Charles Frost

Forecast accuracy is massively important for an AE and if you can crack it consistently you will stand out from your peers 👨🏽 🧍‍♀️ Key to this is really understanding your own psychology 🧠 Undoubtably you have ambition ✅ Certainly an aspiration to high achievement ✅ BUT 🥊 If it’s raining. It’s raining. No amount of ambition or aspiration for sunshine will make the rain stop ☂️ Forecast based on your objective read of reality 📕 Easier said than done ✔️ Something that can help is partnering with another AE on your team and challenging each other 🙏 Because even if your manager is super good - sometimes you can become tone deaf to their constant questioning on deals 🙋🏽‍♀️ A different voice can be beneficial 👍 Seek it out 👀

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Effective communication is the cornerstone of any successful organisation. Just as Manchester United's new CEO, Omar Berrada, emphasises the importance of connecting with fans and stakeholders, the same principle applies in sales. Building strong, transparent relationships with clients and partners is key to driving results. Open dialogue, clear messaging, and a deep understanding of our audience enable us to meet their needs and exceed expectations. As we move forward, let’s focus on strengthening our communication strategies to ensure we’re not just meeting targets, but also fostering lasting connections that fuel long-term success. #SalesSuccess #Communication #Leadership #BuildingRelationships

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Many of you have been asking about my Premier League Fantasy Football Team’s performance recently. Well, going into the final game of Double Gameweek 35 I’m fairly happy with my selection and having chosen players in my Wildcard that haven’t picked up many injuries (bar Ederson’s worrying knock…) . We will see how Chelsea Football Club’s attack fares against Tottenham Hotspur Football Club’s defence. 😳 . How does REEN UK - Streamlining Waste Management for into this? Well managing a good Fantasy Team is like managing a good Local Authority street scene or parks waste route…it is better informed by Big Data. If you know how fast your public bins are filling, then you can get smart routing (also from REEN - Streamlining Waste Management) to help plan your daily collections (or in this case, who to select as Matchweek captain.) . Anyway, Good Luck to all FPL managers on the final push to the line, and to all our customers saving money/budget, time and emissions in their daily workflows!

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Stoke City's decision to sack Head Coach Steven Schumacher has faced backlash on social media, and it's not hard to understand why. On average, around 50 managerial changes occur each season across the English Football League (EFL), which includes the Championship, League One, and League Two. This translates to roughly 16-18 managers per league—a staggering figure that reflects poor structure, planning, and a lack of long-term strategy within many clubs. Coaches are often scrutinized as though they are the sole determinants of success or failure. However, club owners need to take a broader view when defining success, ensuring it aligns with a clear, realistic plan for achieving it. Too often, the internal environment of football clubs lacks the right conditions for success. There may be no coherent structure within the leadership team or a lack of authentic communication from owners, sporting directors, CEOs, and others down to the coach. In the Premier League, the average tenure of a manager is just 1 to 2 years. How can a coach be expected to execute a plan and deliver results in such a short time frame? Too often, owners are outcome-oriented rather than process-driven. They focus on immediate results while neglecting the key fundamentals that create sustainable success. A few poor results can lead to a hasty decision to sack the coach, ignoring other environmental and cultural factors contributing to failure. This lack of accountability at higher levels perpetuates a vicious cycle. When will it end? It's time for clubs to rethink their approach, value long-term strategy, and create an environment where coaches have the time and support needed to succeed.

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The best tennis match I've ever played. ... I LOST The most valuable tree I ever planted..... DIED The most complex deal I ever worked on as an AE selling to the Enterprise... DIDN'T GET SIGNED Sure - if I won the tennis match, the tree blossomed & the deal went through - I'd have celebrated. Having lost in each case - I learned a sh*t ton and I'm better for it! The learning helps you figure out how to better open that same door next time Other times - the learning is that it's not the door you need to open so find the next one to break through Salespeople - it's your call on what a loss or multiple losses does to you/for you. Period. You own your response 100%. This is 1 place you have FULL CONTROL! Choose wisely - - my friends...🥂 #attitude #sales #saas #saassales #dissapointment #losing #effort #startups #chances #risk #salesculture #salesteams #salesstrategies #enterprisesales #ae #sdr #bdr #clients #business #founders #negotiations #motivation #selfdiscipline #saleshunters #softwaredevelopment

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CS leaders ☝ What's stopping your teams from starting renewal conversations earlier? Something I’m hearing a lot recently from Customer Success leaders, is they are realising they need to be looking at renewals up to 6 months ahead if they want to make an impact on account health before it’s too late to save. Seems to be especially important right now as a high percentage of renewals tend to happen in Q4 as Sales love to get a last minute deal in! #customersuccess #csleaders #customersuccessleaders #csm

