Chris Orlob

Sales Friends- How many times in a sales conversation do you qualify your prospect's level of interest? ReplayzIQ has unearthed that top sales reps will qualify their prospect's level of interest 3-5 times in a 45 minute Discovery or Demo call. What does 'qualifying their interest' mean exactly? It means taking a temperature check of your prospect throughout the call to see if they genuinely appear to be seeing value and whether they are identifying with the pain you are solving. Are they leaning in or out? Are they hot or cold on your solution's ability to solve their unique painpoints? Why is this important? None of us are mind readers. So why not just ask how your prospect is feeling about what you've unearthed so far? This gives you the ability to address what is on their mind right there and then. A lot of the time your prospect won't volunteer this info unless you ask. AND unless you ask in the right way. What can this sound like? "Based on what we've discussed so far, it sounds like our solution could immensely help you with ________ (insert the pain you identified here). What do you think?" "So is this feeling like a fit for you?" "How does this stack up with how you are doing it today?" "Is there anything you were hoping our solution would do that you haven't seen so far?" ReplayzIQ uses AI to analyze hundreds of sales calls per hour. We've trained ReplayzIQ to unearth the patterns that lead to success. This one skill consistently shows up as a differentiator of top-performing sales reps. What other qualification questions do you use? Weave in 3-5 of these gems in your next sales convos and you will see the difference. Crush it today my friends! 🙌 #sales

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Stop over complicating your sales process. Suspects Exit Criteria - Your ICP Prospects Exit Criteria - Those who engage. Qualifying Exit Criteria - Confirm ICP, understand their use case, and they accept 2nd meeting. They have told you who the skeptics are Discovery Exit Criteria - Understand Economic Impact of their use case(s) and they are willing to bring others into the conversation Selection Exit Criteria - You are speaking with a real decision maker. You have been short-listed. Know competitors, Start to understand approval process and players. Commercials discussion Negotiation Exit Criteria - Confirm commercials and redlines begin. Cannot move to closing unless all redlines and commercials are confirmed. Closing Exit Criteria - No more commercial conversations, Send contract for signature, know when you will get signed contract back

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As CS is getting increasingly aligned with the revenue function, this conversation is happening a lot... CRO: "I just took over customer success, can someone explain to me what our CSMs do?" VP CS: "We make sure that our customers are getting value from the product..." CRO: "OK, what does that mean?" VP CS: "We answer all of their questions and log support cases." CRO: "Isn't that support?" VP CS: "Well no, because we have QBRs" CRO: "OK, well what do we talk about in the QBRs?" VP CS: "All the tickets we fixed and the features that we rolled out" CRO: "Ok, what other things do our CSMs do?" VP CS: "We help with implementations and continuous improvement!" CRO: "Isn't that professional services?" VP CS: "Well we read an article that says that we shouldn't charge for services, so our CSMs just do it." CRO: " 🤯 " VP CS: " 🤯 "

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Most sales leaders don't understand that sales ramp time is crucial for accurate forecasting. It measures how long new sales reps take to reach full productivity. Accurate data helps align hiring with revenue goals. Integrating CRM and HR data provides better insights. Avoid using only quota attainment to gauge ramp rate. Tailor ramp assumptions to your business for precision. Automating these calculations can save time and improve accuracy. Optimized sales ramp tracking can significantly impact planning.

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Maintain a sufficient pipeline of 4 times your quota. Adequate pipeline helps to relieve the stress to perform on specific deals. Reduced stress allows you to approach sales as a competitive game and a fun challenge. Do not take success per deal personally. Treat each deal as a competitive contest you can walk away from proud of knowing you gave your best effort. Building relationships with your customers is the fun part of sales. Ask personal questions. Invest time to learn about your customers as humans. Personal relationships require empathy, time, and patience. Extra credit challenge: Getting a hug from your customer confirms you have a personal relationship. Credit to Drew Elam

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Utah has produced some of the top SMB / MM sales teams: Podium Route Divvy Canopy Lucid Pluralsight Brex Pinterest BambooHR and so many more here... Why? ⛪️ A huge percentage of saas sales reps start their sales career knocking doors. Selling Jesus. Nothing harder than that. Slam the door in your face? Go to the next smiling ear to ear. Oh, and do it for 2 years in a foreign country at 19 years old. Oh, and you pay for it yourself. Yes, I'll be making 'Utah, Selling Jesus & Saas' shirts soon. 🚪A HUGE percentage of these then go on to sell door-to-door with solar, pest, alarm, or whatever else you can sell door-to-door. It's what they are good at and know. 💵 Many then realize it's unrealistic to be 23, married and have their second kid on the way and still be making >$180k a year knocking doors only during the summer. So, the fastest path to $180k+ a year is selling saas. ⤴ The path to selling large enterprise is a journey and many fall out during the journey. So, sales teams naturally have a huge influx of SMB / MM talent that is top notch here to pull from 🎯 We're small. The community is still small and has the feel of 'everyone knows everyone'. This means your recruiting efforts have compounding effects. If you can steal a rep from company X, they likely went to school with, roomed with or worked with 3 others that want to follow them Regardless, I'm a believer. Selling to SMBs / MMs. No better place to build it than Utah. Shoot me a note, I'll tell you which companies to pick from. 😇

