I was digging through Evernote earlier this week and stumbled across a file titled: Killer DF12 Sessions for Sales.

I vaguely remember creating it after Dreamforce 2012 and decided to take a look at a few of the videos I'd clipped. I’m so glad I did!

Out of the dozens of sales cloud sessions now on youtube, I want to share 3 quick clips that deliver three major ideas.

#1 - Coach to Move the Needle

Mark Roberge, HubSpot’s VP of Sales, shares a bit about how he develops leaders and reps in his 250 person sales org.

To set up the clip, Mark is talking about his team of 20 (mostly 1^st-time Managers). He lays out the case that one thing newly promoted Sales Managers tend to get wrong is trying to coach too many things at once.

The big takeaway for me is that rep development doesn’t happen by serendipity. Many sales organizations have a coaching 'strategy' in place, but as the saying goes, culture eats strategy for breakfast.

I saw this question on LinkedIn the other day:

I was immediately reminded of something I saw from Chris Corcoran, Cofounder of memoryBlue. Chris was kind enough to let me repost the following:
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Recruiting, motivating & retaining great Reps is a critical component of any Inside Sales strategy. One thing that has largely been absent in the process is feedback from the Reps themselves.

With that in mind, I am very excited to announce the launch of a new research project with our good friends at Vorsight:
Inside Sales Motivation Research Survey.

We are asking Inside Reps (& reps only) to share 3-minutes on a web survey about what motivates them professionally and how their current role is stacking up. In exchange, participants will be entered into a drawing where one winner will receive an Apple iPad2 and another a Kindle Fire. For the full who, what, where & how please see this.

 
Prospecting, prospecting, prospecting… no matter how much we want our “A-players” focused on closing business, building pipeline is still an integral part of any successful sales strategy.

Many Reps equate prospecting with the dreaded cold-calling. Some feel that their tenure has elevated them above the prospecting fray.

Probably more importantly, bells aren’t wrung & club isn’t often achieved for prospecting prowess. It’s no wonder Reps shirk, skirt or under-power their prospecting efforts.
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It is up to us, the Inside Sales Leaders, to address this. Reps need to understand that prospecting is a process; not an event. The once-per-week call blitz is not sufficient. Successful prospecting requires a daily process, a good attitude, and the right tools to be successful.

When you think of prospecting, think of a Swiss Army Knife: