Sales Managers

AI for sales prospecting

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Best AI Tools, Tips, And Prompts For Sales Prospecting

If your reps are still using AI like it’s 2023 (or not using it at all), they’re already behind. In our Sales Shot, I sat down with four sales pros and AI enthusiasts whose teams are actually using AI for sales prospecting, not just talking about it. We’re talking AI-enhanced targeting and prospect research, coaching bots, live conversation sentiment tracking, even inbound AI voice agents that are outperforming humans (yes, really – so, will AI take over sales jobs? That’s a topic for another blog!) 

Here’s what went down, and the best AI tools, tips, and prompts you’ll want to steal.

1. Smarter Targeting and Prospect Research

We kicked off with a game-changer: using AI to make sure you’re calling the right people. David Kreiger, SalesRoads, shared how his team uses Clay to qualify leads before reps ever pick up the phone. It pulls company data and uses AI to tell you if a prospect actually fits your ICP, saves hours of manual research, and gets your team focused on the right accounts.

John Buckley (from Sell Better’s Daily Sales Show) showed us Agent.ai, a no-code agent that scores a company for outbound fit with a single URL. He’s trained it on his ICP so it gives a quick thumbs-up or “hard pass.” No prompt writing needed.

Jax Gill (from Inspira Financial) took it even further. She trains ChatGPT to review a company’s website and her prospect’s LinkedIn profile, then find common ground to help her build rapport fast. She even gives it a list of her solutions and asks for possible pain points to reference in the convo. It’s like AI-powered pre-call prep, minus the rabbit holes.

Prompt ideas to steal:

  • “Here’s my ICP. Here’s this company’s website. Is this a fit or not? Why?”
  • “Compare my LinkedIn profile to [prospect’s name]’s. What do we have in common?”
  • “Given this company and our services, what pain points can I lead with?”
2. Better AI Sales Prospecting Emails and Messaging

Let’s talk outbound emails. Doug Gibb’s team at Waste Management uses Conquer with GenAI email, which drafts emails based on past conversations and makes sure they don’t miss a promised follow-up. It pulls call and email history straight into Salesforce, so everything’s in one place.

David dropped this gem: if you write more than three emails a week, build a custom GPT. He’s trained his to match his tone and voice. Upload 50 of your best emails, and now your GPT can write in your style. It’s faster, but more importantly, it’s better.

WATCH: How to Build a Custom ChatGPT (shared by David)

James added Oliv to the mix. This tool sends him a cheat sheet before every call with company background, team bios, and even icebreakers. “Ask Chloe about her transition from radio hosting to content marketing” is way better than “Hope you’re well.”

One big reminder from everyone: AI-generated emails shouldn’t sound AI-generated. If your message is filled with fluff, jargon, or emojis in every line, it’s going straight to trash. Your prospects can smell it. Use AI to help, but still bring your brain.

Prompt ideas to steal:

  • “Use my tone. Write a prospecting email for this company using the info from our last call.”
  • “Summarize this LinkedIn profile in one sentence I can use as a cold email opener.”
  • “Rewrite this message to sound more human, less like it came from a bot.”
3. Coaching, Confidence, and Call Reviews

AI isn’t just helping reps do the work. It’s helping them get better at it. David recommends using AI to coach yourself after calls. His reps drop their call transcripts into ChatGPT and ask for feedback. What could I have done better? What questions did I miss? It gives them a score and action steps to improve.

Jax uses AI before the call. She practices objections with ChatGPT in persona-mode. “Be a tough IT Director. Push back on cost.” It gives her reps a safe space to screw up and get better.

Doug’s team uses Conquer to transcribe and summarize every call. It flags sentiment dips, highlights next steps, and scores reps on their delivery. That all feeds into Ambition, where managers get a full coaching report before every one-on-one. And yes, even new managers can coach like pros because the system shows them exactly what to focus on.

We also shouted out Grw AI, a tool for roleplay call coaching. Reps can practice calls and get feedback based on real frameworks. It’s like flight simulator training for sellers.

I also shared how much I love using Fathom for call notes. I just click a button and boom, it gives me a clean sales summary with top pain points, current situation, and next steps. It’s fast, easy, and way more useful than generic transcripts. Use it for internal calls too to help you take notes and create to-dos.

Prompt ideas to steal:

  • “You’re a skeptical IT Director. Let’s roleplay a cold call. Push back on price and security.”
  • “Here’s my call transcript. What could I have done better? Give me a grade.”
  • “Give me 3 coaching questions to reflect on after this call.”
4. Real-Time Insights and In-the-Moment Support

Sales moves fast. Reps don’t have time to dig through notes or scroll LinkedIn for the latest news. That’s where real-time insights come in.

James’s tip: Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator alerts. Ring the bell on your top prospects and accounts. You’ll get notified when they change jobs, get promoted, or post. Instant reason to reach out. That’s prospecting fuel your team is probably ignoring.

