Nicole Afton

Sales teams - Corporate Jargon is on its way out. Here are a few powerful alternatives you can use instead - #salesmemes

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When it comes to the skills and knowledge #SalesEngineers are expected to stay on top of, the math simply doesn't math anymore. Kerry Sokalsky of Tech Sales Mastery lays out the numbers...and they're astounding 🤯 It's time to rewrite the equation. How are different teams incorporating more continuous training and enablement to keep pace with exponentially increasing knowledge requirements for #presales? We'd love to hear your thoughts 👇

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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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Underrated strategy for those running on EOS®: Acquiring an SMB for growth. Why you’re the best buyer (by the numbers): 1. You excel in the EOS® 6 Components. 2. Your leadership team of 3-7 gets it, wants it, and has the capacity. 3. Your 10-15 core processes are documented and followed by all. 4. You track 10-15 key leading and lagging indicators weekly. 5. You’ve been in business 3+ years with a history of revenue and profit. It might be time to consider a Growth Through Acquisition Strategy. You believe in 10x thinking rather than 2x. Interested in exploring further? Send a DM to get a customized Org Analysis + Target Filter to aid you in your acquisition search.

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Here's a great example of what NOT to do related to a price objection. It's also a great way to train your prospects to *never* pay the initial asking price. 👀 This is a follow-up email after I said, "Not now," to a SaaS product demo. (I said I was very interested.) In our book "When They Say No," we discuss the crucial importance of not rushing to discounting as a strategy for getting a yes. In fact, discounting helps erode trust in salespeople. 🙄 If needed, change the offer, which changes the price. And now, thanks to this email, when I am finally ready, I will pay a lower price. 🤑 (And don't get me started on the question of what I was quoted...) #salestip #whentheysayno #GoforNo

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The 10 sales hires you’ll make on your journey to $10M ARR (enterprise sales) 1. The industry hire This person comes with a rolodex and deep problem knowledge. But, no startup experience. They won't be able to sell your product (not a salesperson). Use them as an evangelist, advisor, and referral source instead. 2. The hustler (in a good way) Comes from a Series C/D company in your industry and takes a chance on your startup for career growth. - Pros: Hardworking, full of improvement ideas. - Cons: Their past experience may not translate. They’ll need more guidance than you think. 3. The big company hire Literally. Just. Don't. You will want to hire this person because they “know what good looks like”... but their version relies on brand recognition, marketing budgets, and established buyer relationships you don’t have yet. Expect slow progress and mutual frustration. 4. The player-coach Sometimes you need a bridge hire. This person comes with caveats - they will be more of a leader OR more of an IC. If they lean leader, plan to hire under them within a year—they’ll tire of IC work. If they lean IC, be clear leadership isn’t guaranteed. Provide mentorship or fractional exec support to help them grow into the role. 5. The one who wants to do “strategy” At <$100M ARR, strategy is a skill, not a function. Your best strategy will come from those already on your team. Hire doers who can execute today. 6. The one who is scamming you This person has no idea how to do their job. Maybe they misrepresented their experience, maybe they were good 20 years ago but times have changed. In any case, they aren’t delivering results and show no signs of doing so in the future. 🚩🚩 Watch for long sales cycles, relationship-building that yields no opportunities, or endless strategy tweaks. Cut your losses—they won’t self-correct. 7. The one you hired too soon The most painful! Perhaps you promised a CRO role when you were at the VP stage or set unachievable targets hope they could make it happen. When they realize, they’ll move on. 8. The one you fired too late Ok, even more painful! They likely joined early, but your needs outgrew their skills. You need to accept that keeping them around doesn’t help them or your business. Act decisively—it’s better for everyone. 9. The fractional exec/consultant The right person can transform your company in under a year. The wrong one leads you down the wrong track and can set you back years. Choose someone who has helped companies who sell to your customers, at your stage, and has done it multiple times. 10. The serial startup VP Also transformational if you find the right one. This person has been part of a big success story in your space. You hope they’ll transfer that magic to you. Look for the stage they joined at, and what role they played. Green flag ⛳️ if they can speak to not just what went well, but also what went wrong, what they learned, and what they can’t take credit for. What did I miss?

