Reinier Martens

I connected with two cold calls yesterday Both said: "Now is not a good time because we just finalize a project" Me: “When is the right time for you to pick up the topic again?” Them: "After summer. You can call me in 3 months - mid September" Me: "How about we book already a meeting in? Is easier for both so that we do not have to remember." Them: "Yes sure - 12th September in the morning?" Me: "I sent you the invite. Did you get it?" Them: "Yes, I just accepted" Works almost every single time Don’t hoard tasks - hoard meetings It is easier to handle PS: Some may say that they might not show up now. I say: still better to have a meeting in the calendar they need to cancel rather than a task that you call them again in 3 months

410

57 Kommentare

I connected with 3 people on cold calls last week And booked 2 meetings The third was a German classic: "I am in a meeting" "where did you get my number from" "I do not take cold calls" beeeep Did not manage to book that one On the other hand, the two discussions I had very really good as well Here is the one on Friday, which was a call back: Me: "Patrick" Them: "Hey Patrick, it is Marlies at ACME University" Me: "Oh hi Maries. I called you didn't I?" Marlies: "Yes exactly" Me: "Thanks for calling me back. We actually do not know each other, I called you out of the blue. I was doing some research on your website and saw that you are responsible for e-learning." Marlies: "Yes I am indeed" Me: "Great. We are working with such Universities like ETH, EPFL, University St. Gallen because they have the following challenge: They not only use multiple choice questions in their exams but actually often use free text formats as well, which means that the professors have a lot of work correcting these exams - the answers of students can be really long and complex. At some Universities we work with, professors use up to 1 month every year for 2 exams and a total of 700 students to correct. Does that challenge sound familiar for you as well?" Marlies: "And I guess you solve that?" Me: "Exactly. We are using AI to either give feedback to students in case of a mock exam or we make a first correction of the exam and present that to the professors so that they can save 75% of the time the needed before Taskbase. Are free text formats something you use as well?" Marlies: "Yes absolutely. We use that format a lot. And we have a good platform for our teachers to have their exams published digitally. We also are looking into solutions to have content created automatically. However, we do not have a solution for what you propose as of yet. Can you send me something through email that I can study a bit?" Me: "Absolutely, I can definitely do that. Can I make a suggestion for next steps?" Marlies: "Sure" Me: "How about I send you something through email and we book a meeting in the next days with some people on the team so that you can also get insight into how exactly we do that with other Universities? That is usually easier for you as well other than reading emails and pdfs" Marlies: "Sounds good" Me: Booked a meeting with two people on her team PS: Always start your pitch with "they have the following challenge" so that you force yourself actually talking about a challenge rather than some features, functions or, even worse, marketing slang PPS: Sales leaders, you shall rehearse talking about that challenge again and again with your team. Every normal person should understand what they are talking about

145

52 Kommentare

🚀 Sales Confidence 2.0: Get SDRs Who Hit the Ground Running! 🚀 Tired of spending weeks onboarding new SDRs, only to realise they aren’t a fit for your fast-paced team? I know the challenges of hiring SDRs—getting the right person who’s not just great on paper but ready to sell from day one can be tough. Let’s face it, traditional CVs don’t tell you if someone has the grit to go out there to the market and have conversations. We provide pre-trained and pre-screened SDR candidates, ensuring your next hire can deliver results immediately, without the lengthy training process. Our Sales Confidence 2.0 ranking system highlights the most proactive, self-taught talent, so you can skip the guesswork and bring on SDRs who are proven to thrive in sales. 🌟 Meet Our Top Talent of today🌟 Jalil- an experienced B2C sales professional with entrepreneurial passion, showcased resilience and bravery in handling tough objections during his role play. Enrike -A charismatic listener who builds trust with strong questions, creating powerful, results-driven conversations. Zuhair- An adaptable professional with retail experience, skilled at handling tough conversations and solving problems creatively. Ali - An aspiring sales professional who thrives on the thrill of winning deals, bringing energy and enthusiasm to every prospecting challenge. Jiya - A versatile professional with a strong background in events, her energy and bubbly character from the role play can allow her to use humour to establish trust. Avishai- A future leader with a background in music, is a well-spoken and articulate professional who excels at getting to the point and handling objections with ease. If you are hiring reach out, remember 50% reduction fee.

