Dreamdata

Dreamdata helps organisations discover what really impacts revenue, so they can scale faster and more efficiently with complete confidence.

By providing our customers with a holistic overview of their customer journeys, we enable them to isolate areas of waste within marketing spend, and redirect that budget to areas that are working.

Senior Account Executive

Sales Players

Sales Players is an international network of tech sales professionals dedicated to sales excellence and personal development.

We run weekly workshops, meet-ups and coaching sessions for salespeople of all levels where we share challenges, debate and learn from each other.

It's totally free to join, so sign up today and don't forget to invite your friends and colleagues too.

Founder & Chief Sales Coach

Ocean.io

Responsible for the leadership of the international sales and operations teams, and working closely with the CEO and COO on the strategy behind driving the organization's ambitious growth goals.

After scaling and restructuring the sales team, I successfully built a full BDR, SDR, and AE unit that was responsible for inbound and outbound customer acquisition.

This team delivered 7x AOV and MRR within 12 months and transitioned from SMB into Enterprise sales, resulting in the organization raising a $7M Series A funding round.

This was a hands-on role where I also spent 3 months as an Enterprise Account Executive during our transition, helping to land brands including Sony, Brandwatch and UserTesting.

"I worked very closely with David at Ocean. David is a very skilled and experienced SaaS sales leader with profound knowledge of all aspects of GTM for a tech company.

David showed genuine leadership with his team and was always on top of the operational aspects of sales. I strongly recommend him as a very powerful sales leader who can create an impact where it matters."

Michael Heiberg – Founder & CEO at Ocean.io

Vice President of Global Sales

DCW Sales Coaching

Hired as an external sales trainer and leadership coach to assist in the coaching and development of commercial teams, and create a coaching culture within multiple fast-growing tech startups.

My key responsibilities included developing new hire training programs, one-to-one employee coaching, building complete sales training programs, and providing sales leadership coaching to the senior leadership teams to ensure objectives were achieved.

I have also worked with many early-stage startup founders, helping them with sales training, recruitment and general startup advisory.

My clients have included Siteimprove, Clerk.io, SDL, Falcon.io (Brandwatch), ChurchDesk, Seven Career Coaching, GenieBelt, eMagCreator (Keepit), Mitek Systems, Safe Online, Xebia and others.

Sales & Leadership Coach | Startup Consultant

Waimea Digital

Established the UKI headquarters and was responsible for the Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy and day-to-day management of the business.

Helped the business grow from 0-14 employees, using a limited budget to recruit a team of junior sales executives who successfully acquired a strong local portfolio of clients in a competitive industry.

Waimea Digital was acquired by Standoutmedia in 2020.

Vice President of Sales (UKI)

Trustpilot

Responsible for the instructional design and delivery of the company's talent development framework, including the new hire academy, sales training, technical product training, coaching and skills assessment frameworks.

My role involved weekly hands-on alignment with senior management to ensure new and existing talent was fully trained, measured, nurtured and retained.

During my time, I successfully onboarded and developed over 200 new hires, helping Trustpilot grow from 168 people to over 400 people, and go from a Series A to a $73.5 Million Series D round.

"David is among the strongest sales trainers and coaches I have ever come across…perhaps THE strongest!

Why? – Because he gets it. He understands how training and coaching works!

During my time with Trustpilot, David was responsible for delivering the entire learning curriculum across our offices in Copenhagen and London, and enhanced our sales performance throughout 2014.

In his work, he facilitated learning to perfection, developed participants’ competencies and helped employees meet specified performance expectations.

He truly understood the importance of linking our organisation’s needs to organisational results, and he improved job performance by coaching participants and ensuring learning translated into performance.

His questioning technique is superb, and he is a natural at supporting employees in setting appropriate goals and assessing progress toward these goals.

Being a keen observer, he listens and asks questions to understand the situation, and he encourages commitment to action for lasting personal growth & change.

As a person, David is always on the path to learning something new. He seeks perfection in his people skills and mindset and always seeks to increase his knowledge.

He is self-confident, assertive, resourceful, and straight-talking, and he enjoys taking on new challenges"

Aki Palikaras – Global Head of HR at Trustpilot

Head Of Sales Training & Development

eMagCreator

Responsible for the implementation and re-structuring of the commercial operations, including the recruitment strategy, training and development framework and CRM structure.

The results of my work resulted in the company being named a Gazelle company by Børsen after doubling growth in 2012.

eMagCreator was acquired by Keepit in 2014.