Doug’s team uses Ambition’s pre-read feature to prep for coaching. It pulls 90 days of call scores, KPIs, pipeline data, and even sentiment analysis so managers walk into meetings ready. Their AI-based pipeline insights show if deals are stuck, what changed, and where to focus.

David shared Trellus, a power dialer that lets reps pause mid-call to get AI-powered coaching suggestions. It’s like having a manager in your ear without the pressure.

Prompt ideas to steal:

  • “Give me coaching advice based on this sales call recording.”
  • “Summarize this opportunity pipeline for my one-on-one. What’s stuck and why?”
  • “If my rep is below target on discovery, what should I review with them this week?”
5. AI for Inbound, Enablement, and Emotional Intelligence

You didn’t think AI was just for outbound, did you? David’s team is using Sela for inbound calls, and it’s outperforming human reps in tier-one qualification. The AI calls the lead, asks 2–3 qualifying questions, and routes the hot ones straight to an SDR. It’s efficient, repeatable, and for simple calls, often better than a live person.

James brought up Sybill, which reads facial expressions and body language during video calls. It sends post-call insights like, “Your buyer leaned back and widened their eyes when you said pricing.” That’s gold for follow-up and helps reps refine their messaging and emotional timing.

And of course, Doug’s team uses Microsoft Copilot, a company-approved, closed AI system integrated into their workflows. Their AI governance committee ensures compliance, which matters when your team is 50,000 strong.

Bonus tip from Jax: Use ChatGPT as your personal hype woman. “Give me a pre-call pep talk.” Or ask it to roast you. Either way, you’re showing up more confident.

Prompt ideas to steal:

  • “Pretend you’re my mentor. Give me a 30-second pep talk before this big sales call.”
  • “Roast me. What could I do better in my outbound pitch?”
  • “Act like a buyer. Ask me 3 tough qualifying questions based on this service.”

READ: Confessions from a Late-Adopter: The Truth About AI for Revenue and Enablement Leaders

This session wasn’t fluff. These are real leaders, using real tools, getting real results. If your team is still scared of AI or waiting for some “perfect system,” you’re already behind.

The final takeaway?

“Use the time AI saves you to do the task better. Not faster. Better.”
– David Kreiger

 

TL;DR – Here are the best AI sales tools and how our panelists are using them:

  • Agent.ai – James built an agent that scores companies instantly based on ICP fit, eliminating the need for prompt engineering
  • Ambition – Doug uses it to prep managers for coaching with pre-read insights that include sentiment, pipeline data, and call scores
  • ChatGPT – Jax shared how her team uses ChatGPT to simulate prospect objections and refine messaging before high-stakes calls; it’s like having a role-play coach on standby
  • Clay – David uses Clay to pre-qualify leads and filter out non-ICP accounts, saving reps hours of manual research
  • Conquer – Doug’s team uses it to auto-draft follow-ups based on call history and transcribe every conversation for coaching
  • Fathom – We use Fathom here at Factor 8 to summarize sales calls and uncover real buyer pain points. Tip: Use it for both internal and external meetings to quickly extract key details, create to-do lists, and skip manual note-taking
  • Grw AI – Lauren and Jax called it a flight simulator for sales; perfect for reps to practice and build confidence before high-stakes calls
  • Microsoft Copilot – James noted that Copilot helps his team save time by summarizing long email threads and prepping for meetings straight from Outlook and Teams
  • Oliv – James loves Oliv for the call prep emails, especially the personalized icebreakers like asking about career transitions
  • Sybill – Doug mentioned using Sybill to flag buyer reactions mid-call, helping reps spot hesitation or interest and follow up more strategically
  • Sela – David says Sela outperforms humans for tier-1 inbound lead qualification and is being used successfully in production
  • Trellus – David mentioned reps can pause a call and get live coaching advice based on the persona or objection they’re handling

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top sales training companies

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Factor 8 Named a Selling Power 2025 Top Sales Training Company

Factor 8 is pleased to announce it has been included on Selling Power’s Top Sales Training Companies 2025 list. 

“It’s an incredible honor to be named a Top Sales Training Company by Selling Power again,” said Lauren Bailey, Founder and CEO of Factor 8. “Our mission has always been to make sales a career people love, and stay in. We’re proud to keep leading the way in virtual sales training.”

According to Selling Power publisher and founder Gerhard Gschwandtner, quality sales training remains paramount to B2B sales success. “As the economy enters a period of stock market ping pong and tariff turmoil, along with the continued AI disruption within the B2B sales landscape, having an effective and forward focused sales organization is critical to maintain revenue growth. Partnering with the best sales training companies will help ensure your team’s success.” 

All companies on the list submitted a comprehensive application that included a detailed listing of their offerings for both training and retention, innovative solutions, and their company’s unique contributions to the sales training marketplace.

