" SALES TEAMS THAT BRING THE MOST THOUGHTFUL INSIGHTS, INDUSTRY TRENDS, AND COMPETENCY TO SHOW CUSTOMERS THEIR FUTURE AND GUARANTEE THEIR OUTCOME " — WIN
Why read this?
GRIT, PASSION, CURIOSITY: While you can train most seasoned salespeople on how to sell your product, three skills cannot be coached. It’s not mandatory for your initial sales leader to come from the same industry or domain as you or has experience selling to the same segment or ACV. Although these traits can be advantageous, they do not solely determine success.
A SELF STARTER seek; out an individual who has a strong desire to learn and is willing to immerse themselves in the entrepreneurial journey alongside you fully. While their sales accomplishments and potential can be beneficial, the primary indicators of success are their reactions to challenges, their approach to their career, and the obstacles they’ve surmounted.
THE HUNTER MENTALITY. Grit is crucial because building a successful sales strategy requires persistence and hard work. You must be agile and quick on your feet while remaining steadfast. Hunters are adept at developing innovative solutions and generating leads rapidly.
CONSIDER THEIR BACKGROUND: What past experiences led them to this point? Have they sold a popular product or one that was relatively unknown? Is their experience distinctive?
BEGIN WITH AN SDR: After demonstrating how to effectively execute outbound outreach at a sizable scale during the initial months, it’s recommended to enlist someone who can provide support in this area. A consistent generation of top-of-funnel leads is crucial to enable concentration on enhancing the remainder of the sales procedure.
RECRUIT SELF-MOTIVATED INDIVIDUALS: It’s essential to seek out sales hires with a talent for navigating uncertainty during the initial stages. Your objective is to identify multi-talented sales representatives who exhibit an entrepreneurial spirit. There’s generally a scarcity of time to conduct thorough onboarding sessions when building a sales team. Thus it’s important to search for genuinely independent and innovative individuals.
BROADEN YOUR SEARCH: It’s advisable to engage in discussions with a significant number of potential candidates and establish success criteria and role specifications at the outset. Develop a MOC (Model of Candidate) for the SDR positions. Only after conducting numerous interviews can, you truly grasp the ideal profile. Be open to outsourced lead gen and sales competency companies to expedite.
IDENTIFYING A THIRD-PARTY PROVIDER: Consider enlisting the services of demand generation outsources like Lead Strategus to help grow and expand seamlessly. By the end of the second quarter, at the minimum, you should have onboarded three SDRs and three AEs, recognizing that it would take between three to six months for them to acclimate and achieve productivity.
BUILD TRUST WITH YOUR FOUNDING AE: Founders should take the time to get to know their Founding AE, understand their style, and build a strong working relationship. It’s important to be proactive in building out a playbook and asking for feedback. Regular updates on deals in real-time and providing potential solutions for closing deals helps build trust.
START PROSPECTING EARLY: Building a pipeline should be the priority from the beginning. Dedicate time each day to outreach and reaching out to target accounts. The goal should be to book meetings every week and not settle until they are achieved.
GET CLOSE TO THE CUSTOMER: Learn as much as possible about the customer and build relationships with them. Look for customers who can be advocates and make referrals.
DON’T TRY TO GO IT ALONE; customers can teach you about the industry and help with co-selling.
DOMAIN EXPERTISE: Take the time to become a true thought leader in the domain. Subscribe to relevant publications and attend webinars to learn more about the industry.
RUN A TIGHT SALES PROCESS: Create a clear mutual evaluation plan and set expectations with prospects. A Mutual Action Plan and success Criteria for a POC can guide customers through sales and help close deals. Continuously iterate and improve the sales process.
RUN A TIGHT SALES PROCESS: Create a clear mutual evaluation plan and set expectations with prospects. A Mutual Action Plan and success Criteria for a POC can guide customers through sales and help close deals. Continuously iterate and improve the sales process.
TAKE IT SLOW: The handoff process from the Founder to the sales team should be gradual and steady. Break it down by segment, and the agency starts owning calls for the SMB (as an example) segment after about a month, gradually working your way up to more significant segments. The Founder evaluates metrics and involves as needed.
BUILD INTERNAL ALLIES: Understanding the technical aspects of the product can be difficult, so rely on a technical/SC team for support. This helps develop a scalable sales process. Once you have stabilized a segment, move on to coach new hires.
COMMUNICATE FREQUENTLY: Founders are detail-oriented, and matching their frequency level, dashboard, leading KPIs, results, and energy is essential.
ALWAYS BE SELLING: The Founder should never stop selling. The Founder still does outreach and book meetings based on his network and involves him in multi-threading and executive conversations as needed.
INVEST IN REVOPS: Don’t wait too long to hire a RevOps team. Attempting to handle everything on your own can lead to a lack of productivity. As a best practice, build RevOps competency earlier; it helps scale the sales team even faster.
