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Nobody taught you how to handle it when a prospect hangs up mid-pitch. Or when your biggest deal goes dark on a Thursday. Or when you're one call away from quota and your stomach won't stop turning because you don’t know what to do next.
That's the stuff we’re here to talk about. Josh and Eric, two former athletes turned sellers, break down what it actually takes to compete in sales right now. The plays that work, the ones that don't, and the embarrassing stories in between.
No suit-and-tie energy here. We want to help you get your head in the game and make you the hero of your own sales story.
It’s time to get game-day ready. You in?
Eric Salvo (00:00):
Early in my BDR days, it was hit my number for the year. Well, things look great. I got a couple weeks to cruise it in and you enjoy and you relax and all of a sudden Q1 hits and you're like, shit. Now I got my SKO, I lost a week there. We're at an event here, I lost a week and now all the prospecting and planning and real coordination that it takes to then go and do effective outreach and get people in the funnel is now far behind. You can't really take your foot off the gas in any way, shape or form, especially in sales. And if you do that, you're going to be in real trouble coming into Q1. Yeah.
Josh Rasmussen (00:34):
All right, we're back. Another episode of GameShape. I'm Josh.
Eric Salvo (00:38):
And I'm Eric. And I think this is our last segment of the day.
Josh Rasmussen (00:40):
This is the last segment of the day. And this is coming to you now in the future because we want to help you prepare for Q4. It's the end of Q3. Quarter just ended. We literally talked about this at lunch. Most sales reps are probably not at their yearly number right now. No. And so we want to talk about how can you help best set yourself up for success in Q4? Because most people, once it gets to the end of November, it's Thanksgiving, people are checked out.
Eric Salvo (01:05):
Yup.
Josh Rasmussen (01:05):
They don't want to talk, they don't want to buy.
Eric Salvo (01:07):
Nope.
Josh Rasmussen (01:08):
They're done.
Eric Salvo (01:08):
All done.
Josh Rasmussen (01:09):
So let's talk through a couple of things and how can you make sure that you finish year strong, have a good Q4 and hopefully earn yourself President's Club?
Eric Salvo (01:17):
Well, one thing is the seven Ps, proper prior planning prevents piss poor execution. Wow. Part of that happens -
Josh Rasmussen (01:25):
Dr. Seuss over here.
Eric Salvo (01:26):
In Q3 and that's Q3 pipe building. So if we're talking to you now in mid-October, you don't have pipe coming into this quarter, dust off that old resume because it's time to start.
Josh Rasmussen (01:37):
Time to clean it up.
Eric Salvo (01:38):
Because Q3, if you didn't build pipe coming into it, you're in trouble.
Josh Rasmussen (01:40):
Another P, performance improvement plan.
Eric Salvo (01:43):
There you go.
Josh Rasmussen (01:43):
That's probably.
Eric Salvo (01:45):
See you later. Yeah.
Josh Rasmussen (01:46):
We're pushing a lot of Ps on this episode. Wow. Gunna would be proud. This is awesome. Okay. Build a pipe in Q3. Build a pipeline in Q3. You have to build the pipeline. What if you failed to build the pipeline in Q3 and you don't want to dust off the resume quite yet? What can you actually do that's going to help set you up for success?
Eric Salvo (02:06):
S9 report from earlier in the year, close lost opportunities. Go find out. Who did I speak to earlier this year that was like, this is awesome, but not right now, which is one of the most common objections. It is one of the easiest ones to skirt by. But realistically when it comes to actually buying, not just booking a meeting, it is probably one of the most crucial ones because if there legitimately is no budget, which newsflash, most of the budget opens up in Q4. So part one is keep the relationships that were strong in the beginning of the year and go find those people to have the conversations with. Go get after them. And then on top of that, it's hammer the phones, S9s, accounts that really fit the ICP that you feel like maybe you just got some funding recently or had some recent turnover.
