What are /r/sales' favorite Products & Services?

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Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount really helped me. I was in a very similar situation as you. After I read that book, it gave me the process/tools and inspired me to make 50+ cold calls a day in about 1-2 hours.

Another way to think of it is this: for each call you make, you are earning $X dollars. If your average sale nets $5k and it takes 250 calls to make that sale, then every time you pick up the phone you are making $20.

Great question. I’d love to hear what other people have done.

For me, reading a lot has helped grow my writing skills. I also make a conscious effort to improve.

There’s an app that has helped me rework a lot of my messaging:

http://www.hemingwayapp.com

The web app is free and easy to use. At the very least, you can use it as a copy editor.

Since this is a startup I beleive you might go about things wrong if you're trying to find "sales strategies" before the product's/service's value hypotheses have been tested (in which case they should develop themselves at least to a small degree). I recommend reading Eric Ries' "The Lean Startup" and taking things from there.

Best of luck!

Hello OP

I made you a video

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Connect with me on linkedin if you want to chat more :)

Dale Carnegie's "How To Win Friends and Influence People" is an absolute must. This book is an excellent start point for any salesman. Even Warren Buffet agrees!

For pure, raw, motivation you can't go wrong with The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort. Not much in there about actual sales technique as far as I can recall, but the tales of debauchery and the ride Belfort takes you on as he tells you how he made millions certainly does help get the blood flowing!

Another interesting book to read is The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. Not because its actually good; the book is filled with inconsistencies (it contradicts itself multiple times) and it only backs itself up using case studies throughout history rather than actual well researched facts. The reason its worth a read is because it was marketed ingeniously. Look up the story behind it, its worth a read in itself!

"The 4-Hour Work-Week" is an incredibly misleading title for an incredibly good read. The title is incredibly tacky, and even if you follow the books philosophy you'll be working more than 4 hours a week, but at its core the book is an outline for how to live your life to maximize fun activities/happiness and minimize work/negativity while increasing productivity / efficiency. Also a nice motivational read.

I've heard a few people recommend "The Millionaire Fastlane" or "The Millionaire Next Door" however and I haven't checked them out and its starting to get into /r/entrepreneur territory.

Someone on my nextdoor.com just complained that a student showed up at his door with no mask on trying to sell something, so I think the expectations are there.

And you are right, taking it off and on is probably not a good idea, don't touch it.

Hey! I made you a video

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Hit me up on linkedin if you want to connect more :)

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Good Luck!

SalesForce will work, but likely overkill. Any simple CRM will help. Even something like Notion can be used as a CRM.

https://www.notion.so/8be00849e2424c72b60d3882e5ae892b?v=1529a5d4d982476792b496e93ec2ef0c

There's an example, just change the fields to suit your needs.

It's something I've wondered about as well. I think for the foreseeable future there will be a need for sales execs who handle enterprise and larger deals because of the complexity involved in shepherding large purchases, the need for custom workflows in large organizations, and the desire for large customers to have a dedicated point of contact/advocate within their vendors.

But with the rise of things like product lead growth and cloud marketplaces I could see a decline in the number of SMB and mid-market roles. Why pay a sales person when users can discover, test, and buy the product on their own? That's essentially the model Atlassian has taken: https://www.intercom.com/blog/podcasts/scale-how-atlassian-built-a-20-billion-dollar-company-with-no-sales-team/

Don't get involved with brain chemicals unless you have a true disorder that needs treatment. They're addictive, and dangerous if you mix with alcohol.

For non-clinical anxiety, these quick meditations work better anyway: https://www.amazon.com/OASIS-Overwhelm-60-second-strategies-balance/dp/0974236802

I have this lunch box. Highly recommend. Keeps hot food really hot. It’s great.

I would definitely recommend the book You can't teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar

I was very fortunate that my old company paid for the training for their sales team via a Sandler consultant for the sales team in one region and I was selected to be the one rep from our region to go do the training and report back how it was, then six months later my market paid for it as well, so I got a repeat.

Upwork.com. He's in Bangladesh...have worked with him for almost two years at this point. Search for what you need (lead generation, for example) and browse the skills. I suggest looking for people with at least a few thousand in earnings and a good rating to make sure they'll be quality.

Hey OP! I made you a video

hit me up on linkedin if you want to get into more detail

Good Luck!

> So, books anyone?

books are not the problem. self published Internet "authors" are

scan around reddit and you will see "I decided to write an article about blah blah blah". what? who are you? what exactly are your credentials?

another sure thing is track down the bio of most any "author" and you will find that's what they do, they have zero business bragging rights, no success history...just a LOAD of "articles" and mountains of blog crap

you are dissatisfied with books, but you may not see that your complain is for NEW books. the best stuff was written a LONG TIME AGO and nothing better has exceeded foundational books like Think and Grow Rich from 1937. My personal vote for "Most Valuable" is Scientific Advertising from 1923

those are two examples of old better than new

Personally I can't stand Salesforce. It was revolutionary at one point, but compared to modern web interfaces, it's amazingly cludgy and takes forever to input data. I'm finally out of a 2 year contract with them and have been able to cancel it (don't sign a 2 year contract, no matter how much of a discount you are getting).

