Scott Sambucci’s Post

Have you experienced Imposter Syndrome? I do...🤚 23 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐫. In my initial days (8 years back), I got this feeling like I don’t belong at the table, like I'm just faking it. That was the imposter syndrome for me. And believe me, it can be a sign of growth. If you feel out of your league, it means you’re pushing boundaries and stepping into new territory. So, embrace it! It’s a sign you’re leveling up. You’ll face setbacks, rejections, and challenges along the way. But it’s not about the setbacks - it’s about how you bounce back. Come strong the next day, pick your phone, make more genuine connections, setup your meetings, and start closing deals. Doesn't matter how long it takes, coz once you crack your 1st deal, you get 100% of your confidence back and that matters the most. Everyone get this feeling and I know it.🧐 #careergrowth #sales #customersuccess #saas #crm #marketing #whysales #startup

Reason 1,059 why I'm a convert to the concept of team quotas vs individual. You level up SO much faster. Today we had a call review and it was my turn to be on display. From my past life, typically these meeting are kinda worthless. None of the team thinks about them and provides well thought out feedback EXCEPT for the sales manager on the call. You just go through the motions to say that you contributed to the call review. But when you're on a team quota your paycheck thrives or dies based on everyones inputs not just yours. You get WAY better feedback from everyone. Because the reality is if I fail, they fail. Fun to see how this new model is helping me to level up daily vs past models I have worked under. My team WANTS me to get better, they EXPECT me to get better and they are bought in to MAKING me better. You don't really see that when you have an individual quota (at least in my past 7ish years in SaaS sales) PS, the "that's what team leads and managers are for" is a cop out. I have had plenty of amazing team leads and managers but never had this much growth except for the first year of my SaaS career. I firmly believe it's a bandaid.

Needs to recharge for effective sales!

I've worked with a number of start-ups over the past few years. Some of which have full sales teams and other that were still finding their sales process. I found that many founders tend to blame their sales people for not hitting quota. This is totally fine if one person isn’t performing and the others are. However, when the sales numbers are inconsistent and the sales strategy has been hire and fire until it works, then there’s a problem bigger than the sales person/s. In a younger start-up it may be; - Lack of product market fit and ICP validation. - Offer isn’t sweet enough. - insufficient product and sales training for the team. - There is no repeatable sales process. For older start-ups it may be; - Lack of sales training for the team. - Product hasn’t been updated in a while. - Competitors have stronger offers. - Marketing isn’t performing. - Founders have given up. A true phenomenon. I once worked with a company like this. It’s founders had given up and the whole team - not just sales, were slowly but surely giving up. The truth is there are many reason why sales teams don’t perform. If it’s one or two salespeople every now and then, the problem lies with them. However, if it’s a consistent issue then you need to look at yourself as a founder and ask yourself where your product is lacking and how it can be improved to sell better. An army is only as good as its general. Remember this before you do your sales people dirty.

"He was our top performer. We wanted him to lead the team and gave him the manager role, but now he is quitting." A familiar scenario? Let me break down why turning your sales superstar into a manager isn't always the natural transition as it seems. You know that top seller who's crushing their numbers, hitting +100%, QoQ? Well, being awesome at sales doesn't automatically mean they'll rock at managing a team. It's kind of like being a great cricket player – just because he can hit centuries in every other match doesn't mean he can lead a team to victory. Here's what happens, as I see it: They're used to being the hero - letting others take the spotlight can be tough Teaching is a whole different ballgame than doing They might get frustrated when their team doesn't close deals "their way" The admin work? Totally waste of time and boring work for someone who lives for the chase Managing former buddies is awkward (try telling your Friday happy hour crew they are not performing!) They might prefer to be in the warzone to "save" deals instead of letting their team learn Strategy meetings and forecasting aren't as thrilling as closing big deals Sometimes they're actually making more money selling than they would managing They often struggle transitioning from "me" to "we" thinking Their natural sales instincts might be so ingrained they can't explain their secret sauce to others They need transition time. They need coaching. A mental prep for a few months. They need a shift in their mindset from "me" to "we", this takes time. So, its a tough situation as you wouldn't want to lose a performer to your competitor. Then there is another bigger challenge, expecting the person to wear two hats - individual performer and team lead. Will talk about it. Have you been in such a situation? What would you do in such a case? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Join 1300+ techpreneurs and tech sales leaders https://lnkd.in/gNREuPUq

I have a question for sales people… Is the word 🚩 HUNGRY 🚩 a red flag for you in a job posting or interview process? Got to sit in on a conversation between 🏄♂️ Scott Leese and Richard Harris™ today for the first time in way too long. The topic was Sales Retention. Among many key takeaways was Scott’s comment about supporting sales people in pursuing income diversification, “if they’re not stressed, they’ll perform better.”  He went on to call the notion that a sales person has to be hungry to hit their full potential “ass backwards leadership and lack of understanding of human psychology.” I could trace a lot of the key discussion points back to a common root in this divide between {hungry vs fed} as drivers for better sales performance (and higher retention rates). I’m curious what your experience has been. In your sales career, including IC and leadership roles, were you most on top of your game when you were: A. Hungry (barely scraping by financially, facing layoffs, having your quota constantly bumped up, being micromanaged) or when you were B. Well fed (supported by sales enablement, comfortably compensated, shown opportunities for career advancement, invested in for professional development)? Bonus question: Which scenario would make you more likely to stay at your current job even if you were offered 10% more cash somewhere else? Same two options as above.

