Elite Tech Sales Training

Free Training for anyone! - Having closed $10 Million in ARR in Enterprise Sales(In one role in a fiscal year) I think I can say I have some credibility driving sales cycles from opening to close, now Im putting that knowledge to use helping people for free break into tech sales, get hired after a layoff, or get a better paying role with a $15,000-$40,000 base pay raise! 

"Hey Scott, wanted to thank you for your tips on getting hired. Just got an offer letter for 15k more than my prior base salary due to your ideas regarding ICP list building and 30-60-90 plans for the hiring process. Thanks again for making a big difference with your presentation of various ideas, as well as the mindset shift I had after."

"Within 30 minutes the head trash I had from being laid off was mostly gone. I went to work that day and had 3 offers by Christmas Eve. I got a 35K bump in base salary with a larger more organized company! without Scott My search might have taken longer! Super thankful."

"Scott, thank you for your program. I joined your info session during the first week of recruiting and leveraged that knowledge in my interview process. I interviewed for BDR/SDR and AE at many high quality sales orgs. Ended up with 5 competitor offers and picked one, am now a sales manager at a company working with a really cool location based data product. I want to thank you. You inspired me and the frameworks you presented helped me."

Helping People

Kiva.org

I invest in women-owned businesses (55) worldwide, including Kenya, Vietnam, Guatemala, Lebanon, Uganda, Sierra Leon, and Jordan. $25 can change someone's life. If everyone helped one person with economic change, what ripple effect would that have? Make a loan, change a life!

Micro Lender

SORACOM

Sr. Business Development Manager

Lucidworks

Lucidworks is shaping the future of digital experiences, AI, and machine learning by offering the Connect Cloud Experience (CXC). We help companies combine the power of search and machine learning to personalize experiences that meet employees' and customers' unique intent. With technology built on Solr, the global search standard used by 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies, our team includes leading search and discovery contributors and committers as well as many of the world's foremost search and machine learning innovators. Teams at Lenovo, Morgan Stanley, Goop, Reddit, Red Hat, and Commvault rely on Lucidworks every day to power product discovery, customer service, and knowledge management applications. Lucidworks’ investors include Francisco Partners, Sixth Street Partners, Top Tier Capital Partners, Shasta Ventures, Granite Ventures, and Walden International.

Enterprise Customer Success Manager

InMobi

"InMobi has been highly efficient in delivering user acquisition and retargeting campaigns while meeting our performance expectations – consistently driving quality users across the funnel to engage in the app and drive in-app purchases for us."
PLAYRIX

InMobi platforms help brands, performance marketers and app publishers engage mobile users across different stages of their lifecycle, converting each mobile moment into an opportunity to drive engagement and revenue. Recognized by Fast Company as one of The Most Innovative Companies in 2016, InMobi reaches over 1.5 billion unique mobile devices worldwide, and is redefining business models for the mobile ecosystem. For more information, visit www.inmobi.com

Business Development Manager - Gaming, North America

Boostinsider

Saved largest churned VIP client for large five figures a month, worked on six figure deal to secure long term relationship 

Custom Social Influencer - IGG Lords Mobile with SSSniper Wolf (6 Million Subscribers, 250K views on one video )
CPC campaigns via Social - Tumblr  - Low CPI with high LTV and ARPU > ROI
Snowball SDK for tracking - Think Appsflyer, Adjust, Tune etc 
SaaS - Gift attribution and tracking - no more custom dev for promo codes - build once, change for different promotions and cohorts

Combined our Team has run over 1500 custom influencer campaigns, CPC, CPA, and CPI campaigns with companies like IGG, Machine Zone, Match.com, Good&Co etc

Testing budgets start at $15,000 and generally scale to $50,000 to 100,000 monthly IO or total campaign spend.

Head of Sales

Adways Inc.

Closed $30,000-$50,000 per month for duration. Worked closely with CEO to transition from Founder led sales. 

My commitment to my clients was to generate ROI from our campaigns or refund their money. Proud to say my team never had to write that check. For every user acquisition dollar invested they could count on a 2x, 5x, 10x return. Of the 500 plus campaigns run had a 95% success and review from our clients. Generated below industry standard CPI($3) with unheard of ARPU and LTV > $50-$400. Drove over 500,000 installs from community of over 1 million users and generated over $1,000,000 in app spend. Ran 7-15 monthly insertion orders. mobile gaming UA campaigns ranging from $5,000-$100,000.

Responsible for developing and owning working relationships with global gaming companies and running: CPM, CPC, CPA, CPI and social influencer mobile marketing campaigns. 

Worked with world class developers and publishers like:
EA, Bandai Namco (Montreal, US, And Europe)Machine Zone, WebZen, Square Enix, Sega, Kabam, Turbine,NetEase, Gree, Glu, IGG, Colopl, Scopely, Pocket Gems, and Disney.

