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Ace profile picture

Ace

CEO

Arsonist
Politicker
Valued Contributor
+7

What's 1 most useless thing salespeople do?

This is an opportunity to learn. There might be some things we do as salespeople involuntarily that we can let go. Just want to learn from this thread if there's something I have been holding on to, perhaps a habit that's hindering my performance, which is useless that I should let go.

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68 comments

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CuriousFox
WR Officer
10
🦊
Wait til the last minute to complete a project.

Like right now I have something due in SF before our video call at 8. Yet, I'm here 😆
Ace
Arsonist
1
CEO
Haha, I feel you on that. I do that too. But I think that's the engineer in me. We always waited till last min to turn in a project
KingofGIF
Politicker
1
AE
@CuriousFox Just foud my sales spirit animal -- I do the same
UserNotFound
Politicker
10
Account Executive
Unpopular opinion- true cold calls are the most useless. (Caveat: for tenured reps). If you're new and trying to get your talk track down, earn some street cred and understand what the needs in your industry are then yes, absolutely necessary for multiple years on end. 

But established reps, consistently working the same territory, making true cold calls is sideways energy. Ask your current accounts for warm intros, go network, get involved in charity work and turn that into qualified leads. 
Ace
Arsonist
2
CEO
Such a good answer. You are 100% spot on for this. After a point you just graduate from the traditional cold calling. You will have to leverage other things
UserNotFound
Politicker
1
Account Executive
@Ace I come from an industry where everyone thought the cold call was king. I had it out with management a few times that you cannot hold new reps and tenured reps to the same cold-call metrics because a tenured rep should be leveraging the relationships they've built for all those years coming up. If they hit their numbers using different pathways that should be CELEBRATED, not punished. 
Ace
Arsonist
1
CEO
Exactly. Double down on what works. Be creative. Sad how wrong management can get it sometimes
SalesLlama
Good Citizen
2
SAE
LOUDER for the managers stuck in the past!
Ace
Arsonist
1
CEO
100%
BCD
Politicker
0
BDR
Have to agree on this one
Rallier
Politicker
8
SDR Manager and Consultant
Giving an overview of the company while on a demo. It's not like the old days of going into a demo blind, we have the internet now
Ace
Arsonist
4
CEO
Right, but in my experience a lot of people still don't do their homework before the call
CaneWolf
Politicker
2
Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract
@Ace - I think it depends on what you do. But I agree with @Rallier in general. Nobody gives a fuck about your company overview slide unless you can somehow make it hyper-relevant to them. "Hey, we built our business on 10 clients just like you. Here are some examples." Other than that, put the information about them and how you're solving it first and last. Sprinkle in the stuff about the company as you go. 
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
Yeah sprinkling the stuff throughout the conversation seems like a good way to do it. It keeps them engaged!
Chep
WR Officer
6
Bitcoin Adoption Specialist
Putting too many emotions into our deals. Hard not to take all the no’s personally but the better I get at separating myself from the outcome of a deal the happier I’ve been
Telehealth_2the_Moon
Notable Contributor
1
Director of Business Development
That's something I've been having to remind myself of regularly over the past few weeks. I've had a significant deal (+50% of my yearly quota) that's been "about to sign" for a while now, just killing me!
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
Perfect. Never take it personally!
slaydie
Big Shot
0
Account Executive
I second this!
bobushka
Contributor
5
SDR
follow up with prospects who will never buy
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
That's a good one!
Closed
Opinionated
3
Enterprise Account Executive
“Hey just checking in”
SalesPharaoh
Big Shot
2
Senior Account Executive
Crm manual inputting. Or taking rejections personally 
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
I think a lot of CRMs have moved out of that right?
SalesPharaoh
Big Shot
0
Senior Account Executive
Well a lot yes but depends on where you work and alot have those generic autofill options that are not helpful.
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
I agree. Those autofills are very bad
funcoupons
WR Officer
2
👑
Chasing deals that will never close. 
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
But how would one know that beforehand
funcoupons
WR Officer
2
👑
There are almost always signals. 
Accidental_Sales_Guy
Politicker
2
Account Executive
Calling for the sake of hitting call metrics- working out of a mindset of hitting a number vs helping people and having good conversations
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
100%
Salespreuner
Big Shot
1
Regional Sales Director
Over multi tasking and multi tabbing, may be :D!
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
Haha, I feel you on that one. Do you do that too?
Salespreuner
Big Shot
0
Regional Sales Director
not much, have time frames set just like now ,tea time!
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
Ah that's cool. I do that too
Salespreuner
Big Shot
0
Regional Sales Director
Perfect!
CCP
Opinionated
1
VP, Business Development
Reading through the comments in the War Room, probably haha
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
LOL
thegrinch
Politicker
1
SDR
Get upset with our managers
Abydocomist86
1
Client Manager
Making small talk like asking them about the weather.
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
I am guilty of that too lol
Lambda
Tycoon
0
Sales Consultant
procrastinate, pick up the phone and call someone, who cares if you f up the phone call, making the call is better than not 10 times out of 10
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
You mean don't procrastinate?
RedHotCheetos
Good Citizen
0
Business Development Representative
Overthink. Just make the dial/write the email/ send the LinkedIn request. 

