What You Need to Unlearn to Succeed in Sales in 2023

It’s time to change the way you’ve been selling.

Navigating today’s “new normal” requires dealing with uncertainty and unlearning practices that hinder growth.

Hannah Ajikawo and Justin Michael — sales experts who have coached thousands of sales teams and multiplied win rates and ACV tenfold — sat down with Leandra Fishman, CRO at Apollo.io, to unveil what every sales pro needs to know.

Here’s a quick recap of the unmissable tidbits…

How does a seller build a pipeline in 2023?

Leandra: “I feel like there's even more pressure than ever on sales teams for revenue growth. How do you coach people and teach them to listen right now?”

Hannah: “Sales right now is similar to feeling like the things that you used to do to maintain your weight and your health in your 20s don't work anymore. You keep trying and experimenting and doing different things and figure out what helps and what works.

That has to happen today in our outbound and our deal engagement.

I always say if you are doing outreach and trying to build a pipeline, the first thing that someone's gonna do is go and Google you and your company, and if nothing shows up, you've just made your job so much harder.

But if you spend time sharing really credible content on LinkedIn, building up your network on LinkedIn, sharing content from credible people then you automatically get a little bit of credibility and authority from association.

Then add in some experimentation to see what’s  moving the needle in this particular persona at different times.”

What is the best way to get your message across to busy prospects?

Leandra: “There's so much information going out to people that it's just overwhelming. To get our message through, do you think we're doing more talking and sending out information or should we be honing in on our listening skills?”

Justin: “There’s a proliferation of semi-automation and full automation across phone and email, right.

I recommend something I call service-based prospecting. When you move from sales to service and you eliminate the profit motive out of what you're doing, that intention really pierces through and that curiosity is powerful. Get a bit curious and you will have an infinite creative stream of cool ways to reach out. And that comes from listening through research and being fully there and slowing down.”

Hannah: “For me, I know right now that most buyers have no interest in speaking with me. So the first thing I need to be thinking about is, from the research that I have done, what do I think is gonna be important to that person? What is my buyer interested in right now? How will that impact this company?

Then you're gonna do that experiment layer. Are they a phone person? Are they phone and email? Are they a LinkedIn connection person or a voice note and video person?

You have to do that until you land on something where you can see some consistency. Find the tools that are gonna help you to break down all of the information that's required to make someone think ‘Hmm, interesting’.”

How do modern reps increase outreach while staying personalized?

Leandra: “I've been selling for about 30 years. They used to tell sellers to make 5-8 touches, then it went to 8-12 touches and now it's like up to 20. How do you make that personal and what are the most effective channels?”

Justin: “One way I've gotten around that is visual prospecting. Visuals process 60,000 times faster than words. The second thing is brevity. A three-paragraph email will take 11 seconds for the brain, but a three-sentence email takes 3 seconds. Look at the syntax of how email is sent and do pattern interrupts in your writing.

For example, you could put the whole email in the subject line. You could just send a GIF or a different signature or a couple of emojis. Our brains are forgetting machines…we see every email that comes to our inbox and we forget and forget and forget. If you do things that look non-standard, they stand out subconsciously.

Although those may seem like gimmicks over time, you start to be a little bit different than the next 999 senders.”

What is the future for sales with the emergence of AI?

Leandra: “It's incredible because technology is speeding up faster than ever. What do you think about the whole AI thing? Is it going to replace the salesperson or is it just another tool for us?”

Hannah: “Is it going to wipe us all out? Absolutely not…I always say the moments where you're not in your flow state, the moments where you need to pull things together quickly, these tools are here to aid us.

And the reps that adopt them and get used to building their technical acumen will win in the long run. It’s what will differentiate you. Who can be the person that's the Swiss Army knife? It's in your interest to become comfortable with technology. You're not in a battle with it. It's not man versus machine — it's literally something that is gonna help to give you superpowers, particularly in a way that's gonna create more consistency in how you operate.”

Leandra, Justin, and Hannah had even more to say about choosing the right tech stack, predictions for the future of sales, how to keep teams motivated, and more. Check out the full-length discussion here.

And, to never miss out on future webinars, follow Apollo on LinkedIn.

We’ll see you at the next event!