John Huettel

“What do they do again?” is the kiss of death! “What do they do again?” is intellectually lazy! “What do they do again?” screams I didn't care enough to spend an ounce of time looking them up! “What do they do again?” is disrespectful to relationships who believe in you, recommend you, or advocate on your behalf. Read this post and then watch the podcast interview by Jason M. Lemkin and commit to yourself to never stop growing, learning, or losing your edge. https://lnkd.in/exuuntYg? #GreatSalesLeaders #LeadersWhoWantToSell #SaaStr #NeverStopGrowing

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How do you set your deal priorities? Sales leaders are pretty good at this. But they can do better. The Efficient Frontier For Sales shows you where to focus so you maximize sales for the risk you are willing to accept. On average deal portfolios on the Efficient Frontier produce 58% more in-quarter sales than prioritizations based on stage, deal-size, forecast category, or deal-scores. Want to see how this works? DM me for that case study. #salesmanagement #salesleadership #salesenablement #salesoperations #revops #revenueoperations #salesops #analytics #datascience #forecasting #sales

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When do you fire your first VP of Sales?🤔 It’s not as simple as hitting or missing quotas.🎯 There’s a deeper issue. Swipe through to find out when it’s time to say goodbye.

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Here’s the secret to how I closed deals with top executives like Walmart’s CEO and The Coca-Cola Company’s President. The secret? It’s not about selling—it’s about consulting! Here’s the essence of consultative selling: 🔹 Act as a trusted advisor, not just a salesperson. 🔹 Focus on understanding your customer’s challenges. 🔹 Add value at every step of their journey. This approach has been a game-changer for me and for RAINMAKERS’ founders. 👇🏻 We’ve refined it into a simple 3-step process: 👇🏻 1️⃣ Analyze Dive deep to understand and document the customer’s needs. Without this, everything else is guesswork. 2️⃣ Build Develop a clear set of business requirements. Focus on the customer’s goals—not just your product. 3️⃣ Educate Once aligned on needs and timelines, introduce your product as the solution—only if it’s the right fit. 👉🏻 Why does it work? 👈🏻 By positioning yourself as an advisor, you build trust and credibility. Even if your solution isn’t the leading choice, customers feel confident choosing you. #GTM #FounderLedSales #ConsultativeSelling Trendemon Avishai Sharon

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Sale-leaseback market's down over 50% from 2 years ago   Interest rates killed the old playbook.   Can’t pull that lever anymore now   Some CFOs found ways to pivot...   (and thrive).   Recently spoke to a business leader about this.   They're using JVs to unlock value in unused manufacturing space.   (turned 14% vacancy into positive cash flow)   Here's how they're doing it:   1 - Strategic co-location agreements   2 - Shared service center conversions   3 - Innovation hub partnerships between teams   4 - Shared training and development initiatives   5 - More flexible work options for hybrid teams   Apply these tools to monetize excess capacity w/o compromising fixed assets.

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As a #RevOps professional I could not be more excited about what is coming tomorrow! ZoomInfo Copilot delivers on what other Sales AI tools have promised for years but failed to realize. Harnessing AI to unite and analyze thousands of data points, 20,000 early ZoomInfo Copilot users across 500 different companies reported saving significant time on manual prospecting tasks and uncovering more opportunities to win business. Copilot predicted half of their existing pipeline. Seriously. Tomorrow, every seller becomes your best seller. Stay tuned! #ZoomInfoCopilot

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Tough venue for a workshop, as you can see. In California helping commercial leaders turn 2025 growth priorities into actionable ‘sales plays’ - ready for training the salesforce. At Sales Kick-off, sellers won’t just be excited about 2025, they’ll be enabled. #strategytoexecution

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If you are in manufacturing, the stakes are high when it comes to choosing a customer platform that can make or break business success. Antiquated systems and integration issues have stifled innovation forcing businesses into a continuous loop of operational inefficiencies. In this on-demand webinar, experts from DealHub.io, Wendt Partners and HubSpot share their insights and expertise on driving greater efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Check it out > https://lnkd.in/d-iYC_sw

