Anthony Natoli’s Post

Three reasons why your sales hires aren’t panning out, it’s fairly simple. This is especially true for SDRs (Sales Development Reps) 1. Your recruiting the wrong type of talent. Natural sales talent isn’t what you should be looking for. Just because the candidate was able to do well in the interview selling a pen, doesn’t mean success as a salesperson. 2. You can’t identify success signals early on. If you just look for revenue closed as an indicator for success, that doesn’t work. If ramp up is 3 months and sales cycle is 3 months, you won’t be able to see revenue until 6 months in. Knowing which indicators to look for early on is huge. 3. You aren’t training them enough. A 2 week onboarding program discussing the product won’t cut it. They need ongoing support and real investment into each sales rep. The term ROI, requires the I (investment) which is more than just a salary. Ask me if your sales hires are being set up for success in the comments or send me a DM.

One of the biggest stallers of moving deals forward is when a decision-maker changes roles. LinkedIn Sales Solutions VP of SalesAlyssa M., summarized it well: “Today’s most successful salespeople understand that while one person may ultimately sign the deal, 10-12 people can derail it, so deep sellers leverage signals like when a decision-maker changes jobs to reach out and build new relationships and multithread deep and wide across accounts. That’s one way they stand out and minimize the risk of deals falling apart.” With that being said, here are six steps to find people who changed roles in Sales Navigator. Step 1: Open up Sales Navigator. Step 2: Go to a Lead Search. Step 3: Upload your account list using the "Account Lists" tab under "Workflow." If you don't have an account list, upload your book of business to import a list of up to 1,000 accounts with a CSV link. Step 4: Click on the "Changed jobs" filter in the "Recent Updates" section. Step 5: Add other filters like function, seniority level, geography, and industry to find your ideal clients. To simplify this process, leverage the "Personas" tab under "Workflow." Step 6: Click "Save search" to get notified of new results. By following these steps, you can receive daily or weekly updates when new decision-makers change roles! New leaders are often given the budget and authority to make new investments and have less attachment to the company’s existing suppliers. While this could derail your deal, if they are a previous user of your product, they could also move the deal forward. Stay proactive, build new relationships, and keep your deals on track! Below is an example of the search filters I would use for operations directors in the banking industry in EMEA who changed jobs recently. #linkedin #salesnavigator #b2bsales #selling #prospecting

New hires are 62% more open to sales outreach than people more established in their roles. That’s why top-performing sellers save their top accounts in Sales Navigator, so they get alerted the minute one of them hires a new executive. “When a company hires a senior leader to build, they then trust them early and give them budget and authority to implement,” Skye VP of Sales Darren McKee said. “Hence the reason why they open messages at a higher clip, speaking from prior experience. They are also bringing in unique thinking to the table and sometimes that means new products and partnerships." Our user data shows top performers also use LinkedIn Alerts to find out things like… ▶ when one of their target accounts goes on a hiring spree or gets a new round of funding. ▶ when one of their most promising leads posts on LinkedIn, is mentioned in the news, or views their LinkedIn profile. Because those events give them a compelling reason to reach out. Want to use Sales Navigator Alerts like a top performer? Learn how in this post: http://lnkd.in/LSNAlerts #sales #SalesNavigator

How can you find prospects that are “ready to buy”? Here’s an easy 3-part framework for prioritizing high-intent buying signals and generate more qualified pipeline: 1️⃣ WHY now? → the outreach is timely and appropriate 2️⃣ WHY care? → you have a compelling reason for reaching out 3️⃣ WHY them? → the solution is relevant Buying signals that I know of that check all three boxes are: -a past champion starts a new job -a new executive joins -an end-user gets promoted -a current customer makes a referral -a contact from a closed lost accounts moves to a new company What would you add? #outboundsmarter

Are you hiring more AEs in an effort to increase revenue? Without the correct signals to trigger new hires, that could be a costly mistake. Pipeline is the first thing to turn your attention to when you’re looking to increase revenue and scale your team. Let’s use an example outside of sales: You’re the owner of a restaurant with 30 total tables. The restaurant only fills 10 out of 30 tables consistently on Friday nights. Would you hire more waiters into that environment? Absolutely not. It’s obvious that the increased headcount cost makes no sense for the amount of customers that you’re consistently serving. So why do so many companies get this wrong in terms of hiring salespeople? It’s because there’s a lack of focus on pipeline, salesperson capacity, and opportunity replenishment rate. First, you need to understand the number of opportunities that any given salesperson can effectively work at any time before seeing performance drop off. Depending on the type of sale, this could be anywhere from ~10 to 50+ opportunities (complex/enterprise sales cycles should be closer to 10 opportunities, transactional sales cycles should be closer to 50 opportunities). Then you need to understand what your team’s average opportunity replenishment rate is. Basically, how quickly is your team closing opportunities (won and lost), and how quickly are those closed deals being replenished with net new qualified opportunities? If each of your AEs has an average weekly opportunity replenishment of +2, then you should start thinking about hiring more AEs sooner than later. Because this week they may have 20 total opportunities in their pipeline, but next week they’ll have 22 opportunities, then 24 the following week, then 26 the week after that, etc. Fast forward 10 weeks and each of your reps will double their pipeline from 20 to 40 opportunities. Going back to the analogy – you’re now filling all 30 tables in your restaurant on Friday nights. You need more waiters.