The CRM we need really needs to do three things:

• Minimize input needed to record meetings/calls. Automatically log email (ours and theirs).

• Make it really easy to know who you should be calling and when.

• Make it really easy to track marketing mailings (email and direct mail) and other marketing activity to a large group of people.

• Display some basic info like size of funnel, but don't get too tied down in made-up numbers.

Apparently there's a SaaS race to get it right: http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/18/always-be-closing-pipedrive/

You can export your connections into a csv file.

There is also https://salestools.io/ that will do a much better job of it and will even do Sales Navigator leads if you have it.

I have Sales Navigator and I do everything manually. I mean we're talking, name, company name and title. If I wanted to do a massive list, that would be another story. Salestools.io might actually find contact data for you. Not sure.

Trello! You get to move cards into different groups according to status, kind of like a corkboard. I use it to keep track of leads and opportunities on top of my existing CRM. Check it out: https://trello.com

"Virtual Selling" isn't some new trend. People have been on the phones selling for decades. The only difference now is that I have to stare at my boomer DMs forehead as they dumbly try to figure out how to use a camera. The plus side is that unlike 5 years ago with join.me or gotomeeting I don't have to walk someone through how to click a link or download something on a mac - they've already installed zoom/google meets.

Here is the insight to salespeople that they aren't going to like - your DMs are judging the shit out of you. Take a shower, wear a nice shirt, turn on your background, sit up straight, take off your hat and smile.

Just in case you haven't ran across it yet, I found this presentation about those reports with some great explanations and they suggest some hypotheses at the end: https://www.slideshare.net/jteclim/how-to-read-a-star-report

The people that provide the reports also run an academy: https://www.strglobal.com/products/str-academy

Hope this helps!

I think you're misunderstanding. I read them the URL over the phone. "OK, now go to your browser's address bar, and go to join dot em eee".

It looks like Zoom also offers a decently short URL, https://zoom.us/join, but someone said that they charge you after 45 minutes. Is this accurate?

This is a popular humor tactic I use often. I learned it from Hootsuite (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140609165121-2967511-have-you-been-eaten-by-alligators-why-fun-is-still-a-recipe-for-success). Her technique rubs me the wrong way, though. Brevity is good, but not at the cost of your value proposition. And the typos are a bit embarrassing. In the end she got a no. Like OP says, humor is important and so is brevity, but the real key to generating B2B opportunities is persistence and a powerful value proposition.

I use vocus.io and the best part about it is that you can have it do auto followups so I set it to reach out 3 additional times with varying content and I don't have to do a thing

I’m going to assume you’ve never torrented anything before. First, get yourself a VPN, I like ProtonVPN, you can just get a 1 month subscription for $5. Get it setup and make sure you have the kill switch on. Once you are connected to a VPN, go ahead and download qbittorrent then go here and click the magnet. You’re welcome :)

"Cold Calling That Really Works" . Easy read to get you motivated. https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Calling-Techniques-That-Really/dp/1440572178/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=cold+calling&qid=1619470519&sr=8-5

100% This... I highly recommend a book called "It's Your Ship". This book has some great insight and stories that will help you begin your leadership journey. If you're like me and prefer audio books, it's also available on Audible.

Direct link to book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/145552302X/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_kh.czbY7G1TNK

I just checked. There's a kindle version on amazon :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Selling-David-Hoffeld/dp/0143129325/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=science+of+selling&qid=1555880648&s=gateway&sr=8-1

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I bought the hard back myself

Yup, especially with everyone working from home. Being in the office is more stressful, sure, but I'm typically more productive there.

A few of my roommates lost their jobs when COVID hit, so oftentimes they are just chilling, playing video games, or watching movies, or going on hikes. Makes it that much harder to stay focused and motivated.

I started using this focus timer recently and it has really helped: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.superelement.pomodoro

25 minutes on, 5 minutes off

Holy crap, you've read all of those already? You're like 14 years old!

:)

When I was starting I read a ton of books and it kind of confused me actually. There were so many methodologies and techniques and they were all so different, it all kind of washed into mush. So be careful with that. You've read more sales books before 25 than I have in 48 years.

There is someone whom I was recommending but I went through her books again recently and she really assumes that you are a really advanced salesperson. So I won't be recommending her here anymore.

I am really loving the Brian Tracy books. The psychology of selling and his confidence stuff is really good.

From a non-sales perspective I really concur with Think and Grow Rich and How to Win Friends. My CEO turned me onto Think and Grow Rich and it really opened my eyes to some interesting stuff.

I've been dying to read the Little Red Book of Selling. I hear that it's not so much a sales methodology book as it is a sales motivation book. It's extremely popular. Everyone tells me it's a must read.

