# Sales Advisory

Frederik Groce

December 31, 2016

1 min read

_The following is an advisory we sent to all of the Storm portfolio companies just before the new year. It was written by_ [_Jacco van der Kooij._](https://medium.com/u/a00662111426?source=post_page-----9613e3aa7d1--------------------------------)

To portfolio CEOs/VPS of Storm,

What is prompting this sales advisory is an accelerated decline in performance of inside sales teams that use outbound call and email sequencing.

I am seeing a significant increase in number of companies missing their sales targets, not to mention that the gap with which they are missing their targets is growing.

## **Metrics to self-diagnose:**

- Number of SQLs/SDR/month dropping below 14 SQLs/SDR/month we have seen as low as 5 SQLs/SDR/month.
- SQL to Win ratio dropping below 1:4 — we see as low as 1:10

## **The following actions are commonplace but can be counter productive:**

- Constant firing and hiring of individual performers
- Relocation of sales teams to areas with lower wages
- Activity driven quota increases such as phone calls, talk time, emails sent, disco/demo meetings held, proposals submitted etc.

## **Root cause:**

- **SDRS:** Using outdated prospecting processes
- Industry wide use of tools that enable mass-personalized outbound (by phone or email) without education on how to use those tools. We now see companies touching clients as much as 20 times over 2 weeks (that’s bad!)
- Use of “Predictable Revenue” as a model — in particular this approach mistakes email personalization with being relevant to a prospect.
- **AE’s:** Unable to properly execute sales calls
- Executing calls without structure
- Not asking for follow-up
- Not knowing what to do when clients “go dark”

**In addition:**

- LinkedIn is changing its policies this will impact EVERY sales organization
- Many sales organization are dependent on LinkedIn
- LinkedIn is going to curb the free use of its service for sales
- LinkedIn will (re)launch sales navigator at a lower price point
- All your customer facing staff is likely going to need a paid license to do their job

# **Recommendation**

_Keep doing this:_

- Word of Mouth — continues to be the most effective and efficient way of doing business
- Events — focus on small / localized events with 30'ish attendees mixing customers and prospects
- Content — Lead with your insights, consider fewer more detailed/sophisticated articles over clickbait

_Consider increased focus on this:_

- Persistently record sales calls
- Establish sales call review with the entire sales team present — picking 1 call/day or worst case/week
- The use of these recorded sales calls + recorded review calls to train new team members
- Invest in programs that enable your current customers to become your evangelist
- Leverage influencers
- Target new accounts that are identified to be relevant in relationship to recent new customers (a concept known as sprints)
- Leverage Account Based Prospecting techniques where you address multiple people in a targeted organization with insights, use your inside sales organizations to gather intelligence to make them more relevant
- Use your insights (in the form of content) as the cold outbound call — then follow-up with those who engage in a super relevant way
- Become a thought leader with more PODcasts, Blog posts etc.

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