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Best Practices of Top-Performing Sellers
Best Practices of Top-Performing Sellers
Best Practices of Top-Performing Sellers
Top-Performing Sellers
HABITS TO HELP YOU E XCEED YOUR GOALS
Contents
Top Performer Takeaways 7
Exceed Your Goals
With Sales Engagement 15
Best Practices of Top
Performing Sellers 8
Calling Behaviors 9
Using a Single System
of Execution for 17
Opportunity-Sourcing Behaviors 13 Your Sales Strategy
What All Performers Need to Succeed 14
B E S T P R AC T I C E S O F T O P - P E R F O R M I N G S E L L E R S : H A B I T S T O H E L P YO U E XC E E D YO U R G OA L S
to Sales
prospecting. The ‘80s called — they want
and influencers don’t care
their sales strategy back!
how your internal organization
Success We laugh now, but when it comes to revenue strategies,
too many sales organizations are stuck in a time capsule.
is structured or what type
of seller is assigned to their
They’ve simply replaced the phone book with haphazard,
account.’…informed and self-
often undocumented processes, and short-term fixes.
And both buyers and sellers everywhere deserve better. sufficient business buyers
expect all members of the
Sellers are hungry for concrete guidance and long-term revenue team to bring value,
solutions to generate more pipeline, close more deals, and
continuity, and relevancy to
progress their career to the next level. Buyers need reps
who listen first, meet them where they are, and provide value. every interaction.
Forrester Research,
The Democratization Of B2B Sales
August 2020
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B E S T P R AC T I C E S O F T O P - P E R F O R M I N G S E L L E R S : H A B I T S T O H E L P YO U E XC E E D YO U R G OA L S
14% 13%
Predictability 42%
48%
58% 59%
Though these challenges can be painful, none of them represent the 19%
27%
real problem. They’re all just symptoms of poor execution.
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B E S T P R AC T I C E S O F T O P - P E R F O R M I N G S E L L E R S : H A B I T S T O H E L P YO U E XC E E D YO U R G OA L S
18%
Updating the CRM
19%
In this Guide:
and self-sourcing 20%
9%
Too many unnecessary internal meetings
16%
Top Performer Average Performer
10% 20% 30% 40%
5
B E S T P R AC T I C E S O F T O P - P E R F O R M I N G S E L L E R S : H A B I T S T O H E L P YO U E XC E E D YO U R G OA L S
21%
22% Admin
Preparation
Exhibit 3
6
B E S T P R AC T I C E S O F T O P - P E R F O R M I N G S E L L E R S : H A B I T S T O H E L P YO U E XC E E D YO U R G OA L S
Top Performer
Takeaways
In the study, we found the most successful reps
focus more on factors within their control and
effectively manage their time to accomplish
selling activities.
Top-performing reps
Top-performing reps use data, intelligence, and productivity
tools 30% more than average performers. And they drive use data, intelligence,
success by consistently using sales best practices like: and productivity tools
And more
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B E S T P R AC T I C E S O F T O P - P E R F O R M I N G S E L L E R S : H A B I T S T O H E L P YO U E XC E E D YO U R G OA L S
Through this research, we wanted to understand how sales reps prioritize their Recap the impact Take notes directly Spend 45 more
and payoff to the in the CRM (or note- minutes leading
time, what tools they use, and which behaviors distinguish top performers from
buyer at each step of taking tool) during demos per week
average performers. the conversation the meeting
Top performers only spent an additional hour a week on core selling activities
than average performers did. However, top performers spent 45 more minutes What Top Performers Do Less
each week leading demos and 71 fewer minutes a week on account research.
That may not seem like a lot, but one more demo a week over a year adds up. Offer next steps Spend 71 fewer Spend 2 fewer hours
Top performers also typically worked 3.9 hours less each week than average without clear call minutes on account on reading (industry
qualification research and list news and sales-
performers, who got lost in list-building and research. building per week related content) per
week
What set top performers apart was the ability to get more done in less time.
Manage daily tasks Spend 45 fewer
less in a CRM or minutes on setting
task management up automated
platform prospecting emails
weekly
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B E S T P R AC T I C E S O F T O P - P E R F O R M I N G S E L L E R S : H A B I T S T O H E L P YO U E XC E E D YO U R G OA L S
Calling Behaviors
When considering the detailed behaviors oftop and average
performers, the following charts expose some subtle areas to explore.
Note that any behavior being done by 75% or more sales reps is considered a widely adopted
Behavior being
standard. Top performers slightly edge out average performers on many behaviors.
done by
However, any item with less than a 5% difference isn’t statistically significant.
75%
or more sales reps
is considered
a widely adopted
standard.