I have read those as well. I highly recommend you also read Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, and Predictably Irrational, in that order. You'll really enjoy them both as they're relatively quick, easy, and fascinating reads which also break the cycle of Sales books which get a bit repetitive after a while. Anyone who works with people will definitely benefit from reading these.

SPIN selling + Challenger Sale for modern skills
Sell or Be Sold + The 10X Rule for mentality and attitude
Little Red Book of Selling + Selling 101 for fundamentals
Predictably Irrational + Snap Selling for buyer psychology

Sales-centric reads include Art of the Pitch by Coughter, Little Red Book by Gitomer, Art of Client Service by Solomon, and Pitch Anything by Klaff.

General books that will help mold your mindset are Think and Grow Rich by Hill, Blink (and others) by Gladwell, How to Win Friend and Influence People by Carnegie, and 7 Habits by Covey.

Since you're in high school, I'd recommend picking up the books I've mentioned in the latter. Do yourself a favor, too - stay humble and keep reading. You're doing yourself a major disservice if you've just read one or two books and you're doing yourself a disservice by only reading a few books and blogs. In example, the above books are the books that I know off the top of my head. I have more that are on kindle, although most others are hard copy.

Also - if you're serious about sales - get out of your Summer job after you find one in sales. Best of luck to you, sales teams needs more young and eager prospects.

Have you read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie? That with Getting to Yes will help you develop great pitches and learn what a negotiation really is.

After that I would recommend To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink.

How To Win Friends and Influence People. I know it's an old book but it really is pretty helpful, and not just in the sales world.

Warm up slowly, don’t go from 2 emails a day to 50 over night, take a couple weeks to get there. Also, put your domain in here and see if that throws up an errors

https://mxtoolbox.com/emailhealth

Are your calls being marked as spam too?

Start 30 minutes earlier next week. Don't argue with yourself, don't make a plan. Set your alarms 30 minutes earlier, drink 2 extra cups of coffee, and start 30 minutes earlier this Monday. Tomorrow, put together a list of burned out numbers. At least twenty. Call all of them within that 30 minutes on Monday. Check your email, and get the hell out of your email within five minutes -- unless it's a hot prospect, get the hell out of there. Spend the next two hours prospecting. Then, take a break and reward yourself because you just unlocked the secret.

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Come back from your break. Now you can check your email for real. First, ten more calls (just ten). Then open your email. Then get the hell out of there. Relax, shake it off, jump up and down, tell an affirmation, don't think about the script, and start hunting for the next contact.

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This Saturday hit Unsplash.com and pick out 5 photos for the week for 5 topics. Make a unique post on LinkedIn each day when your ADHD triggers you back to the website to "scour". Write at least three sentences and use 5 good hashtags. Talk about whatever you want, be fearless, and have fun. Then get the hell out of linkedin and look at your calendar. Get back to your lead list and breathe it in, check the veracity (quality) of the data you are creating. Jump up and down, shake it off, think about the next contact which you will likely find after you make ten more calls. Just ten.

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You got this.

I’m right there with you. I found this: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/openOfficeNoiseGenerator.php and though it’s incredibly dumb, it does help to turn up the office chatter option. Just know that you’re not alone, though it may feel that way.

John Jantsch is brilliant on this subject, Strategy Before Tactics.

While his podcast is geared toward marketing, the bottom line is Sales > https://player.fm/series/duct-tape-marketing/why-it-is-essential-to-put-strategy-before-tactics

Pair this with Mike Weinberg - Chapter 14: Planning & Executing the Attack. > https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15863998-new-sales-simplified

Many companies have their year end in December, so they're focussed on closing the books and gearing up for the new financial year. It's worth factoring this in.

Having said this, every company is different, many firms claim to be really slick on recruitment but I've not really found that to be the case. My last firm took anywhere from 3-7 months and upwards of 10 interviews. My last company is the dumbest I ever worked for though so I think they were the exception and not the rule.

Don't be passive though, call them, ask them if they got it, ask for feedback and a status update. If you're going for a sales position, chase them as you would a prospect.

And for future reference, this is a great presentation on slideshare about getting hired. Worth a look.

Not affiliated with this company, other than being a user.

I use https://prospect.io/ to pull in leads from Navigator into Salesforce. They come in as leads, not sure if you could configure them straight into contacts, but you could just do a mass conversion of leads to contacts using Mass Lead Converter on the Appexchange.

Not sure why you would want to though.

There's a great article on this from Yesware here here!

ps - I'm a sales and email geek. Founder of sellhack Holler back with specific questions. There are a lot of different methods to use for finding contact info.

maybe find other businesses who are catering to child-bearing females and work something out with them.

i would probably just hire somebody on upwork.com to promote it online so that i dont even have to deal with it.

