Nooks’ Post

Back when myLifeSite was just getting started, I would block a couple of hours out of each day to cold call ☎ life plan communities; mostly independent single-site communities. (I used a slightly different approach for the larger organizations.) I had no cold-calling experience, but didn't have much of a choice so each day I would pick up the phone. Here's the exact pitch I would give: ME: Hello, this is Brad Breeding with myLifeSite. (I never said "Hello, my name is..." because that was a dead giveaway that they didn't know me or my company, even though they probably didn't 😅.) I know I caught you in the middle of your day so I promise I won't take more than two minutes of your time to tell you why I am calling. Is that okay? SALES DIRECTOR: Uhhhh. Sure ME: Great, thank you. The reason for my call is to introduce you to myLifeSite, a new company that provides an online toolbox full of consumer education content and financial decision tools created specifically for CCRCs/LPCs to use with their prospects. These resources equip sales and marketing teams to enhance credibility, build prospect loyalty, and advance more sales. I know your time is valuable but I wondered if you might like to block off just 15-20 min sometime in the next few days so I can show you a quick online demo and explore whether it may be a good fit for ABC Community. [awkward pause here] SALES DIRECTOR: Sounds interesting. I'll take a look. (Or, "No thanks." click!) These calls were not easy to make, but for the most part, they were effective. And I learned so much from them. The thing that hits me as I reflect on those calls is that everything I said then is still true today. At myLifeSite, we help senior living providers enhance credibility, build customer loyalty, and advance more sales. From day one we have been passionate at myLifeSite in our belief that successful sales and marketing teams are those that are viewed as knowledgeable, transparent, and trusted resources by prospects. Tripp Higgins and I preach the 3 Es all day long: EDUCATION, ENGAGEMENT, and EMPOWERMENT. Better consumer education leads to more effective prospect engagement which empowers more confident decisions. This is where myLifeSite's provider solutions can help. And it's what we love.   BTW- if you're reading this and have been in the industry for more than about six years there is a good chance I called on you at some point. You may still be a customer of ours. If so, THANK YOU! Oh, and every so often I still pick up the phone so if you hear this pitch soon please don't hang up on me! 😉 #lifeplancommunities #ccrcs #seniorlivingsales #seniorlivingmarketing #retirementcommunities #independentliving

I don't always talk about this kind of stuff on here. I focus a lot on revenue driving activities during the work day and family the rest of the time but I was inspired by Christian Herrmann who was our top rep in Q1. Proud to be just a few spots behind you! I'd be doing myself and my team a disservice if I didn't acknowledge the work that Chris Phibbs, my Manager for just the last couple of quarters did to help me see the results I wanted to jumping into a Full-Cycle selling role from being an SDR supported Closer for the last 4 years. We focused a lot on doing what works, making small changes that had a big impact in my day to day cold calling with increased DM connects, set rates and hold rates. I've seen a lot of growth here at brightwheel since starting as an SDR in our tiny wework office 5 years ago and have a lot of people to thank for helping me get where I am today. Here's a few: First, My day 1 team mate Ezra Rancourt-Walker who has consistently exceeded numbers just like we talked about doing that first morning in Denver before we had salesforce log ins. Next up, Ryan Swearingen 👋 my first sales manager at brightwheel who taught me how to use the data to find which lever to pull to improve each and every day. Drew Woodcock our VP of sales when I first started always taught us to bring solutions to the table with any problem we faced, whether our own or our customer's. Robert Strobo taught me to trust the process, pay attention to the "why" behind every word and again, trust the process. Amanda Messbauer, one of my first managers as an AE taught me how to really listen. She taught me to find solutions to problems that the prospect has, not what I assumed or knew they had ahead of time. Eric Katz helped me not just see problems and bring solutions, but to execute on the problem solving when a process didn't work, while still working within said process to see success. Sarah Langhals taught me that to sell is human. There's another human on the other side of the phone, screen and inbox. Tom Calvert taught me that managing time, helping others and asking for help are key to personal and professional growth. David Zeilstra taught me that you can prioritize family and still put your best foot forward and give 110% at work. Roger Plummer taught me that having 'grit' isn't just blindly putting in effort, but putting in smart, targeted effort so you can both work harder ever day and work smarter every day. Margherita Posillico taught me and still teaches me day in and day out how to be a good teammate, how to create and participate in a culture that wins and that making sure you rest and have joy are actually vital to your productivity. Looking forward to Q2 and as my 5th year as a brightwheeler comes to a close next weekend I'm ready to jump into my next 5 year plan 💪 #saas #edtech #quarterlychampions #ae #brightwheel #sales