The main criteria used when comparing applicants and selecting the companies to include on this year’s list were:

  1. Depth and breadth of training offered
  2. Innovative offerings (specific training courses, methodology, or delivery methods)
  3. Contributions to the sales training market
  4.   AI impacts and integrations
  5. Strength of client satisfaction and overall client feedback

To evaluate applicants for the list, the Selling Power team surveyed and considered feedback from nearly 350 clients of the applicants. Here is a brief selection of comments from their clients:

  • “Extremely effective. They accelerated our sales results by 10x!”
  • “Having been through a couple other professional sales training programs in the past, I can state that our current choice is by far the best. Our outside sales team left the training feeling energized, enlightened and empowered. Early wins from the team are promising. The communication throughout the process was terrific.”
  • “They are delivering an exceptional sales training experience. Their professionalism, knowledgeable facilitators, and well-structured courses provide valuable insights that are both practical and impactful. The training is engaging, actionable, and tailored to real-world sales challenges, making it a worthwhile investment for any sales team.”
  • “As always, exceptional facilitators/consultants who understand our needs and our business and always deliver.”
  • “They truly act as partners in helping to figure out what’s needed in your organization. No cookie cutter approach to training here! They really got everyone involved in discussions and engaged all of our reps. Many of our more seasoned reps started out as skeptics and ended up finding value from the training, especially relating to demos and empathetic listening.”
  • “Our facilitator was fantastic and well prepared. He connected with our sales team immediately and quickly earned their trust and respect (not easy to do). The content was both relevant and digestible. The program has already improved our team’s performance.”

Selling Power magazine editors say CROs, sales VPs, and sales enablement leaders can leverage this list to find the right sales training partner to help salespeople succeed during social distancing and remote working. See the Selling Power Top Sales Training Companies 2025 list.

About Selling Power 

In addition to Selling Power, the leading digital magazine for sales managers and sales VPs since 1981, Personal Selling Power, Inc., produces the Sales Management Digest and Daily Boost of Positivity online newsletters, as well as the leading AI sales newsletter (Subscribe to the AI 4 Sales™ / Sales 3.0 Digest – Sales 3.0 Conference / Blog (sales30conf.com). Selling Power is a regular media sponsor of the Sales 3.0 Conference, which is attended by a total of more than 4,500 sales leaders each year.

Looking to partner with a top sales training company?

Contact us today to learn more about our sales training programs
for sales reps and sales managers.



How Real People are Winning the Sales Prospecting Game Using AI [Webinar]

How Real People are Winning the Sales Prospecting Game Using AI

[Video Recording]

Game-changing ways to use AI in prospecting

Sales outreach isn’t just firing off an email and calling it “prospecting.” It’s an omnichannel approach that includes LinkedIn, calls, and emails. But with inboxes flooded with AI-generated messages and many (new) sellers avoiding the phone, how are teams actually breaking through the noise? Truth: Most aren’t. 👎

Watch this uber informative panel discussion with sales leaders, managers, and sellers themselves to hear their tips and tricks to stand out and connect in creative, meaningful, and value-driven ways. We’ll dive into engaging sales outreach strategies, call techniques that still work, and the tools that are making a real impact. Don’t miss this insider conversation from the pros on what’s working in sales outreach today, moderated by our own LB!

You’ll learn:

  • Creative strategies to reach prospects via phone, social, email
  • Examples of good/bad outreach messages
  • Quick prompts to use (and not abuse) in ChatGPT
  • Words that grab a leader’s attention in messaging
  • Phrases that guarantee auto-delete and unsubscribe
  • Techniques to stand out from the crowd
  • Tools our leaders love

A MUST-WATCH for every and anyone in sales! Sales Managers, Enablement Leaders, and Revenue Leaders who want to help their teams attract (and not deter) prospects. If all you’ve attended are super hype sessions about the magic of AI, you can’t miss this.

Watch replay!


Game-changing ways to use AI in prospecting

Sales outreach isn’t just firing off an email and calling it “prospecting.” It’s an omnichannel approach that includes LinkedIn, calls, and emails. But with inboxes flooded with AI-generated messages and many (new) sellers avoiding the phone, how are teams actually breaking through the noise? Truth: Most aren’t. 👎

Watch this uber informative panel discussion with sales leaders, managers, and sellers themselves to hear their tips and tricks to stand out and connect in creative, meaningful, and value-driven ways. We’ll dive into engaging sales outreach strategies, call techniques that still work, and the tools that are making a real impact. Don’t miss this insider conversation from the pros on what’s working in sales outreach today, moderated by our own LB!

You’ll learn:

  • Creative strategies to reach prospects via phone, social, email
  • Examples of good/bad outreach messages
  • Quick prompts to use (and not abuse) in ChatGPT
  • Words that grab a leader’s attention in messaging
  • Phrases that guarantee auto-delete and unsubscribe
  • Techniques to stand out from the crowd
  • Tools our leaders love

A MUST-WATCH for every and anyone in sales! Sales Managers, Enablement Leaders, and Revenue Leaders who want to help their teams attract (and not deter) prospects. If all you’ve attended are super hype sessions about the magic of AI, you can’t miss this.

