Rick Smith’s Post

Here’s a hot take. AEs shouldn’t complain that leads from their SDRs aren’t qualified enough. Your SDRs are hustling on the phones all day long while AEs sit on YouTube waiting for meetings to flow onto your calendar. Oh AEs also get way higher commission that your SDRs get. The solution? --> Create qualification criteria and stick to them. If a lead matches the criteria, your SDR should get compensated for it. --> AEs targets shouldn’t be based on the percentage of opportunities they close, it just motivates them to reject meetings. I promise there’s no harm in AEs taking more calls. Why is it so hard for sales leaders to implement this fairly?

Having AEs qualify meetings, only serves to hurt the SDR Team. And here’s why: Most sales teams lack clear guidelines for their AEs, around what constitutes a “qualified” meeting. And so, best case scenario, their qualifying criteria is ambiguous, highly subjective, & vastly different from AE to AE. Which then forces the SDR team to effectively “roll the dice” when they send these meetings over. With this current model, an SDR’s compensation is at the complete mercy of the AE. Instead, we recommend that you remove the AE from the qualification process - Create a list of firm, objective, & consistent qualifying criteria around what counts as a “qualified meeting”. And pre-qualify your buyers either on your website (inbound), or before an SDR reaches out to them (outbound).

Rethink your sales toolkit with our upcoming webinar on outcome-based selling! 🛠️ Learn practical strategies from Salesforce sales professionals as they teach you how to pitch the future and drive sales. Register now for free: https://lnkd.in/gxAe7gfM

This one is for the sales folks in my network as I see many falling into this trap. When you meet prospects at a trade show, there are different levels of qualification. The tire kickers who accept a badge scan can receive generic follow ups. However, a long and serious discussion with a committed follow up indicates that you will personally follow up to build on your discussion. Anything short and you lose the prospect. DO - Take good notes, follow up with effort and intention showing you listened. - Ensure the follow up is personal and reflects your discussion. - Share the information you committed to share. - Make an intro to a fellow team member if you're not the right person. DON'T - Have an SDR follow up on your behalf without context to the discussion. - Wait several weeks for follow up, priorities change fast. - Bombard the serious prospect with generic marketing material. The number of generic SDR follow ups I have received following serious discussions at a recent trade show far outweighs those who followed up personally. Wondering why your trade show performance isn't great? Evaluate what you did after. Closing a deal in the industrial space starts with the first conversation. It's about building trust. You got the first step right, then threw it away. #sales #manufacturing #automation

God it’s so much fun to run a demo as AE with one account you worked on as a BDR. It’s always the smile and “still here David?”. (Both laughing hehe) Out of context, but these are the 3 ways to transform your Top BDRs into Top AEs: 🧠 Nurture their “hunter” mindest. I see most newly promoted AEs switch off the hunter mindset as they are now fed inbound demos. 👀 Let them have visibility of the full cycle. Sean Hayes knew that as a BDR I would invest easily 3 to 5 hours per week in demo and tech calls. Here I learnt how prospects open up to deeper pains, and how these actually impact business innitiatives. 🎯 Be laser focus on what is an isn’t your ICP If a BDR is as sharp as a swiss knife when choosing accounts, they will turn to be an AE that knows what accounts to prioritize and which will not be good business for your company. These are my 2cents of the day. How is your org helping BDRs to become better AEs? — #b2bsales #salesdevelopment

learned a ton from mor on this approach

When I was a VP of Sales, my best AEs were closing 60-70% of their sales demos. I trained them to focus on 2 things first. 1/ Buyer Persona 2/ Buyer persona use case BUYER PERSONA: → Who are you talking to? → What does their day to day look like? → What do they hate/like about their job → What challenges do they typically face? → Who do they typically work with in the org? → How do they like to work? BUYER PERSONA USE CASE: → What is the situation that triggered the prospect to speak with you? → Are they using a competitor, manual process, or no solution? → What F.U.D. do they have in this scenario? (Fear Uncertainty Doubt)? The only way to sell more products is to help prospects more #helpmedontsellme BTW, here's a list of 24 discovery questions you NEED to ask on calls if you want to level up and close more: https://lnkd.in/edAVrn2v

I've promoted 30+ SDRs to AEs 🥳 (how to do it and hit the ground running) 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲: 1. Learn how to do discovery calls and demos. Study calls. Make this the focus in your 1:1s with you AE buddy. Do mock calls with your peers. Prepare ahead of time so you're not scrambling. 2. Focus on performance. Do whatever it takes to get great results in your current role. Easiest way to stand out and get the opportunity to interview. 3. Know your numbers and strategy. Be able to speak in detail about your results to date, where you stack up, why that is and what you're working on to improve. 𝗢𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲: 1. Commit to working as hard as possible. SDR to AE is the biggest jump in sales in my opinion. Especially if you're selling a complex product with 1, 2 and 3 year commitments. 2. Be super proactive. Ask your manager/team a ton of questions. Loop your manager into calls. Ask them to review calls and give you their harshest feedback. Use every single resource at your disposal. 3. Be ruthless with your calendar. Only go to meetings that are absolutely necessary. This means saying no to things that are great and really blocking time to study, drive revenue and outbound. What tips would you give SDRs looking ot make the jump to AE? - Mike G 👉 Join 5,000+ sellers getting my (free) sales newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/gwQVvVBK

HOW TO END SALES MEETINGS. proper next steps will impact your deals. Here's how to do them properly: SPECIFIC ACTION: They clearly outline what will happen next, such as sending a proposal, scheduling a follow-up call, or setting a demo. DEFINED TIMELINE: hey include a specific date or time for the follow-up, creating urgency and preventing delays. MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY: They involve both parties, ensuring engagement and commitment to the next stage. #sales #b2bsales #salesmeeting

HOW TO END SALES MEETINGS. proper next steps will impact your deals. Here's how to do them properly: SPECIFIC ACTION: They clearly outline what will happen next, such as sending a proposal, scheduling a follow-up call, or setting a demo. DEFINED TIMELINE: hey include a specific date or time for the follow-up, creating urgency and preventing delays. MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY: They involve both parties, ensuring engagement and commitment to the next stage. #sales #b2bsales #salesmeeting