What is this picture all about, Donald? Let me explain… At the start of my sales career, it was hard to find a watering hole! A place where I could go to connect with other sellers, learn best practices, get feedback on my pitches, learn of professional development activities/events, learn how to improve my career etc. The only thing available was going to local networking events, but in these cases, these communities were filled with plumbers, lawyers, people in financial services and entrepreneur’s. Nothing against these folks, but they didn’t understand my selling challenges. How to best break into a large account, cold outreach strategies, help with specific b2b objections, sales comp plan questions, how do they handle team members trying to steal their accounts, best sales conferences to attend etc. I needed to get help from people who could offer guidance based on SHARED EXPERIENCES! I needed a community. This is one of the reasons I started a podcast 10 years ago. So where does this picture come into the story? Well, imagine if there was a place with hundreds of sellers, over 30 sales influencers, sales leaders, FREELY chatting offering shared experience and insights…imagine how this type of space could help you and totally elevate the sales community? Well, there is…Salesforce launched a free sales Slack community and it’s popping off. It’s called Salesblazers!!! Not a user group, a true watering hole where young DK and others like you can hangout and get outside opinions from people not in their own company. Yes, I know there are a lot of communitie these days. But why I like this one is because of a few reasons: 1. Build connections and get warm intros from other sellers into accounts you are trying to work with. 2. There are dope channels addressing questions most of us are facing right now. Like finding new jobs, getting feedback on ideas, new sales tatics, etc. 3. LIVE Huddles from sales leaders, experts and influencers where you can ask anything and get awesome insights! 4. There is NO PITCHING to buy anything and the caliber of people in the community is top notch! 5. People are ACTIVE and you can get genuine engagement from others at all levels of sales experience. And of course you know I’m over there…come by and check it out. Let’s elevate the sales community with this “watering hole”. Here’s the link https://sforce.co/43G1GEu.

Day.ai looks like this under the hood and makes all of reps' behavior compliant with the process by default. Describe your process however you want (that photo is perfect actually) and Day.ai will frame all the (auto-created/updated) CRM data in the context of the sales process being used. Training is still great to do, and I love seeing examples of leaders doing training themselves. The future of sales is one where all communication *starts* with the right process as the default. The best users of Day.ai are the ones who know their process well and can write it down. The other best users are the folks who don't know, and want a starting point that Day.ai is more than happy to provide.

"I wasted hours on outreach when I could have just utilized the tools right in front of me." - Darren McKee. The power of TeamLink is so simple = fastest path to a warm introduction. #linkedin #linkedinsalesnavigator #salesnavigator #teamlink #connections #referrals #warmleads #warmintros #sales

When I was a full sales cycle AE at Trustpilot, I closed 600 deals in 2 years. That's almost 1 deal per day 🤯💸 Here are simple 3 steps I followed every day to generate a consistent pipeline👇 #1 𝗗𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗙***𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗿𝗮-𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 I researched every single account, including their social media presence, online reputation, checkout funnel, etc. I researched the marketing and management team. We didn't use any fancy database tools, and if people weren't on LinkedIn, I called the HQ to do my research on the phone. My outreach was ultra-personalized. I would send cold emails with screenshots, and my cold call calibrated questions were all unique to my prospects. Not scalable but SYSTEMIZED, and the conversion rate from call to demo was over 30% 🔥 #2 𝗣𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲 I was not trying to convince anyone to use Trustpilot but was genuinely curious to understand my prospects' current priorities and overall online strategy. I never pushed my next steps on anyone but always suggested to adjust with their timelines. I followed up diligently and categorized my pipeline into 3 categories: ❄️ 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 = Never got back to me 🔥 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗺 = can move to a deal or trial within 1 week ♻️ 𝗡𝘂𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 = can't move to a deal or trial within 1 week but has a clear goal and timeline I realized that I had to have 3x the amount of warm leads in my pipeline to hit my demo target. 🚀 Pipeline ratio also works for the middle of the funnel - Bummer! 🧠 To get more warm leads you need more cold that can turn to warm or nurture. Back to #1 ♾️ #3 𝗕𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 I will start my day by following up on the warm leads. Will then follow up on the nurture with a next step for this week. I did demos in between and then hit the phone for the rest of the day. 80% of my outreach was cold calls and email follow-ups. By the end of the day, I'll do my research and make sure my list is ready for the next day. Back to #1 ♾️ 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆? In short, it can and will always work. Also, 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 #1 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 at least 10𝘅 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝘀. This is actually unfair 😅 See the snapshot video with Scott Martinis where step #1 is 10x faster with Evergrowth Prospecting copilot 🤯

