Tips and Tools For Trainings
This weeks newsletter focuses on some key tips, tricks, tactics and tools for sales leaders and how they can use them to teach and train the team. That’s a lot of “T”s.
👋 Hey there -
Keeping this week’s opening blurb a bit short as there’s a bunch of content already to digest. I’m probably not always going to have each week fit into a specific theme (heck even compiling this is an accomplishment), but it just turned out that the focus of this week’s newsletter all seems to revolve around how us as leaders can empower and enable our team with the right tools and tips through trainings, tactics etc. Let me know what you think! Oh…and if you were forwarded this email subscribe for free here 👇
If you find this newsletter valuable, consider sharing it with friends 👊. Here we go…
STRETCH SHARES
5 Reasons Why Salespeople Suck at Negotiating😬
Loved this article from Jeb Blount on negotiating. I’ve summarized the 5 reasons below:
Poor Emotional Discipline.
“When salespeople get beat at the negotiation table—just as in the example above—90% of the time it’s due to their inability to rise above disruptive emotions in the moment. Fear, insecurity, anger, attachment, eagerness, desperation, and more all conspire to undermine the salesperson’s ability to think clearly and maintain their cool.”
Lack of Training
Jeb brings up some great points here in the fact that most companies invest very little in training for sales negotiation skills. “It’s as if salespeople are somehow supposed to be born with the ability to negotiate effectively…if companies want their salespeople to negotiate at a higher level, there must be a commitment to both initial and ongoing training.”
Failure to Self-Invest
As a sales professional “if its to be, its up to me” is something I learned early on. Jeb is adamant about taking matters into your own hands to learn and improve your negotiation skills. “To become an elite sales athlete, to keep your skills updated and sharp, and to become a master sales negotiator, you must invest your own money, time, and effort in books, audio books, workshops, and online learning pro- grams.You must subscribe to newsletters, podcasts, trade magazines, industry publications, blogs, and sales publications to stay current on your own industry and the sales profession.”
If you haven’t read Never Split The Difference, pick it up on Amazon or Audible today. Its a must read from the former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss.
Buyers Are Better.
Today, buyers have access to more training, information and knowledge and alternatives. Its a buyers market out there in SaaS for sure. At one of my very first B2B sales gigs - selling radio advertising - I was taught a phrase I ended up repeating to this day - even to my sales team “Buyers are Liars”. I love my buyers that became customers. But the ones that don’t buy- and even some that did - were not 100% forthcoming on objections (budget, decision makers, timeline, evaluation criteria, competition, terms etc.) Shout out to a prior Stretch VP Post on improving our Discovery Process throughout the deal cycle.
Empty Pipelines
This one stings because it resonated with me. According to Sir Blunt - Empty Pipelines are the #1 reason we suck at negotiation. “When you have an empty pipeline you get desperate.When you get desperate, you get up close and personal with the Universal Law of Need.1. The more you need to close the deal, the more you will give away to close it. 2. The more you need to close the deal, the less likely you are to close it.”
What 9 Sales Leaders Want New Employees to Grasp While Onboarding🤞
Came across this quick read from some of the sales leaders I follow on What’s the most important thing they want new sales employees to grasp from their onboarding process. Here’s a sampling of what they said. Check out the full article above.
The Value of Research
Rob Jeppsen | CEO: Xvoyant
Max Altschuler | Founder: Sales Hacker, VP Marketing: Outreach
Steve Richard | Co-Founder: ExecVision
This Will Not Be an “Easy” Career
Adam Liebman | Founding Member: The Revenue Collective
Losing is Normal
Jake Dunlap | CEO: Skaled
Never Stop Learning
Richard Harris | Founder: The Harris Consulting Group
Scott Leese | SVP Sales: Qualia, Bestselling Author
Finding Higher Purpose in the Company
Greg Freeman | VP Sales: OneUP Sales
Storytelling Stands-In for Experience
Cliff Unger | Sales Director-Strategic Accounts: InVision
7 Key Tips and Tricks to Getting More Revenue Per AE🤑
If you don’t know already - SaaStr is one of my go to podcasts. So much great content shared. Here’s and episode I bookmarked to make sure I’m doing whatever I can to set my reps up for success. Lots of work to do!
People you have on board
Find, Inspire and Develop great talent
IHP (Ideal Hiring Profile)
Outbound Recruiting
Process you enable.
Technology that you use.
Onboarding/New Hire Training
Top 20 things you want new hires to walk away with
Development of Sales Reps
Characteristics of Great Sellers - reinforce
Win Wires!
Supporting Cast (Ops, Enablement, Sales Engineers, Sales Management)
Customer Success after sale (land and expand)
STRETCH SNIPPETS
Why The Phone Will Always Win In Sales
How are you spending the $15? I chose
Grit, Coachable, Proactive, Positive Attitude, Adaptable.
Hire people better than you. To report to you. - Jason Lemkin
STRETCH VP POST
How I use tools like Bear + Notion to Be More Productive
As I referenced in an earlier post, as a VP of Sales (or any leadership role for that matter), you have an endless amount of to do’s, thoughts and digital bookmarks you need to rely on. How do you organize all this and become efficiently productive? After years of stretching and reaching to finding a process that I feel not only saves me time, but maximizes my productivity and efficiency – I feel like I finally found something I’m excited about. Full post HERE.
Thats it for week 2. Thanks for reading!
Again -if you find this valuable, consider sharing it with friends (or signing up if you haven’t already).
— Grant 👋
💡P.S. What’s the best day/time to send this email? Is Wednesday weird? Bright and early Monday morning better?
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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