Hey there 👋
In most cases, I try to look on the bright side. But a harsh reality of B2B sales I see every day: the bar for sellers is incredibly low. 😬
With so many complaining about reps who send generic (spam) outbound emails, or sellers who just pitch features for 20 of a 30-min demo before asking any substantive questions…
It’s surprising to see that things aren’t getting much better, faster. *Just try evaluating 2-3 products, you’ll quickly see what I mean.
You’ll find many sales orgs still missing the basic principle of focusing on customer’s challenges and guiding them through a clear evaluation journey to a successful outcome!
I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here. 😉 But the bright side to this not-so-sunny world?
You’ll IMMEDIATELY stand out when you’re doing the right things, like:
👂 Aligning on your BUYER’S challenges, requirements, stakeholders, etc.
🗺 Leading your prospects through a clear path to their outcomes
🤑 Not being 100% focused on the close
That’s why Accord is officially partnering with 30 Minutes to President’s Club to help level-up the sales community with mutual action plans! 🥳
When it comes to sharing real, actionable advice for reps to succeed, there’s no one better than the 30MPC hosts, Nick Cegelski & Armand Farrokh.
They put together a free Mutual Action Plan template + video walkthrough – everything you need to create & use MAPs to hit your targets. 🎯
Hope this is helpful for your sales team. Let me know what you think + keep reading for more MAP tactics and events with 30MPC!
- Ross
In this newsletter:
- Two 🔥 masterclasses to kick off September
- MAP best practices from the legends Nick + Armand
- See buyer engagement signals without leaving Salesforce
🏆 All the sales knowledge you need to hit your September targets
We’re kicking off September with a couple exciting masterclasses with our friends at 30MPC and Navattic!
RSVP below to up-level your sales game this month. All our masterclasses are recorded, so if you can’t join us live, no sweat.
📅 September 8: Win More Deals by Helping Your Buyers… Buy
In case I didn’t hit it hard enough at the beginning of this newsletter: the best sellers make it easy for their buyers to buy.
In this masterclass, 30MPC’s Nick Cegelski & I will dive into:
🗺 How to guide prospects through the buying journey with a shared plan
⛵ Tactics for helping champions navigate their internal process
🎁 Giving buyers the business case for their project, not your solution
RSVP here!
📅 September 15: Up-Level Your Sales Execution – Discovery at Every Step of the Funnel
Discovery is the key to driving urgency & energy in deals. But few do it really well – or even think about discovery beyond the first step in the sales process.
In this masterclass, I’ll join sales leaders from Navattic, Nayya, & Harmonic Labs to cover:
🔍 How to uncover key pain points in every conversation
🤖 Focusing on your buyer’s’ “why” live, and automating the rest
🚘 Balancing buyer needs & timelines with driving the deal forward
RSVP here!
This isn’t all we’ve got planned… stay tuned for the 2nd half of the month. 👀
🗺 How to use Mutual Action Plans to align your buyers & win more deals
If your sales process involves more than a one-call close, chances are you need a Mutual Action Plan (MAP) to align everyone on the buying team and keep your deals on track.
Here are a few best practices for using MAPs with your buyers – with the help of 30 Minutes to President’s Club's Nick Cegelski and Armand Farrokh!
🤔 Why should you use a Mutual Action Plan?
- Make it easy for your buyers by clearly laying out the path to buy
- Keep both sides accountable to deliverables & timeline
- Signal that you actually know what you’re doing as a seller!
🛠 How do you create a MAP?
- Outline the major stages in your sales cycle – discovery, demo, POC, proposal process, vendor review, etc.
- Break these stages down into smaller steps you can assign owners & due dates to
- Link to resources you typically share so everything is in one place (case studies, buyer FAQs, security docs, etc.)
🙋 What are best practices for getting buyers to engage with MAPs?
- Don’t forget about it – weave the MAP into your sales process & reference it often
- Open & share the MAP in every customer call to review progress, blockers, etc.
- Share helpful resources linked in your MAP so buyers have everything they need to align their internal teams
To get more details on each of these points (and learn tactics like when to introduce MAPs to your buyers) check out this post!
⚡ Key insights into customer engagement levels – without switching between tools
Do you know how many buyers are actually interacting with your Mutual Action Plan or onboarding process?
Accord captures key insights on how engaged your customers truly are with your sales or CS team. With our new Salesforce integration, you can see these metrics in any Salesforce dashboard or reports to help intelligently forecast your pipeline. 📈
Get insights into Accord Status, MAP or Onboarding Stage, Customer Health Score, overall Accord Progress, and much more without leaving Salesforce!
Check out more highlights of the integration, and learn how to enable it in the Integrations settings of your Accord workspace.
Thanks for reading From Vendorship → Partnership 👋
What sales-related topics do you want to learn more about? Let me know!
Ross Rich (CEO and Co-founder)
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