Worked on world class titles Like: 
Justice Monster 5, Walking Dead: Road to Survival, Summoners War, Mobile Strike, Eternal Arena, MUOrgins, Lords Mobile, Batman: Arkham Underworld etc

Personally ran over 100 plus campaigns on Midcore, RPG, JRPG, Strategy, Action, Casual and Social Games including Global Pre-registrations, Soft Launches, Beta Tests, Updates and Major Updates. 

Did Icon, Screen Shot, description, video, and gift optimization via Adways Prelaunch platform to boost conversions for campaigns from top of funnel to CPI, on boarding through tutorial to significant spend. 

Work closely to align campaigns with appropriate game launches. Launch and support the success of our clients mobile game campaigns and ensure a happy user community. Balance sales, operations, and account management. 

Attend Conferences GDC, E3, and Casual Connect 2016,2017

Head of Sales and Business Development

Plan B 4 Sales

Datanyze (acquired by ZoomInfo) - Helped close over 50 plus accounts for $250,000 in ARR and helped record breaking growth from $1 million ARR to $10 Million ARR. 

Worked with companies using technology data to track competitors and find pre-qualified opportunities where sales cycles can be driven from 20% qualified opportunity stage to close. Think a Marketo Account Executive knows when someone adds or drops Act-On(Direct Competitor) to their website.

Success Stories: 
Evident.io - 20x revenue growth (ARR)-7x increase paying customers
Fullcircle CRM - Increased SDR team’s qualified opportunity output by 22% in one month. 
Clearbit
Bedrock Data
MessageGears 

We provide outsourced sales capabilities to initiate your sales process or supplement and support existing efforts. Technology companies that have benefited from Plan B for Sales affiliates include HP, IBM, Oracle and a slew of technology start-ups.

The need for Plan B is evidenced by the failure rate of new technology companies and the annual turnover rate for experienced technology sales people.
There are two groups PlanB4Sales.com is designed to service:
    ► Companies with an existing sales organization
    ► Start-ups with current sales efforts limited to principals
    
Used expertise to help companies set up meetings, generate qualified opportunities, advance sales cycles, grow massive pipeline, close deals, and add revenue. 

● Enterprise Business Development, Marketing,and Sales
● Email automation platforms(Vocus now Outmarket, Act-On, SalesGenius, Leadformix, PersistIQ)
● CRM(Salesforce.com) integration, data cleansing , reporting, and dashboards
● Ideal Customer Profile database development with verified/cleansed information including email, phone, and social(Data.com, InsideView, Clearbit, and Rapportive)
● Social selling tactics including Twitter, LinkedIn, and content marketing
● Power Dialers (Connect&Sell and Callfire)

Director of Sales and Business Development

Arrayent, Inc.

Worked with executive team to build out, deploy, and execute on aggressive sales and marketing plan. Cleaned up CRM, deployed email marketing automation, built significant lead database, cleansed data to ensure low bounce rates, targeted named accounts through account based marketing while working with CMO. Set up and managed vertical campaigns. Built multi-million dollar pipeline in support of Enterprise Sales Reps and VP of Sales. Penetrated 90% of top named accounts. Managed results in CRM with reporting and dashboards. Worked with vendors to vet, acquire, and deploy key software essential to pipeline and revenue growth. Managed outsourced BDR resources. 

Arrayent’s application platform frees you from the cost and complexity of buying, engineering, and maintaining a communications infrastructure for your connected products.You gain the peace of mind that market leaders including Whirlpool and Chamberlain Group are driving new, product-differentiating features, proving the reliability and scale of the Arrayent application platform.Our connected product deployment know-how will get your products to market faster, with much lower cost and complexity.

Director of Business Development and Sales - Consultant

July Systems

West Coast Territory. Responsible for hunting Fortune 500 clients with mobile app in market place. Built multi million dollar pipeline via phone, email, trade shows, and social selling. Presented via web and onsite. Prepared proposals and closed 5 figure contracts. Worked closely with Sales Engineers and CTO to help clients develop and deploy mobile experiences.

July's cloud based mobile application platform is used by some of the world's best-known brands including CNN, ESPN, ToysRUS, FOX, Hilton, and NBC Universal to reach more than 140 million users.The platform allows enterprises to transition to a cloud-based, rapid, self authoring, real-time model approach of mobile website and app development.

Enterprise Account Executive

$10 million Closed Won in One Fiscal Year with Companies like Regeneron, Kellogg's, and Fitch Solutions.

