I think every once in a while, we in sales have to be reminded that we are here to serve, not dictate.
Here are the three topics this week:
1. The Power Dynamic: 87% prospect, 13% you. How do you tip the scales?
2. Note to young AE’s – stick to the same ICP/vertical long-term.
3. What’s your “Quota Gap” per AE?
The Power Dynamic: 83% prospect, 17% you. How do you tip the scales?
There was a great article by Peter Caputa, CEO of Databox. And he posted an article about the power dynamics that are shifting or have shifted for years. But a lot of times account executives haven’t recognized it. Caveat Venditor – let the seller beware. The power used to be in our hands. A customer learned through us.
That is completely shifted and it shifted years ago, but it needs reminding. From a sales perspective, only 13%, according to Gartner, only 13% of the entire sales cycle for a complex sale. Includes sales professionals, the other 87% is the buyer checking out other websites like G2 crowd, then LinkedIn to talk to their peer-to-peer network, then your corporate website. YOU ARE THE LAST MILE.
Why? – didn’t need you
How? – didn’t need you
Who? – will seek you out.
What can we do about it?
Become part of the “social proof”. This is where we as account executives need to be very present on LinkedIn because this is where we show up in searches. This is where we contribute to a community conversation.
There isn’t anything magical. No secret sauce. Your customers search for partners just like they search for cars and vacations.
Be part of the conversation, or don’t be a searchable resource. Your choice.
Note to young AE’s – stick to the same ICP/vertical long-term
Give me a time machine, the things that I have learned as a 44-year-old, that I would teach my 22-year-old self. What I could pass on and here is what I would tell anyone new to sales.
Stick to the same ICP or vertical. For your career!
This has been amazingly valuable for me in my career. Let me tell you what happened to me.
I wanted to be a stockbroker my whole life. I became a stockbroker. I saw the meltdown of the year 2000. I grew to hate it, moved to Australia, and did my master’s degree. When I came back, I worked in commercial real estate. I did enjoy it. But I got recruited by a customer of ours to move into the software space selling virtual data rooms. The ICP was selling to banks, private equity firms, and law firms. So now I’m nearly 30 years old with 0% social network continuance from a sales role to a sales role.
I then started my consulting career, helping sales and marketing teams. From the age of 30 until now at 44, I’ve served one main buyer – GTM (sales & marketing). 14 years.
I booked a meeting today (as I write this article) with a customer that I served 10 years ago. Why? Because like compound interest, I have 14 years of a “social network snowball” rolling downhill. CROs and CMOs bounce from company to company. They open up new opportunities and some of our customers have been 5x with us for over 10 years. They’ve been at five different companies.
One of the challenges that I see young, unpolished AE’s make is bouncing. They sell to finance for two years, then they’ll switch to serving HR. Then they’ll switch to serving the CIO, then they’ll serve the Latin America market. Then they’ll serve EMEA. It’s all over the map. And so their social network can never really do the work for them.
My recommendation to you. Build your social network as a vocation, as an “intrapreneur” (business within a business) growing it over a long sustained period. So that company 1 can bring you into company 2. You’re always serving that CFO as an example. You become a resident expert.
What’s your “Quota Gap” per AE?
We built an asset for you as sales leaders and account executives called a Quota Gap Tracker. It’s a waterfall that helps you understand what percentage of your sales quota needs to be ‘Self-Sourced’. You know your Number, but what is your CONTROL NUMBER? Meaning forgets the million dollars you need to sell. How do you boil that down into something you can control the actions and activities that you need to do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to highly influence the ability to hit certain milestones:
- Number of net new conversations this week/month
- The number of SALs / SQLs needed to be ‘Self-Sourced’ by ME!!!
$1,000,000 sales quota @ $100,000 ACV (size of deal)
OK
You need 10 deals.
What’s your “Tailwind”
- Pipeline Coverage that exists
- Marketing
- Channel
- Etc.
BUT
What % of that $1,000,000 will not come as a Tailwind, and I need to source myself?
Most AE’s don’t know what that $$$ value is, and the effort required to highly influence that number.
Let us help you figure that out…
FREE RESOURCE – Self-Generated Quota Gap & Activity Tracker.
Are your AE’s struggling to meet sales quota?
They could have a QUOTA GAP.
Do they know what percentage of their sales quota THEY NEED TO SELF-SOURCE? (not driven inbound from marketing or the channel)?
For many companies, this is shocking. This could be 50%, 75%, or even 90% of every AE’s sales quota.
Ensure your sales team clearly understands where they need to focus their efforts.
Free Resource:
Self-Generated Quota Gap & Activity Tracker
Do your Account Executives (AE’s) need more leads than Marketing can provide?
Do your Account Executives have a sales quota that’s larger than your current Inbound Marketing lead flow?
Each AE needs to understand their “Self-Generated Quota Gap” – the percentage of quota THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR not covered from inbound sources. They have to create this sales pipeline themselves.