Most CS teams miss these 3 questions to uncover hidden upsell opportunities Want to find more expansion revenue in your existing accounts? Listen to your sales team! The key is to identify major events that change a company's needs: 1️⃣ Funding events - New funding rounds often lead to growth initiatives that require more of your product. Stay on top of customer fundraising news. 2️⃣ Key hires - Especially in product, sales, legal or finance roles that relate to your offering. New leaders bring new priorities and bigger budgets. 3️⃣ Audits or big internal changes - Major events shift a company's focus and open up opportunities to provide more value. Proactively monitor for these signals and engage customers to uncover expansion potential. The best upsell questions come straight from your sales reps' discovery calls. Pay attention to how they qualify deals and replicate that at scale across your base. By systematically looking for growth triggers, you'll spot way more opportunities to grow customer relationships. And you'll do it BEFORE your competitors even know those needs exist. I break down exactly how to implement this in your CS organization in this video. Drop a comment if you have any other great upsell discovery questions to share!

Last year, we used the New Hires & Promotions signal to drive 8% of our pipeline and generate 14% of annual revenue. and lucky for you, we don't gatekeep ways to outbound smarter. TL;DR: Every signal has a signal-based workflow attached. That way our team has clear, actionable insights on the WHO and HOW of outbounding. Here are six must-have components of a signal-based workflow for New Hires & Promotions: 1. Contact Creation in CRM Gather as much info on your prospects as you can and start tracking when they get promoted or switch jobs. That way you're ready with all the context you need when you get the signal that it's time to reach out. 2. Automated Sequencing You seriously want to reach out as quickly as possible. Cannot stress this enough. New execs convert 2.5x higher in their first 3 months on the job. So automating your sequencing is the way to go. 3. Automated Actions Signals are nothing without corresponding actions. Automate actions that your team can take when prospects change roles so they're the first in the flood of people reaching out. 4. Personalized, Strategic Outbound Congratulate your prospect on their new role, send a thoughtful gift (if you can swing it in this economy), and send them any advice you have for their first 90 days. That way you're not just noise in their inbox. 5. Dynamic Scoring Based on Signals in ICP Accounts Prioritize the people who are actually ready to buy. New hires should be at the tippy top of your list because they're the most likely to need your product now. Give accounts dynamic scoring so your team is ready to focus on the right actions each day. 6. Measurable Success and Impact Figure out what your best reps are already doing to hit quota. Use those actions when you get the signal that a prospect got a new job. ☝️ This is your blueprint for kissing pipeline anxiety goodbye. How are you reaching out as soon as possible when prospects change jobs? #OutboundSmarter

Spray and Pray is dead. Signal based selling is the only way to cut through the noise. When looking at my Accounts I prioritize into 3 categories: 1) Company Signals: - New Funding - Hiring - Intent Data - Competitors - 10ks / Earning Reports 2) People Signals 💎  = Past Relationships - New Hires - Customer Referrals (word of mouth) 3) Internal Signals - Product Usage Data - CSAT / NPS - Engagement This was a "pitch slap" on LinkedIn that led to a $50k deal. The only reason it worked was I saw he was a recently hired VP and I noticed one of their marquee customers on their website --- changed jobs. Signals are compelling, relevant, and timely. What other signals are ya'll using? #sales #accountexecutive #prospecting

What keeps you up at night?   Is it that 60% of companies said their CAC has increased? Or that 60% of companies also said it’s harder to get buyers’ attention? Or maybe it’s that RepVue shows only 43% of sales reps hit quota in Q4 of 2023? Focusing on new hires as a buying signal can save you the pipeline anxiety. Here's why new hires are the perfect people to reach out to: 👉 It’s timely - New executives spend 70% of their budget within the first 100 days.  👉 It’s relevant - There’s a reason to reach out.  👉 It’s high priority - New executives convert 2.5x higher in their first 3 months vs. after 1 year. Smarter outbound is all about reaching out to the right people with the right solution at the right time. How are you outbounding smarter in 2024? #OutboundSmarter

It used to take just 5 touches to turn a lead into an opportunity. Now? It takes 20+—if you’re lucky.😬 And honestly, it’s our fault! Here’s why: We’re stuck in a cycle of “more”: —More accounts 📊 —More calls 📞 —More emails 📧 —More automation 🤖 This has led to over-saturation, #gtmdisconnect, and #gtmbloat. The result? Fewer opportunities. Why? We’re all running the same playbook, using the same methods, and it’s wearing prospects down. Just the other day, a CEO of a big tech company told me they don’t take cold calls—before I even had a chance to share my POV. 🤦♂️ We’ve become victims of our own success. Even leaders are recognizing that outbound, as we know it, is no longer effective. It’s time to do less—and do it better. —Doing less means focusing on fewer, but relevant accounts with signals that matter most to you. (P.S. One signal doesn’t cut it. Your competitors and 10,000 other reps are probably using the same signal.) #Sales #GoToMarket #Sales #sdr #b2bsales #ae #QualityOverQuantity