(02:47):
Also having a very clear insight into where your previous champions were at. If they loved you at another company, they just landed somewhere else before Q4 starts, go reach out to them, go set something up. That's a really easy way to get a low hanging fruit of potential opportunities that you could close in Q4. I think that's probably my advice on the sales side. BDR side's a little different. Activity definitely correlates with success in some cases, but what would be your piece of advice?
Josh Rasmussen (03:14):
So I think it's fairly adjacent. Low hanging fruit is the key. I think a lot of times when, I think the initial reaction to I'm underperforming, people immediately first though is like, I got to do more activity. And I think we know this brand prey is not the answer to most of it. So I encourage reps to do the same thing. It may not be closed lost, but it's like have you talked to people previously in the year that you had a good conversation with? Maybe they didn't show up and they're trying to reengage. It is your closed opportunities or something like that. High buyer intent. It's like are you leveraging marketing tools or people are on the website? Are they looking?
Eric Salvo (03:47):
A lot of those are here. A lot of those are here.
Josh Rasmussen (03:49):
Obviously again, people have budget in Q4. They maybe just came out of planning, end of Q3 planning for the next year. We still have budget left over. Are they looking for tools right now to fill that budget?
Eric Salvo (04:00):
Which is what a lot of folks are doing right now.
Josh Rasmussen (04:02):
Yeah. And then the other piece that you talked about is pick up the phone. As people are getting more checked out, it's something like, I wouldn't necessarily say it's a scammy sales technique. People already aren't responding to emails, but usually they are traveling and out of office and they might be more likely to pick up their phone because they're not in meetings. And so that's a really easy way to book meetings is people are not. So maybe taboo to call during Thanksgiving break that week or the week leading up to the holidays before the new year. Yeah. I do it personally and some people might get pissed off, but again -
Eric Salvo (04:38):
You're also a buyer. Would that piss you off if someone did that to you?
Josh Rasmussen (04:41):
I would say no. No. If you're doing it, right? Yeah. I respect the gain. Yeah, of course. Also you have to. It's good karma. I got some bad karma last week. I was a little bit rude to a BDR and I did eat them up a little bit, but I gave them feedback. I gave them feedback because I figured they might be underperforming and needed strong key for you all. So I try to give them some feedback, but I think it's find the low hanging fruit and then you just got to bump activity and try to find anything you can.
Eric Salvo (05:07):
I think another thing too, at least on the sales side is go on site with people, which can be hard to do around the holiday time. But if you're able to secure an onsite presentation with more folks and stakeholders, it could be really crucial to stand out from the crowd. Again, we do a lot of remote selling, so if there's one thing you're able to do and go on site, really meet that person and have them experience you as a human being, maybe they'll be like, "Tech's pretty good. That guy Josh was awesome. We can make something happen here." So try and get on site, be out there and doing the things that can be done.
Josh Rasmussen (05:40):
I think the key with it is you don't want to have the desperation breath of I'm really close to my number and I really need you to do this. And I've heard people use that as a tactic to close deals. It's crazy. Which is also insane that you even think of doing that
(05:55):
Because I think for me it would turn me off immediately. You don't care about me or any of my problems. And so I think when you can have the genuine attitude of still the same things we've always talked about is like, do you know who I am? Are you trying to solve a problem? And is this genuine? Yes, sure, we could text over break and try to set something up. But if it is the last ditch half board shot praying that I really, really need you to show up to this demo, please, I'll Venmo you some money. I've had reps try to do that before, pay people off them, which is crazy.
Eric Salvo (06:29):
I've seen that too.
Josh Rasmussen (06:30):
If you're using gifting platforms though, like -
Eric Salvo (06:33):
ReachDesk.
Josh Rasmussen (06:34):
ReachDesk, Sendoso, shout out to those guys. That can work. It has been a successful tactic of buy something nice for someone on your team if you take a call with us.
Eric Salvo (06:43):
Take a meeting.
