[Sales Class] How You Can Close Larger Sales More Consistently with Terry Hansen

How you sell is one of the biggest differentiators between you and your competitors. By using methods like the PIMAT discussed here in Terry’s video, you can overcome common sales speed bumps and maximize your potential to land larger deals.

Speed bumps in closing large deals:

Long sales cycles

Figure out a way to shrink the sales cycle. Decrease the amount of time between when you meet a prospect and make the sale. Sometimes this can drag on for months or years.

Tough sales objectives

If you can’t overcome the prospects concerts about your product the likelihood of you selling them on large deals is weakened.

Stiff competition

Getting into price battles with our competitors. Differentiate yourself from them with your value and not just your price.

Low value deals

Try not to focus on the smaller low value deals and instead on bigger deals that can move the needle. An example would be for a printer to take an order for a $50 business card order vs $5,000 for a catalogue order.

PIMAT – 5 important topics that we need to talk about with a prospect during the “Needs Analysis” stage of the sales cycle.

1. Introduction

2. Needs analysis

→ [P.I.M.A.T]

3. Sales presentation

4. Close the sale

P: Problem – When you start your needs analysis conversation, ask about the goals they want to accomplish and where they are currently. The gap between where they are and where they want to be is the “problem.”

I: Impact –  What damage are the problems causing to the company. This could be a financial oriented problem, time oriented problem, or employee moral/personal oriented problem.

M: Money – Figure out a budgetary range that you can use to create solutions for the prospect. GIve them different price ranges to solve the variety of problems that you have uncovered.

A: Authority – The “who” factor. Who is the decision maker and who else should be involved in the decision to approve a deal. Also ask what factors they are going to consider, if there is a timing perspective to the decision, and what process they go through when making the decision.

T: Technical – The nitty gritty details. If you are building a car, its asking what’s the make, model, color, and interior elements. You have to determine how you will customize what you are selling to suit their needs and create a win-win for both of you.

As you go through the PIMAT process you can eliminate any and all objections that the prospect has upfront and prevent any objections from coming up at the end of the sale.

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[Sales Class] Understanding Buyer Psyche with Zach Barney

Zach Barney has valuable insight into the different aspects of a buyer’s psyche, and in this video he explains why understanding the mind frame of a lead can make or break your chances at eventually landing a deal with them.

If you’re familiar with sales and marketing then you know that a buyer’s journey is the process a client goes through when moving from being just a prospect to being a signed customer.

An example of a buyer’s journey is: Prospect -> Awareness Stage -> Research Stage -> Consideration Stage -> Decision Stage -> Customer. As a salesperson, you have to be their guide and take them through these stages while overcoming any obstacles that you encounter along the way.

The problem with the traditional buyer’s journey, Zach explains, is that it misses the analysis of your Total Addressable Market (TAM).

When you reach out to a company for the first time, you need to pay attention to the “signals,” that speak to their interest in needing your product. The signals can be conversations a colleague had with them, company press releases, public information, etc. These, along with your initial conversation with them, will help you gauge which of the below TAM buckets they fall into.

  • 30% of your TAM know they do not need you
  • 30% of your TAM don’t think they need you
  • 30% of your TAM doesn’t care
  • 7% of your TAM is open to a conversation
  • 3% of your TAM is actively trying to solve a problem you can fix

A lot of people think the purpose of their initial conversation with a lead is to take them through the entire buyer’s journey of not knowing about you to being a signed customer. Instead, Zach says, your job is to get them from “I don’t need you” to “I don’t think I need you.” Next, you need to get them from “I don’t care” to “I’m open to a conversation” and so on and so forth.

It often takes time to move a prospect through these stages, so focus on the long game. By understanding their buyer psyche, you can make them aware of the benefits they gain from working with you, address any objections they have, and take them through the TAM stages until they are your newest client.


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[Sales Class] How to Build Better Sales Presentations with Alli McKee

Alli wants to help sales teams be better at three things: Develop a compelling narrative, present with better visuals, and use presentations to make sales more effectively.

Often times every rep on a sales team has a slightly different “franken-deck” that they present from, and most of the good marketing content goes unused. Instead, every rep should tell the same story using the same assets all while can customizing it in their own way to walk the prospect through their specific needs.

How to build your presentation:

There are several elements to building an effective presentation. First, Alli explains, is that you need to start your presentation off by showing how your product improves things compared to the “old way,” whatever that may be for your business. Next, discuss the value of your product and what they will gain by using it, followed by some type of proof like a reputable case study or testimonial. Throughout the presentation, there should be a compelling storyline to keep the audience engaged and interested.

Start your story with “Change” – Show the old way of doing things and the problems associated with it compared to the new, better way of doing things (and how your product plays into that). Focus on the pain of point A to show why getting to point B is valuable.

Talk about what is gained from your product – Discuss the gains from the perspective of the customer, not from your perspective or your product’s perspective. You want them to leave with a clear understanding of the outcome they can achieve with your product and the value associated with your service.

Show proof – It’s not just about volume (showing a ton of logos on a slide). Instead, say “everyone like you is using this” and provide relevant examples.

Add a storyline – Narrative matters, and pitches that include a compelling story have a higher success rate of bringing the discussion to the next stage.

How to deliver your presentation:

How you deliver your presentation is one of the most important pieces to the equation. This is where you get the attention of your audience and have the opportunity to take them on a carefully constructed journey using a clean slide layout, simple graphics, and a discussion that comes off as free-flowing.

Slide layout – When you have text-first slides, your audience is reading, not listening to you. When you have visual-first slides, your audience will look at the slide while listening to you talk about it.

Dont present directly from the proposal – Use slides with less text to help guide the conversation, as opposed to slides with a lot of descriptive text which can be sent to those who weren’t there for the meeting.

Simplify your visuals – Use easy to follow, simple graphics. Graphic overload can confuse the audience and lead to them being disengaged.

Keep it brief – Try to keep your presentation to under 9 minutes. If you go over 9 minutes, try to use that 9 minute point to switch to a demo or an interactive part of the conversation.

Following Up

By going through these steps you can show your audience that you’re conscious of their specific needs and not just going through the motions of a cookie-cutter presentation.

Follow up with a message laying out the audience’s situation today. Address their roles, teams, processes, tools, timing, and goals. Next, take the three biggest concepts/pain points that were discussed and show how specific benefits from your product will solve each of the three problems. This follow-up template can then be turned into their buying guide.

By taking Alli’s advice on building better presentations you can take your sales pitches to the next level, make an instant connection with those you present to, and land more deals.

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[Sales Class] Negotiating Tactics and Countermeasures with Tony Perzow

In this course Tony Perzow lays out some of the most commonly used negotiating tactics and how to countermeasure them with authority and confidence.

Having a plan when going into a negotiation is the most important thing. Many of us go into negotiating overthinking everything that can go wrong, but good negotiators can push those worries aside and focus on shaping the conversation to get what’s best for them.

Tony also explains that negotiating involves taking risks and one of the biggest but most uncommon risks that a salesperson will take is saying “no.” Below he discusses how to use saying “no” to your advantage and to be an effective negotiator in the process.

Negotiating Tactics

The Nibble

One of the most popular tactics is called the Nibble. A nibble is a small and insignificant ask that isn’t a deal breaker and is usually brought up in the final stage of the deal closing.

Counter measures to nibbles:

-Saying “no, I’m sorry we never give that for free.”

-Saying “are you kidding?” which will catch them by surprise and not try to

-You can say “Yes, I’ll give you that, but since we are revising our agreement, i need to check with legal and it might take a few weeks” which will make them not want to deal with going through that process

-Say you need to speak with your boss first

The Squeeze

The squeeze is when a buyer nurtures and woo’s the salesperson, making them believe you are going to strike the perfect deal, but at the last minute say they need to have a better price.

When this happens, its suggested that salespeople stick to their original pricing and instead say they are willing to negotiate but can’t come down to the price they are asking for.