14

Hey Salespeople: Seeking best practices for B2B selling in Germany/DACH. I'll gather from comments into main post body here: - Prefer to buy from (local) German speakers (though some say this is becoming less critical than in the past) - Need examples of / references to similar customers using your solution successfully; far less willing to be an early adopter - Formality: Limited small talk. Be polite, respectful, and not overly-familiar. - Punctuality: Start on time / end on time - Detailed: More focused on technical details vs. marketing language. Facts & figures must be well supported. Be prepared to go deep in every meeting which means having a SME (sales engineer) involved from the start. Also, have plenty of robust collateral. - Quality-First: Quality and proven results are more important than price - More focused on security, privacy, & compliance - Process: Well structured sales process - Ensure your outreach is GDPR compliant. Respect do-not-call registries. Otherwise, cold calling is fine as long as your solution is relevant except in Austria. Cold-emailing is double opt-in (user signs up for list then clicks link in follow up email to confirm) and you must always provide an option to opt-out. - Provide local (German speaking) customer service - Legal negotiation tends to involve more back and forth; thus more expensive - Collaborative approach: Listen, discuss, and show expertise rather than assertively pitching.

19

26 Kommentare

Some great advice here for those in the Biz Dev world! Let's go!!!

1

“Let’s do it” Sam said from the other end of the globe. 24 days later we 20x'ed their inbound leads in DACH. Quick context: Sam is leading marketing at Loxo. Crushing it in the US. Growing quickly. But not in DACH: “Germany was one of many EMEA countries we targeted with US ads” he told me. And that's exactly the problem. It’s almost “common practice” for US companies to clone their US playbooks for EMEA and DACH. Sadly, it doesn’t work. Here’s what DOES work (for companies like Loxo): 1/ Localizing creative strategy We looked at their value proposition canvas, competitors, campaign concept, messaging, landing pages, and everything else they shot at us. And we had to kill the one metaphor that performed really well in the US: Bigfoot. Because it’s not relevant in DACH. 2/ Creating a kick-ass landing page When going into a new market like DACH, you don’t need to overengineer it. Start small, but at least do the bare minimum: Localizing one landing page that truly speaks to the German buyer. That’s exactly what we did. 3/ One channel, one campaign Next, create a unique campaign for this market. You can use learnings from US creatives. But they need to be adapted to local culture and knowledge. Enhanced creative, different messaging. Prior to working with us, Loxo generated 1 hand-raiser (that’s an inbound demo request) in 30 days. After our relaunch, we generated 20 hand-raisers in only 24 days. And 7x'ed their pipeline. And already won 2 perfect-fit customers. Because actual business impact is all that matters. Simply cloning your US playbooks and targeting doesn't work. You need to develop a fine-tuned Revenue Marketing engine specifically for DACH. Ready to break through plateaus and crush your sales targets? PS: Sam Kuehnle went into much more detail in his latest substack newsletter, it's worth a read (link in comments). PPS: Data from this post is from today, 29th of April. That's why numbers are different than in the screenshot. #revenuemarketing

52

2 Kommentare

Hitting sales targets in May with all the public holidays can feel like such a grind 🏃🏻‍♀️ Here’s what we do at SDRs of Germany when it’s crunch time: — We check in with our most promising deals (Pipedrive’s new AI Deal Spot Feature massively helps us to identify them). — We prospect together and see if we can make use of our network to accelerate deals. — We double down on quality and personalisation, including video selling and voice notes. — We make sure we focus on revenue generating activities and prioritise correctly. And the most important thing: We remember we are not heart surgeons, so no one will die if we don’t hit it — as long as we give it our all and enjoy the party, we can always over perform next month 😜 Good luck to everyone who is still chasing those numbers — you got this 💪🏻 #saleslove

96

3 Kommentare

🚀 Go-To-Market: How Do You Actually Nail It? 🚀 If you’re in SaaS B2B, you probably know the standard playbook: 1️⃣ Marketing (Paid, Inbound, Events) 2️⃣ Outbound (AEs, BDRs) 3️⃣ Partnerships & Alliances But let’s be real—how do you actually decide where to put your time, energy, and money? Is it about win rates? Revenue? After 10+ years in the GTM game, here’s what I’ve learned: 💡 1. Look at your ecosystem Find out what’s working for others in your space. Networking is 🔑—building the right relationships will give you a huge advantage. 💡 2. A/B test everything Don’t make decisions off just one test or one person’s experience (e.g., one BDR, one event, one ad channel). Test, iterate, and then scale what works. 💡 3. Be patient Building a solid GTM strategy takes time. Don’t kill a channel too early—it takes time to see results and adjust. Play the long game. ⚠️ For a startup with limited runway, accurate visibility into spend and results becomes life or death. Tracking every dollar and knowing what’s moving the needle is crucial to survival.

22

2 Kommentare

Harsh outbound truth: Automated messages based on a single post engagement won’t get you far. I received 6 similar messages this week. Automated outbound is great but here is a better way to do it: - Ensure your message is relevant. - Create a lead scoring system to ensure ICP-fit - Layer multiple sales triggers to assess real intent. - Test things manually before automating something STOP sending automated messages just because someone liked a post. START being relevant by combining multiple signals before reaching out.