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🚨 Sean’s Sales Tip: 🚨 Stop Dancing to Another Vendor’s Tune – Set the Direction and Win the Deal Sales pros, let's get straight to the point on that big year-end deal: Are you driving the sale, or just reacting to what the buyer asks for? If your strategy revolves around responding to RFPs and checking boxes, you're letting someone else dictate the game. Our job isn’t to respond; it’s to lead the buyer. 💡 Responding Traps into being a busy fool. Here’s Why: ⏳ Wasted Time & Resources: RFPs often reflect criteria set by another vendor. If we’re just answering what’s asked, we’re playing their game and wasting time and money. 📉 Limited Opportunity to Differentiate: By the time an RFP drops, the buyer already has a “solution” in mind. Responding means you’re just another option. 💸 Decreased Value Perception: Reactive responses make price the focus. Without influence, our unique value is lost. So Time to change tack completely: Flip the Script: Start Influencing 🛠️ Influence Criteria Early: Lead discovery sessions that reveal what really matters—and position your solution as the answer. You’re not just another vendor; you’re an expert advisor with a lifetime of wisdom. Shape Their Solution Image: Help buyers envision success with your solution before anyone else pitches. Show them early how your approach uniquely addresses their needs. Set the Groundwork for Value: Focus on long-term COI and ROI, risk mitigation, and operational ease. You’re not selling a product; you’re delivering a partnership that drives growth. Frame the Entire Buying Journey: Walk them through the process in a way that keeps competitors out and your solution top of mind. Guide the journey, don’t just tag along. The Difference Between Responding and Leading from my Career 🚫 Reactive Selling: Responding to the Buyer’s Agenda Outcome: 12 months lost, thousands in opportunity costs, and wasted resources. We spent a year responding to an RFP crafted around a competitor’s criteria. Despite endless revisions, proposals, and meetings, the deal went nowhere, costing valuable time and resources that could’ve been invested in winnable deals. ✅ Proactive Selling: Setting the Agenda and Influencing Criteria Outcome: Won the deal in four months, avoided cost of inaction, and created new budget. In another case, we engaged early, led discovery, and demonstrated the cost of inaction—financial, operational and personal. We helped the buyer visualise a future with our solution and guided criteria to match our unique strengths. The result? A new budget, a shortened sales cycle, and a successful partnership. Don’t Just Dance – Take the Lead 🎯 Sales isn’t about responding to someone else’s tune. It’s about setting the direction, shaping the criteria, and leading with authority and insight. Are you just reacting, or are you taking charge and influencing the outcome? #SalesLeadership #TakeTheLead #SalesInfluence #ProactiveSales

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I recently talked to a company in the mfg space. Top rep? A conversation, 1/16 calls. The rest? 1/60 calls. The difference? Top rep sources more prospects & tries them more often. That's it. He saves more prospects from ZoomInfo & he's more creative about getting ahold of them (in this case its as simple as more attempts per contact...) This is what says where traditional SDR teams are getting it wrong. In traditional cold calling/outbound... You took a list, put it into a dialer and made dials until conversations slowed down. At which point, you'd add more people to the list. And so you may call people six, seven, eight, nine, ten, twenty times. I set the limit and connection cell to 20 attempts per contact and the maximum number per day to three. So how many SDRs out there are trying their prospects three times per day? You as a fractional SDR can go in and have more conversations than their existing reps... Doing nothing different besides just calling the same prospects that they're already calling more times per day. Because inevitably someone might not pick up in the morning, But they may pick up in the afternoon of the same day. But what most companies do is... "Oh, I called them on Monday, so I have to wait four days because, in my sequence, the next call task isn't until Thursday. " And then reps end up getting behind on their sequences anyway. And all the tasks pile up, And then they just have to blow through them. Simplify it. How many hours per day are you logging on the dialer? Three? Ok. How many conversations are you having per hour? This many. How many conversations are turning into a meeting? Got it. That's what people should be focused on, Not how many steps are in my sequence. And is it call or is it call, email, email, email, call, LinkedIn, No, none of that matters. It is: - build list - call - follow-up. That's the order of operations.

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Did you know the average tenure of a Sales VP is just two years? Sales leaders navigate immense pressures, often prompting them to make swift exits—but it doesn’t have to be this way. Grab your free copy of "Why Sales Leaders Fail" to uncover the common pitfalls to avoid and set yourself up for long-term success in the leadership seat. 👉 Download here: https://hubs.la/Q02XV-k50 #SalesLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment

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From Sales Xceleration®'s State of Sales data, it's evident that very few companies have a solid sales foundation and the essential processes to drive year-over-year sales growth. If you are an SMB owner, please take this assessment and find out where you fall in the below statistics; without a strong foundation, buildings crumble-- don't let that be your business https://lnkd.in/gq2BnmV9 #StateofSales #SalesFoundation #SalesMethodology

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Most B2B sales math is flawed, or just wrong. The biggest problem with this is that companies base Sales team staffing, activity requirements and GTM investment on these numbers, wasting millions.  According to the cognoscenti: 8-12 = Touchpoints required to book a meeting with a B2B executive 1% = Cold email response rate 24% = Cold email open rate 36.4% - 47% = Percentage of enterprise AE's who hit quota 91% = Percentage of sales teams that failed to achieve >=80% of quota targets I am not saying that the above data is wrong, as these measures have proven to be pretty accurate. I am saying that the expected execution that is being measured is either fundamentally flawed or antiquated. So, WHAT is being measured is the problem, not the measures themselves. This is about addressing execution quality vs. quantity, and yet so much of our execution still focuses on coverage and activity vs. productivity. What is observably true: The majority of prospecting content is low value, one-to-many messaging that favors coverage over focus and quality, making it very easy to quickly recognize and dismiss. The majority of sales processes require current FY, in-market demand to function, which means that vendors are lagging/chasing the prospect/customer, and often direct competitors, leading to low win rates and wasted SG&A. We all know this math: 67% to 77% = The percentage of the “buyer journey” that is completed digitally before they speak to/engage a salesperson/vendor. If you want to successfully engage an executive, tight focus on your compelling financials mapped to how they are measured and paid is required, not optional, especially in a NNN motion. This takes time and expertise, but when done properly this indexes to 7-13% engagement rates after an average of 3 touchpoints. Getting this right indexes to higher: TCV, win rates, revenue velocity, and quota attainment rates. Execute objective project and program (engagement) management skills vs. typical sales methodologies, requiring value driver based DCF analysis, joint RACI and critical path determination 👉🏼up front👈🏼, and win rates will increase. Technology has evolved, business has evolved and it is time for decades old sales processes and prospecting approaches to do the same vs. fine tuning what has proven to not work well at scale. Without fundamentally evolving HOW and WHAT we execute, the above numbers will not change. How much more of the above math do we need to prove this? #b2bsales #b2bgtm #salesenablement

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Why it's #not22 video 2. Did you see that stock market swoon? Whoa! IF you look at the underlying issues, you will see that adjustments in our GTM strategies and sales training are something we should all consider. Your zero interest rate era sales experience may not be adequate for this moment in time. Why are companies not buying, tech, new sales talent, or other companies? The second video in the series. Please comment, I can stay on the economic theme or go to modern motions, or both. Let me know what you think. #howtomakeasalesrockstar. #not22 #ReImagineSales

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Hot Take… RIP #PLG, Long Live #SLG But before you throw shade, let me explain… 🔹 There are undoubtedly exceptions, I’m sure many will highlight monday.com, Freshworks, etc. 🔹 PLG works well for low ACV deals with low CAC… think SMB and mid-market customers. Target CAC payback <12 months 🔹 PLG is a fantastic top of funnel marketing channel for enterprise sales ⭐ But for 6-figure enterprise sales, you need enterprise salespeople pressing the flesh with customers

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𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐏𝐆 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 $𝟏𝟎𝟎𝐌+ 𝐀𝐑𝐑. Specially impressive is how Charles Coristine pivoted into 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 and yet systematically invested in the 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝. Being 𝐟𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐚𝐥, and yet raising just enough capital to make the 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡. 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬. Doesn’t take a whole lot of mistakes to see those margins vanish. A bad production run. Not capturing wasted labor costs. Not ordering on time. Ordering more than necessary and tie up capital. 𝐒𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫. Maintaining Cash flow is king. #food #manufacturing #branding #grossmargins #cashflows

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Every PE value creation plan needs a people plan. If the VCP spells out the "What" and the "How"... ...the People Plan spells out the "Who." More on how to approach this in the link in the Comments. Great convo with Omeed and Joe on The SaaS Buyers Club podcast! #PrivateEquity #PeoplePlan #Talent

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