Erin Stewart

Final post in the "recipe for parts selling series" and it's a big one. Fitment. Fitment is probably the MOST common pain point I hear on a daily basis when discussing sellers' needs. In 2024, there are two main takeaway points to fitment data: - Nobody has an easy answer. - Fitment is the single most difficult challenge in selling online. I explain it to my customers like this... A Lamborghini uses Ford turn signals. Now, you would never know this on the surface, but if you dig in deep to the fitment, you know! Someone can sell those turn signals at a massive premium just by adding the Lamborghini listing and having that fitment. See how impactful fitment can be? A $5 part is now a $500 part. All thanks to fitment. So how do we get better fitment data in our listings? Two ways: - Aftermarket data providers - Manual addition into the listings from a knowledgeable individual The issue I see with #1 is anyone with a pulse and a credit card can get access to that data. SO YOU ARE JUST RAISING THE LEVEL OF ENTRY against your competitors. They can access this just as easily. So I recommend hitting the books and getting the knowledge you need from good old-fashioned studying. This is why I recommend to clients to be curated in their catalogs. Become well known in one parts selling area. You don't need 600,000 SKUs to sell well online. You can sell the snot out of a few hundred and really do well with exceptional fitment data.

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What's the pulse for Tech Sales Hiring? I think we're well past the bottom of the market. 49% of respondents are getting at least 3 approaches per month right now. Gong's CEO, Amit Bendov noted on SaaStr this week: "Businesses overspent and overbought in 2021 Over-cut and underspent the following year and rationalised. Companies are now out of the shock and back to moderate growth". IMO Hiring activity reflects that for now and will trend upwards from here.

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There are two ways to solve gaps in signal-based selling. Only one is guaranteed to work at scale. 1) Revenue Enablement Provide continuous training for (a) every new hire who joins a team and (b) every 6 months to refresh reps on essential information, workflows, and processes. Many factors can impact the effectiveness of enablement activities (from the comprehensiveness of training materials to the trainer’s institutional knowledge, to how closely the individual reps were paying attention that day). Enablement only becomes harder as more people and processes are added to the mix because there are so many moving parts. 2) Revenue Operations Through automation, RevOps can reduce gaps — especially from human error — that cause friction or inaction among reps. Specifically, end-to-end automation. Most common “automations” in signal-based selling usually don’t go far enough. Therefore teams are overly reliant on enablement touchpoints to stay aligned. Ex: A champion moves to a new role and this is automatically updated in Salesforce This automation gets the process from point A to point B, but still relies on multiple human touches from B to Z. End-to-end automation ensures that essential tasks throughout an entire workflow are set up to keep the process moving toward an end goal. It anticipates gaps and opportunities for human error from point A to point Z (meeting booked). Ex: A champion moves to a new role, the CRM record is updated, a rep is notified, and a multi-step persona-specific email sequence is triggered. Would every rep follow this process if it was entirely manual (even with enablement training)? Probably not. That’s why every signal play should be accompanied by clear workflows enabled with end-to-end automation. The play can scale with your team. Signals without action are just noise for reps. Automation guarantees signals get actioned.

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Last year I worked with one of the larger marketing agencies. Their CEO was pissed the sales team was missing targets. Here's what happened. There was high turnover with their SDRs. The outside reps weren't hitting quota. And HR kept adding more hires to a system that wasn't working. The best sales organizations rely on a system, The sales system is recruiting, hiring, training and retaining. The organization didn't have a sales problem, They had a system problem. You can't fix a poor sales system with more hiring. Overhauling of the entire sales process was necessary to address the root cause of their underperformance.

