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With so much uncertainty these days, life is just, well, different.

The number of emotional waves I’ve been through during our days of working from home has been a complete rollercoaster. I think in the beginning there was a little excited about having some “snow days,” and not having to worry about the hustle and bustle of getting into an office.

But after about a month in, it hit me.

Like many others, especially those accustomed to a role where seeing and speaking with people is everything, it became challenging. Seeing people over Zoom wasn’t as exciting. Staring out the window, but not actually getting a chance to feel the weather was weird. And I secretly missed the excitement of seeing if I left with enough time to make the 7:19am train. 

I also have a 4-year-old daughter, and we are now home every day together. I will say, I am incredibly fortunate to have a situation where we could keep our nanny on full-time, and know that there are many families out there that in addition to so many other challenges, are now also becoming full-time caregivers.

Don’t get me wrong, the extra time I’d gained with her having breakfast, dinner, and once in a while a lunch break has been wonderful, but the change in routines wasn’t easy. Now our nanny who once was the 9-5 boss became the second choice to mom, and some boundaries had to be created to maintain some sanity for everyone. Luckily it was as simple as creating a rule that when the door is closed I’m in a meeting, and when the door is open you’re welcome to come in for a kiss and a hug.

Life and work lines became a blur. Because I wasn’t leaving the house, I found myself just popping the computer open as soon as I sat down with my coffee. 6 am quickly became 11 am, and the next thing I knew I hadn’t even showered, yet didn’t accomplish anything else but work.

The same thing was happening at the end of the day. There’s still work to be done, and hey I’m making up time by not commuting, so there was almost an internal pressure to just keep it going. 

I hit my breaking point when I realized the neglect I was providing to both myself and my family.

Heading to the gym during a lunch break didn’t seem like a huge deal, but doing that from home made me feel like then people would think I’m not actually working. The amount of fear I experienced and the pressure I put on myself was actually pretty intense. But, it did ultimately provide some much-needed clarity.

Not every day is the same, but there are things I realized I need to make a priority for me in order to be my best.

• Exercise. Getting in some form of exercise every single day is crucial for me to perform at my highest. When I feel better about myself, I’m happier. And when I’m happier, I’m more effective. The majority of my days I get up before my daughter does and hit the (home) gym. I’m a fan of lifting, but it doesn’t matter what you enjoy, just do it. If something throws my morning off for some reason, I’ll do something else like get out for a walk during lunch. Which brings me to my next tip.
• Fresh Air. The benefits of some fresh air and vitamin D are unbelievable. If I work out in the morning, I’ll still try and get outside one way or another. Take advantage of an “outdoor office” for an hour and have your meeting outside. Maybe the glare is a pain, or the wifi is spotty, but find a meeting that makes sense and get out there! I also make an effort to grab the mail when it comes. Take a quick break and walk to the mailbox; I swear it helps and maybe you’ll see a real human out there to interact with while you’re at it. Getting out at the end of the day is almost always a priority. It’s a fun time for me to get out with my dogs and daughter and enjoy a little outdoors before the sun goes down. 
• Eat well. I felt like meal planning was essential when I was on the go to avoid the stops for a sub, or a caramel macchiato, but being home is worse! The ability to just head on over to the fridge or pantry at any point has become a much harder habit to resist. Even though I’m home, I’ve continued to meal plan so that it’s thoughtless when it comes to lunchtime. I even prepare a few snacks (Monster Trail Mix, my fave!) to keep me from the raiding.
• Set time limits. This is one I’m still a little more lax with, because I do enjoy the flexibility. BUT, when I’m on I’m on and when I’m off I’m off. So when it’s craft time, or time to ride bikes, or just play in the yard, it’s electronics off. I think it’s so important to have that undivided attention, and not have my daughter thinking she has to fight my phone or laptop to get it.

It’s important to recognize that everyone is facing their own struggles and challenges in their own ways. I absolutely try to remain as upbeat and positive as possible, but every day seems to bring something new. Setting some sort of routine to keep you balanced will be essential to maintaining your mental wellness. One thing I recommend if you’re having a hard time working in time for yourself, is putting it on your calendar. Block off time for lunch, or carve out time to walk around the block.

Whatever it is that makes you feel the best and perform at your highest should be your priority.

