#439 - Use This Discovery Call Formula to Get More Demos Booked | Kevin Dorsey

Every 10th episode, we tear down one topic. This time, we’re talking about landing your forecast in Q4. Bonus: Get the 30MPC Forecasting Guide ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS The forecast should never be a surprise to your manager. You should be able to give one-sentence pipeline review updates and get through over 15 deals in a 30-minute pipeline review into your forecast. For your forecast, you're going to call your key deals and your worst case and move to your commit, which is your bet on what will actually happen. Play the spread. If your commit consists of one deal landing, you should probably have two to four in inventory. Throughout the month or the quarter, your forecast will start to taper. Don't be a sandbag - don’t set a goal or forecast that's way too high. RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

12 Joulu 202327min

Kyle’s Competency Framework FOUR ACTIONABLE LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS Pick 1-3 competencies to coach a rep on max. Train your team, then establish a coaching rhythm to reinforce the training and a metric to track it. Get your managers bought in otherwise your training will fall flat. Turn your managers into microphones instead of filters. Give your reps multiple ways to get to a “good day” — build a Good Day Framework that assigns points to both inputs and outcomes. If you have a rep who isn’t willing to work hard at the professional development plan that both you AND they agreed to… why would you keep working with that rep? PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB RVP, High Tech Acquisition for North America @ MongoDB RVP, High Tech Acquisition - Midwest, Northeast, and Canada @ MongoDB RVP of Sales, Corporate Midwest @ Qualtrics RVP of Sales, Midwest CX @ Qualtrics RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

7 Joulu 202332min

But wait! Want more from Grace & Outreach? Check out the 30MPC X Outreach: 1 Sequence to Create and 5 Templates to Close FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS Brainstorm how you're going to advance each of your opportunities before you have your pipeline review with your manager. Don't show up like a deer in headlights. Block time for immediately after your pipeline reviews to take action on the things you agreed to do to drive your deals forward. Structure your forecast calls - cover updates, health scores, next steps, amount, and close dates. Avoid spending the entire time on one deal by scheduling big bets calls for complex deal reviews. Utilize a zero inbox strategy by organizing your inbox into action items, read through later, awaiting a reply. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB Senior Account Executive @ Outreach Commercial Account Executive @ Outreach Enterprise Account Executive @ Dell EMC Account Executive @ Nasuni RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

5 Joulu 202329min

Mark Kosglow's Course FOUR ACTIONABLE LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS Re-evaluate your Q4 incentives. Lots of sales reps aren’t making money now. Throw in SPIFs and kickers that squeeze the juice out of ICP deals or even a $500 referral SPIF for customers. Build your 2024 model for efficiency instead of growth. Sell your CEO, board, or finance team on healthy attainment to keep your best reps fed. They will carry you through a downturn. Consider running hot. Your top sellers will over-perform and make up for a gap in capacity you might have with a bloated team. Get everyone on the same page on healthy growth. No one wants a horrible CAC payback, a burning sales team, or a team that can’t keep their top reps. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB Growth Partner @ Emergence Capital Mentor &Advisor @ Sales Assembly Mentor & Advisor @ Forum Ventures Mentor @ GrowthX Academy RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

30 Marras 202329min

FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS Back Pocket Questions - Prepare multiple questions for your sales calls that you can pull out at any time. Use them if you get "stuck" at any point. Strategic Social Proof - instead of simply namedropping customers, use customer story examples that are relevant to how you’d envision your buyer using your service, ex. Having a similar use case. Make Discounting "Weird" - When you get hit with a price objection, your response needs to signal concern/confusion. You want to signal that this request is not biz as usual. Alternative Video Use Cases - Video isn’t just for prospecting. Use video for "pre-call context" + "post-call recaps" + "Exec Summaries" PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB Founder @ 30 Minutes to President’s Club Senior Account Executive @ Time by Ping Enterprise Account Executive @ SurePoint Technologies Account Executive @ Aderant RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

28 Marras 202332min

FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS Don't put your customer in box. Use "soft" language like "typically", "usually" and "what I've seen". Before holding an intro meeting with a new prospect, mine your ecosystem for inside intel about what they care about & what they're like. Always assume there are multiple decision-makers in a deal (not just 1). Tell the customer upfront who you're NOT for - it actually makes you appear more credible. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB Head @ DemandJen Head of Community Growth @ Lavender Social Social @ Co-Founder Chief Evangelist @ Challenger RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

21 Marras 202333min

FOUR ACTIONABLE LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS Burndown: Every day before the end of the month, make your team put all open deals in a spreadsheet with a two-line update. When you’re rolling out a methodology like command of the message, you can’t stop at the initial training. Every single new product launch needs to be trained in that framework, otherwise, it’s forgotten. Make sure your reps tell you what role you need to play on calls! Your CRO can always freestyle, but they much prefer you tell them what to do. 80% of the upward communications should be focused on the problems you need to solve. Often times your CEO just wants to know that you’re aware of the problems. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB CRO @ Vanta Founding Partner @ 20SALES Founding operator at @ Coalition Postal Vice President, Mid-Market Sales @ Twilio RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

16 Marras 202332min

FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS Anytime you’re asking about a get — sell why it’s important to the business. IE: You moving faster allows us to get ahead in our heavy implementation season. Assign values to the different “gets” from a customer and put together a slide that walks the customer through these. When turning down bad deals, walk them through how finance wouldn’t ever agree to multi-year flat deal, but how they can achieve a similar outcome with a different commercial structure. If someone slips on a timeline commitment, you might have to honor the number, but you can always ask for another get in return. PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB Director of Sales @ Pave Senior Manager of Sales @ Pave Client Strategy Manager @ Uber Strategic Partnerships @ Uber RESOURCES DISCUSSED Join our weekly newsletter Things you can steal

14 Marras 202333min