Overthinking it wastes time, which is a precious commodity in sales.
Ace
Arsonist
1
CEO
Man I connect with this so much. I still do it and go into a spiral and waste an hour or so just overthinking shit
RandomPaperclip
Valued Contributor
1
Sr. AE
ha, spend 30 minutes drafting/crafting up (what I think) is a winning E-mail via research etc. only to send it and it immediately come back as "invalid" 

hate it
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
Oh god, IKR
bswdr
Old School Bravo
0
Inbound Sales Manager
Doing research on a lead and not documenting it in your sales enablement/CRM, so then every single time you cold call that lead, you have to bring up their LI again and do the same research that you could have documented previously the first time
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
Yeah, that's too much 
braintank
Politicker
0
Enterprise Account Executive
Leaving voicemails
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
You don't think they work?
braintank
Politicker
0
Enterprise Account Executive
As part of cold outreach, no. When was the last time you listened to a voicemail from a stranger?  
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
Ah I don't even remember. You're right
SalesCurmudgeon
Opinionated
0
AE
Spending time updating spreadsheets with activity info, pipe growth, or opportunity data.... when all that $hit lives in crm.
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
ugh, I hate it too
Dr.Sales
0
Executive
With salespeople only spending ~35% of their time selling, there are many items that fall into this category 
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
Like what all?
Bankable
Opinionated
0
VP Relationship Manager
I say a combo of the following :

Outreaching a prospect 1 or 2 times then never trying again.  Pretty pointless if you don't continue the drip and plant seeds consistently.

Never letting go of a prospect/deal that has zero chance of going anywhere. You can put a lot of valuable time/energy into a black hole of suck.
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
I'm guilty of the first one for sure. But these are great points
Stringer
Arsonist
0
SDR
Lie to win. Implementation blows up. 

Had a coworker do this for a 1.5 MM deal. He was already close to his 2 MM quota so when he closed this, he crushed the quota. Sales Rep of the year, huge bonus as SKO, P-club executive (pent-house room and all activities paid). When March rolled around for implementation they realized we couldn't integrate with their accounting system and on top of that, the COO was never looped into the deal somehow.

After 2-months of negotiation and trying to repair, our SVP pulled the deal. My coworker hit quota that year too but wasn't allowed to go to P-club. At that point, everyone pretty much knew he had snaked the deal along through dinners, swag, and a lot of office time. 
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
Damn, that's bad. Never could imagine being in his place and fucking up such a big deal
nomdeguerre
Executive
0
Account executive
Forecasting
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
Why is that?
nomdeguerre
Executive
0
Account executive
I find that most organization's approach to forecasting is flawed. They try to forecast individual deals, which is basically trying to predict human behavior... good luck with that one.

I believe the right approach to forecasting to forecast numbers, as in how much $$ is going to close not what individual deals.

The forecasted $$ is supported by a number of potential deals and mathematical calculations of how much is going to close based on past experience, i.e. you have $100,000K of closable revenue in your pipeline for the quarter made up of e.g. 5 deals. Based on historical data 1 deal will slide, 1 will be lost and for the rest you typically end up giving 20% discount. Based on this now you can actually make a realistic forecast of how much $$ will close in the quarter, but without trying to predict the actions of individual people which is impossible.

Hope that makes sense.
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
This kind of did make sense but I had to read twice lol. But I get your point. Management is not as robust when it comes to change. They won't fix what has been working

Cabbie
Good Citizen
0
AE (Account Executive)
"Hey just getting this to the top of your inbox".

We used to have an old cadence that had this pre-built in and I never saw the point of it. Doesn't add any value whatsoever. 
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
What phraseology would you prefer to re-touch bases?
BCD
Politicker
0
BDR
Go into a conversation without doing even the bare minimum research on their customer 
Ace
Arsonist
0
CEO
This irritates me the most

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