Build A Sales Machine: Avoid The 7 Fatal Sales Mistakes & Double New Revenue

From A Salesforce.com Executive:

How To Avoid The 7 Fatal Sales Mistakes CEOs And VP Sales Make

& Double New Revenue

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Aaron Ross - My Story

• Stanford Undergrad + GSB dropout• CEO of LeaseExchange: -$5 Million• Ironman Triathlon, Boulder Outdoor Survival School• Sr. Director at Salesforce.com: $100 Million• ‘Entrepreneur-in-Residence’ at Alloy Ventures ($1B)• On 10 advisory boards + investor in six companies• Now: PebbleStorm, with three coaching programs:

1. Sales Machine: “Create Predictable Revenue”2. CEOFlow: “Turn Your Employees Into Mini-CEOs”

3. Unique Genius Coaching for individuals

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Created A $100M Inside Sales Team At Salesforce.com

A“Cold Calling 2.0” process and team that helped increase recurring revenue for Salesforce.com by $100 million & grew F5000 bookings by

more than 60%

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And Years Of Consulting/Advising

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Why Am I Doing This?

• After so many years of coaching/advising CEOs and VP Sales…

• I see the same mistakes made over and over again

• I made them myself as a CEO• They are simple to avoid!

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Coming: Summer 2010

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A Wave Of Change

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What Works In Sales Has Changed

Field Sales = 90% of prospecting

ABC / Always Be Closing

Dials per day, appointments

Cold calls

Cheesy sales tricks work

“I hate this job”

Long letters & emails

CRM hurts productivity

1.0 2.0Sales Dev = 90% of prospecting

Is there a mutual fit?

Qualified opportunities / month

Research, referral calls

Authenticity works

“I learned a lifetime skill”

Short and sweet text emails

CRM multiplies productivity

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The 7 Fatal Growth-Killing Sales Mistakes CEOs and VP

Sales Make

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1. Not Taking Responsibility For Understanding Sales & Leadgen

• Everything begins with the CEO• The CEO must understand the fundamentals

of sales and lead generation • Avoid arbitrary goals, assumptions and plans

Solution: the CEO must take full responsibility for educating & developing themselves

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2. Thinking Salespeople Should Prospect(Make Salespeople Jacks-Of-All Trades)

• Salespeople should fulfill deals • Only prospect 20% of the time, to Top 10

Strategic Accounts or to current customers• “Lumping” is when salespeople do it all:

qualify, cold call, close and manage accounts

Solution: specialize! You only need two salespeople to begin to specialize

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Separate the Four Core Functions

“Outbound”

Customer Success & Renewal

SalesFrontline

SalesOrganic &

Marketing Leads

“Inbound”Qualified Opportunities

New Customers

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3. Assuming Channels Will Do Your Selling For You

• They won’t• You have to control your own destiny• The channels will come AFTER you are

successful

Solution: you must control your own destiny first. Focus on direct sales success before counting channel chickens.

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4. “Sales 1.0” Talent Approach(Hiring, Training, Incenting)

• Hiring wrong, especially in sales leadership• Insufficient training (esp. new hires)• Misguided expectations, esp. on ramp times• Promoting the wrong people• Using comp as the main motivator

Solution: get coaching on how to hire, train & incent, or find local companies to model.

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Chinese Proverb

• If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain• If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees• If you want one hundred years of

prosperity, grow people

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Train New Employees In Support/Services

Intern With Services or Lead Qualification

(2-4 Weeks)

Call StaleLeads

(1 Week)

Call FreshLeads / Stale

Opptys(1-2 Weeks)

De

gre

e o

f Ris

k

Time

Call ColdExecutives

Example: training salespeople in non-sales roles

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5. Being “Product-Out” Rather Than “Customer-In”

• Unclear Ideal Customer Profile• No one cares what you do, they only care

what you do for them• Little executive time spent with customers

(should be 25% of your time)

Solution: talk to customers to get clear on what you do for them, rather than how you do it.

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Nail Your Ideal Customer Profile

• Industries?• Geographies?• Revenues/employees?• Culture clues?• Key metrics/datapoints?• Dealbreakers?• Dealmakers?• Ideal contact at targets?

