Jerad T.

In sales, it’s important to have transparent—and sometimes tough—budget conversations early and often. In custom software development, it doesn’t help the buyer to hold their budget cards close to the vest. Costs can increase quickly if we don’t understand the most impactful requirements and determine an MVP that fits within a realistic budget. "Realistic budget" varies by buyer. We need to talk about it...even when it's tough. Here’s how to approach them confidently (without breaking a sweat): Know Your Stuff Get the Numbers Right: Be clear on both your budget and the client’s. Break down where the money will go and why that allocation makes sense. Show the Data: Back up your recommendations with data—how past investments led to growth or how future spend will deliver returns. Spell Out ROI: Be specific about how each dollar spent contributes to the overall outcome. The math will sell the value. Keep It Real Manage Expectations: Be upfront about what’s possible within the budget. No one likes surprises, so it’s better to be candid than face frustration later. Explain Trade-Offs: If certain features need to be cut to stay within budget, explain what will be impacted, helping the client see the trade-offs. Be a Problem Solver Offer Flexible Options: If budget is tight, suggest scalable solutions. Start with essentials and add more features over time. Help Prioritize: Collaborate to figure out what’s most important so you can focus resources on what matters and get more out of the budget. Tie the Budget to Big Picture Goals Link It to Strategy: Show how the budget ties into broader goals—sales targets, efficiency, or growth. People are more likely to approve when they see the bigger picture. Highlight Long-Term Benefits: Remind them the budget is an investment, not just an expense. Focus on things like customer retention, productivity, or gaining a competitive edge. Listen, Empathize, and Be Patient Hear Them Out: Understand their concerns. The more you listen, the easier it is to address pain points. Stay Calm and Respectful: Budget talks can be tense. Stay patient and respectful. Focus on Building a Partnership Be a Partner, Not Just a Vendor: Frame the conversation as a team effort. Work together to find the best solution for everyone. Stay Flexible: Be willing to adjust to meet their needs without compromising quality or results. Know When to Hold Your Ground Stick to Your Bottom Line: If the budget becomes too tight to deliver value, don’t be afraid to speak up. Don’t Overpromise: Avoid overpromising things that could hurt quality or cause issues down the road. In closing, having effective and meaningful budget conversations will build trust with the buyer and certainly increase your close rate. #sales, #budget, #toughconversations, #customsoftwaredevelopment, #baytechconsulting, #roi, #sellwithconfidence

2

This is exactly what has been missing in sales development. With the challenges organizations are now facing to strategically outbound target companies, sales leaders are blind to the invisible funnel. Decoding B2B outreach is the path forward. #salesdevelopment #outbound

16

4 Comments

SDR Leaders: “I statements” are killing your reps! Are your SDRs inadvertently making conversations about themselves? It's time to shift the focus. 🚫 "I think it would be a good idea for you to speak with one of my AEs..." 🚫 "I would love to show you our platform..." These "I" statements put your company and SDR first. They scream, "This is how I get paid!" Let's flip the script. The Golden Rule of SDR Conversations: -It's never about the SDR. -It's never about your company. -It's always about the prospect and their pain points. Action Steps for SDR Leaders: -Stomp out "I" statements during role-plays -Train SDRs to disconnect from the outcome (h/t Josh Braun ) -Emphasize: Not every prospect is a fit, and that's OK Remember, there are plenty of fish in the sea. Coach your SDRs to focus on understanding the prospect's needs first. If there's no fit, move on gracefully. By making this shift, your SDRs will build better relationships, have more meaningful conversations, and ultimately, drive better results. But I could be wrong 😑

49

3 Comments

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.....

1

5 Comments

A quick tip for improving sales prospecting - clean your CRM data. Out of date and duplicate information is the biggest hurdle to sales team effectiveness. Your CRM has likely never been purged of inaccurate or duplicate info, which leads to: - Sending emails to the wrong people - Contacting people who no longer work at your organization - Confusing your lead routing technology - Preventing accurate reassignment of territories Now, instead of manually combing through your CRM, use tools built to address this specific problem. Technology can perform mass updates, remove duplicate records, and update existing CRM records with little human intervention. Healthcare companies can remove 10,000 duplicate CRM contacts in one go. This means sellers reach the right person more often and get inbound leads more quickly. How have you cleaned your CRM data?