Helping anyone break into tech sales for free - sign up- https://bit.ly/FBITSCT

> 50 people I coached for free have gotten offers within weeks of working together
> 200 students coached free 
"Scott, thank you for your tips on getting hired. Just got an offer letter for 15k more than my prior base salary due to your ideas regarding ICP list building and 30-60-90 plans for the hiring process. Thanks again for making a difference with your various ideas, as well as the mindset shift I had after."

> $3,000,000 in positive economic change through free coaching (combined base salary of coached candidates).



Sign Up for Elite Tech Sales Tips  Delivered to Your Inbox: http://bit.ly/3YSvUB0

One role closed > $9 million in ARR allowing me to work with the brightest tech teams from the Fortune 500 (Regeneron etc) on cutting-edge search #machinelearning #ai deployments at scale that resulted in $100s of millions of net new revenue and or productivity gained for our clients. Expert at managing legacy on-premise Enterprise Search deployments as well as migrations to accelerate #digitaltransformations to #kubernetes cloud-native infrastructures. 

Technology Certifications : 
Salesforce Trailhead: Mountaineer (Level 3), 93 Badges, 18,050 Points
Outreach: Prospecting, Closing, Manager, and Admin Specialist Certification
ZoomInfo SalesOS Certification
Drift: Conversational Sales Certificate
Salesloft Admin Level 1
Force Management MEDDIC Sales Training: 4.7 star reviews on G2 Crowd 

With 5 successful exits I understand how to take product to market from 0 > $10-$150 million in ARR as an individual contributor, consultant, and trusted advisor. 

Learned from some of the best Sales Leadership in the Silicon Valley ie ex Marketo and Gainsight
Exits: Genius.com acquired by CallidusCloud (First Sales Engagement Platform) 
Kony Solutions acquired by Temenos (Enterprise Mobile Dev Platform)
July Systems acquired by Cisco (Enterprise Mobile Marketing Platform) 
Arrayent acquired by Prodea (Enterprise IoT) 
Datanyze acquired by ZoomInfo

Early-stage start-up hunter for finding and closing new business. Building sales territories from scratch and bring on important early or 1st clients to prove product market fit and scale from there. Met or exceeded quota in numerous roles, SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise. Responsible for taking international products to market in the US x4.

Quality sleep is the new luxury. 

About 1 in 3 adults sleep less than 7 hours per night. 

In today's fast-paced world, sleep often takes a backseat. 
We compromise our sleep for various reasons: 

↳ for our careers or businesses, 
↳ for more money and recognition, 
↳ for parties and people who don't prioritize their health either. 

And that can have terrible consequences. 

👇 Lack of sleep can lead to various physical and mental health issues, including: 

• Cardiovascular diseases 
• Alzheimer's disease 
• Memory and cognitive problems 
• Stress & Depression 
• High blood sugar 
• High cholesterol 
• Infections & Injuries 
• Hormonal imbalances, and more. 

📌 5 tips for healthy sleep to avoid these adverse effects: 

1) Stick to a consistent sleep schedule. 
2) Establish a relaxing bedtime routine. 
3) Create a comfortable sleep environment. 
4) Limit caffeine and alcohol intake before bedtime. 
5) Stay physically active during the day, but avoid vigorous exercise close to bedtime. 

Often, what we truly need for our physical and mental well-being, resilience, and peak performance is quite basic. 

Sleep is not just a luxury. 
It's a fundamental necessity that we should all prioritize. 🙌


Scott Ward

My phone rang immediately after I closed the Zoom.

I had just given a presentation to a customer’s entire exec team, and now the CEO was calling me.

“You changed the way we think. We consider you a dotted line to our team. Thank you.”

In the hour I spent with their team, zero seconds were spent selling Clari. The session was entirely focused on best practices for running revenue, and discussing where they were strong and where they were weak.

This is the power of a strong point-of-view. This is the difference between selling something to someone, and creating a shared vision with them.

I relish these moments with customers. It’s endlessly rewarding to help companies think critically about their most important business process – revenue.

Now, off to the next customer call.

The secret to managing a team?

Use the Skill / Will Matrix 👇🏽

It is a model of situational leadership developed in the 1970s and used by leaders such as Danny Meyer, best known for founding Shake Shack.

High Will and High Skill
↳ Star Performers: Challenge them

High Will and Low Skill
↳ Enthusiastic Beginners: Guide them

Motivation is 10x harder than teaching people a skill.
Focus on growing these two quadrants.

Low Will and High Skill
↳ Frustrated Experts: Motivate them

Low Will and Low Skill
↳ Struggling Individuals: Direct them

For those with low will, understand what drives them.
Give them the space to bring their fire.

What else?

Make it transparent how you manage the team.

Danny Meyer of Shake Shack puts it on the mirror of his employees' locker room.

He's open about how he manages the team.

