Categories: Sales Leadership
Motivating and supporting sales teams in an ever-changing economic environment is no easy feat. Congratulations on making it through another year. As you settle into your new normal or continue to navigate ongoing change, here are a few topics that may help you stay the course.
Taking a look back at this year, we put together a list of the content that resonated most with our network of revenue leaders. You may find value in these insights as well, as you assess how you can improve your sales team’s ability to compete next year.
1. Three Critical Areas Where Alignment Means Revenue
As a sales leader, you’re expected to be accountable for aligning your team for revenue and growth. In this webinar, John Kaplan shared what sales execution best practices leaders are using this year and next, to deliver on revenue. He provides specific ways sales leaders can drive the success of strategic initiatives, specifically when it comes to leveraging managers and cross-functional leadership support. Be sure to check out the Q&A section (starting at minute 30:39) where we answer questions on enabling remote teams.
2. Sales Kickoffs: The Good, The Bad and the Game Changers
While you may not be running the day-to-day activities of the sales kickoff, your input on SKO efforts can have a significant impact on ROI and lasting outcomes. In this Q&A conversation, Facilitators Brian Walsh and Antonella O'Day share what they've seen work best and key mistakes to avoid. This conversation has been helpful for sales leaders working to ensure their SKO provides tangible value to everyone participating in the event. From how to best leverage managers, to strategies for approving speakers and critical concepts to communicate throughout your SKO journey, there are insights in here that you may be able to use in more ways than one.
3. Maximize MEDDICC Results with a Solid Sales Process and a Clear Value Message
MEDDICC continues to be a popular topic amongst — after all, it can be an efficient way to build voracious qualification into your sales approach. When it’s implemented correctly and supported with the right sales foundations, companies can significantly increase business predictability, deal velocity and revenue. Sales leaders leverage our guide to walk through exactly what it takes to ensure their desired outcomes from a MEDDICC implementation. If you’re seriously considering MEDDICC or implementing it soon, make sure you have the right foundations to maximize its impact on your business. All it takes is a quick read of this eBook.
4. How to Scale Product-led Growth
Segment's Chief Revenue Officer, Joe Morrissey, discussed how Segment implemented a value-based sales motion to scale their organization’s product-led growth (PLG), increasing Annual Recurring Revenue by 150% over a two-year period. The PLG model is an efficient model for driving rapid revenue, but many sales leaders are interested in what it takes to scale that viral success to the next level. Morrissey shares his perspective and advice for CROs in this video.
5. What Good Looks Like in a Partnership
There are a lot of different ways to drive sales transformation. The most elite leaders understand that they often only get one shot to launch a successful transformation initiative and prove their value. What do these leaders look for in a potential transformation partner or at the least, what steps do they take to ensure their efforts will pay off? We’ve put together a guide to help you define where a partner may support your success. It shares real examples of what successful sales leaders looked for, and how their initiatives and sales teams benefited as a result.
6. Sales Transformation Checklist
We’ve created a checklist of leadership actions and five best practices for leaders driving change. If you’re launching a transformation initiative, save this checklist. Sales leaders leverage this checklist to align their initiatives behind sales and company growth goals and determine what’s needed to make them stick. If you’re planning to launch a change initiative next year, use this list as a way to level-set and define the actions you may still need to take to ensure your desired outcomes.
7. Shifting to Consumption-based Pricing: Ensure Sales Alignment to Drive Numbers Up
SaaS trends show companies are increasingly making the shift to usage-based pricing models. Sales leaders in these companies are looking for best practices and proven ways to equip their salespeople to 1) land high-consumption accounts and (2) ensure long-term adoption within them. We put together the strategies they’re implementing to drive impactful outcomes. If your company is making a similar shift, consider how you may be able to incorporate those strategies into your execution plan.
8. How to Sustain New Sales Behaviors
With any strategic change initiative, there’s always the question of whether or not it will stick. Changing the sales behaviors of an entire organization requires time, commitment and a plan for reinforcement that drives lasting results. If you’re launching something new during your SKO this year, we’ve compiled proven insights on how to drive long-term sales impact. Even if your change initiative/execution plan is mostly fleshed out, there are still key takeaways in there that sales leaders have used to elevate their adoption and reinforcement plans. Pay special attention to those as you may still be able to incorporate those into your initiative.
9. Enable Reps to Sell Higher
One of our top-streamed podcasts this year was a conversation with Brian Walsh on how sales leaders can successfully enable their salespeople to sell higher and increase average deal sizes. Naturally, no sales team is immune to sellers who are challenged with getting higher and avoiding delegation. One of the biggest takeaways from the episode is when Brian shares the framework and point of view salespeople need to get in front of decision makers higher, wider and deeper in a sales organization and make an impact.
10. A Conversation With John McMahon
This conversation has many sales leaders rethinking their next moves and their current approach to leading sales organizations. John McMahon joins John Kaplan to discuss themes in his book, “The Qualified Sales Leader”. McMahon shares actionable takeaways, covering some of the most prevalent sales challenges leaders are facing today. You may be dealing with the same challenges right now.
Our favorite quote of his from the conversation: “If you want to be a great sales leader, you’ve got to take your ego off.”
Drive Significant Numbers Next Year: Advice From Successful Sales Leaders
Intercom’s sales leaders joined us to share their story on how Intercom drove a 261% increase in average deal size. As you look to enable your sales organization to drive similar revenue results next year, you may find value in what these leaders implemented. Consider how you may be able to steal tactics from their proven approach to driving sales transformation. Read their story from their point of view.
