Mark Ackers

Inbound leads should be rewarded 👊👊 Speaking to a CEO yesterday who's SD team are keen to exhaust the inbound leads and not have a focus on outbound. For me, inbound leads are a huge investment, spend and hopefully ideal clients based on great marketing work ✅✅. Why give them out to everyone? Surely the salespeople who are top performing, working hard and are earning these leads should take them. Thoughts?

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Here's the stark facts in sales today. - 31% of reps are making quota - Nearly half (44%) of deals slip - Sales cycles are double digits longer, win rates are double digits down - Inbound leads are down - Salesforce recognised the need to increase pipeline coverage to by 50% (from x2 to x3) Most of those we speak to recognise all these challenges. But they are stuck. "Do more with less" is the message. They have cut teams and fought for those remaining. Their organisations are stuck with blind hope and knives sharpening. The only solution they know is to fire and replace. Because the real problems aren't acknowledged. The market has changed and it's harder. But are teams are not more skilled. The same teams, that could achieve in the old world are failing in this one. And the last message anyone wants, is we need to spend some money to solve that. "That's your job isn't it?" cries the leadership to time-starved managers and leaders. Anyone want to guess what's going to happen to sales manager average tenure (already at an all-time low of 18 months)????

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Traditional B2B Sales Experience: Manager to Sales Rep: "What are you working on?" Sales Rep: "Oh, I'm just doing some prospect research here on LinkedIn." Manager: "Ok." Sales Rep: "Yes, I've spent the last two hours building a list of 10 people to contact. I know they went to university at Oxford, so I'll work this into my pitch. I'm sure this will make the difference." Manager: "When are you making calls?" Sales Rep: "What I like to do is a multi-channel approach. First, I'll like their posts, then a day later I'll follow them. After that, I'll send them an email, then connect with them the next day, and then send another email..." Manager: "What about just picking up the phone and calling them?" This is the antithesis of what the Lead Gen Department is. A sales rep like this wouldn’t last a day here. They would either be making calls or wasting another company’s time and money. But they won’t be wasting our clients’ money. Put simply, our clients want results. It’s amazing what can happen when you throw out all the "multi-channel garbage" and just pick up the phone to have a real conversation with a decision-maker. Of course, we use LinkedIn and email too, but far too much attention is given to all these different touchpoints. In my opinion, just pick up the phone and call. When you have professional, experienced team members, you can cut through all this noise with a quick call.

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Most sales managers waste their 1:1s. They focus on things like - Current activity metrics - How key deals are going - Current quota attainment - What else is in the pipeline As a result they turn their 1:1s into forecast meetings. Don't be that manager. Give your sales reps some room. - How are they doing? Mentally, emotionally? - Are they on track with their personal & career goals? - What are challenges this week where you can support? - In what areas do they need coaching to get to the next level? The point of 1:1s is to develop talent. Not to talk about day to day business. Repost ♻️ if you think 1:1s shouldn't be forecast meetings. What does your ideal 1:1 meeting look like?👇🏼 PS: Join 70+ members who receive weekly live coaching: https://lnkd.in/gTbPiShP

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The #1 way to motivate SDRs... (And it costs nothing) Prove you g͟e͟n͟u͟i͟n͟e͟l͟y͟ care about them. It’s pretty damn easy: - Prioritise your 1:1s - Sunshine great work - Say ''thanks'' every week - Give them honest feedback, nicely - Appreciate their effort even if they failed - Message MORE when they are struggling Most SDRs just want to 'feel' like you care. It's not difficult. Do you agree? ♻️ Share this to show sales leaders the way. ---- 📌 The SDR Leader Bootcamp closes Friday for enrollment.

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No reply to follow up messages?   Here's why:   1. Value   You didn’t show them how you’re different from other suppliers.   - Demonstrate how you can add value to their situation.   2. Qualification   You didn’t qualify your prospect properly.   - Make an ideal customer profile to target the right people.   3. Tone   Your follow up message is too aggressive.   - Think: ‘how would I feel if I received this message?’   4. Timescale   Prospects buy when they’re ready, not when you are.   - Until that time, show your expertise, help and nurture them.   5. Frequency   You’re following up too quickly and it makes you look desperate.   - Leave 2-3 days between messages - don’t follow up every day.   6. Schedule   Your prospect might be too busy and hasn’t seen your message.   - Keep going until they say no explicitly. -- What’s your favourite follow-up message to use when a prospect goes quiet? #JamesEEnglish #Sales #China