So whenever his people get ready,
they can decide who they want to be 🤘🏽

Try it out with your team!

P.S. Know a great manager? Repost this so they'll see it ♻️.

At LinkedIn event in person today in NYC. At least 1000 attendees. All nicely dressed. All spending hefty budgets for their ads. Here are my notes from the keynotes (please excuse my brevity this is live from the event with my thumbs)  : 

Melissa Selcher  - Chief Marketing 
- 65% more engagement if your post is humorous 
- Unique perspective - 2x more engagement 
- Nostalgia always aids 
- 3 or for more formats in a month 23 % more engagement 
- Ads for b2b are hard because you are selling to a group that has their reputation to risk. Buying CRM is different than cereals . Dynamic is different. You gotta persuade a group . Group is larger than you think 

Natalie Osborne -  brand marketing and creative at SAS 


- Building brand is hard (I get it ) . Strategy , creative , persuading finance to spend on things that are hard to measure. It’s a long term play . 
- 95% of your audience is not ready to buy from you 
- Got 9 million new eyeballs to their brand through funny videos (I concur they are funny ) 

Lindsey Edwards - VP product management announced 
- A/b testing coming soon 
- Conversions api already available. Used by Zapier 
- Zero click seems to be a priority but it’s unspoken- wish they open their API to integrate with us already 
- Measurement maturity index (MMI) is available to a few brands. You can ask your account manager for access 
- Pre rolls for WSJ videos /business insider soon available 
- thought leadership ads 1.6X higher engagement rate ;can concur - they work for us too 
- Live events ads are getting an upgrade to increase audience every day and can report on more metrics 
- Accelerate campaigns getting a boost- Microsoft designer will be available to aid with creative using Ai late this summer 

Taina Palombo-Price  -Head of Product marketing (she was born here in NYC 🙌,  she has beautiful energy on stage)

- only 5% of your audience is in market - New York 
- 105M connected devices can increase awareness 
- she announced Connected TV for LinkedIn ads . 30 % lower cpm 
- Announced partnership with NBC universal via Trevor Fellows  digital sales and partnerships (Trevor teach me how to convince LinkedIn to integrate their ads with us !!) 

Louisa Wong - CEO XR Extreme Reach 

- Stories help people make better decisions 
- Stories move people to action 
- Representation for diverse groups - moving backwards 
- More work is needed to promote inclusive representation (I get it - I’m often the only woman in saas groups ) 
- How to change ? Create compelling narratives /learn story telling to show how diverse perspectives help 
- It takes a village to create change. Find your village 


Overall theme is : brand is very valuable especially these daysi. But is hard to measure and hard to convince CFOs to invest in . I beg to differ . Lots of new companies are doing great work on this front to measure 

#b2believe (is the hashtag from the event)

You are wasting your time with discovery calls,

if you don't follow up with an email.

The re-cap email is very important, especially after an executive meeting.

You need to capture the conversation so both parties are on the same page and can be held accountable.

Take your time with these.  It’s common to spend an hour to write, edit, and proof-read the note.

Status and other general business meetings can be a simple email re-capping next steps.  Important meetings, like discovery, need more effort.

Why spend time on the email follow up?
1.	Shows that you are listening = trust
2.	Helps the seller synthesize the information 
3.	It will get forwarded to people on both sides
4.	You can forward it as a reminder of what they agreed to

Email format:
-	Current Situation
-	Desired Situation
-	Value Drivers
-	Business Areas Impacted
-	People that need to be involved
-	Next Steps

YOU CAN PUT THIS ON A SEPARATE DOCUMENT THAT IS ATTACHED TO THE EMAIL

-------------------------

EXAMPLE EMAIL:

Mark,
 
It was great meeting you on Thursday. Thanks for taking the time to explain your role, responsibilities, priorities. We appreciate the work you have done to evaluate the partnership.
 
From our discussion, I gathered the following notes. Please let me know if I missed anything.
 
𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
-	[Company] has an initiative to reduce operational expenses by $2B
-	Pressure from Amazon continue to drive down margin
-	New acquisition has created integration challenges
-	Top initiatives: Consolidate vendors, reduce cost, re-org design
-	Current process for X is manual and is impacting the business by Y
-	Delays in delivery, rising processing costs, and unhappy customers

𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
-	Digital transaction that is automated using Ai
-	Set up a central service across the enterprise
-	Flexible deployment options
-	Integration with Oracle, Ariba, Salesforce
-	Conduct a value assessment to determine the cost/benefit analysis
 
𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬
-	Reduce [use case] from 2 weeks to 2 days
-	Reduce processing costs by 80%
-	Improve customer experience NPS by 10pts
-	Improve compliance through better visibility and tracking

𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝:
-	Real Estate
-	Sales
-	Marketing

𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐝:
-	Chris Pine, VP Real Estate
-	Leo Barley, VP Sales
-	Jay Johnson, VP Marketing
-	Rob Smith, Exec Sponsor
-	John McConnell, VP IT Architecture

𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬
-	Mark will be the exec sponsor for the assessment project
-	Meet with Mike Green, IT Operations to assign IT owner
-	Complete the revised assessment in the next 1-2 months
-	If the value is high, then Rob and Alan will mandate the solution

I will work with your EA to set up a check-point meeting in 2 weeks.

