The Heresy Blog - The home of agile sales

hopium

Why salespeople are addicted to "hopium"?

It is difficult to admit, but we, salespeople, are all addicts. It’s not a substance abuse problem that we suffer from. It is instead “hopium” that has a hold on our industry.

Podcast

Heresy E18: Farlan Dowell, VP Sales @ CleanShelf on $0 to $10M in ARR 🚀

In this episode of the podcast Farlan shares his tips on how to get from $0 to $10M in ARR in the shortest period of time; what are the most common mistakes you should watch out for....

Podcast

Heresy E17: Andrus Purde [Founder @ Outfunnel | Former CMO @ Pipedrive]

In this episode of the Heresy podcast, Andrus talks to Dimitar about his increasing discontent for cold email and why he thinks we are all, slowly but surely, killing email as a channel.

Podcast

Heresy E16: Josh Allen, CRO @Drift, talks about Hyper-growth

If you want to know what going from $40M to $400M feels like and why it's absolutely normal to wake up in the middle of the night "feeling like your hair is on fire", this is the episode for you!

Podcast

Heresy E15: Jeremey Donovan, SVP Sales Strategy @ SalesLoft

In this episode of the Heresy podcast Dimitar speaks to Jeremey Donovan, SVP Sales Strategy at SalesLoft. Topics include: How long your emails should be; - What are the most engaging subject lines; - How to achieve a 5x increase in your reply rates; etc.

Podcast

Heresy E14: Jason Lemkin's guide to building a SaaS sales machine

In this episode of the Heresy podcast, Dimitar speaks to Jason Lemkin - CEO & Founder at SaaStr, serial entrepreneur and investor. Topics include: - The importance of founder-led sales - When is the right time to hire a VP Sales, etc.

The Endowment Multiplier: The North Star Metric of Sales

Not all salespeople may be familiar with the North Star Metric (NSM). If however you’ve worked closely with a Growth and/or Product team, chances are you’re well aware of this powerful concept. The NSM is the single metric that best captures the core value that your product

Podcast

Heresy E13: Munyaradiz Hoto on Operationalising Your Messaging

Topics covered include: - Why the way you've been taught how to qualify prospects is totally wrong - Why you almost never lose deals in a competitive bake-off - How to help your prospects discover their "undiscovered needs"

Sales Management

A Practical Guide to Renewals, Upsells and Customer Success

For many SaaS businesses, the renewal event is an opportunity that allows them to re-engage with their customers in a full review of the success of their relationship to-date and define the objectives for next contractual year.

Podcast

Heresy E12 - Aaron Ross on Building a World Class Outbound Team

On this episode Dimitar speaks to best-selling author and internationally-recognised sales leader, Aaron Ross. Tune in to find out how to cut through the noise and ensure your outbound strategy stays highly-effective in a day and age where everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.

Agile Sales

From Cutting Diamonds, To Closing Sales: How Taylor & Hart Run Their Sales Team

As CEO at Taylor & Hart, I've always been selling. I was our very first salesperson and have hired every single salesperson since. While I think of myself as a reasonably good salesperson, I was not entirely sure how I should manage and run our growing sales team.

Podcast

Heresy E11 - Jacqueline De Gernier, VP Commercial Sales EMEA @DocuSign

DocuSign’s approach to hiring great salespeople; - Why and how they use aptitude tests in the recruitment process; - How they train and onboard new team members; etc

Agile Sales

Sales Team 2.0: How to Make Sales Agile (SaaStr Europa Video + Transcript)

Back in June I spoke at the first European SaaStr event in Paris. My presentation explored the effects of the super high attrition rates and lack of knowledge sharing, and collaboration defining most SaaS inside sales teams.

Podcast

Heresy E10 - Patrick Traynor [Former Head of EMEA Enterprise Sales @LinkedIn]

How Patrick did pipeline review meeting with his team at LinkedIn using his own framework - How to use BANT [Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline] for qualification and to spot problems early on in the sales process

Product Updates

Messing With Perfection

It’s been a while since we’ve made changes to Heresy’s design. After all; why mess with perfection? But over the course of that time, many lively debates about UI and UX improvements have been had at Heresy HQ. One of the pages that we felt most needed

Guest Post

What’s The Point Of Sales Targets?

Guest post by Terry Russell from Terry-Russell Ltd. Terry talks about the importance of understanding salespeople personal motivation (their professional WHY) and how to leverage it in order to build a strong plan that helps achieve their purpose.

Podcast

Heresy E9 - Elaine Mao, Global Head of Sales Ops & Strategy @UBER

In this episode of the Heresy podcast, we are joined by Elaine Mao - Head of Global Sales Ops & Strategy at UBER for Business. As one of the fastest growing companies and currently the most valuable startup in the world, UBER needs no introduction. Elaine joined UBER from LinkedIn,

Agile Sales

The Cold Call is Dead

“Why aren't you calling more?!” A shout heard in sales rooms up and down the land. Why aren't you calling more people? Why aren't you emailing more people? Why aren't you setting up more meetings? But more does not equal better.

Podcast

Heresy E8: Daniel Farkas, VP Global Renewals & EMEA Customer Success @Box on Building a World-class CS Team

On this month's episode of the Heresy Podcast, Dimitar is joined by Daniel Farkas, Global Vice President for Renewals and Customer Success at Box. Daniel lays down the blueprint for building a world-class Customer Success team.

Agile Sales

Churn Is The Silent Killer Of Your Sales Team

Every bad sales room has the same vibe—one of constant tension and animosity. Everyone is in competition, and everyone is at unease with their “team” mates. This is a function of the perverse incentives that these rooms breed. If you are actively competing for money, promotions, bonuses, and sometimes

Sales

4 Psychological Techniques to Make Cold Email A Little Bit Warmer

Here are a few ways you can use psychology and knowledge together for much more effective cold emails. Not only will these ideas make your emails better today, but after May 25, they might be your only hope!

Closing Words

Closing Words: Luke Jermyn from Pact Coffee

Our aim at Heresy is to fix sales. Part of our vision is being more transparent and sharing knowledge with teammates and the wider sales community. Closing Words is a series of short interviews with top-performing salespeople

Agile Sales

Anatomy of an Agile Sales Team: The Three Must-have Roles

If you want *people to buy from your people*, your people have to be the best people. You can only become the best in any sphere of life from learning from your peers and those better than you. This is what the Agile sales structure and roles provide—a superior learning experience.

Podcast

Heresy E7 - Tom Castley, VP Account Management EMEA @Apptio on selling disruptive technology

In this episode of the Heresy podcast, Dimitar speaks to Tom Castley, Regional VP Account Management at Apptio. This is a MUST-listen to episode for any startup founder or individual sales contributor. It's full of tactical advice illustrated by some awesome war stories from Tom’s 20+ years SaaS sales

Sales Leadership

Prove, Understand, Scale: Stack Overflow's 3 Phases of Building a Sales Team

Sales should be all about the team working together towards a common goal. We've talked about how Agile teams work together, but what is your common goal? The simplistic answer is selling more, but that answer doesn't help your team.