Raj Prabagaran, MBA

SDRs and AEs Do you want more money? Do you want a promotion? Do you want growth? Everybody wants it ......Right? But why are you not getting it even after doing your numbers? It is because you are not telling it to the right person in your organization. Explaining why you deserve this and that to your colleagues won't help but rather create unnecessary frustration and gossip because you both can't do anything about it. If you want any of the above-mentioned things, say it loud and clear along with why you deserve it in your 1-1 with your managers, their managers, and the leadership team. Learn to make your 1-1 with your managers and leadership team more meaningful where you just don't talk about numbers and accounts but also about your aspirations and expectations. Try it in your next 1-1 Happy Monday Reviews!!! #career #growth #sales #b2b #saas #sdr #ae

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when a first time head of sales/vp of sales says they are planning on the "running an ad and going through the apps/messages" approach to finding a founding account executive top performers are performing and rarely sitting on LinkedIn waiting for open jobs just sayin reactive hiring < proactive recruiting #passivetalent #nichesellers #relationshipsfirst #fishemout #talentreach

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AEs and Sales Leaders Most of you are losing winnable deals! The problem: ↳ CFOs are still only placing safe bets, resulting in your deals stalling or giving you bad news late in the quarter The root cause: ↳ Reps aren't enabling Champions to sell ↳ Champions can't justify the cost ↳ Lack of people involved in your deal If you are going to attend any training this year, it has to be this one! I'm going to share the exact Business Case template and multi-threading strategies that have helped me and my teams achieve 70%+ win rates! [Proof on my website 🤙] If you want to... ↳ Get more people involved in your deal ↳ And build a CFO-Ready business case Register for this upcoming boot camp! https://lnkd.in/eMF7bg_H

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🚀 Sales Confidence 2.0: Get SDRs Who Hit the Ground Running! 🚀 Tired of spending weeks onboarding new SDRs, only to realise they aren’t a fit for your fast-paced team? I know the challenges of hiring SDRs—getting the right person who’s not just great on paper but ready to sell from day one can be tough. Let’s face it, traditional CVs don’t tell you if someone has the grit to go out there to the market and have conversations. We provide pre-trained and pre-screened SDR candidates, ensuring your next hire can deliver results immediately, without the lengthy training process. Our Sales Confidence 2.0 ranking system highlights the most proactive, self-taught talent, so you can skip the guesswork and bring on SDRs who are proven to thrive in sales. 🌟 Meet Our Top Talent of today🌟 Jalil- an experienced B2C sales professional with entrepreneurial passion, showcased resilience and bravery in handling tough objections during his role play. Enrike -A charismatic listener who builds trust with strong questions, creating powerful, results-driven conversations. Zuhair- An adaptable professional with retail experience, skilled at handling tough conversations and solving problems creatively. Ali - An aspiring sales professional who thrives on the thrill of winning deals, bringing energy and enthusiasm to every prospecting challenge. Jiya - A versatile professional with a strong background in events, her energy and bubbly character from the role play can allow her to use humour to establish trust. Avishai- A future leader with a background in music, is a well-spoken and articulate professional who excels at getting to the point and handling objections with ease. If you are hiring reach out, remember 50% reduction fee.

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Sales Leaders - Avoid this Mistake! Please don’t give your SDRs access to Smartlead/Instantly and ask them to manage multichannel workflows like LinkedIn touchpoints and cold calling. It doesn’t integrate well with your CRM, dialler or data provider meaning it will make a simple workflow very complex. You might actually be better off with a traditional sales engagement platform like Outreach, SalesLoft, or even Lemlist (even though you're hearing something else from Linkedin.) Instead you should think of SmartLead/Instantly as an additional SDR on your team that can send emails at such a high volume and low cost. Use it to reach out to your Tier 3 and some Tier 2 prospects where the average deal size doesn't justify having a dedicated SDR. ----------------------------- Hi, I am Leo, former head of sales now agency founder of the The Playbook Agency

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Sales pros…are you feeling the pressure of declining close rates and increasingly complex decision-making processes? Deals are taking longer and there are now on average 10 stakeholders in a sale. More stakeholders mean tougher decisions, and generic one-size-fits-all approaches just don't cut it anymore. Here’s where AI can really help… we are seeing our Grw AI users do the following: 🎯 Hyper-personalized proposals: Tailoring your pitch to speak directly to each prospect's unique needs, challenges, and goals. This approach shows you've done your homework and truly understand their business. 💼 Bulletproof business cases: Arming your champion with compelling, data-driven arguments to navigate multiple decision-makers. This strategy helps push deals through by addressing concerns across various departments. These approaches aren't just nice-to-haves; they're becoming essential in winning deals in 2024. They demonstrate your care, trust, and set you apart in a crowded market. What are you finding crucial in today's sales environment? Share your learnings below!

