Nikki Gagnon

SDRs: When you set a meeting for your AE, it’s like setting up a blind date for your prospect. So get your prospect excited to meet with your AE! Put yourself in the prospect’s shoes. You get a call from someone you don’t know, from a company you haven’t heard of. They do a decent job in the call and you’re intrigued. And then… They set you up for a call with someone else. This process feels like a nurse handing you off to a doctor. Who will then ask you the same exact questions the nurse did. Not a great experience. Let's do better. Here’s how to pull this off: ✅ Tell the prospect what they’ll learn First, ask your AE what prospects learn from their first conversation. This excludes any language about platforms or dashboards. I’m talking education around “why change?” Second, watch a recorded disco/demo from your AE. Or ride shotgun in a few sales calls if your company doesn’t record them. Here’s an example of what this might sound like at the end of a cold call: “I’m really excited for you to meet with __________. You mentioned that staffing welders and figuring out how to automate high mix/low volume parts are top priorities. My Account Executive will walk you through how other manufacturers are solving these two problems so that you’re not having to push back orders. You’ll also walk away with a plan for how you can tackle traditionally tough to automate products.” Don’t mention “demo” at all. ✅ Humanize your AE Talk about your AE’s experience. Hype them up. After you tell the prospect what they’ll take away from the call with your AE, you could end with: “Oh, and ____________ has about 7 years of experience walking the plant floor. Not to mention, he’s had dozens of conversations with Operations leaders in the last 6 months. There are some really big trends we’re seeing and everyone’s dealing with the labor shortage right now. You should get a few ideas you can bring back to your team." --- Lesson here: Take that extra step at the end to talk up your AE and get the prospect excited about them as a HUMAN + what they can learn in that first call. ~~~ This is a great way to improve show rates. Have you tried something like this? #sales #outbound #prospecting

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Some great advice here for those in the Biz Dev world! Let's go!!!

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Ashi from Gong is fast (😮‍💨10k) But not as fast as Gong Engage users when they use Lavender. Access to your Gong calls in our personalization assistant ✅ Access to our coach & "Ashi fast" personalization in Gong ✅ Better 🤝 Faster 3.0 (and so much more) coming soon

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Want to win more of your pipeline? 💰 Multi-thread It’s one of the most important things you can do to help drive urgency in your sales cycle Most mid-market deals include an average of 6-10 DMs Enterprise deals can include upwards of 20+ DMs The trap that a lot of sellers can fall into is over-relying on your champion Champions are great - don’t get me wrong It pays dividends to have a champion but it’s 10x when you have 3-4 champions advocating on your behalf Unfortunately most buyers don’t know how to buy so our job as sellers is to educate our buyers on how to effectively buy a solution to solve their problems & it’s actually pretty simple to do Take a look at your closed-won deals - especially your high value deals Who all was involved? Who is currently involved? What was the buying process like? What unexpected obstacles did you have to overcome? Use this as a roadmap to educate your prospects on how to buy I love multi-threading at the end of discovery in driving next steps (and farther along the sales process as well) Here’s a quick talk track you can easily apply when driving next steps with prospects: “Next steps typically involve looping in ABC partners (this could be higher level DMs in their function or other cross-functional leaders who are involved in the buying process for your service/offering) to discuss XYZ priorities (this should be the key initiatives your prospect is looking to solve/improve/attain in implementing your solution). We want to make sure that we’re all in alignment and moving in the right direction together. We usually see that looping in cross-functional partners early helps us to uncover potential roadblocks that we’d need to account for and improves our collaborative efficiency. What does your buying process look like and who is usually involved? Would it make sense for us to go ahead and loop then in on our next call?” Why it works? 1️⃣ You’re educating the buyer on who’s typically involved with the buying/implementation process at other similar organizations 2️⃣ You’re collaboratively driving next steps and confirming the prospects buying process 3️⃣ You’re using multi-threading as a way to add value (helping reduce unforeseen roadblocks and improve efficiency) 4️⃣ You’re reducing the internal selling effort required for your champion (again - adding value) Expand your reach by broadening your decision-making unit through multi-tasking and watch your sales cycle shrink What other tips do you have for multi-threading within your pipeline? Happy selling, friends!