Zmags

After joining as a Sales Development Representative for the UK market, I successfully transitioned into the Sales Executive (UKI) role, where I acquired over 200 new clients, exceeding my personal sales targets month-on-month by an average of 162%.

I was then handed the responsibility for the go-to-market strategy for European and APAC regions where I helped the business successfully expand into over 35 countries and acquire over 2000 customers.

During my time at Zmags, I was personally responsible for acquiring and retaining over 500 new customers, expanding into 35 countries and generating over $1M in revenue.

Zmags went from bootstrapped startup to raising a Series A & B funding during my tenure before being acquired by the Gores Group in 2014.

Account Executive & Team Lead (EMEA & APAC)

Founder at Sales Players | Senior Account Executive at Dreamdata | Fractional Sales Coach | Author of Stop Talking Start Selling | LinkedIn Top Sales Voice | Passionate about SaaS, Startups, NLP, B2B, GTM, ABM

A seasoned Account Executive and sales coach with almost two decades of experience helping some of the world's fastest-growing tech startups go-to-market (GTM) and scale.

During my career, I have had the pleasure of conduction business with Fortune 500 brands including Sony, Boeing, BP, Samsung, BNP Paribas, Johnson & Johnson, Phillips, Sanofi, BMW and many others.

Today, at Dreamdata, I help B2B SaaS organisations discover what really impacts revenue, so they can scale faster and more efficiently with complete confidence.

By providing our customers with a holistic overview of their customer journeys, we enable marketers to isolate areas of waste within marketing spend, and redirect that budget to areas that are working.

Dreamdata's ability to deliver a comprehensive view of customer journeys and actionable insights makes it invaluable for both Marketing Operations and Revenue Operations.

For Marketing Operations, it streamlines data integration and enhances decision-making, while for Revenue Operations, it provides a unified understanding of the entire revenue funnel.

Some call this marketing attribution, others call it multi-touch attribution, but we prefer to call it the ultimate way of getting more ROI from your marketing 💰

Want to find out more?

Visit: https://dreamdata.io
Email me: david.white@dreamdata.io
Connect and message me on LinkedIn 
Phone: +1 332 455 1985


.............................................

Key skills: Marketing Attribution Models, ROI Measurement, Revenue Tracking, Customer Journey Mapping, Conversion Paths, Attribution Touchpoints, First-Touch Attribution, Last-Touch Attribution, Linear Attribution, U-Shaped Attribution, W-Shaped Attribution, Time Decay Attribution, Algorithmic Attribution, Attribution Weighting, Attribution Metrics, Marketing Mix Modeling, Cross-Channel Attribution, Multi-Channel Attribution, Omni-Channel Attribution, Campaign Effectiveness, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV or LTV), Marketing Funnel Analysis, Sales Funnel Efficiency, MQL to SQL Conversion, Revenue Operations, Closed-Loop Reporting, Ad Spend Optimization

We are looking for 2 AEs in New York 
to finally form a US basketball team.

(you don't have to actually like basketball) 

Even if you are not ready to apply and are considering it: reach out to me, let's do coffee and figure out how much you'll love working with us!


You have to have:
1) 3-5 years of MarTech B2B SaaS Experience, Deals > $25,000
2) Early/Series A Startup experience
3) Experience demoing a highly technical product solo. Big data experience probably a plus.

What we offer: 
1) Proven foothold in a massive market that needs our product with lots of green field. Doubled revenue last year in one of the worst macroeconomic environments for B2B SaaS across the globe. 
2) The first AE's in market, working alongside an established EMEA team that has proven there is demand for the product globally. We're selling effectively from EMEA into the US and your presence in the US will be a huge positive impact to do even better.
3) Outstanding engineering/product team, shipping high quality product incredibly fast. 



(IMPORTANT) 
What I offer personally: 
- protecting you from David Craig White Chat GPT picture crazes
- letting you go for lunch BEFORE 11:30AM even though Alberto Possagno is going to give you sight eyes (he's Italian)
- teaching you to understand Lars dad jokes. I'll do my best at least.



A couple of things we'll look for as added value to the applicant:
- started career as an SDR and was promoted to an AE role.
- worked at least 3 years at one company. 
(we won't exclude you if you don't have the above, but it's a very strong add)

The most important stuff for you:
1) Total OTE between $200k-$240k (50/50)
2) Health Insurance 100% Covered
3) Equity
4) You'll be part of the ride from nearly the start and learn how to build a software company from the ground up. 