I currently manage an SDR team and the final decision is up to me and my VP of sales. Our CEO used to have the final say until we hit a certain size. It's gonna depend on if the SDR team is aligned to sales or marketing at the organization. I would focus on the highest level sales or marketing leader at the organization. Yes, people ops might have a say in hiring but I've never seen them be the final decision maker. If the company is smaller you can also reach out to the CEO. One thing I would also try is sending Loom videos introducing yourself ( https://www.loom.com/ ) its free to make an account. One caveat is that I would only use this touch if you feel comfortable doing it. There's a pretty fine line between video messages being a great way to stand out and uncomfortable because the person creating it clearly doesn't want to be doing it. That being said if you can make a short video walking through your experience, why you would be a good fit for the role, and showing you understand what the company's offering is it's a very effective way to stand out. Another good path to take is to reach out to the current SDRs at the company asking to learn about the company & role. Many orgs have hiring bonuses in the form of cash or stock options and can be a pretty big motivator for existing employees to refer people in. It's also typically easier to get answers from them.

You can stream the series here:

https://www.masterclass.com/classes/chris-voss-teaches-the-art-of-negotiation?utm_source=Paid&utm_medium=AdWords&utm_campaign=CV&utm_content=Brand-{keyword}-G1_BM&utm_term=Aq-Prospecting&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjcfzBRCHARIsAO-1_OpFNVAhrU...

Not free, but not expensive. You can either just purchase his program only or get an all access pass to all the Master Class series for $20 a month.

Chris Voss has dealt with people in the most hostile situations that you can imagine. The way he approaches people is such an amazing system to get instant trust and making people think what you want is their idea.

Bitix24 lets your agents connect own email addresses. And it's free - https://www.bitrix24.com/about/blogs/smart-work/new-email-integration-options-for-bitrix24-crm.php

Insightly lets you email from different email addresses - https://www.insightly.com/product-news/get-more-control-when-sending-email-from-insightly-crm/

Customized Salesforce does that we well, but it's probably out of your budget.

There is such an easier way to do this. My company uses a mockup made in this site with screenshots: https://www.invisionapp.com/

It's totally free, and I can PM you a link to our demo mobile app if you want to see what the end result can look like with some TLC.

I started with TheOdinProject to learn JavaScript and then NodeJS. I supplemented this with lots of YouTube videos. Honestly, the quality of education I have received has exceeded my expectations.

The only course I paid for was Colt Steele's Algorithms and Data Structures course on Udemy. Total investment $10.99 and 100% worth it.

If you want to dip your toe in the water head over to r/learnprogramming

Best of luck!

I appreciate it. I will have to be sure he does. He helps run an architecture firm, but most of the clients are private real estate firms, rather than publicly traded REITs. But nonetheless, is something he should for sure do.

Question, any suggestions for doing the cold emails? Looking into cold email sequencing tools such as https://vocus.io/ which looks cheap and can connect to Hubspot

pinging /u/lap341 if you have a comment.

Thans a lot for your message.

Signing up for email from indeed or similar websites, only provides you with jobs in your inbox. What we do is that we take action. We send an email to the company that published the job with the candidates cv. The email is not delivered by our company. "You send the email". So using our automation tool the emails will be emails from you to the company for a specific job. The company will not be able to identify that the email comes from our software.

Regarding customization we work on this. Ideally we want each email to be customized by our software.

Are you a recruiter? It would be great if we could talk and discuss more on this. Feel free to select a timestamp to have a call: https://calendly.com/avgenakisg

Thanks a lot, George

Nothing is ever gained by starting the blame game. Just send him a simple email:

"Hey, We spoke at XYZ trade show, you said you had work for me and asked me to connect: Here's the link to my Calendly account, what time on Thursday would work for you?"

(You have a Calendly account, right?)

airtable is free depending on how many contacts you have. https://airtable.com/templates/professional/expvjTzYAZareV1pt/sales-crm

Have been using https://www.notion.so lately and great for moving the pipe through the various stages. Similar to sheets but better UI, can customize a crm/pipeline in about 5 mins and lots of templates which come in handy

And its free

Depending on the industry, product, and sales cycle, personalized emails work like a charm.

Get comfortable with video and use Vidyard. Also, our team landing huge accounts with ABM gifting (sendoso) and also sending branded personalized mailers (link).

Tell your next 5 hires that only 3 will remain after 90 days of competition. You will be hired for 100% of the pay of the job for 90 days.

After 90 days, the best 3 get a sign on bonus to stay, and the bottom 2 get moved to another role that they fit (if they do), or moved out.

That should test for the intangibles you seek.

You cannot predict results based on gut feel.

Read this if you think otherwise --> https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555

Mine is probably more of a perk of my location (southern US), but I wear these daily. They clean up well enough to wear with khakis, and are made for jeans.

Also comfortable.

Justin Men's Stampede Bolt Composite Toe Work Boot https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0874HHWDK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_14CC6C3RPE87AY4FXQX1

Haha, good answer.

I recommend the Sennheiser DW Pro 2. I always hook up my Reddit guys so don't worry about list price. Our website is down right now but here it is on Amazon.

It connects to your phone and your Surface at the same time. You toggle back and forth between computer mode and phone mode.

One thing to keep in mind. There are headsets for phone calls and there are headsets for music and gaming. Headsets that sound great for phone calls aren't fantastic audiophile music headsets and while you might think everyone sounds clear as a bell on voice coms when you play DOTA 2, those headsets suck for phone calls. And their microphone suck too. 100% of them. I hope to see thing change.