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What a way to enter Q3 with a bang 🙌 42 G2 badges including... 👉 #1 Digital Sales Room in the UK 👉 #1 tool delivering the best ROI for sellers 👉 #1 Easiest tool to setup and get started Plus, just to toot our own trumpet a little more We've been rated as a High Performer across EMEA and for Enterprise customers 🚀 So much love to our customers who left some standout reviews 👇 --- "Hands down one of the best sales tools I've utilised in the past few years as a seller - Trumpet is game-changing. The UI is night & day compared with any similar tool on the market, it's easy to use, modern, hyper-personalised and customisable." --- "Back and forth emails. Lost PDF's. Endless threads with key information hidden in every mail. Emails bouncing when you want to send rich media. I've had it all. Trumpet has changed the way I interact with customers, and makes sure my daily touches with customers are all tracked in one place." --- "I love that clients only need to remember one link that contains all they'll need to have the internal conversations. Selling in 2024 is as much about the calls you're on than it is arming your champions with an easy-to-digest business case for internal meetings you're not on." --- And a huge shoutout to our incredible team who give our customers the best possible experience every single day 🎺 Humble brag over. Back to building 🚀

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Calling all B2B sales professionals. With our friends at Aircall, we need your help with our State of Sales Coaching survey 2024. 3-5 minutes of your time could win you amazing prizes - the latest AirPods, Sonos speaker, Nespresso machine, and of course MySalesCoach scholarships. Sales coaching is widely considered the most critical function of a frontline sales leader. Previous studies demonstrate that it significantly boosts win rates and quota attainment. However, many sales organisations find it challenging to establish and execute an effective sales coaching culture and strategy. Our survey seeks to identify the key trends, best practices, and impacts of sales coaching in 2024. You'll be first to get the study published in October packed with insight, data and trends. Leaders and Individual Contributors should complete the survey - with scholarship places up for grabs for each. Your voice really matters, complete today for a chance of these amazing prizes and to be first with the report. Link here to complete - https://lnkd.in/eKRcTPXV

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VPs Sales, STOP managing your SDRs | Here's why... 👀 Here's the sh*t you should be doing: 💵 Focus on supporting your AE team/s close deals 🧬 Prioritise strategic collaboration with other functions 📊 Review data to set strategic direction 👔 Spend time hiring A-Grade Leaders & AEs 🤝 Give attention to customers to optimise renewals & upsells ⚙️ Implementing & driving adoption of core sales processes Here's the sh*t you either should NOT be doing or worse... MISSING: 🗣️ Coaching the most inexperienced/junior reps in the org 🔁 Hiring & promoting in an ever-changing team dynamic 👥 Providing daily support for people still finding their way as an adult 🧑‍🏫 Teaching the BASICS of how cold-call, email, qualify, etc. 🔬 Study current prospecting trends & ideas 💪 Keeping impatient and hungry young professionals motivated Be honest with yourself... 🧠 Think about where you're burning your calories 🧠 Think about whether you have the time to manage this stakeholder group 🧠 Think about whether your prospecting knowledge is as sharp as it should be 🧠 Think about whether your SDR team is delivering the results you want 🧠 Think about where you are going to have the biggest business impact ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ 👋 Hi I'm Andy, Founder of RevRocket. I specialise in building, optimising and growing your SDR function so you don't have to. Considering getting support for your PipeGen Team? Shoot me a DM ✉️

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The SDR function is a silly invention. Throwing 10s of thousands in sales enablement tools at graduates who are figuring out what they REALLY want to do with their lives. Targeting them on volume rather than quality. Offering no repeatable processes or training. THEN Putting the pressure on so much they leave or firing them without first looking in the mirror at why it hasn’t worked. Silly. Very silly.

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SDRs, what if you can earn the same / more OTE without ever having to cold call / email ever again? I have a slot opening in my team. And you will not: - Cold call uninterested prospects - Be given a list of names you've never heard before - Be asked to hit 200 dials a day and work till you hit quota Instead you're going to: - Manage LinkedIn inboxes - Qualify interested leads - Book meetings via chat You can: - Work from wherever you want - Work whenever you want I'll pay you a base + performance bonuses I'll train you on the exact workflows Find the application link in my featured posts P.S. This is the future of SDRs - here's your chance to lead the charge.

