deep enough with their understanding of the market that they sell into. "𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐈𝐂𝐏?" Typical response: n# of employees, X industries, Y titles. Great data points, and helpful context when building lists. But there is no context here, no 'why', no triggers/signals/insert other buzzword that allows to actually know when our prospects need a solution. At the end of the day, we as sellers are solving specific problems with our products, and we are looking for organizations and contacts that are currently experiencing that exact problem. Company size, roles, and industries rarely paint that whole picture. So where do we start? When building out your ICP approach it's important to start at the top of the funnel, and work your way down. (Told you - big funnel guy) 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐮𝐬? 𝐖𝐡𝐲?  Answer this by talking to customers, combing through existing customer reports, learning from churned orgs., and looking at the companies that came inbound to you. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 ^ 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧? Raises, new hires, growth stages, public documents, social posts, changes in industry regulations are all examples of this. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞? If you cannot connect the dots here, you are likely coming across as far too generic in your messaging. The classic "why you, why you now" approach. 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐲, 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞? 𝐖𝐡𝐲? Go back to the data, follow deals, talk to customers. Go through these questions and your prospecting will become much more targeted, which will lead to increased email and call metrics, and will likely book you a bunch more deals. Think about how many "no's" or no responses are the result of you reaching out to people who simply don't care. You can eliminate so many of those by paying more attention to your true ICP. How does your prospecting look today? Is your current iteration of ICP helping or hurting it?

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SDRs / AEs: Account Selection is king right now when prospecting. Use these 5 filters on Sales Nav (LinkedIn Sales Solutions) to uncover healthy & growing companies: 1. Buyer intent 2. Recent leadership hires  3. Recent funding (last 9 months is good) 4. Headcount growth in the last 6-months 5. Recent hiring in the org / persona segment you target 6. % distribution of personas that makeup the total employee headcount There are still companies out there who are growing and investing.. You just need to find them. Don't cast a wide net right now, you're likely wasting a ton of time. Instead, go deeper on fewer accounts.

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Sales folks especially SDRs and AEs I will tell you a hack about how to achieve more in less time ↓ "Start blocking your calendar thoughtfully and strategically every single day" Working out of whims & fancies and adhocism will not get you the desired result you aspire to achieve. You need to have a plan for your day even before starting the day. Every time you block your calendar make sure you block it for a single activity and you define what output you want to achieve out of this activity. Have a time block for at least Prospecting, Identifying new accounts, and Follow-ups on a daily basis, the rest you can block based on your roles and KRAs. Remember: "You cannot control time but you can surely control how you want to spend the time"

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In honour of Singles' Day: What do outbound sales and dating apps have in common? Spoiler: way too much. ➡️ Lead qualification: That delicate process of figuring out if they’re serious—or just “browsing.” Bonus points if they’re as interested in your solution as you are. ➡️ Ghosting: One day they’re all in; the next, they’ve vanished without a trace. Were they even real? ➡️ No-shows: You put on your best pitch (or outfit), and they cancel last minute (or never show up at all). Classic. ➡️ “Not interested”: The standard “it’s not you, it’s me”—or “we’re not looking to buy right now.” Ouch, every time. ➡️ Hopes of finally closing a deal: When all signs point to a "yes," but somehow you still end up back in the pipeline. ➡️ Relentless optimism: The audacity of hope, even after 50 rejections and a coffee addiction that’s getting out of hand. Somehow, we still believe every new prospect is “the one.” How else could we keep doing this? ➡️ Endless cycle of starting over: The grind never ends. New day, new pitch, new prospects...same hope, same questionable life choices. Shout-out to all of us serial pitchers - whether you’re chasing the next big deal or the next right-swipe, we’re all in this relentless pursuit together. Just hang in there, keep swiping, pitching, and staying optimistic! 🥲

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