Who are you? 👋 


David Craig White

Why nobody will ever be as good as your founding AE.

And why it's difficult to compare.

This is Sander Luckow, founding #AE at Dreamdata.

He started at Dreamdata back in 2020 when the company had little to no presence and very few customers.

It took him a long time to land his first deal, and I know from experience, it's hard damn work being the first sales rep at a #startup.

You often have to rely on #outbound.

You have to convince buyers you won't disappear tomorrow.

You have to sell without customer cases or marketing materials.

The list goes on.

However, if you are the right fit for the job, it's an amazing journey.

And you will forever be the best salesperson in the company.

Sander moves through demo calls like a Rolls Royce on freshly laid tarmac.

He can answer any question thrown at him with confidence.

And he makes buyers feel comfortable they are going to be in good hands.

As a founding sales rep at a startup, you get to watch the product develop from scratch, which is priceless.

You quickly make and learn from your own and the companies mistakes.

You understand exactly how to position your solution.

And so much more.

And these are just a few of the reasons why nobody will ever be like your founding AE, and why it's impossible to compare.

So, here's to Sander and the other founding #sales AEs out there 🍻

P.S. I'll let Sander share the story behind the trophy 😉

New deal review format at MadKudu, we're becoming a meme-first company and Hayden Anderson is giving Chloé Portier a run for her money!!

Millennial jokes aside, there's something deeply interesting about having to put together a meme to summarize a deal:
• simplicity: you can only make 1 point
• pain: the humor of a meme comes from an exaggeration of the perceived pain
• visual: I've noticed our team remembers better the context of a deal when communicated through a meme than a deal sheet.
• chatGPT-safe: putting these memes together is something I haven't seen AI do well yet so maybe this is the final frontier for reps! (Hope springs eternal, right?!)

I highly recommend you try this out, it's much harder than it may seem but it's a fun way to get to share a deal review with the rest of the company!

#b2bsales #dealreview  

It's Friday.

And that means one thing for me.

Time to switch off.

I love my work, sometimes too much.

And for many years, I was really poor at switching off.

Yes, it meant I got sh*t done.

But eventually it burnt me out.

But not because of the hours or chasing the money.

Because of the guilt.

So, one day in the middle of my NLP studies, I realised just how important it was for me to be able to switch off.

And spend time with my family.

Including this little man ❤️ 

Most people come to the office on Monday's feeling tired, lacking energy and motivation.

I come fresh from being totally fulfilled and energised by the rest, love and relaxation from being with my loved ones.

And I highly recommend you do the same.

It's not about how many hours you put into your work.

It's about how much energy you put into it.

Shut off and give it a try this weekend.

You can thank me on Monday 😉

#worklifebalance #motivation #family

This is what it takes to close deals.

And I love it 🚀

It's so easy as a salesperson to say "I closed the deal".

But 'I' is an insult to the rest of the team.

We won a new customer last month, and the following people were all involved in the sales process:

Alberto Possagno - My trusty, more technical other half.
Lars Grønnegaard Hansen - Our CEO
Ole Dallerup - Our CTO
Rune J. - Our technical onboarding maestro
Sarah Pfeiffer - Our legal counsel
Jing Lin - Our data scientist
Steen Voersaa - Our director of product management
Patrick-Ranjit D. Madsen - Our director of engineering
Aleksandar Grbic 👀 - Our tech team lead

And no, this wasn't a $million dollar deal or a whale of a customer.

This is what makes working at Dreamdata and other #startups and scale-ups so damn good sometimes.

Everyone is prepared to dig in and get their hands dirty.

And when you win, it feels so good.

But never forget.

Ever.

To attribute wins to the team, not just yourself.

#winning #sales #teamwork

Holy sh*t 😲

Did LinkedIn just kill the website?

If you didn't know already, LinkedIn just launched "Premium Company Pages"

Not all regions seem to have access yet, but it's on the way.

I have always found it crazy that company pages have had such poor reach on this platform, even for the biggest brands.

The new paid company page option seems to promise some new features such as being able to see who has looked at your page and being able to invite them automatically amongst other features.

And we can only hope and assume this will also mean a change to the algorithm to give company page posts more reach.

But this is yet to be confirmed.

You can read more about the features promised if you go and follow Richard van der Blom who posted about it last week.

