“Think before you speak. Read before you think.” – Fran Lebowitz

Every great leader is constantly striving to improve and be a thought leader in their industry. To be a truly effective leader, you must also be an effective learner. Reading about others in your industry and their experiences will not only help you be aware of the current happenings going on but it will also help you develop the ability to learn, adapt, and grow. 

The problem is: what reading will benefit you the most? There are countless books out there on any and every topic. As a seasoned leader in the sales industry, we’ve put together a list of the top 10 books we believe every sales leader should read. Learn how to be a better sales manager, an effective leader, and get results with some advice from sales experts. Here are 10 books to add to your summer reading list:

1. Nuts and Bolts of Sales Management: How to Build a High-Velocity Sales Organization by John R Treace  

Focus on processes and implement actions that will ensure your sales team’s success—Nuts and Bolts of Sales Management gets down to the nitty-gritty of sales management with specific examples to help you manage by example and set a pace for your team. 

2. Leading Without Authority by Keith Ferrazzi

Keith Ferrazzi, founder and CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight, developed a formula for success that provides market leaders with tactics for consulting, training, networking, and marketing. 

3. Sales Management. Simplified: The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results from Your Sales Team by Mike Weinberg

Determine where your sales organization is falling short and how to resolve the issue.  These issues are often not with the team, but the management of the team. Learn how to lead in a way that will ensure better results.

4. Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com by Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler

Read up on a new sales system that helped add $100 million in recurring revenue to Salesforce.com. Meet your financial goals, create predictable revenue, and enable your team to generate more qualified leads than ever.  

5. Unstoppable Teams: The Four essential Actions of High-Performance Leadership by Alden Mills

Alden Mills is a 3x Navy SEAL platoon commander and founder of Perfect Fitness—he uses his vast experience to teach readers how to create an unstoppable team. Mills goes into caring about your teammates and determining what drives them in order to effectively lead them. 

6. The Accidental Sales Manager: How to Take Control and Lead Your Sales Team to Record Profits by Chris Lytle

Learn how to develop the key skills all sales managers need from the president of Sparque, Inc, Chris Lytle. If you’re a salesperson looking to become a sales manager, this book will help you to develop the right skills to get there.

7. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

Develop habits that will make you more productive and successful in every aspect of your life. Small and consistent actions can make the difference between failure and success. The Power of Habit teaches you how to transform your business and your life by implementing effective habits that actually stick. 

8. Inbound Selling: How to Change the Way You Sell to Match How People Buy by Brian Signorelli 

Keep up with the consistent changes of B2B Sales and get ahead in the game of inbound selling. Buyer behavior has changed in recent years as we’ve entered the age of convenience—learn what this means for your team and how you can adapt to change. 

9. The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy

Quickly increase your sales and revenue with advice from Brian Tracy, who has coached and consulted more than 1,000 companies worldwide. Get down to the psychology of your buyer to better understand their behavior and habits. 

10. New Sales. Simplified.: The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development by Mike Weinberg

In New Sales. Simplified., sales expert, Mike Weinberg shares examples and anecdotes from his years of experience. This book—named one of HubSpot’s Top 20 Sales book of All Time—will help you proactively use a strategic list of tactics to develop your business.

What is mindset? Let’s take a look at how the right mindsets and behaviors affect adult learning and sales conversations.

In this article:

1. Rethinking Sales Conversations, Training, and Coaching Sessions
2. About My Guest — John Reid: President of JMReid Group
3. Models and the Right Mindset: The Baby Picture Phenomenon
4. Writing and Teaching: A Common Mistake in Coaching
5. Learning and Teaching Sales Models
6. Having The Right Mindset When Teaching: Psychology of Success
7. The Right Mindset for Success in Sales
   1. Out-Understand, Not Out-Persuade
   2. Time Is Valuable
   3. Have a Sales Call Objective

Success Mindset | A New Take on Training and Adult Learning

Rethinking Sales Conversations, Training, and Coaching Sessions

Hi, I’m Gabe Larsen, and today we’ll be talking about a different approach to training, coaching, sales conversations, adult learning, and developing a growth mindset. When it comes to these aspects, there’s a better and more efficient way than shoving models down a student’s throat.

Model Definition: In this context, models refer to ideas, training styles, or even the products themselves.

For learning to take place, both the trainer and trainee need to have the proper growth mindset. John Reid, president of JMReid Group, will talk a bit more about the different fixed and growth mindsets in adult learning.

About My Guest — John Reid: President of JMReid Group

John Reid is the president and founder of JMReid Group, and author of Moving from Models to Mindsets: Rethinking the Sales Conversation.

JMReid Group is a training and development organization that specializes in sales effectiveness, process improvement, and leadership. After working with thousands of companies, Reid shares the three key principles to success in the industry:

• Teaching from the Learner’s POV: Reid lives by the motto “context is king.” Students only learn the things they feel would enhance their talents and abilities. Keeping that in mind, trainers, sales managers, and coaches should always ask themselves if the topics they’re teaching are relevant to their students.
• Tapping Into Wisdom: There’s wisdom in the room. As a coach, it’s your job to know how to tap into that wisdom. For learning to happen, coaches need to understand that they can learn something from their students as well. Also, people remember what they say, not what other people say. Interact with students so they understand the lessons you want to impart.
• Design is Important: Models are great, but they’re not strong enough to win any business alone. Reid shares that he won a business against four competitors because he was the only one to talk about design. While the competition focused on explaining why their models were amazing, Reid highlighted the design behind his firm’s proposal.

Models and the Right Mindset: The Baby Picture Phenomenon

Effectively communicating a message to a captivated audience

Reid shares his experience working with firms. He recalls that a lot of CEOs, sales managers, and big bosses always believed that they have the answer.

While it may be in good faith, people with this mindset instantly become preachers. A preacher can lecture for hours on end without actually relaying the message they want to impart.

For a salesperson or trainer to effectively communicate their message, they need to learn the “baby picture” phenomenon. For example, when you show your child’s picture to someone, you might think that your baby is cute and adorable.

On the other hand, the person you’re speaking to might not feel the same way. To make learning more effective, sales managers need to show them the other student’s baby’s picture.

That means using a model that suits the achievement, success, and mindset of your students. Trainers should change the fixed mindset that their models are universally perfect against students with different types of mindsets.

Rather than forcing your models down a student’s throat, try to understand their mindset, beliefs, and principles. By doing so, you can create a better program which will actually stimulate adult learning.

