My work:
My Prospecting Through Sequences course started last week! You can still join the 1,500+ who have registered so far. The past classes are recorded and will be available for a limited time. This cohort is FREE for all Outreach customers. Click here to sign up!
On April 28 I will be presenting on Leveraging a Personal Brand at the ChatFunnels Summit. It’s free to join: Click here to sign up!
On May 11, I will present on Next Level SDR/AE Teamwork with Outreach VP of Sales Mark Kosoglow: Click here to sign up!
Candid Thought:
According to my poll below I have a contrarian opinion so I’m going to make it the subject of this week’s newsletter :)
I’ve got to respond to a couple things that people kept saying over and over in the comments:
“Top performers often don’t know what it is that makes them successful.”
Sure, but do average performers know why they were average? Why didn’t they stop doing those things? Often, mediocre performance happens when very well-intentioned reps are sure about strategies that don’t end up being effective in practice. If they become teachers, this can lead to a scary situation where someone teaches bad ideas that sound like good ideas.
Bad ideas that sound like good ideas are quickly implemented and hard to root out once they become the status quo on a team.
It can be a very bad thing if these ideas are persuasively and excellently taught.
“What makes top performers successful often can’t be replicated.”
This is true, but you can learn to discern which strategies would and wouldn’t work for you. It takes some critical thinking, and maybe some trial and error, but it is very possible to figure out which strategies can be replicated by you and which cannot.
I’ve always enjoyed learning from top performers because I’ve noticed they tend to be more candid when answers are controversial, embarrassing, or sound like bad ideas at face value. This is important because the best ideas are good ideas that sound like bad ideas. I’m not sure if candor is just a common quality of top performers, or if top performance makes people less afraid of going against the grain. But it definitely seems to be a common trait.
First-hand experience achieving what you want to achieve + honesty is a powerful combination. By becoming better a good detective, you can learn from people even if they are not particularly good at teaching. This is a pretty important skill in this job! After all, you are definitely going to have to learn from prospects who are not great at relaying information :)
Even if someone is not a good teacher, you can still get to the truth.
Some good detective strategies for learning from top performers who aren’t good teachers:
Listen to them first hand. Call recording software makes this easier than ever if you have it.
Look at their workflow first hand. There is a LOT you can learn but looking at how they use Outreach.
Explain an approach of yours to them and see what they think. Some version of Cunningham’s law seems to apply to opinionated sales reps. Even if they don’t particularly like to teach, Sales reps can’t help hearing a bogus idea go unchallenged.
When you find yourself making decision/tradeoffs, make a note of the decision you made and why and get the perspective of a top performer. You can learn a lot from people really fast by understanding how they look at tradeoffs.
Listen when they tell stories and give specific examples. This can be better than vague, high level advice because you context can give you clues about which things will or will not apply to you.
Happy Hunting!
-Sam