Achievement, Pipeline and Practice
Practical and relevant tips to build pipeline, avoid sales traps, close more deals and achieve greatness
✅ Achievement Unlocked
What do John Wooden and Jocko Willink have in common? They both preach that Leaders never confuse activity with achievement or productivity. I wrote a post about it below - hope you give it a read and let me know where we as leaders can spend our time to optimize activity for achievement and productivity.
While last week had a sales development focus- this week leans more towards pipeline movement and deal closings. Its packed full of candid, practical and relevant tips that you can use in practice/training sessions to build pipeline, avoid sales traps, close more deals and win sales championships.
As always, if you find this newsletter valuable, consider sharing it 👊.
STRETCH SHARES
4 Dangerous Sales Traps - And How to Help Your Team Avoid Them
Enjoyed this quick - short read from the folks at And Costello. When it comes to enterprise sales, there’s a long list of unfortunate circumstances that can throw off a deal—regardless of how much time was spent on preparation and reviewing key details. Sales professionals simply can’t predict or control when a decision maker leaves the company, when layoffs or budget cuts occur, when the company experiences a security issue, and the list goes on.
1. Conducting Minimal Discovery
2. Not Setting Proper Expectations With Prospects
3. Not Involving the Right Decision Maker Early Enough
4. Allowing Use of ‘Personalized’ Methodology
Definitive Guide to Sales Cadence
XANT recently published a stellar PDF with best practices for both inbound and outbound sales cadences. Using data from their customers we can learn:
• How many times should I attempt contact?
• How long should I wait between attempts?
• What methods are most likely to result in a conversation?
• What messaging will resonate with my potential buyer?
• When should I give up?
While they do pitch their “playbooks” feature - the content is super insightful and will at the very least make you take a second look at your current process and cadences.
🤫 Plus - I already signed up and gave them my email so you don’t have to.
Shut up! Smash Your Quota By Listening Better
Stumbled upon this video from Liston Witherill on becoming a better listener and how it will help you sell more. It resonated and reminded me of a previous post I did on Discovery Calls HERE.
Top Closers spend the most time listening and the least time talking
#1 thing buyers say sales people should do is “Listen to my needs”
SHOW that you’re listening
Ask for more (peel the onion) *also referenced in my post above. Called Mirroring.
Repeat and Confirm (labeling)
Use this in a training with your team. Slides, charts etc.
STRETCH SNIPPETS
All buyers want to know the answer to these 3 simple questions
Multi-threading on Sales Calls
How to leverage LinkedIn videos for prospecting
STRETCH VP POST 👇
Never Mistake Activity for Achievement
What great insight for us as leaders. Whether we are coaching a basketball team, a sales team or leading an entire company!
As leaders our focus shouldn’t be on merely managing and monitoring activity but WHAT that Activity leads to and WHY its important.
To me this means two things:
Just because activity is there, it doesn’t guarantee winning, closing deals and success. You and your team may be going through the motions or completely missing opportunities to get better. Don’t get cocky if things aren’t that difficult right now.
Focus activity on things that matter most. Instead of purely checking the boxes on metrics – get into the weeds and understand what value you can bring to each customer. How do they make money? Where are they struggling? How can you make their job/life easier? That’s impact.
🧠 Mindset Matters
Are you willing to put in the work when there is no praise, no social media, and no immediate reward? Excellence is lonely. It requires a laser focus on the lonely work. This is what sets the great one’s apart. - Riley Jensen
😄 QUARANTINE BONUS:
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 inspiration and 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 tech space? We’d love to have you contribute. Contact Me HERE.
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