Watch replay!


Meet the Speakers

Lauren Bailey
Lauren Bailey
Founder
Factor 8 & #GirlsClub

Lauren Bailey, known to many as “LB”, is a sales leader, enablement leader, and entrepreneur and founder of 3 successful brands: Factor 8, providing front-line job training for inside sellers and managers, The Sales Bar, a subscription-based virtual sales training platform, and #GirlsClub, a community and development program helping more women earn leadership positions in sales.

James Buckley
James Buckley
Host
Sell Better Daily Show

My mission is to walk alongside sales professionals as they develop the skills and best practices needed to find sales success. Our purpose is to show salespeople their true worth as the tip of the spear. I have the pleasure of hosting the best minds in sales every day and creating content that elevates the sales profession.

Connect with me @saywhatsales on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Join us live daily to learn and grow into a top-performing sales professional.

Jax Gill
Jax Gill
Training Manager
Inspira Financial

Jacqueline Gill is a Senior Manager in Sales Enablement who’s been at TTEC for 12 years—which in BPO years is basically a lifetime. While her official job is enabling sales, she’s also been known to jump into learning services sales conversations once the executive sellers work their magic. Think of her as the closer with a curriculum. Outside of work, she’s a proud mom of four and a firm believer that AI can help with just about anything—except maybe laundry.

Doug Gibbs
Doug Gibbs
Sr. Inside Sales Manager, Tools & Technology
Waste Management

Forty-seven years’ experience managing teams and processes across two primary industries, Retail Department stores and Environmental Solutions/Logistics. The last eleven years have been invested with the Inside Sales Teams at WM, including managing retention and acquisition teams, then progressing to exploring, sourcing, procuring and implementing 3rd party tools and solutions to significantly improve both our customer’s and Sales Team’s experiences.

David Kreiger
David Kreiger
President
Sales Roads

David Kreiger is the founder of SalesRoads, a leading sales outsourcing firm with over 17 years of experience helping businesses drive revenue growth by building winning sales teams. A seasoned entrepreneur and host of the “Sell Like A Leader” podcast, David champions a philosophy that sales success hinges on talent development and a people-first mindset.

Building a Top-Performing Sales Team [Webinar Recording]

Building a Top-Performing Sales Team

[Video Recording]

Tools, Skills & Training to Build a Top Sales Team

What separates your best reps from the rest? And more importantly, how do you develop more of them? Watch this session to find out! You’ll hear firsthand from Factor 8 Founder, Lauren Bailey, and Sr. AE at Allego,

Devyn Blume, as they share the skills, tools, and strategies that drive reps to become top performers. Together, they’ll share the key skills revenue and enablement leaders need to develop high-achieving reps and future sales managers.

You’ll learn the critical skills to:

  • Develop top-performing sales reps
  • Equip your team with the right tools and training
  • Train reps on the must-have skills for long-term success
  • Prepare top reps to become great sales managers

This session is for Revenue & Enablement Leaders who strive to build a high-performing sales team.

Watch replay!


Tools, Skills & Training to Build a Top Sales Team

What separates your best reps from the rest? And more importantly, how do you develop more of them? Watch this session to find out! You’ll hear firsthand from Factor 8 Founder, Lauren Bailey, and Sr. AE at Allego,

Devyn Blume, as they share the skills, tools, and strategies that drive reps to become top performers. Together, they’ll share the key skills revenue and enablement leaders need to develop high-achieving reps and future sales managers.

You’ll learn the critical skills to:

  • Develop top-performing sales reps
  • Equip your team with the right tools and training
  • Train reps on the must-have skills for long-term success
  • Prepare top reps to become great sales managers

This session is for Revenue & Enablement Leaders who strive to build a high-performing sales team.

Watch replay!


Meet the Speakers

Lauren Bailey
Lauren Bailey
Founder
Factor 8 & #GirlsClub

Lauren Bailey, known to many as “LB”, is a sales leader, enablement leader, and entrepreneur and founder of 3 successful brands: Factor 8, providing front-line job training for inside sellers and managers, The Sales Bar, a subscription-based virtual sales training platform, and #GirlsClub, a community and development program helping more women earn leadership positions in sales.

Her mission is to change lives by supercharging people’s careers and helping them love coming to work.  When we feel confident and successful at work, everything is better, right? Known on the speaker circuit for her “No B.S.” style and spunk, look for LB to make you laugh, keep things moving quickly, and help you take immediate action with her tactical tips and insights.

