In this episode of Enterprise Sales Development podcast, we speak with Samantha McKenna, founder of #samsales and former head of enterprise sales for New York City at LinkedIn. Samantha discusses why she refers to herself as a “trusted mechanic” as people come to her for consulting. She shares some insight in building an internal SDR organization and her thoughts on internal teams versus outsourcing. She also discusses how she utilizes humor in sales, her approach to LinkedIn and how to be a gracious loser.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
Sam’s roles and the services her business offers
Some of the most common problems she sees as she reforms a BDR team
What discovery is like as she figures out where clients are in the process and her two starting points
How she teaches empathy to someone who is two months into their first SDR role or a salesperson and how to be a gracious loser
How a leader should think about building an internal SDR organization and where to start strategically
Her thoughts on standup internal teams versus outsourcing
How she utilizes humor in sales and her approach to LinkedIn
If she focuses on email or phone at the start of a BDR campaign and her thoughts on how those two interact
QUOTES
“I think that’s one of the most common mistakes I see is we just kind of start with gut instinct versus hiring a professional or being data driven.” -Samantha McKenna [04:36]
“We talk about how sales and dating is so alike all the time here. If you show up to a first date, which is your discovery call, and you talked about yourself the whole time… what are the odds that we’re moving to that second date, right? Same thing with discovery. If we’re not solving a bleeding problem, if we’re not the only vendor that can do that, we show up and talk about ourselves the whole time, we’re going to turn off those fires.” -Samantha McKenna [07:16]
“Be a human. Don’t be a robot. ” -Samantha McKenna [31:03]
“Just even using (LinkedIn) as a way to build a brand and show people your thought leadership, what’s in your head, is amazing.” -Samantha McKenna [37:07]
“To me, if you post content on LinkedIn, and if you do that, connecting with people meaningfully, you’ve already won.” -Samantha McKenna [39:19]
TIMESTAMPS
[00:01] Intro
[00:30] Meet Samantha McKenna
[02:02] The services her business offers
[03:51] Most common problems when reforming BDR team
[06:38] What her discovery is like as she works with clients
[12:34] How she teaches empathy to an SDR
[19:49] How should leaders thinking about building an SDR organization
[26:20] Standup internal teams vs outsourcing
[27:57] Relationship between inbound and outbound
[33:07] How she utilizes humor in sales
[35:00] How she approaches LinkedIn
[42:55] How email and phone interact with BDR campaigns
[46:51] Things to be aware of with Samantha’s work
RESOURCES
It’s Not You by Josh Braun
Enterprise Sales Development with Rajiv Nathan
Enterprise Sales Development with Christina Brady
Perry Hardt
Gregg Salkovitch and Waffles
What we can learn fro
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