Josh Rasmussen (06:43):
Take a meeting. That can be useful, but again, if your commission breath is really bad.
Eric Salvo (06:49):
You're going to be in trouble.
Josh Rasmussen (06:50):
Yeah. I'm not a fan.
Eric Salvo (06:51):
No, not a fan. No, there's only so much you can really do. And I think the biggest, if I had one massive takeaway and it's hard because we're going to put this out and Q3 is largely going to be gone for anyone that's out on the Salesforce calendar, but it really is Q4 starts when Q3 actually is happening. So currently we're 45 days out from Q4 starting. And part of why I'm at this event is I need to go build a pipeline because a lot of these people are going to be buying technology in a couple months and I need to be in those conversations and meeting those people. And that starts now 45 days beforehand. So if you're not in that boat, good luck. So
Josh Rasmussen (07:30):
I guess if you are a rep that is traditionally things are a quarter behind.
Eric Salvo (07:34):
Yes.
Josh Rasmussen (07:35):
What do you do if you get to day one, Q4 and you open up the dashboard and there's -
Eric Salvo (07:41):
It's S9s. It's the low hanging fruit. That's the way to go. Outside of that, it's trying to find other development opportunities. It can be really, really difficult. I had something else so I lost it.
Josh Rasmussen (07:54):
Yeah, it happens. It's been a long day. So it is the S9s closed loss. How is your manager helping you through this?What does support look like? Because ideally you've had conversations, you're not going into Q4 like,
Eric Salvo (08:06):
Oh, I don't have - First time. Yeah. I mean, I think also even if you do come into Q4 and you've only got a couple ops that really are worth it, not super crazy advice, but walking into those really key opportunities, "Hey, I've got 15 left in this pipeline. There's really only five in here." And pushing to either qualify in or qualify out also is probably very important because everyone's going to get really busy over the holidays. And if I can walk down four or five that really actually matter to me or whatever the volume is that you're working with,
(08:38):
That's a piece of it too. So putting the candle to the fire and being like, this is actually going to burn or not? Are we going to make something happen here? I think that's part of it as well. So qualifying in or out because over the holidays you don't really want to work too much. I know that the buyer doesn't want to work too much either, especially on an external project they might be forced into. How do I make sure that I'm really dedicating my time effectively to the deals that matter? So yeah, I think that's another part of it, too.
Josh Rasmussen (09:01):
One thing that you said that stuck out was locking in. I know you kind of just diverged your way.
Eric Salvo (09:05):
We didn't talk about it, but lock in.
Josh Rasmussen (09:07):
Something I disagree with, most people don't want to work during the holidays.
Eric Salvo (09:11):
No, no one does.
Josh Rasmussen (09:11):
I think when you are, especially BDRs, AEs, it is more challenging. If you have nothing coming in and you have a longer sales process, it might be fairly difficult to get to your number. But if you're a BDR who's usually on a monthly quota, your goal is meetings - That's another thing too. If you are making the assumption that I'm way behind and I'm not going to hit my number, so you're just going to let it coast, horrible. You have to grind. You got to lock in and figure out how you're going to get yourself to quota. And if it is more calls, it's more emails, it's finding ways to get crafty. Most of the BDRs on my team, it is a real thing.You could have top performers who get to holiday season and they're like, "I haven't booked a meeting in three weeks.
(09:51):
What is going on?" And I think most of the time they're the reps who are problem solvers and they're very proactive and do things themselves where it's usually there's a process. Good example of this is I remember I had a rep who, exact same situation, consistent top performer, was doing the exact same output, didn't change anything, but they weren't booking meetings during the holiday season. And instead of coming to me with, "Hey, what can I do differently?"
(10:18):
They just went and found themselves like these are 10 accounts, they're not in Salesforce, nobody's working them. They have these signals, I want to work.
Eric Salvo (10:26):
They match our ICP.
