Simplicity in Sales
Keeping it simple as we coach and develop our sales teams for growth
Keepin’ it simple.
In tune with a few articles this week, I’m keeping it short, sweet, and simple.
Dharmesh Shah - Founder of Hubspot has a great quote featured this week:
Simplicity drives sales. If you want to sell more, make people think less.
In this week’s edition of Stretch Weekly -
Justin Clifford joins Jim Benton to give us their 4 Predictions for 2021: Coaching, Leadership, and Developing Sales Teams for Growth
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify - and other advice from Scott Leese as he joins Mario Martinez talking to first-time managers.
Why Now Is the Biggest Change in SaaS Sales in 15+ Years from Jason Lemkin and 4 outcomes because of it.
And don’t forget simple snippets to help you in your quest to lead, develop and coach your team for growth.
THANKS for reading!!
-Grant
*And if you aren’t already subscribed, click below to get this to your inbox each Wednesday 👊.
STRETCH SHARES
4 Predictions for 2021: Coaching, Leadership, and Developing Sales Teams for Growth
Jim Benton was joined by Justin Clifford, the Head of Commercial Sales at Lessonly, and discussed 4 predictions as we start the year.
Prediction 1: Revenue Leaders will Find New Ways to Keep Spirits High
Chorus data shows that burnout mentions are up 32% compared to Q1 2020. The question is: How do leaders proactively combat burnout and keep their teams engaged? (Too many happy hours, focus on SKOs)
Prediction 2: Revenue Leaders Will Evolve Team Structure and WFH Processes As Offices Open
Many offices are adopting hybrid models based on flexibility. For example, an office where teams are asked to spend 50% of their time there and 50% of their time at home.
“When you think about the offices opening up,” said Jim, “I think flexible is the key point.” - Jim Benton
Prediction 3: The Most Successful Teams will Double Down on Skills Coaching
When we think about onboarding and building our best teams, coaching is top priority. This brings into focus two different approaches to coaching: Skill Coaching and Deal Coaching.
“Understanding what metrics you can move by highlighting these skills is essential. We work on one or two skills per quarter with an AE. We identify the metric and tie it to a benchmark, and there’s a weekly cadence on coaching. We’re not focusing on deals at that moment but the overall skill.” - Justin Clifford
Prediction 4: Winning Teams Will Rally the Company Around the Customer
While we’re not with our customers at events and such, customer-centric sales have been a focus. Our data shows that there has been a 41% increase in CSMs joining AE meetings.
4 Key Areas of Focus for First Time Managers
Really exciting and enlightening podcast with Mario Martinez Jr hosting Scott Leese on The Modern Selling Podcast. For all aspiring managers, this is a must-listen.
Scott has literally "wrote the book" ongoing from rep to sales manager and talked with Mario on that same subject. Scott’s 4 areas of focus for first-time managers:
Become an apprentice.
The best way to learn is to align yourself with a mentor, like an apprentice. Find a great VP of Sales or Director that you can learn from.
Simplify. (SIMPLIFY!!)
“You have to understand that your job is to simplify, simplify, simplify,” Scott says. “That means to simplify the pitch, simplify the rebuttals for your reps, simplify your feedback to them. So if they do ten things wrong at the same time, don’t tell them all ten things. Start with just one thing. Just simplify their lives in general by removing blockers.”
Collaborate with others.
Sales managers must interact and have good relationships with other departments in the company. They will need the help of Product, Marketing, or Customer Success at some point, so they must nurture those relationships.
Teach your sellers what they need to know.
For example, sellers need to understand the financial metrics that will help them sell, such as how much they can discount before losing money and why.
Make it known that you have a desire to go into leadership.
Many reps or managers don’t get promoted because they never tell their bosses they want to have a new leadership role.
Why Now Is the Biggest Change in SaaS Sales in 15+ Years
Jason Lemkin pens an excellent post about how 2021 will be the year SaaS sales evolves the most in 15+ years. What’s the change?
The permanent move to distributed sales teams. Led not by Covid — but by VPs of Sales and CROs. Sales teams adapted and got better at training and onboarding. Tools have enables sales teams to become better at managing remotely. And now Lemkin laments that we're not going back.
What does that mean for us?
First, you can work for a great SaaS company from anywhere now, especially if you have at least 1-2 years of experience already.
Second, the mediocre now fail faster. With better data, communication, and pipeline visibility, it becomes clearly faster who isn’t going to make it.
Third, you have to be even more “tech-savvy” now to be a successful AE. You have to self-manage more in this distributed world, so AEs that struggle to do their own demos, or to manage Salesforce, or log data … will struggle. They’ll get left behind.
Fourth, compensation will become less flat. Top reps are working faster and better and making more now, but mediocre reps aren’t being kept on anymore “just because we need more folks in SF.” Because now, you’re competing with everyone. Not just the same small pool in SF, or whatever geography.
STRETCH SNIPPETS
🏡 Three remote-working myths that could be harming your team’s productivity via Qwilr.
🎰 Ryan Splain - SE at Sales Loft gives us the 7 things your SE needs to know going into every demo.
✴️ Dharmesh Shah - Founder, Hubspot says simplicity drives sales. If you want to sell more, make people think less.
💬 Moving to all digital selling, the death of CRM and other sales predictions for 2021 from David Cancel, CEO - Drift.
⏫ Jeremey Donovan says: SDR Managers promoted from internal AE have a 64% likelihood of success vs. only 42% if the person's last job was SDR Manager at a different company.
👀 Check out this quick 6 min video with Ryan O'Hara, Josh Braun, and Rishi Mathur as they grade a cold email, and compare it with your team’s approach.
🤯 Introverts vs. Extroverts. The Secret to Managing Salespeople? Start with Their Myers-Briggs Personalities via Hubspot.
🧠 Mindset Matters
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? Let’s connect! Contact Me HERE.
Also… check out the blog or follow on Twitter