Mike Harris

Multi-threading... A skill that's fast becoming the most critical in a sales reps arsenal. Why? 🤔 The market is tough at the moment. 🤔 Buyers are more budget conscious. 🤔 CFOs are asking teams to reduce spend and cut back on investment. 🤔 Prospects that once had buying power and sign off capability now have to get approval from C-Suite. It sounds like an uphill battle 🏃‍♂️‍➡️⛰️ but the truth is, multi-threading is not as daunting as you might think. ⭐️ Here's some tips that have worked well for me in the last 6 months ⭐️ 🗺 Map out your accounts. Org charts are critical for multi-threading. You need to understand who your prospects are, who they report to, and who holds decision making power. Tip - LinkedIn SalesNav let's you build drag and drop org charts! 🗣️ Check with your your champion. Confirm your org chart is correct. Ask them what the process is for bringing on a new vendor. If they don't know, 🆘 they are not a true champion. 📧 Share content early. Begin introducing yourself to key stakeholders quickly. Tip - Connect on LinkedIn with a short and sweet connection request, something like "Wanted to put a face to a name following some great conversations I've been having with (champion name) re (challenge). I'll send over some content via email shortly. I look forward to hearing your thoughts." 🎺 Make sure your content is personalised, engaging, and stands out. TOP TIP - Using a tool like trumpet 🎺 (digital sales room) is a sure fire way to encourage stakeholder engagement. Upload clear and concise value props, how you can solve their businesses challenges, client case studies and more. Ask these contacts to bookmark the page as you will regular update it with content as the deal progresses. And, track their engagement, so you can meet them in the moment. So far, my prospects have been LOVING it! 📞 Pick up the phone. Once you've connected on LinkedIn and sent content, call prospects to ensure that they have seen it. Ask what questions they have and tell them about next steps. By doing the above, when it comes to negotiation these stakeholders will be informed and aware of the entire process to date, and you and your product will be top of mind 🧠 Tenured AE's in my network (I know there are a lot of you), what do you do to successfully multi-thread? P.S. You can guess what I'll be doing in the office today :😉 #multithreading #sales #digitalsalesrooms #dsr #aestrategies

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Sorry Sales Managers and VP's of Sales... You might be competing, and losing, against higher priority projects, that are more critical to running the business. Still wondering why your sales reps aren't selling? Take a look at your product - market fit.

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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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Things top salespeople do: - Understand prospect problems - Control what they can control - Are ruthless with qualifying - Lose more than they win Things top salespeople don’t do: - Make excuses ----- P.S. If you're free 𝗮𝘁 𝟭𝟮 𝗽.𝗺. 𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆, join SellBetter's daily show to hear how top sellers get their prospects' attention with 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 & 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵. I'll drop the sign-up in the comments.

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Attention all Utah-based Business leaders!!! Our Solution Engineering team at Salesforce is hosting an event where we'll be diving into the accelerating world of AI and its mind-blowing applications for businesses like yours. Event Details: 📅 Date: Tuesday, May 21st, 2024, American Fork, UT ⏰ Time: 1 pm - 4 pm - Networking Session to Follow 📍 Registration Link: https://lnkd.in/gPVSE5Th is Limited) Here's a sneak peek of what's in store: 🧠 Salesforce’s AI Strategy, why it matters, & how we are leading with responsibility & trust 🌟 Best practices for building a strong data foundation to unlock your AI potential 💡 A customer panel with fellow customers to share how everybody is thinking about their own AI strategy ⚡️ Hear from our business value services team on how to think about AI’s return on investment 📈 AI-Powered “Find, Win, Keep” – solution presentations that support every part of your customer funnel 🚀 Discussing AI readiness, prerequisites & what a successful implementation looks like 📚 Complimentary takeaway AI rollout workbook 

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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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The best "cheat codes" every AE should know: 1. 1:1s with your boss. Approach them strategically. Proactively share format and content. Biggest deals you need support on. Challenges you need help with. Forecast for the month, quarter, etc. Wins. 2. Perception. Performance is your fire. How you're perceived internally (aka your brand) is the water or gas that gets dumped on your fire. Attitude, how you show up, handle change, communicate, matters. Hold yourself to a high bar. Two levels above where you're currently at. 3. Document everything. Take the time to write down your own sales playbook. Every strategy, process and template you have. Store it on your personal computer. The value of this over time is immeasurable. I can't state this enough. 4. Problems are a good thing. Anytime there's a problem that's an opportunity to solve it, improve it, and add value. Some of the biggest opportunities I've gotten in my career came because I dove head first into problems and helped move the business forward. Startups always have problems. Don't be the negative person. 5. Time management. Block Monday mornings every week. Don't go to meetings if they're not worth your time. Most things can be solved async. Make meetings 15 to 20 mins. Sometimes you need a whole week of no meetings to catch up, get organized and do deep work. Don't feel bad for saying no to people. They'll understand. 6. External coaching. Up level by listening to podcasts, taking courses and building an external network. Don't rely on your company for everything. Even if they're doing a great job get the perspectives and strategies of other people for a significant edge. What would you add to this list? - Mike G 👉 Join 5,000+ sellers getting my (free) sales newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/gwQVvVBK

