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Wave #10: AEs Post Sales, VP of Sales Enablement, The A+ Generalist

by Andrew Mewborn

Hey, you look great today.

We are in the double digits with Wave #10 of Revenue Surfing.

Two things:

  1. If you like what you read, respond to this email and let me know why :)

  2. I held my breath underwater for 3.5 minutes this weekend. Ask me how.

Now, for standard programming.

🌊 SET #1

The Laws of Enterprise AEs, Post-Sales

Read 360 words below

👉 Law #1

We ought to ourselves accountable in demonstrating value to our accounts, consistently.

If a CFO of your customer came and asked, "What value has Outreach provided in the past 6-12 months?"

The goal should be to answer this question for your prospect within a business day. If you can't do so without having to get a large project team to find quantifiable data, that's no bueno. Get back to the drawing board.

Big picture: We need to find methods of demonstrating value consistently. Proactively. Not only when a customer asks at renewal. Those that can provide clarity around value will win the expansions.

👉 Law #2

Align with your Implementation and Success team early.

The deal isn't done once the contract is signed.

Let's say you promised an increase in 69% of opportunities generated.

Does your implementation team have a way to build a report that shows if you are on track for a 69% increase in opportunities generated at any point?

If no, chances are you are going to have a tough renewal coming up in 1 or 2 years.

Big picture: ensure you can quantify the value of your product against what you promised in the pre-sale process. Work with your implementation team to set this up in initial implementation.

👉 Law #3

Seek information. Always.

Too often, we account executives only get involved in the post-sale process when we see an expansion opportunity.

Prospects can smell that from a mile away.

Instead, we should be seeking to align with CS throughout the post-sales journey.

Why? Here are a few reasons:

1) Each conversation had post-sale is more information that can be utilized to create momentum for expansion. "Knowledge is Power" right?!

2) CS sets up Quarterly/Semi-annual business reviews. You have execs in the room. Remember how hard you fought to get execs in the room before they were a customer?

3) Customers need an optimization plan post-sales. Workflows set up in initial implementation won't last forever. As your organization is always changing, so is your customer's organization. What you prescribed 1 year ago may not work today. Know this and your team can sell more services!

🌊 SET #2

If I became VP of Sales Enablement today, here's what I'd do for ramping AEs

Read 132 words below

1) Align new reps to top reps at the company. Offer 30% of commissions to the top rep for the ramp period.

2) Have new reps study past mutual action plans, not only your linear sales process. What are the common patterns amongst closed-won deals?

3) The high-5 rule. Enable them with at least 5 customer stories based on the most common use cases.

4) The low-5 rule. Enable them with at least 5 customer stories based on the most common reasons for Churn.

5) Encourage them to use the product themselves for the first month. Let them get in the mind of the user and understand use cases.

6) Show what ideal relationships between AEs, CSMs, SDRs, and CEMs look like.

7) Extra credit ➡️ Have them take an improv class.

🌊 SET #3

Hire the A+ generalist

Read 136 words below

In our second year at Outreach, we were starting to scale big-time. I'd sit in three to five interviews per week, and I learned a lot about hiring for a startup.

Looking back at many of the employees that did well, they all had a "get it done" attitude. Nothing was impossible. To this day, these are the questions that guide what I look for in non-engineering hires.

  • Do they have the motivation to tackle anything thrown at them?

  • Can they bring others up with them?

  • When others around them succeed, do they get jealous or are happy for them?

  • Can they take a simple concept and execute on it?

What doesn't matter is where they went to school, their major, their total years of experience, or their previous company. The A+ generalist will always win.

This newsletter was created with 💙 by Andrew Mewborn, a solution seller, SaaS enthusiast, and creator of getlimelite.com. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

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