We look forward to partnering with you.
 
Best,
 
Mike


I’ve now ran over 100 pilots (trials) at Gong.

With a win rate of over 90%. 

4 biggest lessons. 


1. 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

Never begin a pilot without executive alignment. Ideally, the economic buyer has already been engaged through demos / the evaluation. 

If not, this is a great opportunity to get them looped in as a ‘give / get’ before starting. 

“Before approving a pilot, we require exec alignment. I’ve learned it’s much easier to ask for 20 minutes upfront and all be aligned, than 50K at the end. How can we loop ___ in?”


2. 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚

Before beginning a pilot, align on success criteria with the team + economic buyer. Always come ready with criteria proposed to help guide them as to what they should be looking to prove. Keep them simple. Under promise, over deliver. 

I also use the time to uncover additional risk. 

“Say we nail all the success criteria, you love the pilot, but the team decides not to sign on (date). What are the most likely 2 reasons why?”


3. 𝐌𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐬

Create a mutual success plan that outlines the success crtieria, sessions, pilot resources, etc. and share it with your POC to encourage editing. 

I have 3 lines that include - security, legal, and signer. 


4. 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐮𝐩𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭

If your pilot / trial process includes trainings, insights, check-ins, get them scheduled in bulk. 

Never have to worry about grabbing a next meeting then. 



Key to all 4... having a great, repeatable template. 

Yesterday, I launched "Differentiated Selling." 18 strategies to help sellers stand out, sell more, and crush quota.

One features mutual success plans + includes my downloadable template. 
 
More details here: https://lnkd.in/gz3nd8ik

34% off only through Friday only

Send emails out of any one of these tools and guaranteed it's going to spam.


When you sign up, you link your account, so Gmail knows when you're mass emailing people.

A couple of them make it hard to use more than one email account.
I've seen reply rates tank if I send more than 50 emails a day from a single account.

When I last tested Outreach (Dec 2022), they applied a special font to all their emails, making it clear that the email didn't originate from Gmail.
Their "disable font styling" feature didn't actually disable anything.

Apollo was great back in 2020, but their deliverability has tanked since they've gone mass market. Their data has gotten 💩 too. I have to run all their emails through an email verifier, so they're just a cheap data provider for me now.

Yet for some reason, Boomers continue buying these tools, inevitably see a low reply rate, then blame their reps for nOt pErSonAlizing enough. 

AND THEN PUSH THEM TO SEND MORE EMAILS?!

I can count on 3 fingers the # of replies I've gotten with these tools.
Same email, same ICP, much higher reply rate with other tools / Gmail directly.

How to succeed:

1. Fail
2. Fail more
3. Keep trying
4. Fail even more
5. Learn a bunch
6. Continue to fail
7. Finally succeed

It's cliche, but it's true.

Keep trying, losing, and learning.

That's the only way to win.

In 2023, Pavilion added $3M ARR from organic Linkedin. Over 50% was directly attributed to my personal profile. Here's our simple 4-step playbook for executives to turn their Linkedin brand into a strategic asset: 

1. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

Whether you want to be a Linkedin "influencer" or not, if you're an executive you need a clean, optimized profile. In B2B, it's the first thing every prospect, customer or potential employer looks at. It should be designed to highlight your credibility, attract your ICP, and convert them into connections and customers. Think of it like a landing page. 

2. Purposefully Build Your 1st Degree Network

Early on in your LinkedIn journey, sending connection requests to targeted audiences is an important growth strategy. Make a list of customers, prospects and key industry voices and add them to your network. These folks will become your early audience. If you have a fancy title (CEO, VP, Executive) you will see a high acceptance rate even without a note. WARNING: do not use automation. Breaking LinkedIn ToS is a great way to get your account banned.

3. Create Compelling Content Consistently

Think of yourself like a journalist. As an active executive, every interaction you have (difficult conversation with an employee, a challenging customer problem, updates from investors, etc) is potential material for content. Then spend 90% of your time on the hook. If you can't get people to stop scrolling and click "See More", the rest of what you wrote doesn't matter. Be consistent and build momentum. Writing is a habit, you need to build the muscle.