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Ashi from Gong is fast (😮‍💨10k) But not as fast as Gong Engage users when they use Lavender. Access to your Gong calls in our personalization assistant ✅ Access to our coach & "Ashi fast" personalization in Gong ✅ Better 🤝 Faster 3.0 (and so much more) coming soon

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A few hot outbound prospecting takes on this crisp and cool Thursday from a full-cycle AE: 1. I do not really use sequences/cadences anymore for my outbound, I use manual emails and follow up tasks.. It doesn't take me more than 3-4 touches to get a response. Cadence/sequence simply keeps me organized and so things don't slip through the cracks. 2. I also think the idea of needing "12-14" touches to get a response is absurd. This is a lie you were sold on and forced you to do "outreach at scale with automation" *if your messaging was relevant and problem focused, it wouldn't take you that many touches to get a response* 3. I also think most people use sequences/cadences as a crutch and end up forgetting to complete their later stage tasks any way 4. Automation in sequences/cadences rarely works anymore 5. And lastly, you can get a response on the first few touches if you: a.) Understand prospects do not care about your featues but do care if you can help them solve a problem b.) Understand prospects only care about personalization if it's relevant in context to the problem you can help them solve (aka a trigger) c.) Understand and empathize with how much spam your prospects get and be thoughtful in how you reach out to them d.) Stop listening to everyone else's advice and A/B test to find what works for you. (like me using manual emails and not sequences :) ) That's all. Thank you. 🔥

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Sales + Confidence = Momentum Confident salespeople: 1. Build trust with customers. 2. Stay in control of the conversation. 3. Enhance the effectiveness of a pitch. Be confident. Build momentum.

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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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Sales is a game, here are my 2024 rules: Quota - 960K Accounts - 300 Active Customers - 20 Active New Logos Opportunities - 18 𝐆𝐨𝐚𝐥? Inv time where there’s the highest revenue impact, in the shortest amount of time. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦? You have 300+ accounts. You don't know where to start. You have to find high-intent (and large) accounts + high-intent prospects. 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧(𝐬)? 1. Tier accounts with precision. Categorize my 1,000 accounts into Marquee, Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. This is determined by Size of Prize + ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), aka how great of a fit they look like for our solution. 2. Identify intent with technology. UserGems 💎 (previous champions that joined my accounts) close at a 30% higher rate. I start there. I also look for other signals: Web activity, content downloads, sales hiring, new CRO/VP Sales, and previous opportunities. 3. Maximize revenue-generating activities. Spend 80% of your time in these 2 buckets: -Generating pipeline -Advancing pipeline Color code your schedule revenue-generating vs. not... learned that from Salman Mohiuddin this week. Everyone can play the game differently and see success That's the best part about it Happy friday all ✌️

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This is a good reminder for buyers and sellers alike. In this line of work it's imperative to understand the psychology of a buyer that is ghosting a sales rep (often times after productive interactions). In my career I've come to a few conclussion: Human beings inharently dislike telling people no. Give them a very compelling reason to re-engage while allowing them an easy out to politely decline without awkwardness. Give them space (not too much) after the first couple follow up attempts. Often buyers have a lot on their plate. Give it a week or two. Perfect your breakup message. I have found that often times buyers will finally respond to a breakup message. ALWAYS defer to the phone as your primary method of contact in sales unless specifically told not to by the client. Always ask for feedback so you can learn from that engagement and continue to evolve your salesmanship ability. Know when to let go and make it a priority as a sales professional to learn how to forget and move on.

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The #Salesblazer community is launching NEW biweekly coffee chats and would love for you to join! 🎉 💙 Up first on June 18: How to make outbound sales work for you in 2024. Jason Bay, CEO of Outbound Squad with 15+ years of sales experience, will be taking the mic, so make sure you attend! 🙌 Here’s how to participate: 1. Join the #june-18-coffee-chat channel in the Salesblazer Community on Slack. Not a member of the Community yet? Fix that here: https://sforce.co/June18CC 2. Ask your outbound prospecting questions in the channel above before the coffee chat starts. 3. You’ll be notified to join the huddle when it kicks off June 18 @ 1pm ET. 4. Grab your coffee and join as soon as you’re notified — capacity is limited to 200, and it’s first come, first served.

