Benfer: Predicted in 2021 that sales teams would adopt AI by 2024
Michelle Benfer · How to Scale Outbound Sales with the CROs of Outreach, Malwarebytes, HubSpot, Seismic · Dec 30, 2021 · at 33:00
Michelle Benfer, sales leader at HubSpot, discusses how AI and systems intelligence will transform outbound sales and reduce SDR headcount dependency.
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“It actually is a cost saver, and you're not going to be so headcount reliant the more system intelligence that you have to feed your team. So, That's what I would change, because we're still in too much of a manual process, and there are incredible tools out there that, you know, really help that journey, and I think that's where we'll be in the next two to three years.”
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More from Michelle Benfer
Benfer: Automate sales processes entirely for products with ACVs under $5,000
“And if you know your ICP down pat, A five K ACB and below, I would, 100% try to figure out how do you get as much of an automated process to engage.”
Benfer: BDR teams should sit within sales, not marketing
“I'm a firm believer of the center of excellence that should live within sales. Nothing against my friends in marketing, but I do think there is a sales culture and a level of repetition that I think is beneficial to keep the BDR organization in sales.”
Benfer: Cutting investment in frontline sales manager enablement was an executive mistake
“One of the first areas that we decided to not invest, which to be honest, I think was a mistake by we also me in terms of prioritization was in frontline manager enablement.”
Benfer: Highly tenured sales reps drive the highest individual rep productivity
“One of the things that I've seen very consistently in terms of being one of the biggest growth drivers at companies I've worked at, it's having highly tenured reps. Those reps are the ones that tend to have, in my experience, Tend to have the highest in rep pr…”
Benfer: HubSpot used automatic promotions tied directly to performance numbers
“And that's one of the things I did love about my time at HubSpot is we had automatic promotions. And so people were gunning to hit the numbers that they needed to hit in order to get promoted.”
Benfer: Sales managers carried by only two top performers are high-risk
“So when you take a look at the balance of health of a team, I will take a manager that, you know, is bringing people up and over a hundred percent more of them. Then the manager who's crushing the number, but it's only from two people because that's high risk.”