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Want to drive more expansion? Here's the playbook I learned at Salesforce - Find gaps with customers - Create offers to address gaps - Market this to your expansion list - Introduce offer in sales and CS mtgs - Lay the groundwork and spark interest - Start sales conversations with stakeholders - Close Expansion Opportunities and grow Accts! Whitespace is a key way to find those gaps. 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗖𝗧 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘 - What products does each customer have? - What products does each customer NOT have? - Which products have you yet to present to them? *This is pretty basic but so often not executed well! 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗞𝗘𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘 - Which key stakeholders do you know? - Which key stakeholders do you NOT know? - Where can you open up new key relationships? 𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗟𝗔𝗣 - Where do these overlap? - You can sell a new product to an old contact - You can sell more current product to a new contact - But man is it easier to sell new products to new contacts Let me share some examples from my days at Salesforce: - VPs of Sales bought Salesforce (Sales Cloud) - VPs of Service/COOs bought Service Cloud - CMOs bought Pardot or Marketing Cloud - CFOs bought more licenses at discounts We had a different play for each product and each stakeholder. It wasn't this cut and dry though. Sometimes VPs of Sales bought Service Cloud or Marketing Cloud. CFOs often wanted the best contract terms and were my bread and butter for expansion, but it wasn't always them driving this. Most often, though, our relationship started with the VP of Sales who bought Sales Cloud and didn't really care about anything else we had to sell. This playbook is how Salesforce "landed and expanded" accounts and doubled spend for the average customer within 12 months of the initial purchase when I was there. More details in the 📰 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 📰 https://lnkd.in/ezX9iMjr ✌️

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Here is the real impact that value selling is having for revenue teams: Tom Pisello David Yockelson 🔑48% improvement in winrate 🔑35% increase in deal size 🔑25% reduction in sales cycle time BUT...... ⛔️ only 19% of reps and 19% of pipeline is using value selling today. BIGGGG opportunity here...!

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SDRs - Want to sound more confident on your cold calls? Here's a simple way... Remove phrases like "I think" or "I believe" These phrases are weak and make you sound less confident. before: "I think that we can help solve XYZ" after: "we solve XYZ" You're already giving your opinion, you don't need to say it again. Speak with power. People trust confident people. P.S. we share actionable and tactical tips each week in our newsletter. Super example-heavy. Check it out! Worst case scenario you simply unsubscribe :)

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"Should we outsource SDRs?" No, with rare exceptions. There's a reason why customer churn is high at most of the outsourced SDR shops. Outbound isn't as easy as paying $3-5k / month for a part-time SDR. And then expecting to see high-quality opportunities in 30-60 days. I've NEVER worked with a client that was happy with their SDR agency. - Poor show rates to meetings - Terrible expectation setting with handoff - Low-quality meetings with non-decision makers - Few, if any, closed/won deals But to be fair—it isn't always the SDR agency's fault. Many of their clients expect them to be miracle workers. An outbound-led sales motion is very different from an inbound-led sales motion. If your AEs are used to meeting with inbound leads, they must be taught how to close outbound leads. Prospects will likely not be problem-aware, there isn't a budget in place, and they probably won't have brand awareness. Do not hire an SDR agency if: ⛔️ You've never done outbound before as an org. ⛔️ You sell enterprise ⛔️ You're breaking into new industries ⛔️ You haven't figured out your messaging or value drivers ⛔️ Your AEs aren't self-sourcing and doing their own outbound No outsider will ever understand your customers as well as you do. And it's only a bandaid to build a sales culture that doesn't understand how to excel at outbound. It might make sense to work with an agency if: ✅ You know outbound works, but need help scaling it ✅ You've mastered messaging and value drivers ✅ Your AEs know how to close outbound deals ~~~ Agree or disagree? #sales

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If an SDR Manager pressurises reps, the SDRs will pressurise prospects. If an SDR Manager lacks empathy with SDRs, the SDRs will lack empathy with prospects. If an SDR Manager falls out with the AE Leader, the SDRs will fall out with AEs. Your SDR team is a reflection of your SDR Manager. Guide them. Teach them. Coach them. Just because they have a leader title doesn't mean they are leading. PS. If you're interested in my SDR Leader Learnings from 8 years in the game I wrote an article here: https://lnkd.in/eAgPDXgM

