David Wilkins’ Post

New VP of Sales? Here are 5 things you can do to make impact in 30 days or less. No dashboards needed. 1. Hire quickly. Fill the open positions with people from your network. 2. Find one metric (besides bookings) and move it. For example: new demos scheduled. You have about one sales cycle, or a month if your sales cycle is < 30 days. 3. Manufacture sales velocity by focusing on bright spots. Celebrate the wins and earn the good will of your new team. 4. Get on the phone with customers. No Shadowing. Actually talk to the customers. In person is better if you can swing it. 5. Establish an "operating rhythm" for the sales team. How often does the team meet? What do you talk about? What are your expectations for internal meetings. Be clear about which meetings are required, make all other meetings optional. Or cancel the meetings (this is a better option). BONUS: create a "call camp" for anyone who wants coaching on their recorded calls. Run it every week at the same time and invite your team to show up and support each other. The VP of Sales is a hard job. You are expected to make a big impact in a short amount of time. Instead of rushing to the dashboards, get your hands dirty and start putting your fingerprints on the sales organization.

Struggling with unqualified leads? We help businesses like yours slash lead qualification time and fill your sales pipeline with targeted prospects ready to buy. Our solution: Pre-qualified leads by industry, tech, and decision-maker level. Actionable data insights to prioritize outreach. Focus on closing deals with qualified prospects. Benefits: Increased Sales Shorter Sales Cycles Happier Sales Team

Ever wondered how to navigate your sales process smoothly? Picture this: you're cruising through your pipeline, hitting all the right marks, and suddenly, you spot a true opportunity gleaming on the horizon. At Pipeline Signals, we understand the importance of driving through your sales process at the perfect velocity, matching your natural win rates every step of the way. - Step one: identify your total adjustable market. - Step two: segment those accounts based on momentum. - Step three: quarterly reanalysis to ensure you're devouring parked accounts and organically growing your drive accounts. Ready to accelerate your sales journey? Click the link pipelinesignals.com to learn more! Jamie Shanks, CEO - Pipeline Signals - Get Levrg - Sales for Life Please Like, Comment, and Share my Content. If you're not connected to me, Follow or Connect. #sales #socialselling #salesenablement

"I'm an engineer, not a salesperson" - The dangerous lie that cost my client $2M+ in lost revenue. Here's what happened... ' A technical founder with an incredible security product refused to join sales calls. "That's why we hire salespeople," he said. But after 6 months: 3 failed sales hires Burn rate through the roof Zero >100k deals closed The truth? Early-stage founders ARE the best salespeople. Here's why: You built the product - you understand the deep technical challenges You have the vision - no one can tell the story better You can make real-time product decisions Customers trust founder-led conversations more After shifting to founder-inclusive sales calls: Closed $1.2M ARR deal with a Fortune 500 Shortened sales cycle by 68% Improved close rates by 3x The reality: Every pitch to investors was a sales call. Every hire was a sales call. You're already selling - just embrace it. 🔑 Key Lesson: In early-stage pre series-A SaaS, technical expertise + founder credibility beats pure sales skills every time. What's your experience with early-stage founder-inclusive sales? Drop a comment below 👇

Numbers look good on paper, don't they? 100 leads here, 200 opportunities there. But let's be honest - when was the last time you really looked at those leads? Not just the numbers, but the actual prospects. Their engagement. Their last meaningful interaction. The truth? Most of those "opportunities" haven't responded in months. They're just sitting there, clogging up your pipeline, making your forecasts look good. But false hope doesn't close deals. And inflated pipelines don't hit revenue targets. Maybe it's time for a reality check. Because a clean pipeline with real opportunities beats a bloated one with dead leads every time. Want to know what your pipeline really looks like?