The big question if this really does take off is; will it kill the need for some b2b companies to have a website?

There's been quite a few updates in the past months like the ability to add products and see who uses them.

And with such a huge audience all in one place, it would make complete sense for any business whose audience is active here.

It's early days, and it may not turn out to be so ground breaking.

But who knows - it might just have the same impact as having another employee profile actively posting.

Very interested to hear your thoughts on this.

If LinkedIn company pages started giving you the same or more visibility than your current website, would you jump in?

Let me know in the comments 👇🏻

#linkedin #marketing #websites #socialselling

Education doesn't mean sh*t 💩

In #sales and in life.

Without action.

You can read the best sales books in the world.

You can invest $$$$$$ in #salestraining

You can listen to calls from all of the top sales reps in your team.

Plan the best #coldcalling scripts.

Draft the best cold emails.

But you learn nothing until you step into that ring.

Theory will get you certificates.

Practice will get you results.

So put down that sales playbook.

Send that connection request.

Pick up that phone.

Send that email.

And learn.

I hate small talk on sales calls 😩

And people notice.

Last week, one of my colleagues said they'd listened to one of my call recordings the previous evening.

"You don't use any time on small talk at all, do you", they stated.

"No, I absolutely hate it", was my honest response.

Truth is, most buyers hate it too, but 99% are too nice to say so.

Don't get me wrong, I will always be pleasant, use my manners and ask how it's going when I first enter a call and I love genuinely talking with people.

What I don't want to do is talk about the same cliche sh*t like the weather, where someone is located or similar irrelevant topics.

It's boring for me, and repetitive for the buyer who may have been on multiple calls this week having the exact same conversation.

When running a discovery/disco call with a new buyer, you need to run a structured meeting which can easily go beyond the allocated time.

You should be focused on achieving your call objective and respecting your buyers time.

I often listen to sellers spending 5+ minutes on small talk.

That's 17% of a 30 minute meeting or 11% of a 45 minute meeting.

And do you know where this impacts most sellers?

At the end of the call.

This results in you having to rush discussing next steps, pricing and other critical areas of that first meeting.

Or worst case, having no time to cover them at all.

The impact this has on your conversion rates, pipeline accuracy and other areas is huge.

"But how do I build rapport then?" is a common response I get.

You don't build rapport with buyers by talking about the weather.

You build it by actually showing them you care about helping them solve their business problems or achieve their goals.

If you are curious, ask good questions and don't try to force product down the buyers throat, they will appreciate you.

And if you're a good people person, you can crack a joke and build rapport throughout the call.

But you need to analyze the persona infront of you first to get a feeling for how to approach the conversation.

Not everyone wants to be your friend.

But they do want help finding solutions.

I'd love to hear how you buyers out there feel about the cliche rapport building that happens on every sales call.

Let me know your honest thoughts and feelings in the comments

#sales #rapport #smalltalk

How to align sales and marketing 🔥

In 3 words.

Chocolate and candy 🍫

Only joking, that only works short-term.

The long-term solution; Account Based Marketing (ABM)

Aligning sales and marketing is a challenge.

In fact, I've seen it done well only twice in my career.

And you can do it too.

But there's a few things that need to happen:

1. You need leadership buy-in
2. You need to remove egos
3. You need structure and patience

Getting #ABM up and running can be a disruptive process that requires resources and alignment.

It cannot be executed overnight and you will not see the results next week either.

This is obviously where the leadership buy-in and structure and patience are crucial.

ABM will help your business in so many ways you have not thought about.

By coming together and deciding to focus your resources on a niche set of target accounts, everyone starts to run in the same direction.

✅ It focuses marketing and sales on the same goals.
✅ It forces you to sharpen your messaging.
✅ It makes doing outbound much easier.
✅ It gives everyone clear objectives.

We've been doing this already here at Dreamdata for a while now, but we're about to take it to another level and go even more advanced.

And as you can see from the smile on his face, Steffen can't wait.

Let us know how your company is executing ABM in the comments below and how it's working for you 👇🏻

#sales #marketing #abm #saas

Detach yourself from the outcome in sales to see a dramatic impact on your income 👍

How to negotiate the best deal as a buyer 💸

Without being an a**hole.

For some reason, buyers often seem to think they need to be rude and authoritative to get the deal they want.

The complete opposite is true.

If you're rude, and stubborn and expect a discount for no reason other than you expecting a discount, I'd sooner lose the deal.

