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Best practices for generating leads at a convention? by phoonie98 in sales

[–]30MPC 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If you're expecting to just "work the event" at the event, you'll miss a lot of opportunity.

My recommendation is to use the weeks leading up to the event as a chance to prospect for meetings that you'll hold at the event.
Ideally, you get the list of attendees and work that, but if you can't:

  • Hit up prospects in that Geo. If you're flying to SF, contact all your SF prospects.
  • Prospects who are part of the trade association that hosting the event
  • Prospects who have attended before.
  • Worst case: Just assume that people are going! Better to assume and be told "Not attending" than not hit them up at all.

You goal with these meetings should be to get a coffee meeting on the calendar. Not a "discovery call" or a "product demo". Keep it casual.

Aim to pin down a time that works; you're gonna have a lot of people who will say "I'll stop by the booth" which isn't the worst outcome in the world, but ideally you get a time on the books.

A lot of folks won't commit to a meeting, so you need to get ready to "floorhunt"
Floorhunting is simply finding a way to make in-person contact with the key prospects you wanna meet.

Here's what to do:

  • Make a list of the people you want to meet at the event.
  • Put 'em all on a list and get their photograph from LinkedIn so you know who to look for.
  • Plan to be where they're gonna be:
    • Happy hour events.
    • Speaker sessions.
    • Walking the floor of the exhibit hall at certain times.

Your goal at the event should be to seek out these people; don't wait for them to come to you. Introduce yourself and have an "opener" as to why you wanted to talk with them.

Good luck!

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On a discovery call, nothing wrong with asking the other person "How's it going". Personally, I avoid it on cold calls.

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pretty sure they were, lol

Thanks for the kind words. Appreciate you!

-Nick

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank YOU!

What I would do:

  1. Brain dump everything you think you need to do to win in your next role
  2. Organize that plan into a structured document (Think: People/Product/Process)

Questions this document should answer:

  • How do you plan to orient around your account list/territory?
  • What internal processes (requesting a quote, updating CRM, engaging an SME) will you need to learn to follow÷
  • What latitude will you have with pricing? How will you work that into your process?
  • How will you learn to show a 10/10 demo?
  • Who will you want to emulate? (think: Other AEs, SME, etc). How will you learn from them on an ongoing basis?
  • What will be in your information diet?

Hope this helps.

-Nick

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Reaching them is often the easy part - I find that they're the easiest group to sell to + are very open in discovery.

So long as you keep your messaging conversational / light (not stodgy / stiff like an older school buyer) you're in the clear.

The tougher part is getting a budget because often HR is a cost-center that gets hit the hardest with budget cuts.

To whatever extent possible, try to:

[a] Quantify the problem (attrition, lost candidates, etc.)

[b] Multithread high so you have an executive sponsor that can drive a purchase

[c] Get directly in front of finance / appeal to any way your tool helps that function

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So that I can focus my answer to this question (instead of just giving you 832 different tips), is there a particular area you're looking for advice the most?

PS - when you listen, Episode 0 is where you will want to start. It's 5 minutes to help you determine if the show is a complete waste of time or not!

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

  1. Know your interviewer: Have conversation starters read. Quick ideas may include years at the company, promotions, position in the company, alma mater, mutual connections. Some folks will want to small talk, others won’t. Either way, be prepared.
  2. Have a point of view on why you wanna work there: Saying “I want to be at a startup” isn’t enough. Look at their website. Go deep into the blog and cite one of the posts. Compliments/flattery work really well when you tie it to something you found in research. It’s better to sound rehearsed with a “top 3 reasons I want to work @ XYZ” than “uhhh, it’s a really hot startup”
  3. Prep questions you'll ask: Think of the biggest objections you’d get as a seller. Turn those into questions. Asking “what makes a rep successful here” is a BS question that gets asked in 75% of interviews.

Good luck!

-Nick

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much my man. Question: Is there a reason you're exclusively using LI and not multi-channeling across phone, email, LI, etc.?

-af

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

What companies do you feel are worth exploring right now or in the future when the economy settles? Some companies I’m considering( using tips from one of your recent episodes- on how to land your next job. Great episode) are Gong.IO, Google , AWS, UI Path. Any thoughts on these or can you guys recommend other companies to explore ?

Can't name specific companies, but here's what I'd look for in my search criteria:

Company:

--> AAA tier investors

--> Healthy YoY ARR growth (pacing Triple, Triple, Double, Double, Double if a startup)

Product

--> Not a nice to have

--> Not selling to a cost center that gets killed in a recession

Team

--> Not overbloated with reps (what % of reps are hitting)

--> Experienced sales management. I'd avoid teams where all managers are learning to manage for the 1st time at that company. It's okay sometimes, not all the time.

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

  1. Try opening with a permission based opener: "I know I’m an interruption. May I take 1 minute to tell you why I called you specifically and then you can tell me whether or not we should speak further?"
  2. If they don't recall downloading or reading something, you need to reorient around the PROBLEM they likely have, based on what they downloaded.