I have the DW Pro 2 and I am listening to Google Play Music because I don't feel like making calls today and "The Man" can suck it lol. It isn't great but it is HD stereo. And it is the highest quality sound telephone headset out there.

60 day free trial. Blah blah blah. PM me if you want to try it.

Thanks! Yes, it’s also on Amazon here: Portable Standing Desk Converter by Ghostand | Exclusive Two-Tier Durable Cardboard Ergonomic Design https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DD6DV3V/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_65ulDbXC7B27Y

Triangle Selling by Cory Bray and Hilmon Sorey

The methodologies (Gap, Challenger, etc) are all great, but they aren't SaaS-specific. Triangle Selling was designed for SaaS companies. Also, it's is full of micro-frameworks that can help with things like discovery, demos, getting through security, customer references and stories etc.

https://www.amazon.ca/Triangle-Selling-Sales-Fundamentals-Growth-ebook/dp/B07LGKYDNZ

Hey this seems to be a question made for me. I am going to jump in with some shameless self promotion. I have two apps on google play which could potentially help.

RoloCRM - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netmine.rolo.crm&hl=en_IN

This is not a CRM by itself but it connects to other CRMs and automatically logs calls and SMS messages. It does a lot more. Check out our promo video on Google Play. A quick nod to the other commenter. This works with Zoho, Hubspot and Freshsales now.

Rolo - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netmine.rolo A Standalone app that works like a personal CRM. Helps you track interactions with notes, reminders, SMS scheduler and such.

I am hoping that this sort of self-promotion is okay. Fingers Crossed.

The Advance Selling Podcast is really cool. They give pretty awesome tips on a well structured podcast. There is even an app as well => https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.caskeytraining.android.billcaskey01906

I can't speak specifically to software, but two books I've read previously when I was going down an entrepreneurial path that were extremely helpful for me are:

1. The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

2. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

See if you can find a synopsis online and if it resonates with you, check them out.

Out of curiosity, how did you get into this volunteer position and why?

Suggested audiobooks or books: The Charisma Myth, Made to Stick, The Challenger Sale, and of course, How to With Friends and influence people.

I would definitely know my way around an iPad presentation and if your goal is to close on the spot, use an app that creates a quote that they can sign while you've got them interested.

Great idea. I actually bought everyone on the Sales team "Think and Grow Rich" months ago.

Half of them just took it from the box I brought it in to just take it. No one read it. Oh well....proofs in the pudding.

The sales manager role will differ from company to company but you have to remember that as a sales manager your responsibility is to create a powerful sales team. There's a saying that great sales people don't always make great sales manager and the opposite is true as well. Recognizing that you're not just a glorified sales person is key.

You should be learning and training others to do sales. You should be learning, reading books on sales every week. If your company doesn't have weekly sales meetings start immediately. Have everything on dashboards so every person knows how well they're doing within the context of the team.

Traction by Gino Wickman is a good book about organizing a company and keeping it running. It may involve more than what you need but it's excellent for getting started. How to be a Great Boss by Jeffery Fox (not to be confused with the comedian of a similar name). How to Win Friends and Influence People is a given that you should read. I have piles of other books I'm planning on reading if you're interested.

Here's some direct advice. You must "touch" or reach out to a person 7 to 10 times before you'll get their business. Like at your current commerical accounts and we what industries they're even. Go wide in that industry. Network, network, network. Those whales are out there and you need to send them pies during Thanksgiving and Christmas, remember their birthdays, what their kids are doing, etc.

It's unlikely you'll be completely removed from actually selling but you should detach yourself as much as possible. You'll most likely have to jump in when people are sick, on vacation or you get a whale account you want to handle personally.

Hey there - I am currently training people in sales so have experience that can help you. There are many elements you could focus on that would benefit you significantly.

When I started out, I made a point of working as closely as I could with the top performers in the company. Don't sacrifice all your time, but spend some of it with the a-players and it rubs off. 3-6 months along and you'll notice improvements about the way you ask questions, the benefits of particular products and services that make sales and how to be a sales professional.

In my case (ICT sales coincidentally) I worked with the senior salespeople helping them do the tin sales (tin as in individual computers). They would then pick up the bigger sales. This meant I was building relationships both internally and externally, could ask them for favours and learned from them every day.

So in short - find people who are doing it well and emulate them. Till you know the system, the products and services and sales well enough to improve upon their ways. It'll have the greatest immediate impact on your sales.

In terms of learning I'd read Spin Selling, Selling to Win and Predictably Irrational as it'll help you realise that sometimes people don't follow the strictly 'logical' path and so we have to learn to adapt to real people and not expect them to fit our nice neat plans.

If you want specific recommendations for specific areas let me know and I'll try to provide advice and/or resources as there are a lot of good ones out there that can help you get started.

Way Too long. I'm on my annual reread of How To Win Friends and Influence People and I think there is a section that is relevant.