Josh Rasmussen (10:26):
Match our ICP. So they went found stuff themselves and then found a way to get there creatively that was outside of process, but still technically following process. It just got creative and found ways to get there and then ended up getting themselves there. So I think you create your own luck when you're working hard. I think that's something that most BDRs unfortunately could have a piss poor attitude of I'm not there. I'm just going to hang it up and wait till the next quarter.
Eric Salvo (10:53):
Start interviewing, start applying. Yeah. One thing that is pretty relevant to what we're talking about here, obviously it's close Q4 strong, but then also set yourself up for Q1. And I've even done this in my own time. Early in my BDR days, it was hit my number for the year, things look great. I got a couple weeks to kind of cruise it in and you enjoy and you relax and all of a sudden Q1 hits. It's Jan one or Feb one, depending on the calendar you're on and you're like, shit. Now I got my SKO, I lost a week there. We're at an event here, I lost a week. And now all the prospecting and planning and real coordination that it takes to then go and do effective outreach and get people in the funnel is now far behind. Way behind. Using the downtime, while it might be a blessing to have that and have the ability to really relax, you can't really take your foot off the gas in any way, shape or form, especially in sales.
(11:43):
And if you do that, you're going to be in real trouble coming into Q1.
Josh Rasmussen (11:46):
Well, it's like the exact same thing you said. I don't remember what all the nine Ps are that you mentioned, but it's the exact same thing where it's like if you know that you're not going to get there, there are some people who will just be like, "This quarter is a wash. I'm going to wait till Q1." And they just coast, but then they get to Q1 and they haven't done anything. So then they spend the whole first month trying to play catch up. Whereas if you know that you didn't have a good Q4, you should be doing everything you can to make sure that when you get back from break, you have things in the pipeline so you can make up for some of that lost time. It is -
Eric Salvo (12:18):
Proper prior planning prevents piss poor execution. So there you go. Yeah, put that. Or piss performance. That's what it is. No excuse. Same thing.
Josh Rasmussen (12:27):
Seven Ps.
Eric Salvo (12:27):
My grandma taught me that years ago.
Josh Rasmussen (12:29):
Your grandma taught you that?
Eric Salvo (12:30):
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Josh Rasmussen (12:31):
Was she a sales leader?
Eric Salvo (12:32):
No, she was not. She was definitely not a sales leader, but it's kind of a phrase and saying of life, probably something that could have taken to heart more as time has progressed, but it definitely tells true when it comes to planning for the next year.
Josh Rasmussen (12:44):
You're in Q4, pipeline's empty. What do you do? What are your three key takeaways for someone who not so strong Q4? What do they do?
Eric Salvo (12:53):
Have a great Q3.
(12:55):
Okay. Legitimately, if you're at this point, you're in trouble. I'm sorry. If you are at that point and you really are in trouble, walk the hell in. Whether that means you're working 10, 12 hour days, that's what you're going to have to do in order to hit quota. And then the other thing is find the low hanging fruit. Find the people who just got funding, go to events in person, really get out there and start meeting people. At a time like this when folks are starting to think about their planning for next year and go out for the S9s. Go after the close loss report from earlier in the year. That's a great place you can find some people that already know what you do. Maybe it wasn't the right time, but now you reengage and hey, we actually have a need for this. The biggest thing in sales is timing and if you're there at the right time, which is where we are now, that's kind of my advice.
(13:38):
That's what I have. Am I missing anything?
Josh Rasmussen (13:40):
I think you hit everything that I would've said. Oh. Yeah. Minus the seven Ps.
Eric Salvo (13:45):
I will try to remember.
Josh Rasmussen (13:45):
Yeah, 10 Ps. Yeah. We'll just keep adding Ps until we have a full jar.
Eric Salvo (13:51):
Push and P?
Josh Rasmussen (13:53):
Yeah. I don't know. But yeah, that's game shape. I'm Josh.
Eric Salvo (13:56):
And I'm Eric.
Josh Rasmussen (13:57):
Now go close something.