How to be in the Top 8% of Sales Reps

Alright, it’s a new year, and you’re obsessed with hitting quota - right?

By any means necessary you’re going to hit your number, earn those commission checks, and get promoted this year. I love it! But how are you going to make sure that happens?

One word: consistency.

And that’s by far the most frustrating part about finding success in sales. We aren’t solving world problems, it’s a simple role that’s tough to execute on. Don’t over complicate things. You’re primarily responsible for:

  1. Research / Prospecting - I suggest using the 3x3 model: find 3 pieces of information on the prospect and 3 pieces of information on the company in 3 minutes. Then move on.

  1. Outbound Outreach - Quickly personalizing your outreach based on what you learned in 3 minutes from Linkedin, Press Releases, and Earning Reports - pepper this info into your call script and emails. Don’t spend 20 minutes crafting every email, that’s not scalable for anyone. (another newsletter on ‘Personalization @ Scale’ soon)

If you’re an SDR, #1 and #2 need to become your happy place. Of course you have meetings with your AE’s, team meetings, training, etc. But I promise you - if you’re missing some of those meetings because you’re busy putting up numbers, your leadership won’t mind.

Prioritize and protect your time.

If you’re an AE, a large chunk of your time is spent walking prospects through sales cycles and closing deals. But as much as you can, absorb #1 and #2 as a responsibility as well. Your activity volumes won’t match your SDRs, but as long as you’re consistently prospecting alongside closing active opportunities (leverage your automation tools here), hitting your revenue quota gets a lot easier.

Assuming you had some sort of SDR-like role in the past, don’t let go of that mindset.

Here are a few well known sales stats that serve as a good reminder for adopting consistency in your sales outreach:

  • Only 2% of sales are made on the first contact, where 80% are made between the 5th and 12th contact.

  • 40% of salespeople give up after the very first contact - with tools like Outreach and Salesloft, there’s really no excuse to be this person anymore.

  • At any given time, 56% of your prospects are not ready to buy. By remaining consistent, you plant seeds before they’re in a position to move and you’ll be there when they have the green light.

  • 😱 Jaw Dropper: Only 8% of sales reps follow up more than 5 times!

So, when you ask yourself how you’re going to hit quota this year the answer is simple: be consistent.

It’s all in the data ​​ 👆

As a heads up, keep your eyes peeled for an announcement later this week - big news coming from The Daily Sales Rep! We’re about to make hitting your quota easier and being a salesperson a whole lot more fun (community style!)

New Job Opportunity!

Now, if you spent all last year being consistent and you put up strong numbers but feel under-appreciated or underpaid, maybe you’re looking for a new role. And if that’s the case, take a look at this company and job description below:

Company: Brainstorm Labs (Veteran Owned)

Industry: IT Services (Program & Project Management, Data Engineering)

Compensation: $85K OTE (or more depending on performance)