Final study guide

coursecareers

Account

An account contains all the records of customer interactions, including contact information, preferred services, and transactions with your business. An account is created after the first time a customer buys from your business.

Account Executive/AE/Closer

A sales team member in charge of closing deals by converting qualified leads into paying customers.

Account Manager/AM/Farmer

A sales team member in charge of managing and up-selling existing clients and accounts.

Annual Recurring Revenue(ARR)

The amount of money a customer pays you every year on a subscription model.

Account-Based Selling

Account-based selling is a strategy where the entire company coordinates to pursue high-value accounts. The departments that are most typically involved in account-based selling are sales, marketing, and customer success.

Business Development Representative

Also known as a Sales Development Representative (SDR). This representative is a sales specialist focused on finding new prospects, establishing foundational relationships, and updating the sales pipeline with new leads.

B2B

Selling business to business. EX: a lot longer than B2C sale cycle. (4-10 call close). Worth more money $5,000+ LTV instead of $500 LTV. LTV- life time value, value of your customer over its lifetime will be greater than $5000+. includes usually 2-8 people in the decision such as the VP of sales and VP of sales.

B2C

Selling business to consumer. EX: 1-3 call close. Average close $500+ LTV. Includes usually 1-2 people in the decision.

Business Unit

A group of people representing a specific department or product within a company such as accounting or manufacturing.

Buyer Persona

A buyer persona is a representation of the ideal customer for your business. Companies create buyer personas based on market research and data about existing customers. Having a buyer persona in mind is important for marketers creating a target audience and for sales representatives qualifying leads. (the person in the company) This person will benefit the most from you selling the product or service.

Buying Signal

A buying signal is a verbal or nonverbal cues that show a customer is ready to make a purchase, such as signing up for a free trial or asking about contract specifics. Picking up on these signals can help sales reps better focus their attention on customers that are giving off more buying signals

Champion

A prospect within a company that wants to purchase your product or service and is willing to do everything they can to help convince the others in the company to make the purchase

Channel Partner

A person or company that offers services or products on behalf of another company

channel Sales

Focusing on different sales channels, such as an in-house sales team, retailers, referrals, dealers etc.

Churn

The percentage of clients that leave or stop using your services or products within a certain time period.

Closing Ratio

A closing ratio is the number of deals closed compared to the number of engaged prospects. This ratio can be used to evaluate the performance of an individual sales rep and forecast sales.

Clients

Closed opportunities, paying clients and people that your account manager should take care of.

Closers

Or Account Executives, they are focused on closing deals and they only prospect a small number of strategic accounts.

Cold Call

Attempt to engage with a prospect (that you don't yet have a relationship established) on a call

Cold Email

Attempt to engage with prospects via email; sending a sales proposal to someone that you don't yet have a relationship with.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

The cost of acquiring new paying clients

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Also known as lifetime value (LTV). The total lifetime value of one client in terms of the revenue they'll bring before they churn.

Customer Relationship Management/CRM

A software or Internet-based service that helps business owners and sales professionals manage their sales pipeline; track prospects and related activities throughout the sales cycle

Customer Success

A strategy and a proactive mindset that helps reduce churn rates, increase customer satisfaction with a service/product, and the predictability of recurring revenue

Decision Maker

The person in charge of making the purchasing decision at a company

Fortune 500

A list of 500 of the largest companies in the US based on revenue

GateKeeper

The person who answers the corporate phone and decides to let you talk to the decision-maker or not.

ICP

Ideal Customer Profile is a profile of an ideal client for your business. (regarding a business as a whole , not individual)

Inbound

Interest that comes in (received cold emails, submitted forms..)

inbound Sales

Sales that happen as a result of customers directly approaching and engaging with the brand/company.

Lead

Someone who is a potential fit to purchase your product or service.

Lead Generation

All of the activities that have a goal to generate interest around a product or a service through different methods - content marketing, PPC, referrals, outbound marketing, and partnerships

Lead Nurturing

Engaging and building a long-term relationship with existing prospects

Lead Qualification

A process of qualifying if a lead is a good fit to purchase your product or service.

Lead Scoring

Assigning a value to every lead based on predefined criteria, in order to rank leads in terms of engaging priority

Influencer

Someone who has a strong influence over the purchase of a product or service, but isn't the final decision-maker

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

A lead that will most likely become a paying client, based on what pages the lead visited, what action they took on the company website, and other online engagement

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

The amount of regular and predictable income a company expects to receive every month.

Onboarding

A set of actions or a process of introducing a new client with a service or product. Setting up an account and introducing the client with their point of contact at the company.

Opportunities

A qualified lead that is a good fit for your solution. An SDR has qualified this person as someone who has the need and ability to purchase

Outbound Sales

Cold calling, cold emailing and social selling, with the goal of initiating contact with a prospective client and ultimately closing the deal

Point of Contact

A person or a department within a company that the client can reach out to with questions or specific requests.

Profit margin

Profit margin is a ratio of profitability that reveals how much money a company actually makes. It is the amount by which revenue from sales exceeds costs.To calculate profit margin, divide your gross profit (revenue-cost of goods sold) by revenue.

Prospects

A list of names and contact information in some type of list, database or CRM.

referral

Method of generating new sales leads, where someone refers a potential client to you

Return on Investment (ROI)

Shows the effectiveness of the initial investment. It is a ratio between net profit and the cost of investment.

Revenue

The amount of money one business generates in the specific time period (a year, a quarter...).

SaaS

Software as a Service.

Sales Acceleration

Speeding up the sales process using different tools and technologies to boost productivity and efficiency.

Sales Automation

A process of automating sales workflow by using a software or an online tool. It can help simplify, speed up and streamline the sales process.

Sales Cadence

A determined sequence of sales activities and the frequency at which the sales team interacts with leads to move them through the pipeline. EX: your repeatable process for getting conversations with prospects. Using multiple channels such as: Email, calls, Voicemails, LinkedIn, texts. Using a sales cadence makes you more efficient and eliminates guesswork and also helps increase touches with customers. Different prospects prefer different channels. " i call first, then leave voicemail, then leave a email, message them on linkedin spread throughout a few days." Use sale engagement software to help with the work of engaging with customer. another ex: Call->email->LinkedIn connect/message->email->call->breakup email

Sales Cycle

The Sales Cycle is a set of specific actions you follow from start to finish to close a new customer. It’s comprised of  multiple stages that include whats also known as Sales Process. EX: "from start to finish", such as "Research>Outreach>Discovery>Present>follow-up>Close

Sales Demo

An event that serves as a showcase of the product or service that the company is selling.

Sales Enablement

Providing sales professionals with necessary tools, technology, training, and other resources in order for them to have better performance at customer engagement.

Sales Funnel

A visual representation of sales processes with defined stages, that every potential client goes through as they are let towards a final decision - buying a product or service. ex: Research: has the most 1000 leads, Outreach: 100 conversations \n Discovery: 50 SQL's \n Present: 25 demos \n Follow-up: 15 interested \n Close: 10 closed

Sales Pipeline

A visual representation of a sales process and stages of each individual prospect.

Sales Prospecting

A process of finding and identifying new prospective clients using different outbound methods - cold email, social selling, advertising etc. EX: Research, outreach, discovery= Prospecting. It helps fill the top of the sales funnel

Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

A potential client that already met all the necessary criteria, and is forwarded to Account Executive to close the deal.

Scraping Data

Extraction of large amounts of data from websites

Segmentation

A process of dividing a large market or a contact list into smaller segments based on different criteria - location, company size, revenue etc.

Social Selling

A sales tactic that involves using social media as a sales channel. SDRs engage and create relationships with prospects by probing their needs and providing relevant and valuable insight.

Top of the Funnel

A term that refers to the top of the sales or marketing funnel, where all prospects go through a qualification process, both from inbound and outbound efforts

Unique Selling Point/Proposition

Unique features of a business that sets it apart from the competitors

Vertical

A specific segment of the market where a business targets only a specific industry, sector or niche.

Research

Your company will give a process to follow. what you should do, what technologies you should use, and how to organize that data to get your list of prospects with research on them.

Outreach

Following sales cadence, your activities and combination of phone calls, emails, voicemails, LinkedIn messages.

Discovery

Talking with the prospect on the phone or video chat, or in person using the SPIN sales methodology.

Present

USING SPIN

Follow-up

the final step of the selling process, in which the salesperson ensures delivery schedules are met, goods or services perform as promised, and the buyers' employees are properly trained to use the products

Close

Close

What is EEP?

Efficiency + Effectiveness = Performance (EEP)

EX: 200 phone calls (10%), 20 answers (50%), = 10 meetings

Sales Methodology

means an industry recognized standard sales process? Sales cycle is the highest level of them all. (ex: SPIN Selling)

What's the correct order for the cold-calling framework?

