Category: sales

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jobhunt marketing sales

Cracking the Code: Essential Strategies for Breaking into the Software Sales Industry

I spoke with a former classmate looking for advice about how to break into software sales. My top advice to her?

– Be willing to take a job at a company even if it’s not your dream company.
You can always switch later, and then you’ll have the right job title, so recruiters will be more interested in considering you for positions.

– Narrow down your interest to certain industries / verticals.
It will be easier for people you speak with to think of specific people to connect you with for further networking.
This is the difference between saying, “I want to work in tech” and “I want to work for a health tech software company”.

– Think about marketing yourself.
Make your resume tailored to the positions that you’re shooting for. When describing your results, use the same language as the job descriptions do. You need to position yourself in a way that will be relatable to them.

What’s your advice for her? I’ll send the comments to her later 🙂

Categories
marketing sales salesdevelopment

Transforming Cold Calls: A Personal Experience and Two Key Tips for Successful Sales Pitching

I recently got a cold call from an SDR. What happened?

She asked if this was Grant, and I said it was.

She then immediately launched into a generic pitch about her product for over a minute. No personalization to me or my company, and it sounded like she was reading directly from her script.

I listened without interrupting. I know she has a tough job; I’ve done the job before and didn’t enjoy it.

It was clear me to that the product wouldn’t be a good fit for us now, so I told her I know she has a tough job and asked if she was open to feedback. She said she was, so I gave her two pieces of advice:
1. Make your pitch sound more natural so that it’s not obvious you’re reading from a script.
2. Personalize. Research me and my company before the call at least a bit so that you can tailor the pitch to make it more relevant to me.

What advice would give to this woman?

Categories
marketing sales

Maximize Your Meeting Success: Avoiding the Email Black Hole in Scheduling

Things get lost in email. Don’t let your next meeting die because of email!

It’s better to try to find a time to meet while on the phone call with a lead or prospect rather than saying you can send them available times via email.

Then it’s less likely to get lost in the email back and forth.

If they say they have multiple people on their side they’d like to invite, you can suggest that they pull up the calendars of those people and check right then to see when everyone is available.

Categories
marketing sales

Unveiling the True Cost: A Comprehensive Comparison of Customer Acquisition in Marketing Vs. Outbound Sales

Here’s a simple way to compare customer acquisition costs from Marketing efforts vs outbound Sales efforts.

NOTE: This doesn’t factor in the long-term benefits that naturally come from Marketing such as brand awareness, dark social, and becoming a thought leader so that people come to you when they are eventually ready to buy.

Calculate the average cost per inbound closed won customer. (Or avg cost per inbound $ of revenue if the deal sizes are different between inbound and outbound.)

Then compare that with the cost per outbound closed won customer.

Depending on your company stage, you’ll get different winners. Just don’t ignore those long-term benefits from Marketing I mentioned earlier 🙂

Categories
b2bmarketing customersuccess sales

Unlocking the Impact of Economic Uncertainty on ARR Quotas: A Crowdsourced Insight

How was last quarter for you in achieving ARR quotas (Sales or CX)? Want to see how it was for your peers? Your vote’s answer is visible to no one on LinkedIn except for me as the author. And I will keep it confidential!

In economic uncertainty, it makes it harder to hit quota for most and easier for some. Curious to get a crowdsourced answer for how the economy is affecting most companies.