You need to speak with confidence when discussing pricing, this can include not over explaining pricing and taking a silent pause after quoting your price.

Countermeasures to the squeeze:

– “The Clinger.” The clinger is when you turn the focus of the conversation right to the 1 winning topic, 1 main pain point that you are going to solve for them, and remind them of the value you are already bringing at the original price.

-Buy more time. If a buyer is trying to get a better price off of you,  say “I understand that price is something we need to address, but before we do I want to make sure I understand your needs to make sure we can do everything we can to make this deal as valuable as possible for you.” By saying this, you open up the door to ask them more questions and take time to address last minute concerns and explain your value.

-Use the “if you” rule. Simply saying I will give you this if you give me this. A simple trade that makes the two parties even.

The Trial Balloon

The goal of the “trail balloon” is to say or do something to test the other party and get information about where they stand in the negotiation.

Try throwing a trial balloon at them like “can you help me understand what you’re looking to achieve with a 20% reduction in price.” Either they will give you a concrete answer that fully explains why the 20% reduction is warranted, or they will stumble over an explaination and show they are just playing a game with you, to which you can say “I’m sorry, the price is the price.”

The last tip and trick to counter measure someone’s negotiating tactic is to send a message that you are taking a few moments to genuinely calculate the price they are asking for to then come back and simple say “I’m sorry, I just can’t do that.” It makes your no a real and honest no because you showed them that you took the time to consider the offer.

Both new and experienced negotiators can benefit from trying out these tactics the next time someone tries to lower them on price. The key is sticking as close as possible to your original quote and don’t sacrifice anything without getting something in return.

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[Sales Class] – How to Leverage Sales Automation to Land More Deals – A Lesson by Krish Ramineni

In this video course, Krish Ramineni explains that effective sales comes down to two things: your ability to be a great salesperson, and your drive to reach a large number of leads.

His theory is that the more people you reach out to and follow up with, the more chances you will have to be a great salesperson and close deals. To save you time and energy you can implement several easy sales automation tools and processes to manage and personalize your outreach messaging.

Sales automation has three main pillars:

The three pillars below are the main elements that will be in play when setting up any type of sales automation process, and each is equally important to make sure your strategy is successful:

  • Process: Your playbook, what you and your manager are figuring out to help you send out the right type communication to the right person.
  • Data: Your CRM needs to be updated, your leads list needs to be accurate
  • Tools: Leverage tools ot take advantage of the process and data that you have in place. Take 1 to 1 communication and turn it into 1 to 100.

Three key parts of Process:

Within the element of “Process” there are three factors: Outreach, Follow-ups, and Data Entry.

  • Outreach: Number of people you are reaching out to, number of emails you’re sending, “top of the funnel.”
  • Follow-ups: You need to follow up consistently, sometime up to 7-8 times, before finally getting a response.
  • Data Entry: Keep CRM and other systems updated so you know what your next steps after each outreach/followup.

Three key parts of Data:

Within the element of “Data” there are three factors: Conversations, Activities, and CRM.

  • Conversations: Qualitative information, asking questions, and insight into if a deal with close or not.
  • Activities: Actual actions you are performing. Number of calls you’re making, number of emails you’re sending, how busy you are
  • CRM: The CRM fields that tell you what stage a deal is, how big a company is, how many employees there are, what domain they are in, what job titles you are reaching out to, etc. This helps you understand and organize your information.

Three key parts of Tools:

Within the element of “Tools” there are three factors: Email Sequences, Dialers, and Scheduling.

  • Email sequences: Email outreach tools that allow you to create templates, craft personalized messages, schedule follow up emails, and track results.
  • Dialers: Power dialers that help you call outbound dialing lists and notify you when someone picks up.
  • Scheduling: Tools like calendly that help you schedule meetings with people without needing to email or communicate back and forth trying to pick a date.

Data tools:

Krish provided a list of data tool examples, including Clearbit, Fireflies, and Zapier.