This especially applies to trainers talking to medium to high-performing salespeople who’re gifted and talented. They might easily take offense if coaches force a certain sales model on them without making an effort to understand their mindset.

Writing and Teaching: A Common Mistake in Coaching

One common problem Reid has observed is the high amount of self-help book authors that host training sessions. He even jokes about how American this phenomenon is.

Reid emphasizes that there’s a great difference between writing a book and creating a training program. In fact, the two are not related and he doesn’t understand why so many Americans think they are.

When you’re writing, you would want someone to know about your ideas. When you’re teaching, you’d want students to learn something valuable.

Remember that a lot of salespeople think highly of themselves. It won’t be that easy to win them over to your side of thinking.

For adult learning to occur, students have to discover it on their own. Through self-discovery, trainees and students can effectively pick up the models and lessons their coaches are teaching them.

This technique applies to both high and low-income students. Having the right mindset will determine the success or failure of the learning process.

Learning and Teaching Sales Models

Speaker understanding and teaching clients

If models aren’t the key to effective learning, then what is? Sales managers who want to take their sales team to the next level might ask this.

Reid explains that it’s not that models are ineffective learning tools, but that there’s a proper approach to using them. Behind models and behavior are beliefs and mindsets.

If a salesperson believes they’re valuable, then they become a better negotiator. On the other hand, someone who is too scared of their clients might not be able to handle tough negotiations.

The behaviors of a salesperson, how they talk, handle a call, or assess an opportunity, are all fueled by beliefs. Ultimately, beliefs drive the behavior of an individual.

To succeed in training and sales, you need to understand the other party involved. Rather than outperforming the competition, try to understand your clients or students better.

In fact, Reid expresses the importance of understanding the people you work with. While others focused on being the best in presenting their models and mastering persuasion, he strived to understand his clients better.

Remember that persuasion involves a lot of talking. Both clients and students despise talking.

RELATED: What 500 Buyers Say About the Buying Process

Having The Right Mindset When Teaching: Psychology of Success

Reid states that for learning to take place, it’s not enough to understand the beliefs and mindset of your students. The trainers themselves also need to have the right, positive mindset before they start teaching.

Every time Reid steps into a room of trainers, he asks what students need to have for learning to take place. He uses this to gauge the mindset of the people he’s currently talking to.

A lot of people would shout eagerness to learn, teachable, and enthusiasm, among others. In his decade-long career, no one has given the correct answer, which is this: believing that students have insights you don’t have.

Coaching isn’t a session where students simply listen to trainers all day long. In fact, learning occurs when interaction takes place between the parties involved.

Reid states that too many trainers have a fixed mindset that they know everything. Very few would dare acknowledge that their students know something they don’t.

However, Reid expresses that this trainer mindset is very important to stimulate effective adult learning. Instead of going straight to the models, allot the first few meetings to talk about beliefs.

Again, models are important, but they’d need to have the right beliefs and mindset to back them up. Otherwise, these models wouldn’t amount to anything.

Note: Students are not looking for someone who will praise their talent, and it’s not your job to do so. A trainer’s goal should be to replace their false growth mindset with the right success mindset.

No mindset is carved in stone. With the right approach, sales managers and trainers can effectively help their students unlock their true potential.

The Right Mindset for Success in Sales

Using mindsets and beliefs to achieve success

Models, beliefs, and behavior don’t only apply to adult learning. Salespeople need to learn how and what to think if they want to improve their performance.

Here are three beliefs every high-performing salesperson should have:

1. Out-Understand, Not Out-Persuade

Reid reiterates the importance of understanding your clients better than your competitors can. Salespeople shouldn’t focus too much on persuading, as this often makes them appear too aggressive.

One way to do this is to confirm what you know about the client. For example, Reid and his son often start every presentation with what they know about the business.

Afterward, they’d ask the clients “So, what are we missing? What don’t we know?” Salespeople shouldn’t fear to ask about these types of questions.

In fact, it is through these questions that you can understand exactly what a client is looking for. Rather than pushing the model hard from the get-go, develop the ability to understand your clients’ needs.

By the time they finish telling you about their pain points, their trust in you would have increased exponentially. They’ll think that the only ones who can deliver a proper solution are the people who know them well, which should be you.

This technique is much more effective than simply bragging about your test scores and intelligence. Clients don’t really care for your success in academic achievement; they’re looking for people who can provide solutions.

Note: This may be hard work at first, but salespeople should muster the motivation to go out of their comfort zone and try to understand their clients’ needs better.

2. Time Is Valuable

Do not delay stuff in your negotiation that may cause setbacks. For other people to respect your time, you need to develop the right growth mindset: respecting your own time.

For example, a lot of people postpone giving their rates until the last minute. While there’s a proper time to say the price, Reid shares that he often gives his firm’s rates relatively early into the negotiation process to avoid setbacks.

If they’re good with the numbers, then the deal should proceed smoothly. Alternatively, a client who doesn’t agree with your rates might not be worth pursuing.

Salespeople need to understand that not everyone can afford the rates of their services. Postponing delivering the quotation may only lead to delays and setbacks.

Pro Tip: A cool life hack to schedule meetings faster is to send Outlook invites rather than multiple emails. This increases the chances of you getting that meeting you want.

Plus, it saves both parties a lot of time. There are no back-to-back emails, and it literally takes a few seconds to set the date and time of your meeting.

3. Have a Sales Call Objective

Reid shares that for a sales call to be more effective, salespeople need to have an objective. Calling mindlessly won’t help you reach your quota.

Generally, there are two types of approach to sales calls: the conventional and challenger approach.

• The conventional approach is to ask a question, confirm, and then repeat. This takes up a lot of time and may make your client feel like you’re interviewing them.
• On the other hand, the challenger approach is when you get the insights directly from your client. This speeds up the sales cycle since the client is literally telling you what they want.

After that, you can present the model you feel would suit them best.

Overall, sales managers need to understand the science behind models, beliefs, and having the right mindset if they want to take their team to the next level. Whether it’s to stimulate adult learning or improve sales profits, these are very important areas to explore.

Rather than forcing other people to believe what you’re saying, try to look at things from their point of view. Remember: self-discovery beats persuasion every single time.

Did this help you understand more about which growth mindset can help you better achieve success? If you have any questions, let us know in the comments section below!

Up Next: Why You Need Data Driven Hiring…NOW!

RELATED: Sales Leaders: 50 Sales Trends You Need To Know About For 2019

In this article:

1. Why You Need to Know the Trends
2. Key 2018 B2B Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2018
3. Where to Double Down in 2018
4. Putting Things into Action in 2018

2018 B2B Digital Marketing Trends | Grow Your Online Campaign Efforts with These Ideas

Why You Need to Know the Trends

These days, marketing professionals are talking about the 2018 B2B digital marketing trends. It’s not surprising. Right now marketing teams are having their “what worked and what didn’t work” discussions. It is a perfect opportunity to reflect on emerging trends from 2018 that will continue to pick up steam in 2018.

The plain truth is B2B marketing is getting harder. Marketing SaaS exploded. Every time a new SaaS company emerges, the marketing landscape will feel the impact:

• Businesses will produce more content. (A lot of it will be awful)
• There will be even more noise on social media platforms.
• The ad blindness effect will rise on channels like Facebook and LinkedIn.
• More competitors will be bidding on the same keywords as you.
• They will be targeting the same organic keywords as you.
• More outbound emails and cold calls will target the same customers.
• There will be more leverage for review sites like G2Crowd & Capterra.
• Companies will have less differentiation in product features.

What’s the point?

CACs (Customer Acquisition Costs) are getting higher on a yearly basis. There’s less room for error on strategy and execution.

Data-driven companies master the science of analytics. They are also familiar with the art of building a personalized customer experience.

Because of these, they have the highest chances of winning.

Mistakes in 2018 will be costly. Competitors are lurking around every corner, waiting to capitalize on your failures.

That’s why we’re summarizing the top B2B marketing trends you need to know for this year. We hope this article gives you everything you need to stay ahead of the curve and win big in 2018.

Key 2018 B2B Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2018

Here are the key B2B digital marketing trends that will only continue to pick up steam in 2018:

1. Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and Machine Learning

Technology continues to transform the marketing world.

Some examples are email automation, higher-quality data analytics, and AI-driven solutions.

These include chatbots enhancing the sales process, one of the emerging technologies. These are bridging efficiency gaps and improving performance across the board.

Marketing automation can help assess and nurture buyers across the entire customer journey. It can do so with higher accuracy and effectiveness.

2. Continued Rise of Video Content

Text-based content is still important. Interactive formats, though, like video, are the future and the now.

Consumers are demanding richer content formats. Online video now accounts for half of all mobile traffic.

3. Stability of Content Marketing

Content marketing is here to stay and only getting bigger.

Inbound sales are now a formidable revenue-generating component in many B2B organizations.

To succeed, though, companies need to establish a healthy pipeline of high-quality content. It’s also essential to build a healthy search engine optimization (SEO) framework.

B2B organizations will still struggle with measuring the ROI of content marketing.

It’s important they do it, though. After all, they are spending a lot on content (and even content marketers).

4. Personalization via Marketing Automation

If there’s one thing you take away from this list of B2B digital marketing trends, this should be it.

You better start segmenting your email list in 2018. It should not only be divided by name or job title.

You need to consider segments with demographic data and customer life-cycle positioning. Other factors that matter are lead nurturing, and trigger-based or nudge-based messaging.

In short, it’s serving the right content to the right people at the right time.

A study from Smart Insights reveals 50% of companies use no segmentation whatsoever. That’s horrifying.

Account-Based Marketing Definition: A B2B marketing strategy wherein sales and marketing campaigns are directed and personalized for specific target accounts within the market.

5. Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Moving to the Forefront

Companies now need to provide more authentic and responsive customer engagement. Many B2B organizations, thus, now adopt account-based marketing approaches. In this graphic via Intercom, the shift to ABM highlights an inverse funnel.

Before, B2B marketers would just cast a wide net and try to build broad awareness. With ABM, it’s the opposite.

You target high-value accounts with personalized and relevant messaging. This is what it takes to cut through the noise in 2018, especially for high-value targets.

6. Fundamental Shift from Traditional to Modern SEO

Old-school tactics are long gone. These include exact-match keyword targeting and low-quality guest post link building.

With the increasing CAC, brands will be turning to more reliable channels, such as SEO.

SEO will be an everlasting source of lead generation, especially in SaaS. The rise of content marketing continues to be a major factor as well.

B2B brands will be seeking to pair that up with SEO for a mean 1-2 punch.

7. Facebook Ads

Let’s get real. One of the B2B digital marketing trends we predict is Facebook ads.

They have ridiculous targeting capabilities and affordable costs. You can get the attention of any audience segment down to the grittiest detail.

I’ll let Gary V do the talking on this one.

8. The LinkedIn Effect

After the Microsoft acquisition, LinkedIn exploded. Every B2B professional wants in on the action.

The new algorithm allows for incredible engagement with the right content.

It can benefit SaaS companies with influential leadership, so do those with a well-known company founder with a strong network.

One-line posts are what you’re going to see often in 2018, unfortunately.

9. Integration of Data Sources to Unify the Marketing Tech Stack

We wrote about this in our 2018 sales predictions, and the parallel here is uncanny. There are over 5,000 marketing SaaS vendors.

How many technologies do you think your company is using right now? Our marketing tech stack consists of 25 tools right now.

These include marketing automation, SEO, content management, and social media. We also have a platform for communication and project management, CRM, and more.

We use Google Data Studio to create unified dashboards to see all our data in one place. Plenty of integration capabilities can join all your data sources into one dashboard.

One of my personal favorites is Supermetrics, but there are many other good ones.

Data and analytics, in general, can feel overwhelming. Don’t let the fact you use all these different platforms create data silos.

Unify your stack for 2018 and get all your data on the same page.

RELATED: The Secret To Winning in B2B Sales: The Human Touch

Where to Double Down in 2018

Knowing the challenges and B2B digital marketing trends is one thing. Acting on them is another.

Here are some applicable B2B digital marketing best practices. These can help you regain lost ground and still win in 2018.

1. Ramp Up Your Content Marketing and Inbound Campaigns

Don’t ramp it up without aim, though.

Align all your content efforts back to the user journey. Make sure you’re tracking what matters!

The impact of online content on your customers’ purchasing behavior is hard to ignore. Not all content is equal, though.

High-quality content is a competitive advantage. You should always want to include it in your B2B digital marketing campaigns.