4. Engage with Every Comment (aka Community Building)

Truthfully, I haven't done a great job of this recently. But during the first 12 months of my LinkedIn growth journey, I posted 2x a day and responded to every single one. If someone takes the time to comment, you owe them a response. Yes, this helps the reach of your posts. But that's not the only reason. Community is built in the comments.

TAKEAWAY:

Is this all that's required to drive revenue from Linkedin?

Of course not. 

You need to figure out your niche and positioning, you need to understand your metrics, you need to to DM (aka social selling), you need to set up attribution on the backend, but all of that will come…

What matters most is getting started.

In 2024, building trust and credibility (at scale) with your market should be an integral part of every executives GTM strategy. 

Spray and pray cold outbound alone isn’t going to cut it.

Driving Profitable Efficient Growth means leveraging your expertise and insights to build an audience of customers, prospects and partners.

It takes serious time, but it’s worth it. 

P.S.

In two weeks, Pavilion is holding our first ever course on Strategic Brand Building on LinkedIn. If you want to join, DM me.

Do your sales teams know how to build trust with a Champion? From valuable strategies to shared victories, John McMahon and John Kaplan run through key tips on building, testing and nurturing Champions. 

#b2bsales #saassales #saas #meddicc

🎧 Listen On Apple: https://lnkd.in/ed6mxe34

🎧 Listen On Spotify: https://lnkd.in/efP9cn3s

If you want a 45% response on LinkedIn follow this formula:

Send voice notes or videos using the 10- 30-10 formula.

First 10 seconds - the reason for the voice note.

Why are you reaching out to them in the 1st place?

• Job Changes
• LinkedIn post
• Triggers on their website
  
Example: The reason for my voice note is that I noticed that you are hiring SDRs…

Next 30 seconds - your value prop.

What are you offering them that will help them in their SPECIFIC scenario or THAT SOLVES a pain point for them?

Example: Our coaching services empower your sales rep to leverage our LinkedIn voice notes and video frameworks to book more meetings.

Last 10 seconds - CALL TO ACTION.

You need to tell people exactly what you want from them.

I like Interest CTAs like:

• Would you be interested in learning more?
• Would you say this aligns with your top initiatives?
• Are you curious to have a deeper dialogue on this topic?

These frictionless CTAs typically open the prospect to respond and lead to more meetings.

Example: I don't know if this is a fit right now, however would you be interested in learning more?

When someone responds, the next step is to provide a few times that work and then use Calendly's extension on LinkedIn to lock down the meeting.

Again, the goal is to make this frictionless.

Mention this formula to someone who can find this useful. 


On 30 Minutes to President's Club, I shared a simple 3-step framework for Discovery calls: 
 
--> Instant Credibility 
--> The Menu of Pain 
--> Match Their Urgency 
 
 
Here's how it goes on a call: 
 
--> Instant Credibility 
I start the meeting with our "Nascar slide" on my screen. The first thing they see when they join the meeting is 20+ well-known logos. Our Reference clients. 
 
Their brain instantly processes the familiar images. And it registers as "my peers are already doing this." 
 
Way more impactful than an "About Us" slide 
 
Instant credibility + maybe a lil FOMO 
 
Without me saying a word 
 
 
 
 
--> The Menu of Pain 
 
Friction reduction applies to Discovery 
 
Don't ask "essay" questions 
 
Give them multiple choice 
 
 
Here's the formula (thank you, Charles Muhlbauer): 
 
In this role, I talk to [your industry] leaders all day long. They tell me about their heartburn around problems A, B, and C. How much of that sounds like your world & what did I miss? 
 
 
IRL at UserGems this sounds like: 
"Usually, when Sales leaders join these calls they usually want to either Capitalize or Catch up. 
• They had layoffs in the last 18 mos, but quotas are not going down. 
• They're facing double-digit growth metrics. And not sure how they're going to hit them. 
• They've seen Pipeline dry up in these market conditions. And so they're looking for a new channel. 
• . . . OR - they're facing none of these challenges, are hitting record high revenue, and want to capitalize to grab market share. 
 
• Curious how much of that sounds like your world? And what did I miss?" 
 
 
 
 
--> Match Their Urgency 
 
There are 3 reasons people show up for Discovery calls. 
 
Figuring this out saves everyone time.** 
 
 
This sounds like: 
 
"Sometimes people join these calls because they are in education mode and just want to understand new tools. 
 
Sometimes people join these calls because they have a big churn, pipeline or revenue problem they needed to solve 6 months ago. 
 
Sometimes people join these calls because they need to do something about big churn, pipeline or revenue in the next 12 months, but it's not urgent. 
 
Curious where would you put yourself on that scale? 
 
Asking because I never want to chase anyone. 
 
If today was purely education, that's ok." 
 
