Hacking Sales The Playbook for Building a High-Velocity Sales Machine

Stay ahead of the sales evolution with a more efficient approach to everything

Hacking Sales helps you transform your sales process using the next generation of tools, tactics and strategies. Author Max Altschuler has dedicated his business to helping companies build modern, efficient, high tech sales processes that generate more revenue while using fewer resources. In this book, he shows you the most effective changes you can make, starting today, to evolve your sales and continually raise the bar. You’ll walk through the entire sales process from start to finish, learning critical hacks every step of the way. Find and capture your lowest-hanging fruit at the top of the funnel, build massive lead lists using ICP and TAM, utilize multiple prospecting strategies, perfect your follow-ups, nurture leads, outsource where advantageous, and much more. Build, refine, and enhance your pipeline over time, close deals faster, and use the right tools for the job—this book is your roadmap to fast and efficient revenue growth.

Without a reliable process, you’re disjointed, disorganized, and ultimately, underperforming. Whether you’re building a sales process from scratch or looking to become your company’s rock star, this book shows you how to make it happen.

• Identify your Ideal Customer and your Total Addressable Market
• Build massive lead lists and properly target your campaigns
• Learn effective hacks for messaging and social media outreach

• Overcome customer objections before they happen

The economy is evolving, the customer is evolving, and sales itself is evolving. Forty percent of the Fortune 500 from the year 2000 were absent from the Fortune 500 in the year 2015, precisely because they failed to evolve. Today’s sales environment is very much a “keep up or get left behind” paradigm, but you need to do better to excel. Hacking Sales shows you how to get ahead of everyone else with focused effort and the most effective approach to modern sales.

MAX ALTSCHULER is the CEO and founder of Sales Hacker, Inc. He's always been fascinated with sales, psychology, technology, and entrepreneurship and considers himself an entrepreneur first and a salesman second. He was the first sales hire at Udemy, an online education company, and built the process that launched the instructor side of its marketplace.

Author’s Note xi

Introduction xiii

Why Sales, Why Now? xiii

Who This Book Is For xiv

Where This Book Fits In xv

What This Book Is Not xv

Chapter 1 Developing Your Sales Stack 1

Where Do I Start? 1

Qualifying Leads 2

What’s Your Sales Stack? 4

Chapter 2 List Building: Part 1: Finding and Defining Your Ideal Customer Profile 7

Easy, Nontechnical Web Scraping 10

Deeper Insights into Your Competitors’ Customers 12

Targeting Key Executives, Influencers, and High-Potential Buyers 15

Chapter 3 List Building: Part 2: Defining Your Total Addressable Market (TAM) 17

Enrich Your Customers 18

Meet Your Future Customers 20

Make It Actionable 21

Refine and Optimize the Entire Process 22

Company Databases 22

Chapter 4 List Building: Part 3: Getting in the Door 27

Top-Down and Bottom-Up Targeting 27

Lean on Your Industry Allies 32

Using Twitter to Generate Warm Leads 33

Chapter 5 Uncovering Contact Information 35

Remove Duplicates Early On 35

Pulling Contact Information Directly from LinkedIn 37

E-mail Verification and Enrichment 38

Chapter 6 Lead Research 41

Trigger Event, Alerts, and Researching 43

LinkedIn Advanced Settings and Sales Navigator 44

Chapter 7 Segmenting 49

Where to Start Segmenting 50

But What about Whales? 52

Chapter 8 Outbound E-Mailing and Messaging 55

A/B Testing and Optimizing E-mails 56

Determining Your Perfect Cadence 59

The Services That Power Outbound Sales 61

Sales and Customer Success 68

Quick Tips on Messaging Psychology 68

Chapter 9 Sales Outsourcing 73

Preparing to Hire Virtual Assistants 74

Hiring Virtual Assistants 74

Strictly Sales Development Support 75

Training Your Virtual Assistants 80

Chapter 10 Customer Relationship Management Software 83

Integration Software 85

Chapter 11 Nurturing Leads and Sparking Engagement 89

Using Social Media to Trigger Buyer Activity 89

Make Sure to Follow Up 91

Reactivating Leads 91

Chapter 12 Preparing for and Holding Your First Sales Call 93

Getting and Staying Prepared 94

Properly Qualifying the Prospect 97

Scripting Calls 98

Forget PINs and Access Codes 100

Quick Tips in Sales Psychology 101

Set the Agenda and Stay in Control 102

Let the Passion Out 102

Chapter 13 Navigating the Buying Process and Closing the Deal 105

Rules of Negotiating 105

Creating Equality in Negotiations 106

Don’t Jump to Discounting 107

Handling Objections 108

Demos, Proposals, and Collateral 109

E-Signature Solutions 112

Chapter 14 Business Development 115

The Art of the Introduction 115

Asking for Referrals 120

Chapter 15 Bonus Sales Hacks 123

E-mail Signature 123

Out-of-Office Reply 124

Mix in Some Humor 125

Frenemies 126

Stay Relevant on Twitter and LinkedIn 126

Other Unique Solutions for Hacking Sales 127

Chapter 16 The Wrap-Up 131

Resources and Programs 135

Sales Hacker Programs 135

Suggested Reading for Sales Hackers 135

Acknowledgments 137

About the Author 139

Index 141

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The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.