Sales in the Subscription Economy #11
Timely insights from sales pros on 3 new podcast episodes, integrating a scorecard system in to your sales hiring process, great discovery questions, and more. Let's dive in!
I hope you and yours are well this week. If you’re not, hit reply and let me know how I can help. Seriously.
New Sales in the Subscription Economy Podcasts!
3 New Sales in the Subscription Economy podcasts episodes dropped today!
Podcast #7: Joe Yeager, Sales Director at Cloudify teaches us how to be an advocate for our customers, about the rule of reciprocity in sales, and reminds us that with challenge comes opportunity – now go find it!
Podcast #8: Dallas Hogensen, Chairman of Denver & Phoenix Revenue Collective, top 100 technology sales coach and all-around sales boss shows us how to build resilience, fail fast, be vulnerable & empathetic, and dozens of sales nuggets of wisdom you can't miss!
Podcast #9: Dave DeRosa, VP of Sales at Satuit Technologies tells us to triple down on our sales teams' strengths, embrace individualized coaching, and the paramount importance of presenting a compelling business case to key account stakeholders.
Listen to episodes 1-9 of Sales in the Subscription Economy at subscriptioncoach.com/podcast or subscribe on Spotify or your favorite podcast app.
Here's what you need to know this week:
I really enjoyed It's Time To Build on the a16z blog by Marc Andreessen this week. It's a 5 minute read, not particularly sales related, but knowing you, it will excite you about our future and give you the swift kick in the pants you & your team need to get moving again!
Win top sales talent with this interview scorecard by Amy Volas, CEO of Avenue Talent Partners on SalesHacker
Key Takeaways:
"It may seem like you’re always taking a blind bet on a new hire, but there’s a way to rig the game in your favor so you win more often than not. That secret weapon is a hiring scorecard."
Amanda's note: Once you're down to your top 3 candidates, you need an objective, repeatable process for hiring top sales talent that can do the well-defined job you need done. Creating & using a scorecard for each position you hire for will skyrocket your odds of making the right hire. Save this article and refer back to it next time you hire someone. It's chock-full of excellent questions and more process details that you need. Amy Volas is a total boss, listen to what she says!
Step 1: Ask yourself the following questions to determine what your ideal hire should look like: If the new hire is exceeding expectations in the next 6–12 months, what does that look like? Why? If the new hire is struggling in 6–12 months, what does that look like? Why? What are the top performers in my current team doing? How? Why? What’s missing from the members of my team who are struggling? Why?
Step 2: Separate your answers in to "must-haves" and "must-avoids"
Step 3: Build your hiring scorecard using this template
Step 4: Ensure the entire hiring committee uses the same scorecard for each candidate.
Step 5: Using the scorecard results, make a well-informed, objective decision on your next hire!
Listen to The Predictable Revenue Podcast episode where Collin Stewart chats with Amy Volas on "Unpacking the Why Behind Who You Should Hire Next."
41 Sales Questions to Ask a Customer to Determine Their Needs by Tony Alessandra on the Hubspot blog
Amanda's favorite questions from the article:
How does your company evaluate the potential of new products or services?
Who has your business now? Why did you choose that vendor?
What are your buying criteria and success criteria?
If timeline or budget were not constraints, what would your ideal solution look like?
What do you like best about your present supplier? What don't you like?
What do you like best about your current system? What would you like to see changed?
This is an unprecedented opportunity for you to get your sh*t together: sales SOPs, your team, sales enablement, and everything else.
No, no one really wants to do that, but we all want to be the best. We're in sales for a reason. We thrive on competition, winning, and big rewards.
Unfortunately, that doesn't happen without a detail-oriented, perfectionist, maximizer, filling in the gaps. Oh hey, that's me!
Get serious about becoming the best and see how Sales Solutions Sessions + Roadmap can help you emerge from this crisis at the top of your team's sales game.
Book that 30 minute exploratory call with me right now – let's get your sales machine operating at full strength. And no kidding, even if you can't afford it, book a call with me and let's see if I can help. We all need to bring our skills to the table to help others in need. For those of you who can pay, I'll be grateful. This is a scary time, financially among other things, for my family, too.
Lastly, I want to introduce a quick new offer that myself and the team of amazing sales recruiters that I work with are offering to help you through the COVID-19 crisis: for recruiting contracts signed by June 30th, 2020, we will offer a one year candidate replacement guarantee, a 4 day in-person sales training session, the CraftMetrics aptitude & coaching profile, and 90 day payment terms. Email amanda@subscriptioncoach.com and let's talk about your team.
Stay healthy, have a great week, and go get ‘em!
Follow me on Twitter @NorthcuttAmanda