16

1 Comment

A fat pipeline is the path to quota right? (wrong!) A QUALIFIED pipeline is. What if you looked at the perspective of qualified pipeline... and applied it to your LIFE? --- Business Impact --- Travel the World --- Serve Customers --- Have Date Nights --- Create Experiences If you were writing the plot to your book or movie. What does GOOD look like? With your.... --- Health --- Family --- Finances --- Spirituality --- Experiences --- Job and Career --- Learning and Creativity Let's "Build our Life Resumes" (shout out to Jesse Itzler for preaching this) MORE... --- Passion --- Alignment --- Fulfillment --- Deep Work --- Intentionality LESS... --- Busyness --- Perfection --- Overthinking --- Expectations --- Promises for Tomorrow "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but about learning to dance in the rain." ~Vivian Greene Follow #leadwithmeaning for more content like this. #mindset #coach #psychology #growthmindset #philosophy Seeking clarity, purpose or alignment? 📌DM me to connect 🔔Follow me and learn more ♻️Found this helpful, repost for others

9

A mock conversation to help position yourself as a performance consultant during your next request for enablement: THE TIP: Go broad before getting specific. Requesters typically start with a specific problem. —— SME: “Reps aren’t asking the right questions during discovery to surface business impact. We need training!” *Pause* *Get broad first* YOU: “Sounds like they’re at risk for not hitting quota.” SME: “Well, some are on track. But many aren’t.” YOU: “Hitting quota typically depends on the amount of deals booked and the average deal size. Are both a problem?” SME: “No, we actually have a consistent deal size. It’s the number of deals they aren’t closing because they aren’t asking the right questions early on!” YOU: “I see. Number of deals booked requires deals to be created and then converted through the sales cycle. Are they struggling with those?” SME: “Creating opportunities isn’t a problem - they’ve actually been able to surpass our meeting metrics. The problem is converting because they aren’t doing proper discovery!!!” YOU: “Meeting metrics?” SME: “Yes. They need 3 prospect meetings a week. We’ve averaged four, so it’s the discovery skills they lack to actually convert into qualified opportunities.” YOU: “Who do they book these meetings with?” SME: “Good question. We do want them to get high in the org, but most are with lower level personas…probably because they’re easier to book a meeting with.” YOU: “You mentioned reps weren’t surfacing business impact. Can lower level personas provide business impact data?” SME: “Hmm…I suppose not.“ YOU: “If they had the right personas on the call, could they uncover the right business impact data?” SME: “Well…I suppose they could. The information we want them to gather is well documented, along with sample questions to ask.” YOU: “Do they know who the right personas are and are they properly prioritizing them?” SME: “I’m not sure. We do prioritization at the account level during territory planning, not at the contact level.” YOU: “Do you think that might help?” SME: “I do. An easy lift as well.” YOU: “And those meeting KPIs - any chance we can include persona-level requirements?” SME: “Great idea. The amount might drop, but the quality could be improved.” YOU: “Another easy lift. Should we give it a try and measure how it impacts conversion rates before adding any formal training?” SME: “Good idea. The reps have been asking for less training lately anyways.” —- You’re looking for leverage; you can only find it if you dig. #sales #salesenablement

25

4 Comments

Sales managers, good chance you’re making this silent killer mistake: Asking your reps “what happened” in their meeting. When you ask a rep what happened, it tends to be the beginning of a 10-20 minute exchange recapping what the rep thinks is important. Your follow-ups include questions like: - What are the objections? - Did you identify the economic buyer? - What is their decision criteria? Three big problems with this. 1. Even great reps get the answers wrong, because human memory is a buggy system. Plus, plenty of reps under-communicate the bad news because they don’t even want to admit it to themselves, let alone their scary manager. 2. It’s a massive time suck. 20-minute “what happened” conversations snowball into 10s of hours per week. 3. The real killer: Given that the information is incomplete, and or wrong, it usually leads to flawed and rushed deal strategy advice (you have to get to your next meeting!). What do you do instead? In 2024, you have, or should have, access to generativeAI to answer these questions before talking to the rep. Before I ask a rep what happened, I use Revenue.io's trained generativeAI assistant to interrogate the deal in question, or the conversation in question, every question I can think of. Then, I talk to the rep. Don’t start with “what happened.” Start with: “Sounds like the buyer is concerned about timelines, because they need to make a change, but IT resources are sucked into a competing project. I saw that your followup suggested a meeting with our Implementation lead - what else are you thinking we do next?” Then, you spend the 10-20 minutes only on strategy. Use the generativeAI tools around you, or obsess over bringing them to your team. PS - no AI was used in drafting of this post 🤣

18

2 Comments

5 Reasons you should be using Mutual Action Plans in your sales process 1. Qualification 2. Setting Expectations 3. Facilitates Multi-threading 4. Establishing a mutual timeline 5. Improves deal forecast accuracy What did I miss?

94

36 Comments

This is absolute creative gold! Calling on ALL Sales Leaders, BDR Leaders, and sales reps to take a look at this video. 6sense can help you. #Salesintelligence #accountdata #salesai #predictive #accountprioritization #outboundsales https://lnkd.in/gEc_cv5Q

3

Check out Henry, In Your Corner! Get Account Summaries in 30 seconds using ZoomInfo's AI Copilot. I use these every day. Hit me up with any questions! 😎 #zoominfo #copilot

1

Average Contract Value by segment: Strat - $278K ENT - $180K MM - $57K Direct correlation with your expected payouts? Yes. Average OTE by segment: Strat AE - $280K See more: https://lnkd.in/gEqj9YQz ENT AE - $255K See more: https://lnkd.in/gb7GeWzW MM AE - $165k See more: https://lnkd.in/gDkDDg5w The larger the deals you're selling, the more earning potential. The more earnings potential, the higher the expectations. All open SaaS roles here: https://lnkd.in/ggz4efaD Any of these surprise you? 🦙

121

44 Comments

Stop Selling and start solving problems. Are you doing this? We want to but we fall into selling more than solving issues. Excellent video from John B.

1

Have you ever heard of an Enterprise prospecting strategy that takes one hour to complete and actual sales reps say helps them gain access to their decision makers 79% of the time? Years of customer feedback from Emissary's customers identify one: talking to a former company exec from the target account who is willing to coach your strategy. Enterprise prospecting can feel like using a dial up modem. Just so you know — we've got broadband over here. #enterprise

16

Rohan Suri and Melanie Smith blew everyone away at Sam Nelson's Pipeline Conference yesterday with these insights! 🤯 👇 This week, we've connected with hundreds of Sales Development Leaders in Austin and took the main stage on to share "Dialing 3.0: How to benchmark and Succeed at Outbound calling in 2025." Here's what Rohan and Melanie shared: ☎️ Nooks AI Analysis on 5M Calls • Reps have 𝟮.𝟯𝘅 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 conversions when mentioning a specific reason for reaching out 🚀 • Referencing social proof like customers and partners leads to a 𝟭.𝟴𝘅 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 chance of booking a meeting 🚀    • Mentioning "this is a cold call" in your opener makes... 𝗻𝗼 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 in booking a meeting ❌    • Asking an open ended question instead of a yes or no in the opener/pitch results in 𝟯.𝟭𝘅 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 of booking a meeting 🚀 (only 45.3% of reps are doing this in cold calls)    • Identifying pain or frustration the prospect has with their current system in the opener results in a 𝟲.𝟯𝘅 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 of booking a meeting 🚀 (this only happens in 23.1% of cold calls) • Immediately asking for the meeting when the prospect shows interest results in an 𝟭𝟭.𝟴𝘅 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 of booking a meeting (this is only done correctly in 38.5% of cold calls)   ☎️ Calling is making a come back • Cold email volume has increased 5x in the last year (Source: Woodpecker)    • Calling has increased from ~50% to 80% of meetings (Source: Nooks State of SDR Report)    • Call focused orgs average 40% more qualified opps per rep (Source: Bridge Group) And so much more: • How many reps actually follow-up when asked to by prospects? • What percentage of meetings come from a follow up call? • Do permission based openers work? • Melanie's Mock Call Interview Prep • Melanie's Cold Call Scorecard • Spiff Templates for call blocks Do you want to see more of the data-backed insights that they unveiled yesterday!? Comment "yes" and let the team know 👇

186

69 Comments

SDRs and AEs are sending way too many emails these days. All you need is 4. 𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 Jill, looks like your team’s growing quickly. How’re you planning SKO for all your new AEs? We help sales leaders pick everything from destination, flights, meals and events. Simply put in your team size and budget and we’ll give you all your options in seconds. Curious to learn how? 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 Here's a quick video showing how you can plan SKO (flights, meals and events) in less than a minute: [insert video] ♻️ And then repeat that (a week later) with a new pain point That's it. 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆: Don't send break up emails. Those get marked as SPAM. What cold email tips do you have? - Mike G 👉 Join 7,000+ sellers getting my (free) sales newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/gwQVvVBK

468

62 Comments

Send your SDR’s to events. This past week Brittany Moore and I got to attend a healthcare event in Dallas. We got to have a ton of in depth conversations with our ICP all day long and learned ALOT. SDR’s kick ass at events because: 1. They will talk to anyone, not just their specific accounts. Brittany doesn’t care if it’s not her account she just wants to generate leads. 2. They are proactive at initiating conversations, especially if you are not a household name..some people may not just stop by so you need to engage them. 3. They know enough to have in depth conversations but also keep it high level where it makes sense to set up follow up calls. 4. They are organized at capturing notes from these conversations. 5. They are great at following up with these leads. If you’re not sending at least 1 SDR to each in person event your missing out.

213

21 Comments

A bad sales comp plan will kill your sales team productivity. A good sales comp plan motivates your team to hustle through the end of each month. As we scaled the Levelset sales team to 60+ front-line sales reps, we learned a TON about how to build great comp plans. Here are my principles for good sales compensation: 1. Salespeople don’t do sales and other things well. Let the salespeople sell, don’t saddle them with additional responsibility. For example: Sales and Customer Success are separate functions. 2. The compensation structure should be so simple that you can do the math on the back of a napkin. 3. No commission-only roles. Sales reps should get base salary + variable compensation. 4. At least 40% of sales reps On-Target Earnings should be in the form of variable compensation. 5. No “draw on commission” for ramping reps. New reps should have some mix of guaranteed variable compensation during their ramp period. 6. Sales reps should be paid “straight-line” up to 100% of quota. There should be compensation accelerators above 100%. There will be no compensation hurdles or decelerators for producing below 100%. 7. Annual quota for Account Executives should be 5x On-Target Earnings. For example: $500k annual quota, $100k OTE. This keeps your cost of sales to between 20 - 25% of gross revenue. ‍ 8. Did I mention accelerators? You need to include accelerators for over-performance. This isn’t a comprehensive list of principles. But if you follow these principles, your comp plan will motivate the team to hit their number. Read the full list of principles here: https://lnkd.in/gmwXkRE9

124

21 Comments

You aren’t getting any more resources, yet new customers continue coming through the door, sound familiar? This is something that almost every CSM says from time to time, but Brooke Simmons, Sr. Manager of Account Management at Vanta broke down how she helps prioritize her rep’s time. Here are a few questions to ask to help the prioritization process: - “What customers can we make the most successful?” - What does their engagement level look like? - Do we have a good champion? - Are they a good fit for your Ideal Customer Profile? - Can you envision them being a multi-year customer? To further break this down, Brooke has developed a 4 Quadrant Chart: - Top Right: Great fit, successful ICP customers - Top Left: Customer who could be great, but need more effort to get there (ie higher adoption, new champion) - Bottom Right: Awesome, love us, but not the best fit - Bottom Left: Not doing great, and we can’t make them successful Try this exercise with your cross-functionally teams! ______________________________ In the past I've rolled out “The Sales Series” and “The Marketing Series.” This week, we are rolling out “The Customer Success Series” featuring: Brooke: “Prioritization Quadrants” (Ep. 130) Luke F.: “The Customer Needs Triangle” (Ep. 131) Me: “Account Mapping Playbook” (Ep. 147) Rob Zambito: “Conscious Investments in CS” (Ep. 149) Jay Nathan: “Customer-Centric Mindset” (Ep. 154) Check out the full episode on your favorite platform: Spotify - https://lnkd.in/eiP_M3-G Apple - https://lnkd.in/eRrs9yAg

13

2 Comments