Factor 8 News

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Top 10 Takeaways From ZoomInfo Summit

This was the second annual conference by ZoomInfo held at the Revere hotel in Boston. Honored as a speaker in the Sales track, I spent a lot of my time learning in the Marketing track. It is awesome to have these two tracks together in one conference. Naturally I also spent time at happy hours, making new friends, and heckling my speaker pals.

Here are my top 10 takeaways:

  1. ZoomInfo nailed it with this conference. Amazing speakers, nearly no “pitch” talks from vendors, awesome food, plenty of learning options, fresh faces on stage, about 300 people, and time between sessions. It’s just what you’re looking for in a conference (oh yeah, and some free drinks. How was that not number one?). Side note: I love a “Medium” conference. With 350 – 750 attendees, every other person isn’t a vendor, the audience is well targeted, and it feels like a community vs. an overwhelming barrage. My other favorite BTW is the AA-ISP Leadership Conference.
  2. Seth Godin loves pop tarts and Star Trek. Who knew?
  3. Even though “hot trend” sessions like Ai and ABM are packed, when you talk with people 1:1, there are more people just trying to figure out consistent execution at the 101 level. Folks, make sure your sales conversations are good before hiring robots to get you more (that’s Ai right? JK).
  4. I can spot a sales person vs. a marketing person with 99% accuracy at a lunch table and 97% in an elevator.
  5. Dennis Dube is my new favorite person of 2017. I love finding uber smart and witty people. Bonus when there’s no ego and an eagerness to help others. Good to meet you buddy!
  6. Seth Godin teaches to market to the fringes. LB translation: let your freak flag fly and incorporate it in your message! That’s authentic and you’ll draw the right people to you – maybe even build a tribe.
  7. LB (who will liberally steal from Seth Godin here) says: Sell this way too! Don’t teach your people to sound like a professional sales call. We all hate these. The best calls are genuine, authentic, funny, engaging – REAL. Just one more reason that I hate scripts.
  8. SDR reps seriously need more love. Find ways to help these guys win and feel like a bad-ass at least once every day.
  9. The magic circle for marketing is Blog – SEO – and Social Media – all driving back to your website. This is why I’m writing a post-session blog.
  10. No conference is the same without Peter Weyman. Missed you buddy!

Where am I headed next? You can catch me on October 11th, 2017, co-hosting a webinar, 10 Ways To Scale Your Inside Sales Initiative. Come join me, Jeremy Wiggett, Senior Director Sales Development at Salesforce, and Chase Larson, Chief Technology Officer at SixPackShortcuts as we talk about processes, people, systems and implementation methods to achieve success in inside sales. Register here.

P.S. If you missed us at ZoomInfo, you can still get my inside sales bad-ass tips to share with your team. Register here.

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Factor 8 Named Inside Sales Training & Development Provider of the Year

We’re thrilled to announce that Factor 8 took home four industry awards at the Annual AA-ISP Inside Sales Leadership Summit on April 20. The prestigious honors included the 2017 “Inside Sales Training Service Provider of the Year” and three individual designations in the category of “Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals.”

“I’m tremendously proud that we’ve once again been recognized by our industry association and peers with inside sales, AA-ISP,” noted President Lauren Bailey, Factor 8. “Our team is particularly thrilled to receive Inside Sales Training and Development Service Provider of the Year, which is based on direct feedback from the inside sales reps and managers who’ve experienced our training workshops.”

Since 2013, Factor 8 has received numerous designations from AA-ISP, including:

  •     2017 Inside Sales Training Service Provider of the Year
  •     2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals – Lauren Bailey
  •     2017 Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals – John Healy
  •     2017 Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals – Regina Manfredi
  •     2016 Service Provider of the Year: People Development
  •     2015 AA-ISP Leadership Development Provider of the Year Award
  •     2013 Spirit Award – Lauren Bailey

Learn more about Factor 8’s inside sales training here and manager training here. Follow Lauren Bailey on Twitter @factor8sales.

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At Least My Hair Turned Out

Last year my amazing Factor 8 team took home the award for best Sales & Leadership Development company in the AA-ISP community. And when I saw the picture I sadly (like a typical woman) thought I needed a better haircut.

So not to downplay bringing home this award AGAIN (renamed PEOPLE development in 2016), but seriously, I look much better. 😉

Now on to the real reason for the email: THANK YOU.

Really. These awards hold a special place for me because they are a 100% direct result of the feedback that YOU and your teams post online about your experience training with us. Also, I was voted a Top 25 person again and that rocks. Thanks for taking the time to vote.