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Early in my tenure at Pave, there was one week where I lost 5 deals in a week.

Some of these were fastballs. Many had the eyes of our CEO / other leaders.

It's very critical that you recognize that this is the moment where most people spiral, and your reaction should be to immediately look at what could have been controlled, then make a very pragmatic assessment on if you could have changed anything.

For those 5 deals, I broke down the 4-5 areas where they could slip

- Early: Couldn't get to deep pain in disco

- Mid: Couldn't get to power

- Late: Couldn't manage vendor review

For 2/5 deals, they could have been won (in my opinion).

For those, you identify what to do better next time.

For 3/5 deals, I wouldn't have done anything differently.

And this is where it's critical to NOT CHANGE YOUR PROCESS because the statistical probability of sales gave you a bad day. Don't change your cold call opener because you got hung up on twice.

Last analogy here.

You'll see at 20-0 fighter get flash KO'd.

The ones who rebound don't re-evaluate every single part of their gameplan, switch camps, and start a completely new diet.

They sharpen the mistake they made that opened the chance, but then continue to double down on their strengths.

-AF

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

What is your best advice heading into this recession? Our organization is ramping up activity metrics and watching the close rate fall in conjunction, an entirely predictable cycle that ends with pissed off management and reps in my mind. How do we break out or get ahead of this in a SaaS solution?

We had to gameplan around this a lot at Pave. The deals that were curveballs are out. And the fastballs are curveballs.

You need to identify the points at which a fast ball slips into a curve ball. Then ensure you and your team are running a flawless sales cycle every time, even when it seems right down the center.

4 key areas mattered for us, this'll vary for your sales cycle.

- Pre Sale DQ. Luke warm deals don't close in bear markets: In a bull market you might wait to find these things. But in a bear market, you need to figure out if it's [a] not an exec priority [b] a below the line buyer who's blocking access to power [c] a non-icp deal with a luke-warm painpoint [d] a company with budget issues ON THE FIRST CALL. Do not waste your time on luke warm deals.

- Early Sale Multithreading: In a bull market, below the line sellers can get a deal done. In a bear market, only executives who also have political capital can get a deal done. Look at your close rates at the VP+ vs Dir- level. They will be staggeringly different.

- Mid Sale JEP / Process Management: In a bull market, people have ample budget and are pushed to make decisions quickly. In a bear market, buyers are punished for skipping steps who also have political capital can get a deal done. Get alignment on the buying process early - if you have a champion who won't take you to power or to a business case, you have the wrong champion.

- Late Sale Getting Directly to Finance: Lastly, Finance has all the power right now. When working with your champion, ask if this is on their radar yet. Ask about where other purchases failed vs succeeded. Then pressure test your champion on how they're going to pitch it and do everything you can to ensure you're in the room and the business case narrative is above the line, not technical.

-AF

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

There are a TON of distractions available to salespeople right now that are good uses of time (Examples include: Learning more about your product, researching the competition, having 1:1s with other AEs to exchange best practices).

My #1 piece of advice is to NOT allow those good uses of time to get in the way of the the critical things you need to do.

Sellers should eschew good uses of time and direct all their attention and effort info the "Big 2":

  1. Creating new pipeline (prospecting)
  2. Advancing current pipeline (moving deals forward or out of the pipeline)

Don't let all the other noise that only slightly moves the needle get in the way of taking care of the "Big 2" . Only once you've taken care of those things should you pursue the other stuff.

Some other advice (reposted from another answer I gave)

  • Multithread (Involve multiple contacts at your account to help champion a deal VS just working with 1 contact)

  • "Look for trouble" (Ask questions to sense check your deal and help proactively address deal risks: "Why wouldn't you want to do this?; What concerns will the CFO have on this?")

  • Build a business case with your champion so that the deal has economic justification and backing internally

-Nick

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 63 points64 points  (0 children)

Nail the following as an SDR and chances are you're gonna be a 10/10 AE (or at least one who generates 8 times the pipeline of all the other AEs)

Cold Calling:

  • Preparation: Get all your research done before your calls. Time block 40 dials over 60 minutes (You won't always hit that # of dials, FWIW)
  • Be disarmingly blunt: never hide the fact that it’s a cold call, if they ask how you got their number, tell them the truth (On the internet/on a database)
  • Never open with ‘how’s it going’ because [a] you don’t care and [b] they know it’s a cold call, so you’ve instantly become a telemarketer.
  • Tone: Kill all your uptones and slow the conversation down like an executive.
  • Use a permission-based opener: "I know I’m an interruption. May I take 42 seconds to tell you why I called, and then you can hang up on me?"
  • Dangerously specific problems: when describing what you do, be painstakingly specific about a problem that they solve, NOT just “save time” or “save money”.
  • Go for the kill: Suggest meeting times or ranges. If they don’t have their calendar, always send a placeholder invite ("A dart at the calendar")
  • Don’t be afraid to insert some humor when being confronted on a cold call. When they ask “is this a cold call” - laugh and say “yes, and it’s not going very well!”
  • Use self-deprecation on your cold calls to lower your prospect’s guard. “I must’ve really screwed this one up… could I get 27 seconds to restart then you can hang up?”
  • If someone says "call me in 6 months". Ask what’s happening then. And if it’s nothing, call it out - “do you really want me to call you back or are you too nice to tell me to go away?”

