The former top AE at Salesforce has some advice

Published: Wed, 10/25/23

October 25, 2023

TOGETHER WITH

Welcome back. We’re now entering spooky season, where ghosts and ghouls haunt our dreams (or should we say nightmares)?! And no, we’re not talking about Halloween, we’re talking about the nine weeks we have left till the end of Q4 (insert blood-curdling-scream here). For now, let’s avoid the scaries with this week’s issue of The Quota. Enjoy.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

Sales reps who follow up within 24 hours of their initial outreach get an average 25% response rate.

Source: Yesware

SALES ROUNDUP

Here’s what’s happening in the sales world this week:

Trudy Toche has been crowned Mary Kay Cosmetics Top Salesperson of the Year. To put that in context, Mary Kay has 2.5 million (!!!) consultants (this is what it calls its salespeople). Toche said she wanted to set an example for her two teen sons, saying she wanted them to see their mom “do something big.” Safe to say, mission accomplished. You can read more about Trudy’s feat here.
In another sales-related tragedy, a customer reportedly shot and killed an employee at a family-owned car dealership in Texas on Monday, October 16. The Houston Police Department told ABC13 the shooting occurred after an argument over pricing. Police said the employee shot was the adult son of the dealership's owner. You can read the full report here.

FEATURE

An interview with Ian Koniak, the former #1 AE at Salesforce and our preferred sales training partner

If you’re active on LinkedIn, then you’ve probably seen Ian Koniak’s posts before. Ian is a sales coach who was, at one point, the #1 AE at Salesforce. Along with his unabashed honesty, this is why we like Ian so much: he’s already done what he’s teaching others to do. This is why we’re announcing that Ian is The Quota’s preferred sales coaching partner. We wanted to work with somebody we believe in, and Ian is that guy. In the interview below, you can learn more about Ian and why we’ve chosen to work with him.

At Salesforce, you earned the distinction of becoming the #1 Enterprise AE and you’ve sold over $100M in your career. What inspired you to make the jump into a sales coaching business? Tell us about the “moment” (if there was one) where you decided to go for it.

I had a near death experience getting stuck upside down on a rollercoaster. I thought I was going to die. It was really a wake-up-call for me.

I thought that if I had died, I would die with all this knowledge that could really help people. I felt that I had a way to help people but I had been selfish in not sharing it. That day, I made a transition plan for myself, and two years later, I was running my own business. I started doing a few speaking engagements, and eventually people started reaching out to me and asking if I could help them directly.

They were looking for someone to hold them accountable and to teach them. That’s when I decided to make the jump into the coaching business. Never in a million years did I think that I would actually be making more money with my own coaching business than I would when I was at Salesforce. But I’ve been able to get the best of both worlds: I’ve been able to make my job into something that’s more fulfilling and is more lucrative than corporate sales.

What’s the most important thing salespeople should consider when deciding on hiring a sales coach?

First and foremost, has the person done the job that you want to do at the highest level? Credibility through actual performance is important. You wouldn’t hire a fitness personal trainer that is obese. You want to make sure that they’ve executed at the level that you want to get to. If you’re selling software and want to make $1M a year, find a coach who has made $1M a year selling software.

Second, look at client success. What are the clients saying? Look at testimonials. Talk to a few of them to get an understanding of how it helped them and if it would be a good fit for you.

Third, look at the domain expertise. When I was in addiction recovery, I had a therapist and a sponsor who specialized in the specific problem I was going through. When I wanted to start my own business, I hired Brand Builders Group which helps domain experts start their own business. Find the right coach with the domain expertise in the specific thing you need help with.

Get honest with yourself, identify which areas you need help with, and find the right coach with the domain expertise to help you.

Your coaching focuses a lot on building habits and the right mindset. What have you found are the habits that make a salesperson successful?

For mindset, it’s constantly having clarity about what you want. Top performers are always setting goals, and resetting their goals to stay extremely motivated. Once you lose that fire in your belly, everything falls apart. You need to be intentional about what you want to accomplish.