About the Author:

As a 13-year sales veteran, Colleen Manning has led many sales organizations, currently as VP of Sales for Clora; a Life Science startup helping the biotech industry bring drugs to market faster. Prior to Clora Colleen was Sales Director for ezCater, which is an online marketplace for business catering. During her time there, she grew the sales organization from just a dozen reps to over 130 people.

Colleen is also the Founder of Mama Sales (http://mama-sales.com) which is a place to help women, typically earlier on in their professional sales careers. 

“Sales Strong” by Mama Sales is a Podcast covering topics from sales tips and tricks, to wellness matters such as health & fitness, relationships, finances, etc. She started this community to touch upon personal experiences where she was left feeling like “Man I wish I knew that earlier on”, and help others to gain insight on challenges that aren’t always addressed in school or on the job training.

You can find Colleen through LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/colleenmanning, her website http://mama-sales.com, and her Podcast Sales Strong which is found on iTunes, Spotify, Google, and many other Podcast platforms

By Lenore Lang, Vice President of Strategic Sales, Quip

This blog is brought to you by Salesforce’s Trailblazing Women Community. A community for women in business across industries developed to help women – and allies – learn more about paving the path to equality through diversity and inclusion programs in the workplace, mapping out success paths and career journeys, and building a personal brand. 

Many sales leaders know from experience what it’s like to be an account executive. We worked our way up the sales ladder—but we never really leave those tenacious roots behind.

I’ll always have the perspective from my time as an AE. Now, as an enterprise sales leader, I can see where many of our AEs are doing things right or may need some nudges in the right direction. Here are six of the most common insights I like to share with our AEs to further their sales success and careers.

1. Know the Difference Between Nerves and Excitement

Going into sales meetings early on in an AE’s career can be brutal. I like for them to think about this scenario. You’re 10 minutes out from the start of a meeting. What do you do with those nerves?

Over the years, I’ve realized the nerves are excitement. It’s actually exciting to go into a meeting. I still do this to this day: I take three big deep breaths, tell myself it’s going to be okay, and walk in, knowing that it’s not nerves, it’s excitement.

2. Always Follow Up

The best AEs are following up directly after the meeting with next steps in order to stay top of mind. The follow-up can really vary depending on who you’re meeting with. An executive may just want a text message and for you to follow up with their admin in order to schedule the next meeting. Maybe you want to make sure you got your points across and you can send a very succinct email with two sentences, three bullet points, and a closing ask. Knowing your audience is key, but always follow up in some way!

3. Become a Trusted Advisor

When customers know you have their best interests in mind and will help them solve their challenges, the more you become their trusted advisor. And they become an internal champion for you.

No matter what anyone says, people still want to buy from people. That’s the most important thing you can do: Make sure you become that trusted advisor to your internal champions. They have always gone to bat for me in any meaningful sales cycle I’ve had. AEs should start building these relationships early and often.

4. Show the Value Before the Price

When it comes to pricing, AEs must be very transparent. Before you present the price, you need to demonstrate the value. AEs should prove the value to customers so they will see the return on investment that they’re expecting. Always ensure the customer understands the value before putting any sort of number in front of them. 

5. Keep a Living Account Plan

AEs need a living account plan to put all of their notes from important meetings and next steps. It should also record who you met with and maybe a briefing document to a relationship map. It’s always important to keep a historical record of what’s transpired in your relationship with the customer. 

6. Ask the Hard Questions

If you don’t ask the hard questions, you don’t know if you’re in the same place you started. The biggest mistake I see is not asking.

For more content like this, join Salesforce’s Trailblazing Women Community. 

By Kharisma Moraski, Head of Sales, Emerging Business, ServiceRocket

This blog is brought to you by Salesforce’s Trailblazing Women Community. A community for women in business across industries developed to help women – and allies – learn more about paving the path to equality through diversity and inclusion programs in the workplace, mapping out success paths and career journeys, and building a personal brand. 

Whether you’re just starting out in sales or have been doing it for years, there is one thing everyone always needs to cultivate: professional development. This can come in many different forms, from training to self-exploration and awareness.

Early in my own career, I asked for feedback. But I didn’t always heed the advice. Then I really started listening and taking action. Now, I know the value and the difference coaching and feedback has made. Let’s take a look at a few ways you can start bringing more professional (and personal) development to further your sales career, too.

Know the Best, First Steps

If you’re just starting out in sales, it’s important to set the right foundation in the sales approach. Understand your ideal customer profile, the pain you’re solving, and your value proposition. From there, make sure you are always crafting a specific message to the customer. And always work to become a trusted advisor. These are the core sales skills you need to develop and hone from the get-go. 

