Sales Development Technology: The Stack Emerges Sales Development Technology: The Stack Emerges A new technology stack is emerging that is specifically designed for sales development. The emergence of a dedicated sales development technology stack is basically the result of a fundamental tension that’s existed in sales development for a few years now. On the one hand, sales development has become a mission critical element in most high growth company’s marketing and sales efforts. One way that sales dev teams are overcoming this challenge is through the use of technology. That’s why the TOPO Sales Development Practice just published The Sales Development Technology Report. Is based on 130+ interviews with sales development leadersAnalyzes key market dynamics from both the buyer and vendor perspectiveProvides a canonical framework for thinking about the sales development tech stackShows how to evaluate and adopt specific sales development technologiesExamines 75 different technology vendors in 9 different categories
18 Extraordinary Lessons Learned from Interviewing The World’s Top SaaS Entrepreneurs We’ve learned a lot from businesspeople at the top of their game. Here are some of the biggest takeaways. Six months ago, we launched a new series on this blog. We set out to interview successful entrepreneurs – businesspeople at the very top of their game – about how they took their businesses to $100K in monthly revenue… and beyond. I expected it to be successful. After all, it was exactly the sort of thing I craved: the most valuable lessons from the entire careers of people much more successful than me, condensed into an easily readable format. But I didn’t expect it to have such an impact on our own business. The truth is, we’ve taken key insights from the monthly interviews, and applied at least one from each entrepreneur to Groove… and the results have been incredible. Today, I’m sharing the top takeaways for us (yours might be different, which is why I encourage reading all of the interviews in their entirety) from the six interviews we’ve done so far. 1) Have a “Forever Free” Plan
9 Cold Email Formulas That Just Plain Work Pop quiz. What is the first goal of any cold email? To get it read. Makes sense, right? So what’s the primary goal of your first sentence? The surprisingly simple answer is…to get the second sentence read. Good news: There’s a proven formula for that. For years copywriters have used basic scientific principles of persuasion and influence to come up with a number of writing techniques that reliably draw readers into their content. Here are the nine best formulas we’ve come across, as seen in real-world cold email examples from Yesware sales reps and others. Before — Here’s your world now After — Imagine what the world would be like if you solved this problem Bridge — Here’s how to get there Open by describing a problem that is relevant to your prospect, and then describe how the world would be different if that problem didn’t exist. Example: Here’s an email that was sent our way by a rep (real name changed) from Xactly. Problem — Identify a pain point Agitate — Agitate that pain point Example:
How to Keep Your Sales Pipeline Filled with Qualified Leads *Editors Note: Guest Post by Heather Morgan, Copywriter and Founder of Salesfolk. Salesfolk helps B2B companies refine their sales messaging to attract more customers. Are you generating enough qualified leads with outbound email to keep your pipeline full? If you’re not it’s probably because you’re either: spending too much time developing personalized message for prospects one at a timeblasting out mass, impersonal emails to an untargeted list. Neither one of these approaches is effective or scalable. We recently helped Y-Combinator startup Ambition (they specialize in sales productivity through gamification) with a 6 week cold email campaign. Let’s check out the process and our stats in detail: Our engagement netted Ambition 73 leads, and revealed several valuable lessons that taught Ambition how to make their outbound efforts even more effective in the future. Here are the major takeaways from the case study: Are Your Cold Email Messages Adding Value? How Personal is too Personal?
Welcome to The Era of The Sales Stack Developers and marketers have had their individual stacks for years. Developers have had the benefit of being able to build their own products, solving problems and filling in the gaps within their workflow. Developers who have mastered the multiple programing languages are now labeled Full Stack Developers. The Marketing Automation era was a boon for marketers everywhere, once developers realized the Marketing industry was white-hot. Salespeople are finally starting to get the love from developers, and are increasingly becoming more technical every day. The first thing you need to do is understand the process from a bird’s-eye view. When creating a pipeline, you may want to ask yourself: what are the stages of the pipeline that matter most to you? It might look something like this: Contacted –> Qualified –> Demo –> Proposal –> Closed I recommend that each stage have its own checklist. The main things that matter when managing a pipeline are: Contacted Qualified Demo Closed Proposal
How To Prevent Your Sales Development Reps From Burning Out | Datanyze Blog Being an SDR can be pretty strenuous. Metrics reset, quotas linger, and rejection is rampant. As a manager, you’ve got to confront these facts and investigate how to keep your SDRs happy in the face of these challenges. So what’s your best course of action? How can you make sure your team is on the road to efficient development and sustainable growth? And what can you do to lead them away from exhaustion? It really comes down to the principles you have when viewing, interacting with, and responding to your team on a daily basis. When building out a SDR team, the first critical task is to choose a solid foundation of people. What types of qualities and personalities are particularly well-suited for the job? The best SDRs are active problem solvers. They’re self starters. They’re also curious, coachable, and always seeking to learn as much as possible. It’s absolutely essential to outline a defined path to mastery via tasks and reward systems. One way is to share your experiences.
35 Actionable Tips to Grow Your Medium Blog — Startups, Wanderlust, and Life Hacking — Medium Publish on a Saturday morning to increase your chances of standing out. You will quickly notice you will even be able to make it to the Medium Top 20 during some weekends with just a few recommendations. Bring your first audience from outside. Place links back to your website (or CTAs) at the end, or integrate them smoothly into your story. Getting your author or brand name noticed can be difficult on Medium’s minimal design. Link images. Upload two or more images at the same time and you have a beautiful image grid. If you want to build a social media following, you can insert “Follow me” images as a grid at the end of your stories and link them to your social media accounts. Medium share buttons are also subtle. Write a creative response to popular stories on Medium. If you want your readers to tweet a certain sentence of your story, you can add “Tweet this” text next to that specific sentence. Medium is the MVP of your blog — Tweet this Make notes public.
Sales & Marketing Advice | Both Sides of The Table I’m going to increase my writing about sales & marketing in the near future. I put a few posts up front that I have already covered in the Startup Series. But I will soon begin a discussion about sales methodologies. Stay tuned. 10 Marketing Tips for Startups Some Other Thoughts on Sales & Marketing 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Sales Methodology (PUCCKA) Why a methodology in the first place? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. More Thoughts on Sales 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
For Entrepreneurs Survey results from 342 B2B SaaS companies on key inside sales metrics including group structure, ramp and retention, quota and compensation, activity & technology and leadership. The SaaS model has become mainstream, and is everywhere. Gone are the early fears of data privacy and security, and now even late adopters are using SaaS for a variety of functions. Software as a Service didn’t just change the delivery mechanism, business model and associated metrics, it also changed the way software is sold. In most SaaS companies, the model of choice is Inside Sales (occasionally coupled with a smaller team of field sales reps). Lower price points, less upfront capital, and no IT involvement have all led to a far lower risk purchase, which in turn means fewer decision makers, and shorter sales cycles. In parallel with these changes, we’ve seen the Internet dramatically change the customer buying journey and resulting sales process. Continued… Share and Enjoy
Why Sales Development Reps Are Your Most Valuable Employees | Datanyze Blog This article first appeared on American Express Open Forum. To see this version, click here. I believe that sales development representatives (SDRs) are absolutely integral to the success of any B2B company. But before we dig into the “why”, let’s contextualize our conversation a bit by going over the “what”. Sales development reps are typically junior members of a sales team. As many SDRs reading this know, the job is far from glorious. Most B2B companies spend millions of dollars a year on paid advertising campaigns. Here’s something to consider: According to a study by McKinsey Global Institute, the average person spends “28 percent of their workweek (that’s 13 hours!) The traditional purchase funnel, “awareness, consideration, action” is a nice, clear-cut way of simplifying the ever-present beast that is sales and marketing revenue attribution. By contrast, an SDR’s value and contribution to the bottom-line is refreshingly black and white.
untitled untitled How to Prospect with a Trigger-Based Approach Editor’s Note: Recap post of the deck presented at Sales Hacker Conference, New York City 2015 by Liz Cain, Senior Director of Worldwide Business Development at NetSuite. The slides from the conference are viewable below. Prospecting – everyone’s talking about it and there are a lot of different approaches. I’m here to talk about WHY it’s important and how to do it with a trigger-based approach. I know this community gets it, but this is what it’s all about. You want to make money? Own. Build your listWork it It’s easy, right? I know you are doing some, but are you getting the most out of your territory? Biggest thing a rep struggles with is time management. The fear of a drying pipeline is the biggest motivator. Build Your Lists (And Know Why You are Calling) I can’t stress the importance of separating these activities enough. Before we dive into HOW, What’s your mindset? Trigger events are the easiest way to build a relevant list with a clear hypothesis of need or REASON for calling.