Top 10 Sales Strategy Takeaways from OutBound 2024

OutBound 2024 was packed with powerful insights on mastering the craft of selling!  From AI’s role in prospecting to perfecting the fundamentals, here are my top 10 takeaways to sharpen your sales strategy and drive results.

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OutBound 2024 is officially wrapped! What an awesome week of learning, networking, and motivation. As a keynote speaker, I always learn just as much as the attendees about the craft of selling, growing leadership skills, and the future of the profession.

I’m sharing my OutBound 2024 Top 10 List.

10. This was an intentionally smaller conference, and I believe our best one yet. I shared the stage with several of the stars of the profession, and it was one of those events where I also got to know many of the attendees. I believe that speaker-attendee networking is the secret sauce of OutBound.

9. Role play it to get better at it. Nothing like role-playing a prospecting call, and in front of 350 of your peers! If you want to get better at something, put yourself in a realistic environment to role play it. One group I spoke with had daily role-playing meetings prior to beginning the sales day.

8. AI will help elite sellers shine. AI isn’t going to end your sales career. It will only make it better IF you’re committed to being an elite seller. There were many examples of AI prompts helping sellers to streamline their research and make them better prepared for their client calls and meetings.

7. Master the fundamentals. Learning the fundamentals once (or many years ago) isn’t the same as mastery. Elite sellers continuously practice and master fundamental sales strategies and behaviors. If you commit to mastering those areas you’ll succeed.

6. Prospecting consistently is a must, as is using multiple channels to do so. Prospecting is hard and that’s why many sellers avoid it. I like to think of prospecting as intentional outreach; I need to meet people I don’t know yet, to figure out if what I have to offer can help them improve their business. To reach people, all of the available communication channels need to be used.

5. How you lead yourself is how you lead others. During OutBound I led a session on self-leadership where we dove into the pillars of acumen, communication, vitality, and impact. Pay attention to how you develop yourself and how you lead yourself. It will show up in how you lead others.

4. Don’t be afraid to manage performance. Too many sales managers take care of tasks and not performance. Lack of performance must be diagnosed and addressed within a quarter, otherwise it will be with you for the full sales year. Your sales culture depends on it.

3. Have one metric for your day. This one is complements of Mark Hunter, and it really gets to the heart of sales performance. We chase way too many metrics. His one metric is five conversations per day. What is the ONE metric that will most move you forward?

2. Your second-best investment is building your pipeline. Pipeline, Prospecting, Productivity is the tagline of OutBound. A healthy and continually curated pipeline is the source of sales success.

1. Your best investment is investing in yourself. I know I’m my best investment. There is only me to make that decision and allocate the time, energy, and financial resources to do it. I’m always inspired by the many attendees at OutBound who paid their own way there. They weren’t waiting for someone else to do it. Invest in you, make the effort to be around others who are successful, and it will motivate you.

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