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Transition from SDR to Junior AE. Running one of my favourite sessions today, working with a quartet of SDRs who want to move into a junior AE role. The first part of this will be to help them understand: ➡️ the skills and behaviours they have developed doing the SDR role that can be built on to be successful at managing and signing business ➡️ the part of the customer’s buying cycle they have been operating in, the parts they will be dealing with and what this means in terms of the skill and behaviours they need to develop ➡️ how to build a presence and gravitas to be taken seriously by their customers, despite their young age/looks and lack of experience ➡️ the difference between what happens in a prospecting call and a scheduled meeting, with a focus on how to start a meeting and use active listening to drive deep discovery ➡️ what they need to learn about their own propostion and company to help build and demonstrate their capability and credibility ➡️ the world class inputs and basics they can control to set themselves up for success (Mindset, Productivity, Core Comm Skill, Sales Skills) ➡️ the expectations they should have in terms of their development and what the path to mastery looks like ➡️ what they can work on and practice whilst still in the SDR role that will prep them for their potential transition It’s going to be a fun day. Lots of role-play. Lots of discussion. Lots of fun! #sdr #sdrtoae #sales #salestraining #salescoaching

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Bonus Elite Sales Tip Diversifying your lead generation is easier than you think. If you’re not making the money you desire, pay attention to this. 🚨 You likely lack one of these three: 1. Awareness 2. Lead Generation 3. Conversions How to Fix Each Issue: 1. Awareness: • Post more content • Speak with more people • Improve your current marketing 2. Lead Generation: • Post to more channels • Speak more about your offer • Diversify your methods (try attracting and reaching out to potential clients) 3. Conversions: • Improve your persuasion skills • Enhance your closing abilities • Boost your charisma • Learn psychology --- Follow for more Tips Mahedi Hasan Bhuiyan 🥇

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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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🚨 "The ultimate guide to landing your dream sales engineering role" 🚨 Julia Lustig and I sat down a couple of months back on the ARRtist Circus podcast for a brilliant conversation, jam-packed with hints & tips on some of the most important topics to consider in today's job market... - 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗖𝗩 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁? - 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀? - 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀? Tune in via the Spotify link below in the comments 🎙💥 Thanks for having me Julia & ARRtist Circus! 💜 #PreSales #SalesEngineering #CareerTips #InterviewPreparation #CareerGrowth The Sales Recruitment Company

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Here’s a word of warning.. Hope screws up your pipeline. A misconception is that every prospect you engage with is capable of buying from you. Usually it plays out like this. Your sales rep approaches a prospect and asks a couple of surface level ‘what’s your current process like’ questions followed by a brief pitch how your product can make their lives easier. The prospect says, ‘It was good speaking, this could potentially be of interest.’ Hearing this means the CRM is updated and 4 follow ups are scheduled. 6 of these and suddenly your pipeline is looking good and the future's looking bright. Someone will hopefully buy soon. The personalised ‘just following up’ messages go out over the next few weeks rather than finding more people to stick in the pipeline. ……. And then crickets…… No response. It usually happens because your team didn’t ask tough and challenging questions out of fear of being told no. Them saying ‘this could be of interest’ 99 times out of 100 is usually a polite way of telling your seller to go away. The questions that would have got to the truth and may have actually disqualified them. Hope screws you up. Detach from hope. Find people who have genuine problems and motivations to fix them. No motivation then disqualify. Are you a business owner who wants more predictability and less hope? DM Me. I might be able to help.

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Stark and very true! Now that we all have the facts as sales leaders, what are we going to do about it? On my side, leaning in and doubling down on the details and coaching is KEY for our teams 😍 #sales #coaching

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Did you know❓ 48% of SDR Conversations lead to an Intelligent Conversation Time and again I hear of overblown expectations for salespeople doing outbound... ☝ To Achieve superhuman conversion rates during cold outreach that are more finger in the air than considering market and historical performance. 🤠 To hit Target despite unconsidered or generalised KPI's set too high or too low that are not founded in data. 🤯 To achieve High or Low output targets that are driven by poor workflows and assumptive "flavour of the month" best practice. 🧐 To maintain high standards while constantly changing messaging and target datasets every few weeks. So what should you expect? Taking a look at the data so far during 2024 from our London, Edinburgh, South Africa, USA, DACH and Australia teams we analysed over 70 SDR's activity. Give me a 📞 on if you want to dive into greater detail.

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