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Throughout last year, I heard many complaints from Customer Success teams about the inadequate transition from Sales. Quick "hacks" to fix this are below: CEOs and CROs - if you don't fix this, you will break your revenue. Your investors and Boards will turn you down or replace your team. You will continue to have to sell more deals to make up for churn. The signs of dysfunction are evident right from the beginning of the customer journey. Lack of communication between teams, repeated information to the sales team, and a disjointed process are common occurrences that can deter customers. Even established companies struggle with smooth transitions from sales to post-sale functions. This problem often originates early on in the company's development and can become ingrained in its culture if left unaddressed. Customers can smell dysfunction right from the kickoff. "Do you guys talk to each other?" "We told your sales team these answers several times. " (this one hurts the most) Sound Familiar? Even Mature companies have poor sales transitions to post-sale teams. This Pattern starts early. 🔴 Get this fixed early, or it will be the culture A non-evolved company can follow these steps: 🔴 Level 1 - Very easy- a form in the CRM upon deal close 🔴 Level 2 - Sales ops can make mandatory flags before sending out the contract 🔴 Level 3 - Finance can hold commissions if the process is not followed correctly A smart organization will follow these steps: 🟢 Get an Implementation consultant or a CSM on a presales call. 🟢 The post-sale team should have a standard 3 slides to show that they are a team, follow a process, and have had success (this means faces, timeline, and logos) 🟢 A non-commissioned resource that asks great questions, knows the product in and out and can answer what other companies in your prospects' vertical are doing 🟢 Once the deal is closed, hold a 30-minute internal handoff call 🟢 Have the salesperson sit in on the kickoff call to ensure everyone is aligned. This also prevents the "Salesperson said we can do this" syndrome Sales leadership should know how important this is, but they are KPI'd on different things. How are you fixing this problem?

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The #1 habit salespeople use to keep deals moving to close? Maintaining deal momentum is tricky—especially with long sales cycles and multiple stakeholders. While follow-ups via email, text, or LinkedIn are the baseline, they often aren’t enough. The key is to have a personal pipeline review and ask: What can I do today to add value and move this deal to close? Some examples: 1. One rep I know sent a fun Amazon gift—a drink holder shaped like the brand’s name. This playful gesture sparked laughter, strengthened rapport, and ultimately helped him close the deal. 2. Another rep revived a fading conversation by sending a thoughtful DoorDash gift card, which re-engaged the buyer and led to a successful close. 3. One focused on building personal relationships across all stakeholders (by sending personalized emails and texts to each stakeholder individually). Inevitably, when one of the stakeholders hesitated, the other stepped in to support the deal. 4. A different rep engaged with his buyers personal social media accounts (specifically Instagram and Facebook), expanding to a multi-channel relationship, helping him close the deal. 5. More recently, I had a rep who leveraged below the line champions to (1) get connected with the economic buyer, and (2) to justify why now with stunning testimonials, helping move the deal to close. Each of these creative solutions stemmed from asking "how can I move this deal forward and add value?" during a personal pipeline review. I recommend reps do this daily, weekly, or somewhere in between. Depending the size of your pipe, you may start with less while you're focused on pipe creation. Mornings work best—spend 30-60 minutes thinking creatively about how to move deals forward. Go through every single deal, starting with the ones furthest along in the pipe. Riff with your manager or colleague if needed. Be consistent. What other creative things have you seen/tried to help move deals forward? #sales #pipelinereview #dealmomentum

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Tired of losing hard-earned deals? Solve for Revenue Leak. In Clari’s 2024 Revenue Leak Report, RevOps leaders said leak happens at every stage of the funnel. - Creating: Poor and slow upsell pipeline tracking - Converting: Unsure where pipeline is dropping off - Closing: Slipped deals Don’t let Revenue Leak drag down another quarter – or another year. Download the Revenue Leak Report for more: https://lnkd.in/g9gnGrdz  