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B E S T P R AC T I C E S O F T O P - P E R F O R M I N G S E L L E R S : H A B I T S T O H E L P YO U E XC E E D YO U R G OA L S
Calling Behaviors
Research potential connections to
continued
76%
the decision maker in advance 73%
74%
Align call objectives to sales stage exit criteria 70%
It’s not that successful reps aren’t managing their time. They’re 50%
Schedule time to update pipeline in the CRM
just not managing it the way that’s expected. 50%
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B E S T P R AC T I C E S O F T O P - P E R F O R M I N G S E L L E R S : H A B I T S T O H E L P YO U E XC E E D YO U R G OA L S
Calling Behaviors
Schedule next steps before
continued
100%
leaving the call 97%
Considering how many buyers conduct online Ask personal questions to 74%
research before making purchases (roughly 80%), establish rapport 78%
this isn’t surprising. Recap the impact and payoff to the 72%
buyer at each step of the conversation 65%
Calling Behaviors
Provide proactive suggestions
continued
95%
for next steps 95%
Top performers also understand how to use Sales Engagement Log conversations in the CRM within 34%
tools to establish cadences that ensure timely follow-up. They 10 minutes of a meeting 41%
focus on providing something of value to prospects, such as
additional references or links to a resource library. Following each
meeting, they reiterate the solution’s impact and value.
Top Performer Average Performer Statistically Significant
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Self-Sourced Opportunities
Behaviors 90
80
70
All sales reps surveyed received opportunities
from multiple sources, including marketing
% of Total Respondents
sourced leads, outbound SDR prospecting, and 60
self-sourced opportunities.
50
Sales leaders expect reps to source a portion of their own
business. Interestingly, for larger deals ($75K+), top-performing
reps sourced 21% more opportunities through their own 40
efforts than average reps did. This statistic doesn’t speak to
the quality of opportunities. Instead, it reveals that the best
30 61%
reps placed a priority on driving their own success, not
simply waiting for opportunities to come to them. They 47% 47%
appear to hone in on leads they can unlock, such as referrals, 20 40%
39% 36% 36%
personal relationships, and LinkedIn connections.
28%
10
Reps must focus on building urgency and differentiating your brand from Removing the administrative tasks so I can focus on
competitors, but they are often inundated with menial or secondary tasks. my clients’ experiences and growing my accounts.
How can you free up that time and unlock productivity for your team?
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Goals with Sales In serving more than 2,000 companies, we’ve seen many
expectations means sellers
must adapt by using
Engagement
attempts to solve it. More often than not, the best intentions
fail due to lack of process adoption and inconsistent technologies that help them
execution. improve customer experiences
while lowering the cost of sales.
Much of the sales tech stack focuses on figuring out how
to handle leads. Sales reps are spending more time looking Forrester Research,
for data and less on writing proposals. Whether it’s a top or Now Tech: Sales Enablement Automation
an average performer, they’re all trying to do more with a Q2 2020, May 2020
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B E S T P R AC T I C E S O F T O P - P E R F O R M I N G S E L L E R S : H A B I T S T O H E L P YO U E XC E E D YO U R G OA L S
80
Sales Engagement is not a task management tool,
marketing automation, or CRM.
70
Think of it as a co-pilot for your CRM. Sales Engagement
% of Total Respondents
takes a data-driven, analytical approach to automating human
interactions between buyers and sellers. It helps reps organize 60
61%
the time they spend on daily activities to yield the best results,
whether they’re building pipeline or nurturing deals to close. 55%
50
20
16%
Sellers excel with the right technology and support. 10
5%
Forrester Research, 8% 3% 3%
Now Tech: Sales Enablement Automation
Q2 2020, May 2020
CRM LinkedIn Sales Data & Slack Content Sales Pipeline Orches-
Engmnt Intelli- Mgmt Analytics tration
Platform gence
Exhibit 10
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A Single System of
Execution Helps Sellers:
System of
using multiple tools
Execution for
streamlining workflow. They execute account-based and increase
strategies better, drive more opportunities to close productivity
through prospecting and opportunity management,
Your Strategy
Operate in more
and expand strategic accounts. And reps feel organized, systematic,
happier, empowered to maintain their autonomy while and measurable ways
exceeding their sales goals.
Strike the right balance
between automation
The bottomline is this: Sales Engagement helps and personalization
sellers create better buying experiences at every stage
of the sales process — generating more revenue, faster. Manage all their
tasks from scheduling
through execution
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B E S T P R AC T I C E S O F T O P - P E R F O R M I N G S E L L E R S : H A B I T S T O H E L P YO U E XC E E D YO U R G OA L S
Pipeline
Management Coaching
#1 in Sales Engagement
Forecasting CO Call & Meeting
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Revenue Transcription
Intelligence Analysis
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Automation Messenger
A Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Sales Engagement, Q3 2020
Calendar Email
Top-rated Sales Software 2020 and #1 in Sales Engagement by G2 Team API
Performance Platform
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Top-rated Sales Software 2020 by TrustRadius
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