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Demand and lead gen people: 👇 “We’re drowning in inbound right now.” Sales leadership: 👇 “70% of our salespeople are not on target to hit quota.” Salespeople: 👇 “The leads we get suck and it might as well be cold outreach.” All these things are being said at the same time. 🧐 #saywhatsales #sellbetter

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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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Quality > Quantity There's an art to Sales, but you have to listen to Sales Bites feat. Abby Hafenbredl of Lean Solutions Group this Thursday to find out! Subscribe to Sales Bites by clicking the link in the comments. #JourneyDelivers #SalesBites #Sales #SalesTraining #SalesPodcast

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You're tiering accounts in your new territory.. You have three levels, Tier 1, 2, and 3. Tier 1 - Strong ICP/high propensity to buy, high touch/customization Tier 2 - Decent ICP/medium propensity to buy, blend of custom and automated Tier 3 - Poor ICP or low propensity to buy, high automation Typical distribution of tiering would be something like this: Tier 1 - 10% of accounts Tier 2 - 30% of accounts Tier 3 - 60% of accounts What's the typical distribution you see?

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So you're probably killing your close rate if you build account lists based off of industry, company size, and dynamic signals Why? Fit is not the same thing as in market A friend of mine ran a customer analysis for a major sales engagement platform you have all heard of They told him "We need more B2B SaaS companies" My friend interviewed dozens of people in the company Ran a customer analysis based on what he found And discovered something interesting Industry did not meaningfully predict close rate HOWEVER Companies with sales ops and sales enablement had a 2x higher close rate If you are building your territory lists off 20% differences in close rate (20 vs 24 not 20 vs 40) between industries on Zoominfo... you probably do not understand your ICP What is probably happening is there is some unique difference in team structure, team approach, business model, or tech stack which is not obvious And is MUCH more predictive of close rate Don't fall for this Here's a simple way to solve this Ask your best AEs this question "If you're researching a company that you know for a fact after a discovery call is a PERFECT opportunity, what would you expect to see" What do they see on the website? On the prospects LinkedIn profile On the LinkedIn team page What did they tell you on the discovery call? And yes some of this is dynamic and shows in market indicators But the FIT indicators predict close rate INTENT indicators will probably just predict sales cycle I would rather have a deal I KNOW will close even if it takes a bit longer Especially if you find a 2x lift in close rate or more

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You are not ready! 💸 You don't need more meetings if your WinRate is at 5%. 🎒 You need to train your teams. 💲 Enterprise Sales is not Sales.💲 ☠ And no, reformating BANT and MEDDIC is not an Enterprise Sales process. 😅 You sound junior, unprepared and opportunistic. (see picture below for reference) 🤦🏼‍♂️ It's unfair to your reps to send them out in the field to deal with actual professional Purchasers who expect a certain level of quality for their time investment. 😅 It's equally unfair to the Purchasers, but don't worry, they'll tell you. 💲Investing in building an Enterprise Sales team can be the most fruitful investment you'll make. But to do that, you'll need to deeply understand the segment yourself as a manager and then you need to diligently train your teams. 🤙🏼 If you want tips on how to do that, we should have a chat 🙃

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I love funnels as a model in sales. So much so, that Attained was almost Funnel Foundry. (I think Attained was the right call.) I think they apply everywhere, and can be incredibly impactful as a diagnostic and teaching tool. Each of your results or KPIs as a salesperson are likely influenced by leading indicators. You can’t manufacture that result without executing on those specific actions. This applies to calling, career progression, prospecting, full cycle, and even building elite teams. Let’s use emails as an example. You can’t get replies if your emails aren’t being read. You can’t have people read your emails if they aren’t opened. You won’t get opens if your emails aren’t delivered. Your emails won’t be delivered if you don’t have the right data and follow best practices for deliverability. You can see the funnel emerge. If part of your funnel is broken or underperforming it has a massive impact on the bottom of that funnel, and you have two courses of action 1. Fix your funnel 2. Do a lot more activity to get the output that you want We all read each other’s posts on here - we know that more volume is simply not the answer these days. So fix your funnels. BDRs - if your numbers in certain areas are lacking, start looking up the funnel. Leaders - take the time to determine what is actually broken with your team, and spend time coaching on specific parts of your rep’s funnels. What do we think about funnels? Anyone interested in me sharing more on how I use funnels to build successful BDR teams?

