Ethan Lawlor

Here's the stark facts in sales today. - 31% of reps are making quota - Nearly half (44%) of deals slip - Sales cycles are double digits longer, win rates are double digits down - Inbound leads are down - Salesforce recognised the need to increase pipeline coverage to by 50% (from x2 to x3) Most of those we speak to recognise all these challenges. But they are stuck. "Do more with less" is the message. They have cut teams and fought for those remaining. Their organisations are stuck with blind hope and knives sharpening. The only solution they know is to fire and replace. Because the real problems aren't acknowledged. The market has changed and it's harder. But are teams are not more skilled. The same teams, that could achieve in the old world are failing in this one. And the last message anyone wants, is we need to spend some money to solve that. "That's your job isn't it?" cries the leadership to time-starved managers and leaders. Anyone want to guess what's going to happen to sales manager average tenure (already at an all-time low of 18 months)????

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‘We need an SDR who has at least 12 months SDR/BDR experience at a SaaS company’. This is a common hiring trend I see right now and whilst indeed, someone with that experience may work out for you and I understand the logic, there are a few potential flaws I wanted to share about that expectation/requirement that may be preventing you from hiring your next superstar... 1. A great SDR will generally be promoted after 12-18 months in the role. 2. More experience = more expensive. 3. Many of the best performing SDR’s we see are those with as little as 6-12 months sales experience from sectors such as customer service, retail & hospitality. 4. Motivation > Experience. A poorly motivated SDR with a high skill level rarely works out. Confident in your leadership, enablement and product? Hire someone on motivation and attitude. Use the interview process to qualify their basic skill set, appetite to put in the work required and aptitude for learning and developing over and above their current skill level as an SDR. Hiring someone with 12 months SDR experience may work for you and I’m not trying to communicate that they are bad candidates, but when you actually consider what makes an excellent SDR, this requirement may be holding you back from hiring your next pipeline building king or queen. Always curious to learn from SDR leaders. What are some of the experiences of the best SDR’s you’ve hired? David Wilkins curious on your thoughts along with the SDR Leaders of EMEA!

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‘We need an SDR who has at least 12 months SDR/BDR experience at a SaaS company’. This is a common hiring trend I still see right now and whilst indeed, someone with that experience may work out for you and I understand the logic, there are a few potential flaws I wanted to share about that expectation/requirement that may be preventing you from hiring your next superstar... 1. A great SDR will generally be promoted after 12-18 months in the role 📈 2. More experience = more expensive 💰 3. Many of the best performing SDR’s we see are those with as little as 6-12 months sales experience from sectors such as customer service, retail & hospitality 👊 4. Motivation > Experience. A poorly motivated SDR with a high skill level rarely works out 🤔 Confident in your leadership, enablement and product? Hire someone on motivation. Use the interview process to qualify their basic skill set, appetite to put in the work required and aptitude for learning and developing over and above their current skill level as an SDR ✅ Hiring someone with 12 months SDR experience may work for you and I’m not trying to communicate that they are bad candidates, but when you actually consider what makes an excellent SDR, this requirement may be holding you back from hiring your next pipeline building king or queen 🙌 Always curious to learn from SDR leaders. What are some of the experiences of the best SDR’s you’ve hired?

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‘We need an SDR who has at least 12 months SDR/BDR experience at a SaaS company’. This is a common hiring trend I still see right now and whilst indeed, someone with that experience may work out for you and I understand the logic, there are a few potential flaws I wanted to share about that expectation/requirement that may be preventing you from hiring your next superstar... 1. A great SDR will generally be promoted after 12-18 months in the role 📈 2. More experience = more expensive💰 3. Many of the best performing SDR’s we see are those with as little as 6-12 months sales experience from sectors such as customer service, retail & hospitality 👊 4. Motivation > Experience. A poorly motivated SDR with a high skill level rarely works out 🤔 Confident in your leadership, enablement and product? Hire someone on motivation. Use the interview process to qualify their basic skill set, appetite to put in the work required and aptitude for learning and developing over and above their current skill level as an SDR ✅ Hiring someone with 12 months SDR experience may work for you and I’m not trying to communicate that they are bad candidates, but when you actually consider what makes an excellent SDR, this requirement may be holding you back from hiring your next pipeline building king or queen 🙌 Always curious to learn from SDR leaders. What are some of the experiences of the best SDR’s you’ve hired?

