The document summarizes insights from a video series interviewing various sales leaders. It provides highlights from each interview in which the leaders discuss best practices and strategies around topics like social selling, prospecting, managing sales teams, and using data and technology to improve sales. Examples include establishing trust in conversations, integrating social media into the sales process, focusing on customer success over leads, and adapting sales approaches to different markets.

1. Sales Leader
Video Series
T A K E A W A Y S

2. Background
Each week, we interview a sales leader
and post it on our blog. For the past
nineteen weeks, we’ve gathered some
great sales insights that we feel
compelled to share.

3. Steve Richard
“Earn a right to each sales conversation, don’t
start a conversation with a pitch.
Client voice is very helpful. Phrase things from
the perspective of a client’s peers. That’s how
we build curiosity and establish credibility.
Try using 3x3 research- find three key points
on the company or the contact in three
minutes of research.
Check out Steve’s full video.

4. Matt Bertuzzi
“Reading in general will make you a better
writer, a better prospector with emails, better
about writing agendas. Anything you can read
is huge.
Seek out coaching, and if you can’t find it, try
to make it happen. If you can’t make it
happen, go someplace else.
Out of 1,000 accounts prospected, on
average, companies put 35 new opportunities
in their sales pipeline.
Check out Matt’s full video.

5. Julio Viskovich
“The best way to transition to social media is
to use it as a simple augmentation of your
current process and slowly working it in, say
30 mins every morning.
I always recommend building Twitter lists.
There’s noise all over the place, use lists to
organize yourself with products, customers,
or competitors.
79% of reps who have applied social selling
into their daily routine have met their quota.
Check out Julio’s full video.

6. Kevin Gaither
“When you can generate one, two, even three
million dollars a year, all from the safety and
comfort of your chair with web and email and
phone, of course, companies are very, very
attracted to that.
Take it upon yourself to do everything you
can do and learn everything you can learn
about sales. That’s what will set you apart.
If you think social selling is a substitute for
getting on the phone and making calls, you’ve
got another thing coming.
Check out Kevin’s full video.

7. Koka Sexton
“Sales executives need to understand there is
an ROI involved in empowering their sales
team to use social networks in a systematic
fashion.
Leveraging connections is one of the easiest
ways for sales managers and sales reps to
accelerate their sales cycle.
When coaching sales reps, define specific
things they need to do on a daily, monthly
and quarterly basis to optimize their inbound
pipeline.
Check out Koka’s full video.

8. Derek Grant
“We bring every potential hire in for a culture
interview we call the ‘canoe test.’ Would you
be in a canoe with this person? If they were
behind you, would you trust them to paddle
the entire time? Would you want to talk to
them?
One of the things we’ve seen in our best sales
reps is hustle. Being able to get out and make
some metrics driven behaviors.
From a sales perspective, the one’s who use
the CRM effectively really mine their own
gold.
Check out Derek’s full video.

9. Barbara Giamanco
“Provide value and have a go-giver mindset.
Don’t be afraid to give things away.
It’s time to integrate social as part of the sales
process, not simply something on the side.
Anytime that you can share success stories
from your customers and you can quantify
those results, those are the things that will be
really important.
Check out Barbara’s full video.

10. Jason Lemkin
“To generate leads at first, the only thing I
focused on was customer happiness and
customer success.
Ultimately if the leads are there, if the interest
is there, your product is lacking. Or sales. Or
marketing. But if the leads are there, you can
fix the other things.
The leading SaaS metric is the velocity of
inbound leads.
Check out Jason’s full video.

11. Brent Leary
“Sales intelligence can be used to leverage
available data in real time to have a better
understanding of your target audience.
If you’re a salesperson today, you have a
great opportunity in CRM to create a better
interaction opportunity.
I think we’re going to see a lot of focus on
customer experience, see companies using
social to start creating better customer
service processes with the marriage of social
and traditional applications.
Check out Brent’s full video.

12. Eric Christopher
“Using a personality test quickly identifies key
traits, and can help find like-minded people
for your sales team.
By helping customer’s figure out their
problems, a bi-product is that they’ll purchase
our service.
All of our reps have goals to grow their social
presence, be a thought leader. It’s important
to apply social media to your sales process.
Check out Eric’s full video.

13. Jamie Shanks
“The world has already migrated to social
selling, you need to put in the hours and
become and expert.
There’s a huge opportunity to understand
social selling better than your competitors.
Get in early and learn this concept quickly.
Check out Jamie’s full video.

14. Sean Black
“The biggest mistake startups make is hiring
the wrong person too early.
The biggest cardinal sin for presenting is the
‘show up and throw up.’ Giving a canned pitch
doesn’t take into consideration the customer’s
needs.
Storytelling is the number one presentation
skill.
Check out Sean’s full video.

15. Ago Cluytens
“Ultimately we’re all buyers, we buy every
single day. Stop thinking like a salesperson
and start thinking like a consultant.
Buying is not just about picking the right
party to work with, it’s also about the political
game that happens within corporations.
Check out Ago’s full video.

16. Brad Gillespie
“Only about eight percent of organizations
that have implemented marketing automation
are using it for account based or customer
marketing at all.
I like to think of sales intelligence as
qualitative data points that go into a
successful pursuit, opportunity, or customer.
Data is the key to close the loop between
sales and marketing and help alignment
between the two groups.
Check out Brad’s full video.

17. Mike Smalls
“Things like beating your peers, being
recognized in front of folks, or having new
privileges are often the best types of rewards.
Too often companies will measure end sales
rather than focusing on the activities that lead
to success.
Sales culture is critical to the success of any
sales organization, primarily because sales is a
tough job full of rejection.
Check out Mike’s full video.

18. Charles Green
“Trusted advisors are the people who you
know have your best interests at heart, who
you know will tell you the truth straight to
your face, but won’t gossip about it later.
When the product is intangible, it’s you on the
line.
The new paradigm is to just give things away,
get it out there, get people intrigued.
Check out Charles’ full video.

19. Mark Hawn
“If you just get your intent and purpose right
for your sales team, it’s amazing the impact
and the results they’ll have.
Trust relationship is by far the most important
component of winning or losing.
Spend a lot of time with your client, have
good conversations, find ways to interact, and
think about your questions before you go
meet with them.
Check out Mark’s full video.

20. Jordan Rackie
“Instead of saying you're great, use social
proof to share the message of others who say
you're great.
It's great to be the best salesperson on the
sales team but it's even better to be the best
company in its marketspace
The best feature in a potential sales rep is that
they're adaptable. They can go down to Texas
and slow it down or go up to New York and
get to point quick.
Check out Jordan’s full video.

21. Bill Binch
“As you grow in a sales organization, you grow
far beyond just doing deals. You start growing
into people management, hiring and how you
get sales to run.
What better way to sell your product than to
give it to somebody, have them use it, and
have them get so enamored with what you do
that they say ‘I’ve got to have this and I’ve got
to pay for it.’
There’s a structural paradigm shift- buyers are
finding the vendor. You have to incorporate
that inbound component to be successful.
Check out Bill’s full video.

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