If the process with you and your team is friendly and efficient with open communication, you're much more likely to get a better deal.

A while back, a friend told me about a buyer who decided to use Vendr to do the negotiations for them.

Bad choice.

The rep at Vendr simply demanded a 30% discount for no reason at all, take it or leave it option.

They didn't even have any price benchmarks to use as leverage.

Nothing.

Amazing strategy 😂 

If you're going to use an external vendor to negotiate deals for you, at least make sure they know how to negotiate.

It always leaves a bad taste in the mouth and destroys any rapport when a buyer uses an external vendor for negotiations or legal procurement, especially if they are just used to hardball you.

It's such a weird process to work with a buyer for months, for them to completely detach themselves during negotiations and procurement, and then come back all friendly again for onboarding.

Use companies that can help with price benchmarking by all means, but don't let them do the negotiations for you.

For example, I've been through similar processes where companies have used Tropic and it's been a smooth, friendly experience.

The customer gets a good deal. We get a happy customer. Tropic have a happy customer.

Win-win-win for all.

So, if you really must use an external vendor to help you negotiate, at least choose one that's interested in helping you get a fair deal more than helping themselves make a commission.

Whatever you decide, just remember, don't be an a**hole.

#sales #negotiations #saas #procurement

Stop comparing LinkedIn Ads with Google Ads

Just stop 🛑

Last week, I was showcasing our customer journeys feature to a marketing professional and he could not hide his delight.

"We've literally not been able to attribute any ROI to our LinkedIn Ads for months and I had to cut it right back," he said.

His leadership team had been micromanaging him and looking purely at vanity metrics and comparing everything to Google Ads.

The chap said he knew the ads were working, but just couldn't prove it.

So, here's the thing.

When you're running Google Ads, you're getting engagements from people who are actively looking for a specific search term.

For example, at Dreamdata, we're running ads that target keywords like 'marketing attribution tool' or 'customer journeys software'.

That means anyone clicking on those ads is very likely to be in the market either right now or relatively soon.

Let's compare this to running ads on LinkedIn.

You create an audience of ideal customer profiles (ICPs) and personas, and you create a set of ads and send them.

There's a very small chance some of the people we reach might be in the market soon, but the majority are not.

It's more comparable to #outbound emailing.

This makes LinkedIn ads more like a branding solution, and most smart leaders understand that branding takes time.

And one of the reasons LinkedIn ads are difficult to measure ROI on is that many people (like me) don't want to be tracked.

I might see your ads or watch your video, but if I come to your website it will be because I go to Google and search for your name or I type your website address straight into my browser.

This means I would normally come in looking like an organic Google search or direct traffic as my first touch.

Thankfully, our marketing partnership with LinkedIn means we can help resolve that problem, but this post isn't a pitch.

It's to stop people out there comparing LinkedIn Ads and Google Ads, because they are totally different.

So, if you're a #founder #ceo or any other type of leader, please listen to your #marketing team when they try telling you why certain channels do not look like they are driving ROI.

LinkedIn Ads works extremely well for many businesses, so why would it not work for yours?

#linkedinads #googleads #attribution

Big Deal Problems 🥴

Queues.

One of the major factors that separates Enterprise sales is the total lack of control you have at times.

I don't care if you are the best, most experienced salesperson with the best champion anyone could ask for.

At some point (usually in procurement), your deal will get stuck.

In a queue longer than your supermarkets at the weekend.

And you can often do absolutely nothing about it.

Nothing.

I once closed an Enterprise deal in 45 days.

That is, if I exclude the 7 months it took for me to get it through IT security procurement 🤡

My champion was amazing.

The business case was absolutely solid.

He had buy-in from his leadership.

Budget was approved.

Nothing else was needed.

But his IT team were old-school, not used to buying #saas and in the middle of testing a new procurement process.

And we were the test dummies.

Thankfully my champion didn't leave and nothing changed int the time it took to get through procurement, and we got the deal done.

But it took a lot of patience, understanding and many weekly forecasting updates to our leadership going over the same story.

But it doesn't always work out this way.

Sometimes your champion leaves right in the middle of procurement.

Sometimes budgets get slashed.

Sometimes someone new starts and brings a competitor.

Sometimes companies get acquired and all purchased are stopped.

The list is endless.

But patience and realistic forecasting can make life easier for you.

Let me hear in the comments about your worst procurement stories and some of the longest sales cycles you've been involved with 👇

#sales #salestraining #salescoaching #procurement #enterprisesales

My 3 favourite #copywriting rules 👇

And a couple of confessions.

We write (or type) a lot in #sales

Think about it.

👉 Cold calling scripts.

👉 Business cases.

👉 Email threads.

👉 Cold emails.

👉 Slack (or Teams)

And yet so few of us learn how to master this communication skill.

Well, let me start with my confessions:

☑ I love writing
☑ I am terrible with grammar

And remember, I have self-published a book.

Strange combination, right?

I became obsessed with copywriting via the TV series Mad Men, because I Google'd who the character of Don Draper was based on.

And I found David Ogilvy, a British chap who created the biggest #advertising agency in the world and a master copywriter.

This led to me consuming a lot of books, content and courses on copywriting for months.

But that story is for another post.

And yes, I am not lying when I say I am (or was) terrible at grammar.

Luckily you can ignore most of the rules of grammar when learning how to master copywriting.

And you can use tools like Grammarly, which helps, a lot.

So don't stop yourself from posting through fear of using bad grammar, because it's not as crucial as you think.

But now to those favourite copywriting rules.

1️⃣ Write as you speak - You will improve your written communication 10x when you learn how to write as you speak.

Try recording yourself next time you answer an email or send a #coldemail and convert it word-for-word into text.

Naturally, those of you who blabber a lot will need to work on your verbal communication skills first 😉

2️⃣ Use short sentences and lots of paragraphs - Learning how to eliminate the filler words in your written communication is a game-changer.

It helps keep your copy sharp and get your message across with clarity, which is absolutely crucial, especially with #outbound sales.

3️⃣ Never send your first draft (or your second) - I once read that in order to write with absolute clarity, you should follow this process:

✅ Write your first draft, and read it back aloud
✅ Reduce it by 50%
✅ Read it back to yourself again
✅ Reduce it by another 50%

And now you should have exactly what you are trying to say.

Honestly, this one is brilliant and my absolute favourite.

Just write exactly what you want to say.

These are just a few of the many game-changing techniques you can acquire when you study copywriting.

And I use them every single day.

So, why not invest a little time to refine this crucial communication skill and see if it has an impact on your life, like it did for me.

P.S. Yes, you can get ChatGPT to write your posts, emails and other content for you, but then you will learn nothing.

Let's not invest our time teaching an AI and forget to teach ourselves.

I've said it many times, and now Lavender 💜 has the stats.

If you're trying to catch the attention of anyone, especially those in leadership roles, keep it short.

I've spent so much time running sales coaching sessions where this has been a repetitive topic, it kills me.

Time is every leaders biggest daily battle, and every second feels like it needs to be used efficiently.

If you can't get your point across in a short sentence, you're done.

Keep your cold emails (and calls) as short and sharp as possible.

Never ever send your first draft, ever.

Focus on outcomes, not benefits.

Use simple language.

Be bold, always.

Good luck.

#salescoaching #coldemails #outbound #sales

How to win in sales in 2024 🚀

Is the same as 2017.

And long before.

A wise man once said in his book:

"On top of your activity levels, you must also create a consistent strategy for how you prospect, including a process for reaching out to your contacts using a variety of channels.

The depth of your process will, of course, depend on how much time you can afford to allocate to each prospect.

I'm often baffled at the lack of variation and creativity in the prospecting methods used by many salespeople.

These methods are frequently one-dimensional and repetitive such as only cold-calling or spending 90% of the time sending emails or messaging via social media platforms.

In today's modern age, if you want to reach people, you stand a much better chance of getting their attention when you diversify your prospecting activity.

As a salesperson, you should see yourself as a branding tool.

You need to put yourself out there.

I'm not saying you need to become a video superstar or create a weekly podcast, but you do need to overcome your fear of approaching people via multiple channels.

You need to call your prospects, leave voicemails, send emails, follow them, connect with them, tweet them, retweet them – do whatever it takes so they remember your name.

Your prospects are busy people.

They could be in the middle of any of a million things.

They may spend a lot of their time in meetings, travelling or working on projects that require complete focus.

They will also have a personal preference for how you approach them.

You need to be patient, and focus on consistency, variation, and creativity to reach them."

You'll find this on page 45 of my book 'Stop Talking Start Selling' which I published in 2017.

Take into account the good majority of the contents of this book were not created in 2017, but years before.

So, tell me, how much has sales really changed?

