The best sales advice we received in 2023

At LeadIQ, we’re laser-focused on helping sales and GTM teams reach their full potential. 

In addition to building a feature-rich platform designed to help people like you build pipeline faster and more efficiently, we love churning out a steady stream of content in pursuit of the same goal.

In 2023, we hosted webinars jam-packed with tips, tricks, and actionable advice you can incorporate into your own day-to-day to cover more ground, engage prospects more effectively, and win more business. 

To help you start 2024 off on the right foot, we’ve compiled this roundup that highlights some of the most interesting advice our incredible webinar guests shared — along with links to each of the webinars in their entirety and their recaps in case you’re interested in taking an even deeper dive.

How to improve SDR workflows

Accurate data plays a foundational role in SaaS sales success. But data itself is only a piece of the puzzle, even if it’s an enormous one. 

In addition to clean, reliable data, GTM teams also need to work as efficiently as possible. Instead of jumping between different platforms and juggling a countless number of administrative responsibilities, they need to do everything within their power to ensure that workflows are streamlined and busywork is kept to a minimum, if not eliminated altogether.

To learn more about what top-performing sales teams are doing to accomplish more every day, we invited a talented panel of sales geniuses to share their wisdom in a webinar earlier this year:

• Joey Williams, director of sales development at Chili Piper;
• Jessica Nelson, former senior director of sales development at LeadIQ who’s now the senior director of pipeline and sales development at Stream; and
• Tony de Leon, director of SDR at Evisort.

Don’t overextend yourself

SDR success starts with targeting the optimal number of accounts.

“I would think, realistically, an SDR could work maybe 200 accounts at any given time,” Jessica says. “More than that, and things are going to get lost in the shuffle.”

Once you’ve determined what those accounts are, you need to narrow your focus. Pinpoint 10 or 20 accounts you’re really going to drill down into and learn everything you can about the businesses and the prospects themselves. While the rest of the accounts might be good fits, exert less energy on them.

Make your processes repeatable

Success with outbound prospecting isn’t possible without personalization. That being the case, it’s critical to make sure that your processes with your cadences are extremely repeatable. 

“If we had a cadence and said, ‘Alright, here’s what you’re going to send,’ and we had people sending them to that many accounts, it would be really difficult for them to stand out,” Joey explains. “We’ve put a lot of work into turning our cadences into almost like the Mad Libs of personalization.” 

Lean on generative AI writing tools

An email that begins with some variation of Hey, I noticed you were a 49ers fan and a dog owner, so I’m reaching out. . . might have worked well enough two or three years ago. But now, that’s a standard opening. So, if you want to stand out, you’ll have to be more specific. 

“We need to be sending emails where there’s relevance and a little bit of personalization,” Tony explains. Emails “need to be damn good to the point where it attracts your attention because the freeway of emails we’re getting now is 10 times what it was before.”

There’s an easy fix here: using generative AI tools like LeadIQ Scribe, which enable you to create templates and easily modify them based on each recipient.

“Maybe you’re spending two minutes to clean it up,” Tony says. “I’d rather take that over the 40-minute amazingly crafted email.” 

For more tips on streamlining SDR workflows, watch the webinar below or read the recap.

How to create outbound sequences that convert

Every SaaS sales team needs to lean heavily on outbound sequences to generate pipeline and hit their numbers. However, in an age where the average employee receives 121 emails every day, sales reps need to do everything they possibly can to create effective outbound sequences.

To help readers like you take your outbound sequences to the next level, we hosted a two-part webinar series filled with all sorts of advice you can use to enhance your messaging and get better business outcomes because of it.

Guests for part one:

• Jack Doheny, account executive at InVeterate, formerly an account executive at GRIN; 
• Nate Robbins, director of sales and business development at Gong, formerly director of business development at ClickUp; and
• Brianne Shelly, former mid-market account executive at LeadIQ (we miss you, Brianne!).

Guests for part two: 

• Joe Calabrese, sales development manager at LeanData;
• Nate Robbins, and
• Jack Doheny (Thanks for continuing the conversation with us guys)

Be brief

In the digital-driven world, humans have shorter attention spans than goldfish. As such, sales reps and GTM teams would be wise to get to the point as quickly as possible, right out of the gate.

“I’m a huge believer in the two-word subject line,” Nate says. “I think that’s really powerful. The more simple you can make it, the better.”

Don’t be afraid to break up

If your outbound sequences aren’t working on a prospect, it might be because now’s not a good time. But you might only be able to figure that out if you send a so-called “breakup email.” 

“I’m into the breakup email in the sense of just trying to get better clarity on when this might be more relevant,” Jack says. “Sounds like this might not be interesting right now. No worries. Any type of perspective on another good time to reach out?”

While Nate’s not a fan of this approach for cold outreach, Brianne is during certain circumstances.