He talks about seeing things from the other person's point of view and articulating that. Moving away from what you obviously want to how you can help them solve their problems.

Dear {prospect} My name is {rep}and I am the Director of {geo Territory}for {mycompany}. I am responsible for accelerating the overall growth of our business and furthering {mycompany’s} leadership in the market. In looking at our largest customers, (Fortune 500A, Fortune 500B, etc), the one commonality between all of them is they began their {specific technology solution area} journey on a competitor’s platform and eventually recognized challenges associated with those platforms before switching to us.

'I', 'I' 'our, 'them', 'they', 'their', 'us'. With all of the above in the first few lines, you are going to lose anyone before they make it any further down to actually referencing the prospect and their situation.

• The Alchemist - Coehlo
• Extreme Ownership - Willink and Babin
• The 4 Hour Work Week - Ferris
• You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar - Sandler
• Sandler Guide to Prospecting - Russo
• The Games we Play - Berne
• I'm OK, You're OK - Harriss
• Just Listen - Goulston
• War of Art - Pressfield
• Sex at Dawn - Ryan
• Rich Dad Poor Dad - Kiyosaki
• Total Recall - Schwarzenegger
• The Thank You Economy - Vanerchuck
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Pirsig
• Lying - Sam Harris
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Covey
• Outliers - Gladwell
• Soft Tails and Hard Asses - Lanigan
• Think and Grow Rich - Hill
• The Obstacle Is The Way - Hill

 

That's off the top of my head.

LOVE book lists. Reading = Power. I also think that having a wide background (fiction, self help, industry/trade) of influences is extremely helpful, especially for the small things like rapport, and starting conversations, and who doesn't like a little random trivia here and there.

Never Eat Alone - Keith Ferrazzi (networking, events, moving up in life.

The Count of Monte Cristo- Alexandre Dumas (great story, shows what a determined person can do, and the power of education)

Washington: A Life- Ron Chernow: Washington was a badass, i've got pages of notes from reading this. He wasn't the smartest, best talking guy in the group (pretty hard to stand out amongst the founding fathers, eh?) and he was unanimously voted to be their leader. Too many takeaways to post, but everyone should read this.

I will teach you to be rich- Ramit Sethi ramit is the man, basic financial principles, great for starting a career or getting your finances back on track later on, his website is the bomb

seconded for Extreme Ownership, Obstacle is the Way, 4hr workweek, mastery, think and grow rich, spin selling, and how to win friends.

I find that applying stoic philosophy to sales is very helpful.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, letters from a stoic by Seneca, etc.

Basically allows you to recognize that bad/uncomfortable situations are going to happen, and not to let them bother you.

Regardless of his religion, the 10X Rule is a great book that can be eye opening for a lot of people. He has great sales material too but in terms of impact to my life Think and Grow Rich and The 10X Rule are the two most valuable books that I've read.

No problem. Let me preface this list by saying that this isn't an endorsement for any of these books. I'm sure the r/sales community will attest that some of these books are better than others. But I've gotten at least something from all of them.

Cold Calling Techniques (That Really Work) by Stephen Schiffman

The Complete Guide to Selling Yourself by Thomas Feeese

Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy

The Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitome

Spin Selling by Neil Rackman

Exceeding Customer Expectations: What Enterprise, America's #1 car rental company can teach you about creating lifetime customers. By Kirk Kazanjian

The Secrets of Question Based Selling by Thomas Freese

The Wedge by Randy Schwantz

It only takes 1% by Thomas Freese

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Just to name some. I'm looking at my book shelf right now and there's too many to list

I think its important to read a variety of books and genres - not just sales related ones. For example, I read a book last week called "Made to Stick" about crafting messages that can be processed, understood and remembered by your audience. Excellent for communicating better with prospects and cutting out jargon.

I also like to incorporate some fiction, history and Gladwell-esque sociology books too - I find these help round out my storytelling and conversation skills to improve my rapport with prospects. Sometimes your ability to connect outside the sale can make all the difference in the sale.

As for frequency, I make it a point to read for 2 hours daily, split between audiobooks, magazine/blog articles, and some reddit. Audiobooks are a lifesaver, letting me "read" while driving, shopping, cleaning, etc.

Let me know if you'd like any book recommendations :)

My undergraduate degree is in Political Science, and I spent the past two years working as an academic counselor at an online university. (Hardly a background in tech).

I got free tuition and decided to work on my second bachelor's in Comp Sci, and really just started diving into tutorials and books related to Java. Head First Java was a good starting point for me.

I start my first BDR position at a SaaS company on Monday. I'm like you in that I am a self-starter and I love to learn, so I spun my current work experience and interest in tech hard during my interviews.

A lot of smaller software companies will take you on as a BDR rep, and you can develop that knowledgebase you're looking for while getting sales experience. Additionally, maybe start taking some courses at a community college. My old man is a successful manufacturer's rep in the power utilities industry (power plants and substations) and makes bank, and he started with just an associates in electrical engineering.

