5 tips to make more money in sales

Published: Wed, 03/22/23

March 22, 2023

TOGETHER WITH

Spring has sprung, and you know what that means: prospects will be in a great mood and will return all calls and sign all paperwork promptly... right? Right!? Meanwhile, back in reality, we’ll share some tips on how to make more money in sales, share a weather-related Sales Fail, and give some advice to an AE who suspects their BDR has a gambling problem.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

3.68

In 2007 it took 3.68 cold call attempts to reach a prospect. Today it takes 8 attempts.

Source: Spotio

SALES ROUNDUP

Here’s what’s happening in the sales world this week:

A Colorado couple was recently arrested after setting up a booby trap in front of their house that injured a door-to-door salesman. The salesman, who sold house painting services, tripped a wire which simulated a gunshot sound next to the man’s head, leaving him disoriented and with ringing in his ears. After an investigation, the man and woman who owned the house were arrested. You can read more about it here.
A Pennsylvania salesman is suing his former employer for age-discrimination, alleging he was forced out of the company after over 10 years of employment on account of his age. The 67-year old inside sales rep says he was placed on multiple PIPs despite successfully hitting his quota. He alleges that the PIPs and termination were a result of his advanced age, and not his performance. You can read more about it here.

FEATURE

5 tips to make more money in sales from the CEO of RepVue

One of the questions that comes up time and again from our readers is how can they make more money in sales? We happen to know the authority on sales compensation, Ryan Walsh, CEO of RepVue, so we decided to reach out and get his take.

Here are his top five recommendations:

1. Don’t let your ambition get in the way of being successful in the job you have NOW. Current success is the fastest way to move up. Be patient and don’t expect to up-level from a $140k OTE to $300k overnight. It may take three or four promotions or job changes over the course of years.

2. Chase bigger deals. If you’re doing $15k deals now, you need to ensure your next role is meaningfully higher. Shoot for a minimum of 2x the average deal size in your next role. There is a DIRECT correlation between deal size and OTE.

3. Don’t be afraid to switch roles. I stayed at the same company for 15+ years but I’m a dinosaur. Fortunately, companies are A) recruiting you regardless of your tenure in your position, and B) paying new hires more than the existing team, so I never fault anyone for doing what they feel is best for them.

4. Negotiate. Despite some tech layoffs, it’s absolutely still a candidate’s market for top talent. The comp in your next role is going to be relative (UP) to your current comp, or why would you make a move? Every $10k you negotiate lifts your floor for both now and the future.

5. OTE (on target earnings) may quickly become off-target earnings if you pick the wrong company. Even with a $300k OTE you may end up taking home much less than that if you don’t do your research on the product / TAM / territory / company. This is where we can help of course.

More from RepVue:

How does your org stack up? Explore 2,300+ company profiles here
Are you being paid fairly? View salary data for every sales role here
If my quota is X how much can I expect to earn? Use the salary calculator here

BUYER ENABLEMENT IS THE FUTURE

Buying behaviors have changed. Buyers now spend only 17% of the entire buying process in direct contact with vendors. They spend the rest of their time researching and building the case with other stakeholders to minimize the risk.

Prospects want to be able to move through the sales journey without being completely dependent on vendors. So what does this mean for sales and presales?

Enter buyer enablement, the methodology and mentality of making it as easy as possible for buying groups to buy from you.

Consensus, the pioneering leader in sales Demo Automation, has built an entire platform based around buyer enablement. In fact, Garin Hess, Founder of Consensus, literally wrote the book on Buyer Enablement. Consensus allows the buyer to experience an on-demand "Choose Your Own Adventure" Demo experience to self-qualify, share immediately with stakeholders, and engage with sales already pre-educated, which makes closing deals a breeze!

Oh, and they just raised $110m to help software companies automate their demos. Find out why sales and presales teams love Consensus. Experience a self-guided demo here!

MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Sales Humor -- Instagram

QUIZ

Which product did famous scammer Charles Ponzi sell to his victims as part of his scheme?

A. Stock in publishing houses
B. Credit default swaps
C. Prepayment postage coupons
D. Livestock insurance

SALES FAILS

Each week, we bring you the most cringe-worthy sales moments from across the web. To submit your sales fail story for consideration, click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

A long time ago, back when selling software was still niche, I sold software to mortgage companies and banks. We were definitely an established company, but we had a competitor that had a good hold on the market, so we weren’t the “obvious” choice.