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With the amount of information available, final pre-call research used to take me hours the night before important meetings. It was a guaranteed way to cut through the noise and stand out against 15 other seller calls an exec had that day. Over-prepare, deliver with confidence, and the results will follow. It worked. Lately, I've been using ChatGPT to inform outreach and quickly make messaging more impactful -- building custom models for each account. This takes time to set up, but it's a no brainer for strategic customers or top prospects to cut down research time while improving relevancy. I'm evolving the strategy, but phase one looked like this: 1. Collect important investor materials → 10K, 10Q, Earnings transcripts, Investor Summit PDFs, Leadership bios, top news articles. 2. Create GPT → Upload docs and ask to familiarize with materials, your role, and mutual goals you're working towards with the customer 3. Draft a series of prompts → Provide clarity around your market, platform, and typical customer value points. Start simple:   • I work in sales for [x company] and we provide [x service]. Customers usually see value in these areas: [driver 1], [driver 2], [driver 3].  • Typically, our customers are most interested in solving [pain point 1], [pain point 2], or [pain point 3].  • Our website can be found at [website]. (helps to include individual product pages where applicable) • Based on the information shared, will plan to ask a series of follow up questions to validate how our solutions can benefit [x company]. Does this sound ok? 4. Save as [Customer Name] GPT Model  → Repeat for each customer and save in personal ChatGPT environment for future promoting. You now have unique GPT models, each with advanced knowledge of your top customers or prospects -- contextualized around your offerings. Let's test it out. Ask a few questions: • Knowing that I work in sales for [your company name], what opportunities should I focus on when talking with [customer/prospect company name]? • Given your knowledge of [your company name], what strategic initiatives could we most likely impact at [customer/prospect company name]? • What are some of the top risk factors challenging [customer/prospect company name] this year? Next time you have an EB or Go-No-Go call and need to understand positive business outcomes leadership could be evaluating them on... boom! Want to make sure your POV is targeted, based on C-Level strategic initiatives... here you go! Care to see if they were featured in any podcast, video, or interview... and what points may be useful... ask GPT! AI + Automation is changing the way we work, and sales is no exception. Sure beats my old method of CTRL + F searches on SeekingAlpha transcripts. 🔍 Give this a try and let me know what you think. Any other GPT tips for sales?

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I did an informal poll on CSM vs Sales commission splits. I was pleasantly shocked to see over 95% of companies do not have Sales take a commission on renewals unless it’s a particularly challenging one, the AE is there to help with it as a “bounty renewal”. in this case, the AE gets a % but not taken from the CSM. Other interesting data points : "Commission on upsells and renewal made up 30% of the total compensation package. However, the exact commission % was determined by dividing the 30% by $$$ into the total ARR managed by the CSM." What metrics should this be based on? Most followed this model to Typically companies that are earlier in their CS maturity will base this off a few leading indicators(adoption milestones, EBRs, etc.), and then move to comping on lagging indicators(retention, expansion, NRR, etc.) once their leading indicator activities have been proven. The following are examples of metrics you can use, not an exhaustive list: Leading: QBRs and/or EBRs (attained vs scheduled) Product adoption milestones (product dependent) Lagging: Net Revenue Retention(NRR) - this is likely the most common Retention Expansion Advocacy (hard to make this scale across large teams and mixed portfolios - this is better as a SPIFF or annual metric to Bonus on) From there you can determine the weight of each metric on the bonus. I'll give an example using a bonus that is achieved by a renewal retention goal and an NRR goal. Criteria for 100% Bonus Attainment: 90% Renewal Retention (50% weight) 125% Net Revenue Retention (50% weight) "This keeps it pretty simple with two priorities. Retain and Expand Revenue. The Retention goal being assessed separately ensures CSMs don't have significant churn masked by massive upsells. In this example, if a CSM had 85% Retention and 115% NRR, they'd end up at 93.22% to goal for their overall commission/variable comp."

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One question we like to ask all the execs that join After Earnings (from Morning Brew ☕️) is: "What metrics should investors be looking at?" It's such a basic question, but an important one for retail investors who are trying to analyze and evaluate companies across a ton of different sectors and categories. For SaaS it may be total subscribers or new vertical penetration; for EV manufacturers it could be placed orders or shipments; for pharma, it's sales and clinical trial progress; for platform companies, it's cross-selling momentum and average contract size, etc. The result us that our listeners can understand the dynamics of broader sets of businesses through the lens of one specific company.

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The average SDR is making $85,000 The average SMB AE is making $130,000 a year. The average MM AE is making $165,000 a year. If you crush it as an SDR, are at a company that actually promotes top talent, and continue to perform as an AE you can literally double your income in just a few years. How cool is that? I teamed up with RepVue and put together a few resources with some more details on salaries based on roles... check it out. SDR salaries & a list of high paying SDR Roles: https://lnkd.in/gqfUbnqR SMB AE salaries & a list of high paying SMB Roles: https://lnkd.in/gcpnQ_Xt Mid-Market AE salaries & a list of high paying MM Roles: https://lnkd.in/gPd-RHCb Ent AE salaries & a list of high paying Ent Roles: https://lnkd.in/gibqD9Gv

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