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99% of SMB sellers think they need to get promoted to enterprise to make $300,000 a year. They're wrong. What they REALLY need is a hungry market and a decent comp plan. Here's 4 reasons why SMB reps can out-earn enterprise reps. 1. If your company isn't firmly "upmarket," enterprise reps struggle. In my heyday at Gong, the highest-earning salespeople were SMB reps. I knew several who cracked $300,000. We had not yet 'crossed the chasm' to selling to the enterprise. Yet startups and SMBs were RAVENOUSLY hungry for what Gong had to offer. Enterprise reps struggled. SMB AEs routinely hit 200% of their number. When you have commission accelerators in place, that's big money. 2. Enterprise customers are "laggards." Again, if your company hasn't "crossed the chasm," most enterprise buyers view new technology with skeptical eyes. They want to see other enterprises "go first." They aren't trying to get a fast-mover advantage. They're trying to not f*** up. It can take YEARS for your company to "crack" the enterprise. 3. Enterprise is feast or "famine." The people who make HUGE incomes in enterprise? They close 2-3 MEGA deals per year. They aren't hitting a bunch of singles, doubles, and triples. They choose to go "all in" on a few home runs. If it pans out, they make millions. If it doesn't, they make their base pay. 4. Your quota in enterprise is much higher. Here's a dirty secret for you, coming from a former sales leader who designed comp plans: If your OTE goes up, so does your quota. Senior business leaders know that quotas must be at least 3.5x to 5x the size of your OTE. It has to be that way. Otherwise the math of the business falls apart. 5. Product/market fit in enterprise and SMB are VERY different. Just because you have product/market fit in SMB doesn't mean that applies to the enterprise. Big enterprises have DIFFERENT demands on your product for it to be considered. SSO and advanced security capabilities to name a couple. Many companies are light on these features. So enterprise reps have to "sell around those gaps," which is REALLY hard. Ok. To the future guy in the comments: I agree with you: There are long-term career reasons to want to land an enterprise sales role, even if it means making less money short term. I support that. But don't tell me for a second that SMB reps are destined to make peanuts and enterprise reps are destined to make millions. Rarely happens that way. Especially in hot startups. You can make $300,000 in SMB if you find a hungry market. P.S. I had dinner recently with the COO of a $2B publicly held SaaS company. He formerly worked at Box in their heyday. Mentioned their highest-earning salespeople were SMBs reps, often topping out at $500k. Something to think about. P.P.S. I've watched over 3,000 discovery call recordings "by hand." Here's a list of the 39 best questions that sell: https://go.pclub.io/list

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SDRs who deserve to be AEs... ✅ Help coach other SDRs ❌ Are in it for themselves ✅ Hit quota every month ❌ Sometimes smash it ✅ Build amazing internal relationships ❌ Moan about their AE and Manager ✅ Prioritise the team winning ❌ Think they're an individual contributor ✅ Train every single day ❌ Believe they know it all ✅ Compete against themselves ❌ Compete against others in the team ✅ Are genuinely happy when others win ❌ Get bitter when others are successful 99% of success is in WHO you are. And HOW you do things. Embrace being different. Embrace being better. What am I missing? ---- PS. My SDR to AE bootcamp closes tomorrow. 5 seats left; https://lnkd.in/ejFQERRF

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Hey Sales Leaders - your sales reps don't want to be automated... they want to be coached. The data has shown time and time again... the majority of your replies come from the minority of the emails you send. It's the +80% personalized emails. It's the 1 offs. NOT the "scaled" attempts Teach your reps so they can thoughtfully grow in the role.

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If you’re an SDR/BDR there’s a good chance you are about to see massive changes with your role. Here’s why: The title has always been transactional and supplemental in the sales process - both things that the buying market doesn’t give a sh*t about. And no leader wants to admit that 👆🏻 The reason it has survived so long is because it does the dirty work for the salespeople that aren’t willing to prospect or don’t like prospecting. And no salesperson wants to admit that 👆🏻 It’s a role that’s been tormented by leadership Looked down upon as “little” or “unimportant” And in general, has become a whirlwind of doing the same damn thing and expecting a different result… Not to mention my favorite thing Watching SDRs get hired and 30 days later they are being fired because their “results are lacking” LOL… It’s comical. It’s why we need a Rebellion. If you’re an SDR/BDR you should consider becoming a Rebel and doing it different like your colleagues in our programs. More results, more passion, more purpose, more desire, better outcomes. Creating your own job security not just at the org you represent, but because you can now go replicate those results anywhere else. Our free Rebel Slack community is always open. #ChangeTheGame #BDR #SDR