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‘We need an SDR who has at least 12 months SDR/BDR experience at a SaaS company’. This is a common hiring trend I still see right now and whilst indeed, someone with that experience may work out for you and I understand the logic, there are a few potential flaws I wanted to share about that expectation/requirement that may be preventing you from hiring your next superstar... 1. A great SDR will generally be promoted after 12-18 months in the role 📈 2. More experience = more expensive💰 3. Many of the best performing SDR’s we see are those with as little as 6-12 months sales experience from sectors such as customer service, retail & hospitality 👊 4. Motivation > Experience. A poorly motivated SDR with a high skill level rarely works out 🤔 Confident in your leadership, enablement and product? Hire someone on motivation. Use the interview process to qualify their basic skill set, appetite to put in the work required and aptitude for learning and developing over and above their current skill level as an SDR ✅ Hiring someone with 12 months SDR experience may work for you and I’m not trying to communicate that they are bad candidates, but when you actually consider what makes an excellent SDR, this requirement may be holding you back from hiring your next pipeline building king or queen 🙌 Always curious to learn from SDR leaders. What are some of the experiences of the best SDR’s you’ve hired?

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Companies used to only consider deploying RevOps when they hit 40-50M in ARR. Why? A strong RevOps resource was simply cost prohibitive. This is changing and the fractional Rev Ops practitioner is making it happen. Now companies that are 15-20M ARR+ are bringing in RevOPs experts as part of their arsenal, and at a fraction of the cost. Don't get left behind.

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'If I call them 4 times a week, they surely want to book a meeting.' - the SDR Let's face it: spamming your prospects with calls and emails is just about the worst thing you can do. 😬 Instead of recognising your name from an interesting LinkedIn interaction or a relevant comment under their post, they will recognise your number from the multitude of calls you placed and either pick up to go off at you or just... block you. 🫥 The same goes for emails, by the way. Though, getting blacklisted too often can severely restrict your success on that outreach channel overall. In terms of outreach, there is no golden rule for how many touchpoints you should have per week, as it differs from region to region. For instance, UK sellers get away with making more calls than their DACH colleagues, even though they might end up hitting the same targets at the end of the month. 🤔 Usually, less is more and a combination of "soft" (LinkedIn engagement, an expo visit) and "hard" (call, email, voice note) touch points per week will get you your desired results. At the end of the day, the value your messages provide is much more important than the frequency anyways. Instead of just tempering with the perfect frequency, a focus on strong messaging and proper positioning of the relevant values will increase your conversion rates organically and without you pounding the phone every day from 9-5. Make sure your messages and conversations provide insights rather than just beg for a meeting to set yourself up for success.🏆 Do you have a secret formula for how many calls/ messages you send prospects on a weekly basis? #sales #sdrsofgermany #sequences #cadences

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No one should be ashamed of working in sales You rank pretty high compared to others Did you know... Average UK SDR Salary: £35,412 → UK - Top 26% → Global - Top 12% Average UK SDR OTE: £45,309 → UK - Top 20% → Global - Top 10% Average UK AE Salary: £55,000 → UK - Top 15% → Global - Top 8% Average UK AE OTE: £75,000 → UK - Top 10% → Global - Top 5% Sources: UK Talent, Jobted, PayScale, UK Tax Calculators Is it comfortable on your high horse? 🐴 Let me know in the comments #sdr #ae

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Inbound leads should be rewarded 👊👊 Speaking to a CEO yesterday who's SD team are keen to exhaust the inbound leads and not have a focus on outbound. For me, inbound leads are a huge investment, spend and hopefully ideal clients based on great marketing work ✅✅. Why give them out to everyone? Surely the salespeople who are top performing, working hard and are earning these leads should take them. Thoughts?