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Last week on Jason Bay’s webinar Mark Kosoglow called BS on my idea of Inbound-Led Outbound. He said, “Adam, do you REALLY think anything you are doing is new?” It was a fair question. Here's my response: What do I think? - Each individual thing I am doing is not novel in itself - The combination of all of it together is not only unique, it’s tough to replicate Here’s the breakdown of my Inbound-Led Outbound plan, point-by-point, and how it’s new and different: 1. Be the #1 Founder Brand on LinkedIn. Mark said, “Everybody is saying I need to do what Adam’s doing, so it’s going to stop working like anything else.” Frankly, I don't think “everybody” can do what I do. Here’s why: - Few have the patience to learn the craft. It took 12 months of zero results - Few are comfortable sharing what I share. They have investors, etc - Few have the capacity to dedicate their life to it. They're CEOs of scaling co’s. - Few can spend the money on the team and production with ZERO connection to business results. Founder brand is not new. I believe the way that I am approaching it is. 2. Have a crazy freemium offer that drives insane word-of-mouth. My obsession with Mailchimp is ultimately responsible for our insane pricing. Having a free offer is nothing new. I believe that the REASON I’m doing it… Designing a business model that THRIVES when outbound response rates literally go to zero… ESPECIALLY in the product category that we’re in… Makes this unique and different. 3. Get a guest slot on EVERY podcast in the B2B space. The idea of a Podcast Tour is also not new. The issue is that no one wants you until you have a large audience! What’s new is that all of a sudden I can actually get ON all the podcasts. 4. Drive visitors to the site. If they don’t sign up, personalize automated outreach. Retargeting is not new. Person-Level Website Visitor Identity with RB2B IS new. Running visitors through Clay to determine ICP and send a message written by chatGPT IS new (and it converts at 11%!). TAKEAWAY: Mark is right. There is nothing new about any individual thing that I’m doing. I know to some, it just looks like marketing. But I believe that the combination of it all… And the WAY we are doing it… Everything together IS new and different. Everything together is Inbound-Led Outbound.

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📍 📱 Location-based searches are on the rise, with searches like "car dealer near me" or "restaurant near Central Park" totaling roughly 1.8 billion a month. 80% of these searches result in leads, sales, visits, or desired actions according to Google. However, traditionally, these types of searches are only properly addressed by Google Business (for services & shops) and vague landing pages on marketplaces. Dynamic landing pages that are optimized for specific locations, POI, or distance queries can help outrank competitors who may not be as precise in their location-based offerings. In the video below you can see how the search "flat near jay st station" is handled by Apartments.com and Rent.com. Apartments is able to localize POIs like stations and schools and provide highly relevant results around the specific location whilst Rent just shares a bunch of listings based on some poligon of the area. By catering to specific geolocation searches, you can increase the visibility of your site to a more targeted audience, which is clearly interested in your offering based on their proximity to your services, listings or products. But you can go a step forward: integrating TravelTime lets you dynamically display content based on the user's location or their search query locations. For example, if a user searches for "cafes near me" or "cafes near Central Park," the API can generate a page showing cafes within a time-based travel distance, making the content highly relevant to the searcher's query. In this way, you can leverage your database with advanced geolocation data capabilities to not only meet the user's search intent more effectively but also to enhance the overall SEO strategy by creating more engaging, relevant, and targeted results. The industries that can benefit from these are countless: automotive, real estate, retail chains, recruitment, services, healthcare etc etc So, if you're looking to improve your SERP ranking for searches containing "near me" or "near X", consider incorporating TravelTime to create more relevant and targeted content. (Oh and by caching the results you might finally make your AI stop hallucinating on what "near" means! 😉 ) #SEO #SERP #matching #geolocationdata #traveltime #tachyon

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"The biggest problem with BDRs is that their tenure is too short." Yup, that's right... Typically, a BDR progresses to an account executive within two years -- rarely does a top performer stay in the BDR role beyond that. This short tenure means many BDRs transition roles before fully mastering the nuances of outbound business development, which is constantly evolving, especially in 2024. Deep expertise in outbound strategies can make a substantial difference for so many early stage startups. But it only comes from extensive repetition and exposure to a wide range of scenarios. Hiring BDRs with one or two years of experience is standard, but expertise, developed over time through numerous companies and challenges, is invaluable. Whether it’s evaluating your outbound strategy, fixing underperforming channels, or accelerating time to revenue through refined outbound tactics, having an experienced hand can significantly benefit your team. Especially for early-stage startups! You guys have no time to waste... --- So where am I going with this? Underneath this problem is a hidden opportunity. If you are a top-performing BDR in 2024, don't sell yourself short or jump to the next opportunity right away. See if a startup is willing to hire you because of your specialized expertise and, of course, pay you accordingly. I know several top-performing BDRs that either started their own company or got a role as the first BDR hire at a startup and are absolutely crushing it. BDR isn't a joke. This role is tough. They need you. #sdr #outbound #saas

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Gong is freaking $. I barely use Hubspot anymore for deal management, forecasting, pipeline reviews. Their new AI features enable immediate and targeted access to this incredible wealth of information buried in call recordings. Also super powerful for identifying customer advocates and upsell opportunities, and spotting trends in customer success and product experience gaps. I know everyone in that space is fighting to build these big suites w/everything from CRM to call recording to sales engagement/sequences, but I think Gong has the biggest entry-point advantage starting in call recording, and my money is on them to win the race vs the rest. Salesforce is in a different boat - obviously SFDC will be fine regardless as the backend CRM/datalake, but they may lose ground on the front-end applications to Gong, although Slack is a game-changing asset and unfair advantage - so should be interesting.

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If you decide your sales team needs to help with renewals make sure they are incentivized correctly (I usually see a 70% new bookings goal and a 30% renewal / upsell goal). If you don't incentivize hunting, sales tend to farm too much and your growth will slow.

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AltiSales is revolutionizing SDR Leadership (and even for SDRs). It's not just about the Call Funnels (which are awesome, check them out) Or the Email Tracker (what's your Positive Reply Ratio?!?) It's the Notifications! I never realized how crucial notifications are for staying on top of things. As sales leaders, we juggle 5-10 different tools daily. Each with different reporting. Each with different tracking. And as a Sales Leader, you often have ZERO idea where to start troubleshooting. [Enter AltiSales.io] Every morning, I receive email notifications (and Slack messages) highlighting the areas that need troubleshooting. Whether it's templates in my sequences that need to be deactivated due to low positive replies, Or identifying which variant of an email from an A/B test has a better Positive Reply Ratio, Or addressing low connect rates for some users, Or overdue tasks piling up for reps, Or failed emails throughout all your sequences, Or pinpointing where, in the last 1, 2, 3, or 4 weeks, my reps are struggling with their cold calls, And so much more… Having more tools isn't the solution for your SDRs and leaders, but having the right visibility and notifications is. Before AltiSales, I thought I had a good grasp on the visibility I needed for troubleshooting, but I was operating on a chaotic model. With AltiSales, I am more zen and aware of every detail. Notifications... who would have thought... Check it out – it's free for Outreach users. #salesdevelopment #businessdevelopment #sales

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Should you move upmarket? Makes sense, right… Sales velocity is plummeting. Win-rates are down. Pipeline cvg is now 6-7x (instead of 4x). CAC is up. Burn multiple is being thrown around. AE’s self-prospecting is not filling the gap. Quota attainment is <40%. The concept of linearity is failing i.e double $$ revenue = double leads = double opps = double headcount Seems logical to off-set a decaying Sales Velocity with a nice big bump in ACV. But, before you rewrite ICP and revamp messaging, take a breath. Moving upmarket may not be the right move. Consider the following: ✅ Are you targeting the right customers with the right message in the right channels? ✅ Is CAC optimised? Should it be moved from sales to marketing? ✅ Can incremental improvements across funnel/bow-tie compound results? ✅ Is the buyer journey & sales process aligned to the nuances of your product/industry/persona (be honest 😶 )? ✅ Capacity and effectiveness: should you reassess GTM orchestration i.e GTM motion, headcount, capacity, productivity KPIs, tooling. ✅ Re-assessing PMF and talking to customers who’ve purchased the fastest, expanded the quickest, and delivered the highest LTV. Triangulate learning(s) for messaging, positioning, and marketing initiatives. Moving upmarket can be a fantastic growth strategy, but it's not a band-aid for underlying issues. Diagnose the root cause of slowing sales velocity and explore all options. It might be that a few tactical adjustments to your existing approach can put you back on track, or perhaps a strategic GTM realignment is needed first, and moving up-market (eventually) is about offence, rather than defence.

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Top 5 key metrics I recommend CROs use for inside sales professionals: 1. Speed of response 2. Efficiency of progression through the process 3. Number of calls per day 4. Number of positive outcomes 5. Demo sets As a CRO leader, these are five metrics that I live by. 

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Successful, outside sales driven companies prioritize transparency. They aren't surprised with revenue hits or revenues misses. Success is not left to chance. The path to revenue is well defined and measured. Outside reps know WHEN & WHY they need to see each account as they have data guiding them visually. - revenue up or down y/y, m/m - category data growing / shrinking - gm up or down - product expansion oppty - competitor hiccups - renewal timeframes - diagnostic tests up / down m/m - scripts written growing / decreasing Inefficiencies and waste are avoided like the plague. Customer Engagement with the right people at the right time is the number one goal. #outsidesales #fieldsales

