Sales Management
Conversations, like golf swings, come in distinct parts. For the golf swing, we have the setup; backswing; transition; downswing; impact; and follow-through. For sales development conversations, we have opening and agreement to engage; communicating value; offering the meeting; agreeing to…
The desire to coach sales reps has blossomed in the spring of 2016. At a recent American Association of Inside Sales Professionals conference in Denver, it seemed like every presentation — including mine — had something to do with coaching.…
SaaS-only VC Jason Lemkin recently wrote on the SaaStr blog that SaaS founders should listen to him and to the original core message in the award-winning, bestselling book Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross: “Invest in both inbound AND outbound sales…
It’s about time. By which I mean, sales is mostly about managing time. And time is just about the hardest thing to manage, right after your own emotions. Which brings me to the source of one of the biggest time-wasters…
In my two-part blog article, “Five Sentences That Will Change Your Life" (Part 1 and Part 2), I wrote about a remarkable script that, when delivered by a Founder/CEO, generates big numbers, like a 15% conversation-to-meeting yield. This past couple…
Up until now, this series has been all about unit economics. And in SaaS companies, that means pretty much all about sales efficiency and effectiveness. I’ve dragged you through some analysis and calculations, drawing the conclusion that there are ways…
In Part 1 of this article, I took a shot at explaining unit economics for SaaS companies and drew the conclusion that there is only one question on the table: How fast can you improve your sales performance to bring…
The folks at InsideSales.com just announced they have raised $17M from an unnamed strategic investor. In that announcement, Dave Elkington said that investors are paying a lot more attention to “unit economics.” I was about to forward the announcement to…
I get asked this question a lot at conferences, usually by a sales development manager in the next seat as we listen to a tips and tricks presentation: “How long should it take to onboard an SDR?” My answer, usually…
In Part 1 of this two-part blog series, I laid out a five-sentence script that I recently prescribed for a CEO/Founder (C/F) of an early-stage company to help him set sales meetings with prospective customers. Now, here’s the breakdown of…