 
**I ask this at the end of the call 
 
After they've gotten the product overview 
 
And BEFORE we talk next steps. Because their answer determines what next steps make sense. 
 
 
 
The hardest thing about Discovery calls is that there are 100 questions we could ask. 
 
AND we have to balance what we want to know with what the prospect wants from the call. 
 
A simple 3 step framework can help us establish credibility, diagnose & qualify. 
 
 
 
How do you approach Discovery calls? 
 
How do you think something like this would go over with your Prospects?

According to Ebsta, win rates are down 15%. Sales cycles are 32% longer. Deal sizes are down 32%. These are record-breaking numbers. Here's six discovery questions to help find urgency and create strong deal fundamentals:


1. What are the challenges you’re facing that you’d regret not solving 6 mos. from now?

This gets buyers talking about urgent pain.

Not "nice-to-solves."

In this economy, urgency sells.

Nice-to-solves, don't.


2. Why would you regret not solving that six months from now?

You found urgent pain.

This question reveals WHY it's urgent.

Know that. Otherwise, you're flying blind.

REALLY easy tee-up to asking about impact.


3. How would you stack rank that on your “priorities slide?” Why that number?

Great.

You found urgent pain.

But is it competing with too many other priorities?

If so, tough sell.

Look for something in the top three.

Anything less than top five... qualify out.


4. What are the ripple effects that challenge is having on the business?

Strong enough ripple effects and consequences?

You just might move it UP a notch on the priorities slide.

Maybe even two.


5. Who else does that challenge impact? How?

This helps you further intensify the pain.

But it also helps you gain access to key people.

Especially when you follow it up with:


6. Is it fair to include them in [next step] given how they’re impacted by this?

Go give those a try.

They're not going to solve everything.

But they may just create the right deal fundamentals. 

P.S. I spent 10 years creating (and testing) a list of thousands of questions that sell. Here's the top 39 questions that sell (free): https://go.pclub.io/list

Still trying to figure out videos here on LinkedIn?

Check out this amazing guide from LinkedIn.

It details their best practices which includes:

Keep it short
Shoot vertically
Write a strong caption

It also has links to some great real-life examples.

Videos are the future of LinkedIn content creation.

So better figure this out sooner than later.

Trust me on this one.

LinkedIn Video Best Practices 

Remember this when the storm seems too big to weather: You will make it through this hard time ❤️

Your coach,
Brendon

27 Fastest-Growing Series B & C Startups (Part 2) 🚀 

All of these companies are hiring right now. They all have at least $5 million in run-rate revenue and 50-100% year-over-year growth—a gold mine.

1. Modern Treasury (Bay Area)
2. OpenStore (Miami)
3. Order.co (NYC)
4. Owner.com (Remote)
5. Paytient (Columbia)
6. Persona (Bay Area)
7. Promise (Bay Area)
8. Redpanda Data (Remote)
9. RentSpree (SoCal)
10. Rinsed (NYC)
11. Rula (SoCal)
12. Runway (NYC)
13. SafelyYou (Bay Area)
14. Sardine (Miami)
15. Scribe (Bay Area)
16. Semgrep (Bay Area)
17. SentiLink (Austin)
18. Shift5 (Virginia)
19. Speak (Bay Area)
20. Supabase (Remote)
21. Traba (NYC)
22. True Anomaly (Denver)
23. Unit (NYC)
24. Vannevar Labs (Bay Area)
25. Verifiable (Remote)
26. Vivante Health (Chicago)
27. Weights & Biases (Bay Area)

Blue Horseshoe still loves Anacott Steel. But, I am willing to bet he also likes all 27 of these companies just as much. 💙

Even if you aren't in the job market, someone in your network certainly is.

𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘺𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘏𝘰𝘨𝘨𝘦 & 𝘉𝘦𝘯 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳. 

 #careers #jobinterviews #startups #entrepreneurship

____

Enjoy this? For daily startup & VC insights follow Kevin Jurovich 📈 

SaaS sellers are struggling. Last week I spoke with 3x sales leaders who finished 15-20% short of Q1 quota. They ALL said the problem was a gap in outbound pipeline. If I was VP-Sales, here's how I'd get Q2 back on track:

1. Formulate a small team to understand what adjustments to make

This needs to be led by ops and include ONE singular owner from marketing and sales to understand the most important levers to pull (not enough meetings, poor conversation to opportunity, poor execution of first meeting). Small teams = fast decisions.

2. Figure out the 2-3 plays that have been delivering over the last 2 quarters and 10x the output.

Usually these are in the heads of top reps or buried deep in the data. Are there industry specific campaigns or a narrow set of accounts to spend more time with? Are a handful of top performers doing something dramatically different than everyone else?