Devyn Blume
Devyn Blume
Sr. Account Executive
Allego

Devyn is a Sr. Account Executive at Allego with 8 years of experience in sales, specializing in consultative selling and client relationship management. Throughout her career she has excelled in driving revenue growth, building strong customer partnerships, and leveraging sales technologies to streamline processes.

At Allego, Devyn focuses on delivering innovative sales enablement solutions, helping teams optimize training, onboarding, and content sharing. With expertise spanning multiple industries, she is a trusted advisor to clients seeking to enhance sales performance through technology-driven solutions.

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sales manager cadence

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Build Your Sales Manager Cadence (& Save Time and Stress)

Sales Management is the busiest, most overwhelming job in the world (right?!) And that was before most of us went remote.

It’s no wonder so many new managers hit a wall and ask themselves, “Did I make a mistake getting into management?” Trust me, you’re not alone.

But it doesn’t have to be this hard. One of the biggest game-changers for managers is building a cadence, or a system, for how and when you engage your team. Like sellers need a sales process, managers need a management process. This is how you take back control of your day, stop fighting fires, and get back to why you took this job in the first place: to develop and lead people.

Here are 5 things to help you take back control of your day (and learn to love being in management!) Let’s dig in.

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No More Whack-A-Mole

If your day feels like playing whack-a-mole with Slack pings, rep questions, and customer escalations, you’re not alone. These are what I call “jello days”, days that feel messy, unstructured, and impossible to control.

Picture trying to nail jello to a wall. That’s how sales managers often describe their days. No matter how hard you try to stick to your plan, something always slips, shifts, or melts away. It’s reactive chaos. You’re busy all day, but not moving anything forward. You’re putting out fires, answering questions, jumping into calls, but not doing the proactive work that actually drives results.

It’s exhausting. And it’s not why you got into leadership.

Most of us became managers because we love seeing others win. But when you’re stuck in jello days, that purpose gets buried under a pile of “got a sec?” interruptions and endless meetings.

So what’s the fix? A structured cadence. Organizing your week around proactive touchpoints like coaching, huddles, and strategy sessions helps you take back your time and lead with intention.

Here’s the difference between reactive and proactive tasks:

Reactive:

  • Reading your email
  • Tending to the line at your desk
  • Helping reps with questions and issues
  • Creating reports for the boss

Proactive:

  • Calling a morning huddle
  • Planning the team meeting
  • Pulling a rep into a strategy meeting
  • Coaching!

Want your life back? Prioritize the proactive.

READ: How to Run Successful Sales Rep 1:1 Meetings

Plan Ahead

I literally pull out a Post-it each day and write down the one thing I must do. I don’t leave until that’s done. It’s simple but powerful.

The magic formula:

  • Identify your top priorities
  • Build them into your calendar
  • Do your one thing first before opening your inbox

This discipline is what separates high-performing managers from the rest. The best don’t just exceed team goals. They get more of their team to quota, reduce attrition, and consistently coach. That doesn’t happen by accident.

READ: The Best Sales Coaching Questions Ever

Create a Cadence

Let’s break the myth. You don’t need to cover everything in one meeting. It doesn’t work. Instead, you need a sales manager cadence, a system of regular, focused meetings that make everything more efficient and effective.

Here’s the cadence I teach:

  1. 1:1 Meetings (Monthly) – Focus on performance. What happened last month? What’s the plan this month? How are we tracking? Then shift gears. This is also your chance to connect and coach.
  2. Call Coaching (2x/month) – Small groups (no more than 3). This is real coaching. Feedback on call execution, not just listening together.
  3. Sales Huddles (2x/week) – Stand-ups with energy. Talk goals, wins, contests, and questions. Keep it short.
  4. Pipeline Meetings (2x/month) – Stop doing these 1:1. Make them group sessions. It builds accountability and saves you hours.
  5. Sales Strategy Sessions (Ad hoc) – When someone’s behind, this is your chance to step in and help with deal, territory, or lead strategy.
  6. Team Meetings (1x/month) – Focus on culture, recognition, and updates. Make them worth showing up for.
  7. Quarterly Career Reviews (1x/quarter) – Go deep on development. Celebrate progress, talk about career goals, and lay the foundation for retention.
Calendar It or Forget It

Now, make it real. Start with a blank calendar and schedule your cadence:

  • Block quarterly reviews
  • Add monthly 1:1s and team meetings
  • Layer in weekly huddles and coaching
  • Leave half your day open for the inevitable reactive stuff

Don’t over-schedule. Try to keep your total meetings under four hours a day. The other half of your day will get eaten by the unexpected, so plan for it.

Once it’s on your calendar, protect it. This is your new system. If you move meetings around, your team will too. When your reps know when they’ll get your attention, the “drive-bys” stop, and they’ll start saving their questions for the right time.

Send out the invites. Include prep expectations and agendas so everyone shows up ready. And if they don’t? Don’t let it slide. Your calendar only works if your team respects it — and they’ll follow your lead.