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Pipeline Heroes use scripts in cold calls. Scripts that induce: Curiosity Dont target the meeting as the only purpose of the call Scale follow-ups and next actions for those in ICP, but not in market Treat conversations as reconnaissance and a cornerstone of a relationship with a stranger PipelineHeroes use scripts because they are professionals and want to be Accountable Measurable Scientific

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SDRs and AEs are you struggling to get responses from Cold Calls and Cold Emails even after doing all the Personalization? Why? Because you miss Relevancy Adding something recent from ICP's LinkedIn or social media might help you increase the open rate but does not help that much in getting a reply. You also need to sound relevant to them and know 1. How the ideal day of the persona looks like 2. What their priorities and challenges might be 3. What metrics matter to them and things like that Personalization alone won't help Adding Relevancy is the🔑 to success in Cold Outreach #relevancy #personalization #coldoutreach #coldcalls #coldemails

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SDRs who deserve to be AEs... ✅ Help coach other SDRs ❌ Are in it for themselves ✅ Hit quota every month ❌ Sometimes smash it ✅ Build amazing internal relationships ❌ Moan about their AE and Manager ✅ Prioritise the team winning ❌ Think they're an individual contributor ✅ Train every single day ❌ Believe they know it all ✅ Compete against themselves ❌ Compete against others in the team ✅ Are genuinely happy when others win ❌ Get bitter when others are successful 99% of success is in WHO you are. And HOW you do things. Embrace being different. Embrace being better. What am I missing? ---- PS. My SDR to AE bootcamp closes tomorrow. 5 seats left; https://lnkd.in/ejFQERRF

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Great advice as always from Mark Treacy in how to drive up win rates and ASP (average selling price)

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A good CRO, or Commercial Leader, can indeed come from sales, marketing, or CS - the main thing is that this is a holistic role, not a gloried sales leader with a higher title. Great words of wisdom from Sam - thanks for sharing. #leadership

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Accurate Forecasting = a challenge for most reps and usually a tricky aspect of the IC to sales manager transition. Some advice I’ve found helpful over the years: ➡ Look at Pipeline Coverage per Stage vs Pipeline Coverage Most sales orgs obsess about pipeline coverage but 4X Walk In Pipeline Coverage is not much good if the majority of it is sitting at S1. It's critical to understand stage distribution across your pipe and Conversion Rate per stage. The aim should be to walk into every quarter with a blended distribution. This is how you deliver consistent quota attainment vs a boom and bust cycle Q to Q. ➡ When to Blend Bottoms Up & Tops Down Bottoms Up: The aggregated sum of all your Committed Deals. Tops Down: An estimate of the in-Q run rate business you’ll generate based on historical patterns. Reps and Frontline Managers should only forecast/Commit based on Bottoms Up. If every quota carrier in your org's forecast includes anticipated run rate, you can end up in a very bad spot at EoQ, L2+ leaders forecast's usually blend ‘bottoms up’ and ‘tops down’, although whether they are expected to will depend on their sales org's size and forecasting philosophy. ➡ The Rep to Frontline Waterfall A frontline manager’s “Commit” should never exceed the aggregated Commit of the reps on their team. A Manager shouldn’t put themselves in a position where they’ll be held accountable for something their rep/s didn’t Commit to. ➡ Coach to an Accurate Commit With the above in mind, frontline managers must coach their reps to submit an accurate Commit. Sandbaggers (reps who consistently exceed their Commit by 30+%) should be encouraged to embrace increased ownership and accountability, and educated on why their approach to forecasting can be harmful to the business. Two guiding principles that can help balance risk and commitment: 1: it’s acceptable to miss the Commit one in five Qs & 2: 'Best Case' should only be exceeded one in five Qs. ➡ Pipeline Scrubs Complete thorough Pipeline Scrubs on Week 2, Week 5 and Week 8 of the quarter. ➡ Be Conservative When You Cut If you’re going to reduce your forecast, reduce it enough that the next movement is upwards vs another cut downwards. Long, but hopefully helpful. What would you add? #sales #salesleadership #salesenablement #forecasting

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I had someone tell me ‘cold calling is dead’…whether cold calling is dead or alive remains a hot topic of debate among sales reps. But data doesn't lie people do... RAIN Group's 'Top Performance in Sales Prospecting Benchmark Report' (linked in comments) reveals the effectiveness of cold calling in acquiring new customers and securing meetings, especially with C-Suite and VP titles: 💡 Phone calls to existing customers, prior customers, and new contacts are among the top 5 most effective outreach methods for prospecting. 💡 43% of buyers accept meetings after 5 or more contacts, with Top Performers needing similar touchpoints for new account conversions. 💡 Top Performers find the picking up the phone significantly more effective (77%) compared to The Rest (46%) for existing accounts. 💡 Buyers are open to phone calls, with 7 out of 10 accepting calls from new providers and 8 out of 10 from familiar ones. 💡 C-level and VP buyers (57%) prefer cold calls as their initial point of contact, with directors (51%) and managers (47%) also showing a preference. In my opinion negative perceptions stem from salespeople reaching out without context or research and giving up to early. Respectful and thought out calls will improve your outcome. 🌟 What are your thoughts on cold calling? 🌟 #Sales #ColdCalling #B2B #SalesStrategy

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There is a huge debate that AI will destroy the SDR function as it can automate and standardise the quality of outreach that SDRs can't do at scale. For me, AI : Average Incinerator. All roles and functions have their top, average and bottom performers. While the bottom will be removed via natural selection, the average will be incinerated by AI. Average players will be replaced for more predictable and trustworthy AI. The top will always remain top talent and will be assisted by AI to incinerate average tasks. If you like being average and clocking in hours without impact, you should be worried.