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What’s the Most Challenging Market to Cold Call? ☎ In my experience, both at my previous company and now with Teamtailor, the UK market has proven to be particularly difficult for cold calling. The responses from prospects are often direct and, in some cases, exceptionally blunt. One memorable interaction stands out: Me: "Hi [Name], this is Thulani calling from..." Prospect: "F*ck off." Me: 😲 😭 🤣 "Uh…just to clarify, was that a ‘not interested’ or a firm ‘f*ck off’?" To those who coach objection-handling skills, I trust this response aligns with best practices in handling challenging objections! 🤙🏿 Let me know if you've experienced something similar and how you handled it 💡 #salesmage #ae #techsales #coldcalling

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I seem to be working a lot of SDR roles lately. 😍 Is it a sign that businesses see the value of a strong SDR function again? A common trend I have seen with sales teams over the last year or so is businesses removing the SDR/BDR function. So why is it coming back to build a team of SDRs? The truth is the role is changing, businesses are not necessarily looking for someone who is stepping into sales but seem to be leaning towards people who are already experienced in the space. So what are some of the things that make a prime SDR candidate in today's market? ⁉ 🤔 Curiosity - These people are genuinely interested in finding out more, they want to know the ifs, hows and buts of any potential prospect. 💪 Resilience - Just like that one friend in a nightclub when we were growing up they think with every no, you are closer to a yes. 📊 Appreciation of data - They understand metrics are not just important but necessary to improve their craft. 📖 Like a sponge - They absorb everything that is thrown at them, learning, refining and continuously improving. 📲 Multichannel approach - This is not a telesales role anymore, it is focused on different ways to reach people like LinkedIn, email and video. What else would you add to the list? #SDR #SalesDevelopment #SalesRecruitment

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Sean’s Sales Tip 🚫 Focusing solely on increasing the pipeline to meet sales quotas is a misguided strategy. It is akin to saying I will risk $300 in the slot machine, instead of $200 to make a win. 🔔 Salesforce's recent decision to require 3x pipeline coverage, up from 2x, rang the alarm bells for me. 💸 Such an increase demands significant effort and resources, leading to a dramatic rise in customer acquisition costs (CAC) and other bid related costs without guaranteeing an equivalent increase in revenue. 🤔 Think about the optics of this announcement. You are saying to your sales teams it is OK to lose 66% of your deals now, instead of 50%. 🎯 The emphasis should shift from maximizing pipeline to optimizing win rates and accelerating deal velocity. Step 1 🏆 Improve Win Rates Improving win rates is a more efficient and cost-effective approach to achieving sales targets. For instance, a modest increase in win rates from 20% to 25% can yield substantial revenue gains with no extra pipeline required. Step 2 🚀 Accelerate deal velocity To enhance deal velocity (and also win rates), salespeople need to focus on creating pain, recruiting, and equipping champions within the client organization so that your deal gets done and becomes a priority. 💡 Prioritizing win rates and deal velocity over pipeline growth is a smarter and more sustainable strategy for achieving sales quotas. This means that Sales Leaders need to be trained in how to coach their teams effectively and for them to get out of the office more often.

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Stop letting junior SDRs reach out to your C-Suites. Buyers don’t want to talk to salespeople anymore. They want trusted advisors. Domain experts.  Yet, for some reason, 99% of sales teams completely ignore this fact and let their junior SDRs reach out to C-suites — then they sit back and wonder why their outbound doesn’t work. The WHO factor is more important today than ever before. Here’s what it means moving forward: 1. Trusted Advisors vs. SDRs: Would you take medical advice from a first-year med student? Probably not. In the same vein, expecting a junior SDR to convince a C-suite executive is a flawed strategy. Buyers today want insights from those seeped in the industry, not those reading off a script. 2. The New-Age SDR: These SDRs have authority in their field and are the ultimate subject matter experts. They possess a highly relevant audience of ICP and excel in content creation and audience engagement. They understand the nuances and pains of the prospects and create value-driven conversations, not just touchpoints. 3. Team-Selling is a Necessity: If a CFO checked your website, why in the world would you let your SDR reach out? Facilitate outbound requests to your CFO and ask them to personally connect with the prospect from their profile. It’s about leveraging the right person at the right time to build trust and relevance. 4. Signal-Based Selling: Your outreach should be driven by real-time data and intent signals. Spot the triggers: website visits, content downloads, recent funding, etc. Engage with the right person, when the timing is perfect, with the right message from the right person. This isn’t about volume; it’s about precision. TAKEAWAY: In this new era, it's not about how many emails you send, but WHO is sending them and WHY. In 2024, the most successful companies will have GTM teams that look more like consulting firms than old-school sales orgs. The next-gen of successful sales orgs will be the ones that evolve beyond the old playbooks and focus on trust, relevance, and the power of human connection. The future isn’t just lean. It’s personal.

