No, I’m not being over-dramatic and over-explicit. I’m declaring war on complacency and mediocrity. I’m declaring war on the soft-serve ice cream that is your CRO / Head of Enablement combo that thinks like a middle manager. My new slogan is “I’m done with Mid’s” (TikTok). There has been such an under-investment in sales leadership/management that my Generation X who are now the sales leaders – we are MID!
Here are the three topics this week:
1. Your sales enablement team is F&%King the sales team’s careers.
2. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
3. Use cases for your sellers to embrace LinkedIn Live.
Your sales enablement team is F&%King the sales team’s careers.
As a founder, I’m hyper-aware of the relationship between employment and the families that are connected to the employees of my companies. Think about it; every employee of mine has a spouse and children (as an example). There are many people affected by my collective decisions.
Your average (MID) sales leader + sales enablement combo has no real appreciation for this fact. That decision to accept the status quo and/or just be lemmings to the latest sales gadget… these decisions affect a sales team. Sometimes 10’s, or 100’s or 1,000’s of sellers… and their families!
Underinvestment or silly investments that lead to >50% of sellers miss quota, create scarcity in their households, and affect family dynamics. This is demoralizing a generation of sellers. I see the doom & gloom in sellers’ eyes and it’s disheartening.
How do you spot a MID?
- Has all the answers.
- Has done it before and tells you so.
- Is obvious that there was a way or the highway.
- Has no knowledge transfer at your 1-on-1s.
- Appears terrified, hesitant, or kiss-ass to the real money – CEO and CFO.
- Penny wise, pound foolish. Likes to spend on shiny things, but not grinding to see through adoption/utilization.
I’m increasingly meeting more and more MIDs in the field and I’m going to do something about it. I and the other true IP creators in the sales enablement space have been talking about how we help YOU, the seller directly. Look out for more in the future, but we’re going to flank the MIDs and go to helping YOU directly.
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Play the Video link here
Yesterday was my 1st LinkedIn Live. Even Though I’m a Social Selling pioneer, I’m techno-phobic. I’m not comfortable trying new tech.
But that’s NOT how you grow and expand.
I look back at my sales career and every big leap forward came with an ‘uncomfortably unlock’.
2004: Embraced cold calling. Made $140,000 at age 27 the next year.
2008: Ran 50,000 doorbells. Created a $300,000 business in Year 1.
2011: Dove into LinkedIn. Invested and Pioneered Social Selling.
2013: Started Blogging / Vlogging. Path to 20,000 LinkedIn connections.
2018: Started offshoring talent. Built profitable companies.
2021: Launched a 2nd tech-enabled service/product company Pipeline Signals. I’m not a 1 done CEO and just got lucky with my 1st company Sales for Life.
I tell you these stories because it’s so critical for you to feel so uncomfortable with change that you have a white-flushing of your face. You should almost feel sick to your stomach with the choices you’re making. That’s where the unlock and breakthrough happens. It’s not always about tactics. It’s about new habit formation.
Use cases for your sellers to embrace LinkedIn Live.
As I mentioned, I exploded LinkedIn Live for the first time this week. There have only been a few times in LinkedIn’s product lifecycle where I stopped in my tracks in amazement.
- LinkedIn Signals in 2013. You could see the transactional history of everyone’s LinkedIn activity, such as who they were connecting with! It was a prospecting goldmine.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator. I was on the original “sales influencer” council to help with its roll-out and enablement.
- LinkedIn Free Group Messaging. I can’t believe that’s still available.
- LinkedIn PointDrive (not Smartlink). Smartlink sucks. It’s regressive to the much more powerful PointDrive.
- LinkedIn Newsletters. That’s how you might be reading this now.
- LinkedIn Live.
Use Case #1 – Create a community, council, or mastermind for your market.
Use Case #2 – Back to my original title for this newsletter. Stop letting Sales Enablement (and I include Marketing) F&%K with your career. Take webinar and podcasting as a self-lead generation machine in your own head! You have every tool now that Joe Rogan has in a micro-TAM way. You can engage your network in ways that very few sellers in your competitive market are willing to do.
Be a CREATOR!
FREE RESOURCE – Activity & Pipeline Gap Calculator
Does each of your sellers know the exact number of conversations they will need to have next month to highly influence Pipeline Creation?
Have they accounted for the headwinds and tailwinds?
- Leads from Marketing
- Leads from the BDR team
- Leads from Channel Partners
What is their ‘Self-Sourcing’ GAP?
How many opportunities do they need to self-source?
How many conversations will be required to create enough opportunities to win?