An excellent inbound marketing strategy requires the following key elements:

• A well-designed and updated website
• Timely and flawless user experiences on any device
• Lively blog that differentiates and keeps your company relevant
• Well-crafted gated content (e-books, research/reports, and white papers)
• Content that lends authority to your brand
• Frequent use of rich content formats telling a story in fresh, creative, and impactful ways
• Video content, sound, and other visuals such as Instagram Stories
• Smart SEO implementations that drive healthy traffic to your site

2. Reinforce Email Marketing with Automation and Analytics

The mailing list is among the oldest and most effective tools in a marketer’s arsenal. It lets you transition from snail-mailed catalogs to email newsletters.

In turn, this tool keeps customers aware of your brand. It also allows you to assess how your customers respond to your message.

Advanced email marketing software can help your team manage subscribers better. Options include MailChimp, Rapportive, and Yesware.

They also have the following features:

• Analyze subscriber behavior
• Schedule contextual or hierarchical content pushes
• Collect more customer information
• Build a new revenue stream via premium content

All your subscribers will show interest in your product to some degree. Even then, you can apply a more precise targeting/segmentation using email analytics.

B2B digital marketing campaigns can focus on high-value subscribers. These are individuals with the highest likelihood of buying.

3. Go Mobile and Get Social but Aim for an Omni-Channel Approach

The social selling craze wasn’t a bunch of hype.

Almost all the point persons in your prospect companies will be on social media. Decision makers are likely to maintain active LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.

Engage these point persons by following them. Respond to their posts with relevant and high-quality content.

These can create opportunities to influence their buying decisions later on.

When it comes to mobile, cell phones and tablets now serve as the primary mode of accessing the Internet. It is fast replacing desktop computers.

Mobile advertising is also on the path to achieving a similar milestone in 2018. Ad spending on mobile will surpass TV spending. The difference can be as much as $6 billion!

Mobile accounts for around 70% of people’s daily online exposure. Many smart B2C companies, thus, already adopted a mobile-first policy.

Smart Insights reported, though, desktop-based communication will remain a key channel for both transactional commerce and B2B engagements.

4. Persuade Influencers to Articulate Your Value

Popular people in different fields wield enormous social capital. They can influence wide swaths of specific market segments.

This influence extends into the purchasing behavior of their fans/followers.

Influencer marketing, thus, has become a reliable and common selling tool.

Partner with credible influencers who match your brand. Create an environment that lets them share authentic, fresh, and compelling stories.

For B2B companies, influencers will likely be subject-matter experts or industry luminaries. They may also be ranking specialists and leaders in your prospect organizations.

5. Optimize Your Tech Stack and Leverage Automation

It’s a no-brainer. Make processes easier to perform and free up time for other important tasks.

Different technology providers offer solutions to specific marketing challenges. They do this through marketing automation, data analytics, and sales enablement.

Here’s an example. You can enhance your 2018 B2B digital marketing campaigns with personalized software.

It may improve ABM, email outreach, and content management. You may also use it for market intelligence and SEO.

6. Build Your Ideal Team and Keep Them Sharp

Marketing talent remains the driving and creative force behind your team. Without the right talent, even a good strategy can flop during its implementation.

HR in many leading B2B organizations focus on hiring excellent digital marketers. They are also training or retraining them.

Don’t ignore millennials. Make sure you foster an environment millennials will thrive in.

Expertise is vital to many lean but aggressive marketing teams. A viable roster should include:

• Marketing Director — to provide vision, set directions, and manage budget
• Content Manager — to oversee all customer-facing communications
• Social media Coordinator — to boost brand presence across key networks
• SEO Specialist — to keep site traffic healthy and primed for growth
• UX/UI Designer — who can help optimize the user experience
• ROI/A-B Testing Specialist — to check metrics and make data-driven assessments/recommendations
• Web/Mobile Developer — to handle the technical components of the strategy

7. Remember, User Experience Is Still the Most Important Thing

Marketing and selling success hinge on customer decisions.

B2B companies need to understand their customers’ goals and challenges.

They need to build meaningful relationships based on that understanding. They should provide responsive customer service that addresses clients’ pain points.

Authenticity and genuine desire for a solution always trump interactions motivated by a desire to make a fast buck.

• Improve the quality and outcome of your B2B digital marketing campaigns.
• You can limit the scope of your client base. To do that, you can create a hierarchy of buyer personas.
• Sure, you want to help everyone, but your product can only solve specific problems.
• Transactions on the organizational level tend to involve a group of decision makers.
• You may need to create custom content for every buyer persona. You may also include specific rules of engagement.

Putting Things into Action in 2018

Dwelling on setbacks and what-ifs is never a good option. This is especially true in the highly competitive B2B market.

Use these B2B digital marketing trends as a guide, then build and review your post-mortem documents quickly. Optimize them to turn the odds in your favor for this year.

Doing so is not impossible, but will take a lot of work. Go beyond studying B2B marketing strategy examples. Test a few and discover which approaches move the needle.

B2B digital marketing campaigns are fluid. They now need to provide buyer journeys that are like those in the B2C environment. Focus on providing memorable experiences to your ideal customers. Upgrade content and improve process efficiencies. Optimize all engagement channels and execute a unified strategy with the sales teams.

What do you think the 2018 B2B digital marketing trends are? Share your predictions in the comments section below.

Up Next: 

• How To Align Sales and Marketing
• How AI Is Disrupting Sales w/Damian O’Farrill @Autodesk
• Best Products For Sales 2019

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on December 18, 2017, and has been updated for quality and relevancy. 

Most of the names on our list have years of experience leading large and small sales teams in a variety of industries. Some of them are renowned keynote speakers and best-selling authors. And they all have one thing in common – the burning passion for sales and for constantly being the best at what they do, every single day.

Some of these leaders participated in the Sales Development Summit. This is the largest event for prospecting specialists and sales development managers. You can register to learn more about:

• Latest research in the sales development industry
• Proven steps for sales development reps success
• Tips on how to build successful sales development teams.

If you’re a business development specialist or leader, you need to attend this event!

All the speakers sessions for this virtual event will be on-demand, and you can watch them at your convenience.

And The Sales Development Leaders of the Year Are…

We’ve listed the sales development thought leaders of the year in the order of votes they received. The undisputed leader was Ben Sardella, from Datanyze.

Ben Sardella

Ben is co-founder of Outboundworks and Datanyze. He pioneered the development and success of a SaaS sales model for a number of leading cloud based software companies.