From what it sounds like here, you might already be a good fit in VAR sales since you've built your own computer and have some programming experience.

2 books:

Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill (4th best selling book in history)

The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy

The first book will get your mind in the right state you need to sell. The Brian Tracy Book will focus that mindset on sales.

Since none of the real sales people have answered...

You have to learn as you go. And I don't think that taking some job selling plungers will help -- in your position you've got to find the prospects, somehow convince them to donate you some of their time, figure out from their perspective how the software that probably isn't even done yet might help solve their problems, and convince someone to sign up. Sale #1 will be a huge win, but so will Trial #1, Demo #1, even Informational Chat #1. Read The Lean Startup if you haven't already. Good luck!

Think and Grow Rich is one of the best. Everything in there helps you become a better salesman. You may not find it's directly related, but it is one of the best.

The main thing you have to ask yourself, is how you can be a better salesman for the product or company you want to sell. Research that in depth. Do you have an idea of what you want to sell, or are you simply planning on sales in general? Selling TV's will need to be closed on the spot. Selling a mortgage or house will need a longer sales cycle. Even more so for selling to enterprise businesses. These all have very different sales techniques.

If you want the basics, you can try the Sandler Sales method. They have a book out that is comprehensive if you have never done sales.

I recommend Jill Konrath's Selling to Big Companies. Great advice on how to focus exactly on the value you have to offer and not the product itself.

First of all confidence in what you are saying will resonate. So it's only 10 minutes, that is a small amount of time. So if you know the techniques you want to use, the REHEARSE until you know it perfectly and have it timed. Then record yourself and listen to your self. Since it is only 10 minutes you can rehearse it many times in just one hour. Professional presenters choreograph every move of their body, that level comes at the top, but seek it out in the beginning.
I Learned from this book: http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Sales-Presentations-Differentiators-Presentations/dp/1932908110/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424262280&sr=1-5&keywords=patrick+henry+Hansen My presentations are about 1 hour, in front of a group of strangers. You should be comfortable in a group of peers, but if you know none of them very well you might give yourself a 30 second introduction, maybe a minute, but not too long. In that introduction give them a reason to listen to you. Why should they listen to you? Because of your skill set, time worked, etc... Then just like a college paper, start with a intro, main body, and conclusion. Introduction tell then what you are going to tell them, then tell them in detail in the body of the presentation, the summarize for the conclusion.
DO tell them how much time you are going to use DO NOT go over the time you said, unless you ask permission. Any time spent beyond your initial time statement will be wasted, people have already checked out and know you went over. Those are some tips from me, I'd love to hear a follow up on how you did.
Don't hesitate to record yourself, you can learn so much from that. Video if you can, so you can see what you are doing with your hands and face and body.

I recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Power-Prospecting-Strategies-Teleprospecting-Networking/dp/1932908099/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424262656&sr=1-4&keywords=patrick+henry+Hansen It addresses Cold Calling fears right in the first 20 pages.
The fact is cold calling works, problem is it works ONLY with volumes of calls. If you have another way to fill your pipeline with leads, or get the data your boss wants by all means run the idea by him. But if you don't, then the only way to get it is to Cold Call.
NOTHING will impress your boss more than you being a cold calling mother fucker that just works like a machine. If you can actually get the information from their web site, I'm not sure why you are not doing this. I would in fact TIME myself getting the information from the web vs a standard cold call, and if the difference is faster then show your boss. Your boss might also be testing your mettle, and wants to see you perform. The pattern is similar across all lines of b2b and b2g sales: Sales Reps that cannot or will not cold call won't participate in ANY lead generation, they wait for leads to be handed off them, which frankly, won't fill your pipeline faster. If you have an extra 15 min a day at work and you PROSPECTED by cold calling and DID not get an additional sale out of it now and then the problem is actually you or your script. Use this opportunity to learn how to talk to gatekeepers. Change your script. Your script might not be ready EVER. 500 calls and you need to refine your script more and more. You might find you have many scripts for many situations.
The true Key (I'll paraphrase from the book referenced above) to mastering your fear of cold calling is simply CALL MORE. The more you call the better you get the less you fear. If you have some details as to what you are calling about, lets hear it, maybe it is the script you need help with?

I don't have any Apple products, so I cannot give it a try.

First impressions: Reminds me of an email app 'Notion Intelligent Email'

Things that aren't clear: Is it a contacts app with crm-esq features?

Does it access Linkedin, Calendar, Mail to determine relationship strength?

Will it have any automation features in the future?

Personally, I'd be interested if its a Contacts/ mail app with relationship info.

if you wanna be the warmest dork in Illinois I get this on amazon.

or turn work into a drinking game until you don't care if you're cold but can still hold a conversation.

https://www.amazon.com/COREEDGE-Heated-Detachable-Electric-Battery/dp/B0BHNTDVLM/ref=sr\_1\_1\_sspa?keywords=heated+coat&qid=1671301852&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyVEFKV01RM005SE9MJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDk4NTY...