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How much time do you reckon sales managers spend on pipeline reviews a week? Obviously it depends on number of reps, sales complexity etc etc But do some quick maths Lets say, per rep, it's 1 meeting a week for 30-60 minutes Say you have 5 reps, and it can easily become 3-5 hours per week of pipeline review meetings. Plus longer quarterly sessions. Time adds up Time spent on such a meeting isn't the actual problem here though (ultimately, closing deals is the no.1 priority so who cares if you spend a few hours per week making sure deals come in) The biggest problem comes in the inconsistent application of qualification frameworks Every rep has their opinion on why "deal X will definitely close, despite none of MEDDPICC being complete" And you will find inconsistencies even in sales managers. Unless you're from the Nicholas Hunt school of forecasting (We had a 45 minute chat solely about forecasting techniques - let me tell you, he has a serious process) Training will ofcourse get you some way to forecasting maturity and it's something you should always be looking to improve. But, what happens when new team members join, or you suddenly scale up? This is why I advocate for a data-led forecast that runs in the background and offers long term, consistent cash flow visibility. 𝗔𝗻𝗱, 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 Otherwise, it's just a number that can be pushed aside Instead, give the manager and the sales rep the critical information needed to prevent it from slipping or being lost Do this right and before you know it, the data led forecast will become a vital part of your pipeline management Infer #salesmanagement #forecasting #aiforecast

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"I'm on a huge salary but earning less than ever" Many GTM folk in SaaS are in this position. Firms offered huge packages to lure talent in 2021/22. This was a dream come true for a lot of people. But many took jobs without qualifying their ability to hit quota. Whilst the big base salary has been great, many have earned bugger-all commission for 2+ years. The $400k OTE they signed up for is more like $240k. Their previous $300k OTE they smashed every year is now looking very appealing. Now I'm not saying take a pay cut for your next role. But a reminder that OTEs mean nothing if no one is hitting it. Roles paying less on paper are often more lucrative in the long run. Don't be blinded by the big number. Do your research. #techsales #gotomarket #saasrecruitment

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Wondering how to win with cold calling in 2024? Check out the key data and trends in Cognism's latest report below!

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Revenue blindness is a condition that a 2/3 people in sales suffer from. When undiagnosed it can lead to... - Constant Peaks and Valleys - Scaling Suck - a 'Just do more' mindset - Hives - Dispair and Misery What is revenue blindess? When all that is looked at in terms of success is the revenue number. If you hit = Things must be good. If you miss = The team/individual/leader suck It's actually far more dangerous on the 'hit' side, and I see it all the time. A rep is hitting their number, but tearing down the culture, but it's allowed because of... Revenue blindess A team of 10 hits the number, but off the back of the manager or or 1 top rep, so the decision is made to scale to 30 even tho they have nothing proven in place... Revenue blindess It works the other way too. A team is hitting their marks, hitting the activity, working the deals, using strong messaging, and yet miss the number, because the number was unhittable. The number doesn't get changed, the people do. Revenue blindess. A rep IS crushing their number, but because of that they don't get the recognition, attention and support they want/need because well.. they are hitting the number Revenue blindess I talk about this with my leaders all the time, we can't fall into revenue blindness. We have to stay below the number to drive results. Behaviors. Issue Diagnosis/Inspection. Process. Skills. You - This is where BIPSY comes in. We have seen some amazing results over the last 6 months. We're talking some 2-3x type results. BUT We stay obsessed over what's causing them, not just the end result. This is the key. Revenue blindness is curable. If you know someone that suffers from revenue blindness ... Send them to the Sales Leadership Accelerator - it will take time.. but we can save them. https://lnkd.in/ejPDhZw4

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