He has experience working at early stage start-ups and rapidly growing SaaS companies. Consistent success establishing inside and outside sales teams both domestically as well as internationally targeting the SMB and Enterprise space.

“Always put customers first in everything you do in your career, their success will determine your success” – Ben Sardella.

John Barrows

John Barrows, owner of JBarrows Training, is a renowned sales coach and published author.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to experience a fantastic Sales education throughout my career at every level through the people I meet and opportunities that arise. Sharing those experiences while continuing to learn from others is why I continue to do what I do.” — John Barrows.

Scott Leese

Scott is Senior Vice President of Qualia and has over 13 years experience as a sales consultant and strategic advisor in for sales organizations.

Grant Cardone

Grant Cardone is a best-selling author and speaker, and CEO of four companies with revenue over $100m. He runs Grant Cardone Sales University and Grant Cardone TV.

Trish Bertuzzi

Trish is author of “The Sales Development Playbook,” President of The Bridge Group, Inc. and Inside Sales Evangelist.

She was winner of Consulting Provider of the Year Award from the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (2013 – 2017 which is 5 years in a row!).

Jake Reni

Jake is Director of Adobe Sales Academy. His knowledge and experience in sales spans across SaaS, Marketing Tech, Sales Tech, Medical Tech, HR Tech, and Educational Tech industries.

Gabe Larsen

Gabe Larsen is VP of XANT Labs, the research arm of XANT. He has 15 years of experience in growing revenue, from helping financial clients price and trade complex derivatives to helping multi-national organizations penetrate new markets.

He hosts the popular Playmakers podcast for sales professionals, with over 15,000 listeners.

Richard Harris

Richard is a seasoned SaaS sales leader and inside sales trainer with 20+ years experience helping early stage and expansion stage start-ups build their sales infrastructure and train their sales teams to “get there faster”. He is a sales leaders and trainer, and founder of The Harris Consulting Group.

Morgan J Ingram

Morgan is Director of Sales with JBarrows sales training. He is a motivational guru and helps people remove their negative thoughts to unlock their inner potential, along with teaching them valuable sales tactics.

Jill Konrath

Jill is a keynote speaker & bestselling author who’s focused on sales acceleration & optimization. She helps sales organizations quickly increase sales & drive millions of dollars in additional revenue.

Max Altschuler

Max is a keynote speaker and president of Sales Hacker, the one-stop shop for sales conferences, events and sales training. He is author of “Hacking Sales“, a guide for high-velocity sales.

“I always wanted to have a life that paid me to do two things. 1) to help people and animals, and 2) to travel. Through my position in Sales Hacker, I get to help salespeople build modern sales processes and ramp up revenue, while also helping millennials and those new to the workforce figure out how to best navigate their careers and hit their goals.”

“This allows me the opportunities to keynote conferences internationally, run workshops anywhere, and work remotely from wherever, whenever. This is truly my passion, and I hope that what I do can bring value to you and your life too.” — Max Altschuler.

Ralph Barsi

Ralph is Global Sales Development Leader at ServiceNow. He has 15+ years experience leading and managing sales teams in global companies.

Anthony Iannarino

Anthony is a well-known speaker and author. sales leader specializing in the complex business-to-business (B2B) sale. He is also a founder and managing partner of two closely-held, family-owned businesses in the staffing industry, leading both entities in strategic planning while growing sales. Anthony is best known for his work at The Sales Blog, which has helped him gain recognition as a top thought leader in sales strategy.

Jeffrey Gitomer

“For the past 25 years, and 13 best-selling books, and 2,500 corporate events, I’ve helped shape the concept, the voice, and the implementation of the new sale.”

“From Fortune 500 companies, to companies trying to earn a fortune, I have traveled the globe helping sales teams get better at discovering buying motives. Why customers buy is one billion times more powerful than how to sell.”

“I also have the largest body of work available to you and your teams on-demand at GitomerLearningAcademy.com.” — Jeffrey Gitomer.

Kristina McMillan

Kristina is lead the research and consulting team for TOPO, an analyst firm that helps sales and marketing organizations achieve scalable revenue growth.

She specializes in sales development, process, methodology, training, sales messaging and lead nurturing.

Aaron Ross

Aaron Ross is author of “Predictable Revenue” and an experienced sales leaders. “Our best-selling book “Predictable Revenue” and framework are based on the outbound process & sales team we created for Salesforce.com, which added an extra $100 million in revenue in just a few years” — Aaron Ross.

Michael Pedone

Michael is currently B2B inside sales expert at SalesBuzz.com. He has a wealth of experience in sales consulting, helping B2B companies refine and manage their sales process for improved revenue.

Lori Richardson

Lori is president of Women Sales Pros. She has 15 years experience in sales and was a sales leader in technology and financial services closing $100M worth of deals.

“Over the last 20 years we have built sales teams and helped mid-market technology and distrib. co’s grow front-line revenues weaving in what the collective team has learned over years in successes and failures” — Lori Richardson.

Chad Burmeister

Chad Burmeister is VP of Sales at TalentReef and Author of SalesHack. He was voted Top 25 in Inside Sales and Top 50 Sales Development leaders, and was the founding chapter president of the AA-ISP Silicon Valley Chapter and Colorado Chapter President. He was voted Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professional by the AA-ISP 7 years in a row (2010 – 2016).

“The thing I’m most passionate about – leveraging AI to equip today’s modern sales professional with game-changing systems and process to dominate their market!” — Chad Burmeister.

Craig Rosenberg

Craig Rosenberg is co-founder and chief analyst of Topo, a research and advisory firm that helps companies grow faster. He was a founder of Funnelholic media and co-founder of Focus, a SaaS-based content marketing platform.

Kyle Porter

Kyle Porter is CEO of SalesLoft. He has over 12 years experience working in sales and marketing leadership roles He is founder of B2BCamp and SportsBarDigital.

Kyle Vamvouris

Kyle is sales development manager at ForUsAll, he has over 15 years experience working in sales development and sales roles.

“By giving your team the skills they need to succeed you don’t only get an increase in conversion. You get a group of people succeeding together and that’s how the entire organization will prosper” — Kyle Vamvouris.

Matt Heinz

Matt Heinz is president of Heinz Marketing, host of Sales Pipeline Radio and a published author.

