Sales 101 for new CEOs

How to Sell

1. Use real problems your product solves to qualify a prospect as early as possible
2. Stay within your Target Market so you’re not wasting time chasing different markets at the same time
3. Convince each decision-maker based on what they personally care about (what is tough about their job)
4. Build a list (from lead scraping, list vendors, associations, events, etc)
5. Target Audience + Personalize Messaging + Right Timing + Correct Channel = Sales
6. The more you know about your buyer the more likely you’ll know which channel to use
7. Use cold Calling, Emailing, and Social Media
8. Bucket your leads! (i.e. Hubspot: uncontacted, working, priority, scheduled)
9. Use technology to make your life easier: CRM (helps with integrations and reports) + Lead Sources (affiliates, press, outbound) + Contact tools (phone, email, reminders)
10. Here is an example, if your quota is 3 sales per month: 2.5% close rate = present to 12 prospects, 81% meeting hold rate = schedule 15 prospects, 68% meeting schedule rate = speak to 150 prospects, 32% dial/email reply rate = reach 3000 prospects once (or 600 prospects, 5 times each). Based on the above conversion rates you would need to do 3000 touches per month = 750 touches per week = 150 touches per day. (Yes, I know that’s a lot. I am trying to make a point here.) If you do not know your conversion rates, use an industry-standard as an outline until you get real conversion rates. It should be a constant iteration. You can’t improve if you do not know where you currently stand.

Lessons Learned

1. Nobody cares about your product (solve a problem they have or go away).
2. Stay in your swimlane (don’t try to be all things to all companies).
3. Target companies, but sell to people (find what each person cares about).
4. Find out where your buyers hang out and use that to build (or verify) a list.
5. All communication channels are useful with some prospects some of the time.
6. Outbound requires an intrusion of some sort, but if your intrusion solves a problem, all is forgiven.
7. Cold calling, while unattractive to many, yields the greatest learning. The skill of adapting to prospects in live conversation is one of the most important skills in order to advance your career.
8. Put leads into buckets in order to be the most efficient.
9. Technology can help you, not save you, so use it to slowly help you automate processes.
10. How much prospecting do I have to do? However much it takes to hit your quota.
    

​For more lessons learned, add me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troybillett/
To learn more about social founders, visit my site: http://www.troybillett.com/


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