DOWNLOAD: Successful Sales Manager Meetings

They Aren’t All Fires

You don’t have to answer every rep question in the moment. In fact, doing that all day is exactly what’s keeping you in firefighting mode. Start redirecting those interruptions into your existing cadence.

Try phrases like:

“I did hear your call. Nice job. Let’s break it down during coaching.”

 “Can we talk about that in tomorrow’s huddle?”

 “I’d love to help, but I only have three minutes right now. Can you bring this to our 1:1?”

Reps will always take the path of least resistance. If you make yourself available 24/7, they’ll keep coming. But if you push conversations into the right meetings, they’ll start to respect your time—and even come more prepared.

Lauren calls this “guarding your time.” The requests won’t stop, so you have to stop them.

This is where the Eisenhower Matrix comes in. It helps you quickly sort out what’s:

  • Urgent and important (you handle it)
  • Important but not urgent (you schedule it)
  • Urgent but not important (you delegate it)
  • Neither (you trash it)

Urgent usually means there’s a time-sensitive deadline. Important means it impacts results or revenue. Just because something feels urgent to someone else doesn’t mean it is.

Building the muscle to decide what gets your time is one of the most critical skills a manager can learn.

Eisenhower

Building your sales manager cadence will give you back your day and maybe even your life. It creates structure, accountability, and clarity for your team. And it lets you do the thing you wanted to do when you took this job: lead.

Try the cadence. Try it for one month. I’ve gotten hugs around the world for this structure, and I hope it helps you too.

And if you’re not sure where to start? We’ve got cheat sheets, templates, and a full class in The Sales Bar to help you Own Your Day and run every meeting like a pro.

Subscribe to our email list to receive new content, webinar invites, and training offers.


How To Build A Sales Manager Cadence (And Save Your Own Life) [Webinar Recording]

How To Build A Sales Manager Cadence (And Save Your Own Life)

[Video Recording]

Build a Sales Manager Process to Gain Control of Your Day

Sales Management is the #1 busiest and hardest job in the world – and that’s BEFORE it went remote! This month, Factor 8 founder LB is sharing secrets from our world-famous manager certification course, Essential Manager Meetings, and it’s all about how to set up a process. Like sellers need a sales process, managers need a management cadence – it’s the #1 way to take back control of your day!

This session will help you:

  • Stop the line at your desk
  • Prevent 24×7 chat blowup
  • Make your team more self-sufficient
  • Make more time for coaching
  • Stop constant fire-fighting

A MUST-WATCH for all Sales Managers, Enablement Leaders, and Revenue Leaders concerned about their management teams.

Watch the video replay!


Build a Sales Manager Process to Gain Control of Your Day

Sales Management is the #1 busiest and hardest job in the world – and that’s BEFORE it went remote! This month, Factor 8 founder LB is sharing secrets from our world-famous manager certification course, Essential Manager Meetings, and it’s all about how to set up a process. Like sellers need a sales process, managers need a management cadence – it’s the #1 way to take back control of your day!

This session will help you:

  • Stop the line at your desk
  • Prevent 24×7 chat blowup
  • Make your team more self-sufficient
  • Make more time for coaching
  • Stop constant fire-fighting

A MUST-WATCH for all Sales Managers, Enablement Leaders, and Revenue Leaders concerned about their management teams.

Watch the video replay!


mastering call coaching

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Tips for Mastering Call Coaching

Call coaching is literally THE hardest new skill for sales managers. Yes, it’s a new skill even if you’re not a new manager. Why? Because as a seller – hell, as a HUMAN – our job is to take action to get results. We are “me” focused and “results” focused. Coaching flips this on its head as we’re told to be “rep” focused and skill improvement vs. deal focused. Let’s be clear, you guys…

THAT.

ISN’T.

NATURAL.

And the better you were as a seller, the harder it was as a manager. Great sellers are competitive, a little selfish and needy (c’mon, own that), and ruthlessly devoted to the “W.”

DOWNLOAD: Call Coaching Tips To COACHN Success

In fact, the very best skill coaching (aka call coaching aka just coaching) is NOT focused on the deal. It’s about the rep’s development first and foremost. Focusing on the deal over the rep is where we get in trouble and make common coaching mistakes like, “The Laundry List” and “Be Like Me.” Why? Because we’re impatient to get the win, to save the deal, to bank the commission. Let me summarize in caps, as that makes me feel like I’m really driving the point:

GOOD CALL COACHING IS NOT DEAL COACHING.

If you can enter into the meeting 100% not caring if they win or lose the revenue and only if they feel better about themselves and are excited to improve, then you get it.

You’re also some sort of superhero because that’s basically impossible.

OF COURSE, you care about the “W”. You’re in sales!!

So, herein lies the rub, folks. This is exactly why The Sales Executive Council ranked call coaching as sales managers’ #1 worst skill. Because…

CALL COACHING SIMPLY ISN’T NATURAL.