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When RevOps is really just SalesOps (And the CRO is really just the VP of Sales) 𝗦𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗦 𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗘 - Closing deals should work - Clear pipeline management process - Forecasting is as accurate as possible - But everything before & after is an issue 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 - Has different goals - Maybe the target is MQLs - Has their definition of MQLs - And their definition of SALs, SQOs - Has systems with different metrics - Their reports don't match sales' reports - Leads routed from one system to the next - With lots of things falling through the cracks - Classic case of marketing/sales misalignment 𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 - Do SDRs report to marketing? - If so, we're misaligned there too - The goal may be meetings booked - So AEs have lots of leads and meetings - But maybe not the ones they really need - The ones that convert to pipeline/revenue - We have more misalignment & finger pointing - Do SDRs report to sales? - What content do they have? - What events and assets do they share? - What visibility do they have into engagement? - How does marketing align with their outreach? 𝗢𝗡𝗕𝗢𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 - Sales is paid to close deals - How do they hand off customers? - What is the onboarding process? - Who builds/maintains that process? - What is done if sales drops the ball? - What is done if sales overpromises? - How are incentives and comp aligned? 𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 & 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡 - Which customers are easiest to retain? - Which customers are most likely to churn? - Which customers are the easiest to expand? - How is this data used to improve sales targeting? - How do we maximize NRR if sales is in their own silo? For me RevOps drives value by getting into the weeds and finding ways to generate more revenue with the resources available. That includes SalesOps and optimizing the sales process to close more deals. However, if we stop there we end up with an expensive and inefficient revenue engine with high CAC, high Churn and low LTV. We end up with different departments chasing different goals in different systems with different reports and different definitions of success. What would you add to this? Anything I missed? ✌️

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AE's self sourcing pipeline -- yes please! Wake up -- that's not reality! Right? Here's how to make it happen... Use the best skills from both your AEs and SDRs - AEs have a deep understanding of market, ICP, and value propositions - SDRs are experts on the phone, skillful engagement specialists, and have all day to dedicate to outbound Here's the solution -- have your AEs "prospect" for your SDRs. They can spend that 30 min block in between demos finding the right people in target accounts, add Context to "why they're worth reaching out", and drop them directly into your SDRs engagement cadences! SDRs spend more time on the phone, they have a curated prospect list to attack, and know exactly what they'll say when reaching out. AEs won't have to drop the ball at end of quarters when they're busy closing deals, and still can have an impact to top of funnel pipe gen. WIN-WIN! #Sales #SalesTips #SalesLeadership #SalesStrategy upcell #B2BSales #ColdCalling #LeadGeneration

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Too many sales leaders are obsessed with scaling: - More calls - More leads - More emails - More meetings - More opportunities Without nailing: - ICP - Discovery - Messaging - Buyer journey - Value proposition Better to 2x what works than to 10x what doesn’t.

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RANT: Time For School - Intelligent outbound calling puts ANY other B2B sales channel to shame... let's talk facts: https://lnkd.in/d4j7_WAY Want to enable your sales team to effortlessly have 1) Live conversations on-demand in 4.5 mins with ONLY impossible to reach named decision makers at your dream accounts (whether you have their direct dial or not) 2) Get smarter with every call I can get you set up for FREE... 1) To have more conversations in a day than you've likely had in the last month 2) Identify areas of opportunity to levelup your targeting, data, messaging, rep sales craft that you couldn't learn any other way Book in a time to discuss here: https://lnkd.in/dPTGV9qm I'll share my own cold calling metrics for 2024 year to date below... if you want to operate at this level... We can operationalise this in days for your reps to deliver your phone-optimised value proposition to your unqiue target list... #outboundsales #insidesales #sales #coldcalling #salesleadership ConnectAndSell, Inc CRO Connected Pavilion RevGenius GTMfund Modern Sales Pros

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Are you actively prospecting, and not getting as many sales meetings booked as you would want? 2 things that you need to take action on, as it is likely that this is what is killing your results: 1. Review the list of prospects you are working on, and ensure it is laser-focused on your ICP or IPP (Ideal prospecting profile). 2. Work on your follow-up game - Are you updating leads stages properly? Are you making sure that you are doing at least 7-10 "touch points" if not even 20 if you are trying to reach c-levels at enterprise companies? Are you sending that 2nd message on LinkedIn to the ones that ghosted you? I guarantee an uplift in your results if you take measures now on that above. And if you want my help/advise further, feel free to send me a message. In the picture: A pigeon, who is focusing on the wrong ICP.

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