The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million

“Every top-performing salesperson succeeds in her own unique way. Heavy reliance on ride-alongs during the training process jeopardizes a new hire's ability to shine using her unique strengths.”

Buyer personas are defined by primarily static attributes about the buyer that will not change. Example attributes include the size of the business, the industry of the company, the role of the buyer, and so forth. In the example in Figure 11.2, we are targeting three buyer personas: Small Business, Mid-Market, and Enterprise. The horizontal axis (

Having the actual lead value follow the ideal lead value as closely as possible represented critical execution, especially as the team grew.

“Hire the same successful salesperson every time.” (The Sales Hiring Formula) “Train every salesperson in the same way.” (The Sales Training Formula) “Hold our salespeople accountable to the same sales process.” (The Sales Management Formula) “Provide our salespeople with the same quality and quantity of leads every month.” (The Demand Generation F

If the salesperson is skilled at this approach, she can be quite successful at transforming the inbound lead contact into a “coach.” Do not confuse a “coach” with a “champion.” In most cases, the inbound lead contact does not have enough authority to be considered a “champion.” In other words, the inbound prospect can't influence the organization e

Another source you may try is Twitter. Find the people on Twitter who your target buyers follow. Follow these same Twitter users. Read their tweets. Retweet the posts you find interesting and relevant to your buyers.

The Sales Acceleration Formula completely alters this paradigm. In today's digital world, in which every action is logged and masses of data sit at our fingertips, building a sales team no longer needs to be an art form. There is a process. Sales can be predictable. A formula does exist.

The one pitfall you need to avoid is the excuse from the inbound team that they can't hit their goal because the marketing department is not delivering. Even the inbound team needs to be empowered to hit their goal regardless of marketing's performance. There are a few ways to do this: Keep closers as generalists and specialize only the appointment

A disciplined measurement strategy for the buyer matrix allows you to analyze, test, and optimize the entire matrix, one buyer state at a time.