Become a Trusted Advisor

Few things can further your career more than becoming a trusted advisor. That means knowing the strategic priorities of your customer and their business day-in and day-out. It also means you are consistently and reliably providing value.

It’s imperative to develop the right viewpoint on building customer relationships. You’re not going to be selling to them—you’re not going to be selling with them. Speak with customers on their level and what concerns them. If your customer looks to you as a subject-matter expert for their industry (and not just a product expert), then you know you’ve met the goal of becoming a trusted advisor. But this takes trust and the amount of time you can invest to develop that relationship. When you do, sales success follows.

See Training Red Flags

Here’s an easy way to know if you’re in need of additional training. Do you find yourself saying anything to please a customer? Or just going along and agreeing with everything they say because you don’t actually know the answer? If the answer is yes to either of these questions, then that’s a red flag. Chances are you need more training.

Raise your hand and let your manager or team know where you require more information. Seek the resources that will help fill in the gaps. By doing this, you are not only making yourself a better salesperson, but also serving the customer in a much better way.

Accept Coaching and Feedback

As I mentioned earlier, I grappled with feedback early in my career. If you have the opportunity to receive coaching and feedback, take it and embrace it! That’s one of the most important lessons I’ve learned.

Coaching and feedback are paramount to the growth of any sales professional. But you also have to internalize it, process it, and then execute the changes. Take the time to work through it so you can make yourself and your skills better. Believe me you will stand out, and it will make a difference in how your sales career grows.

Take Personal Initiative

When it comes down to it, you can always take professional development into your own hands. Look to social networks like LinkedIn, read blogs, and take classes. Research anything in your industry that can help improve your sales skills. At the end of the day, you know what you need. And you can take the personal steps to get to the next level.

For more content like this, join Salesforce’s Trailblazing Women Community. 

By: Kimberly Storin, CMO of RapidDeploy

Late last year, I had lunch with Jill Melchionda in downtown San Francisco. The primary topic of conversation was the inherent value of our support networks and how those networks helped us learn, grow and move forward. In that conversation, she shared with me the initiatives that she was driving with Women In Revenue (WIR). I have participated in a few women’s focused organizations – starting as the President of Graduate Women in Business back in business school to attending Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen a few years in a row – so of course, I was intrigued and hungry to learn more about this group of women in sales and marketing and how they were empowering each other.

Fast forward a few months (and a few delays due to COVID-19) and here we are – finally launching WIR’s local chapter in Austin.

Austin is a natural choice as the first city to launch a WIR chapter. For one, Austin is a city where uniqueness and individuality is highly valued, but there is also a huge amount of local community spirit. We are a city that comes together to lift each other up. It also happens to be one of the fastest growing job markets in the U.S. – I’ve watched it grow from a mid-sized, college town in the 1990s to tech hub in the 2010s and that growth won’t stop anytime soon.  

While Austin has a lot of great industry organizations focused on the discipline of marketing, there wasn’t really a forum for women in revenue driving roles to come together for authentic conversations on topics that keep us up at night. WIR will help us fill this gap. WIR will enable us to connect with other sales and marketing leaders and up-and-coming leaders; to mentor and support each other; to learn from each other. Together, we’ll work to make sure there are more seats at the table. 

Join us as we get our Austin chapter up and running. Our first local event will be held virtually on September 17th from 8:30 – 10:00am. It will start with a panel discussion with three incredible Austin-based revenue leaders, followed by small group discussions.

• Amy Porter, Founder & CEO, Affinipay 
• Lisa Roberts, CMO, Yonder
• Stephanie Dismore, SVP & Managing Director North America, HP

Register for this inaugural event and join WIR to get access to our exclusive Slack network and #austinchapter channel.

Huge thanks to our amazing group of Austin chapter founding members for making this event a reality: Leigh Choate, Abel Lomas, Tricia Dugan, Meg Swanson, Christy Barnett, Christie Post, Lonie Johnson. And of course, thanks to the WIR national team – Cari, Andrea, Gina, Hana and Claire – for help getting this chapter started!

By Jill Rowley, Growth Strategist & Startup Advisor

This blog is brought to you by Salesforce’s Trailblazing Women Community. A community for women in business across industries developed to help women – and allies – learn more about paving the path to equality through diversity and inclusion programs in the workplace, mapping out success paths and career journeys, and building a personal brand. 

