Sarah Brazier is a senior sales development representative (SDR) at Gong, an organization that enables revenue teams to realize their fullest potential by unveiling customer reality. Gong’s patented Revenue Intelligence Platform captures and understands every customer interaction then delivers insights at scale, empowering revenue teams to make decisions based on data instead of opinions. Sarah is an incredibly versatile salesperson and, as such, she wears many hats. She’s an educator, actor, and people mover who thrives in a fast-paced, competitive environment. She’s also a nationally awarded speaker with experience in sales, social media marketing, event hosting, and education.
In this episode, Sarah discusses the multi-faceted nature of her role as an SDR. She shares insights and lessons she has learned throughout her sales journey. Whether it’s prospecting, tracking her progress, or interfacing with a client, Sarah gives her all into everything she does. Sarah expounds on her favorite sales story, one that involved trial and error, rejection, and, ultimately, ended with a job offer for her and her manager. Sarah places a tremendous amount of value on mentorship and finding the right manager who will work to develop and foster success. It is Sarah’s belief that any success she has attained has only come from hours and hours of working with someone who was invested in getting her there.
Sarah describes a typical day in the life, from waking up consistently at 5:30 every morning and making a list of her daily goals to prospecting, setting daily meetings, and comparing her accomplishments at the end of the day to the goals she previously set. When she’s not working, Sarah enjoys unwinding at the end of her days with a walk and a good book. Sarah speaks to the valuable tools and apps that help her to achieve her sales goals. From LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Sendoso to Outreach and Gong, Sarah leaves no stone unturned in her quest for sales success. Finally, Sarah issues an actionable challenge to the audience. She encourages them to sit down, map out their five-year career path, and write down the steps needed to get there. From there, she suggests working backwards from the five-year plan to understand the daily steps necessary to ensure that these goals are actualized.
What We Covered:
00:24 – Scott takes a moment to thank today’s sponsor, the 2020 Sales Success Summit
00:35 – Scott Ingram welcomes today’s guest, Sarah Brazier
00:47 – The top three things Sarah attributes to her sales success
01:04 – Number 1: Grit
02:14 – Number 2: Her experience with competitive speech and debate
03:17 – Number 3: Her ultra-supportive SDR mentor
03:56 – Lessons Sarah learned from her mentor, Tanner
07:29 – Sarah explains the strategy of her company, Gong
10:58 – Scott takes a moment to promote the 2020 Sales Success Summit
12:06 – Sarah’s sales origin story and her sales results
17:45 – What Sarah would do differently if given the opportunity
19:50 – What hindered Sarah’s success in her first SDR role
22:42 – The importance of finding the right manager and the value of the SDR position
27:27 – Advice Sarah would give to upstart SDRs looking for the right opportunity
35:33 – Sarah’s favorite sales story
40:07 – Sarah’s viral LinkedIn post
45:19 – The Casual Conversation Approach
51:43 – Scott takes a moment to promote his latest webinar and e-book focused on LinkedIn sales stars
53:02 – Sarah describes a typical day in the life
1:02:02 – Strategies that work best for Sarah
1:06:31 – How Sarah rates her work performance at the end of the day
1:09:25 – Sarah talks about Jordan Peterson and why his beliefs are considered controversial
1:12:20 – Sarah’s thoughts on the importance of getting more women and people of color in sales roles
1:19:17 – How Sarah’s background as an actor aided in her sales career
1:25:51 – Sarah walks the audience through the remainder of her day
1:29:03 – The books, news, podcasts, and trade information that Sarah consumes
1:33:31 – Tools and apps that Sarah uses on a daily basis
1:37:45 – What motivates and drives Sarah
1:42:02 – The long, arduous, multi-year journey of sales
1:45:07 – Sarah provides insights as to how long salespeople should stay in an SDR role
1:51:41 – Advice Sarah would give to an upstart salesperson
1:54:28 – Advice Sarah would give to a top salesperson who is searching for that next level
1:58:38 – What Sarah would want to know about top sellers in other organizations
1:59:58 – Sarah’s actionable challenge to the audience
Read the full transcript & show notes →
Tweetables:
“The top of the funnel is the hardest part. There’s so much noise. So, having someone who can cut through it so important. And that takes a lot of training and a lot of enablement to get someone that skill set. So, you have to have a company that takes that really seriously, and Gong does.” (24:59)
“You need to be good. If you’re selling to sales leaders, you need to be good. And when you’re not good, you need to say, ‘Hey listen, I’m messing up here and I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.’” (41:49)
“How do you practice grit? If you’re already a gritty person – if you think of yourself as gritty – what do you do to practice that? You put yourself in uncomfortable situations.” (53:38)
“You focus on, ‘what is the objective and what is the outcome?’ So, don’t manage to the activity that you want me to do, manage to what the objective and outcome is.” (1:01:22)
“I consider myself to be a feminist, but I also consider myself to be a rationalist.” (1:11:52)
“As a feminist in sales, I would just say of course we need more women in sales. It’s good for business and, therefore, we should think about how we’re trying to get more women into sales roles. And I think, more importantly, we need to get more people of color into sales roles.” (1:17:41)
“That’s what I wish I had known pretty much in every job I’ve ever had is how do I have a conversation with the person in charge to get them to do what I want because it’s actually good for them.” (1:53:34)
“Any success I’ve had, whether it’s in sales or speech and debate, or whatever, has only come from hours and hours of working with someone who is invested in getting me there.” (1:58:08)
Links Mentioned:
[email protected]
2020 Sales Success Summit
Sarah Brazier on LinkedIn
Sam Nelson on Outreach’s AGOGE Prospecting Sequence
Finding Sales Success on LinkedIn / LinkedIn Sales Stars
Tools Mentioned:
Gong
Outreach
Sales Navigator
Seamless AI
Lusha
Sendoso
Sentieo
Books Mentioned:
To Sell Is Human
You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar
12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Debt
Hitler, the Third Reich, Methamphetamines: Drug Abuse & Politics