  • Clearbit: Allows you to upload information from LinkedIn into CRM and do lead scoring.
  • Fireflies: Enters information from meetings into CRM by recording and transcribing the conversation.
  • Zapier: Allows you to take all the information that is collected from your apps and load it into your CRM.

How to be more effective at sales:

  • Outreach is important, but the other part of it is personalized and unique messaging. One way is to manually personalize the initial message, and automate the follow ups.
  • Leveraging new channels: Don’t just email and phone call, look at other channels that you can reach leads through. Examples can be through Facebook groups, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
  • Product Triggers: Reach people when they are visiting your website, or using your product. You can then send personalized messages related to their recent interaction with your product.

Sales automation helps you manage, optimize, and personalize customers journey. Even though it gives you the power to reach tons of new leads, it comes at the risk of becoming “spammy” so you must keep a balance of what is seen as friendly, personal outreach and generic and overly persistent messaging.

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[Sales Class] Call Coaching – A Lesson by Lauren Bailey

In Lauren Bailey’s video on call coaching, she explains that call coaching was recently ranked as sales leaders worse skill.

She explains that the majority of call coaching that happens is informal, and many people do not have structured call coaching meetings, training sessions, or conversations. This is because sales is one of the busiest jobs and most call coaching is done informally on the fly.

76% of managers say they coach 3-6 hours per month per rep, but half of reps disagree with that statistic. This might be because when managers interact with reps, they may speak in a “coaching style” but it is not a formal coaching moment as seen by the rep.

Tips for improving call coaching for managers:

Keep a consistent calendar for call coaching meetings. Be on top of these meetings and don’t let them slip into an irregular schedule. When coaching meetings are cancelled or changed last minute it can lead to rep disengagement.

The top 6 mistakes or “coachastrifies” to avoid.

  • Call coaching is not deal coaching, its rep coaching, its rep engagement time.
  • Don’t ask the rep to “be more like you.”
  • In a call/meeting – Take notes on your observations and turn them into questions for the rep.
  • Find the right level of questioning to make the rep think about the scenario in an actionable way.
  • The biggest way to drive rep impact, let the rep choose what they will work on.
  • You get 10x the commitment by letting the rep choose what they work on.

Steps in Coaching:

  • C – Clarify Expectations (We’re going to start a formal call coaching program and look at examples)
  • O – Observed behavior (“I heard you did this on this call, and the outcome was ____. Let’s talk about it.”)
  • A – Ask Questions (Ask at least 5 questions)
  • C – Commit to Action/Improvement (Why don’t we work on this, what do you think?)
  • H – How can I help? (Why don’t we rollplay it right now, or do you want to shadow another rep?)
  • N – Next steps  (Ask what prevented the sale, look at the call impact, ask if anything affect the call positively or negatively and make adjustments for the next call)

Remember, managers should not focus on coaching for a specific deal, they should focus on building up the sales rep as a whole.

And of course, don’t forget to give the “atta boy”/”atta girl” approvals as they come in the moment.

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How To Make A Sales Introduction

A Lesson On Introductions

Lauren Bailey from Factor 8 lays out some of her most useful introduction tips when making cold calls as a sales rep. It’s easy to fall into a routine of mediocre and mundane intros that often lead nowhere. Her insight below will stop that and help new and experienced sales reps become more effective at cold call introductions.

6 Sales Intros to Avoid

1. “The show-up and throw-up”

They are saying hi and going into company backstories, awards, and numbers without giving them any time to talk or respond. The person answering the phone will get off the phone as soon as possible.

2. “The yeah, it’s my value prop”

Sometimes starting with the value prop is mistaken for an intro like the “show up and throw up,” and the person answering will try to get off the phone.

3. “The get out of jail free intro.”

In your pitch, you may say: “Are you the person in charge of [job title]?” But, again, be more compelling than starting by asking them if they are in charge of their prominent role.

4. “The good for you intro”

“I’m just calling to introduce myself” – Good for the caller, but not always suitable for the answerer.

5. “The setup intro”

Asking a question they can’t say no to… “would you be interested in saving money?” People can tell they are forced to answer a question to keep the conversation going.

