Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 11, 2024

When I first spotted the toad, I thought it was a tiny piece of mulch and didn’t give it a second thought. Pick up the phone and call the person you need to be talking with. The data shows it may require you to make up to fifteen attempts before you reach that person but most salespeople give up after four attempts.

Strategize 81

Strategize Pitch Start-ups Gaming 81

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 10, 2024

If you’re interested in giving it a read just let me know the best way to send it over! That I would just end up failing. I threw myself back into the world of sales immediately, and once I did I quickly got hired by a company that aligned with my values in a way that I never thought possible. Sign me up!

Sell 120

Sell Up-sell Start-ups Growth 120

Search Engine Land

MAY 13, 2024

It’s getting hard to keep up, and many SEOs are having some serious FOMO. We don’t just have to give our users what they want. We also have to make sure we’re giving the engines what they think their users want – and accept that those wants may change over time, so we shouldn’t base our business model completely on them.

Engineering 137

Engineering Legal Start-ups Trust 137

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2024

Sometimes, they’re more in a “I’ll give it a shot” mode. I don’t see these producing big category winners, because they can’t keep up on the product side. Growing, But Never Getting Efficient Enough. This is a subtle point, but some startups grow pretty quickly but never quite get their unit economics under control.

Price 85

Price Up-sell Product Sell 85

SaaStr

MAY 12, 2024

In my first start-up, I was mostly hunting whales — seven-figure and eight-figure deals. And they told us the deal was completely approved, AND they’d back us in the market, AND they’d even give us $1m in debt financing to help us. Dear SaaStr: What Was Your Very First Sales Story? How Did It Go? I had no experience doing any of this.

Contract 81

Contract Finance Negotiate Price 81

Martech

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

“We just signed up for this Eloqua thing. We need you to set it up, and figure out how we use it.” Marketing/sales alignment was never better. New sub-niches cropped up in the marketing discipline, around the ecosystems of marketing automation tools like Eloqua, Marketo and eventually HubSpot. Bonuses were claimed.

B2B 117

B2B Technology Technology Pipeline 117

SaaStr

MAY 13, 2024

And that thing I’ve learned is that you can take two brutally competitive products, that are very similar, give each a booth at SaaStr Annual, Europa or at one of our digital events… or each can try a podcast ad or do a newsletter ad … and one can walk away with more leads than you can follow up on. in attendance.

Quota 81

Quota Pipeline Follow-up Start-ups 81

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 26, 2023

We never have enough. And regardless what we do, we never will. Whatever time we tend free up, is immediately filled with something else and we become time poor, once again. To send a prospecting letter, I had to write it in longhand and give it to the “word processing pool.” Time is a problem.

Follow-up 135

Follow-up Prospecting Conversion Technology 135

Sales Pop!

JANUARY 17, 2024

Proof The System Works At each stage of my career, the questions people ask of me include: Witnessing all your upsets, don’t you ever feel like giving up? Sales Secrets to Exceed Your Goals By adding a target date for each goal, we confirm it, and the date gives added motivation to complete the task early, if not on time.

Follow-up 78

Follow-up Strategize Drivers/motivators Start-ups 78

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 25, 2023

One thing that struck me, is that rather than giving a status report on the account, their people had identified opportunities to grow the relationship. ” They stared at me blankly, it turns out they had never followed up on the action plans established in the account plans. No one follows up to see, “What happened?”

Follow-up 116

Follow-up Pitch Meeting Pipeline 116

Salesforce

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Known as “AI hallucinations,” these mistakes occur up to 20% of the time. “We We know [current generative AI] has a tendency to not always give accurate answers, but it gives the answers incredibly confidently,” said Kathy Baxter, principal architect in Salesforce’s ethical AI practice. “So What is an LLM?

Pharmaceutical 127

Pharmaceutical Legal Trust Technique 127

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

“All sorts of “”Experts” offer miracle cures and prompts to “give us the answers, doing all the work for us.” One of the mistakes I think too many make in the use of these tools is that we are using them to give us the answers, rather than helping us discover the answers.