Top-performers have a humble mindset. Once you think you know everything and have all the answers, your results will go down. Top-performers are always open to learning and have a form of mentorship along the way to help guide them — to do this, you need to have the mindset of humility and of always learning and growing.

The habit of time management and valuing your time is the most important for top performers. Saying no to low value activity and saying yes to high value revenue generating activities (RGAs). The best salespeople know where to spend their time and spend it on the activities most likely to have the highest impact on their bottom line. Focus on the best customer opportunities and say no to unqualified prospects that waste your time.

It’s one thing to put in maximum effort for a few days or weeks at a time. But most reps struggle with consistency. What can sales reps do to ensure they’re performing consistently rather than just working in spurts?

It’s something I used to do myself a bit. I would work really hard at the end of the month when I needed to hit quota, and then take my foot off the gas a bit when there was less pressure.

Consistency is important. A lot of people feel guilty when they aren’t consistent. Not because of the results they get, but because of their actual effort. When we’re not trying our best, we feel guilty, we feel like we wasted the day. If we say we’re going to do something and we don’t do it, we feel like an imposter.

Check yourself, and see how you feel at the end of the day. Did you set goals and execute against them? If you did, you’ll feel good. If you didn't, you'll probably feel bad about yourself.

Set the goals, and put in the EFFORT every day. You’ll feel better about yourself. Work a full day on the right things, manage your time, and be consistent. Success is the peace of mind that comes from knowing we did our best to become the best we are capable of becoming.

If you’re not consistent, you won’t have peace of mind. Show up every day and be consistent, you’ll feel better about yourself and the results will follow.

Ready to take your earnings to the next level? We’re offering The Quota subscribers free video training with Ian.

BUYERS WANT YOU TO "SHOW" NOT "TELL"

These days, buyers expect a “Show, don't tell” experience. Long discovery calls with boring feature descriptions don’t address customer pain points and put prospects to sleep.

Today’s buyers want to do their own research, try out the product, and see it in action for themselves with interactive product demos.

Storylane lets sales teams quickly create personalized demos (in less than 10 minutes) and are the only no-code platform that scales across your organization.

If you’re a sales rep or sales leader who wants to impress prospects, shorten sales cycles, and close more deals, try Storylane free!

Try Storylane for free!

MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram -- Sales Humor

LOOKING FOR A NEW ROLE?

Stuck with unrealistic quotas? A micromanaging sales manager?Microwaved fish in the break room?!

If you're looking to make a change, our friends at Cox Business are hiring! Cox offers:

Competitive salary plus top-notch bonus & incentive plans
Full benefits (including healthcare from day one)
Extra perks (like free home internet, cable and smart home automation)
Career advancement and professional development

Browse open sales roles from entry-level to leadership positions here.

Browse open roles!

QUIZ

What are the average ages of male and female sales representatives in the U.S.?

A. 28.9 and 27.7 years old
B. 44 and 47.2 years old
C. 42.4 and 40.5 years old
D. 39.1 and 36.4 years old

SALES FAILS

Each week, we bring you the most cringe-worthy sales moments from across the web. To submit your sales fail story for consideration, click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

A long time ago (about 17 years) I was working in sales for a big company in the Northeast. Our commissions were paid on tiers, so you made more per deal if you hit the higher tiers than you would on lower tiers, which created all sorts of incentives to do anything possible to get to the higher tier.

One of the things employees would do is transfer deals into each other’s names if they weren’t going to hit the higher tier, so that they could help each other up and make more money. Transferring a deal would help the coworker hit the higher tier and bump up their pay, and then the person would just pay the sales rep whose deal it was out of their paycheck. This was going on for quite a while when I started.

Well, one day, on payday, there were two coworkers who had arranged such a deal. This was way before Venmo, so usually when one person paid the other one out, it would be in cash. This was the first time these two had made this arrangement together.