In 2015, I left my six figure job to start a company. It was called Conversature. It was supposed to be what Gong became. 18 mos. later (without a paycheck) we had to close. Gong, at the time, was doing less than $200k in ARR. The CEO reached out to me: "Chris, I heard you are closing. I hope it's not true, but if it is, would love to talk with you about joining us." Five years later we grew the company to a $7.2 billion valuation. 15 life changing sales lessons I learned along the way: 1. WHO matters more than anything in sales. If you're talking to the RIGHT person at the RIGHT account, you can win even with sloppy technique. 2. There are two winners in every deal. The seller that won. And the seller that ejected first before wasting time on something she wasn't going to win. 3. Selling is more about pain than benefits. Money follows pain everywhere it goes. Money only follows positive benefits every once in a while. 4. The 'blend' of people you put together in a deal dictates your success. Be intentional about how you 'craft' the buying committee. 5. Understand the “need behind the need.” Keep peeling back the onion until you get to its core. The first few things customers share are surface-level. 6. Building a business case is more powerful when you measure the cost of inaction than when you measure the positive ROI of your product. 7. Agonize over how you phrase questions. “What are the ripple effects of X challenge on your business?” is better (and less salesy) than “how does that impact you?” 8. Gain access to power by asking “who else is impacted by this challenge?” When your buyer answers, request that they be involved. This has a high hit-rate. 9. Test your champions. Do they get things done? If not, they’re not a champion. Give them “homework.” 10. Things are always changing. If you don’t stay on top of them, you’ll lose the deal. Start every call with “what’s changed since we last spoke?” 11. Social proof is more powerful when the customers you’re showing off are part of your buyer’s “tribe.” Make sure your social proof 'looks' like the buyer you're selling to. 12. You can’t treat discovery calls with inbound deals and outbound deals the same. You have to “earn the right” to discovery with outbound deals. Start outbound deals with a short narrative of the market pain you solve. Then transition: "Enough about the problems we solve, help me understand your challenges." 13. Sell the hell out of next steps. Don’t assume your buyer will show up just because they showed up to the first call. Sell the WHAT, the WHO, and the WHY of the next step. 14. If you’re having trouble quantifying a problem, ask “what metric would solving this most improve?” Bingo. 15. The best questions you’ll ever ask aren’t pre-planned. They’re based on whatever the buyer just said. P.S. Here's 30 SaaS sales scripts I created along the way that close deals even if you stumble and bumble through them: https://lnkd.in/gZcrmSWE

In October, I was burned pretty bad by the corporate world. Being a top performer didn't do much when the company I worked for decided to lay off the whole sales team due to pivoting their business model- the same company that talks about saving the world to the public. I've seen it time and time again.. where companies voted "Best Places to Work" end up being the same ones that do mass layoffs out the blue. I get it, it's business. I realized that when you have your paycheck in someone else's control you will always be subject to that. It's heartbreaking to see all these 'open to work' profiles from hungry professionals who worked hard to elevate a company that spat them out in a heartbeat. After realizing that, I went a different route and pursued a commission-only route in the High Ticket Sales space back in December. All inbound remote sales. I get it, sounds scary. The biggest hesitation I hear on this is the fear of "What happens if there are periods without sales? How are you going to make money?" But when all you have to do is close.. the only real reason for that would be a lack of skillset. A variable completely in your control. So I thought to myself, what belief am I putting out there as a sales professional, a person in charge of putting the ball in the back of the net, if I need to rely on a 'safety net'. So I've decided to document my journey, specifically for other sales reps who have been in the exhausting job hunt in this market. My hope is that it can eventually show these sales reps that there are other ways to provide and not being in financial stress. Instead of having your confidence be dictated by this market, you can have your confidence by believing in yourself, going all in on yourself and going all in on your skillset. I'm 5 months in and while the first few weeks were far from easy, the transformation I've experienced so far has been beyond fulfilling. I've learned more about sales and myself in the last 5 months than I had within all my years working in corporate sales.

📣 Attn: Sales Leaders! You'll want to hear these 4 wealth-building tips... We all know top-performing salespeople who live commission check to commission check. Buying expensive liabilities and outspending their means. Seeing this throughout the sales world, I learned what is 𝗡𝗢𝗧 real wealth-building: → Trading all my time for money → Locking up all my cash in a 401k → Relying solely on a high-earning salary → Waiting until 67 to enjoy my retirement goals These actions 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻'𝘁 going to achieve your wealth goals. Especially if your company downsizes or your commissions get capped. There's a better way... ✅ 𝟰 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿: 1️⃣ - Keep expenses and liabilities low     2️⃣ - Buy hard assets that have a proven ability to double in value faster than your stock portfolio (with unique tax advantages and less volatility)     3️⃣ - Use commissions to invest passively in real estate to accelerate your early/ideal retirement     4️⃣ - Buy back more time that you can spend with family and your passions 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀. 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥. 👉 Ready to learn how this strategy can accelerate the velocity of your capital? ☕ 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗯 𝗮 𝘃𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗲! What other wealth accelerating tips have you used? Sound off in the comments 👇 P.S. - Want to learn how our Limited Partner investors became passive co-owners of our new 52-unit apartment complex in Charlotte? → DM me "𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗩𝗘" to learn more. --------------------------------------------------- I'm on a mission to help high-performing sales leaders 𝘣𝘶𝘺 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 by making sure their investments are 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦. #salesexecutive #sales #realestate #passiveincome