Manufacturing 117

Manufacturing Engineering Technology Technology 117

Martech

MARCH 18, 2024

The biggest challenge with intent data begins with the journey leading up to the buyer being in-market. Finding needles in haystacks I’ve already written about the short-sighted approach that B2B marketing takes when it comes to lead generation, and intent data gives new hope to that dying strategy.

B2B 104

B2B Lead generation Prospecting Market share 104

Adaptive Business Services

OCTOBER 18, 2023

In some cases, we may make a pact with ourselves to never again repeat that misstep. What separates them from the also rans is that they … will … never … give … up. Giving up too easily and writing a sale off as being a bad fit. Up until this point, I had never defined either. No giving up.

Business Services 71

Business Services Up-sell Clients Sell 71

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 26, 2024

Things like showing up on time, being prepared, the thank you note. The big things are never one big thing, they are a collection of little things, each of which must be executed well. The big things are never one big thing, they are a collection of little things, each of which must be executed well. Missing one causes failure.

CRM 125

CRM Presentation Meeting Closing 125

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2023

Great risks to take IMHE: Been a Director, but never VP. The smart ones can pick up what matters in 30-60 days, though. The smart ones can pick up what matters in 30-60 days, though. Not perfect background, but showed up incredibly prepared. A number of my very best hires never finished high school.

Education 106

Education Prospecting Process Sales 106

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 10, 2024

To a degree, certainty gives us the feeling of power and control. We embrace science and logic to give us answers, even though scientists have long embraced uncertainty as a fundamental in all scientific research. We can open ourselves up to rethinking what we do, how we do it. But what if we changed our view of uncertainty?

Follow-up 98

Follow-up Customers 98

Search Engine Land

MAY 17, 2024

.” Dids Reeve (Freelance Paid Media Specialist): “The document reads like randomization is code for ‘we can deviate from the usual auction algorithm to make ourselves some more money’ And that if advertisers perceive Google to be ‘randomizing’, then it would be bad enough that they want to cover up the fact.”

Trust 76

Trust Price Consult Clients 76

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 16, 2024

Waking up to a request for a meeting in his office felt surreal. Confidence in my potential was a luxury I never felt I could afford. Coming from a family that valued hard work over handouts, I learned giving back went beyond just money. The beauty of sales is that the learning never stops. “Why me?”

Sell 113

Sell Pitch Account management Up-sell 113

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 11, 2024

Why I Love Sales Sales was never a career option I aspired to. I focused on getting up to speed as soon as humanly possible—and got really good at it. (I Afterword: Jill is giving away a huge amount of the materials she has developed over the years. Little did I know that I’d fall in love with a profession I once despised.

Sell 116

Sell Manufacturing Up-sell Launch 116

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Wait too long, you’ll never get there. But settle, and you’ll never really build a competitive product and it will all have been a waste. More here: If You’re Going to Do a SaaS Start-Up … You Have to Give it 24 Months – SaaStr Post-Revenue: Staying the Course When Revenues Are Trivial. It never ends.

Niche 101

Niche Engineering Start-ups Growth 101

Search Engine Land

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Doing SEO feels like dealing with a never-ending set of tasks. Regardless of the extracurricular, having boundaries at work is vital, even more so for an almost never-ending role. I always err on the side of caution and give a longer-term estimate before it’s likely to see the results of SEO work. So how do you do it?

Clients 98

Clients Consult Start-ups Education 98

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

Hiring a VP of Sales Who Never Really Understands Your Product During The Interview Process Ok I know some even many will disagree, but I’m right here :). I see so many SaaS startups hire someone likeable, who can talk the talk on sales hiring and processes — but never really understands what you do. But give me a break.

Process 92

Process Sales Up-sell Quota 92

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2024

Dear SaaStr: Is There Any “Con” In Giving Our Sales Tool For Free to Early-Stage Startups? Simply making an edition of your business app “free” will almost never on its own attract a significant number of users, unless your app is truly viral. But putting up a sign that says “Free” doesn’t attract users.

Trust 86

Trust Product Sales Customers 86

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 14, 2024

And too many have never seen this, they have no experience with which to deal with this. Give things a chance. Develop a plan, commit to it, make it work, and give it a chance. People get caught up in the momentum of growth and success. We struggle with the idea, is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Objectives and Key Results 121

Objectives and Key Results Clients Drivers/motivators Start-ups 121

Sales Pop!