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Just in case you've been living under a rock... MySalesCoach & Aircall just wrapped up the biggest sales coaching survey EVER—and the results? Let’s just say, some of you might be in for a surprise... Today at 2pm (UK time), join Richard Smith and Imani Cracknell from Aircall as they unpack the juicy insights of the survey! 🎙️ Here’s what’s coming: 👉 How Sales Reps really feel about their coaching (spoiler: it’s not all roses) 👉 The shocking disconnect between sellers and leaders—and why companies need to listen up. 👉 What sales reps are begging for in coaching (and what they’d happily see less of) 🤔 👉 How great coaching links directly to smashing quotas 🎯 If you’re a Sales Leader who thinks your team’s coaching game is on point, this might be your wake-up call. Get the real scoop on what you need to prioritise in 2025 to level up your coaching and results. 🔗 Grab your spot before it’s gone: https://lnkd.in/eESH_MDq

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SDRs, stop calling - it’s December! December often gets labelled as "downtime" for SDRs or sales in general, with many easing off and slipping into holiday mode🎄 Yes, I agree people need to recharge and enjoy Christmas, but this can be the last push before the new year. The reality is: while others relax, businesses still need solutions, and decision-makers are often more available. This is a big opportunity to stand out and fill the gap that other are failing to fill... This week we managed to bring on a large client that needed immediate assistance with finding candidates as they weren't satisfied with the current service levels. Within a couple of hours we managed to fill them positions for them and the next day they asked us for more!...Building a growing partnership🤝 Consistency in December can lead to some massive wins – not because there aren’t opportunities the rest of the year, but because fewer people are going after them now. When others lower their standards, you raise yours. 📈 #Sales #SDR #December #Opportunities

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A few weeks ago Rodri was crowned as the winner of football’s prestigious 𝓑𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓸𝓷 𝓓’𝓞𝓻 - a trophy awarded to the best player each year. 🏆 It was a monumental moment for the unsung hero of most football teams - the defensive midfielder (DM) as this was the first time (in my lifetime at least) a DM had won this award! 1️⃣ DM’s often sits in front of the defence and have a critical role in breaking up opposition play, starting attacks and often being the middle route from defence to attack. They often pop up with some very important goals too. 🥅 DM’s often don’t grab the headlines but Rodri’s award win highlighted the need for this role in a team and a tribute to all the great DM’s over the years - Makélélé, Kanté, Busquets, Vieira, Gattuso, Pirlo, Keane etc. ✅ In the same way DM’s are critical to the success of football teams, Digital Asset Management (DAM) has the honour of taking that role in a brand’s MarTech stack. 😎 With its ability to be the central content truth source and integrate to upstream and downstream systems to receive and supply content, DAM has become even more critical to the success of a brand’s digital strategy today! 💡 If you’re keen to learn more about DAM and how it could be the DM in your tech stack, then in the first link below you’ll find our webinar with our partners at Akeneo: The Product Experience Company and Contentful outlining how a connected tech stack can lead to digital success - especially during key events such as Black Friday👇 #DAM

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One of my SDRs may have just set the bar a bit too high for career progression... Our 'Path to Everest' programme is designed to prepare an SDR to be a world class AE and let's just say it looks like it's working 😍 Ben Brown just raised the bar by closing his first deal before even officially being promoted to AE 🍾 🥂 As a leader, moments like this are so rare. Seeing Ben's hard work and dedication makes me incredibly proud. He’s not just exceeding our career path expectations; he’s showing the rest of the team what’s possible when you throw yourself into learning and lead by example. Ben you're about to become an amazing Account Executive, and this is just the beginning. Lets gooo! #CareerProgression #SDRtoAE #Promotion #FirstDeal #CareerGrowth #LeadingByExample #FirstofMany

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“SDRs get stuck in the same call, day after day, slipping into a pattern that drains their energy.” Coaching SDRs is more than just teaching call scripts- it’s about shaking things up! In our latest I Used to Be Crap at Sales episode, Mark Ackers chats with Chris Dawson on how important it is to step back, reset, and add a bit of variety to keep the team energised. Leaders, are you keeping your SDRs fresh or letting them run on empty? Tune in to learn: • How to help SDRs break free from repetitive habits. • Why taking breaks and resetting is key. • Simple ways to refresh an SDR’s mindset. Full episode available now - link in the comments! #SDRLife #SalesCoaching #SalesLeadership

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Plan A isn’t the most important…. It’s all about Plan B. This is correct in many walks of life, think football for example. 12 months ago both Hamilton and Dumbarton had plans and aspirations of winning their respective leagues, but it wasn’t to be. Now whatever the reasons, bad luck, injuries, things not quite clicking - they both find themselves not fulfilling plan A - time to move on to plan B! The end result of promotion is the same but you have to be focused, have the ability to look at the bigger picture, and the drive and determination to play on beyond the league end to get the end result. Both teams done this fantastically and have now found themselves exactly where they want to be! It’s a lesson, an outlook, a set of skills that can be used in many walks of life! All the best to both wonderful clubs Hamilton Academical Football Club Limited and Dumbarton Football Club - great clubs with great managers at the helm, not forgetting countless other great people involved at both clubs. Check out The Lowball Show Podcast where both clubs feature! https://lnkd.in/eu_viEwx Remember Plan B! It’s a great skill to have!