A few other really cool highlights:

  1. We need to open up a T-shirt business. Total cult hit: GET ON THE PHONES! (The Only Way To Train) is the coolest new T-shirt in town. If you really do want to buy some, email me. . . I think I’ll be forced to put in an order for more. Seriously, we just wanted to wear T-shirts, so glad everyone at the conference loved them!!
  2. Our clients and friends also brought home accolades:
    • Jorge Diaz from Fleetmatics – Executive of the Year
    • Michele Fidler from Allergan – Spirit Award
    • Paula White from BoundTree Medical – Top 25 Most Influential People in Inside Sales
    • Chad Burmeister from RingCentral – Top 25 Most Influential People in Inside Sales
    • Trish Bertuzzi from Bridge Group – Top 25 Most Influential People in Inside Sales
    • Lori Richardson from Score More Sales – Top 25 Most Influential People in Inside Sales
    • Team Staples for the top workplace video submission…watch your brains, “The Talking Dead” will hire you dead or alive!
  3. We paid someone to take pictures of our Happy Hour this year because, well, we all might have been too happy in the past. THANKS for joining us and letting us get to know you and your teams face to face. It was awesome to see the folks from Del Mar Fans, Quill, Grainger, and Cardinal! Finally, we meet!! (and next year we’re hiring a bouncer – who WERE some of those people drinking our booze?)
  4. If you brought home a T-shirt or mug, send us a selfie of you or your team with it out on the floor and we’ll put you on our LinkedIn page. Fun! While you’re out there, make sure to follow Factor 8 to see what we’re up to.

Plenty of good content on its way, so stay tuned. But for now, please accept our heartfelt thanks for an amazing year!!!

LB

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Are You Riding The Inside Sales Wave?

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking to a phenomenal group of Inside Sales Senior Executives in Dublin, Ireland.  It was the first International Leadership Summit hosted by the AA-ISP and it was fantastic.  The energy and participation were amazing – and that was before the Guinness!  I covered the top ten blunders I’ve seen in our industry this year and did my best to advocate for sales manager and rep development.  Many organizations represented at the conference were absolute innovators.  I loved hearing about how Intel Security is a top company to work for in Ireland and how IBM is enabling the social and digital aspects of selling (really, how do I get a wall I can roll AND write on!?).

Believing In Inside Sales

Most of the folks who sought me out afterward, however, were facing the same very big challenge:  Senior Leadership doesn’t really believe in Inside Sales.  “Our product can’t be sold over the phone.  Now be a good VP and go fetch me some leads.” 

It was so frustrating to them, and rightfully so!  Any of us in this profession has faced this at one time or another.  I’ve literally ridden this wave for the past twenty years through IT hardware and software to distribution & industrial companies, to big-box retail and pharma today.  And now the wave is crashing hard on the shores of Europe, and I’m here to tell you to jump in and swim.

Here are a few reminders of why the Inside Sales wave is righteous (and why it cannot be stopped):

  • Your customer demands it.  It’s not OK to get back to them a few days later.  We want NOW and that means folks perched by the phones.
  • There is no faster way to attack a new market – be it customer set, product set, our geo.  I can talk to 20 people a day.  If you got your field rep a jet pack, he’ll max at five (but how cool would that be).
  • The one-two punch.  Let field take down the big game and let inside pick off the rest of the herd.  You know your field reps aren’t calling anyone but their top three contacts at that account, right?  And how about the bottom 20% of their book?
  • Three little letters:  S M B.  It’s not efficient or cost effective to tackle this massive market with field resources.
  • Product maturity:  Margins and complexity decrease as the product lifecycle moves to the right – you’ll need to lower your cost of sales.
  • Accountability and scalability – there’s a reason you don’t see many field reps successfully transition to Inside Sales.  It’s harder, it’s faster, and there’s no “appointment” where you can hide on a Friday afternoon.

Ride The Wave

Surely one of these can serve you as you fight for your piece of the wave.  Obviously I’ve also picked a fight with a pretty large and mobile group of sellers, so I say game on.  If you have a comment about why this is wrong or how you’ve proved one of them right, please leave it!   No argument is quite as strong as your own success story about a big deal uncovered or won by the Inside.

Hey, history has proven across the globe that this wave is real.  You may be paddling a bit longer, but you’re on the board and you’re in the water, and the Wave. Is. Coming.  So get your house in order because it will be fast and furious when it does.  Today you’re proving the value, but mark my words that in a year or two you’ll be asked to grow 10x.  Will you be ready?  Enjoy the ride; you’ll be running the place in no time if you time it just right.

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