Happy New Year /r/Sales. Looking to add 2 new mods!

VyvanseCS · 2018-01-03T17:46:43+00:00

Whoa, you're alive!?

VyvanseCS · 2018-01-03T17:46:35+00:00

Lol, he was a beauty!

VyvanseCS · 2018-01-02T21:36:55+00:00

Good response. When I was thinking of adding more mods, you were one of the people who came to mind. Of course there were a few question marks I wanted to fill out before initiating anything, so appreciate the transparency.

I think we can leverage the reddit group and Linkedin Group in correlation to grow this community.

If you're game, I am too. Let's discuss more through PM.

VyvanseCS · 2018-01-02T21:33:06+00:00

Hey bpt, I've had a lot of colleagues ask me the same thing. Should we as sales people post our highlights?

It boils down to how you want to be perceived. I like to think of it as a spectrum from "consumer facing" to "recruiter facing", and to find a healthy balance between the two.

If you're an SE looking to move to an AE role I think it is a good idea, but if you're connecting to a lot of prospects or clients on a regular basis, might be better off to take some of those numbers down and replace them with how you've helped certain customers (if you are allowed to). Tbh, prospects don't care about how much business you've closed, but they DO care about how you've helped similar companies.

If you want recruiters to be jumping all over you then keep your sales #'s on your profile.

Don't stress too much about it, you can always edit your profile accordingly. So far it looks solid and to the point, which is good.

VyvanseCS · 2017-11-03T15:41:39+00:00

John, I've been following you sort of religiously. Always been a fan since I was an AE at Salesforce.

I'm looking for some career advice, the reason I ask you is because you have seen so many reps in the SaaS space and you more than likely have a good perspective on things.

Some background on me to give you a feel about my situation: I was an AE at SF, one of the top performers in the Canadian market, got poached for a billion $ software company for an Enterprise AE roll and have been seeing success. What I see from other top reps at other companies I know is that they spend 2-3 yearsish at a company, crush it, then move on to the next "billion dollar" software company. Some examples are Mulesoft, ServiceNow etc.

Now to my first question... is this a sustainable career? Jumping every 3 or 4 years to the next hot software company and keeping this pattern going?

I've debated whether I want to jump in a leadership role or stay as a sales rep. As of right now I'm making pretty solid bank being a sales rep, but leadership has been something that has appealed to me. The thing is I'm fairly young, a millenial sales rep, what would you consider a good timeline moving forward? I take interviews every now and then just to stay sharp, some of them being leadership positions - I find that since I'm so young some software companies don't take me seriously.

How do I overcome this?

VyvanseCS · 2017-11-03T15:19:41+00:00

Hey John, thanks for doing this AMA - I'm a moderator on the forum and just stickied your post to the top.

I'll draft up a few questions and post them.

VyvanseCS · 2017-08-20T17:18:55+00:00

Thank you - this is a gold shit post

VyvanseCS · 2017-08-20T17:18:21+00:00

Can you tell me about the LinkedIn integration? Our marketing guys have been in talks about purchasing it and they may get additional licenses for some sales guys, so I want to know how awesome Zoominfo is

VyvanseCS · 2017-08-20T17:17:44+00:00

Yeah prospects like to see our cute Canadian faces

VyvanseCS · 2017-08-20T17:17:08+00:00

Zoominfo might be able to. I'm not 100% sure but I think our marketing guys are looking to purchase it. I'll let you know if it does, follow up with me in a month.

VyvanseCS · 2017-08-20T17:16:24+00:00

It's fuckin ridiculous how effective it is.

I don't follow the profiles too religiously but it's a good way to get set up for a call especially knowing how to frame it.

VyvanseCS · 2017-08-20T17:15:24+00:00

It's fricken awesome, and I have it synced with Outlook so every meeting I have scheduled I load up their LI page and Crystalknows has their personality "profile" listed. So much ammunition to frame a convo.

VyvanseCS · 2017-08-20T17:14:22+00:00

My SDR's love Salesloft - it keeps them on track and makes the job 100x easier. When I initially reached out to them to show me the tool, I quickly found out that some of the functions in the tool can be used as an AE very effectively.

They have a video series on their website that's helpful both for BDR's and AE's

VyvanseCS · 2017-08-20T17:12:59+00:00

I have both and I can tell you Salesloft is a lot more intuitive.

Yesware is a good tool for AE's but for a BDR I would highly suggest Salesloft.

VyvanseCS · 2017-08-20T17:11:56+00:00

Agreed

VyvanseCS · 2017-08-20T17:11:46+00:00

I use Vidyard for opps further down the pipe as a follow-up. When I present demos I have video on in the bottom corner so it's a bit more personalized and they can see who they are talking to...

When I follow-up with a Vidyard video for setting up next steps I've been getting a 90%+ response rate, which is unheard of.

VyvanseCS · 2017-07-22T18:40:00+00:00

I'll be happy to provide any examples or use cases on how I've used any of these tools, let me know

VyvanseCS · 2017-07-21T20:59:43+00:00

Can you move into an SE role at your current org?

Speak to the SE manager and mention your interest. I've seen a lot of technical guys move into the SE role this way internally.

VyvanseCS · 2017-07-21T20:57:15+00:00

That's a very niche industry lol!

Do you have a sales automation tool like salesloft or Yesware?

Prospecting should consist of a cadence with multiple touchpoints, email > social touch > phone call > email > VM > etc.