90

68 Kommentare

SDRs - Struggling with your ramp? Here are 5 tips to immediately improve your results and beat your ramp 1. Meet with 3 top performing BDRs, pick their brains on everything from Prospecting, Research, Sequences, calls, emails, Linkedin DM's etc. Once you have a good pool of knowledge on strategies that are working in the current market you can adapt it and make it your own. 2. Problem enablement: The most important thing to know is WHO you help and HOW you help them. Speak to your AE's who've closed business, CSMs and your own internal personas. The goal is to be able to crisply articulate how you can help a target persona in a target account get to their desired state. No one cares about WHAT you do, they care about how you can help them. 3. Volume: Practice makes perfect, you're not going to get good without the reps so get out there and prepare to fail. 4. Double down: If you find one medium is yielding more meetings then double down on that one, e.g if you're booking 5 meetings a month through call and 1 via email, try changing to a call only sequence for a while to see if it ups your results. 5. Feedback loops: Regularly ask your top-performing peers, AEs and your manager in your 121 for SPECIFIC advice. This means you'll always be growing your skillset. Make sure you're not getting advice from everyone though as this will dilute your focus P.S I'll do a part 2 of this next week but anything you'd add? For now, enjoy a picture of Emre Ceyhan and me at our recent Spike Week!

60

15 Kommentare

Cold calling (50-60% of outreach time) beats account research (20-30%) because: 1. Direct conversation reveals hidden pain points. 2. Immediate feedback adjusts sales approach. 3. Personal connection builds trust. Research is crucial, but talking to prospects reveals true needs. Prioritize cold calling for: Higher conversion rates Deeper understanding Faster sales cycles Share your thoughts! #ColdCalling #SalesStrategy #AccountResearch"

3

4 steps to prospecting as an AE: (when there isn't enough hours in the day) Step 1: Put a recurring blocker - Every day, same time, 30 to 60 min - No one can book you (even customers) Step 2: Identify existing accounts - Open your CRM, and list all your existing accounts - Create lists based on their status (active, inactive, lost opp) Step 3: Identify top-tier new accounts - Create a list of 10 to 30 target accounts - List all ATLs and BTLs for each account Step 4: Prospect existing and new accounts daily - Start with follow-ups - Find 10 new prospects from step 2 and 3 - Add them to your sequence Prospecting is about: 1. Protecting your time 2. Finding new prospects daily 3. Contacting them to open conversations Do this for 30 days and I guarantee you'll book meetings. #sales #salesdevelopment #ae

32

4 Kommentare

Stop wasting time on boring questions in discovery calls. 🚀 Here are 7 steps to make your discovery calls impactful. 1. Understand your client’s goals and problems. 🤝 2. Bring a clear solution to the table. 💡 3. Review all notes and information before the call. 4. Have a strong perspective on how you can help. 5. Engage in meaningful business conversations. 📈 6. Identify all potential stakeholders early on. 🔍 7. Help the customer make a confident yes or no decision to proceed to the next call, if they are not sure give them an easy out and let them sell the next call to you. 🔥 p.s. If you’re an Account Executive looking to fill your pipeline and exceed quota in 90 days or less, then send me a DM saying "90". #SalesTips #AccountExecutive #DiscoveryCalls #B2BSales #SalesExcellence

12

2 Kommentare

You pay your Account Executives, Account Managers, SDRs, Customer Success, Marketing, and RevOps colleagues top dollar to optimise and maximise how they go to market. But they spend 72% of their time (on average), on tasks that are exactly the OPPOSITE of going to market. Sound familiar? Sales Intelligence used to be: 1) A vendor for contact data 2) A vendor for company data 3) A vendor for intent data 4) A vendor for spotting churn/renewal risk 5) A vendor for website tracking 6) A vendor for conversation intelligence Impact: 1) 72% of their time wasted in chasing after 90% of your TAM, that aren't currently even in market. 2) Finding out after notice has been given that your best customers have been shopping elsewhere. 3) 7 different vendors who don't talk to each other, operating in independent silos of inactionable data. Digital phonebooks & manually data mining across multiple vendors means that GTM specialists spend more time researching...not selling. It doesn't have to be that way... Imagine a world where: 1) Every seller can see what they need to personalise their outreach 2) Every seller can truly personalise at scale 3) Every seller can rely on AI to give them the pointers they need to be relevant AND personable 4) Every Account Manager can spot months & weeks in advance that their best customers are looking at other providers 5) Every RevOps person can standardise their data and insights into a consolidated view We're not in the 2021 economic boom, it has never been harder to convert conversations to dollars, especially in a time efficient way. You might be asking, is an alternative possible? Yes - #ZoomInfoCopilot. Launched to the world today after months of value creation & validation with our customers. The future is now, ready?

