Sales Managers: Don't expect your AEs to cold call if you don't know how to.
This kills me.
Every week, I meet with leaders asking their reps to make cold calls. But they straight-up suck at cold calling. No prospect would ever take a meeting with them.
THIS DOESN'T WORK.
This is a culture of hypocrisy. Asking reps to do what you're unwilling or unable to do yourself.
If your team is struggling to build pipeline right now, get back to the basics.
→ Do our managers know how to outbound?
→ Do our managers know what good outbound looks and sounds like?
→ Do our managers do outbound with their reps?
→ Do our managers set weekly outbound goals with their reps?
→ Do our managers reverse-engineer the sales math behind every rep's sales goal?
→ Do our managers provide weekly outbound coaching to their reps?
→ Do you, the senior leader, talk to your managers about outbound?
→ Do you, the senior leader, talk about outbound in your all-hands calls?
→ Do you, the senior leader, give public shouts to reps doing well at outbound?
This isn't rocket science.
Don't expect your team to do what your front-line leaders cannot.
It's time to get back to the basics.
Get in the pit. And show your reps how it's done.
And if you can't, you need to learn how. And quick.