Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross, Marylou Tyler

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Deepak Shukla’s Notes On Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross, Marylou Tyler

Hey guys,

I finished reading this book on the 10th of January 2021.

Here’s a synopsis of the book I grabbed from Amazon:

“Discover the outbound sales process that, in just a few years, helped add $100 million in recurring revenue to Salesforce.com, almost doubling their enterprise growth… with zero cold calls.”

Here are the actual notes I took whilst I was listening to this on Audible:

• Commit to making the team self-managing
• If the report doesn’t help you prioritize decisions or take actions, something is wrong with it
• Reporting – what is a must-have Vs a luxury to have
• Goal setting lead – someone to monitor leads
• Part of veteran sales commission based upon newbies’ ability to bring leads / close deals – ie group compensation
• Outgoing leads always train incoming lead
• Team leads in these sub-teams (rotate this person every 3 months)
• Once have more than 5 people in a team, create sub-teams of 5 People to keep a small team feel
• What can be eliminated, what can be automated, what can be outsourced
• Remember, you work for your people; they don’t work for you
• Grow your people
• Choose people based on fast learning and hungry hires. Passion over experience
• Leaders should be inspiring where possible – will get more from their people
• Identify leaders in the company and give them leadership and general training
• The best Development for the team is regular training (do it weekly)
• Each team can develop a team behind them
• Help your team members enjoy their work – they will then produce great work
• If you want 1 year of prosperity to grow grain, if you want 10 years of prosperity to grow trees, if you want 100 years of prosperity – grow people
• Need a customer happiness officer specifically
• Take baby steps – change takes longer than you think
• Be patient with building a sales process
• Need to measure sales and marketing activities daily
• Need two sales reps in any organisation
• CEOs make these common mistakes
• For example, when a lead visits a site X amount of times, automatic notification for a sales rep to follow up
• Build a lead scoring system based on actions users take on the site
• If it truly is a bad time, they will tell you OR say ‘I’ve got a minute; what’s up’
• The best opener is “Did I catch you at a bad time?” – putting them at ease and making them less defensive
• If they ask for a proposal, ask to set up a scoping call to determine their exact wants and needs, and then you can send a proposal
• Proposals should be earned, not given freely
• Prospects often don’t know what their true problems are – when complaining, just uncover the root issue
• Map out the sales process
• Dragging your feet and not disqualifying
• Telling instead of showing – show!
• Focusing on their success and not rushing the sale leads to more trust
• Do you have insights into how you can help their business in general? – show them you care?
• “How can we get this done?”
• When asking bold questions – it’s about how you ask – with confidence and enthusiasm
• What will it take to close in 30/60/90 days?
• What’s your usual buying process for a product like this?
• When doing outbound, have prospecting happen at 1/2 levels higher than a target to get referred down
• Ask reps for pipeline reviews
• Selling too low
• Selling selfishly rather than solving
• The fantastic but unused sales process
• No sales process
• Pick a niche to get rich
• Wrong prospect/ poor messaging
• Be a non-threatening researcher, not a pushy salesperson
• Call above target level, then get referred down
• Do you have a calendar handy?
• After you talk with someone who is helpful but not the right person – “I’m doing some research to determine if we’re a good fit – what would you do if you were me?’
• “May I ask you how your X is structured?”
• “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
• Measure results that are proven to lead to revenue, not just activity alone
• Track call conversations per day, not dials per day

• Be persistent until you get a no
• The plan calls into Fortune 1000 divisions and maps out calls into 3-5 different departments
• Roleplays and Calls for the teammate
• Call the Executive Assistant to the President and ask for a referral to the right contact
• Listen to a sales call. Listen to prospecting call
• Send a mass email – meet with a mentor – meet with another team
• Best sales guys should focus on only 5 key accounts and channel or referral partners
• Proposals should be earned, not given freely
• Prospects often don’t know what their true problems are – when complaining, just uncover the root issue
• Map out the sales process
• Dragging your feet and not disqualifying
• Telling instead of showing – show!
• Focusing on their success and not rushing the sale leads to more trust
• Do you have insights into how you can help their business in general? – show them you care?
• “How can we get this done?”
• When asking bold questions – it’s about how you ask – with confidence and enthusiasm
• Call 5 old not cold leads to practice discussing their business needs in a conversation
• Sample intermediate daily goals
• What will it take to close in 30/60/90 days?
• What’s your usual buying process for a product like this?
• When doing outbound, have prospecting happen at 1/2 levels higher than the target to get referred down
• Ask reps for pipeline reviews
• Selling too low
• Selling selfishly rather than solving
• It’s a fantastic but unused sales process
• No sales process
• Pick a niche to get rich
• Wrong prospect/ poor messaging
• 9 ways you lengthen your sales cycles (ie slow the sale down)
• Current month’s activity/current month’s deals/long-term results year to date
• 3-5 goals for the day
• Always have a next step
• Only ever ask one question per email
• Bite-sized emails – make it a Blackberry email
• Would it be a waste of time to discuss ‘X’, to see if we could help?
• Call above target level, then get referred down
• Do you have a calendar handy
• After you talk with someone who is helpful but not the right person – “I’m doing some research to determine if we’re a good fit – what would you do if you were me?’
• Draft your day in the life
• 3-5 goals for the day
• Sample beginning daily goals
• Weeks 4-5 – Every day 3 goals

1. Send 100 outbound emails before Friday
2. Practice logging in and responding to emails correctly
3. Work up to 5 call conversations every day before the end of the week
4. Have a veteran SDR sit with you every day
5. Draft a personal dashboard
6. Discuss a new section of the training materials with the team

• Week 3 – Every day 3 goals
• First 2-4 weeks on general company, service and product training
• Simplified training for an SDR
• SDRs are your customers – they shout from the rooftops about who you are
• Commission paid 50% upon deals closed / 50% on new opportunities this month
• Salary = X plus commission, which is 1/3rd to 1/2 of total
• Money structure for salespeople – base salary + commission
• Bins/Account statuses
• Hi, Richard, this is Deepak Shukla from Pearl Lemon on 07877994351, and I’m calling to see if….once again,n my number is….
• Speak slowly and clearly
• Leave phone number at start and finish of voice mail
• When leaving a voicemail, leave it like you would for a friend – consider the tone
• Goal one is to identify the right person and get an internal referral
• Learn to love out-of-office replies – their job is to route you to the right person in the company
• Avoid Monday and Friday for email sends
• Send emails before 9 or after 6, not before
• Try an angel/job funnel with CEO of the same company
• Send 50 emails a day
• Have a dedicated outbound prospector or SDR
• Low volume but ultra-high quality for quota carrying sales rep
• Best sales guys should focus on only 5 key accounts and channel or referral partners
• Use cold email to CEO asking for internal referrals
• Outbound prospecting
• Predictable lead generation needed
• Above all, jealousy guards your enjoyment