Is it harder because of more competition?

Or is it harder because most of us are too lazy to implement the clear training and strategies provided to us?

I think I know the answer.

And so do you.

#sales #socialselling #prospecting #outbound

How to respond when buyers say "We'll get back to you" 👀

It's not good.

If your buyer isn't ready to commit to the next steps at the end of your discovery or demo calls, it's a red flag.

Yes, there are times when it's genuine and for some reason, they cannot book that follow-up right away.

But you need to make sure it's a valid reason.

And it requires you to be bold.

My natural response depends on the tone my buyer uses.

If it sounds doubtful, I will always respond with something like;

"You don't sound too convinced?"

Or I may also respond with;

"It's normally not a positive sign when someone does not want to set up the next call. Is there a specific reason why?"

Most salespeople are afraid of asking these types of questions.

But what are you afraid of?

I'll tell you.

The truth.

I've never had a buyer respond negatively to these questions unless they were complete time wasters.

Most will respond honestly and we either move forward after getting past an objection or we move on with no bad feelings.

Closure is one of the most important things to get in sales.

It's what you should aim for with every buyer.

A 'No' is a good result too.

What's your best response when buyers say "We'll get back to you"?

Let me know in the comments 👇

#sales #objections #saas

Noisy neighbours.

Attention seekers.

Influencers.

Fakers.

Call them what you want, but one thing is true in modern times.

If you don't know how to get attention, you won't be heard.

And less impressive products and people will win.

Yes, I know....

Genuine people don't currently get the exposure they deserve.

The social algorithms enable the fakers.

It's not fair.

But it's the game.

And you can either suck it up and play, or leave the room.

But you're not a quitter, so grab your drumsticks.

It's time to start making some noise 🥁

#socialselling #sales #marketing

Your call objective has a massive impact on the result 💵

And here's why.

I once coached a German gentleman who struggled to get any results despite his high activity levels.

He wasn't sure what the problem was but did say that he felt more like a customer service agent than a new business salesperson.

So, we agreed to review his calls to try and isolate the cause.

He was calling #inbound leads who had requested a free trial of the company's software, and his opening line went something like this:

“Hey, I was just calling to check in and see if everything was okay with your trial and to ask if you needed any help or had any questions at all?”

This was obviously not the reason for this call. He merely said this to be polite and to build rapport.

People usually do this when they fear rejection.

If your job is to make sales, the objective of your call is to qualify if your prospect has any needs for what you're offering and then get them to commit to the next steps.

Before you pick up the phone and speak to a prospect, you need to have a crystal-clear picture of what you want to achieve by the end of the call.

It takes just a couple of seconds, and you'll probably be working with the same objective for most of your calls.

I think it was Nancy Duarte that once said, "To be able to start a presentation, you have to envision the ending".

This advice also applies to your sales calls.

You have to picture where you want your prospects to be by the end of your call or meeting.

And when you do, you will see an instant impact.

#sales #salestraining #salescoaching

How to increase your deal values 💸💸💸

Ace cards.

As a sales leader, I always used to teach my sales teams to negotiate with everything apart from money.

"If you can do that," I told them, "you'll increase your order values."

You have many negotiation tools at your disposal, but discount seems to be the only one most salespeople have been taught to use.

It’s crazy.

Negotiating is like a game of cards.

You or your company get to choose those negotiation cards. Then you need to keep them close to your chest and use them if and when needed.

Apart from cost, think about what other elements of your solution you can use as a negotiation tool.

What options can you offer your prospect that doesn't cut into your profits?

It’s not always easy to think out of the box on this one, so let me throw a few ideas your way:

✅ Payment terms
✅ Payment schedule
✅ Contract length
✅ Contract terms
✅ Human resources
✅ Additional user seats
✅ Additional training
✅ Additional features

These may not all apply to you, but hopefully they will inspire you to think of what you can use and make your own list.

By listing all of your ace cards, hopefully, you'll come up with a new set of negotiation tools and your list will open your eyes to the huge amount of potential revenue you're leaving on the table with every sale you make.

Your ace cards are not only negotiation tools.

Many of them are potential add-on options that you should include in your proposals for those prospects who need them.

By offering your buyers the full package that is relevant for them, you give yourself a much better chance of negotiating a fair deal in the end.

And the customer will get more value.

Happy you.
Happy customer.
Happy boss.

What's your favorite ace card to use?

#sales #negotiation #saas #b2b

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