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6. Sloppy Tracking And Measurement

• You have no predictability without a funnel• Are you measuring and tracking what you do and

produce, or putting it off?• “We’ll do that next [week, quarter, year…]”• Unless you understand what works and doesn’t

work, you are guessing at how to improve

Solution: Start tracking 2-3 key activities / results now. Add something new each month.

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7. Command-And-Control (“Push”) Management

• Employees have few opportunities to contribute beyond their roles

• More motivation than inspiration• Using long hours/hard work instead of creative

problem solving• Exhausting employees (and management)

Solution: read “The Seven Day Weekend” by Ricardo Semler. Subscribe to CEOFlow.com.

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CEOFlow: “Pull Management”

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Bonus Mistake: Underinvesting in Customer Support

• Too focused on new customer acquisition?• Ignore account management and support at

your peril• We have a world of “Frictionless Karma” – bad

customer experiences get around instantly

Solution: love & handhold your first 50 customers

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Trust => Extraordinary Growth

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The CEO Is The Pebble In The Pond

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CEO Sweet Spot

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Understanding Leads: Seeds, Nets & Spears

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Distinguishing types of leads

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Distinguishing types of leads

•Lower volume•Highest quality•Harder to increase

•Higher volume•Low value•Easier to increase

•Lower volume•High quality•Medium work to increase•Grew Salesforce.com revenue more than 40%!

___ Website Visitors

___ Leads(Registrations)

___ Qualified Leads

___ QualifiedOpportunities

$___ Pipeline

$___ Bookings

__% Conversion

__% Accepted

__% Converted

$___ Avg /Oppty

___% Close

SALESDEVELOPMENT

SALES

MARKETING

Sales Cycle Length ____

__ Lead Qualification Reps per __ Leads per Month

__ Account Execs per $__ Pipeline per Month

Cost per Lead$___

Nets Funnel

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Example Spear: ColdCalling 2.0

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Increm

en

tal

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Add Target Accounts

Add Contacts

__ Call Connects

Spears Funnel

__ New Opportunities

__ Closed Deals

Prepare

Prospect

Begin SalesCycle

Work Responses (9% Response Rate)

__ Demos/Appointments

Define Ideal Target Profile

Send __ Cold Emails / Make __ Mapping Calls

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Prospecting Emails: Less Is More

1. State simply why you are reaching out – and be honest! (In every way)

2. Offer credibility (ex: customer names)3. Make the email easy to read and

respond to on a blackberry/mobile• No more than one question per email• Simple questions: don’t make them think

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Sell To Success

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How most companies sell

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“Sell To Success”

Build A Sales Machine Coaching

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The Transformation

• An easy-to-follow sales development process that leads to predictable sales revenue and an ever-expanding pipeline with 20% close rates

• Go from erratic and unpredictable leads and sales results to a reliable sales machine that generates pipeline even when no new marketing leads are coming in.

• A clear step-by-step system to attract, develop, and retain the top sales people that will bring in the highest sales with the least amount of turnover, training and ramp time.

• Free up your time and energy by making sales a self-managing system that runs itself.

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Testimonial: WPromote

Michael Stone, VP Sales, WPromote (#1 ranked Search Marketing Firm on the Inc 500):

• “Working with Aaron Ross has been nothing short of amazing…

• His methods produced a profitable and scalable new stream of predictable revenue.

• We saw at least 40+% new business growth. • Deal size is still growing. • We’re getting in the door with brands like Overstock, AT&T,

IBM, etc. – people that would have never come to us. • The best part is, we had a blast while doing it!”

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Special 50% Offer Until 6pm Friday: Predictable Revenue Strategy & Action Plan

Session

• Format: 90-Minute Private Consultation by phone • You Walk Away With: Clarity on your bottlenecks and at least

three concrete, results-changing, actionable solutions to create more predictable revenue and grow it by 40%+

• 100% Money-Back Guarantee, if dissatisfied for any reason• Only $450 (value $900) for webinar registrants who sign up by

6pm Friday

To register:www.CEOFlow.com/coaching

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