Insightly, an Unbounce company reposted this
Sales leaders know the challenge of getting AEs to self-source pipeline. Prospecting is the ugly duckling of sales but when your pipe doesn’t solely rely on marketing, your funnel is significantly stronger and more versatile. This is when real revenue growth happens. If you want your AEs to be motivated to self-source, you’ve gotta set them up for success. Try these few tactics to help. 1 - Set realistic activity targets Your AEs know when activity targets were pulled out of your a**. Younger reps, esp Gen Z, are less likely to follow directives blindly. Use historical company data or industry benchmarks to set objective initial targets. 2 - Explain the “why” Using a sales math calculator, sit with AEs individually to reverse-engineer what activities they need to perform to reach their goals. Reps need to believe these goals are tangible and achievable. 3 - Enable them with training You’ll see a noticeable difference when you tell your AEs to prospect vs. continually enabling them with tactics and tips to help. 4 - Balance competition and support Create friendly competitions among your AEs to spark their competitive spirit. Use leaderboards, rewards, and recognition to highlight top performers. At Insightly, we’re sending the top rep to their event of choice this summer. 5 - Give them the tools they need to be efficient If your AEs are going to self-source pipe, they need to be as efficient as possible in doing so. Your part is supplying them with a killer tech stack (in our case, a killer CRM, Salesloft, 6sense, LinkedIn Sales Nav, Gong, etc.). What did I miss? What works for your team?
Matt Green
1mo
I see stories on here so often of new hires being given unattainable targets - love the idea of #2 to reinforce that what you expect is attainable and how they can do that.
Alex Newmann
1mo
Without #3, the whole thing is wishful thinking. The select few will take it upon themselves and learn new tools, but training is a must to get all to do it and do it similarly David Osborne
Jordan Karr
1mo
Most sales orgs have expectations for their AE teams sourcing a % of outbound pipegen. AE's typically complain and do not want to partake in this motion. And honestly, with an ever increasing quota on their head, I don't blame them. Actively AI helps reps automate the most tedious aspects of pipegen so they can fixate on speaking with engaged prospects and closing more deals while sourcing pipe incredibly efficiently. More specifically... automating the research on an account, enriching accounts with the right prospects, deciding which accounts/prospects to target, and even crafting a first touch email with hyper relevancy has made pipegen SO much easier for AEs. David, we're native in SFDC + your SEP and our ENTIRE goal is to make the pipegen process streamlined and easy.
Carver Marshall
1mo
When I brought my ae’s onto Nooks to collaborate with their sdrs live on calls- I had 2 AEs book within an hour on their hand picked lists using the tool. AEs time is valuable it’s about arming them to be most efficient with prospecting.
Craig Daly
1mo
Literally in the thick of this right now. Great post DO
Allen Lin
1mo
Often times it is helpful to hire enterprise hunter / closers who generate 100% of their own pipeline and go after named accounts. With existing AEs, set baseline outbound closed deals targets (monthly, quarterly, yearly). Increase commissions on self sourced deals.
Matt Baggott
1mo
The tools mentioned are great for segmenting your lists, but still don't help create high quality outreach that converts from scratch. What do you recommend for the actual message creation David Osborne?
Scott Martinis
1mo
gotta change their comp tbh
Oksana Skomska
1mo
Great points, David! How does Insightly tailor its CRM to enhance AE prospecting effectiveness?
CEO @ Champify | Helping GTM teams turn existing relationships into new business
1moWe just compiled 10+ interviews with other CROs -- looks super familiar to the same themes: https://www.champify.io/resources/how-to-build-an-outbound-culture/overview