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I don't understand why companies insist on having inbound BDR'S.. In B2B sales there are 2 types of leads, inbound and outbound. Inbound is your SEO, ads, word of mouth etc who typically end up on your website to book a call where as outbound is mainly cold emails or calling. Now for outbound, a BDR finding leads and booking calls is the oxygen of the business and helps the AE's focus on closing. However, inbound is a different story. I booked 2 calls with potential software tools through their website trying to get onto a sales call. Company #1 - AE and AM, taking me through a full demo with all information I needed. Company #2 - BDR calling just to then book me with an AE. When someone has gone to your site and booked a call they are showing buyers intent. Having a BDR call to ask surface level questions to an inbound lead is both a waste of the prospects time and of the companies resources. The BDR then reached out 2 weeks later asking if I was still interested. In that time I had already moved forward and met with Company #1'S CEO. The shorter the sales process, the faster the close. #sales #B2B #BDR #AE #salesprocess

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B2B Sales Leader: Multi-threading is really important. But also: → Doesn't train reps on mapping accounts → Doesn't give reps talk tracks → Doesn't give reps budget to get external help Then they wonder why → Reps only have 1 person involved in their deals → Deals stall and land in Closed Lost → Deals slip to next quarter Stop wasting money on buying more sales tools. Reps don't have a tool problem. They have a skill problem. Give them the skills they need to go wide and deep. If you're a rep reading this, this image is something I call Multi-Threading Compass Concept 📌 Me and Andy Aveyard, Head of MM Sales at Zoom discussed it Watch the interview here: https://lnkd.in/e-Cp4M7Q Most reps are in a rush to get to power [North] → But they're not ready → They don't have a clear business case Instead, focus on going East and West → To find and build more Champions → Gain wider consensus Then go South → To win over power users → Create raving fans Then, take your business case to the Economic Buyer. It might take longer. But you'll win more deals. Let me know what you think about the interview above!

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Here is the real impact that value selling is having for revenue teams: Tom Pisello David Yockelson 🔑48% improvement in winrate 🔑35% increase in deal size 🔑25% reduction in sales cycle time BUT...... ⛔️ only 19% of reps and 19% of pipeline is using value selling today. BIGGGG opportunity here...!

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Here's an ICP exercise I think everyone needs to go through right now: STEP1: Identify your top 10 existing customers who are: 1) doing really well in this economy right now and 2) getting a lot of value from your solution. STEP2: get your entire GTM+ team together (SDR, AE, SE, CS, AM, Marketing, Finance) STEP3: Dissect the hell out of those 10 customers and identify as many "characteristics" as you can about them that go beyond the general demographic info like: - who do they sell to (their ICP)? - what technologies do they use that your solution complements? - what were they using before your solution? - what stage of business are they (series A, B, public, etc)? - what does the department you sell into look like (1 person show or a full team)? - what are the specific use cases for your solution and who gets the most value from them? - etc etc STEP4: Identify the main characteristics that the 10 clients have in common. STEP5: Set up a "saved" search in Linkedin Sales Navigator with all those characteristics to search for other companies that fit the profile BONUS TIP: Add those top 10 customers to the Sales Navigator search under the "past company" section. This tells you any time someone from one of your best customers moves to another company who fits your ICP. STEP6: Get a testimonial and/or case study from each of those 10 clients with a focus on the specific problem you solved for them and they impact it had on their business. STEP7: spend all your efforts trying to find companies who fit the exact ICP and developing value oriented messaging to them by highlighting the specific problems you have solved for others like them If you go through this process I almost guarantee you'll realize that your REAL ICP is different than what you thought it was. And, if you go through this with your entire team it will be a great education for everyone and give them different things to look for when trying to find new business. #Makeithappen

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Pre-call research is ruining your team's performance. If you spend 5 minutes between calls, whatever you are doing needs to produce a 2.9x increase in connect to meeting booked rate JUST TO BREAK EVEN. You should not need to do any research before cold calling.

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SDR Dashboards - what do you want to see? Gimme your top 3 stats/charts/reports you like to see on YOUR dashboard for pipeline gen. There's the obvious activity levels and SQL/SAL volumes but what else do you like to see.....