Do your customers know that you have their best interests in mind? Are you empathetic and helpful? Do they consider you a trusted advisor at the very least—or maybe even a friend? Now, more than ever, the answers need to be a 100 percent yes.

Personal connections are crucial to navigating sales during today’s business and social climate. Let’s take a look at a few ways you can either begin nurturing your customer connections or make them even deeper.

Take a Look at Your Own Social Profile

Whether a buyer is researching you for the first time or you have worked with a customer for years, your social profile must match both your business acumen and personality.

Look at your LinkedIn profile through the lens of your customer. What would they want to see? No-one wants to see a “quota crusher.” Detail how you work with people, create value, and solve problems. This first impression with a buyer can begin to seed trust. At the same time, current or long-time customers will continue to learn more about you and see the continued commitment to your sales relationships and success.

Stay Social

In the social realm, we can’t look at our customers and contacts as potential “closed deals.” Rather, it’s all about making the connections and having the conversations with them consistently—not just when it’s time to commit to a deal.

A deeper level of social engagement means you need to always be connecting. This is a two-pronged approach by both making and keeping connections. Create a habit and embed the social and digital into your daily routine.

And remember…when you click the button to send a connection request, it isn’t about you. It’s about the person you are connecting with. Your network isn’t just an exercise in growth. Be sure to take the time to build and maintain authentic conversations and relationships.

Have Authentic Conversations

So what does an authentic conversation sound like? Speaking the language of your buyers is essential. Frame things in terms of what they care about and how they make decisions. This business acumen is really important.

For any individual, you need to know how they fit into the rest of the organization. What are their company initiatives and what is that company going through from an industry perspective? What are their own challenges? The ability to discuss all of this and your potential solutions—or simply helpful commentary—will build the trust that you have their best interest in mind.

Create Change and See Success

Every salesperson, no matter what you’re selling, is selling change. Are you effective at selling change? The best salespeople know more about their customers, they do more for their customers, and they care more about their customers.  And they help guide them through that change.

Great salespeople know what makes customers successful, and they care about their customers’ success. Of course, that also translates to sales success. It can only happen through indelible relationships with each customer.

For more content like this, join Salesforce’s Trailblazing Women Community. 

As part of our Women In Revenue mentorship community, featured speakers and master mentors lead members through a series of exercises to help them improve key skills for career growth. As a follow on to our “Build Your Personal Brand” huddle led by Sydney Sloan, we have created this worksheet, “Developing Your Personal Brand Learnings & Activities” to give huddle members and those who couldn’t attend the event the opportunity to continue the discussion and complete self-guided activities to improve their personal brand. 

The worksheet is available here for download. Please reach out via our Slack community to engage with other huddle members and the mentorship community as you complete the exercises!

By Nikki Damaschino, Area Vice President, Salesforce

This blog is brought to you by Salesforce’s Trailblazing Women Community. A community for women in business across industries developed to help women – and allies – learn more about paving the path to equality through diversity and inclusion programs in the workplace, mapping out success paths and career journeys, and building a personal brand. 

Account executives’ time is precious and they have a ton on their plate. The demands and expectations can be overwhelming: feeding the pipeline, forecasting, preparing presentations, cold calling, the list goes on and on.

But some activities do not need a huge time investment for quick wins and results. It often comes down to actually budgeting the time and setting it aside. Here are a few 10-minute activities AEs can incorporate into their daily or weekly routine right away.

Revive Latent Accounts in 10 Minutes

Latent accounts don’t have to stay that way. First and foremost, you need to pick up the phone and call the customer. The person you’re most afraid to call is usually the person you should be speaking with. Do your homework, take a genuine interest in how that company ticks, and be relentless in your pursuit of how you’re going to get in the door. It doesn’t take long to do this—it’s the actual act of getting around to it or putting fear aside.

Accelerate an Enterprise Sales Cycle in 10 Minutes

You can also take 10 minutes each day to accelerate an enterprise sales cycle. The number one strategy is to avoid a single-threaded approach to an account. It’s never just one person, so you need to know all of the decision-makers. Be sure to leverage the full power of your team to strategically touch every contact within your account. And always have the end-game in mind.

Prep for Sales Presentation in 10 Minutes

If you’re preparing for a large, executive meeting with a customer, set aside 10 minutes to really think about the problem you’re trying to solve. During a sales presentation, customers want you to show up with the solution to their pain-point or the change their current experience. 