Over my years in sales leadership and training leadership, I’ve developed a lot of hacks to fix this situation. For example, I only use call recordings of past deals. This prevents my natural sales animal from emerging and ripping the headset off a sweet, well-meaning newbie and taking over the deal (and thereby completely deflating if not scaring my employee).

I also have a GREAT way to take notes during the call to help me vent my frustrations, but still appear supportive and encouraging to an underperformer (admit it, that’s hard).

There’s also a rule of thumb to NEVER break on what to coach, plus:

  • How many things to coach at once
  • How often to coach each rep
  • How to track it so improvement happens
  • How to make time to do more coaching

It’s a complex challenge we face in doing more and better coaching on the job. And going virtual didn’t help. Alas, it’s a worthy pursuit. Frankly, I feel a bit like the Captain Ahab of sales call coaching. I’ve evolved, improved, and added to my training solution pretty much every year for the past ten years. I keep searching for new and improved silver bullets to make the transition easier and faster. And we’re getting there, folks. We’ve created a comprehensive and effective program that changes behaviors and results (contact us if you’re interested in our sales call coaching training).

I would be remiss if I did not mention the call coaching framework we created here at Factor 8: The COACHN℠ Model. It ensures reps and managers have the most efficient and effective coaching sessions possible. Check out the image below (and save it to your desktop!).

COACHN

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Sales Manager Fears, Fails, and Fixes: Fast Actions to Prevent Burnout & Failure! [Webinar Recording]

Sales Manager Fears, Fails, and Fixes: Fast Actions to Prevent Burnout & Failure!

[Video Recording]

Fast Ways to Help Sales Managers Thrive

Each year we work with hundreds of front-line revenue warriors, and they tell us their secrets (😱). Come learn the 3 Fs of your sales management team:

  • FEARS they have you probably don’t know.
  • FAILS they’re making right now and how to prevent them.
  • FIXES they want from you but aren’t asking for.

Tiny fixes, easy questions, and small investments that will lead to better team performance quickly and PREVENT BURNOUT (LinkedIn recently reported nearly 50% of Sales managers are burnout!)

This session is JAM-PACKED with insights, low-cost/no-cost tips you can enact TODAY, and tactics for helping your sales managers survive the grind, thrive on the job, and get better results!

MUST-WATCH for all Sales Leaders – Sales Directors, Enablement Leaders, and Sales Managers!

Watch the video replay!


Fast Ways to Help Sales Managers Thrive

Each year we work with hundreds of front-line revenue warriors, and they tell us their secrets (😱). Come learn the 3 Fs of your sales management team:

  • FEARS they have you probably don’t know.
  • FAILS they’re making right now and how to prevent them.
  • FIXES they want from you but aren’t asking for.

Tiny fixes, easy questions, and small investments that will lead to better team performance quickly and PREVENT BURNOUT (LinkedIn recently reported nearly 50% of Sales managers are burnout!)

This session is JAM-PACKED with insights, low-cost/no-cost tips you can enact TODAY, and tactics for helping your sales managers survive the grind, thrive on the job, and get better results!

MUST-WATCH for all Sales Leaders – Sales Directors, Enablement Leaders, and Sales Managers!

Watch the video replay!


10 Tips to Prevent Sales Manager Burnout [Checklist]

10 Tips to Prevent Sales Manager Burnout [Checklist]

Top Tips to Save Your Sales Managers

Sales management is one of the most stressful roles in sales (if not the most stressful). To make matters worse, many managers are promoted without leadership training, leaving them unprepared for the demands of the job. This leads to a lack of confidence, increased stress, and, all too often, burnout. In fact, 60% of new managers fail within their first two years.

If you’re noticing burnout among your managers, download our checklist for 10 actionable ways to better support them and help them succeed in their roles!

Download Cheat Sheet

Top Tips to Save Your Sales Managers

Sales management is one of the most stressful roles in sales (if not the most stressful). To make matters worse, many managers are promoted without leadership training, leaving them unprepared for the demands of the job. This leads to a lack of confidence, increased stress, and, all too often, burnout. In fact, 60% of new managers fail within their first two years.

If you’re noticing burnout among your managers, download our checklist for 10 actionable ways to better support them and help them succeed in their roles!

Download Cheat Sheet

Managing Remote Sales Team

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Tips for Managing a Remote Sales Team

Sales Management is a tough gig. Virtual sales management is tougher. Like our sales teams struggle to sell “with an arm and leg tied behind their back” with the exclusion of visual cues, difficulty reaching customers/prospects, and having drastically limited selling time, these same challenges (and more) affect managers. Especially newer leaders.

In my first few years of sales management, I relied heavily on the visual cues of how my colleagues managed their teams. I saw huddles happening (“Oh, I should do that.”) I overheard team meetings and coaching sessions (“Wow, I need to give that kind of advice”) and I picked up deal strategy and day management skills.