What sales engagements make you a HappySeller? My stages of satisfaction I went through over the years when prospecting via email and tracking prospects Day 1 - They opened my email!!! 😄 Day 15 - They opened the email 58 times (Neil didn't know that perhaps they forwarded the email around the company, hence the high stat) 🤯 Day 37 - They clicked one of the links! 😄 Day 59 - They replied to the email - oh wait, it's a NO 😔 Day 88 - They replied - Oh wait, it's an objection they're using a competitor 😔 Day 124 - They replied to the email, and they want a meeting!! 🎉 Day 245 - ...remember that one time I sent an email when I started out, they've just got back to me only now! 🧐 Year 2 - Email what?....The deal finally closed!!! 🤑 Year 6 - Oh look, and inbound lead for me?! Hmmm...wait, are they trying to sell to me? 🧐 Year 20 - OK, so I'm now turning on my Out of Office Reply, I need to go outside 🫣 It's a rollercoaster of emotions when we look at the stats in our sales engagement platforms, if you know, you know! When I start working with new sales reps, it does make me giggle (in a good way) when they tell me about the replies and engagement they get from their email efforts and how happy they get, and I'm like "Welcome...there's more to come" 🤣 but it's fun to have those conversations as you've been through it yourself #Sales #Enagement #Emails #Prospecting #IfYouKnowYouKnow

I closed the largest deal of my sales career because of a little feature on LinkedIn Sales Navigator called TeamLink. 6-figure / Multi -Year (440K TCV) Here is the story 👇 This account was a top target. I had crafted and sent amazing emails to the key decision makers. I had called them. I had engaged with their content. I legit knew everything about their business, pretty much memorized all their reports. But I was like 0/20 on outreach attempts over 90 days. Thought about moving on but I didn’t. Jumped into Sales Navigator and and clicked into the “teamlink spotlights feature” and there was someone in my company connected to the buyer. We didn’t know each other well so a random cold message internally to someone not on the sales team felt a little odd but I asked myself, “how would I want to be approached about this?” And I went to slack. Message - Hey Hey! I know we haven’t met yet but I think this message will force us to get to know each other better. Alright, there is this one account I have been working on for 2 months trying to break into but I’m like 0/7 on getting a meeting with Joe (drop LinkedIn profile) It looks like you were both in the MAPP Program at Penn and actually ran talent development together at a company a few years back. Would you be willing to reach out on my behalf? I’m happy to create an email or something to help, I have a lot of context on their business! Anyways, thanks and let me know what you think.” And boom 💥 Within 3 days WE had a meeting and within 60 days WE (she stayed with me throughout the entire deal) had closed the largest deal of my career. In a business where sales cycles can be 6-12 months. My point of this post is to work smarter. I wasted hours on outreach when I could have just utilized the tools right in front of me. ♻️ Happy Selling and feel free to share♻️

I was talking to a friend the other day and he asked me why I decided to start Sales Crusader. It made me realize that I’ve never really told the origin story before. Read on if you’re interested to know why and how we got started. As a CSO of Leadbright (shoutout to the one and only Martin Borowski!) I was logging a ton of hours each week trying to keep up with the prospecting and outreach needed to fill my sales pipeline. I'd spend hours manually sending connection requests, crafting personalized messages, and trying to book meetings - while also nurturing my existing leads and closing deals. I realized that this constant grind of prospecting was keeping me from doing the parts of my job that I truly loved - building deep relationships with my best-fit customers and delivering an incredible sales experience. I knew there had to be a better way. So I started exploring automation and this new AI ‘thing’ on the block called ChatGPT, tools that could help me be more efficient and effective with my prospecting efforts. After testing out a variety of different options, I landed on what would end up being the first version of what would become Sales Crusader. I had more time to focus on the high-level strategy and meaningful conversations that move the needle.  I had something that was helping me be successful in my role.  The results were incredible - I was able to navigate and amplify myself into more meetings, have deeper discussions with prospects without worrying about a backlog of manual outreach, and grow more meaningful relationships than ever before. When this happened, more business happened. That's when I knew I had the opportunity to help amplify other sales, and executive professionals with the same recipe blend of SaaS, copywriting, and strategy. So I decided to turn my solution into a software and services agency, and Sales Crusader Consulting was born. Now, our mission is to help teams and executives everywhere, to amplify great people and organizations marketing and sales leaders. With our expert network, bespoke copywriting, and our platform, we amplify you. With Sales Crusader, we work with you in maintaining the highest level of personalization in our approach to sales outreach, as your priorities are our priorities.  We connect you with elite professionals and leading organizations while preserving the genuine, personal interactions that are key to building successful relationships. I'm so proud of how far we've come, but this is just the beginning. The future of sales is automated, intelligent, and always will be customer-centric. And Sales Crusader is leading the charge. If you're a sales or marketing leader or individual contributor struggling with reaching the right prospects, effective messaging at scale, or have yet to find product market fit, I'd love to show you how the team at Sales Crusader can transform your workflow and your results. Reach out anytime - I'm always happy to chat. Stay amplified. -RM