09/26/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/26/2024 08:57
It's cold and lonely.
You're a month into the quarter, and your pipeline is near empty.
Maybe it's the leads. Maybe it's the offer.
Maybe it's you.
You want a little advice, but you don't want your supervisor to think you're incompetent. And you definitely don't want the other reps thinking you're desperate. You need to go to a safe place to ask for guidance and the honest feedback that only comes from collaborating with other sales professionals who also truly know their stuff.
That's where your sales community comes in. Discover how sales communities can benefit you, why you should join and which ones you should look into.
We're building the largest and most successful community of sales professionals, so you can learn, connect, and grow.
A sales community is any group of sales professionals gathered in one place, be it physical or virtual. It could be a weekly mastermind hosted at a co-working space where members swap leads and tips. It could be an annual conference where old friends reconnect and learn the latest trends from top-level sales executives. It could even be a subreddit, Discord server, or Slack channel where members commiserate and collaborate. It can be any or all of these things - and it might just be your secret weapon to becoming a top-performing salesperson.
After a busy day of calls, emails and deals, it's not uncommon to think your time should be spent where leads are rather than with your competition. But mentorship can be an essential part of growth. Consider these five benefits of joining a sales community:
At their best, a sales community can be a braintrust of people you normally wouldn't interact with since they're not your immediate colleagues. Every person has different structures, targets, products, geographic areas and experiences to learn from. Whether they're your direct competitors or not, you can probably learn something from them.
Sales communities come in different levels of exclusivity, too. There might be online and in-person events that are only accessible to members, which gives you more opportunities to share and learn than you'd otherwise get. Events you might get access to include weekly meetups, retreats, or even annual expositions.
Keep in touch with distant work acquaintances outside of the convention and conference circuit. Everybody brings with them their network of suppliers you might be able to connect with, partners who could enhance your offerings, talent you might be interested in hiring, and recruiters if you need to get a new job. There are always diverse opportunities when it comes to new people.
Some sales communities revolve around specific products, which you can learn a lot more about by being in the mix. The community might have a collaboratively built collection of blog posts, a winning sales playbook, or the inside scoop on an innovative sales engagement platform.
Executive-level members congregate in sales communities to take the temperature of the profession, seek out insights, and test their theories. After all, they're expected to provide thought leadership within their organizations, and those thoughts don't appear from nowhere. Where you might find your own organization's executives to be difficult to book time with, it may be easier to pick the brains of the executives you share a community with, especially since they might be more open to offering insight.
Not all communities bring value. Some are spammy, and some are ghost towns. Use these techniques to figure out if one is right for you:
What is their reason for existing? Sales communities can be based around:
The easiest way to do this would be to make a free account and lurk for a week or so. Read what people say-are they usually helpful or judgmental? Does everyone get a shot, or are conversations dominated by a clique of power-users? Are participation levels high, or do questions go unanswered? Do moderators keep things civil, or do they censor dissent - or, even worse, let verbal abuse run rampant?
It depends. In the world of big sales influencers, you're probably familiar with the "subscribe to my newsletter, buy my course, join my exclusive mastermind" business model. Be discerning, but don't write off the entire practice. Genuine experts are out there, and this model does help them get a return for their hard work.
Many free communities are great, but there are some benefits to paid communities. First, having to pay a fee often ensures a higher level of engagement. Second, participation levels tend to go up in paid communities since everyone wants a return on their investment. Just make sure that you like their free content first and that they align with your budget and professional development goals.
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It's nice to get things you need, but a community isn't a one-way street. Giving back can help you solidify your place, build stronger connections and gain a reputation that you can use to help yourself and your organization. Here's what I do to make sure I bring something to the table in my groups:
All of my selections are high quality, but they certainly come down to personal taste and fit. Start with this list, and feel free to explore more if you aren't finding what you're looking for.
Without a doubt, my number one pick is the Salesblazer community. This is a Slack channel open to the public for all kinds of discussions that has far exceeded my expectations. It's allowed me to get early and exclusive access to Dreamforce, where I met luminaries in the field. My LinkedIn has grown in reach and engagement thanks to the reputation I was able to build in this heavily-populated group. Plus, I've been able to help 12 fellow Salesblazers to date with interview prep help. Their notes saying "I got the job!" meant the world to me.
It's also been great seeing the wild variations in Salesforce setups others have, helping me get outside my own head and multiply the experience I bring to each consulting engagement. Outside of how-tos on using the Salesforce products, the community is chock full of sales best practices, resources for sellers and plenty of events.
Another community that's close to my heart, Women in Sales helps women in the sales profession connect in a safe place about issues that really matter to them. Your mileage may vary if you don't belong to this group, but women make up just shy of half of global sales reps, even though only 31% of them are senior-level employees. Between that and other challenges we face, a sales community just for women provides empowering conversations and support.
Pavilion is highly exclusive, but it can pay off if you put work into networking. All their memberships are paid, with prices varying based on your years of experience and where you are in your career (associate vs. executive). It does have communities outside of just sales, including marketing and customer success, but its events and live online courses through "Pavilion University" help sales reps step up their game and leadership.
Also known as NASP, this association provides a lot of unique content to its members, including coaching and sales guides, a jobs board, powerful Standards of Conduct, tons of online certifications, and plenty of places to engage with the broader community. It's free to join and start scaling your career with their nationwide resources and reach.
Last but not least, Modern Sales Pros is a great spot if you're a sales leader, especially in tech. Membership is reserved for people managers, not individual contributors, which is great for ensuring the conversations and insights all come from that pool if you're a manager or executive yourself. They host regular in-person events like executive dinners, operate large online discussion groups and host virtual training in all sorts of tracks like deal management and RevOps.
If you want to get started with my favorite community of the list, it just takes a handful of simple steps:
A sales community can be whatever you need it to be. It could be a much-needed source of camaraderie when the quotas seem out of reach, a place to mine for thought leadership at your next C-level meeting, or a place to develop your career with tools and courses. You can only get back what you put in, and you can only do that if you join. Are you ready?
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Kristen Handler is a Senior Account Manager at Red Argyle, a team of curious people building intentional Salesforce solutions for some of the biggest brands in the world. She fell in love with Salesforce during her time as a Sales Operations Analyst, and is now joyful to be working with customers... Read More directly in an account management role. She is 3x Salesforce Certified, a Trailhead Ranger, CSPO certified, and an active member of the Salesblazer Community.
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