#RevenueSummit2018: What’s coming around the corner for Sales Leaders
A couple of weeks ago, I boarded my 5:30am flight to San Francisco just to make sure I’d make it in time for the #RevenueSummit2018 keynote from Jacco van der Kooij and Rob Jeppsen… and man, was it worth it.
Jacco and Rob kicked off the rainy Thursday by waking the audience up with a simple message:
1. The way you’re leading your sales team today won’t work in 2020.
Here’s the new world you need to prepare yourself for if you want to be a Sales Leader in 2020… and still have a sales team to lead:
Several months ago, I saw Jacco and Rob’s earlier version of the talk at Dreamforce, and the same core idea stuck with me ever since:
As Sales people, our mission is to develop better communicators.
Communication may be the biggest problem on the planet, and we’re the ones who are here to fix it. Now you just have to train your teams accordingly.
But your “sales team” is broader than your SDRs and AEs. Sometimes your best sales “person” can be your product, as MixMax CEO Olof Mathe shared in his next talk.
2. Design a Product that makes Sales easy
In “How to Build a Viral Marketing Funnel: 10X your Leads for Free,” Olof shared some of the product design secrets the MixMax team has tried out, and how they’ve worked.
He talked through the five key levers of product virality:
- Network Virality: a product that is more valuable as it spreads inter-company (LinkedIn) or intra-company (Slack)
- Value Virality: provide “second-hand” value to your user’s users (DocuSign)
- Exposure Virality: Show-off factor (Airbnb, Instagram)
- Invites and Referrals: Give X, Get X (Gusto)
- Word of Mouth: Brand or content marketing
In the afternoon, I tried out my MC skills on the Tactical Stage to introduce more stellar content, including a panel led by Dominique Levin from Winning by Design joined by Jennifer Brandenburg of ServiceMax, Chris Donato of DXC Technology, and Sean Kester of SalesLoft. The key lesson:
3. “What you measure is what they’ll do”
As sales shifts from art to science, and data sources abound, your decision about what to measure (and how) may be the single most important thing you can do for your sales culture.
From there, Ralph Barsi’s session on “How to Prospect with the Basics” offered another highlight:
4. Prospecting = Determination, Adding Value, and Hard Work
In Ralph’s high energy talk, he addressed three key elements of Prospecting, and what it takes to make it happen.
In this age of automation, it’s easy to want to put your selling on autopilot… but that’s not how work gets done, because sales is about relationships, and relationships aren’t built on autopilot.
Overall, the SalesHacker community pulled us all together for a must-attend event and reminded us that while LinkedIn and Zoom meetings are powerful, there’s no substitute for being together in person.
Thanks for bringing us together Sales Hacker and can’t wait to see you all again next year!
About the Author: Alli McKee is the CEO and Founder of Stick.ai, a visual communication platform automating design, starting with a visual presentation generator for B2B sales and marketing teams.