I was in Chicago, and had set up a meeting with three executives from a big regional bank who were unhappy with their in-house solution. My manager was supposed to come to the meeting but his wife was sick and he couldn’t make it, so we decided I’d take the meeting alone.

The meeting was at a nice steak restaurant, and I was looking forward to having a nice dinner and closing what would be my biggest deal thus far. Well, the hotel I was staying at was only a few blocks from the restaurant, so I decided to walk over. I ironed my shirt, put on a nice pair of slacks and a jacket, checked my hair and headed out.

Mind you, the day had been perfectly clear. All day long, it was perfectly clear. But the moment I stepped outside, the clouds rolled in and it started absolutely pouring. One of those torrential rains that starts in an instant and comes down like crazy, soaking everything in its path.

By the time I got to the restaurant, I was completely soaked. My jacket, my shirt, my pants, my shoes, soaked. It was brutal. The bankers looked at me like I had five heads. They didn’t make a single joke about it, just looked at me like I was insane or something.

The dinner was miserable. I was uncomfortable and just wanted to get back to the hotel and take a shower and change. The executives, meanwhile, talked mostly among themselves and we only spent maybe twenty minutes talking about business. I don’t think they took a guy who looked like he’d just jumped in a lake seriously. They thanked me for the meal and we all headed out. I didn’t close the deal, but got a pretty hilarious story out of it at least.

Anonymous Location withheld

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- March 2023

WORTH A PEEK

What is the fastest growing job in America? If you guessed YouTuber, you’re wrong! It’s Revenue Operations. So what is RevOps? Ask five different people and you’ll get five different answers. A recent article from Forbes sums it up quite well, and might help those who are looking to make the jump from sales into RevOps. You can read it here.

ASK THE QUOTA

Want to submit a question and be featured in our advice column? Click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

Dear Quota Team,

I’m an Account Executive at a tech company. We have a pretty close-knit sales team, and my company is one of my city’s (Boston) most-sought after companies to work for based on its reputation as a solid employer and its ambitious sales culture.

I think one of my coworkers has a serious gambling problem. He is a first-year BDR (Business Development Rep). Before this, he was a BDR at another company that let him go. The circumstances of him getting let go weren’t clear to us, but I now suspect it has something to do with his “problem.”

Whenever we’re in person, he is constantly texting or checking games. On video calls and meetings, he always looks like he’s been up all night with dark bags under his eyes. He is jumpy, nervous, and doesn’t seem like he’s in a good place.

When we all went out for a drink one night a month ago, he brought up gambling to me and had this sly grin on his face, but when he realized I had no interest, he basically got bored and stopped the conversation.

His performance isn’t great, but it's not terrible. But there’s obviously something very wrong with him right now. I heard a rumor that he asked someone in the office to borrow money, but I don’t know if that’s actually true or not. Should I offer to help, or mind my own business? I don’t want to see this kid ruin his life before he has a chance to really get it started.

Concerned in Boston

Dear Concerned,

It’s admirable that you’re willing to help a younger coworker who might be down on his luck (quite literally in this case). But since he hasn’t asked for your help and hasn’t even confirmed that there’s any problem at all, you need to tread carefully.

The best thing you could do is approach it from a mentor/mentee perspective. Offer (directly or indirectly) to help him in his career, and guide him toward becoming an AE. Along the way, he might ask for help or advice, or he might not.

At the end of the day, you’re there to work, and so is he. And there’s no proof that he has a gambling problem at all. Maybe he stays up all night playing video games or is working on a novel. You can never tell for sure, so your best bet might be to focus on your job and to avoid looking for trouble. Either way, be mindful of the fact that nobody has (yet) asked for help.

Quiz Answer: C – Prepayment postage coupons (you can read the source article here)

SHARE THE QUOTA

Help us grow, and we'll send you a reward!

{% if subscriber.custom_field['RH_REFLINK'] != '' %}

Share The Quota, get cool stuff!

Know a salesperson who’d love The Quota? Give them your unique referral link (below), and we’ll give you some awesome rewards when they subscribe.

facebook

twitter

PS: You have referred people so far

{% endif %}

How did you like today's story?

Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik, Erica Furgiuele, Steve Rado, and Emily Hill.

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Looking for a new gig or to hire for your sales team? Check out our jobs board — powered by RepVue.

Advertise with us

Books

QUOTA MEDIA LLC

651 N. Broad Street., Suite 206
Middletown DELAWARE (DE) 19709
USA

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options