MARCH FORTH!
MARCH FORTH!
Growing up as a kid, my family knew March 4th wasn’t a real holiday. But every year - we treated it like one and we celebrated it. What's the significance of March 4th? Read on...
🎉 Happy March 4th!
Let me explain. Growing up as a kid, my family knew March 4th wasn’t a real holiday. But every year - we treated it like one and we celebrated it.
For background -like everyone else in the world, then and now - I use the New Year to set goals and map out what I’d like to focus on for the next 12 months.
But inevitably - we (or at least 80% of us) lose our fire and resolve to follow through with our newfound goals and aspirations.
That’s where March 4th comes in.
My Dad created March 4th as a symbolic date to take a more focused look at where we stand, why we may be struggling, and make a more concerted effort to MARCH FORTH and rededicate ourselves to action.
Faced with the choice of giving up on our goals or marching forward - this date serves as a reminder to execute instead of retreat.
So - naturally as part of my 2020 goals, today was circled. I couldn’t think of a better day to officially launch our first newsletter.
If you find this newsletter valuable, consider sharing it with friends 🤜🤛
STRETCH SHARES
How does your sales org stack up?🤔
The folks at Chorus.ai have a nifty piece of content you can use to benchmark your team’s performance against other SaaS companies. In just a few minutes, you can input your own values and see how you stack up with others in the SaaS world. Where do you stand? Check it out to see what high-performance sales teams are doing to close more deals. They analyzed over 5M sales calls from more than 300 companies to show you what works in each stage of the sales cycle.I found it pretty enlightening to see where we are at compared to others. Check it out HERE.
Demo-litions…👇
Stumbled upon something super cool from SalesHacker. Since my team is remote, we sometime miss aspect of “learning by osmosis” that reps can get by eavesdropping on their peer’s discovery calls and demos. I shared this with my team over the weekend and we talked about it in our training meeting. What a cool (and daring) thing these guys are doing. We’re definitely going to use these as part of our trainings and coachings going forward.
*Also - kudos to Vidyard (we use it and love it) rep Jenna.
Improving Your Outbound Process 🚀
One of my most frequented podcasts I use for sales training is Startup Sales with Adam Springer. This episode features Jeremey Donovan, SVP Sales Strategy at SalesLoft, who always has great nuggets to share on LinkedIn. If you oversee SDR functions this one is worth bookmarking and even making part of your onboarding process.
Note: check out my StretchVP Blog post: Top 10 Podcasts For a First Time VP of Sales to see what’s in my weekly rotation.
STRETCH SNIPPETS
83% of sales leaders claimed they were “Awesome” at coaching. However…
Optimism is a strategy. I really believe that.
Next steps! 🗣
STRETCH VP POST
The Short Shelf Life of a SaaS VP of Sales
VPs of Sales don’t last very long. I’ve heard this before and seen this with my own eyes. Jake Dunlap mentioned that he thinks there’s a 0.00% chance they’ll make it 4 years (at a startup). Aaron Ross points out that VP of Sales in early stage companies averages just 18 Months!! *Spoiler – there’s hope. Read on.
Thanks for reading and March Forth!!
That’s it. That’s the newsletter. Thanks for reading. My hope is if you find this valuable, consider sharing it with friends (or signing up if you haven’t already). And don’t forget to use today - March 4th - to pursue action instead of retreat.
— Grant 👋
About Stretch VP Weekly:
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 avoid and 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 hear from you. Contact Me HERE.
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