Monster zero if I need caffeine but don’t want coffee

Have also been drinking green superfood powder (Amazing Grass Greens Blend... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00112ILZM?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) as a coffee alternative in the afternoons. Gives me a feeling of drinking a tea or coffee and also convinces me I’m being healthy.

There is always hope. - look at his LinkedIn - try to find out what makes them tick. Try to tailor messaging around that.

• include them in a Circle of Leverage email. Read this book. https://www.amazon.com/Power-Get-Leverage-Anyones-Effectively/dp/0312195222 ( have no affiliation to them)

• try to go higher in the org and CC them.

I would drop the summary part and as far as skills, do you have any experience with any CRM's or even microsoft office? You could probably do a few free trials of some software used by companies just to put on your resume and still be truthful. For example, I think zoho.com offers a free trial. At least have some familiarity with a tech stack...

I believe you can if you go into the actual data on Airtable here: https://airtable.com/shrqYt5kSqMzHV9R5/tbl8c8kanuNB6bPYr?backgroundColor=green&viewControls=on

Then filter into "company contains XYZ". Or cmd+f should work too.

I read High Trust Selling a few months back (ok book overall; a little dated). One tidbit I liked was rank your prospects and clients (Tier 1-3) based on likelihood to close and the annual value of the customer. Assign an annual expense budget to each tier and plan dinners, events, etc. Basically have a proper expense account.

Also, less accounts is more in relationship-based sales. You need more reps who cover less accounts to properly service them.

I can't speak to personal experience because I am an inside sales rep, but I believe the general consensus here is that a call and email together are highly recommended.

Also, I just bought this Book. I haven't read it yet, but I have seen many recommend it here. It may provide some good ideas on finding a solution that works for you.

Best of luck in the new role.

Yes. Actually there is a book by the same name. I own it.

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https://www.amazon.com/Successful-Selling-Introverts-Thomas-Murphy/dp/145154961X

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If you can shut up and listen to your prospect people trust you more.

I use Mail Merge. It's really convenient and you can personalize it to some extent with names/companies/etc... "Mail merge for Google Docs ™ - Google Workspace Marketplace" https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/mail_merge_for_google_docs/799434348782

Hey there,
Actually you have to try lots of them to see what suits you best, and maybe take some of each.

One path is using the right methodology, like Kanban.

If you like this subject as much as we do, check the article we wrote about, hope it will make you like it even more :)
https://zenkit.com/en/blog/kanban-explained-what-youve-always-wanted-to-know/

Read the book called "cold email manifesto" by Alex Berman, you will get to know everything you need to know about sending cold emails. I scrape email leads from Instagram using Instascrape.info , go through the list, carefully chose the list, and send personalized emails to just 1 person.

Target just 1 person, and ask them something like "Should I talk to you about X or your CEO", this triggers the ego of the person to respond if they're actually in charge of taking action if not they will probably guide you to the person who you should email.

You can retarget them but do it by replying to the previous email that you sent and reminding them about the previous email, if they still didn't reply, send a 3rd email saying you won't email them further and consider them uninterested in your product. The last is important, it says to the client you're not another spammer and they're genuinely missing out on an opportunity.

I find the script from this book to be pretty effective:

https://www.amazon.com/Start-Negotiating-Tools-that-Pros/dp/0609608002

Basically start with giving the prospect an out - they can end the conversation at any time without hurting your feelings. Puts them more at ease.

It's a pretty useful sales methodology. It's not the only thing out there but could definitely be useful for folks working more complicated sales with teams of buyers.

https://www.amazon.com/Challenger-Sale-Control-Customer-Conversation/dp/1591844355

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https://culturedcode.com/things/

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It's based on "GTD."

Getting Things Done.

Google the book.

Does wonders for taking back control.

I am having a ton of success with it. I've setup a couple of tactics where I'm using Spotlight Searches on Sales Navigator to find trigger moments.

Here's an example of the Airtable I made with some of this content.

Some suggestions here on Zapier https://zapier.com/blog/best-business-card-scanner-software/ I have only used camcard on this list and it works just fine. Not to the degree you want, I think.

Hey, I built a product prototype that might solve this. Would you be down to test it out and provide feedback.? If you're interested, you can get in touch HERE and I thank you for your help!

I've had luck with finding a methodology and running with it. I'm currently doing a modified version of "Getting Things Done" https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280

My last sales manager used it and did way more than I thought a person could do, and seemed VERY on top of everything.

I’ve taken this in the past, seemed beneficial Genius Consciousness - Super Nootropic Brain Booster Supplement - Enhance Focus, Boost Concentration & Improve Memory | Mind Enhancement with Alpha GPC & Lions Mane Mushroom for Neuro Energy & IQ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08PN1QFB9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_7WMA7JS46EBY30HBC6YJ

Go For No! and I do recommend the book - the audiobook is the cheaper option. While the focus of the story might not directly relate to your type of sales, the principal is the same regardless of the type or industry.

the short version is people tend to look for and stop and 'yes' when instead they should 'go for no'!