6. “The toucher intro”

People don’t want to be checked in on or have their bases touched.

Good intros should be SWIFT

So What’s In it For Them = Swift.

The key is not to tell them who you are and what you do. The key is to get them talking about what they do and what they need help with.

When starting a call, use the name of the person you are calling during your intro to get their attention. Then, tell them who you are and who you work for in a quick, abbreviated way. Finally, quickly explain why you are calling and how your services will benefit them directly.

Once you have their partial attention, you can lead off with questions to get them talking. The bottom line is that people care most about saving time and making things easier for themselves.

Pick a feature or aspect of your product that will make the prospect’s life easier. Try to use the word “Value” when possible.

  • “Hi, this is Lauren; I wanted to call to help save you time on ______.”
  • “Hi, this is Lauren; I wanted to call to help you increase your profit margin.”
  • “Hi, this is Lauren; I wanted to call to help make ____ easier.”
  • “Hi, this is Lauren; I wanted to call to help make sure you’re the hero when it comes to ____.”
  • “Hi, this is Lauren; I wanted to call to help ensure you’re protected from ____.”
sales recruiters

Here’s an outline to jump into this method:

Don’t just ask if they can tell you more about their company. You should know everything about their company already by researching online. Go into the phone call with swift questions. These are meant to be closed questions (1-5 word answers), not open-ended questions.

  1. Their name
  2. Your name & company (quick version)
  3. Swift purpose (what’s in it for them)
  4. 1-3 swift closed questions

When they ask, “who are you with again?” go into your value proposition and ask open-ended questions.

Tips For Sales Managers

  • Don’t let reps call to “touch base”
  • Count and track decision-maker conversions over 2 minutes long
  • Add intro training to coaching forms
  • Reward reps with longer average talk times
  • Hold team contests for who can get on “first base” the most with cold calls
  • Do A/B testing with reps to refine the best introduction methods.

Are you ready to take your sales career to the next level? Join Rainmakers now!

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The Role of Sales within Account-Based Marketing Strategies

For as long as enterprise software has been around, the default go-to-market (GTM) strategy was to create as much noise as possible to garner attention around your product and go after hand-raisers and high-fit prospects with a sales team. This is what some refer to as the volume lead-based model.

Though this model is not entirely obsolete, it’s proving to no longer be as effective as it once was. This is partly due to the fact that it causes many inefficiencies throughout the sales process but more likely due to the fact that, regardless of the field, most markets software organizations target are becoming overcrowded with vendors. This oversaturation is leading to a lot of noise within people’s inboxes and making it much harder to stand out to actually capture someone’s attention.

What many have proposed as a solution to this problem is an idea called Account Based Marketing or ABM for short. If you’re already working in sales or marketing for a tech organization it’s likely an acronym you’ve already heard many times before. However, it seems to have many different meanings to different people, which begs the question, what exactly is ABM?

ABM takes the traditional lead-based model and flips it on its head. Rather than targeting as many people as possible and having a sales team try and find the needle in a large haystack, this process starts first by identifying high-value clients the company would like to have a very specific focus on. Once this target list has been identified, highly personalized and tailored strategies are then put in place with messaging that will hopefully prove to be too enticing and relevant to ignore.

It is a means of finding greater success with outbound marketing & sales campaigns through more effective collaboration. There are benefits to be gained from simply improving communication among the various departments, tips for which we’ve written about before, but when that isn’t enough leaders need to consider systematic changes to their GTM strategy that can provide greater efficiencies which in turn will hopefully lead to greater revenue.

To some, this may mean simply adding digital advertising campaigns to focus on companies that the sales team is planning to go after. The additional air coverage will very likely have some impact in improving engagement results but ultimately that would only be a piece of the puzzle.

ABM in its entirety should really be a cohesive effort to have a 1:1 conversation with an organization on why and how your solution can provide value the prospect currently doesn’t have at their disposal today. There should be the same unified message being delivered across every channel used to reach these leads/prospects and this message should evolve as the sales cycle continues to develop. 

