Top Sales Insights from the Valley
Best practices and future trends in B2B selling from Slack, Salesforce, Google, SAP, Apttus, and Microsoft.
Our app, Ruum takes over the project management for account executives with complex sales motions.
So naturally, we used our latest San Francisco trip as an opportunity to connect with some of the Valley’s brightest minds in sales. Here is what we learned…
Growth mindset
When the topic fell on hiring and putting together sales teams we were told to look out for the growth mindset. What are the key characteristics of someone with a growth mindset and how do you identify it?
I learned early on, that in sales the harder you work, the more money you earn. And the more you make people enjoy themselves and feel human, the more you’ll enjoy your job.
— Dannie Herzberg, Head of SMB Sales @ Slack
One important insight shared across the board was that hiring great salespeople is not about talent or ego, but rather it’s all about the willingness to learn: Growth mindset means continuously improving and staying on top of best practices of the industry. But it’s also about cultivating an insatiable thirst to know everything about your prospects and learn about their businesses. It’s this constant willingness to improve and learn that makes for a successful salesperson.
Finally, the growth mindset is about a passion for nailing the message: You want the right message for the right person at the right time and on the preferred channel.
It’s the preferred channel because the right channel is always phone. It’s the best way to get the personal relationship started, but sometimes a prospect’s preferred channel for the first touch point is in-app, Slack, Email, or LinkedIn.
— Ryan Reisert, Lead Instructor @ Sales Bootcamp
Phone first
Looking back at Ryan’s quote, Sometimes your users’ favorite channel might be in the application itself. At Slack sales reps can start the interactions with their users directly in their software, others use in-app chat or build custom triggered prompts and messages.
Still, your aim should always be to have a phone call as the first touch point with a prospect.
At Salesforce, for example, one of their key metrics is ‘speed to lead.’ They measure the time it takes for their sales teams to call a prospect who is checking out the website. Their goal is to call prospects while they’re still on the Salesforce homepage.
A phone call is the best way to start building a personal connection. Everyone is human and more than anything sales is about establishing a lasting relationship. As a salesperson, your contacts will follow you through your career and stick with you when you switch companies.
In 2017, the time of cold emailing is coming to an end, instead, use your initial phone call to anchor your email follow-up.
A benchmark discussed was the number of touchpoints needed to convert a prospect: it will take on average four touch points to turn a prospect into a lead.
At Apttus the first three touchpoints happen on the same day:
We do three touchpoints on day one: Phone, Email, Social. In that order, on the same day. First, we call — always — , then we follow up with an email, and finally we send an invite on LinkedIn or send an InMail.
— Katherine Andruha, Director of Global SDRs @ Apttus
During the conversations, don’t shove the solution down anyone’s throat. Instead find commonalities, like “Hey my boss also went to Harvard” and then let the conversation flow from there to their pain points and problems.
After the call, when you follow up with an email — write emails you’d want to open yourself: Ask yourself, would I respond to this? Point out a bug on their website, a broken link, or a blog post with a missing call to action. Try to add value at every touch point — imagine the receiver asking themselves “What’s in it for me?”.
Unconventional Lead Gen
Gifting
One of the new practices mentioned a couple of times was gifting. When you can’t get a prospect on the phone, send them a gift via mail. Find out as much about them online as possible (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and then send a simple gift you’re sure they would enjoy. It has to be funny and thoughtful. It needs to be something that is authentic. Never gift alcohol or coffee. Top picks from the meetups where Chia heads, Yoga mats, and Go boards. Obviously, this one doesn’t scale, but it’s worth it for bigger accounts.
Personal Video Message
Rather than sending a cold email, try sending a crisp video message. In your message talk to your user about what you have in common with them, how you relate to their problems and how you can help. Do a screen grab to show what you learned from their website or their social media profiles. The simplest tools for this are QuickTime or Chrome extensions, like ViewdIt.
Social listening
Follow your potential customer’s social media accounts so you can see a spike in their activity. Was there a good or bad event that happened? Become part of the conversation and then use that topic as a hook in your calls or emails when contacting them.
Your vendors should use your product
Talk to procurement and get a list of all your suppliers, partners, and vendors. Make sure they’re all using your product.
Promote your prospect’s content
Rather than promoting your content, earn trust by quote-retweeting your targets tweets, or writing smart remarks on their blog posts. Intelligently contribute to their discussions and promote their content to gain their trust and start the dialogue.
Future Trends
It’s an exciting time to be in the field. There was no step change in the SDR function for 40 years — we’re at an inflection point. There is more best practice sharing than ever before, and AI is on the horizon.
— Shahan Parshad, Head of North American SDRs @ Salesforce
AI is not seen as a job eliminator. Instead, the consensus is that it will enable us to be even better at what we do. In the end, sales will always be about human relationships and the more we can focus on those and have AI take over the side work the better.
Another trend mentioned often was around new compensation models for sales that go beyond the quota:
Who you promote, and how you hire is important. It’s not just about the quota anymore — top performers who don’t share practices are not promoted.
— Amber Hamilton, VP Strategic and Key Accounts @ SAP
The third trend is the rise of the so-called non-traditional profiles. The myth of the stereotypically male extroverted account executive is debunked. Instead, we will get a much better understanding of what the true skills and traits of a good salesperson are with the advent of more data overall and more comparable data across companies in particular.
Conclusion
Building on Shahan’s quote — it’s an exciting time to be in sales! With the advancements in AI and sales tech overall, plus a never before seen level of best practice sharing, now is the time to soak up all the insights, cultivate your growth mindset, and excel at your craft.
To go deeper into Valley-style selling, I recommend starting with “Predictable Revenue” written by Aaron Ross, Mark Roberge’s “The Sales Acceleration Formula,” and Jason Lemkin’s “From Impossible To Inevitable.” If you’re interested in breaking into the field, Sales Bootcamp is the best place to go.
Finally, check out our app, Ruum, to drop fewer balls in your sales cycles: www.ruumapp.com.
What are your best practices in sales? I’d love to hear more about them in the comments below.
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Stefan Ritter is a co-founder of Ruumapp.com, reach out or connect with him at stefanritter.com. Learn more about the SAP.iO accelerator here.
Thanks to Florian Frey, Mark Goad, and Katja Kolmetz for reading drafts of this.