Eighty percent of selling is done when we’re not in the room. So what is the story you’re going to tell? And, in turn, the story the meeting attendees can retell to their manager or peers? Taking 10 minutes to simply outline and brainstorm the solution, ROI, and implementation plan will guide you in better sales presentation development for an individual customer.

Strengthen Relationships in 10 Minutes

It actually only takes a few minutes to strengthen your relationships and show your commitment to a customer. Successful AEs will always send a follow-up email summarizing what was discussed in the meeting the same day or at least within 24 hours of the meeting. And, if it’s been awhile, do a check in with your customer or provide some helpful content. Without a doubt, it is always worth the time.

Cold Calls in 10 Minutes

OK, let’s admit it—not many reps are fans of cold calling. But making it part of a daily 10-minute ritual gets the job done to feed the pipeline and potential leads. Cold calling in snack-size bites of time removes some of the drudgery. And try calling first thing in the morning! Not only do you get it out of the way, but you’re more likely to reach contacts.

For more content like this, join Salesforce’s Trailblazing Women Community. 

Women in Revenue spoke out again! During our last event, “Cultivating Your Superpowers,” we asked Women in Revenue about their top tactics to improve the health and quality of the revenue pipeline in the digital world. Here are their top 3 answers:

• In the absence of physical tactics to drive your quality pipeline: organize virtual sessions with an (internal or external) industry expert.
• If you see a dip in the pipeline: pull the lists of closed/lost accounts, deals that went dark, or contacts that attended your events in the past, and target them through Outbound.
• To help drive the quality pipeline: hone in on where your best bets are (focus on specific segments/verticals/ideal customer profiles).

It was good to learn that even though we have moved into the digital world, not all of the tactics have changed.

Right now, it’s really about having a focused strategy (ex: hone in on key verticals or a certain profile of an account) paired with messaging that resonates. The tone companies take right now matters. Lastly – this hasn’t changed- but working very closely with your partners in Sales.  Having a weekly meeting where revenue teams can develop a ‘play’ for top accounts works, said Heidi Bullock, CMO at Tealium, who led the group discussion on this topic.

To learn what other tactics Women in Revenue use to improve the health and quality of the revenue pipeline, check the full list below, ranked by the number of votes:

What is the top digital tactic that you are adopting now, in the absence of physical tactics, to drive your quality pipeline?

1. Virtual sessions with an industry expert (internal or external expert)
2. Hyper-targeted ads (typically to a list of targeted accounts)
3. Virtual “fun” sessions (e.g., virtual wine testing) – experience marketing 
4. Gifting (e.g., wine and cheese, gift cards)

What is the #1 thing revenue teams can do if they have seen a dip in the pipeline?

1. Pull the lists of closed/lost accounts, deals that went dark, or contacts that attended your events in the past, and target them through outbound
2. Schedule weekly pipeline review meetings between sales and marketing, to check on how marketing can support certain deals
3. Double down on what resonates the most with your target market (e.g., specific product offering)
4. Test new messaging (e.g., new free offers in response to the current environment)
5. Put sales spiffs in place (e.g., during the last two weeks of the month)

What are examples of successful processes that you have seen adopted by revenue teams to help drive quality pipelines?

1. Honing in on where our best bets are (focus on specific segments/verticals/ideal customer profiles) – to ensure the right accounts are marketed to from the beginning – helps for better retention and expansion
2. Aligning sales and marketing around shared pipeline goals and incentives
3. Starting with the end goal in mind (pipeline) and focusing on things that we can do the most effectively, to get to that goal – it’s not about doing everything – it’s about what is most impactful for the business

Did your company reset your pipeline goals for H2?

1. Yes
2. No

Sample Size: 25

Women in Revenue started with a mission to support and educate women who are experiencing adversity in the workplace.

Unfortunately for our members who have more diverse backgrounds, they experience an extra layer of conscious or subconscious bias and unfair treatment solely based on the color of their skin.

Through this piece, I wanted to share advice and stories from our members who prove that you can excel in this field and what we all can do to be allies to our diverse co-workers and employees.

Crissy Vetere-Saunders

Owner, CS2 Marketing & Cofounder, WomeninRevenue.org

https://docs.google.com/presentation/u/0/?authuser=0&usp=slides_web

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