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Conversation with an experience and polished VP of Sales. Privately held, $1.2 billion company 125 outside sales reps His predecessor deployed Salesforce in 2017. They had spreadsheets and headsheets as their “CRM” prior to Salesforce. In 2024 - they are now spending another cool $1m on a redeployment of Salesforce. Salesforce wasn’t centered on or deployed around what the OSRs needed. That purchase decision was made around what the prior VP wanted for reporting alone. Top down equates to low or no adoption. 👉 No data or worse yet, poor data 👉 Wasted investment dollars 👉 Disruption / distraction to the business 👉 Frustrated OSRs Buy a platform centered around what your OSRs need to succeed or get ready to justify why those promised dashboards and reports are so empty. #outsidesales #fieldsales

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SDRs are so critical to success, depending on company size, yet like many GTM functions, they too are under reduction pressure. Data from Jason S. of Live Data Technologies (article in comments) showing that SDR function may be normalizing some, not wholesale decreases like the headlines suggest. SDRs are the glue between the Marketing and Selling function. 3 years ago on one of my LI posts, we all said that SDRs would be future CEOs. Now the headline is cut them. It's an incredibly challenging job for a junior person. And may be better suited for inbound and/or transactional type selling with narrower buying committees. What are you experiencing with your SDR function? ___________ 👏 Follow B2B Fusion on Go To Market best practice strategies. 👍 Like and subscribe to B2B Fusion YT videos, 200+ GTM best practices! 🤙🏽 Struggling with faster, more efficient growth? Let's talk.

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ZoomInfo Copilot is working 24/7 — surfacing important updates you should know about your top accounts. With breaking alerts delivered via Slack, you'll never miss when a buying group shifts or a key account spikes on intent. 🔔 Have a question about one of your accounts? Ask Copilot's interactive, AI-powered chat and get answers in seconds. Ready to give Copilot a try? Message me today ! #ZoomInfoCopilot #zoominfo

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Being a BDR is HARD ...low phone pick-up's, companies being overwhelmed with spam, and so forth... Being an exceptional SDE/SDR/BDR ... is HARD.  Being a stressed BDR & missing quota ...is HARD. Select your HARD. Folks in business development can google tactics and strategies like everyone else online or hire a coach. I think it's smart to do both. But what it will not do is this: -this goes for AE messaging, too, who are engaged in business development and working pipeline. 1) It won't help in developing a compelling and engaging business conversation around significant financial matters and how your asset operationally increases a company's gross margins, cash flow, profitability, etc. within organizations …which in fact is how an executive-level decision-maker is 1) measured, 2) compensated, and 3) incentivized. This is not taught. 2) It won't help in creating or securing quality appointments utilizing executive language / dialect effectively “connecting” with VPs and the C-suite as it relates to strategic business issues and a company's business value drivers. This is not taught. Economic decision makers care about this deeply. Why not talk to this? … we were never taught this in sales camp; complete insanity. This is how economic decision makers make business decisions within their business. This business / financial messaging and/or content might sound complicated. It might make us feel awkward just thinking about it. We don't have to have a MBA in order to have business language proficiency. It’s doable. What a financial/business/shareholder value conversions will help SDEs, SDRs, and BDRs do: 1) It will help bring value and info that your prospects are "not aware" of which "differentiates you from typical vendor calls" and give you more air-time to book a quality appointment. 2) It helps SDRs get more appointments via cold call and emails. 3) Helps set up BDRs for promotions; Manager, AE, etc. We aim for opportunities that lead to "meaningful pipeline," not just appointments.

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We surveyed over 100 revenue leaders, and 91% said they’re betting on signal-based GTM. What does this mean for the future of outbound? CURRENT STATE Bad outbound practices are the norm. Spray-and-pray approaches are flooding inboxes, leading to never-ending cold calls, and making prospects scared to check their LinkedIn DMs. Vendors are creating more problems for their prospects, not focusing on solving them. PARADIGM SHIFT Saving outbound requires a new mindset: Why > who Quality > quantity Relevance > randomness Personalization > generalization Signals have emerged as the way forward because they add relevance and focus to outbound efforts. FUTURE STATE & PREDICTIONS With the right signals and actions in place, GTM teams can reduce wasted time, resources, and prospect goodwill. ➡️ To make signal-based GTM work well, your teams need to focus on: → Identifying triggers that indicate WHY a prospect is more likely to buy → Developing end-to-end workflows that fit your sales process → Making sure you use the right signals for your motion → Personalization that is relevant to your prospects → Ensuring your contact-level data is reliable 🔮 I predict that as more teams embrace signal-based GTM, we’ll see: → Fewer activity requirements for sellers → More involved sales rep training → Better personalized messages But this future won’t come without some growing pains this year.

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