3. Rally front line leaders to hold their teams accountable to the right leading indicators.

Use the exec team and CEO to celebrate the wins and share learnings across the teams. Ensure proper buy in by FLMs to implement key adjustments

4. Be mindful of how many changes you can make at once.

Part of being at a high growth company is getting comfortable with knowing that a lot of things could be done better --- your job is to help align on the biggest levers to pull!

5. Stand up an advocate tracking program

Whether it's Champify, one of our competitors, contractors overseas, or something internally built -- this will 100% be worth the time and money. Why? Because the time to impact is insane. We just analyzed the impact of advocate tracking across 15k former champions and found it's 6x as effective as cold outbound.

TAKEAWAY:

If you came up short in Q1, you are not alone.

It's not too late to get back on track.

You need to re-group and plan.

Double down on what works.

Rally frontline leaders.

Be careful of trying to do too much.

And set up advocate tracking program.

You got this.

There are 4 good tones for call openers 
 
From easiest to hardest to master: 
 
1. Friendly & Warm 
2. Confident / Sharp  
3. Funny  
4. (i'll add it in the comments) 
 
My best call openers, 1 for each tone  
 
 
1. 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗹𝘆 & 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗺 
 
🥇 best hit rate, 79% say "go ahead" 
 
 
🗣️ Hey {prospect first name}! [pause]  
 
𝙃𝙞, 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨?  
 
Hey {prospect first name} it's Ronen Pessar. How’ve you been? 
 
𝙃𝙞. 𝙔𝙖, 𝙊𝙠... 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩? 
 
So I know 𝙣𝙤𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 likes getting a cold call... especially not on a [lightly laugh] Tuesday afternoon [smile, pause]…  
 
so I can keep it super brief and then you can decide if you wanna [lightly laugh] hang up on me. [hard pause] 
 
 
𝟮. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 / 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗽  
 
🥈 2nd best hit rate, 68% say "sure" 
 
 
🗣️ Hi {prospect’s first name} it’s {your full name}, thanks for taking my call. [short pause] 
 
I know my call is an interruption, and you weren’t expecting it.  
 
Can I share why I called in half a minute? 
 
 
𝟯. 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗻𝘆 / 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰 
 
🥉 3rd best hit rate, 66% say "hahahaha" 
 
 
🗣️ “Hey {prospect’s first name}? 
 
𝙔𝙚𝙨? 
 
It’s Ronen—and thisss is a cold call...  
[pause for 1] 
 
Wanna roll the dice?  🎲 
 
🔑 the key to success 🔑 
 
It not what you say that matters... 
 
but how you say it. 
 
 
I'll be sharing an exciting partnership... 
 
A way for you to practice the best tones! 
 
until then...  
 
happy dialing 
 
☎️

I decided a few weeks ago to accept nearly every LinkedIn connection request.  (I'm afraid you pesky financial advisors aren't included.) 

I realized that it didn't matter to whom I'm connected. I make purchasing decisions for Post Holdings that are in our company's best interest above all.  The existence of LinkedIn connection has no impact. Perhaps in my posts and comments supplier can learn more about me or learn more in general.

Of course, many suppliers have taken my acceptance of their request as an opening to send me a DM or email or even as a representation of interest.  I get that.

I understand the job of salespeople and why you send the emails and DMs.  You have to put food on the table.  And I'll admit that Sales is not a job for me. 

That much said, allow me to offer some guidance - 

1. Do some research on Post before you write and don't make stuff up.  For example, one supplier referenced Post's "recent initiatives truly showcase their impact and resilience" - with no detail as to what initiatives. I even got one DM that started "I know this is random . . . "

2. Presuming you've done your research, provide me something of value.  How might I do my job better?  What are companies similar to us doing (case studies)?

3. I'm not going to do your job.  Don't expect me to tell you all about our IT strategy, upcoming projects, etc.  It's your job as salespeople to find out.  Network your way through the company.  If you can get an IT Leader interested, I'm going to talk to you.  Idea - you might find someone outside of Post who knows me and get a reference.  I think (sarcasm alert) LinkedIn shows you that, no?

3. Differentiate yourself.  There are (another sarcasm alert) just a few Microsoft and Adobe partners and temp staffing agencies.  Why you?

4. Don't expect me to "call you if anything comes up." I'm not smart enough to remember each and every unsolicited email, and odds are I don't know your firm anyway.

5. Please don't write me to ask whether I got your email or DM.  I did. This week, one supplier sent me an email on Tuesday, and followed up both Thursday and today to see if I read it. Spoiler alert - I haven't and now I don't think I will.

6. Don't offer me a $150 gift card to talk to you.  I've been offered that twice.  That removes you from ever being a supplier to us.  Terrible ethics.

My peers - am I being too harsh?  Are these not acceptable expectations?

#Procurement #Sourcing #Suppliermanagement

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