Hall of Fame: Charles Muhlbauer Ep. 46

FOUR ACTIONABLE LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS Use calendar color coding to audit your time and ensure you're focusing on important tasks consistently Always be recruiting (ABR) - Regularly connect with potential talent on LinkedIn to build relationships before you need to hire. Designate specific days for different tasks - Monday for one-on-ones, Tuesday for outbound, Wednesday and Thursday for deal reviews, and Friday for forecasts. Run outbound days, have reps target top C-level prospects and maintain a 45-day forecast with outreach tasks. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB Regional Director Mid-Market Sales @ Navan Manager Commercial Sales @ Navan Manager Growth Sales @ Navan Enterprise Account Executive @ Navan RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS Explore two types of impact with your prospect: hard metrics (e.g., hours spent, money lost) and soft impact. Address pain points in other departments to accelerate deals and improve win rates. Turn situations into problems by asking questions that highlight known pain points with competitors. If ghosted late in the deal cycle, offer to email the next key contact directly to prompt a response. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB Account Executive @ Webflow Account Executive @ SafeGraph Account Executive @ Procore Technologies RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS Call your below-the-line org. contacts to gather intel that you can bring up when having above-the-line conversations. Try to get a direct referral to your target persona, next best would be “permission to mention X’s name”, next best would be using the information from X’s conversation when contacting the target. Use “[X] said we should speak” as a simple, attention-grabbing subject line for the target persona. Document all your conversations in your CRM notes at the prospect AND account level for easy recall in future outreach. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB VP of Sales @ Orum Account Executive @ Teamable Software Head of Sales @ Neptune.io Manager, Sales Development and Operations @ CloudVelox [Acquired by VMware] RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

To celebrate the launch of our book on cold calling "Cold Calling Sucks (And That's Why It Works)" we've dropping this special playbook edition that covers (almost) everything there is to know on how to cold call. From handling objections to organizing your calendar, this episode has got it all. Pre-order a copy of our cold calling book and get it FIRST when it launches on August 14th, 2024

FOUR ACTIONABLE LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS Sales leaders need to stop observing from the sidelines and actively participate in deals as player-coaches, even if they are CROs. Giving candidates extensive preparation materials for role plays allows for a more accurate evaluation of their abilities. Replaying specific parts of a role play multiple times can effectively demonstrate a candidate's coachability. Hiring decisions should be unequivocally positive or negative, avoiding the temptation to settle for average candidates. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB VP of Sales @ Chameleon Senior Director of Sales @ Drift Senior Director of Sales @ Litmus Sales Manager @ Litmus RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

TOP ACTIONABLE SALES TAKEAWAYS: Act surprised and maintain confidence when faced with resistance on price; don't normalize discounts or concessions easily. Make each concession painful for the customer; show that every request comes with effort and negotiation, preventing them from expecting easy wins. Act as if achieving approvals for concessions is difficult and uncertain, emphasizing the rarity and challenge of gaining internal approvals. Finish negotiations in two parts if necessary, using options to force a final trade-off that emphasizes the value of each choice, encouraging a more strategic decision-making process. ARMAND'S PATH TO PRESIDENTS CLUB: Founder @ 30MPC VP of Sales @ Pave Director of Sales @ Carta RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS When asked for pricing early, give a range but hold the other key pricing details until you get feedback. If you’re getting ongoing buying objections, suggest that it may be too early to be talking. Get to the true objection when someone asks to be sent more information. Before giving any discounts, get clear commitment on timing. And make it clear that if there’s a slip, it starts back at standard pricing. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB Senior Account Executive @ Inveterate Sr. Account Executive @ GRIN Business Development Representative @ Connect Search, LLC Business Development Representative @ Arrive Logistics RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

FOUR ACTIONABLE LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS Ensure there is a financial plan that walks through the pipeline conversion assumptions to keep your team and your partnering teams accountable Do not try and fix something that's working in order to compensate for low metrics, look at the indicating metrics and fix those Have Account Executives dedicate 20% of their time to prospecting a set list of walled off (named) accounts Break out your inbound and outbound metrics to make it easier to diagnose the problem if one of those two metrics is falling behind RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

FOUR ACTIONABLE SALES TAKEAWAYS During demos, connect features shown to insights gathered during Discovery. Address confusion promptly and facilitate discussions rather than relying on your Solutions Consultant. Make your effort visible to prospects when working on the business case. Let them know you're actively involved and invite collaboration, which fosters reciprocity. Refine and finalize your business case incrementally. Use the demo to make the case tangible and save detailed financial discussions for the final business case meeting. When negotiating and faced with a request for a discount, refrain from immediate responses. Silence can be powerful as it prompts the prospect to reconsider or elaborate on their request. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB Enterprise Account Executive @ Webflow Senior Account Executive @ Webflow Account Executive @ Webflow Senior Corporate Account Executive @ Udemy RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

FOUR ACTIONABLE LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS Burndown: Every day before the end of the month, make your team put all open deals in a spreadsheet with a two-line update. When you’re rolling out a methodology like command of the message, you can’t stop at the initial training. Every single new product launch needs to be trained in that framework, otherwise, it’s forgotten. Make sure your reps tell you what role you need to play on calls! Your CRO can always freestyle, but they much prefer you tell them what to do. 80% of the upward communications should be focused on the problems you need to solve. Often times your CEO just wants to know that you’re aware of the problems. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB CRO @ Vanta Founding Partner @ 20SALES Founding operator at @ Coalition Postal Vice President, Mid-Market Sales @ Twilio RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal