The 12 Best Pieces of Sales Advice on LinkedIn in Q4

Are you on target to hit your sales goals this quarter? Whether your answer is “Yes” or “No”, one of the most valuable skills of any account executive (AE) or sales development representative (SDR) is the ability to adapt to change. In order to sell to businesses in B2B SaaS, it’s critical to learn about the industry as it evolves and continuously evaluate your approach to selling.

One of the best ways to learn is by listening to others. We’ve compiled some of our favorite LinkedIn posts by sales leaders and individual contributors that can help you think more strategically.

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Colin Specter, VP of Sales at Orum, says to conduct discovery throughout the sales process — not just during your first call with a prospect. 

Colin Specter on LinkedIn

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It takes time to build trust. You’re likely to learn more about your prospect’s pain, goals, and internal stakeholders the longer you have a relationship with them. Ask the important questions up front, and lean on your tech partners and channel partners to get background context your prospect may not share on call #1. Intel around your prospect’s tech stack usage or resource limitations can help you develop meaningful talking points for the sales conversation.

Your prospect’s needs change over time. This is especially true of longer sales cycles that last upwards of a year. In just a few months, your prospect might make new hires, restructure their org, shift their strategy, or change the tools in their tech stack. Continue asking questions and learning about the latest pain points and solutions for similar companies in their category.

Your tech and channel partners have valuable intel about your target accounts, like how your prospect is using the tools in their tech stack, what their goals and budget are, and when they’re planning to buy. Build meaningful relationships with your partners, and they’ll be more willing to give you valuable information and even put in a good word for you with the prospect.

Plan ahead to make the most of your time with prospects and avoid missed opportunities. Conduct discovery before, during, and after your calls with prospects. Learn about your prospect’s company through their website and relevant news sources (like via TechCrunch and SaaStr), about relevant stakeholders through their LinkedIn profiles, and about their tech stacks through a partner ecosystem platform (PEP) like Crossbeam. 

By using Crossbeam, you can identify which of your tech partners have your prospects as their customers. This data helps you understand which tools are in your prospects’ tech stacks, and your agency partners can help you understand how they’re using those tools. Use all of this information to develop thoughtful demos and steer the sales conversation effectively.

Joey Alvandi, Account Executive at Tourial, says you should speak to people in your network who fit the criteria of your target persona to learn what your customers need. Don’t make these conversations transactional. 

Joey Alvandi on LinkedIn

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Become a consultative sales rep who can help their prospects and customers learn not only about the most relevant ways to use your software but also industry trends and tech stack insights that can help them perform best in their role. Learn about your partners’ technology via your resource hub, read about the roles and businesses you’re targeting via sites like TechCrunch, and learn about the industry at large and upcoming changes in tech. Sellers who excel with advanced consultative selling skills are almost twice as likely (94%) to be top performers.

Talk to others to learn about the types of businesses you’re targeting. This includes learning from people working in similar roles as your prospects without making the conversation transactional. Observe LinkedIn conversations relevant to your prospect’s business. When engaging in conversation on LinkedIn, make sure to be authentic, provide insights of value, and avoid selling your product when someone is simply asking for advice.

Speak with your tech and channel partners who are already working with your prospect and similar customers. They can help you understand how your prospects use the tools in their tech stack, their business goals and pain points, and even their favorite music (That’s good intel for your next follow-up email).

Chris Orlob, Co-Founder at QuotaSignal, pclub.io, and a stealth startup, and previously the Director of Sales & Go-To-Market at Gong, says to ask your prospect how the workflow you demonstrate for them compares to their current workflow. 

Chris Orlob on LinkedIn

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The right questions can widen the gap between what your prospect already has and what they could have. Ask your prospect about their current workflow, and then show them how the workflow you offer is better. Ask them questions that help them envision themselves and their team using your product to improve efficiency and hit their team goals. Ask open-ended questions that enable your prospect to share more and help you steer the conversation towards the most valuable talking points.

Most deals aren’t lost to your competitors. They’re lost to the status quo. You’ll need to prove that the value outweighs the benefit of doing nothing. Leverage your partners to help showcase the wins your mutual customers have had, bring case studies to your sales conversations, and show the prospect that no change hurts their business results for the long-term.

Mark Kosoglow, Chief Revenue Officer at Catalyst, says he hired a sales rep on the spot, because she treated the interview process like a deal she had to close and called him at 5:30AM while he was driving to work. 

Mark Kosoglow on LinkedIn

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Your network has valuable intel about your prospects. Your partners and your prospect’s colleagues/peers can help you understand when your prospect is thinking about buying software in your category, whether they prefer email or phone calls, and what their biggest pain points are. 

There’s a right and a wrong time to try to engage a prospect. Do call your prospect when they’re most likely to pick up the phone. Don’t call them on a holiday. 

There’s also a right time to sell. Ask your tech and channel partners about your prospect’s buying timeline. By using a PEP like Crossbeam, Census knows exactly when their prospect becomes a customer of their partner and engages the prospect immediately.

Florin Tatulea, Director of Sales at Barley, says you’re less likely to have no-shows when you get referrals and when you only provide calendar availability for a week and a half out. The more into the future your meeting is with a prospect, the more likely they are to deprioritize and cancel.

Florin Tatulea on LinkedIn

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Ask your tech and channel partners for warm intros. If your partners have your prospect as a customer, they likely have an existing relationship with your prospect. Your prospect may ask your tech or channel partners for advice on which tools to implement to achieve their business results, and your partners can help showcase how similar customers have used your software effectively. Your partner might just have a direct line to the stakeholder with buying power.

Get the meeting on the books as soon as possible. A lot can change in a week’s time, and your prospect may reschedule your meeting if their calendar fills up, they’re focusing on other projects, or they don’t recall what sold them on taking the call with you in the first place.

Goutam Siddharth, Associate Director of Sales at Zuddl, says you’ll sell better by becoming a consultative resource for your prospects. 

Goutam Siddharth on LinkedIn

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Learn about your prospect’s business and industry. Read industry reports by Forrester, Gartner, Accenture, and more. Talk to people who work in your prospect’s role, and follow relevant communities. Absorb information to help you become a consultative resource who can help your prospects with questions they have outside of the functionality of your product. 

Build authentic relationships with your prospects. Make friends. Keep in touch about your mutual interests. Participate in each other’s podcasts. Offer to introduce them to people in your network if they need help. 

Sameer Sinha, Co-founder at Visdum, says that sales teams should have one-pagers of tradable resources to offer in lieu of monetary discounts.

Sameer Sinha on LinkedIn

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The right integration offering can actually help you boost the deal size. Your prospects may see more value in your product if they buy it in tandem with another tool you integrate with. Identify which tools are in your prospect’s tech stack using Crossbeam and via your discovery. Determine which integrations will provide the most value to the prospect by asking them about their workflows and analyzing success stories for similar customers (e.g. through joint case studies). 

Speak with your go-to-market (GTM) teams to understand what you can offer a prospect in lieu of a discount. Perhaps your marketing team is interested in co-hosting a webinar with the prospect, or maybe they can give your prospect tickets to an upcoming conference. Perhaps your professional services team can provide additional services to the prospect. Approve the offering with your internal team first before putting it on the table for your prospect. 

Sarah Brazier, Mid Market Account Executive at Gong, says she offered to participate in a lead’s podcast in exchange for intel on who to speak with at the lead’s company. Shortly after, she closed the deal.

Sarah Brazier on LinkedIn

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Most people conduct the majority of their tech stack research online before talking to a sales person (74% of business buyers!). Engage with your prospects where they are on LinkedIn, Twitter, and in Slack communities in order to build authentic relationships with them.

Think of the value you can provide to the buyer — or someone in the buyer’s network. Participate in a podcast for a colleague or partner of your prospect who has influence, and you could learn more about your prospect, get an introduction, and shorten the sales cycle.

Top performers in sales think strategically. Sending a chain of follow-up emails to your prospects on the last week of the quarter will glean little results. Working with partners to help affirm the value of your product to your prospect will pay off weeks later. Highspot’s sales reps saw a 60% larger deal size when working with partners, and AEs at Cypress.io got promotions after hitting their quotas faster with partners.