He held more than 15 years of marketing, business development and sales experience from a variety of organizations, vertical industries and company sizes. He has held various positions at companies such as Microsoft, Weber Shandwick, Boeing, The Seattle Mariners, Market Leader and Verdiem.

In 2007, began Heinz Marketing to help clients focus their business on market and customer opportunities, then execute a plan to scale revenue and customer growth.

Steve Richard

Steve is CEO of Execvision, a B2B sales and marketing expert and sales kickoff speaker. He was a sales trainer for ten years and uses technology to help salespeople get their best game on.

“My mission and life’s work is to help sales professionals become wildly successful. I believe that the quality of sales conversations matters, yet the profession of sales largely misses the mark on teaching sales reps how to have great conversations” — Steve Richard.

Joanne Black

Joanne Black is a renowned speaker and an expert in account based sales and B2B sales and lead generation. She is author of “No More Cold Calling” and founder of the sales coaching company with the same name.

Join the Sales Development Summit

Some of these sales leaders were speakers in the Sales Development Summit virtual event hosted by XANT and Sales Hacker.

Register here to watch on-demand sesssions with over 50 speakers, all with years of experience in the sales development world.

Sales Development is the biggest trend in the last decade, and the numbers show it. 25% of inside sales professionals are sales development representatives making up nearly 700,000 in the US. Sales Development is the most misunderstood roles in sales, but that’s about to change. 

The Sales Development Summit

The Sales Development Summit hosted by Inside Sales and Sales Hacker starts Wednesday, December 13. With over 50 expert speakers, this virtual event will offer all you need in terms of sales development training. Sessions are recorded and can be watched on-demand.

“You put thousands of the world’s smartest people in sales development together virtually—for two days—to learn what’s working now for sales SDRs, and it’s almost mind-blowing,” said Dave Elkington, CEO of XANT. “Simply put, the Sales Development Summit is the largest and best event for sales development in the industry.”

If you haven’t registered already, there’s still time!

Over 50 speakers have announced their sessions at the Sales Development Summit, and this includes reputed sales experts such as:

John Barrows – CEO and Founder of JBarrows Training

Gabe Larsen – Vice President of XANT Labs

Max Altschuler – Founder & CEO of SalesHacker

Amanda Holmes – Chet Holmes International

Dave Mattson – CEO & President of Sandler Training

Rob Jepsen – CEO of Xvoyant

Brynne Tillman – CLO & Co-founder of Vengreso

Ben Cotton, – Sr. Manager of Sales Enablement at HubSpot

…And many more!

On-demand Sales Development Training

Over 5,000 attendees are expected at this virtual event covering a wide range of sales development training subjects. Speaker sessions will include topics like:

Cutting Edge Research: XANT created the largest study ever on sales development with over 1000 companies participating. The study covers everything from go-to-market sales development structures to sales development cadences.

Management & Leadership Best Practices: The top sales development thought leaders and practitioners will be sharing their knowledge of how sales development teams win.

Proven Steps for Sales Development Reps Success: The best sales development reps themselves will be sharing their strategies for succes. You will learn how to identify target account and contacts, how to initiate conversations with prospects, how to qualify and overcome prospects objections.

Register Now!

Register here for the Sales Development Summit.

Sales teams specialization by role has long been a standard in the industry, as it leads to increased productivity.

Sales activities are no longer jumbled and there is increased collaboration (and less competition between individuals). The model also has the potential to develop true experts in their trade, by allowing them to focus on one process.

The structure leads to creating predictable revenue, and Aaron Ross details the model here.

Sales development reps, more commonly known as business development reps, are tasked with qualifying leads (inbound or outbound), identifying opportunities and setting appointments for account executives once an opportunity presents itself.

It’s an essential role for expanding businesses.

The State of Sales Development 2017

In an effort to understand the sales development function, XANT Labs commissioned a study to show the structure of sales development organizations in 2017.

XANT created this research in partnership with SalesForLife, BridgeGroup, Drift, Datanyze, OneMob, and Tenbound.

“The State of Sales Development” included over 900 respondents, and looks at four major components of an optimized sales development organization:

• Structure – How are sales development teams structured today
• Systems – What technology systems are they using to help them sell more
• People – How are they compensated and what are their targets
• Pipeline – What kind of results do we see with sales development reps today.

Sales Development 2017 Infographic

The trend for inside sales – sales activities aimed at clients which are already aware of the company’s brand and services – has been on the rise for years. And sales development is no exception.

Of all SDRs, inbound sales development made up 17.1%, outbound made up 28.8% and 54.1% were a blend of both.

This happens as the buyer’s journey takes place online, and the client has the opportunity to do his own research, well removed from any contact with sales representatives.

However, a sales rep’s work is never done, and the stats prove it.

With ever more clients taking this online journey, professional sales development teams ready to help them find the right service can make a difference towards your bottom line.

Download the State of Sales Development research, to get an idea of:

• How are sales development organizations structured in over 900 companies
• What’s the average spend for technology systems, in sales development teams – and what are the most popular systems
• What are the sales activities a business development rep performs daily
• How much are business development reps paid on average and what are their revenue targets

If you don’t have time to download the executive summary, we’ve summed it up for you in the infographic below.

Looking for more info about sales development and how to win at lead prospecting?

Join our FREE virtual event, the Sales Development Summit, December 13-14, with over 30 expert speakers. 

Playmakers, we need your help! We’re conducting research on what kind of gifts work best to engage with your prospects. There are not a lot of surveys out there available that show exactly what works and what doesn’t when it comes to high impact mailers. So, if you’ve been sending little gift cards to your prospects, take the survey and let us know! We will send you the result of the survey when it is complete, so you’ll have access to benchmark info from hundreds of other companies.

We’ve been tracking high impact mailers (physical items you can send to prospects) for over a year. When looking at the market, it looks like most people are sending whatever they wanted whenever they wanted.

There are different types of mailers and different uses case. Salespeople are often sending:

• Printed cards or notes
• Hand-written notes or cards
• E-Gifts (email with code to redeem gift)
• Gift cards
• Gifts without your company branding
• Gifts with your company branding

All of these are very effective and can be used to progress a sale or build a relationship.

I’ve now sent and tested hundreds of mailers (I’ll be publishing my findings over the coming months) but we need more information and that’s where you come in.

