Sales development training is a continuous process, and a few weeks ago, our Sales Development Reps and Account Executives got up close and personal with one of the best sales trainer in the industry, John Barrows.
John is sales trainer to the world’s leading tech companies. Through his extensive experience and the lessons learned throughout his years in the brutal, unforgiving world of sales, John’s goal is to provide the sales development training that’s been historically lacking in the SDR community.
You may remember John’s theory on the secret to success (hint: there is no secret.) He believes in hard work and hustle, because at the end of the day SDRs have the hardest job in sales. And during his chat with the Salesloft reps, he gave a few of his pieces of advice that lead to harder hustle, and more qualified meetings set.
1. Create a routine.
Think of sales like working out. You maintain a routine, and every morning you wake up, and you do your routine. And it’s that consistency that keeps you in shape. You’re going to yo-yo up and down if you don’t set specific goals and routines.
Goal setting is one of the most important things you can do at any stage of your career. Smart goal setting, too: Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.”
2. Write down your goals.
Getting your goals on paper is the best thing you can do to motivate you to reach them.
Everyday I write down three goals. I have a whiteboard, and I write down three goals on what I want to get accomplished that day. No matter how badly my day went, if I got those three goals accomplished, I had a good day.”
The same goes for your teammates: write down goals for your meetings. Staying focused on the end goal is the best way to have meetings with power — the kind that actually get stuff done.
3. Hold your clients accountable.
We all get the sales brush-off, or the client that says “Get back to me on Friday.” We all know what happens on Friday: nothing. So set the expectations upfront and hold them accountable. What time on Friday? Is your calendar in front of you? Why don’t we pick a time and throw it on the calendar so I can get a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ from you.
Expectation setting is absolutely key with everything that we do. Think about the last time you were pissed off about anything. I almost guarantee it’s because your expectations were miss-set.
Try to set very clear expectations upfront with my clients, and then hold them accountable along the way.”
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For a more sales development training and execution techniques, download the second section of our newest playbook trilogy, The Sales Development Playbook: Executing.
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