Zachary Hynek, Account Director, Retail & Consumer Goods (Team Lead) at Salesforce, says to connect with prospects you’ve already spoken with on Slack in order to communicate with them in real time. Make yourself available as a consultative resource by providing your prospect with quick answers to their questions and getting them the information they need to advance the deal. 

Zachary Hynek on LinkedIn

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Communicating with prospects you’ve spoken with on Slack enables you to connect them to relevant stakeholders with ease. For example: If your prospect is interested in implementing a bespoke integration, you can connect them with a technical stakeholder on your team. If your prospect is interested in using an existing integration, you can loop in your partner for a group chat. 

Send occasional resources to your prospect that help them succeed in their role, but don’t overwhelm them. Don’t bombard your prospect with asks. Do send them the occasional resource, like an article or stat, that can help them get buy-in for projects they’ve mentioned to you.

Sean Gentry, Senior Manager Corporate Sales at Webflow, says to share your process with your team so they can learn from your example. 

Sean Gentry on LinkedIn

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Help more junior sales reps adopt the processes that work, and you’ll help your entire sales team hit their goals. Offer to co-sell with a new partner, and you’ll show your ability to work well with internal and external stakeholders. For any new type of sales motion (think: expanding into a new market or selling into a new persona), offer to share your wins at your team meetings so that others can replicate your process. 

Help educate your partners’ sales reps. In some cases, your partner may speak to a prospect on your behalf. In others, you’ll sync up on a joint call with the prospect. Help your partner understand some of the key talking points for selling your product, ask them to educate you on selling their product, and learn about your joint value proposition. By mastering your co-selling motions and helping your partner do the same, you’ll shorten your sales cycles, close more deals, and can even get promoted. 

Gabrielle “GB” Blackwell, SDR Manager, Strategic Accounts at Airtable, says to ask if a prospect is willing to chat informally if they’re not willing to buy right now. For a better chance of getting the prospect on the phone, use language that affirms the prospect’s statement, shows value, and lead them to a, “No,” answer in the beginning of your interaction (Read: Never Split the Difference).

Gabrielle “GB” Blackwell on LinkedIn

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Continue the conversation, or don’t. By asking the prospect if they’re willing to chat informally, the worst that can happen is they say, “No”. In this case, follow up with them in a few months like they asked. If they agree to take the call, you’ve not only got another touchpoint but you’ll be able to gather intel about when the prospect might be willing to buy and even schedule a meeting. 

Check in with your tech and channel partners to learn about any changes in your prospect’s buying timeline and priorities. Using Crossbeam, you’ll know exactly when your prospect becomes a customer of your partner. If your customers often use your integration or products together, this data can serve as a signal that now is the right time to sell to your prospect.

Ashley Zagst, Senior Account Executive at Chili Piper, says you should always follow up with your prospects, even if it’s simply to say “Thank you” after losing the deal. 

Ashley Zagst on LinkedIn

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Bring value to your follow-ups. If you learn that your prospect uses a tool you integrate, provide your prospect with the link to your integration listing page, a one sheet, or an intro to a technical stakeholder on your team to answer their questions. If your prospect mentioned a pain point beyond the functionality of your software, send them a report that might help. Show that you can be a consultative resource for them, and build their trust. 

Check in with your partners who have a good relationship with your prospect, and ask your partners to put in a good word for you. If relevant, your partners can include your software as part of their new customer kickoff meeting, can share case studies that show the value of your joint solution, and can answer any questions your prospect might have about your software. Your partners can add value that shortens the sales cycles and increases deal size. 

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Working with partners can be as easy as asking a friend for an intro on LinkedIn. Through Sales Edge from Crossbeam, you’ll know exactly which partners can help you move the needle on a deal directly in LinkedIn, Salesforce, or your email inbox. If your partnerships team is already using Crossbeam, speak with them about setting up Sales Edge to fuel your sales stack and hit your quarterly targets.