Between 2000 and 2007 it was fair to say I was crap at my job.  In that time I worked for seven different companies if you count the acquisitions, four by choice.  So whilst I was learning a new trade of B2B MarTech sales (largely self taught), I was doing it in a non coordinated and hybrid learning kind of way.  

The first book I read was Keith Eades, Emotional Selling.  The first official sales training program I did was Miller Heiman, Strategic Selling and I absolutely loved a blue sheet - it would be a visual of a deal I still maintain to this day. 

I lost my job for poor performance in 2005, at a company I lasted only a year with as I tried hard to transition from a transactional based SaaS sales approach to a value based solution selling approach with a heavy services component.  

In 2006 after joining what was technically my 7th company in six years things started to click. However, I was experiencing the dreaded peaks and troughs of sales, focusing on pipeline development, close some deals and then spend time developing pipeline again. With this viscous cycle I knew it was holding me back from greater success. I new something had to change if I wanted to develop an approach that ensured I mitigated all risk of not hitting my number. 

I realised prospecting and pipeline management was everything. If I wanted to smash my number consistently each year I needed to be disciplined with my time and focused on my prospecting efforts. In fact prospecting became the #1 priority, the one thing I did consistently and would ensure I found time to do on a daily basis, including evenings and weekends.  

Though to me, I didn’t think of it as prospecting, it was simply relationship building, and with my Miller Heiman training, I ensured I did it with multiple stakeholders in each account I was targeting.  

In 2007 I hit my annual target for the first time in seven years. WHAT A FEELING!!

I went on to do between 200-300% of my increasing number over the next 3 years, winning deals with some of the biggest names in the UK. I challenged myself to close a deal a month and ensure I had a mix of small, medium and large sized deals throughout the year, with brands like Vodafone, Arcadia Group (RIP) and Zurich Financial among the larger ones.  

It was simple really.

I developed a spreadsheet that gave me an instant visual of my opportunity forecast, a forecast of opportunities (SQLs if you will), when I felt an account would become a qualified opportunity, you know, after you’ve had several conversations, you’ve qualified the buyer type/s, you have a handle on the stakeholders involved and a rough idea of the buying criteria, as I’d already been able to influence it.  All I had to do then, was build up enough of these conversations and plot them on a timeline.

I could see how many live deals I was managing, what stage they were at and how many new opportunities would become live (qualified) in the current and subsequent quarters. I new I could manage six live deals effectively and have time for new relationship building (prospecting). I new that if I had between 6-12 new conversations developing into opportunities in each of the three or four subsequent quarters, I would ensure I had enough of a pipeline to double my quota, and deliver a consistent flow of new deals.  

If I did not see this, then it was time to do more relationship building. And if I didn’t, because I was too busy, then I should accept I may miss my quota this year or worse, lose my job.  

2022 and this concept has not changed. What has changed is there are now more than 12,000 MarTech companies, most of which are competing for the same customers.  

Another point to note is: sales teams rely too heavily on demand generation programs, SalesTech, marketing or sales development to do their prospecting for them. That doesn’t work! 

The notion of the traditional B2B sales and marketing funnel is predicated on waste and simply does not give everyone in the game enough success to succeed. 

Whilst peaks and troughs are inevitable, you competitive advantage in modern B2B sales is to put relationship creation at the heart of your sales strategy. Ideally in person, though when this isn’t possible, then digitally on social channels like LinkedIn and Twitter. But most sellers struggle to create meaningful, humanised dialogue at scale because they’re so focused on getting the sales message across, often too early! 

I set up Supero as a B2B sales consulting firm designed to help MarTech companies accelerate growth. A key part of our offering is training for sales teams including leadership teams on how to scale the development of new relationships that lead to as much pipeline as you need.  

If you’d like to chat more about my story, or learn more about Supero, either way I’d love to chat. Just DM me on LinkedIn (Alex Abbott @ Supero) or Twitter (Alex_Supero).