Steve Dickerman

ZoomInfo Copilot is working 24/7 — surfacing important updates you should know about your top accounts.  With breaking alerts delivered via Slack, you'll never miss when a buying group shifts or a key account spikes on intent. 🔔 Have a question about one of your accounts? Ask Copilot's interactive, AI-powered chat and get answers in seconds.  Ready to give Copilot a try? Request a demo: bit.ly/3Kj4myP #ZoomInfoCopilot

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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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Sales folks especially SDRs and AEs I will tell you a hack about how to achieve more in less time ↓ "Start blocking your calendar thoughtfully and strategically every single day" Working out of whims & fancies and adhocism will not get you the desired result you aspire to achieve. You need to have a plan for your day even before starting the day. Every time you block your calendar make sure you block it for a single activity and you define what output you want to achieve out of this activity. Have a time block for at least Prospecting, Identifying new accounts, and Follow-ups on a daily basis, the rest you can block based on your roles and KRAs. Remember: "You cannot control time but you can surely control how you want to spend the time"

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Missing sales quotas? Despite best efforts, a lot of sales teams are set up to struggle. So, sales leaders need to identify and address the root cause. One of the main reasons sellers don't hit quota is inefficient prospecting. Many sellers are bogged down by time spent targeting low-value accounts, as well as scrambling to knit together information about accounts so they can reach the right people and tailor their pitch. These time-sinks steal opportunities to actually SELL. The key lies in shifting focus from merely increasing the number of leads and activities to maximizing the value of activities. Concentrating on quality and qualification rather than quantity empowers sales reps to improve performance and consistently meet their targets. See how better data and AI can help you create leaps in efficiency and ROI: https://okt.to/RxcyLQ

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“Lack of visibility is the enemy of revenue.” Joe Vitalone (Strategic Advisor, Extreme Networks) said this on a recent Clari webinar. And I couldn’t agree more. Without visibility, CROs and revenue leaders: - Miss critical deal insights that could help prevent slippage or loss. - Struggle to set accurate forecasts because they don’t have a full view of the pipeline. - Lose alignment as marketing, sales, and customer success aren’t operating from the same data. - Fail to spot revenue leaks early, allowing problems to grow unnoticed. Visibility isn’t optional for revenue professionals — it's a must-have.

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Many sales organizations spend days or weeks on account prioritization and territory planning exercises. There's got to be a better way... If you're heading to Gartner CSO next week, don't miss Ami Arad's presentation on May 21 at 2:05pm! He'll contrast the traditional ways sellers prioritize their accounts and the new way made possible through buyer intent and predictive models. Get the details here: https://okt.to/GhFXdQ

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Most sales people who try cold calling are unsuccessful - fact Messaging is a key part of being successful with cold calling - fact Most sales people are equipped with bad messaging - my opinion It’s like using bad tires and expecting to win a nascar race. Bad messaging looks like this: -We are the best in this category. -We have 10 megatons of data or any quantity of anything. -CROs come to us when they need help with growth. -What’s top of mind for you in 2025? If companies want to be successful with cold calling they need to bring their A game with every aspect. That begins with messaging. Did you like the messaging they gave you? #sales #coldcalling #messaging

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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

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Prospecting just got a whole lot easier. ✨ ZoomInfo Copilot connects you to the right buyers at the right time, so you don't have to spend hours searching for your next lead. Request a demo to see Copilot in action: bit.ly/3Vj9RCS #ZoomInfoCopilot

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The decision to use ZoomInfo has never been easier. 🚀 But just in case you're still on the fence, hear it straight from the source! Check out the customer testimonials at the link below.

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Revenue pros need to get ahead of the renewal conversation. Don’t take your renewals for granted. Instead: (1) Understand what’s going on with the business. Where are they winning and where are they struggling? (2) Demonstrate the impact you’ve had on their business. Make the case for renewal plain and simple. (3) Bring a point of view to the renewal conversation. This may mean restructuring to find an agreement that works for everyone. How are you getting ahead of renewals?

