Keep it steady with sales tech

INDUSTRY NEWS

Keep it steady with sales tech

Imagine something valuable moving to and fro on an unstable platform high up in the sky. The frightening image we’re painting here is not Rihanna’s Super Bowl performance, but the current economy. As sales leaders, you’re undoubtedly facing huge pressure to economize and optimize. Looking at your tech stack, it’s important to carefully evaluate the impact of potential cuts. We’d argue that “sales technology remains key in firms’ ability to win, serve, and retain customers,” but Forrester VP & Research Director Steve Silver already made that argument. Learn more about the current state and key themes of sales tech on Forrester’s blog. Sales tech can be the tether that keeps you from plummeting onto a field of hard and slick grass.

Executive decision

Sometimes, someone just needs to make an executive decision. Not about what to watch on Netflix or what to order for takeout – that always requires someone to take initiative. For a top-performing sales rep, the executive decision often comes down to whether to keep on raking in the money as an individual contributor or try to advance to a sales leadership position. If you’re in this position, take heart. A lot of people have thought long and hard about this, including Jason Lemkin, the founder of SaaStr. There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding whether it’s better to be a top sales rep or a VP of Sales. It’s not always about the money, but who are we kidding? It’s also not not about the money.

Hang in there

Telling a kitten hanging from a string to “hang in there” isn’t exactly helpful. That advice would also fall flat with an unmotivated sales rep who is struggling to get anywhere close to his number. When it comes to sales teams, motivation comes down to much more than knowing the right words to say in any given situation. As the legendary salesman Zig Zigler once said: “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” If you want your reps to really clean up when it comes to hitting their quotas, Blake Vernon, CRO at Sapper Consulting offers up “Five Strategies for Maintaining a Motivated Sales Team.” The catch is to not make it feel like a “rinse and repeat.”

IN THE GROOVE

Keeping our Groove-space safe

The Pentagon has been busy recently, shooting down spy balloons and other unknown objects from our airspace. Given the secrecy around Area 51, we may never know if aliens are behind these latest threats. Just like our airspace, our internet space can also be attacked by invaders, but they are less likely to be alien. To keep our Groove space secured, we just hired Patrick Neise as Groove’s new Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Patrick is a former Director of Operations for the NSA Red Team with deep expertise in protecting information systems from cyber threats at the highest level. Although he can’t speak about his knowledge on spy balloons, he did answer a Q&A all about his background in information security. No alien questioning needed.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW

Salesforce surprise

Standing at 1,070 feet tall (even taller than the Eiffel Tower), the San Francisco Salesforce Tower is well-known across the world. Salesforce itself is also well known for being the world’s largest CRM platform. While you might think you are a Salesforce expert, there are plenty of fun facts you might not have known about this cloud giant. If you are looking for a lighter read this week, check out Salesforce Ben’s article on the “15 Salesforce Facts You Never Knew.” Whether you are a Trailblazer or a Salesforce newbie, you’re bound to learn something new.

Happy workers

There are good leaders, and there are bad leaders. Just like there are employees who want to grow, and those that just want to get paid. Leaders who build strong work communities rather than places of employment are more likely to have high-performing teams and happy employees. Marcel Schwantes at Inc. Magazine breaks down the four habits of happy employees created by successful work communities. At the end of the day, we are all people who just want to be heard and appreciated. Instilling these simple human practices can improve your workplace, so start today.

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