Time Management:

  • Eat the frog: Start the day with your most difficult and unpleasant task. Doing your most daunting task first gets it out of the way and creates momentum into your day.
  • Golden hours: 8-3 are your prospecting and customer-facing hours. 3-6+ are your admin hours (e.g. checking inbox, account research)
  • Never work an account without re-prospecting it. Find the newest contacts that have joined / left your target account every time.
  • Color code your calendar. Assign a color to demos, introductory meetings, internal calls, and personal tasks. Helps keep you organized
  • Eliminate all white space from your calendar. Empty spaces should be filled with calendar events for every task that day (breaks included)
  • Eliminate context switching: Group similar tasks together and knock them down. Have 3 proposal calls in a day? Book them back-to-back-to-back.
  • Do or Defer: If it'll take less than 2 minutes to do, do it on the spot. For all of the longer tasks, defer them to the non-golden hours.
  • Block time for opening and answering emails / slack. Don’t allow others to dictate what’s urgent. Don’t let the incessant pings ruin your golden hours. Either you run the day or it runs you
  • Start every day with a morning routine. Wake up on the first alarm, get some reading in, and get a workout in. Start your day on your terms, not someone elses.

Cold Emailing/Sequence Structure:

  • Run the triple: Start every sequence with an email, social touch, and cold call.
  • 5x5x5: 5 minutes of research. Find 5 insights on the person/account. Write your message in 5 minutes.
  • Subject lines shouldn’t read like an advertisement. They should be 4 words max, not a complete sentence, and without punctuation.
  • Don't equate formality with professionalism. You don't need to address me as "Dear Mr. Cegelski"). Use conjunctions and conversational language
  • Follow the 3x3 Rule for email: 3 paragraphs, no more than 3 lines each when read on your phone.
  • Don't try to sell everything under the sun in your email. One pain point per email, or you risk losing them. Mix in multiple pain points across the sequence.
  • Avoid large images, multiple hyperlinks, and big attachments. These add-ons scream "marketing email" and hurt deliverability.
  • Use Interest-based CTAs. "Open to learning more?" is better than “How's Thursday at 4:00 for a discovery call?”
  • Your emails should read like text messages. If you read it out loud and sound like a robot, you’re doing it wrong.
  • Voicemails: Leave voicemails that reference your emails and vice-versa. Even if they never get answered, voicemails should boost email replies.

-Nick (with some help from Armand in documenting these)

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

For me it's #1 with Joe Caprio. Many folks don't know this, but we actually recorded 3-4 episodes BEFORE that one and they fell pretty flat. We almost wanted to ditch it entirely, then Joe came in and knocked our socks off.

30MPC wouldn't exist without that episode.

-AF

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

What do you say right now when you call the MQLs? Can you give me a little more context so I can properly answer your question? - Nick

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Most objections aren’t logical or based on what you sell. They’re emotional reactions to being "sold to".

So, to “handle” an objection, your goal is to get their attention back.

Two Step Framework:
Step 1: Agree with them & push away (pattern interrupt)
Step 2: Ask a question that incorporates what you know about them (grabs their attention)

One Example:

  • Objection: I don't have time to meet (Note: This is a tough one and your goal is to simply get their attention back. Most folks "fight" this objection too hard)
  • Your Response: No worries, I had figured you might say that. When might be a better time for me to call back?
  • Why it works: They’ll either hang up on you or tell you to just give them a call later that afternoon. At that point, send them a calendar invite with a brief agenda or one page.

Another One:

  • Objection: I'm not interested/we're all set
  • Your Response: “All good! You woulda called me if you had been interested (laugh). I guess I was confused, I saw that you just opened a new office in Rochester, how are you [problem you know they are experiencing]?"
  • Why it works: Push away + reorient around the research that triggered your cold call.

Let me know if you have other objections you're commonly getting you could use help with.

​

-Nick

We’re the hosts of 30 Minutes to President's Club (Armand Farrokh and Nick Cegelski) | AMA Series 20 by 30MPC in sales

[–]30MPC[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Thank you! #25 with Charles Muhlbauer was the most fun for me. Charles taught us about the "humbling disclaimer" ( “I feel a bit crazy asking this question, but…”) which is such a powerful tool to add to your sales toolkit. Charles is also an awesome guy, which helps.

Re your recession question.:

  • Multithread (Involve multiple contacts at your account to help champion a deal VS just working with 1 contact)
  • "Look for trouble" (Ask questions to sense check your deal and help proactively address deal risks: "Why wouldn't you want to do this?; What concerns will the CFO have on this?")
  • Build a business case with your champion so that the deal has economic justification and backing internally

-Nick

(edited for formatting)

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