A-Players
Becoming, finding, and developing A-players within your team
Hello friends-
I’m borrowing the opening line from one of the featured articles this week.
Every organization has A-players, and they’re easy to spot. They’re the ones consistently hitting numbers, helping you when you ask, and leading by example.
-Ralph Barsi
In this week’s edition of Stretch Weekly -
Ralph Barsi talks about what key things sales reps need to become an A-player, and what we, as leaders need to do to help them develop.
John Kaplan talks about the top 5 things to differentiate how you sell.
Plus more carefully curated snippets focusing on what it takes to become, find and develop A-players on our team.
THANKS for reading!!
-Grant
And lastly - as always, if you find this newsletter valuable- subscribe or share it with someone who might as well 👊.
STRETCH SHARES
The Secret to Becoming an A-Player
After listening to a podcast with Ralph Barsi a couple years ago, I quickly became a fan - AND - a subscriber to his content. He’s a great follow and what seems like an exceptional leader.
In this blog post, Ralph talks about what key things each rep needs to become an A-player.
Highlights for me:
Act like an A-player, and you will become an A-player. Remove everything NOT related to being an A-player. (READ the article for this list!!!)
A-players create habits and disciplines that position themselves in the top 20% of the Vitality Curve (again - see article)
Practice and establish your own pre-game routine. How good are you at practicing the basics every day or every week? How badly do you want to become, and remain, an A-player? Steph Curry provides the blueprint.
In summary: Decide to develop A-player attributes. Concentrate on delivering results. Learn to communicate well. Differentiate yourself from the B and C-players in your organization. Demonstrate a work ethic like Stephen Curry. Master the fundamentals, yet continue to practice them.
Differentiate How You Sell
John and Rachel discuss HOW you sell is often just as important as WHAT you sell. They give us a list of ways to differentiate yourself as a seller:
Empathy and Understanding. Approaching initial calls with customers with this mindset. Really try and understand customer pain, problems, challenges.
Differentiate from competitors by helping customers see value in where you are different.
Continue to share value. Throughout the entire sales process, keep customers engaged with reasons to add value.
Keep customer focused on positive business outcomes and required capabilities.
Stay connected. Keep communication open after deals is closed. You never know where this will lead.
Quick but insightful podcast from one of my new faves.
STRETCH SNIPPETS
🔺 Triangulate the Truth. Devin Reed reminds us that Buyers are Liars. Not intentionally, but their truth isn’t THE truth. How do we overcome this? Ask each stakeholder the same buying questions to Triangulate the Truth.
🛍 Ian Koniak says a fantastic way to understand how and where you help your customer is to become their customer first. [VIDEO]
🤝 We know the SDR to AE handoff is a crucial stage in the customer journey. Collin Stewart with Predictable Revenue gives us a few key points to emphasize in our process.
⏰ 22 seconds into a cold call and your prospect says, "Can you send me an email?" How do you respond? Belal Batrawy argues that elite sellers protect their time by qualifying the ask.
📈 One of my most favorite podcasts with Kevin Dorsey and Rob Jeppsen on Scaling Greatness. How to lead your team, effective 1:1s, What you can learn from your top performers and more!
🧠 Mindset
Thanks for reading!
My hope is if you find this valuable, consider sharing it with friends (or signing up if you haven’t already).
— Grant 👋
About stretch vp: confessions, learnings, and insights from sales leaders in SaaS
Compiled and aggregated from a network of sales leaders in SaaS, Stretch VP showcases learnings, insights, and experiences as well as best practices to overcome common hurdles, obstacles, and setbacks in your quest for excellence as a sales leader in SaaS.
Are you a VP, Director, thought leader, or content producer in the SaaS space? We’d love to have you contribute. Just reply to this email and I’ll be in touch.
Also… check out the blog or follow on Twitter