What makes a great rep?

Recently I was asked by our team, “how do sales people make themselves memorable?”?Below are some insights from my experience as a GTM leader/buyer and from some great suggestions on LinkedIn. This is by no means comprehensive and doesn't focus on the classical sales training side. It is just a list of behaviors that make an impact!

Outbound Communication

Before you get on the phone with someone, here are some great ways to engage them:

• Engage with prospect's content: ?Follow your target accounts and the individuals at those accounts on LinkedIn.?When they post something insightful, comment on it. That alone often gets you on their radar.
• Mention something personal in your outreach:?Don’t just sequence someone but instead customize it with something personal (i.e. mentioning a LinkedIn post, Tweet recent fundraise…)
• Learn about your top prospects:?If you can learn about their hobbies, passions from their social stream, it is a powerful way to engage them.???
• Direct mail:?A way to break through the noise is to send an impactful gift to a prospect.?I love the impact of Sendoso - some of my favorite gifts received include a book around one of my hobbies (gifts don’t need to be expensive, just thoughtful) and a fleece (I wear their brand all the time).?Gifts that aren’t impactful are tchotchkes, mugs… that i just throw away.
• DO personalize your LinkedIn invite: One of my all-time pet peeves is when people I don't know send LinkedIn invites with no comment. If I don't know you I am not going to add you to my network. But I always welcome a thoughtful note. I don't accept as a rule until we have spoken but without a note, I'm not going to accept.
• Leverage technology to personalize: ?The little personal touches don’t take much time and you can create more time by using tools to make yourself more efficient.?A few I have used or heard about from others include text expanders, spectacle, and scratchpad.
• Polite persistence: ?The best reps respect your time but are persistent.?It is one of the key skills to winning at outbound!??

During the sales process

Once you have engaged prospects/customers, don’t just shift into your standard pitch but make sure to personally engage them.

• Be prepared: Anything that shows you have done research or prepared is impactful.?For example:?

“I was looking at your open positions and see you are hiring ….”

• Make yourself memorable:?Don’t be ordinary.?Have fun and be yourself.??
• Never miss an opportunity to increase engagement:?When reps don’t turn on their camera on a zoom call it kills me.?Face-to-face communication whether in person or via zoom is invaluable!?And… take the time to make sure the camera is well setup and your face is clearly visible.?Don’t worry if you have a mess behind you, it is your visual engagement that matters.
• Get to know them: ?Connect on a personal level.?Get to know what is going on in their lives and vice versa.?I find it is better to share a personal detail about yourself vs. asking about the prospect first - they may not know you well enough to share yet but by being vulnerable you can start a relationship.?Take great notes to remember. Have a system to leverage these insights?
• Long pauses: ?Just like they teach you in public speaking, long pauses, while they may feel awkward, do engage people.?Use them sparingly
• Ask great questions: ?How can you help them find the right solution if you don’t understand their business.?People that ask me challenging, insightful questions engage me deeply
• Two-in-the-box: ?Don’t be a lone-wolf.?Leverage your sales engineering / sales manager to bring another party to the call/meeting and both demonstrate the importance of the conversation and bring additional insights.
• Think of the customer/prospect first:?You aren’t just selling but you are helping them find the right solution.?Be willing to say when you are not the right solution or give considerations as to why you wouldn't buy as opposed to why you would.
• Be humble: ?There is no shame in saying “Great question, I actually do not know that off the top of my head but I will ask my product specialist and get back to you”
• Book the next call: ?When you discuss next steps, don’t schedule the next call over email, book it while you are talking to the customer
• Great follow-up: ?Follow-up with an email after every meeting, summarizing key actions and next steps.
• Don't stop at Closed Won: Continue to reach out, engage, etc after the closed won handoff. Keep that relationship alive forever. People switch jobs often and great relationships with prospects often drive referrals.