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I used to see this sequence play out way too often in early sales cycles... • Work tirelessly to research a top account • Collect company and stakeholder intel • Craft intelligent POV and internal prep • Deliver tailored pitch that seems to hit • Move to a choreographed product demo • Receive perfect feedback from buyers • Agree to "reconnect around next steps" • Follow up immediately and relentlessly • Realize you're being ghosted and move on Today, I have a better system to maintain mutual alignment through our evaluation together. We work closely, vendor and customer, during each stage and collectively unlock gates once certain information is gathered. Expectations and steps are laid out early, typically at the end of our first POV read out. Both parties can choose to stop or pause the evaluation at any point, for any reason. Until then, we partner hand-in-hand to drive the evaluation forward and include new team members from each side as we move through. This unlocks a level of mutual respect and accountability. It's typically been received well and appreciated by customers. We all have limited time, and this is a way to maintain focus so neither side is wasting hours. Give it a shot, and see how your mid-stage meeting numbers (and impact) grow. --- PS: I've been posting about sales motivation, mindset, and anything else relevant from my 15+ years selling SaaS. Follow for more. Pic from a morning garden view as I gathered thoughts for a sunny day ahead. 🌺🌞

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Great post (...and I need that knife) on the topic of quota attainment and the impact it has on sales. While in this post it's about sales interviewees asking about it, it is important to realize that this is #SalesOps / #Revops as well as sales leaders' role to make them fair and achievable. But why do you rarely hear about any companies that really do this right? More often than not, the miss is that the incentive compensation plan is great, an awesome plan, opportunity to make great money, but....the quota makes hitting it unachievable. #SalesPlanning is the connective tissue between your #ICM solution and finance, and too often it is still managed in EXCEL! Quick Fact: If sales turnover averages 35%, many orgs have reps leaving and joining every day so when doing the annual sales planning, it can't even be completed before it needs to change and this process goes on daily throughout the year, a big reason why it is so often a miss. Oh and did I mention no data to inform the decisions the front line sales managers have to make? #TakeFinanceFurther #CFO #CRO

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11 things world-class sales development teams DO—and what the worst teams DON’T Insights from... → Outbound Squad's experience working with world-class teams at Gong, Shopify, Rippling, and more → Orum's 2024 State of Sales Development report Commentary on how the best sales development teams... ✅ Use AI responsibly ✅ Retain top talent SDRs ✅ Align with AEs ✅ Deal with low-pick up rates ✅ And plenty more 👇 P.S. Watch this video for our full commentary: https://lnkd.in/eBFYfnU3

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Converting your AEs to start sourcing a majority of their own pipeline might not be such a good idea and here’s why: Typically this transition fails for three main reasons: 1) The pipe gen goal that’s assigned is completely made up and is based on the financial model and not relevant sales data 2) You don’t have the right resources in place including an airtight ICP, deep understanding of your persona, the right messaging or tech stack  3) Typically exec or senior level leaders are disconnected from the realities of how difficult cold outreach really is and don’t give the campaign enough time to be successful Here’s what you can do to give yourself a better chance at success: 1) Pick a few key data points to track (such as number of accounts worked, positive contacts, opportunities created, pipeline generated, closed won $$$s) and benchmark these over a period of time that makes sense for your sales cycle. Use this data set to understand what is or isn’t working and make adjustments from there. 2) Start with a small campaign to select accounts within your ICP using targeted messaging and an intriguing offer 3) Cold outreach is a team sport, get your execs and senior leaders involved by having them look through your target account list and see if there are any doors they can open from their network 4) Have some fun while doing it, celebrate the wins along the way! What do you think?

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There’s a conundrum when it comes to measuring sales training impact… I’ve worked with a lot of enablement teams that use leading indicators to measure training impact: Workshop Attendance Gong Recordings SFDC Hygiene Rep Surveys The problem: There’s no clear way to connect these metrics to business outcomes. Then, on the other side, you have teams that focus mainly on lagging indicators: Win Rate Pipeline Creation Sales Cycle Length Average Contract Value The problem: It takes a minimum of 3 months to see any results, and even if you do, no one believes that the changes can be attributed to sales training. Basically, if you focus too far down the funnel, no one believes you, but if you focus too far up the funnel, no one cares. Here are the only 3 questions you need to be able to answer to know if your training worked: 1/ Did reps use the training? Did they show up and engage during the session? Are they practicing the skills covered? Are their skills improving as a result of practice? 2/ Is there a clear change in outputs as a result of the new behavior? This is where you can think about leading indicators like (talk ratio, buyer engagement, and business case creation) 3/ Did the the new behavior lead to a change in key outcomes. This is where you tie a thread from the leading indicator to the lagging indicator. (Eg. What’s our win-rate on opportunities that include a business case?) The team over at Replicate Labs are taking what used to be a long drawn out process of measuring impact (that involved lots of help from RevOps), and turning it into a few simple steps. They’ve built one of the only training adoption platforms I’ve seen that allows you to see how practice produces outputs that lead to outcomes. If you’re tired of relying on surveys or waiting 3+ months to see results that no one believes your team influenced, reach out to James Pursey, and see for yourself.

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