Ruth Davis

The 2024 State of Sales Report from Salesforce just dropped and there's a ton of cool data point to check out. I mention a few interesting points in the clip below including: Who the heck are the 36% of you who would NOT leave their current job for better pay? 😂 😉 You can download the full report here: Link: https://lnkd.in/ePEWegNV

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Sales leader doesn’t figure it out in the first 6 months? Fire em? What does it mean to “figure it out”... Hitting revenue targets that you drafted up on a spreadsheet? If you think hiring a vp of sales is your silver bullet to all revenue problems, there’s a good chance you’re wrong. If they aren’t smashing quota in the first 6 months, maybe take a more holistic view of what’s going on. I know quite a few sales leaders that saw little to no growth for 2,3,5 years then hit huge revenue targets, just here in Utah. Why are we so transactional with sales leaders sometimes?

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Does anyone else laugh when they see software companies offering FREE DEMOS? Maybe we should start charging… But in all seriousness if you’re unhappy with the value or lack their of that Salesforce is providing - let me know and I’ll be happy to hop on a call for a free or paid demo of Salesvue you pick 👍 #sales #demos #salesengagement

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Eight things I learned in Austin last week with the Exit Five team: 1. Tecovas are cowboy boots. TEC OVAS is how you say it. Classic Yankee move. 2. Terry Black's is great. 3. Terry Black's is even better when you're having it hanging with the Exit Five team. 4. We have built something special. Truly a global community. We've done two events now and people have flown in from various parts of the world to attend. But you could feel the energy. Parts of what we felt in Vermont for Drive we felt down in Texas for this meetup. 5. Marketing can never be green 🟩 When the company is red 🟥 Translation: the goal of marketing is to drive revenue for the company. If the company is not hitting the company goals.. how can marketing be hitting the marketing goals? Something is off. 6. There's a great crew of B2B CMOs there and I got to interview three of them on our panel, and credit to Zayo Group CMO Kim Storin for that dose of reality from number 5. 7. You have to get outside of the building. Meet customers. Meet sponsors. Meet members. Meet your peers from the work world. I love social media. I love working in Slack. But we were meant to be around other people and work together, look each other in the eye, share a laugh, a story, etc. We are wired for that. Events are great community enablers. 8. Sponsors who want to break the mold and try new things are the best ones. For this event our sponsor (Customerio) gave away a paddle board, $400 cowboy boots, AirPods, and we tossed in a crisp $100 bill. This made the event super fun (prizes after networking) and we gave away stuff people actually want vs. more swag. And people loved the sponsor for that reason. Good marketing.

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MSP cold outbound sequence. 6 touch points that got the appointment. Touch point #1. Cold Email (opened) Touch point #2. Cold Email #2 (no open) Touch point #3. Cold email #3 (two opens) Touch point #4. Cold email #4 (no open) Touch point #5. Cold call #1 (left vm) Touch point #6. Cold call #2 (connected/meeting set) Here is the EXACT transcript of the opening of the call. She answers: “Her first name” I reply: “Heeeeyyyy first name, this is Manny Vargas calling, I’ve been trying ya via some emails and I haven’t had any luck, but it seems like today is my lucky day, how are you?” She says: “I’m gooood, what can I do for ya?” This was with the CEO of a very large non profit in Pittsburgh, Pa. The deal is still active. Now, is this normal? 6 steps? Not always. But for damn sure if you don’t get going, they never pick up. Oh, another thing. It was a few emails, a voicemail and a simple conversation. If it took 5-10-15 more attempts, so be it. There are LOTS of different sales strategies, one is bound to work for you. :) Let's GROW!

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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.

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Consistent SaaS Sales: getting in front of your economic buyer (EB) before you do a total cost of ownership (TCO) can increase your close rate to 90%. If your champion is not getting you in front of the EB before you create your TCO, then they are likely a coach (or a friend) and not your champion. Building the TCO with your EB is the sweet spot that brings your deals to a close and with larger margins. #sales #selling #enterprisesales #saassales

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Salesforce State of #Sales report is finally out and DAMNNNN the proof is in the pudding folks!!!! Conclusive data showing the shocking truth about the state of the sales profession... Company revenue is WILDLY UP and quota attainment is still WILDLY DOWN... 🤬 The full report is like +30 pages but I'm here to give ya some of the highlights. I CANNOT RECOMMEND ENOUGH TO READ THIS! Salesforce is one of the few companies with enough data to actually pinpoint what's going on in the sales profession. What was most shocking to you? - Growth is back - Quota attainment is now that bad - How many reps actually get 1:1s - Reps are finally getting paid fairly - #1 reason why reps are jumping ship Or something else entirely? Lemme know in the comments! #deathtofluff ☠️ --- Get your hands on the full report here: https://lnkd.in/dFGrQRSU