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Subject lines matter Word count matters Deliverability matters Formatting matters It’s easy to get lost in crafting the perfect email But what matters most? ✅ Whether your message resonates with your prospect (is it relevant) ✅ Are you highlighting a potential problem they should solve now and why it’s better than the status quo 👉🏼Don’t feature dump your prospect in an email I’d rather see a problem solving dump than a feature dump The difference? One focuses on what your solution is and other focuses on what it solves for Which do you think your prospect cares more about? #sdr #sales

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This template provides a four-week training schedule for a new SDR - onboard them in a structured way and see the benefits. Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AV2ow #WeekTrainingTimetable #SdrHires #SalesTeam #TypicalTrainingSchedule #sdr #everythingoutbound

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Control vs Influence is a major roadblock for sales leaders. Many sales leaders are accustomed to controlling every aspect of the sales process. They set the goals, dictate the strategy, and manage their teams closely to ensure everything goes according to plan. This control-driven approach can make partnerships seem daunting because partnerships inherently require a level of influence rather than control. The fear of losing control is understandable, but it’s also a barrier to growth. Embracing #partnerships requires sales leaders to step back from the need to control every detail and instead focus on influencing outcomes through collaboration.

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Salespeople have a cheat code for promotions: their contributions are visibly tied to revenue. If you're not a salesperson, you can use this cheat code instead. It'll transform awkward compensation discussions into positive conversations that both parties look forward to. // Step 1: Inventory your projects, tasks, and responsibilities. // Step 2: Identify your ROI. Determine how you directly or indirectly impact the bottom line. // Step 3: Steer towards tasks with a higher and more direct ROI. // Step 4: Monitor your progress and make adjustments as needed. Check out this video where I walk you through the process with a real example of what I've done: https://lnkd.in/dEje7ZpG ____ 💡  Additional tips for identifying your ROI in non-sales roles 💡 - Calculate the time savings your efforts have enabled. - Determine your contribution (as a % of the total) to the revenue-generating or saving activities you’re on the periphery. - Assess how your actions have prevented company losses (the cost of corporate reputational damage, etc.) - Use reports to quantify how your unique approaches contribute to the organization's financial health. ❗WHY IT MATTERS: Numbers are impartial, removing emotions from compensation discussions. If there's disagreement over your ROI, the conversation shifts to formula optimization, not personal critique. 💡 Setting a course for higher ROI 💡 - Pinpoint high-value company projects that need your skills - volunteer to assist. - Initially, take on high-value tasks on the side. These can later become your primary responsibilities as your impact becomes evident. - Build cross-functional relationships. Understand colleagues' challenges and double your impact efforts if you're solving similar issues. ❗WHY IT MATTERS: If optimization shows your contributions are not exceeding your compensation, you'll know what to focus on or consider seeking a new role. 💡 Tracking and Acting 💡 - Maintain records of your projects, impact, and positive feedback. Keep it organized for easy access. - Communicate your tracking efforts with your manager to foster collaboration. - Pre-schedule review sessions well in advance. - Commit the time. Set aside 2-10 hours ahead of your review. ❗WHY IT MATTERS: Nobody will carve out time to do this for you, but they'll surely appreciate that you did. Moreover, if you're hesitant to invest 2-10 hours advocating for yourself, why should you expect others to do the same on your behalf? ____ For Managers, this method… 💡 Provides clear justification for compensation adjustments. 💡Supports your advocacy for team members during salary reviews. 💡Offers a roadmap and accountability for those seeking raises, clarifying any discrepancies in pay among similar roles. ___ Have other managers or employees found effective ways to tie performance evaluations to impact?

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