How to Build Multiple Champions in Sales

When I was a VP of sales, I coached my AEs to close over 50% of their sales demos. Here are 8 evergreen coaching methods to level up your AEs that you can copy: ↓ 1/ Coach only 1 skill at a time: → Your reps will never improve if they're trying to master multiple skills on top of their other tasks. Give them 1 skill to master before you move onto the next one. 2/ Have them coach you: → 99% of 1:1s is the manager telling the rep what they should do, but turn the table around. Theme your next 1:1 where you're asking your sales rep to coach you on what you can improve on as a leader. 3/ Have them coach themselves: → Teach your reps to be self-sufficient. On your next 1:1, ask your reps, "if you had a time machine and can go back after listening to this call, what would you do the same and what would you do differently? and why?" 4/ Have them coach each other: → Salespeople can relate more to another salesperson that's in the trenches and is consistently hitting quota. Get your top performing reps to hold a workshop around a specific strategy or skill. 5/ Have an outsider coach them: → My dad gives me advice all the time and I'm stubborn in taking it. But when my uncle, who I rarely see gives me the same advice, I run with it. Get an outside sales expert to coach your reps. I guarantee they'll feel 'heard' and will improve. 6/ Don't coach at all: → Sales skills are not the only thing that gets salespeople to improve. Confidence, peace of mind, and being valued, make salespeople perform better. Take them out to coffee or lunch and DON'T talk about work, show them you're there for them. 7/ Set time for 'compliment coaching': → Most sales leaders have a bad habit (although, normal) of spending too much time with constructive feedback. Dedicate a 15-30 min 1:1 only complimenting your salesperson for all the stuff they nailed. 8/ Have them set the next steps/action items: → Instead of ending your 1:1 by telling them what they need to work on, ask them: "What do you think you should work on after this?" Empower them to have accountability. They're more likely to follow through when it's their idea. There you have it, 8 methods: 1. Coach 1 skill at a time. 2. Have them coach you. 3. Have them coach themselves. 4. Have them coach each other. 5. Have an outsider coach them. 6. Don't coach at all. 7. 'Compliment Coach' 8. Have them set the next steps P.S. Join over 3,100 salespeople who are using my top 24 discovery questions: https://lnkd.in/edAVrn2v

I’ve tried to accelerate deals in many ways: - Pain amplification (dragging them through the glass) - Proof of concepts/proof of value - Discounts (rarely work) Nothing I’ve tried has ever worked as well as having a true champion sprinting through walls to get the deal done. Here are my top 3 recommendations for developing champions: 1) Motivate People act in self-interest. You need to tie your solution to personal wins for your champion – not just company benefits. 2) Mitigate risk While you excitedly talk about all the things that could go right, they are thinking about what could go wrong and how that would impact them. 3) Help remember and repackage Even your strongest champions will forget most of what you discuss. Helping them remember key points and package them for other audiences will make it easier for them to champion your solution. Your ability to build champions will make or break your sales career. If you want a deeper dive into how to execute these three points, take 3 minutes and read this: https://lnkd.in/gURbZ_NJ

I have an AE on my team that hit over 1 Million in closed won new logo revenue last year. Here are 3 key things she did in order to win: 👇 1. Internal Multi-threading- As soon as an opportunity entered her pipeline, she was internally mapping who needed to be aligned to the deal in order to win it. 💡 They had a CRO aligned to the evaluation, we get our CRO connected to them. 💡They cared about AI, we ensured our product team was looped in for roadmap conversations The Impact? ↳ Buyers in this market need to not only see the value from your product, but also see the partnership/community they are buying into. How you show up in the pre-sales motion should be a reflection of what they can expect in the post-sales lifecycle. 2. Champion Building - She found her champions early and often. 💡 In pipeline reviews, we'd map out who her champion was and how to get that person to sell for her (THIS IS ALSO ON YOU MANAGERS!) when she wasn't in the room. 💡If she didn't have a champion, she would go back to the buying committee to get half call scheduled (15 minute syncs). Which allowed her to get even more insight into what matter to each member of the buying committee and use that to make them all feel heard in getting the value out of the product. The Impact? ↳ When a champion was present & identified, she won 9 times out of 10. 3. Friction based approach - She would map out the risk of each deal right after the first call and constantly be strategizing on how to overcome it. This was a necessary habit to build in today's market where winning is harder than ever. 💡 After her first intro meetings, we would discuss what risks are aligned to the opportunity & use that to steer us in next steps. - Ex) the deal is a compete, lets plan to plant differentiators in our demo. The deal has political ties to their existing vendor, let's get our CEO to reach out to create alignment on our end. 💡She would role play friction based questions before going into big calls. If you aren't asking the hard questions, you will get blindsided in your deals. The Impact? ↳ By focusing on the risk, she was able to project manage the deal correctly towards a win. ie. best next steps, pricing to win, blockers in the exec suite, the right emails to send. Selling 1 Million in New Logo Rev (in today's market) is no small feat, cheers to the sellers out there that are stretching themselves to do things differently to win in the new world of selling 🥂 #salescoaching #sales #winningmindset