Casual Sells More
Identifying where to Focus
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If the day to day life of a sales person was depicted in a movie you’d undoubtedly watch an emotional roller coaster filled with ups and downs. Showcasing triumphant steps forward towards a closed won deal. Followed by agonizing steps backward with no clear path to winning in sight.
Credit: Corporate Sales Bro
Despite the ups and downs, there’s money to be had.
Principles are always something that I like to focus on because they’re evergreen and timeless. They always work. In every sales scenario they may be nuanced however the underlying mechanics always remain the same.
Think about it:
Parkinson’s Law: work expands to fill the time available for its completion
Murphy’s Law: anything that can go wrong will go wrong
The Eisenhower Matrix: tool prioritizing urgency and importance
Law of Diminishing Returns: after a certain point, additional input or effort results in increasingly smaller outputs or results
Pareto’s Principle: the 80/20 rule
The Principle of Least Effort: choosing the path of least resistance or effort to achieve goals
There are more, this list is certainly not exhaustive. However all of this applies to sales and business in some way.
The principle of least effort always caught my attention. Work smarter not harder right? It’s something that I believe applies in sales BUT you still need to put the hard work in. The catch is that it needs to be done UPFRONT.
Doing the hard work upfront allows you to develop systems which can be iterated and refined. The ultimate goal of achieving leverage for gaining more with equal amounts effort.
It’s the deep understanding of your systems with which you can develop a casual approach to sales. It’s understanding how you can cover gaps and account for potential losses. It also allows you to confidently balance hitting your target while building a new vertical, attacking a new industry, or even scaling a new company.
Recent case study via Growth Unhinged featuring Thena, which scaled their outreach 5 - 10x with just one SDR.
THIS is how you develop a casual approach to your sales process. It allows you to be poised, assured, and not desperate. As Tech Sales Guy so eloquently put it:
“Commission Breath is Stinky” - Tech Sales Guy
People can sense desperation. Only when you’re in control, understand your book, and have a plan is when you can be casual. It gives you the confidence to be okay with walking away.
I recently came across a tweet from Jen Abel, founder of JJellyfish:
Credit: Jen Abel
Although Jen talks mostly about startups, the principle remains the same and it’s a useful framework to develop. It’s applicable to any type of company you’re working in, whether it be an early stage startup, mid cap, or an enterprise org.
The reality is that when you get a book you’ll have to work towards a number. The way to do that is to simply walk backwards and iron out what the activity looks like to get there. You’ll have to do this to succeed in any GTM role and it’ll be especially useful in interviewing for new roles.
It’s knowing where to focus.
Knowing WHERE to work hard, not working hard for the sake of it.
Stressing less and less because you’re in command of your numbers.
Setting up an insurance policy and selling up towards leadership if things go wrong.
Knowing where to work hard: FOCUS
I recently worked with a candidate who was working through the later stages of an interview process with two companies. One was a sales engagement platform and the other a cloud storage company.
What got the candidate offers was the ability to display how they would approach getting to their target with the potential book they would receive. Understanding how the numbers shake out allows you to mitigate risk.
It’s not just getting to your number either. It’s protecting your time, accounting for multiple scenarios where it’s OK to lose but still get to your quota.
Here are some key questions to ask:
What are the metrics in the sales funnel? (touches > SQL > Opps > POC > Closed Won)
What are the current gaps in the sales cycle or where are there the most challenges?
Number of accounts and average ARR/TCV
Average sales cycle timelines
Where is the company seeing the most traction (ie verticals, use cases)
What motion is going to drive the most results (esp important in a startup, seeing more growth on expand or land?)
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Answering these questions helps you to take a casual approach in any sales process. Desperation isn’t necessary because you’re already accounting for scenarios and using levers to mitigate against it.
This also helps you in other ways:
Alleviates Stress
Creates an Insurance Policy
Alleviating Stress
Having a handle on what can go wrong and being able to account for downside scenarios not only lets you be more casual during your sales process, it helps alleviate stress.
I’ve written previously about lessening the burden of stress, through the lens of appreciation and mindset. A simple shift in the frame of the bubble we live in as sales people.
Taking the numbers approach adds a practical element to it as well. Both are helpful.
Insurance Policy
Taking this grounded approach alleviates your stress but it also creates an insurance policy for you.
Imagine being the IC who has no explanation for not being able to produce?
OR
Imagine being the IC who has clearly documented their processes and where there are challenges. Whether it’s a skill gap, or a company gap, good leadership will work with you to succeed. They’ll want to see you succeed.
IF
They know about it. And YOU can prove it. Surfacing the challenges you’re seeing in the market or in your day to day is VALUE ADD for any org.
It also develops the skill for selling up. A useful tool in any career, the ability to persuade leadership or stakeholders.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t foolproof. Nothing in life ever is. However in this profession, the best thing you can do is know where to focus and what to lean on and off of at any given time to produce results.
At the highest levels of executive leadership this is implemented in some fashion. Although it might not be a set number of accounts, I can assure you it’s discussed on a wider scope amongst peers or board members.
With focus and the ability to be casual, comes another step in the process. I’ll be covering more about it next week: Buyer Research.
Credit: BowTiedSalesGuy
See you then.
As always, thanks for reading and your continued support.
-Andrew K