Dear SaaStr: What Are the Characteristics of a Really Great Salesperson?

And Should I Submit a Pitch Deck to a VC Website? Will Anyone Even Read It?

Dear SaaStr: What are the characteristics of a great sales person?

A few:

1. They really listen. Mediocre sales reps just start with their script, and try not to deviate from it. Great salespeople learn their prospects’ needs, issues and pain.

2. They can adjust the pitch and story to suit the prospect. Every prospect is a bit different. The best reps tailor the pitch, the demo, the functionality shares, the case studies, etc. to suit the needs of the prospect.

3. Treat all prospects and customers as important. Reps make more money on bigger deals — but the best reps never make you feel that way. Somehow.

4. Help you. For real. The best SaaS sales reps are mini-solution architects. They help you figure out the best ways to use the product. How to do a pilot. Who to socialize it with, and where to get buy-in.

5. Know the product cold. You’d be surprised how many sales reps don’t.

6. Create urgency. This is hard. No one really needs to buy anything today — at least, not usually. The best reps create urgency when really there often isn’t any.

7. Prepare. The best reps prepare for a meeting. They research their prospect. Figure out what they might really need.

8. Map out all the key stakeholders — and sell to all of them. In any bigger deal, multiple stakeholders will exist on the customer side. Mediocre reps just sell to whoever seems to be leading the initiative. Better reps get the buy in from everyone that matters.

9. Efficient with their time. The best reps just get more meetings, more demos, more interactions done. And that doesn’t mean working 4,000 hours a year.

Dear SaaStr: Should I submit my pitch deck to a VC's website? Do they even read them?

Most early-stage VCs at least glance at in-bound pitches. At least the subject line. And if the subject line catches them, at least the email body. And if the email looks interesting, they’ll likely open the deck attached.

Yes, inbound pitches do work to VC firms. The best VCs in fact do fund entrepreneurs from cold pitches.

But … the pitches have to be great.

More here:

Which VCs Open Cold Emails? Keith Rabois. Aileen Lee. David Sacks. Satya Patel. And More. | SaaStr

David Sacks @DavidSacks

True - just tell me what you do in 1 sentence, your ARR, MoM growth rate, website URL, and perhaps a link to a docsend. Anything more looks like spam.

Jason ✨2022 SaaStr Annual Sep 13-15 ✨ Lemkin @jasonlk

"I asked again and again, clearly. Do you open cold emails? How often? And have you funded deals from them? The answers were consistently yes" Which VCs Open Cold Emails? Keith Rabois. Aileen Lee. David Sacks. Satya Patel. And More. https://t.co/eWs6WNOvq6