“I wouldn’t do this for everybody, but sometimes, since I’m usually reaching out to salespeople, I like to make it a little bit humorous and add in a little funny picture,” she explains. “It seems like I’m barking up the wrong tree. I just put in a really cute picture of my dog and don’t say much else. I’ve got a lot of responses on them.”

Use data to make changes with confidence

Sequences aren’t set in stone. So, when you’re not getting the results you’re hoping for, it may be time to make some changes. But those changes should be rooted in data — not based on gut instinct.

“The biggest thing is just having enough data to make the changes with confidence,” Joe says. “You’ve got to be patient. Give yourself some time to collect the data you need and change a variable with confidence.”

At the same time, Joe believes it’s critically important to be strategic and prepare ahead of time. That way, you’ll be ready to rock and roll the moment a prospect is ready to engage.

“It’s hard to have a conversation with prospects nowadays, so when you do get the opportunity, it’s really important to be dialed in ahead of time,” he says.

For more tips on what you can do to improve your outbound sequences, watch part one and part two of the webinar series below or read the first recap and the second recap.

How to accelerate pipeline with underused sales plays

Whether budgets are overflowing or companies are forced to tighten their purses, a day in the office is never easy for SaaS GTM and sales teams. 

To help teams struggling with lower connect rates and slower sales cycles, we wanted to share advice about underused sales plays teams like yours should consider utilizing and put together a panel of experts this summer, which included:

• Parker Eide, director of sales development at Tray.io, former senior account executive and sales development manager at Gong;
• Moses Castillo, senior regional sales and manager of business development at MSPbots.ai, former senior manager of enterprise and commercial sales development at Outreach; and
• Brooke Bachesta, head of commercial learning design at JLL Technologies, former revenue enablement and sales development manager at Outreach.

Do your homework

When firms like Gartner, McKinsey, or Forrester put out new research, encourage your team to read it and take it to heart.

“If Gartner wrote an article saying, ‘here’s what CSOs care about in 2023,’ everyone’s homework is to read it,” Brooke says.

After reading the article, the team convenes to discuss what it actually means and how it might impact their own approach.

“I think a lot of folks sleep on those industry articles, but they’re gold,” she explains. “They just give you exactly what your buyers are talking about.”

Memorize customer stories

Recently, Parker’s been focusing on making sure SDR leaders and reps know customer stories inside and out to the point they’re able to easily bring them up on calls.

“I find it’s really effective because people don’t really care about you throwing out random stats of, ‘Oh, we help you for X or eliminate this by 30%,’” Parker says. “They care about how other people in similar industries or similar roles are seeing an impact. What are they saying?”

To help his team, Parker synthesized long case studies into four-slide PowerPoints every Tuesday.

“We did that for weeks until we went through every single case study,” he continues. “I created a whole repository where they could review the recording of the session, the slides, and then we did a test and played Customer Story Jeopardy!” 

Ditch the hard close on time

According to a recent Gong study, closing on interest is more effective than closing on time. When SDRs try to do a hard close on time, they end up turning prospects away.

“If you’re still closing hard on time, statistically it’s not as effective and it’s just really misplaced in the sales cycle,” Moses says. “After there’s a bought-in interest, a sales rep is taught to come in for a hard close.”

To learn more underused sales plays that can help your team close more deals, watch the webinar below or read the recap.

How to prepare your GTM team for a new year

Even in the most ideal of circumstances, GTM teams need to continuously improve to cut through the noise and make a bigger splash. To help teams like yours prepare for another new year, we invited two top-notch sales leaders to share their thoughts on how to get ready for 2024:

• James Barton, head of global sales development at Venafi and a member of LeadIQ’s customer advisory board and
• Lucas Hulleberg, global director of sales development at Labelbox

Make sure you have the right team

To increase the chances you hit your numbers, Lucas advises assessing where you’ve been, where you’re at, and where you’d like to go. After you’ve done that, work backward and make sure you have the proper team in place to help you get there.

“Do we have the current capacity in place to achieve that?” Lucas suggests. “If not, is that just coaching that we need to do, extra tool sets we need to bring on to facilitate that, or is that additional headcount that’s needed?”

Stay flexible

For James, staying flexible is critical in trying times; his team has changed the model a couple of times this year to accommodate the reality his team faces every day. Being rigid and failing to recognize the challenging sales landscape will only make things harder.

“If you’re asking too much of them, they’re going to tell you right away and you’re going to see the results go down and motivation go down,” James says. “I like to show an org chart of my team; it’s upside down. I’m at the bottom because I work for them, so I want to hear from them immediately if things are not working.”

James is a big believer in roping the team into decision-making, at least a bit.

“Give them a voice and let them have a little bit of influence on what’s going to happen next year,” he says.

For more tips on what you can do to get your GTM team ready to crush 2024, watch the webinar below or read the recap.

How high will your GTM team soar in 2024?

With the right tools and tactics, the sky’s the limit.

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