For example, if we were an ABM platform vendor the first course of action would be to raise awareness on the value of ABM in general to develop an internal need. In a true ABM strategy, there would ideally be material related to each prospect’s situation or environment to more easily help them more concretely envision what benefits they can achieve by adopting a new solution as opposed to proposing hypothetical scenarios.

Once the need has been developed, the next course of action should be to differentiate your solution from other vendors in the market. The messages being delivered here could touch on how your solution works better with the technology investments a company already has in place or superior capabilities you have over your competition. Relevant case studies and customer testimonials would also be gold at this stage in the process. 

As these conversations develop the onus to develop these responsibilities will fall less on marketing and more on sales to receive the baton the bring it across the finish line. From a high-level perspective, there should be a gradient pattern of share in responsibility where early engagements have the ball in marketing’s court and later phases of the engagement would be on the sales side.

Now as a sales professional, marketing will essentially view you as another arm or channel they can use to reach target accounts. Typically though this would be reserved for those accounts that are showing some level of interest. 

From a day to day perspective, your responsibilities won’t change in terms of how you’re carrying out your job. A switch to an ABM strategy will more than likely simply mean a switch in focus for what companies you go after and why. You’ll still need to go through the motions of qualifying your opportunities and facilitating the conversations with a personal touch to bring to close.

In summary, the true role of a sales professional within ABM should be to provide a human touch or element through rapport and empathy that’s often hard for marketing teams to achieve through their typical channels. If you’re interested in learning more please comment below and let us know what you’d like to learn more about.

If you’re looking for other sales advice you’re also welcome to check out our other articles on the Rainmakers blog. Of course, if you’re looking to break into or find a new opportunity within tech sales you can also find listings for your future job on our website at https://www.rainmakers.co/

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Tips to Improve Communication Between Sales and the Rest of the Company

Businesses strive to keep lines of communication open between all of their departments. In particular, organizations aim to keep the sales team in conversation with the rest of the business. The sales team’s gathered information is a goldmine of opportunity for every department, from marketing to finance.

Companies that keep the conversations and discussions happening see numerous benefits. From improving sales processes to aiding project management, teams that implement effective communication channels can continue to grow their sales opportunities.

Why Communication is Important

Sales teams spend an enormous amount of time gathering information about a prospective client during the sales process. Even after a client has signed a contract, sales team members hold valuable information and notes from client discussions, all of which are valuable insights for other departments in the company.

By sharing this information, sales teams can lead the company to a successful relationship with a client. Material collected by either sales or other departments benefits everyone in the company. Sharing this information or organizing it in one location through project management helps everyone use it. Sales teams that take the time to discuss when projects need to be completed and what information they’ve gathered on a client aid in the continued success with a client.

Suggestions for Improving Communication

How do businesses bridge the transmission of information from sales to the rest of the company? Try some of the following suggestions to open the lines of communication between the sales team and other departments.

Encourage face-to-face meetings

Businesses can help build conversations between departments by setting aside time for face-to-face discussions. In the digital age, companies can fall prey to doing everything via email. Sitting down for a meeting can help clear up any confusion or reduce the time spent going back and forth with team members.

These sit-down meetings are also an opportunity to discuss goals for each department. Companies can either review individual department goals or cross-department collaborations. Individuals who understand client goals are less likely to spend time doing irrelevant tasks.

The sharing of information during these meetings has benefits for everyone. For the sales department, information swapping helps them gain insights into what options they can offer to prospective clients. For the marketing team, they’ll learn what problems new clients had in the past and what solutions they’ve used.

Find a way to share client data with various departments

Companies need a system to share the sales team’s client information with the rest of the team. This information should include all the relevant data from calls, emails, and in-person visits with a client during the sales process. When the sales team shares this profile with everyone else, other departments have a clearer picture of their client.

Businesses can purchase software systems or platforms for storing and sharing data. Once companies implement this technology, they should do their best to establish a procedure and stick to it. Right now, businesses are using multiple platforms or singular platforms for data collection or predictive analysis.