DECEMBER 8, 2023

Strategies for Business Growth Success Business growth success depends upon embracing the mindset of ‘never give up’ no matter the conversation (s) behind our backs. Often, when adversity rears its ugly head, many will hide in the crowded playing field or give up.

Growth 72

Growth Education Follow-up Gaming 72

Salesforce

MAY 6, 2024

We’re talking about an AI audit, a kind of check-up on your AI systems to ensure they’re operating ethically, transparently, and within regulatory guidelines, with an eye toward understanding how they make decisions. In the absence of national regulation, individual states have stepped up. Is your business ready for an audit?

Legal 116

Legal Territory Trust Technology 116

Salesforce

JANUARY 11, 2023

Set up routines 4. Never give up on yourself Paying it forward. There were times when I thought I’d never find a career and culture where I could be happy as my whole self, including openly sharing my bipolar diagnosis and experience. So I decided to be up-front and honest. Set up routines.

Hospitality 98

Hospitality Customer Relationship Management Trust Drivers/motivators 98

Search Engine Land

MAY 9, 2024

Who will give the answers? The growing number of users researching AI-powered platforms gives us an idea about just how big the issue may become. As a result, online reputation management (ORM) will never be the same. Generative AI completely making up testimonials and information. car repair shop for luxury vehicles).

Engineering 108

Engineering Networking Clients Construction 108

SaaStr

JANUARY 18, 2024

Because they get big personal ROI from “mark-ups” (i.e., Some small funds want mark-ups, but others are more ownership focused. They will give you this advice. Mark-ups matter here too, but also, they have a lot of capital to deploy in their winners. Never, ever plan on it. higher prices in the next round).

Price 91

Price Up-sell Growth Engineering 91

SaaStr

MAY 14, 2024

Alex never really jumped on that bandwagon until now. When you give the AI that context, you get the answer in a much cleaner way. It opens up a lot of possibilities, capabilities, speed, and velocity, but you also create problems. The world is speeding up, and GenAI is making it even faster. Did You Say Hype Cycle?

UX 77

UX Intrinsic Product Conversion 77

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What’s the Best Advice That Entrepreneurs Never Hear? My list of top advice founders never hear: Thanks for reading Scaling SaaS — from SaaStr! We all get excited to “get going” with a start-up. To want to “do a start-up”. Many successful start-ups had $0 in revenue the first 2 years.

Price 85

Price Start-ups Up-sell Trust 85

Hubspot

JANUARY 15, 2024

We sent them a proposal and even flew out for a second in-person follow-up. Even though you might use tools like Spiro to remind yourself to follow up with prospects, sometimes they just stop getting back to you. I’ve seen sales reps give pitches so engrossing that prospects are fully engaged despite not being a good fit.

Prospecting 83

Prospecting Follow-up Pitch Clients 83

SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2024

And if you hide things during the fundraising process that are important and come up later — expect the relationship to never recover. #4. What about folks that never hit the plan? They may give negative feedback on VCs. Too many founders hide things from their VCs, both during fundraising and after. Don’t do this.

Up-sell 93

Up-sell Trust Sell Meeting 93

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

A Word You Don’t Often Hear When Building Territories is “Dynamic” We oftentimes treat our book of business as static — keeping the same reps on certain accounts for as long as possible, and giving them very set terrioties or accounts to work with. For example, they’ve set up meetings, and it doesn’t feel like the account is going anywhere.

Go To Market 83

Go To Market Territory Technique A/B testing 83

Search Engine Land

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

In-house teams constantly juggle a never-ending pipeline of SEO projects, from competitor analysis and technical maintenance to launching new products and website migrations. This enables you to follow up with others while the discussion is fresh in their minds. Create clear checklists and lists with sub-tasks where these are needed.

X-functional 117

X-functional Territory Launch Follow-up 117

Martech

JANUARY 25, 2024

And when you come up with your three words, don’t keep them locked away on your phone or in a document on your desktop. We didn’t give up. Let’s fight the urge to kick AI down the road, to wait until the tools and data are robust enough to give us maximum value for our efforts. Class is not in session!

Government 132

Government Strategize Start-ups Technique 132