August 2, 2024 - Ascender Insights: Holding Yourself Accountable [Event Recap]

Joe Huber

John Kaplan joined Ascender as we discussed the idea of "Holding Yourself Accountable" and how you can work now to set yourself up for success at the end of the year. We've shared a full recap, resources, and additional recordings below.

Due to a technical issue, the recording is not available at this time.

Some of the key talking points were:

• Charting the Course
  • Revisit your initial goals
    • Gather & Analyze
    • Plan & Strategize
    • Organize & Execute
  • Spend time actively reviewing
    • Communicate your plan with stakeholders
      • You need to take this to your manager and anyone else that can help you hit your targets
    • You own the plan, so you need to be the one identifying shortfalls and gaps
    • Participate in your own rescue
  • Make adjustments at the right time
    • Pull the levers that you know work
      • If you don't have a tried and true formula, work with someone that does
    • John says, "If we did the activities we said we’d do and the resources we counted on came through, it’s on us to adjust our strategy. If we didn’t do the activities we said, and/or the resources didn’t come through that we expected, we can start our adjustments here. We have to be doing the things we say we will do, though. That's absolutely the bare minimum."
  • Factors we must consider
    • Control what you can
      • There will be things we can't control, but you can control your reaction to:
        • Economy
        • Product
        • Resources
      • John says, "You don't even have to have a positive reaction to these external factors not going your way. You should plan ahead of time for things not falling perfectly. There's always one thing you can control, and that's yourself. So set yourself up by planning for things to not go perfectly right."
  • Don't wait to plan for the holidays
    • The end of the year is coming up, fast
    • There are only 108 selling days (as of August 2, 2024)
    • John says, "This is going to sober a lot of people up, but you only have 108 selling days left in the year. People are already planning their holiday trips, and I don't even mean just the American holidays. People in Europe are very often gone the entire month of August or September. You have got to start planning for delays that you're not seeing, now."
  • Live Coaching with Kap
    • We invited on Jay to talk live with John!
      • Jay: I have been busting my **** prospecting. I’m using my value drivers to align messaging with the right personas. As I reflect, my conversion is low into qualified pipeline. I feel like I am trying to manufacture pain. Where should I go from here?
      • John asked some questions to clarify a few things, but the main point was the following
        • John (paraphrased): You can do a few things, but the first thing is to get real clear about how you're doing the approach into these people. Are you being creative? Are you standing out? Are you being human in your approach?
          • Don't take the resources your company offers for granted, as well. There will be people that are willing to look at what you're doing and help you test out new things and correct.
      • From the audience:
        • Best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. Second best time is today.
          (Best time to fill your Q3 pipe is (Sales Cycle + 30 days). Second best time is today)
        • I had an executive who wouldn't get back to me - I sent him two pizzas (to his team) - a slice a pizza for a slice of time - he got back to me today
  • Own Your Success
    • How do you self-assess
      • You have to put in the work up front and be honest with yourself
      • Don't make excuses about what's happened
      • Find and pull data so you can look for trends
      • John says, "This is a tough skill to learn. You're going to find it difficult at first and it's going to take practice, but being honest with one's self is vital in the world of a sales professional. If you want to be elite, you need to be great at this."
  • Tips from John Kaplan - Some things John shared as his "best tips"
    • Get honest with yourself
      • Lying to yourself only hurts one person
    • Own the process with an entrepreneurial mindset
      • Think of your boss as the person that will help you with resources, but you own the business
    • Proactively communicate with stakeholders
      • Nobody is going to care as much about your plan as you
    • Hold regularly scheduled conversations sacred
      • There's always something to discuss
    • Don't. Sandbag…
      • It's easy to think of ways that you'll be able to care things over to another quarter, but that's not going to keep you hungry. If you want to win, and win big, you can't ever hold things.
      • John says, "I had to fight this mentality, personally, as well. One thing that I always reminded myself was that if I could close business now, doesn't mean that same business was going to be available in the future."
      • From the audience:
        • Time kills deals!
  • Q&A
    • We talked about burnout
      • John says, "You have to take care of yourself. This is a tough profession with a lot of rejection. That can take a toll, regardless. I
  • Audience takeaways
    • The big takeaways for me from this session have been to take a step back, create a clear plan that leverages the ecosystem, keep everyone accountable and get it verified by leadership wherever possible. Don’t be afraid to adjust when things aren’t progressing as expected.
    • Such a great part of this has nothing to do with sales and so much to do with showing up as your best self to your customers, teams etc. Thank you John K.

Additional resources

Video: January 19, 2024 - Ascender Insights Plan to Make the Plan w/ John Kaplan [Event Recap]

Resource: Plan to Make the Plan - Ascender Resources

08.02.2024 Deck - Ascender Insights.pdf