Ever wondered how to navigate your sales process smoothly? Picture this: you're cruising through your pipeline, hitting all the right marks, and suddenly, you spot a true opportunity gleaming on the horizon. At Pipeline Signals, we understand the importance of driving through your sales process at the perfect velocity, matching your natural win rates every step of the way. Step one: identify your total adjustable market. Step two: segment those accounts based on momentum. Step three: quarterly reanalysis to ensure you're devouring parked accounts and organically growing your drive accounts. Ready to accelerate your sales journey? Click the link pipelinesignals.com to learn more! Jamie Shanks, CEO - Pipeline Signals - Get Levrg - Sales for Life Please Like, Comment, and Share my Content. If you're not connected to me, Follow or Connect. #sales #socialselling #salesenablement

"Closed-Lost" isn't the worst part of sales. Zero activity for 6+ months and still in pipe & forecast is. There are an excessive amount of sales organizations right now experiencing win rates below 10%. A large number of these are founded in the ability of the rep to make a compelling case for change. BUT! Some of them are actually founded in a lack of qualification. 🤨 What is a qualified lead? Truly...how is this defined? 😐 What constitutes a qualified opportunity? What are the specific criteria? 🤐 What elements are required within an opportunity to enter the forecast? Answering these 3 questions in detail allows the pipeline to remain healthy. When you don't have these 3 three questions detailed, there is no real protection for the pipeline health, and no real benchmark for when a deal must be moved to closed-lost. The pipeline no longer represents the potential revenue growth of the business. It becomes a sea of hope-ium. 😮💨 If you want to immediately reset your pipe health, start qualifying in and qualifying OUT. #SalesCoreCompetencies

If I were an AE or SDR right now and was looking for a role with more stability and security here’s where I’d look… By and large, companies are prioritizing retaining the customers they do have, and getting more LTV for each and every account. The days of growth at any cost are over (for now). That said, that front line seller role focused on market expansion doesn’t carry the same weight as it used to. Those same skills you used in uncovering pain, building value by aligning pain and goals to solutions, and negotiating are still super valuable in other customer facing revenue generating roles that companies are prioritizing more and more. AEs and SDRs have a clear path into… - Customer Success - Renewals/Retention - Enterprise/Strategic Account Director - Solution Engineer - Business Value Consulting If you’re thinking of doing something new and don’t know where to begin, see about transitioning into one of those roles at your current company.

Are you tired of setting sales goals blindly and struggling to hit your targets? 🤔 It's time to get strategic with your sales planning! Before you can craft an effective sales plan that drives real results, there are 10 essential pieces of information you need to gather: 1️⃣ Company's Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) Target 2️⃣ Starting ARR (your baseline revenue) 3️⃣ Churn Rate (customer/revenue loss) 4️⃣ Expansion ARR (upsell/cross-sell opportunities) 5️⃣ Account Executive (AE) Quotas 6️⃣ AE Ramp Schedule (for new hires) 7️⃣ Number of AEs per Sales Director 8️⃣ Number of SDRs per AE 9️⃣ Number of Customer Success Managers per $2M ARR 🔟 Number of Solutions Engineers per AE Having these 10 data points gives you a solid foundation for setting realistic goals, allocating resources effectively, and forecasting performance accurately. Take the guesswork out of your sales strategy and set your team up for success! 🎯💯 Learn how to gather and leverage these essential metrics by reading our ultimate guide:https://buff.ly/4bS271x

Keeping old, stale deals in your pipeline to keep that number high? Think again! 🤔 Keeping these deals around might make your pipeline look bigger, but It simply creates clutter, making it harder to see the real opportunities—it’s time for a cleanout! A bloated pipeline isn’t just misleading; it skews your forecasts and hampers your ability to focus on genuinely winnable opportunities. 📉👀 RevOps its our job to help keep the pipeline lean and mean. We can set up automated processes to flag or close deals that haven’t shown any activity in a while, ensuring your sales team can focus on hot, actionable opportunities. 🔥🔄 And it doesn’t stop there. With smart reporting, RevOps can provide insights into which deals are genuinely moving and which are just taking up space. This allows you to make informed decisions and strategically drive your sales efforts where they matter most. 📊🎯 Let’s trim the fat from your pipeline and keep your sales efforts sharp and focused! #RevOps #SalesEfficiency #CleanPipeline