Let’s learn together. XANT Labs is performing a study on high impact mailers. The objectives are the following:

• Understand how B2B companies are currently thinking about and using high impact mailers
•  Determine why some B2B companies are not using high impact mailers
•  Understand the opinions and perspectives of B2B leaders who receive (or might receive) high impact mailers

It’s going to be epic. We already have 200 companies but I want 1,000 and with your help I know we can do it. Take five minutes, take the survey and get ready to have some fun sending high impact mailers as part of the XANT product suite!

You can take our survey here: https://bit.ly/highimpactmailer

Kraig is author of “The Must React System” and “Building a Winning Brand” and has ample experience prospecting. He spoke to us about sales development and some of the key trends facing that important role trends-driving world-class SDR teams.

He tells us that sales development rep tends to be “the trendy term” for lead development professionals used in the Software as a Service (SaaS) or cloud computing. The terms might be different depending on industry.

1. Practice Makes Perfect

The best sellers ever in the world, people like Zig Ziegler, people like Dale Carnegie, they were most likely born that way, says Kleeman. Most sales organizations, however, are made up of average people that need to work hard to get to the same results.

“Guess what? An exceptional sales process will always make an unexceptional seller produce exceptional outcomes,” said Kraig, on the Playmakers podcast. Technology helps SDR’s so that they waste no time and spend all their day just refining their skills.

Companies need to have an automated and tightly development process for SDR’s. This will build predictable pipeline and make their job easier.

2. Onboarding Should be Short and Sweet

The onboarding and training process needs to be streamlined, adds Kraig. SDR’s  should become as productive as possible in the shortest time.

“By day 10, your new SDRs should be scheduling meetings at plan. (…) They should be given tight scripts. They’re not allowed to go off script until they’ve proven mastery at being on script,” said Kraig.

According to the latest XANT research, the average ramp time for a sales development rep is 4 months. With an average tenure of 2.7 years, the productive time is greatly diminished if they don’t ramp up quickly.

3. Selling to the C-Suite

It’s important that sales development representatives learn how to do enterprise sales and have meaningful conversations with C-level executives. And this is done with a data-driven approach, shows Kraig.

“Learning to lead with fact-based research is by far the most valuable tool for cracking the enterprise sale and for learning to sell to the C-suite,” says Kraig.

Your presentations need to be as well-produced as the ones from prestigious polling companies, has adds. The public should be able to contribute with replies to open-ended questions, being active and engaged.

4. Social Selling Limitations

Social selling is very common practice, and has become a buzzword lately. However useful it may be, there are limitations to it, says Kraig. A study of over 1,000 C-suite executives showed that 77% did not have a photo to their social media profile, nor did they have or give any recommendations.

“If you are going to attack the C-suite, and you’re selling to the enterprise, tools like LinkedIn and other social media channels are not powerful for engagement. They are not powerful for discerning information, and for understanding your target deeply,” said Kraig.

5. A Low Cost Sales Development Team

Sales development fuels your pipeline with qualified leads – but it can be an expensive engine. The “State of Sales Development” study from XANT shows that the average sales dev has a base compensation of around $43K, with average on-target-earnings (OTE) of around $83K.

“You can unlock cash by off-shoring your SDR teams to a region in the world that speaks fabulous language. By finding the right location, by training those people properly, here’s what you can expect. You can expect the cost per head all in to be about 30% of your current costs, and the yield per head to be approximately 80%,” said Kraig.

He adds that companies should not outsource, but rather develop their own call center off-shore, where they can avoid attrition and recruit the right talent to impact the bottom line.

If you want to learn more about the process to develop your SDR team, click to listen to the podcast:

To get the results of the “State of Sales Development” study from XANT Labs, click here.   

Recent research from XANT, “State of Sales Development 2017″, gives us a glimpse into the life of a Sales Development Rep with a few statistics.

Sales development reps have an average of 14.1 meaningful conversations a day. They set an average of 23.1 appointments per month, send about 36 emails per day, make 35 phone calls and send about 15 voicemails per day.

You can read the executive summary of the study that included over 900 companies here.

We caught up to a real sales development champion, Jonathan Dyer, to discuss the findings of the report and get some insights beyond the numbers.

Jonathan Dyer, Outbound Sales Development

Jon is constantly at the top of the rankings at XANT, by setting the most appointments and building qualified pipeline. Here’s what he told us.

There are about 670k sales development reps in the United States, but few are constrained to either an outbound or inbound sales role. About 54 percent of sales development reps are a combination of both. Tell me a bit about what you do at XANT, Jon.

I’m an outbound sales representative. Outbound sales are sales reps who connect with new prospects. These are potential customers that have not had any contact with the company.

We don’t work blindly with leads, though. We first do some research into that lead’s title, job, what their needs and pain points might be, or their social media activity.

Of course, there is a balance here and you don’t need to spend too much time on research – but it certainly helps kick-start the dialogue.

So, you’re cold calling a lot. How do you feel about that?

The outbound sales role is a unique position. Cold calling teaches you a lot about the art of conversation.  I feel like the skills learned in this position I will use for the rest of my life, especially if I stay in a sales role.

It’s not an easy job. Sometimes it can be intense. You’re talking to dozens of executives per day – most of them at Vice President or Senior Vice President level. They have been in the industry for a long time. You don’t know them at all, sometimes you don’t have anything to refer to.

But it’s really rewarding. I enjoy my job, I like doing it. It develops an extremely important skillset, that will be useful in any sales role.

What’s the one thing you love the most about your job?

When you are reaching out to people you’ve never met before, the best feeling is when you find their pain point – a problem that you can solve for them.

The goal for us is to find what their pain points are – and see if it aligns with how we can help them. If we can get through to them and have a good conversation, we can set an appointment for our field reps. That’s the best feeling and my favorite part.

Also, just being with a group of guys that are doing the same thing. I think we have a good culture here, coming to work is fun and you really feel like you belong to a good team.

The State of SDR study revealed that sales development reps have a mix of base and variable earnings. It was about a 60/40 split with 59.7% for the base and 40.3% for the variable. How do you feel about the variable income part of the job? If you’re honest about this, does it help you or does it stress you out?

I am a big fan of the variable income. It drives performance, it motivates me. I have a goal in mind that I need to hit, and that makes me push harder every day.

I don’t see a lot of people being uncomfortable with the variable. Knowing that they’re coming into a sales role, then they expect variable income and that they are going to have to hit a quota.

This is where we get to the pain point, the quota. Companies report only a 63.5% average quota attainment for sales development representatives. What do you think is preventing them from achieving quota, and how can they do better?