93

2 Kommentare

📞 Training New SDRs for Successful Cold Calling🌟 As someone passionate about driving results and empowering teams, I've learned a few strategies that can make a significant impact on the success of your new SDRs: 1️⃣ Master the Basics: Start with a solid foundation. Equip your SDRs with a clear understanding of your target audience, value prop, and common objections. Role-play multiple times per week as a group and individually. 2️⃣ Provide Ongoing Feedback and Coaching: Continuous improvement is key. Regularly review call recordings with your SDRs to identify areas for improvement and celebrate successes. Offer constructive feedback and provide additional training resources as needed. 3️⃣ Emphasize Resilience and Persistence: Cold calling can be challenging, especially for new SDRs. Foster a supportive environment that encourages resilience and persistence. Help them understand that rejection is part of the process and empower them to learn from every interaction. 4️⃣ Utilize Technology Tools: Leverage sales engagement platforms and CRM systems to streamline workflows and track performance metrics. Ex. Outreach call heatmap to view when most prospects answer. Provide training on how to leverage these tools effectively to maximize productivity and results. Remember, training new SDRs is an investment in their success and the success of your team. By equipping them with the right skills, mindset, and support, you set them up for success in the challenging world of cold calling. What strategies have you found most effective when training new SDRs on cold calling? Share your insights in the comments below! Let's continue to learn and grow together. ✨ #salesdevelopment #businessdevelopment #womeninsales #coldcalling

24

Revenue blindness is a condition that a 2/3 people in sales suffer from. When undiagnosed it can lead to... - Constant Peaks and Valleys - Scaling Suck - a 'Just do more' mindset - Hives - Dispair and Misery What is revenue blindess? When all that is looked at in terms of success is the revenue number. If you hit = Things must be good. If you miss = The team/individual/leader suck It's actually far more dangerous on the 'hit' side, and I see it all the time. A rep is hitting their number, but tearing down the culture, but it's allowed because of... Revenue blindess A team of 10 hits the number, but off the back of the manager or or 1 top rep, so the decision is made to scale to 30 even tho they have nothing proven in place... Revenue blindess It works the other way too. A team is hitting their marks, hitting the activity, working the deals, using strong messaging, and yet miss the number, because the number was unhittable. The number doesn't get changed, the people do. Revenue blindess. A rep IS crushing their number, but because of that they don't get the recognition, attention and support they want/need because well.. they are hitting the number Revenue blindess I talk about this with my leaders all the time, we can't fall into revenue blindness. We have to stay below the number to drive results. Behaviors. Issue Diagnosis/Inspection. Process. Skills. You - This is where BIPSY comes in. We have seen some amazing results over the last 6 months. We're talking some 2-3x type results. BUT We stay obsessed over what's causing them, not just the end result. This is the key. Revenue blindness is curable. If you know someone that suffers from revenue blindness ... Send them to the Sales Leadership Accelerator - it will take time.. but we can save them. https://lnkd.in/ejPDhZw4

160

49 Kommentare

I often hear that SDRs and Account Executives are rushing to finally become an account manager. Too often, this role is seen as a farmer, also by existing account managers. Just to be clear: those days are over. More and more account management tasks are being taken over by Customer Success or Service Management (like renewals, spotting upsells, campaign meetings, product updates …), so how will the role of account manager evolve: Account Manager until 2020 Farming Winging it Relationship driven. ‘Their clients’ ‘Their contacts' Coffees and lunches with clients Don't talk about business with clients, at all. The New Account Manager 2021 and later: Subject Matter Expert Project management Hunts new logos C-level relations Process driven Builds trust To be fair, I know tons of great account managers that have been fully engaged as a ‘New Account Manager’ for many years. At the same time, I hear junior sales people who still think it's 1999. How do you think the role of Account Manager will further evolve? -- ♻️ Repost to share with others. 📌 Interested in revenue, sales leadership & strategy? Hit the 🔔

8

2 Kommentare

Reducing BDR territories from 300 to 80 accounts sounded crazy at first. But here’s what happened: - BDR-influenced ARR jumped from 30% to 70%. - Fewer accounts = deeper focus = faster lead cycles. - Weekly attribution of 10-15 new companies kept the pipeline moving. Sometimes less really is more. 

9

1 Kommentar

5 things I would do as a SaaS BDR/AE/AM/CSM with commercial targets for a successful quarter close: 🔎Identify the hotest leads + requalify as you go, for a delay-free closing process. 📊Make use of existing data: what has worked well for you and for your colleagues in previous quarters? 💥Prioritize high-impact activities and minimize distractions (like unnecessary meetings). 👔Aim to focus your outreach on those with decision-making authority. 💪Intensify your follow-ups, with a strategy that works for you: whether it is automated reminders or personalized communication. What else will you be doing to make the most of the two weeks left in the quarter?

9