\*Attention-Identify-What you want-Bridge-Ask.\*


EX: 1. Get their attention by using their name: "Hi, Julie."
2\. Identify yourself: "My name is Jeb Blount and I'm with Sales Gravy."
3\. Tell them why you are calling: "The reason I'm calling is to set up an appointment with you."
4\. Bridge—give them a because: "I just read an article online that said your company is going to add 200 new sales positions over the next year. Several companies in your industry are already using Sales Gravy exclusively
for sourcing sales candidates and they are very happy with the results we are delivering."
5\. Ask for what you want, and shut up: "I thought the best place to start is to schedule a short meeting to learn about your sales recruiting challenges and goals. How about we meet Wednesday afternoon around 3:00 PM?"

What shouldn't you say on a cold call?

How are you?

What's the correct order for the voice-mail framework?

Identify-Phone number twice-Reason for call-Reason to call back-Phone number twice \n EX: \n "Hi, Rick, this is Jeb Blount from Sales Gravy. My phone number is 1-888-360-2249, that's 1-888-360-2249. The reason I am calling is you downloaded our white paper on cold calling and I want to learn more about your situation and what triggered you to seek out this information. I also have some additional resources on voice mail messages and phone prospecting I thought you might be curious to learn about. Let's get together this week. Give me a call back at \n 1-888-360-2249, that's 1-888-360-2249."

What's the correct order for the RBO framework?

Anchor-Disrupt-Ask
EX: 1. Prospect: "Look, Jeb, I'm busy."
"Nancy, that's exactly why I called."
(Anchor: This is a simple statement that gives my logical brain just a moment to take control of my emotional brain. By agreeing with her, I immediately disrupt her expectation that I will try to talk her out of being busy.)
"I figured you would be, so I want to find a time that is more convenient for you."
(Disrupt: It also acknowledges that she is busy right now and disrupts that pattern by asking her to think about a more convenient time.)
"How about we get together next Wednesday at 3:00 PM instead?"
(Ask: This makes an assumptive, direct, and specific request.)
2\. Prospect: "We're not interested."
"You know, that is what a lot of my current clients said the first time I called." (Anchor)
"Most people say they aren't interested before they see how much I can save them. I don't know if my service will be a good fit for you and your company, but doesn't it make
sense for us to at least get together for a short meeting to find out?" (Disrupt)
"How about Friday at 2:00 PM? (Ask)
3\. Prospect: "We're really happy with our current provider."
"That's fantastic!" (Anchor)
"Anytime you are getting great rates and great service, you should never think about changing. All I want to do is come by and get to know you a little better. And even if it doesn't make sense to do business with me at the moment, I can at least give you a competitive quote that will help you keep those other guys honest." (Disrupt)
"How about I come by on Tuesday at 11:30 AM?" (Ask)

Strategic bridge

Strategic bridges use information custom to each prospect. \n EX: Strategic bridges require research so that your bridge or because is specific and relevant, reduces risk, and gives them a compelling reason to give you their time. You will typically craft strategic bridges for enterprise level, conquest prospects, and C-level executives.

Targeted bridges

Targeted bridges are bridges that are common to a large group of similar prospects—decision-maker roles, industry vertical, product or service application, and so on. \n EX: Targeted bridges are most appropriate when you have little information about a specific prospect and the cost/benefit of doing reams of research is not worth it.

What is a value proposition?

A clear statement of the tangible results a customer gets from using your products or services. \n EX: "I've helped multiple companies in your market segment reduce time to profitability on new product launches by as much as 50 percent. In fact, Aspen Systems' IDEK SaaS launch was the fastest ramp to ROI in the history of the company. With our system, they made a 41 percent improvement over their last launch."

RBO

reflex response, brush-off, or objection

What are the 4 pillars of mental toughness?

Desire, Mental Resilience, Outlearn=Outearn, Physical Resilience

What's the correct order for the email framework?

**Hook-Relate-Bridge-Ask**

\n EX: \n Hook: Get their attention with a compelling subject line and opening sentence/statement. \n Relate: Demonstrate that you get them and their problem. Show empathy and authenticity. \n Bridge: Connect the dots between their problem and how you can help them. Explain the WIIFM. \n Ask: Be clear and straightforward about the action you want them to take, and make it easy for them to do so. \n Best email framework example w/hook ,relate ,bridge and ask. \n \n Lawrence, \n (hook)Ernst & Young recently reported that the COO has the toughest role in the C-suite. \n \n (relate) The COOs I work with tell me that the increasing complexity of the banking environment has made their job harder and more stressful than ever. \n \n (bridge) My team and I help COOs like you reduce complexity and stress with strategies to optimize growth and profit, mitigate credit risk, allocate resources effectively, and minimize regulatory surprises. \n \n (ask) While I don't know if we are a good fit for your bank, why don't we schedule a short call to help me learn more about your unique challenges? From there we can decide if it makes sense to set up a deeper conversation. \n How about next Thursday at 3:00 PM? \n Dave Adair \n SeniorAccount \n Executive \n JunoSystems

