Happy Holidays friends!
Last week - I focused this email on everything to do with a VP of Sales. This week - I wanted to shine a light on the top traits, tips, best practices and actionable takeaways to share with our sales reps.
Whether you are just getting started assembling your team, or merely needing some more content to coach with, this week will come in handy as we focus on what it takes to succeed as a salespro.
In this week’s edition of Stretch Weekly -
7 Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople with insights and quotes from top leaders like Goddard Abel (G2 Crowd), Jacco van der Kooij (Winning by Design) and more.
Another Force Management podcast with John Kaplan talking about the Key things to do after every sales call.
More amazing insight from Devin Reed uncovering the 5 best data-backed sales tips of 2021.
And don’t miss snippets this week focused solely on the top traits, practices, insights, tips, habits, and practices of the best sales reps in SaaS.
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
7 Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople
RingDNA has rebranded to Revenue.io. Maybe it’s just me, but seems like in doing so, more sales/revenue related content is being distributed - and this is a good one.
Revenue.io compiled insight and quotes from top leaders like Goddard Abel (G2 Crowd), Jacco van der Kooij (Winning by Design) and more to give us the 7 Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople:
Service vs. Selling. “You’re giving them something, or offering them a solution to a problem they have”.
Better Every Meeting. “The best sales executives work really hard to prepare for every meeting”. - Godard Abel
Scrappiness. “Create luck, so you can position yourself to make good things happen”.
Storytelling. “Being able to tell a compelling story is the number one thing any salesperson needs to master”
Curiosity. “Digging very deep into what is behind the product or service”
Note-Taking. “taking good notes is one of the key skills that a sales professional needs to master”.
Resilience. “Sales reps have to make sure that whatever is happening behind the scenes of their life is not going to come front and center when they are in a sales meeting or serving a client”.
Key Things to Do After Every Sales Call
One of my new favorite podcasts is this one from Force Management. Loaded with great tips, tactics and actionable takeaways to help lead your team and reps to success.
In this episode John Kaplan talks about the Key things to do after every sales call.
Highlights:
Sales is a process and not a series of events.
Use great discovery and active listening you understand their business.
Use a framework on value creation and then pivot to how you do it, how you do it better.
Qualify your position with MEDDICC. Be disciplined here. This is what elite sellers do.
5 Best Data-Backed Sales Tips of 2021
Had to throw this article from Devin Reed in this week uncovering the 5 best data-backed sales tips of 2021.
The best thing about the content from Gong is that its backed up by real data from thousands of calls and deals they analyze. Here you go:
Never negotiate over email
Beware of selling with slides
Write longer prospecting emails
Stop selling solo. Start team selling.
Avoid holiday “dead zones”.
This one deserves a click and full attention to the actual article though so check it out!!
STRETCH SNIPPETS
🏎 What makes a good salesperson? Pipedrive has a great article from their “State of Sales Report” with the Top 11 traits of high-performing sales reps.
😬 Josh Braun asked: “What is something salespeople do that annoys you?” People then shared some examples of annoying things salespeople do, so you can avoid doing those things.
👨🎨 Jeffrey Gitomer and Jeff Shore say the best salespeople are the ones who are most creative when it comes to follow up.
🔑 David Premier talks about uncovering the one key trait of the best pipeline builders: Conviction. They were prescriptive, made strong recommendations, and ensured the customers understood the value proposition.
✅ Aja Frost gives us a great list of the 10 Qualities only the best sales reps possess. My two favorites? #3: They’re deliberate with their time and #6: They’re a little pessimistic.
🧠 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.
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