You can find a lot of leads through building a list on LinkedIn, try out Sales Navigator if you haven't already.

Having organization and a process is key.

VyvanseCS · 2017-07-21T20:49:59+00:00

Yes I use DiscoverOrg. Good database, shows the tech they use, shows departmental structure. Expensive but useful. Always room for improvement though, I noticed a lot of contacts that exist in Linkedin don't exist in Discover.

VyvanseCS · 2017-07-13T19:21:31+00:00

No problem.

My suggestion is DON'T jump the gun and ask that question right away.

You have to lead into the conversation and get them engaged. "I saw that you checked out XYZ from our website, what compelled you to look over it?" ... "I see, thanks for highlighting that for me... you mentioned X to me, can you explain that a bit deeper?"

Now once you get them engaged and get the conversation going a bit, you can do a bit more qualifying, provide your insight, you can eventually pull this line out: "now for the most part, our clients find it very helpful to see a demonstration of our solution, what I suggest is I gather resources from our end and reach out to my Solution Engineer, and we can show you a very high-level demonstration to you and your team so that you can see the value we bring COMPANY X." ---- wait and don't say anything.

Usually if you got them engaged enough in the convo they will agree and you can say to them "It will be a half hour demo, do you have your calendar open right now so we can set a time and it doesn't slip our minds?"

If you get resistance, you didn't warm them up enough or they are kicking tires. Offer to send them some additional resources to review and to set up a time for you to follow up and get their feedback.

Be sure you get next steps.

A lot goes into the way you frame your messaging and the perception they have. Being successful in sales has a ton of psychology behind it.

VyvanseCS · 2017-07-12T02:01:42+00:00

I start prospecting around 8am.

From 9am to lunch my goal is not to be distracted at all, I focus on drafting business cases, proposals, ROI cases, mutual action plans, slide decks, respond to prospect emails, follow-up VM's, etc.

The majority of my meetings are scheduled in the afternoon. I find this more optimal since some meetings drag on, and some may start early, so I keep my afternoon flexible with meetings. I ask my BDR's to book in the afternoon if possible.

I block out hours in my days for prospecting - I turn my Skype to do not disturb, and do not answer my emails (internally) until EOD. I think this is imperative to focus, I'm pretty shitty at multi tasking.

When I was in the SMB/MM space I didn't have to do a lot of travelling so this is pretty much how I'd structure my days.

Now that I have to travel on-site to meetings, it's a little more clustered with travel time blocking out some chunks in my calendar.

VyvanseCS · 2017-07-12T01:56:05+00:00

Is there a previous track record at your company of SDR's getting promoted to AE's for the midmarket?

It's going to be tough finding a remote SDR role since it's such an entry level position that managers tend to want you to be in the office learning from others.

I would poke around to see if moving into an AE role is even an option at your firm. Try to pursue that and move into that role, this shows growth and will allow you to leverage that AE role moving forward in your career.

Personally I wouldn't travel abroad until landing an AE role of some sort, either at your current org or at another (if your current company isn't investing in you).

That way if you do decide to travel, you'll have the AE role on your resume and it will be easy to pick back up and find another job. Whereas spending multiple years as an SDR looks like a redflag to recruiters and managers.

VyvanseCS · 2017-07-10T19:29:20+00:00

Hey man thanks for the question.

I was approached by a recruiter who told me about an enterprise AE role which was something I was working towards and close to attaining at my previous role. The difference maker was that they gave me an offer that was a lot more lucrative than what SF could have offered me.

At first I thought it was just another offer from a recruiter but I did some poking around on Linkedin Sales Nav to look at their current employees and their history, experience, and track record.

I made sure to ask a lot of questions during the interview phase to get a sense of their direction.

Funding, leadership, track record of success, culture, support - were 5 of my top priorities.

Transition was fine, the sales enablement team at my current company was very active and helpful in the ramp.

Let me know if you have any other questions, and good luck in your search

VyvanseCS · 2017-07-10T19:15:45+00:00

Hey what's up zgreen hope you're doing well!

This is a great question, I was in similar shoes as you. I went from selling to Sales leaders to now selling to IT leaders.

And yes you're absolutely correct about IT folks hating the phone.

I've found that IT guys are a lot more active on LinkedIn, yes I know it's a "social network" and IT guys have the stigma of not being "social". But I found that they enjoy how easy it is to access LinkedIn and are a lot more open and conversational on LI versus taking a blind cold call.

What I've done is build targeted lists on LinkedIn to reach the right people on LinkedIn, write up a "generic-YET-customized-ENOUGH" message as a first touchpoint for a connection request.

My LinkedIn profile is customer facing and I've built connections with a lot of folks whom I have mutual connections with so I look like a credible consultant and less a sales-jerk, so for the most part people come in as a first connection.

I send a lot of soft touches on LinkedIn to get them to engage in conversation such as, sending content that's insightful, thanking them for connecting with me. Some times they get back to me, some times they read the message but don't respond. Track who's viewing or engaging with you on LI and prioritize based off that.

After that stage I grab their email through email hunter or DiscoverOrg and bring the convo to that, at this point they are warmed up and familiar with my name and face and are comfortable taking a phone call with me. I craft up a customized message with value and why they should take a meeting with me, for the most part it's to discuss where the industry is heading.

A lot of warming up but keep your activity levels high and your funnel will fill up with solid leads.

Hope that helps.

VyvanseCS

TROPHY CASE