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Want to drive more expansion? Here's the playbook I learned at Salesforce - Find gaps with customers - Create offers to address gaps - Market this to your expansion list - Introduce offer in sales and CS mtgs - Lay the groundwork and spark interest - Start sales conversations with stakeholders - Close Expansion Opportunities and grow Accts! Whitespace is a key way to find those gaps. 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗧 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘 - What products does each customer have? - What products does each customer NOT have? - Which products have you yet to present to them? *This is pretty basic but so often not executed well! 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘 - Which key stakeholders do you know? - Which key stakeholders do you NOT know? - Where can you open up new key relationships? 𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗟𝗔𝗣 - Where do these overlap? - You can sell a new product to an old contact - You can sell more current product to a new contact - But man is it easier to sell new products to new contacts Let me share some examples from my days at Salesforce: - VPs of Sales bought Salesforce (Sales Cloud) - VPs of Service/COOs bought Service Cloud - CMOs bought Pardot or Marketing Cloud - CFOs bought more licenses at discounts We had a different play for each product and each stakeholder. It wasn't this cut and dry though. Sometimes VPs of Sales bought Service Cloud or Marketing Cloud. CFOs often wanted the best contract terms and were my bread and butter for expansion, but it wasn't always them driving this. Most often, though, our relationship started with the VP of Sales who bought Sales Cloud and didn't really care about anything else we had to sell. This playbook is how Salesforce "landed and expanded" accounts and doubled spend for the average customer within 12 months of the initial purchase when I was there. More details in the 📰 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 📰 https://lnkd.in/ezX9iMjr ✌️

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Stop overcomplicating outbound. Let me give you a simple, 3-step framework for outbound prospecting. Step 1: Get a list of your buyers with verified phone numbers. Step 2: Call that list and talk to your buyers. Step 3: Repeat step 2. Pfew... that was hard.

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If you're an AE, here are 5 easy ways to generate more ARR without “being salesy:” 1. Interview your company’s top customer. Narrow in on the account pushing your product team to create the newest and best features. 2. Understand exactly what makes them a big spender and innovator in their field. The goal is to understand who at that organization is behind a big initiative that leverages your product and services to maximum capacity. Example: At my old company (a conversational AI provider), our top customer believed in getting the whole company rallied behind delivering the best customer service. The head of contact centers led that initiative. 3. Create a “transformation blueprint” around them. Understanding the who, the what, and the why will make it easier for you to design a blueprint for how a company’s key executive can transform its operations (consultative) vs trying to convince them why they should use your product and services (salesy). Example: Because I knew from our top customer that the head of contact centers was typically neglected in strategic initiatives, I had a blueprint to get them further up the queue with their C-Suite. That’s a compelling proposition for that type of executive. 4. Recruit your top customer and other experts to position the credibility of this transformation. Use your time, energy, and attention to orchestrate meaningful conversations between your top-performing customers, your best internal experts, and your prospects. Example: Positioning small, intimate roundtable discussions was where I spent a lot of my time as a strategic seller. Then, we delivered amazing “white glove” experiences in these sessions where our customers did the selling, our experts answered the questions, and I simply coordinated a good experience between all 3. 5. Repeat for your top accounts. Once you have a repeatable blueprint, your position and status change. You become more of a “keyholder” to an exclusive VIP club where executives can level up their career (power position) vs asking them to try their luck on a small pilot of an unknown product (weak position). The big picture takeaway: Learn to think like a strategic business operator rather than a salesperson and watch your commission checks expand significantly. 🐝

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🚀 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀? 🚀 I’m looking for 8 motivated SaaS SDRs or BDRs who are ready to improve their 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀, 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝘅𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀— WITHOUT spending 8+ months stuck in an endless cycle of trial-and-error like I did. 🙄 There are 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝟴 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗳𝘁 in my 12-week SDR Revenue Accelerator program and to fill these last few spots before admissions close on November 1st, I’m offering 𝟱𝟬% 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝟯 people who join! 🤗 Here’s how it works: We’ll kick things off with a 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝟭–𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁, where I’ll help you: ✔️ Make quick, effective changes that will lead to more closed deals and higher commissions ✔️ Ensure we’re a good mutual fit based on your unique challenges and revenue goals ✔️ Identify exactly what’s holding you back from achieving your sales targets ✔️ Get a personalized action plan to boost your sales performance immediately After our call, 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 that will help you increase your commissions and hit your targets faster—no more wasting months trying to figure it all out on your own. I’ve been there and done that, and it sucks. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be that hard. I promise. So, if you’re ready to take your sales game to the next level, sign up for your free 1-hour sales audit here ASAP. 𝗛𝗮𝗹𝗳 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗡𝗢𝗪, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀. 👀 -> https://lnkd.in/eBQbWNpF 𝗟𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳𝗳—𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆!!! 💰 💪 📈 #salescoaching #salesaudit #SDR #BDR #commissions #increasesales #salestargets #salesstrategy #salesgrowth #closingdeals #remotework #SalesTraining #SaaS #TechSales #B2BSales #SalesDevelopment #SaaSSales #SDRTraining #SalesSkills #SalesExcellence #SoftwareSales #LeadGeneration #ProfessionalDevelopment

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