Account Executive Training
I pretend to be a PM for apps like Gong that help sales teams ramp up quicker. I talk to my friend Skye, currently Tern's founder and previously a growth leader at Signifyd.
Watch on YouTube.
Notes
As a PM my objective is to help build products that provide value to high-frequency use-cases so they can acquire newer users at lower cost and retain existing ones at higher value.
- Use-cases: how often and how severe is the use-case, and whether there is a higher-frequency adjacent use-case.
- Acquisition: what are barriers to try and switch.
- Retention: can value be delivered sooner to avoid churn risk.
Takeaways.
- Training reps is a high-frequency, high-severity job because reps talk to prospects daily and weak practice can directly slow growth.
- Quantity and quality of practice both matter, but quality is harder to measure.
- Randomized role play and better objections help, but managers still need objective signals before problems show up too late.
- The “what happened next” conversation hack worked for getting detailed and reliable user feedback.
Next steps with Skye and others.
- Show mockups for how a sales manager could prove team readiness beyond just revenue outcomes.
- Ask how role-play efforts were tracked before, what blocks new tool adoption, and who feels the pain most sharply.
- Talk to more reps, managers, directors, VPs, and CROs.
Big thanks to Skye for his time and knowledge.