What did you learn in 2020? The Proposify sales team is sharing their socially-distanced lessons in sales enablement, operations, and management, plus tips for cold calls, productive scheduling, using more video, and when to make your own playbook.
2020. What a strange year.
Okay, so it’s probably better to keep most parts of 2020 in the rearview mirror. But there have to be some positives from the year, something to take with us into 2021 that will serve us well. What did we learn in 2020? (Besides the wonders of contactless pizza delivery and working from home in sweats.)
The Proposify sales team spends all day, every day working deals and working to get better. With all the changes going on in the greater world, there have also been lots of pivots within the team and their processes. So I asked our sales team: what’s one thing you learned in 2020 that you’ll be taking with you into 2021?
Now I’m turning this post over to Devan, Colin, Gabby, Scott Y., Scott T. and Will to share their lessons learned in sales, enablement, operations, business development, and management.
I’m one of those who did a full career pivot in 2020. I left academic teaching for startup teaching and, boy, is that a difference!
All in all, 2020 taught me to be a better planner, writer, and marketer!
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In 2020 I learned that you have to find a balance between putting out fires and preventing them. And let’s be honest, there were a lot of fires in 2020. My goal is to always make sure that all processes are in place so my team can focus on what they do best, which is selling. This means I spend a lot of time analyzing what processes are working, what needs to be fixed, and what processes should be implemented that will lead to happier reps and more sales.
However, as much as you plan, problems will always arise and Sales Operations is the first team reps will go to for technical support, process problems, etc. But how can sales operations make sure to protect their time to ensure they’re playing a more strategic role? Here are my tips:
Now, I’m not perfect at any of these. I am a helpful person by nature, which means I like to solve problems right away. However, the above tips help make sure that I’m balancing time between fixing problems today and eliminating future problems.
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I learned a lot this year. Having just started at Proposify last January, my expectations of the year were pretty different from the reality!
This is the year I made my first cold call. So, how do you make a successful cold call? Here’s some of what I’ve learned:
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2020 taught me two important things: you can’t make assumptions and sometimes you have to get creative to get the win.
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In 2020 I learned a good framework is more valuable than a blueprint. Blueprints rarely account for everything going on with your company’s specific scenario and generally, anything you try to implement has to be tweaked to some degree. Not to mention, no one had the blueprint on how to overcome what we experienced in 2020: a global pandemic, racial injustice, and a presidential election. Phew!
3 ways frameworks were useful:
1. Building a sales playbook
It’s a bit of a daunting task to build a sales playbook from scratch. I knew some pieces I wanted to include from talking to the team but wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything monumental. I reviewed one of Kevin Dorsey’s presentations on building a playbook and realized by creating a framework of what we’re already doing today and fleshing those areas out in detail, I’d have a really great version one. This helped me keep things simple and get something into the reps’ hands they could use immediately and we can build upon together.
2. Coaching remotely
Having moved from a team lead role to full-on management in September, I needed a completely new framework on what I should be doing day-to-day. It was hard to find resources that both reflected the current reality and were fully applicable to my role. So—a framework.
I asked myself, what are the key activities that will contribute to my team's success? Based on our 2020 goals they were:
Once I had the framework of where I should be focusing it became easier to lock-in and execute rather than be reactionary to the constant changes happening within the business and out in the world.
3. Building an outbound culture
I’ll be honest, this one was probably the biggest challenge of working remotely. How do you change the daily behaviours of a team used to working mostly on inbound opportunities?
Well, you give reps a framework on how to do it and make it the focus of all coaching opportunities.
The sales team worked with Michael Hanson to build the outbound portion of our playbook. This gave reps a clear roadmap on how to make cold calls, write compelling emails, prospect on LinkedIn, and use video to generate interest.
There’s no blueprint that says “say this exact thing”. The reps use the playbook to come up with their own talk tracks and ways of personalizing outreach and they’ve really grabbed the bull by the horns. The majority of our pipeline is now generated through outbound!
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2020 was a huge year for me: new baby, house, job, and car!
For sales specifically, I learned the importance of having a process. Something repeatable, scalable, and reliable that I can make work for every customer I speak to.
I've learned stepping outside of your set process and skipping stages often causes some trouble either pre- or post-sales. But if you're confident and stick to it then you'll see consistent and predictable results.
My process is:
30 minute disco - 60 minute demo - 30 minute onboarding review - 30 minute proposal review.
Each stage brings value to my customers and leaves plenty of time for me to completely understand every one of the customers personal & business problems that Proposify can solve. And it only gets better with repetition!
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