Until we’re tenured leaders of sales teams, we don’t have our management cadence locked in. The cadence is our management process – the series of meetings, touchpoints, and actions we take in a day, month, and quarter to keep our business on track. In fact, I dare say most sales managers spend their first year or two bouncing between requests, fires, and demands.

It’s natural to be reactive in our high-demand, fast-paced environment. There’s a line at our desk, in our email inbox, and in our assignments from above. Without these, we’d wander a bit aimlessly trying to figure out our jobs as we transition from individual contributor/seller to leader. It’s why so many leaders struggle to give up the deal, the customer base, the live sales calls – we know this world! We RULE this world!

And herein lies the rub. Now that we’re managing virtually, we need a proactive approach. We need to shortcut the learning curve and have a plan – one that includes the challenge of not seeing who’s in their seat, overhearing the calls, and picking up on the team dynamic. Rough.

To speed this process, and alleviate some stress along the way, let me share a few key tips:

1. Establish (and edit) your proactive management cadence immediately. We teach this in “Essential Manager Meetings” (a course in The Sales Bar) and it’s one of our first courses for all new managers. At a minimum, your cadence needs to include:

    • Multiple weekly sales huddles to provide focus, inspiration, energy, and insight
    • Monthly private 1:1 performance meetings with each team member
    • Multiple 1:1 to 3:1 call/skill coaching sessions with each team member monthly
    • Multiple team forecast meetings (frequency depending on sales cycle)
    • Ad-hoc sales strategy meetings helping reps hit goal (deal, lead, account, and/or territory)
    • Monthly team meetings for updates, development, communication, connection

Where do you find the time for all these meetings? By pushing the daily incoming demand to one of these meetings. Rep Slacking you with a “great call update?” Push it to your morning huddle or your next call coaching. Rep forecasting below goal? Schedule an ad-hoc sales strategy meeting to review deals. Getting lots of emails with company questions? Move forward the team meeting and address them together. 

We set the process and then we daily teach our reps to operate within it by delegating, pushing, and scheduling “official” meeting time vs. reacting all day. That makes time management a critical management skill…

2. Own Your Day (another course in The Sales Bar). Especially now that we’re at home, it’s way too easy to work 12 hour days (or the opposite for some). The line at your desk is now your chat. Email is center screen all day. It’s harder than ever to stay proactive and protect our rep-focused parts of the day. We have to schedule it, and then protect it. Our top priorities also get calendar time and we protect them like our most important meetings of the day.

We love the Eisenhower Matrix (everyone’s favorite part of this course) to help managers decide when to fire drill, when to delegate, when to schedule, and when to trash a request. When you’re in charge of your own day, you can help reps be in charge of theirs – so critical for virtual selling. 

3. Call Coaching. When we’re virtual, the tendency is to count heavily on the numbers. If we can’t hear the calls and watch the behavior, we watch what we can – the metrics. This is a mistake. Especially now that your reps are selling a new way, focus on quality over quantity. That means it’s time to get visibility. If you don’t have call recording capabilities, start lobbying for it now. ExecVision, Chorus, and Gong make it easy to be legal and to get the insight you need into rep conversations + the tools to coach them.

READ: The Best Sales Coaching Questions Ever

Scheduled call coaching using recordings or ride-along meetings are critical. It’s going to be tougher than ever to make it happen (hence the first two points), so give this to your reps. When your calendar is up to date, they know when you are free and it’s on them to invite you to 1-2 calls/week.

Sales skill feedback also has some new priorities right now. Field sellers gone virtual will need some help and focus on phone detective skills – working phone systems, making multiple attempts, capturing new contacts, qualifying accounts – honestly some of the basic skills covered for new BDRs. They may not LOVE the idea of getting entry-level phone skills training, but these are tools they need in their belt today – and tomorrow.

Phone sellers now struggle with video. They need your feedback on the basics like backgrounds, lighting, proper attire, and etiquette. We’ve all seen the fails – those are on us as their managers. Check out our course Running a Virtual Sales Meeting in The Sales Bar for basics on virtual meeting agendas, engagement, and online tools use.

The key is that they get the coaching and support regularly and you build it into a regularly scheduled meeting as part of your cadence.

My entire team – including the sales team – has been virtual since inception. Our BDR is new and gets call coaching every Tuesday and Thursday for 45 minutes at 9 a.m. She brings the call recording to support what we coached last time and before it’s over there’s a commitment to what we’re coaching next time. The coaching is done over video so we can see faces and reactions and expressions – this is a personal development moment, and it helps us connect. 

Remember, a connection to the boss is critical for every employee. Call coaching is about helping develop reps skills (not close deals) as much as it is about increasing our team’s engagement with us and with the company – and there is nothing more important for retention. Coaching is bonding 1:1 time and your team needs this attention from you, even more, when we’re virtual.

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