Tactics for Successful Business Development

Gong just announced last week they blew past $300M in ARR. WOW. In 2016, I started at Gong as the 2nd US employee at $200k ARR. 20 SaaS sales tips I learned during my time in that storybook growth journey: 1. Money follows pain. Stop selling benefits. Start selling pain relief. You'll close more. 2. WHO matters more than WHAT. If you're talking to the right person: But you have bad sales technique? You can still win. If you're talking to the wrong person: And have great sales technique? You lose. 3. Don't multi-thread. Single-thread with multiple people. Break people out into 1:1 meetings. Stole this from Krysten Conner. 4. Don't multi-thread too much. Looping in the wrong people can kill your deal. Get the blend of people just right. No, IT doesn't always need to be involved. 5. Great cold emails don't talk about your product. They talk about pain. They look like a page from your buyer's diary. 6. Follow up. Fast. Some sellers take days to follow up. They don't want to seem desperate. Stop it. This isn't dating. Speed sells. 7. The secret to enterprise deals: Pick the deals you can win; then win the deals you pick. 8. Build your business acumen. It makes your sales techniques 2x as effective. Without acumen, you're hollow. 9. Don't seek approval. Seek to solve problems. Big difference. Don't grovel. 10. Buyers don't buy because of ROI. ROI doesn't drive purchases. Emotion does. They simply need ROI to justify the purchase. 11. There are two winners in each deal: The seller who won. The seller who ejected from the deal early and didn't waste time. 12. "Continuity of power" is the ultimate metric. Getting access to power is one thing. Getting a 2nd or 3rd meeting with power is entirely different. Only sellers with sharp acumen get the latter. 13. Great sales calls start with planning. Don't wing it. 14. Voice tone matters. Stop inflecting up. Inflect down. It sets an equal tone. 15. Become a master wordsmith. Words trigger mental pictures. Mental pictures trigger emotions. Emotions trigger actions. Actions close deals. 16. Don't negotiate price too early. It should be the last thing you do before the deal closes. Anything else is too early. 17. Talk about money like it's nothing. Quote a $600,000 proposal with a straight face. That's a super power. The best salespeople have a casual attitude about money. The worst salespeople freak out when they talk numbers. 18. Selling is a set of skills. Not a personality trait. 19. Use the same words your buyer uses. Stop paraphrasing. Stop putting your own twist on things. Use their words. 20. Always know the next step. Bad news: If you don't know what next step you'll suggest? You're wasting that sales call. Selling is an act of leadership. So lead. P.S. Master every aspect of SaaS sales with a FREE trial of pclub.io here: https://lnkd.in/gzF2YwKt

I became a millionaire 9 months after law school through sales. Here are the top 5 sales tips that made me successful: 1. Stimulate interest In other words, create curiosity. Even when someone needs your service, they need to want it first. And no one wants anything without being curious about it. 2: Transition into Emotional Connection Once they respond, your job changes. You're still not pitching, but you're asking leading questions, tied to emotion and your offer. These go a little something like this: • What's working for you today? • What's not working? • What do you like about it? • What don't you like about it? • What do you know about it? • What don't you know about it? The more they talk about what's not working, the more likely they are to sell themselves. But these also let you pick up on a couple of things: 1. You qualify the prospect 2. Reveal their problems 3. You find their pain points You're still not convincing—you're listening. 3: Share the vision Once you've qualified your lead and identified their pain points, present your solution. Instead of feature dumping, you need to focus on putting the prospect in the mindset of who they want to be, not who they currently are. If you did your job qualifying, you should have a clear image of both versions and start crossing off each pain point out loud. 4: Manage Their Decision 80% of sales work happens after they say yes, and you need to hold the prospect's hand. Remove potential bottlenecks, make steps easy and clear, and most importantly, collect payment. Waiting this part out is one of the easiest ways to lose a sale. 5: Create Long-Term Success The goal isn't just to sell once. It's to build a community where people: • Buy from you repeatedly • Refer others to you Your reputation becomes your sales engine, so make sure your fulfillment and client success are as good as can be.

Every founder has a functional "superpower". For some, it's engineering for others it's marketing - for me, it's partnerships (i.e. - sales). Here's how I approach closing and how it's helped me land thousands of deals in my career. First - lead discovery. The sales process starts with identifying the right people. Make sure it's the true decision-maker. Tops down is the way to go. Obviously we're using Linkedin to start here, but I also use SimilarWeb to estimate traffic, Storeleads to check in on who's using what competitors. I've always believed in a sharpshooter approach - targeting fewer leads who can actually make the decision with a more sophisticated approach because most of my sales targets are high revenue/impact folks: Investors, Founders, CEO's, SVP's, VP's etc. Second - connection. Notice I didn't say "outbound or prospecting" -- for me it's a process of considering how I can connect with the decision-maker. Other than getting that person to inbound you through content marketing, by far and away, the most effective method has been getting introduced by a trusted contact. Find a mutual connection (or create one) and get introduced, it will go 10x further. If that's not possible - you have to create a compelling reason for them to want to get to know either your product or you. That messaging is crucial - don't waste it "pitching" your product. For tactics here - my usage of CRM tools is pretty terrible - I like something simple like Airtable to track status. I use Superhuman to send emails at the right times and get reminders if someone doesn't respond. Given the sharpshooter approach, I'm not a fan of email drips unless they are incredibly personalized. My mentor got me in the habit of sending short emails because our targets were busy. When I read emails - I want it to get to the point. Third - closing. Some of my biggest and best deals required YEARS of thoughtful follow up. The greatest compliment I've ever received about my sales style is when someone told me that I'm "thoughtfully aggressive". It strikes the right balance of follow up + being helpful that overcomes initial objections. Targets know when you're just trying to help yourself. Approach each connection in a way that's meaningful to them. Every sentence, every interaction needs to be framed in the construct of the lead's feedback, needs, and long-term goals. If you can remember that - it's not about you - it's about them then you'll know when to walk away and when to press. This is high-level advice, but would love to hear any specific sales tools / tactics you use. What's not working anymore and what are you doing now to cope? If you like it - we can do another post focusing on some wild sales stories and specific tactics overcoming objections.