There is more to leads than Inbound<>Outbound

First Things First…

Can you help?

As we enter the summer months, I want to experiment with new features and guest authors for the newsletter.

What would be the one thing you want to see in the newsletter?

Let’s test it out and see if people like it!

Let me know what we should try by replying to the newsletter!

Content of the week

• How to utilise ‘Viewed your profile’ in Sales Nav to book meetings
• FOPO (fear of people’s opinions) is real, and this is how to combat it
• Community-led growth is here to stay!

What am I seeing this Week: Does your Sales understand pipeline velocity?

Four kinds of leads enter the sales funnel, each with different sales journeys, sales cycles, and conversion rates to explore.

But…are the sales team prepared for the different speeds of which this pipeline will convert?

And why are we not discussing this more?

The most likely to convert to revenue? Hot Outbound: When you call a customer, and they say ''I have $25k to spend still this year, what can we do''

Next likely? Hot inbound: The hand raisers, those who want demos as they are already so far down the sales cycle. Then, we get to those leads near the start of the sales funnel.

Cold inbound leads have consumed some marketing information and haven't hit the lead-scoring threshold, but you want to call them because they seem like good leads. They won't have identified a real need or pain, so these will take some time to convert to revenue.

Finally, Cold outbound. They don't know who you are or what your product does, but your cold call was so good that it uncovered a bit of a pain they have. This will take the longest to close for the AE, but it could potentially be a big customer.

As leaders, we need to communicate to our sales teams (and also the marketing team) about the speed at which these deals will close.

Managing expectations at this stage and tracking the velocity of these deals

Grow your connections and meetings set by 3X overnight? Orum makes it possible.

Orum is an AI-powered Live Conversation Platform designed to connect your reps with more prospects. It removes the manual aspects of cold calling and drives greater conversation rates. The best way for sales reps to improve their pitching is by getting more opportunities. Orum delivers those more at-bats in less time, opening calendars for personalized prospecting, call reviews, and improved objection handling. Interested in learning more about Orum’s industry-leading AI-powered dialer?

check it out

Overwhelmed by Sales Tools Options?

Sales tools often boast an alphabet soup of features.

Deciphering complicated technical jargon can be time-consuming and frustrating, leaving you confused and unsure if it will help with connection or conversion rates.

Meanwhile, researching, comparing, and evaluating sales tools can be highly time-consuming.

Diverting your focus from core business activities like closing deals and managing your team.

This is where we’ve built Stakki, your free sales tool calculator.

We mapped 176 tools and their integrations, minimum costs, feature overlaps and freemium options. 

Visit stakki.io to make the selection of sales tools easy for you.  Or book your free consultation call and we’ll recommend the best three tools for whatever you are trying to achieve.

Five Questions of the Week: Rebecca Pearse

This week, we have Rebecca Pearse. Rebecca runs her own consultancy and today is sharing her fascinating career story. It was interesting to learn more about how Rebecca has gone from being a charity CEO to leading SDR teams, and she joins us today to discuss this and more!

Hey Rebecca, thanks for joining the newsletter this week! Firstly, tell me a little bit about your journey. How did you end up at this point? I have 29 years of experience leading teams globally. I have been working within the SAAS industry for over 12 years. Before I joined the SaaS industry, I was the CEO of a Charity representing over 300 charities at local government-level decision-making groups. In addition, I worked as a COO for a bid writing company assisting public and private sector organisations. I have coached and managed teams globally, either remotely or onsite. I'm well-versed in cultural differences when it comes to team management! I am currently doing fractional work for a company where I manage the Sales and Marketing teams and advise on the GTM strategy. I love the ‘back end analytics’ that come with running campaigns/strategies - how can you know what good looks like if you don't have the data to back it up?! Social media expert and innovator, always sharing expertise to deliver results for the business, exemplified by LinkedIn to be a guest speaker in July 2020 to discuss business development. I’m proud to say I was the 10th most active user of the LinkedIn global sales conference in NYC in 2016 - getting a celebratory cheer and my name on their board!

What is it about your role that you love? I love building an online and face-to-face community. I have great friends I have never met, but we share the same thoughts and ideals around process and leadership. LinkedIn and groups like this are key to seeking advice/help when needed.

When did you realise that leadership was the career path you wanted to follow, and how did you make it happen? The first time I led was when I lived in Hong Kong and started with two direct reports. Based on their feedback, I knew this was what I wanted to do in the future, whether in Sales or SDR leadership.

Drawing on all your experiences so far, what advice would you give your younger self on their first day as a manager? I would have created a LinkedIn profile from day one ( although it didn’t exist, I don’t think, when I was in HK!) and networked! I love networking, but my younger self was always dubious about it! Always connect with and talk to as many people as possible, and enjoy the relationships you form!

With AI looking to disrupt the SDR space, what do you see the role of the SDR evoloving in the next 36 months? I think becoming more involved with the initial sale - SDRs will progress deals and opportunities further down the pipe before they are released to sales.

Cut SDR Hiring + Ramp time by 70%

The average time to hire an SDR/BDR is two months. Ramp takes another 2-3 months.

That’s five months of unrealized pipeline and revenue. At €30k ACV and ten meetings quota, that’s €1.5 million in pipe not generated.

SDR Hire cuts that by 70% by giving you access to a pool of vetted and experienced remote SDRs from Southeast Europe (Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Greece, Bosnia etc). 

Sales leaders at companies like NES Health, Schoolyear, and Allwhere average 4-7 qualified interviews with near-to-native English speakers in the first 24 hours. Time-to-hire averages 3-4 weeks, while reps start performing within the first few weeks (as opposed to 60-90 days).

They work on a performance model, so you only pay if you end up hiring their SDRs. Book a call with their founder Stefan and see if one of their remote SDRs would fit your culture.

Book of the week

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Marshall Goldsmith

As leaders progress in their journey, they must learn new skills for the next stage. Learn about the 20 skills that will hold you back from progressing to the next level of your career and how to deal with those in this real classic.

Find it here

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways I could help you

The new Community for European-based SDR leaders: SDR leaders of Europe

An ebook about SDR<> AE Alignment: Closing the Gap

ONE Coaching slot are still available for the Spring/ Summer: Sign up here