Project management components of an enterprise resource planning system can help transition new clients from sales to delivery departments. Through planning tools and collaboration abilities, an ERP system keeps data in one place. An additional benefit of this system is businesses can use this data for creating future financial predictions for clients.

Include more cross-departmental roles

In many companies, only sales team members sit in during sales calls. Companies could do better by offering members outside of the sales team the opportunity to attend these calls. By including these people on the call, individuals gain insights from not only what sales does, but what the prospective client wants from the company. This gives non-sales team members a head start on fulfilling client needs after the deal is closed.

Businesses should also offer the opportunity for sales team members to visit other departments. By bringing sales into other business areas, organizations build cross-functional collaboration opportunities and individual understanding of what other people do for a client.

Another way for companies to shift their communications is by creating a place for individuals to share their process- or product-improvement ideas. Requests from individuals can range from different ways of completing a task, to a new product for completing a job. Businesses need to sift through these ideas in order to find the best solution for helping communications or improving processes. By listening to their employees, organizations can increase employee morale and productivity.

Closing Remarks

Companies benefit from encouraging dialogue between departments. This improved communication can help better define client goals, share knowledge for better product delivery, and create new opportunities for productivity gains.

To encourage dialogue, organizations can hold more face-to-face discussions, create procedures for individuals to follow, and expand opportunities for employee inclusion. Companies that carry out any of these practices can help their whole team and their own bottom line.

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Ways to Track and Present your Personal Sales Brag Book

What Is A Brag Book?

Nutshell.com defines a Brag Book as “a collection of testimonials, case studies, or pictures from satisfied customers. For example, a sales rep can present their brag book to prospects to illustrate their prior successes and how they’ve exceeded their client’s expectations.”

As someone in a sales position at a tech company, you know what your sales manager loves to see out of your key metrics. Those same metrics can be used when applying to future sales positions, and that’s why a brag book is an asset to your continued success.

Your brag book should contain records, key metrics, or verifiable numbers that speak to your skills. Include items like:

  • Three years’ worth of sales figures, ranking reports, and awards
  • Any standout accomplishments like “#1 sales rep” in the company
  • Email examples that speak to your talent for communicating with active and prospective clients
  • Three years’ worth of W-2s and YTD earnings to back up any sales claims you make

The key metrics can be broken into two categories: Quantity and Quality.

Quantity-driven metrics include:

  • Accounts called
  • Leads sources
  • Emails
  • Calls
  • Connects
  • Demos
  • Opportunities

Quality-driven metrics include:

  • Contacts sourced per account
  • Calls per lead
  • Unique leads called
  • Connect Rate
  • Demo to opportunity Conversion
  • Calls per opportunity
  • Connects per opportunity
brag book example

How do you track those, where do you store them, and how do you present them to future hiring managers to ensure you get the job you deserve?

We have found some tools to help you track, store, and share your metrics accurately and somewhat variable way with future hiring managers as you advance your career.

Call Activity Scorecard

This call activity scorecard helps you set goals and track the number of calls you make each quarter, and how many conversions, opportunities created, and wins result from those calls.

Call Activity Scorecard

Weekly Email Tracker

This easy weekly email tracker helps you track the number of emails, unique people emailed, how many new prospects are being contacted, the number of deals closed due to emails, etc.

Weekly Email Tracker

Sales Activity Worksheet

This sales activity worksheet assists in tracking metrics like the number of hours worked per week, your weekly/monthly/quarterly goals, leads generated, the size of details, and contracts signed.

Sales Activity Worksheet

Rekener

Rekener is a sales rep scorecard software provider that helps track leads, quotas, opportunity stages, and KPI trends.

Rekener

Rainmakers

Recording your metrics is an important habit that will pay off when it’s time to look for new sales opportunities. For example, when you sign up for an account on a job site like Rainmakers.co, your numbers and sales figures are displayed on your profile for companies looking to hire proven salespeople.

make a brag book
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