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David’s S&M as a % of net new ARR is basically the same thing as net new CAC ratio and at 2.3x it’s running high. Even if you back out stock-based compensation (SBC) it’s still running above 2.0x. And these are best-in-class public companies. But despite historical comparisons is 2.0x too much to pay for a $1 of new ARR? It depends, mostly on expansion potential and stickiness. If paired with a high NRR, it works. If paired wtih a low GRR or a short CLT then it might well not. But, more than anything, make sure you look at it both ways — relative to past norms and relative to future value.

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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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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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SaaS leaders tell me the same thing: "We need more leads, but good ones." That's where WMAmerica comes in. We don't do fluff. We do results. When I joined, my mission was simple: help SaaS companies grow fast. Not just any leads, but the right ones. Take one client: They had product-market fit but zero lead flow. In 3 months, we: 1. Boosted qualified leads by 60% 2. Closed 5 new major clients 3. Got them scaling like never before Another founder? Sick of bad leads. We stepped up and: 1. Booked 30+ meetings with perfect prospects in a quarter 2. Grew their revenue by 40% Lead gen is tough, but with the right partner, it's a game-changer. Ready to see results? Let's talk.

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Some sales reps are scared to get a no for a mid to late stage deal. Why? The best sales reps are always trying to get to no. I think it’s probably because then your pipeline will look weak to your leadership or you thought the early stage conversations went so well that you started to count your commission checks. Or you flat out just don’t want to get back to Ground Zero and start prospecting again. Whatever the reason is you need to stop holding onto things that aren’t progressing. They know where to find you if they start to buy. They’re not going to forget about you, so keep them in your tickler and do your due diligence but turn the page on people that are not coming back at you. #sales

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Buyers Want Problem-Solver Vendors Why are VCs and CROs continuing to churn VPs faster than ever to rehire transactional sales leaders when the buyers are screaming... "Help me solve my problems"? Is it unwillingness to bend to the Buyer's journey? Is the thinking that when the rate cuts happen, the M&A capital flows, and it's game over anyway? Transactional vendors will have short life spans now. We speak with so many problem-solving leaders and sellers seeking positions. They tell us they can't find many problem-solving vendors and leaders they want to work with. Does anyone need an introduction to problem-solvers?

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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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Mega dealers vs the rest I’ve spent the best part of the last decade working in hyper growth SaaS (Salesforce & ServiceNow) In that time I’ve worked with & led some incredible sellers, and studied them Here’s what sets the true big deal giants (high 7 and 8 figure ACV deals) apart: 1) Belief They believe almost fanatically in their pursuit and ability to help their customer fix big problems They inherently also understand that they must focus. This is important as it shows 2) It’s on them - they take FULL responsibility They show up, and understand that the buck stops with them No excuses 3) They go together, not alone. They understand that an unfair share of resource on their customer will lead to oversized reward As such they recruit people (at all levels) to their cause Lead without authority And orchestrate for success Whether the markets good, or bad these people deliver time & time again Right now I think there’s a lot to learn in this!

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Your Sales to CS handoff process needs work. Call Comcast and you'll get a full lesson in how not to treat customers. Ask them to go through a bunch of prompts and repeat the issue 20x before speaking to an agent. You are probably thinking: well our process isn't THAT bad. Are you sure? I bet your process looks something like this: 1. Someone submits a lead or responds to an outbound message (information sharing 1) 2. A BDR follows up to qualify them and set a meeting (person 1, information sharing 2) 3. An AE sets up a Discovery meeting (person 2, information sharing 3) 4. 60-90 day sales cycle (information sharing 4-5) 5. Closed won, handed to implementation for 30 days (person 3, information sharing 6) 6. Moved over to CS (person 4, information sharing 7) Imagine the frustration customers have when they have to share the same info (company information, business problems, etc.) 7 times to 4 different people. It sucks! I had a great time talking about the broken handoff processes in SaaS with Cory Pitt on the Wiser AI podcast.

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Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin know a thing or two about what it takes to rapidly grow a business. Ross helped grow Salesforce.com’s outbound sales efforts from $0 to $100 million in a few short years. Lemkin built and sold his company Echosign to Adobe for millions of dollars and now invests in other rap-idly growing companies. This book summary covers how they did it. To listen click on Wednesday-Thursday, https://lnkd.in/gwNMWbY #BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship #StartupSuccess #SalesStrategies #BookSummary #GrowthHacking

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