Tactical Takeaways
Actionable tactics to coach, teach and lead your team
The end is near.
The end of summer is almost here and that means fall and football are right around the corner.
That also means I get to pack my nights and weekends coaching 11-year-olds how to throw a pigskin a quarter-mile.
In a previous newsletter, I mentioned how much sports and selling have in common. (And believe it or not, coaching little league has a good number of parallels to leading a sales team than you may have imagined)
Now….your sales team may not be learning sales for the first time, but they may, in fact, be learning a new or revised playbook and it’s up to you to provide tactical takeaways to continuously improve.
In this week’s edition of Stretch Weekly -
Richard Harris coaches us on how to make our sales pipeline review meetings more productive.
Kevin Dorsey, VP of Inside Sales at Patient Pop joins Bryan Elsesser with SaaStr as they discuss how to build trust in today's competitive market.
Plus more snippets with tactical takeaways to coach, teach and lead your team with.
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
Make Sales Pipeline Review Meetings Productive
Hot takes or not, I really enjoyed this article from Richard Harris on how to make sales pipeline review meetings more productive. I found a few that resonated with me and have already tweaked my cadence and structure accordingly, with more to come.
Check out his top 9 tips:
Cancel teamwide pipeline reviews
Make pipeline maintenance easy with automation
Leave out the chitchat
Split meeting time among the three biggest opportunities
Define exit criteria for each pipeline stage
Identify clear action items and priorities
Create an accountability mechanism for reps and managers
Avoid the blame game
Stagger one-on-one check-ins with pipeline reviews
Building Trust in Sales
You all know Kevin Dorsey is one of my "must follow" sales leaders, I'm also a huge fan of SaaStr so no surprise this one caught my eyes and ears. A few highlights as KD talks with Bryan Elsesser, VP Sales at SaaStr:
Build Trust by helping buyers feel heard and understood, to help them get what they want.
Innovate your process based on what is "not going to change".
Speak to the HOW. Be a human - learn HOW people buy - sell that way (shout out to THIS BOOK by David Priemer).
BBAAS - Brand Building As A Skill - Why?
Listen/Watch full podcast HERE
STRETCH SNIPPETS
🥸 Josh Braun took feedback from his LinkedIn post and compiled answers with 31 things salespeople do that annoy us. Which ones are you guilty of?
✍️ Don't ditch the cold call script...embrace it instead, says Richard Smith. A script enables you to test out different cold call openings, talk tracks, positioning statements, and questions. It allows you to quickly figure out what lands best with your target audience and what doesn’t. It allows you to master and practice which specific words and key phrases need more emphasis in your pitches than others.
📚 If you want to level up your sales demos, stop reading books? Mor Assouline says there are 3 things you should be doing instead. What are they? 1. Record all of your calls and play them back 2. Roleplay 3. Listen to understand.
👻 Kyle Coleman offers 4 things you can do when your prospects are opening your emails but not responding. 1. Pick up the phone and call them. 2. Reply to the first note in the thread. 3. Hit them up on LinkedIn. 4. Reach out to people on their team.
🧐 Jeremey Donovan quotes Andy Whyte’s book; MEDDICC saying: "A proven method to open up the discussion on the right path in the first call is to ask the customer what it was that made them take the meeting or what they are hoping to get from it."
🧠 Mindset
7 Types of Leadership Styles, What Type of Leader Are You?
Excellent article from guru Tony Robbins on the 7 Types of Leaders. Which one are you? Which one do you want to be? Read HERE
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. Contact Me HERE.
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