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Top line stats from our recent survey of 100s of AEs / Sales leaders: 🔻 78% find it difficult to multi thread 🔻 50% lost a deal in sales > CS handover 🔻 9% think their company make it really easy for buyers to buy More info and some recommendations on the above in our ✨ ungated ✨ report :) 🎺

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"I hope no-one from Cognism watches this..." 😅 The truth is, the SDR role isn’t dead - it’s evolved. Forget the days of hammering phones and spamming inboxes. The best SDRs today bring real value by ✅ knowing your business, ✅ understanding your pain points, ✅ delivering relevant content that keeps them front of mind. Even if it’s not the right time to buy, ✅ they know they’ll be top of your list when it is. In this clip, Global Sales Director (and £5-25M ARR ICP/GTM wiz) Paul Wingfield and I talk abut why we firmly believe SDRing is far from dead, and how companies like Cognism are nailing the modern SDR in to ICP game. 💬 What's your take on where SDRs win, or lose today? #sdr #cognism #sales #gtm #icp #MakingRevenueTick #podcast by Tick Talent

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There are 4 things that every top Sales rep maps out That average reps overlook and let deals slip… Once I’ve understood that we’re selected as the chosen provider I like to use a slide that acts as a Mutual Launch Plan Something to get all the essential information out in the open To minimise the chances of nasty surprises or curve balls that hold up the process I’ll make sure I allow 10 minutes to talk through this with my Champion I’ll pull up a blank slide with these 4 categories outlined ↳ Approval process  ↳ Legal ↳Security  ↳ Signature And spend a couple of minutes walking through each point: • Who needs to formally sign off? • How does that process work? • What is the legal process and who specifically reviews it? • What is the security process and who specifically reviews it? • Specifically who signs, are they expecting this & when are they free? Being sure to probe my Champion if the answers seem to simple I’ll always aim to validate a realistic timeline to complete each step And if there’s anything that might hold us back from completing I’ll then look to validate the information with at least one other person With the aim of making sure no stone is left unturned Taking the time to be thorough for 10 minutes at this stage Has the potential to save you weeks or even months down the line! Have you used a slide like this to map out a MLP? Or do you use a different approach? #sales

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There's a huge amount of goodwill that SDRs can create by showing up to their calls well-prepared. If you work with midmarket/enterprise accounts - this is for you! 💪 What am I getting at? - If you can describe in detail the world of the prospect - that 'can' take you all the way to the finish line (maybe even despite a weaker mid/close section) 🏁 But how do you incorporate research into your opening structure? This is how I do it. +++++ 1. Lead with the data point's you've learned, 🔑and🔑 go one step further and make an educated guess. <I noticed you're hiring for enterprise reps> + <which suggests to me that you're moving upmarket and wanting to acquire more logos like X Y and Z> 2. Do some storytelling about typical challenges, don't just say what the challenge is, be very specific. <At upmarket level, there's more budget scrutiny> + <you know... C-level are expecting a business case otherwise the deal is going nowhere> 3. Make it relevant to the world of your prospect. Think persona-specific metrics here. A phrase I love is: <"And where you might see that translate is"....> + <longer sales cycles, lowered win rates etc...> 4. Ask for resonance. <To what extent does that resonate with you?> <You're probably going to tell me that was some daily metro horoscope-level rubbish...> + wait for response ⁉️ Why does this work? 💡 SMYKM - show me you know me ⏰ prospect sees you've put in the time, and they probably aren't part of a spam list 🧪 data points tie into story and challenges, which tie into persona's KPIs. You basically tell them why they should care about this. ⏩ In this particular call: - research was on point, persona was completely off - no meeting booked - referral gained. 👨🏻‍🔧 Improvement areas: - Saying 'um' in the middle of the opener and mispronouncing prospect's name 😅 - I probably didn't need to add that "if it's not interesting I won't call you again." - Research could have been snappier. But that said - if you've made the effort to do research, people will give you grace. After all, you're making it about them. #sdr #outbound #saas #sales #digitalsalesrooms

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SDRs - struggling to find motivation today? This one thing upgraded my results and life drastically: Exercise Believe it or not, exercise can and will massively up your game as a rep. It's proven to increase: 1. Mental Clarity and Focus 2. Energy Levels 3. Resillience 4. Discipline Whilst decreasing: 1. Stress 2. Burnout 3. Anxiety 4. Bad moods This then translates to: 1. Better quality calls/emails/LI's 2. More energy to do more activity 3. Less anxiety around rejection/failure 4. Better quality of life overall. So if you haven't started working out do! Could be anything from walking to football to cycling. My happy place is the gym (and have also dabbled in crossfit). Has exercise benefitted your sales career? Here's a picture of me and the GOAT SDR Sazid Reza enjoying our travels in cornwall.

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Nearly every salesperson who's prospecting is making this mistake right now Assuming that sending a 15-step cadence over two weeks will land them a meeting Whilst it might be ✅ Value-driven ✅ Multi-channel ✅ Hyper-personalised There are only 52 weeks in a year And less than 5% of buyers are in the market at one time So the likelihood of you catching them in those 2 weeks is pretty small The solution? Ditch the breakup emails and add nurture steps to your sequence instead Short + educational emails every 4-6 weeks So you're top of mind when they are in the market

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