It’s a balance of both working smart and overall effort – these are the two things that matter most. Your skill on the phone is important, but it comes in second to the effort that you put in. It’s always been that way, and it will always be.

The people who genuinely love their job, they are the ones that put in the most effort, and you’ll find them here in the trenches day in and day out.

They are self-motivated and they want to advance their careers. They are the ones who will have the best results overall. It’s the passion for sales which leads to results.

How do you think technology plays in here? What systems are you using that help you get the job done and hit your quota?

Technology helps a lot. That’s the part about working smart. You need a good sales technology stack in place so you can be more efficient. An automated process helps you get to your goals faster, and you stop wasting time doing things manually.

Once you have the tech stack in place, it’s just an effort game to get to your quota.

I know at XANT you use a lot of tools that make your job easier. Which of these tools is your favorite, or helps you the most in your profession?

We are very lucky here at XANT, because we have a lot of different tools – we have Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, Salesforce. We have our own technology – Playbooks and it makes things a lot easier from a lead management perspective.

My favorite tool is Salesforce. I utilize Salesforce the most, it offers total transparency into everything you do.

That being said, I don’t know how much I would love Salesforce if I didn’t have Playbooks. Playbooks gives me so much more information that I wouldn’t have if I just utilized Salesforce.

The combination of tracking tools – emails, calls, history of every lead’s touches – with the AI-generated NeuralScore, which shows you which leads are more likely to close, it’s a real winner. It really does help my game a lot.

What are some of the challenges you have in sales development every day?

It’s very important to have alignment between business development (or sales development) and sales executives (or the field reps) – especially when these two sales departments work separately, or they are in different regions.

The sales development reps who have a good relationship with account executives are doing better and getting more pipeline than the ones who are disconnected from their closers.

We need to work together as a team and understand that we have the same goal, and that is finding a customer’s need and ultimately closing the deal.

Well, OK, I was expecting that you would tell me about rude customers here, I guess you get a lot of that. What’s the rudest thing a customer has ever said to you, and how do you deal with it?

Of course, people will tell you to F* off on occasion. It doesn’t happen all the time. You’ll get the one guy who has received way too many phone calls that just is way too angry. He just will tell you off. You need to brush that off, that’s going to happen.

You need to have patience, resilience. And the ability to just look past it and just realize that he might’ve just had a bad day, you don’t need to take offense.

The worst customer is not the one who just tells you “No” right off the bat. The worst customer, by far, is the one with which you have a good phone call or a couple of meetings, and then just goes cold. They disappear.

Those are more frustrating than people who just turn you down, because they’re leading you on and that’s painful. It’s a time waster.

So, what’s the best type of customer you can have, as a business development rep? Obviously, you want them to get an appointment and eventually close a deal, but is there something more here?

Absolutely. It’s when you’re talking to a guy who’s not too happy to talk to you at first, but you can turn the conversation around. You can find pain points and have him open up about what he needs to improve in his business. When you can make him realize that his team needs something like the platform that you’re offering. And that eventually becomes a closed deal.

It’s not the ones that just come in and request a demo and already know what they want, not at all.

It’s the ones you must work for – those are the best customers you can have.

They’re the engine that puts fuel in your sales pipeline – day in and day out.

This is why it is crucial to understand and know the structure of sales development, the specific activities for pipeline generation and above all, the people and what they do to guarantee the health of your pipeline

In an effort to understand the sales development role, XANT Labs commissioned a study in partnership with SalesForLife, BridgeGroup, Drift, Datanyze, OneMob, and Tenbound.

The study includes 900 companies and reviews the four elements of a successful sales development team: structure, systems, people and pipeline.

The findings were very telling of where we are today with SDR and where there is a gap in their activity.

Inside vs Outside Sales Development

The lines between inside sales and outside sales keep blurring, shows the research. More and more customers are empowered and contacting companies, rather than waiting to be contacted.

According to the study, there are an estimated 677,479 sales development reps in the U.S.

About 17 percent of sales development reps are inbound sales, while 28% are outbound sales. More than half – 54 percent self-report as doing both inside and outside sales.

Sales Technology Systems

Sales technology has become an extremely important part of every sales development team’s makeup and organization. Companies spend overall on sales development technology is $1.4 billion. This is just a small part of the overall 14.9 billion spent in total on sales technology industry.

In the research, companies reported the average annual spend on sales technology was $3,894 per rep/year.

That’s around 17% less than what they spend on account executives, who seem to get the lion’s share of the budget. Companies have around one sales development rep for every three account executives.

The $3,894 covers an average of 4.8 categories of sales tools per rep. The most popular categories were (excluding CRM):

• Social prospecting (30.3%)
• Data/list services (21.6%)
• Email engagement (20.7%)
• Phone (16.0%)
• Sales Cadence (12.8%)
• Lead/Account Scoring (10.7%)

Sales Development – The People

Companies need to pay market value to retain their top people. The Sales of Sales Development offers a benchmark on sales development compensation.

According to the XANT research, the average base salary for sales development reps is $41,675, with an average on-target-earnings (OTE) of &80,774. While earnings will vary based on the region, there is one aspect which remains constant – and that is variable income.

A section of sales representatives’ incomes are variable to ensure performance and quota attainment. The mix between base and variable was a 60/40 split, with 59.7% for the base and 40.03% for the variable.

Pipeline Generation Activities

As far activities go, sales development reps are certainly not idle – they place dozens of calls and send a host of emails and voicemails every day to generate qualified pipeline.

Sales development reps did an average of 94.4 daily activities including an average of 36.2 emails (38.4%), 35.9 phone calls (38.0%), 15.3 voicemail messages (16.2%), and 7.0 social media touches (7.4%).

They reps had an average of 14.1 meaningful conversations a day, which was around 15 percent of their daily activities.

For all their effort, not all sales development reps are able to reach 100% of their quota.

Why Sales Development Reps Only Report 63% Quota Attainment

The quota for pipeline generated was $658,692, however companies report only 63.5% quota attainment for SDRs.

The report is an eye-opener for sales leaders interested in increasing their team’s performance.

For high-performing teams, the combination of sales training, self-motivated sales reps and AI-recommended lead prioritization can mean the difference between failure and success.

Sales leaders need to see this as an opportunity to make changes – and act on it. We need to enable sales reps to work smarter, rather than harder.

You can read the executive summary of the State of Sales Development 2017 here.