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When is RevOps just glorified Sales Ops? - Usually, when they report to a VP of Sales So, who should RevOps report to? - CRO, COO, CFO, CEO? RevOps needs to be: - Unbiased - In a position of authority - Aligned with all revenue functions If not, it devolves into something else. So, who should RevOps report to? - The CRO is the strong default - The COO is unbiased and runs ops - The CFO is also unbiased and data-driven - The CEO can make the role extremely strategic But there are drawbacks to each of these as well. What do you think? 🤔 We’ll break each case down in tomorrow’s 📰𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙊𝙥𝙨 𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙡𝙮 📰 Subscribe here to get it: https://bit.ly/49RCm0h ✌️

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SDR Leaders - Your outbound sequences may be hurting you. When I audit outbound sequences, a massive gap I see is SDRs being forced to follow a sequence 100% to the letter. ❌ no templates they are empowered to inject their research or personality into. ❌ no options for out-of-sequence steps in response to buyer actions. They are putting up the numbers, but not getting results. IF you want to fully automate your emails: I am a massive fan of #ValueBasedSegmentation which allows teams to run 100% automated emails that are still relevant and valuable to the prospect. IF you're running a fully automated email play, you still need to take a multi-channel approach which means call and social touchpoints. ❌ stop forcing reps to word-vomit a script that does not work. ❌ stop forcing reps to use drag & drop social copy that does not work. I've yet to see a highly effective, fully automated sequence (EG. zero manual touches). What I see more often is folks striving to scale and instead defaulting to spammy sequences. My challenge to you - how are you striking a balance between time-saving automation and injecting relevant research + rep personality into your sequence to get MAX results? -- Enjoyed this post? Click here 👉https://lnkd.in/emVkCrf3 to hit follow & ring my 🔔 for more

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Why is 60-70% of SDRs missing quota? It's because their leadership is failing them. I had the pleasure of interviewing Sara Storm on the SDR Hire Podcast - a tenured SDR and Revenue leader with multiple successful teams behind her, countless lectures and trainings delivered. Sara has a very unique, no BS approach to sales and SDR leadership. In this episode she shared: • What's the current state of the SDR/BDR role • Why sales leaders are failing their sales teams AND their customers • How can SDRs take ownership of their careers?! • Should you even be in an SDR role? • How she used to close 7/10 cold calls she'd make Here's the full episode: https://lnkd.in/eCANhKGu Sara thank you for sharing your expertise and holding sales leaders everywhere accountable! Hope you all enjoy and subscribe! #sdr #bdr #salesdevelopment #techsales #career

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Do you use Salesforce? How about LinkedIn Sales Navigator? Keep reading. Question: How many tabs do you have open with Prospects that you're going to call....at...some....point? Today that changes...well hopefully not the prospecting part. LinkedIn Sales Solutions is making your lives even easier. ❌ No more switching between platforms ❌ No more multiple tabs ❌ No more [right click, open in new tab] Instead ✅ Insights that you can use, right insight your CRM ↳Account IQ: Get clued up on your accounts so you know how to position your solutions ↳Find your decision making unit ↳Relationship map - no more lists - visualise relationships to find decision makers faster. All of this is available today! (click refresh on your CRM tabs). Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/EESalesInsiders #LinkedIn #SalesNavigator #DeepSales #Sales #CRM #Productivity #GoToMarketStrategy

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If you want to hit $100M ARR (and position your company for true scale), you must master enterprise sales. Here are the 11 critical skills your team needs to consistently close 6, 7 and 8 figure deals: 1. Understanding fundamental differences between transactional selling and enterprise sales 2. Developing the right pricing strategies to align with your customer 3. True multi-stakeholder and multi-threaded sales processes 4. High impact account-based marketing strategies including dedicated virtual programming 5. Field sales support and in-person program development 6. Territory design and comp planning 7. Building the team including pre-sale architects, reps, and customer success 8. Aligning the organization and staffing new functions 9. Building out services to ensure your customers solve their problems 10. Mutual action planning built around client outcomes 11. Deal management at the Board level These are all fundamental skills Pavilion taught previously but the scope and intensity are different when it comes to true Enterprise sales. That’s why Enterprise GTM School is so important and it’s become a foundation of our educational curriculum. We’ll teach you the entire enterprise playbook, give you the workbooks, tools, and processes, and prepare you to hit true scale. The course is included FREE with Executive Membership. It's an absolute can’t miss! And it starts TOMORROW Apply here: https://lnkd.in/ezspvCZe P.S. Not a member yet? DM me to get 10% off Enterprise GTM School

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Such a valuable list of “cheat codes”! Some I wish I learned earlier on in my career, but happy to have learned them at some point and able to act on them!

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