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

Is a technology for managing all your companies relationship and interactions with customer and potential customers. It helps with contact management, sales management, agent productivity, and more. \n EX: salesforce, Hubspot, microsoft dynamics

sales data software

Gives salespeople the valuable data they need to figure out which companies and contact they should sell to. Includes buying signals, direct dials to a specific person in a company. It provides information on two parts of the sales data market, Company Data and Contact Data, as well as includes phone numbers and emails. \n Sales data is about the contextual information surrounding these contacts, such as purchase history, current contracts, business objectives, and digital footprints. It gives Sales Intelligence and gives salespeople the valuable data they need to figure out which companies and contacts they should sell to.EX: Linkedin Sales navigator, Zoominfo, Dun and Bradstreet, Apollo.io

Direct cold email outreach

Example- \n \n Subject: Hiring more sales interns? \n \n (intro) Hey John, \n \n (Reason) I noticed you just hired a few sales interns last month to work with your SDR team and was wondering if you're looking to hire any more? \n \n (Value prop) What we do here at CourseCareers is connect trained sales development interns with companies. Our interns can work all year round and they've proven to improve the efficiency of sales development team by up to 50% by doing all the pre-outreach activities like research so your sales development reps can focus on outreach and set more meetings. \n \n (Ask) Is there a time you're available to meet for a quick 20 minute call to run through what you're currently using your interns for and if hiring our interns would be a great fit for you? Does monday @ 1:30pm, 2 pm, or 4pm EST work? If not, please suggest a time on Wednesday. \n \n (Closing) Best, \n \n Cedreich.

4-Step Research Process (in the research phase)

Step 1. Building Company Lists based on your Ideal Customer Profile \n -Always start with companies, not contacts \n -Batch companies together based on ICP \n -Use Sales Data Providers, Linkedin Search, Job Boards \n \n Step 2. Building Contact Lists Based on Buyer Persona \n -Use your Buyer Persona to identify the correct contacts \n \n Step 3. Find contact info for each contact \n -Use sales data software \n -Use Email Guessing if you can't find it using Neverbounce, Hunter, etc. \n \n Step 4. Finding Relevant Ways to Personalize Outreach \n -Sales Data Software Alerts \n -Google Alerts \n -Linkedin \n -Company blog \n -Personal Blog or Social Media Posts \n -Google - Press Release, News Mention, Award Won

Cold Calling

Intro who you are → Reason why you're calling why they care→ Qualify right fit? → Ask what you want

The Four Stages of a Discovery Call and examples:

1. Preliminaries (Introduction)
2. Investigating (Ask questions, important step in selling)
3. Demonstrating ( capability, solutions, show off product)
4. Obtaining commitment ( commitment from the customer)

What is SPIN?

A sales methodology developed by Neil Rackam where the reps organize sales calls using a question framework that touches on four categories: situation, problem, implication, and need-payoff. \n EX: \n -Situation: questions focus on gathering facts and background \n \n Problem: questions explore customers' problems, difficulties, and dissatisfactions in areas where the seller's product can help. \n \n Implication: questions take the customer's problem and explore its effects or consequences. They also help customers understand a problem's seriousness or urgency. \n \n Need-payoff questions help the customer focus their attention on the solution rather than the problem. They get the customer to tell you the benefits of fixing their problem.

What is SPIN used for?

SPIN is used to figure out their needs and build up value around your product or service.

When is SPIN used?

SPIN is used during the Investigation stage of the discovery phase of the sales cycle.

What is BANT? and what is it used for?

it is a sales qualification methodology that lets salespeople determine whether a prospect is a good fit based on their Budget, Authority, Need (use SPIN), Timeline. You ask the questions in the order of NATB

Most important part of BANT? what part of the sales cycle is it used?

Need is the most important part of BANT. Always start with need because if the customer doesn't have the need for your product, all of the other questions become irrelevant. It is used during the discovery phase of the sales cycle.

Cold email formula

Intro (Address Them) → Reason (Reason)→Value Prop (Solution to their problem, challenge, or difficulty and why they care)→Ask (what you want, meeting or introduction)→Closing (sign off)

Objective Handling: "I'm not the right person"

"Do you know who the right person is? Would you give me an introduction?"

Objective Handling: "I'm too busy to talk."

"When is a better time to callback? Do you want me to send you a meeting invite?

Objective Handling: "Send me some info"

"What info are you looking for? I can explain quicker and be relevant better via phone"

Research steps

Building company list on ICP, contact list for BP, contact info on each contact, research ways to personalize outreach

features

Facts about product

Benefits

Show how features can help the customer