Episode #27: Lessons from a World-Class Seller - Brian LaManna
How to get to President's Club....five times
I've worked with a bunch of different sellers. Some were good. Some not so much. But one or two were truly next level.
They had consistently better results. They brought in bigger deals. They closed accounts no one else could. And they just seemed to "get it" in a different way.
They were switched on—you didn't need to tell them what to do. Whatever challenge you threw at them, they found a way. They seemed built just a little bit differently than other people on the team.
I've always been curious about what makes those great sellers great.
To help answer that question, I sat down with true superstar of the sales world, 5x President's Club winner Brian LaManna, Strategic AE at Gong.
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About Today's Guest
Brian LaManna is a Strategic Account Executive at Gong and Founder of Closed Won, where he offers resources and playbooks for sellers. He is a 5x President's Club winner and regularly achieves 200%+ of quota.
Take-Aways
Sellers need to be the CEO of their book of business
Great sellers take extreme ownership over the accounts in their territory.
This means you don’t wait for inbound or for your SDR to build you pipeline; you must be hands-on and build your own pipe.
The sellers who win create their own path to hitting goals, minimizing dependence on external factors.
Time management and efficiency are the seller’s superpower
Brian divides his day into “advancing pipeline” and “creating pipeline” activities and rigorously deprioritizes anything that doesn’t contribute to those two goals.
He makes sure he focuses on advancing pipeline each day before checking slack or email.
Then any calendar whitespace gets dedicated to prospecting.
He sets specific goals for this prospecting time and sticks to them.
Sell between meetings
A key to advancing pipeline is finding ways to sell between meetings by offering value-added touches by email.
An example of this is to use Gong to find a question a prospect had and send them a quick resource that ties back to their question.
This is all about finding a way to add value— not giving homework.
This method ensures that you and your solution are top of mind in between meetings.
Personalization vs. relevance
A communication can be highly personalized but still add little value.
It’s far more important to be relevant, which means tailoring a communication so it speaks directly to the prospect’s business goals.
Your message needs to create a compelling reason why they should invest time speaking to you.
Key Topics
[00:00] - Introduction
[01:28] - Role of a seller in the revenue process
[03:11] - Sales is not convincing
[04:03] - Defusing prospect defensiveness
[05:48] - When to break the sales process
[07:21] - Are good sellers born or made?
[09:26] - Attributes of a great seller
[11:25] - Developing a “CEO” mindset
[13:17] - Cultivating real relationships with customers
[16:11] - Mindsets, strategies, and routines
[24:18] - Benefits of selling Gong
[25:28] - The sales / sales ops relationship
[28:53] - How ops can get sellers to cooperate
[31:45] - What does Gong’s RevOps team do well?
[33:43] - Why AEs should always be prospecting
[39:02] - Current state of outbound
[41:39] - Live example: creating a tailored cold email
[44:47] - Personalization vs. relevance
[46:45] - How sellers can win at “social selling”
Resources
Closed Won - Brian’s resources and playbooks for sellers