When the guy whose name the deals were under paid the other guy, the second guy got upset. He felt that he should be paid the full gross amount of what he would have made, instead of the net (after taxes). The first guy said no way, because the taxes had already been taken out of his paycheck. It started as a small argument, but eventually, they started shouting at each other and almost came to blows. Other people had to hold them back.

The manager sent them both home and wrote them up. A week later, the whole sales department (which was scattered across the country) got an email from upper management warning them that switching deals into other people’s names was illegal and that anyone caught doing it would be fired immediately. The funny thing was that these two never got fired for it. But they did stop doing it and none of us ever put deals into other people’s names again.

Anonymous Location withheld

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- October 2023

WORTH A PEEK

What do you do when a prospect gets aggressive? Do you meet them where they are, or do you try to de-escalate the situation as if you’ve just come face-to-face with an angry bear? Close.com has a good article on dealing with hostile and aggressive prospects (without having to use bear spray). Check it out here.

ASK THE QUOTA

Want to submit a question and be featured in our advice column? Click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

Dear Quota Team

I'm wondering if you have any advice for me. I currently have what I consider to be a pretty good sales job. It’s about 30% account management, 70% sales. I have a solid base salary and good benefits. I’ve been here for close to four years and (until recently) had no intention of leaving.

About a year ago, a friend of mine from college left his product management role at a big tech company to work on his own startup. He has a partner who is a developer and they have a product that’s out of beta and already has a few paying customers. They have self-funded this venture and have raised close to $700k from friends and family. They are in advanced talks with angel investors to raise a million dollars in funding which should be closing within the next few weeks.

My friend reached out to me and asked me to leave my job and come lead sales at his startup. I would be the only sales rep to start but would get the opportunity to build out a sales team as we raise money and get more customers. This would involve a pretty massive pay cut for me, but I would get stock options (up to 3% of the company after 4 years of vesting), and would get to have control over the company’s sales.

Like I said, I had no intention of leaving my employer until my friend reached out. I know there’s a risk, but the upside seems almost uncapped, especially if this company turns out to be a unicorn. I don’t have any kids although I do have a mortgage, but I have enough of a nest egg where I could survive on the proposed income for a year or two. Do you have any advice as to what I should do? I don’t want to miss out on a huge opportunity.

Conflicted in New York

Dear Conflicted,

If you want to take the job, take it for the right reasons. There’s no place you can have as much of an immediate impact as you can at a startup, so if you’re looking to learn as much as possible, and gain invaluable experience, then you should consider making the jump. Just be ready for a level of stress and chaos you’ve probably never experienced before.

But you should also go into it with your eyes open. The overwhelming majority of startups fail, very few IPO, and many of those that sell leave their employees with very little (or nothing) after investor liquidation preferences and the like. In this way, stock options at an early-stage company are like a scratch ticket — you could hit big, but it’s more likely that you won’t.

Our advice is to think about what’s important to you. If it’s income and comfort, then stay where you are. But if you’re looking to jump into the fast lane, take a risk, learn a ton, and possibly get your heart broken, then join the startup. Just be sure you’re ready for what’s likely to come. Good luck!

Quiz Answer: C. 42.4 and 40.5 years old — (you can read the source article here)

SHARE THE QUOTA

Help us grow, and we'll send you a reward!

{% if subscriber.custom_field['RH_REFLINK'] != '' %}

Share The Quota, get cool stuff!

Know a salesperson who’d love The Quota? Give them your unique referral link (below), and we’ll give you some awesome rewards when they subscribe.

facebook

twitter

PS: You have referred people so far

{% endif %}

How did you like today's story?

Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik, Erica Furgiuele, Steve Rado, and Emily Hill.

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Looking for a new gig or to hire for your sales team? Check out our jobs board — powered by RepVue.

Advertise with us

Books

QUOTA MEDIA LLC

651 N. Broad Street., Suite 206
Middletown DELAWARE (DE) 19709
USA

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options