Samantha McKenna's Recent LinkedIn Posts

Here’s my life hack for you this morning: the send later feature on your iPhone. The amount of times I wake up at 2am and think of something to send and don’t want to look like a weirdo, or want to send something in a few hours. Here’s me and Jen Allen-Knuth texting this AM about sponsoring her dog post tomorrow to raise money for animal welfare. If you don’t already follow her, you’re now getting two great hacks in one post 😏. #samsales

For almost four years, we've held monthly women's leadership calls. We've heard incredible wins from them but this one was unique. This year, this person spoke up on our call and shared a vulnerable story of applying for new roles. It took courage to share with a bunch of strangers, and to admit that something she was doing wasn't working. So, what advice did we have, how could she adjust? First, my favorite part of these is the hype-squadding that happens in the chat. Everyone lights it up, people share contact details - these "strangers" are truly here for each other. But, it's the magic that happens after the calls that kills me, in the best way. In this instance, a long time #samsales student and client was attending. She reached out to this person afterwards, offered to make an introduction to her former enterprise employer, and the rest is history. After all these years, I sometimes wonder, are we still making impact? Are these calls worth it to the attendees? And then, stories like this happen, and I remember that this is one of the best things about the community #samsales has created - we bring dozens of women together - BDRs to senior executive leaders alike - and they all have one thing in common: their hearts beat for making positive impact, for learning, and for helping each other. Tomorrow, we host our March session, and we'll be passing the mic live to this gal to share this win. If you haven't joined us before, I hope you will tomorrow @ 12pmET, or sign up to join future ones. These sessions are free, never recorded, and a safe space to ask any and all questions. You'll leave feeling positive, inspired, and excited for the new friends you picked up. Details here - https://lnkd.in/exPVEgXp #samsales

One of my super powers (and a top five joy for me) is being a Connector. But, how to write a great intro email between two people? Check out my framework + one rule to never break: 1. SUB: Introductions - First Last + First Last 2. I try to keep my greetings light - even when I don't know one person well, I'm capitalizing on my closer relationship with the other to build rapport. "Hi friends! Hi you two! Hi team!" 3. Two separate paragraphs that go something like this: "Brad, thrilled to introduce you to First Last, Title at Company, " **Note, I always hyperlink each person's name to their LI profiles. You know they're going to look each other up anyway - hook them up, make it easy on them, and show your attention to detail. 4. Each paragraph includes a short sentence or two on how I know that person, what our relationship is like, some humor, etc. Picking back up from the comma above in point 3, "..., who I have known for nearly a decade. Not only is she one of the nicest (and funniest) people you'll ever meet, but she's been my client several times over and can speak to the quality of our work. She also waxes poetic about cheese and all things related to Italy. **Note, I'm also trying to find commonalities, if I can, to make it easier for them to form rapport and hit it off right away. And now, the rule to NEVER break: Never introduce someone who needs something (say, a sales person, or a candidate for a job) to someone who has something to give (a buyer, a hiring manager), without asking the latter for permission first. The number of, "Sam, meet Bill, he'd love to pick your brain!!"s I get is bananas and puts me, and all those others, in a very awkward position. #samsales

What's the worst way to start a discovery call? It's with a narrow question, and you or AI might not even catch it as you coach. The most common is, "What interested you in taking this call today?" That narrow question nets a narrow response. "We're interested in seeing how your no-code tech works." Next, we excitedly power up a demo (oof) or ask another narrow question. "Sure, I can show you around - what specifically interests you?" "(Narrow reply on something specific they want to see)". And this is when you can see that a seller is in narrow-questioning-paralyzed-hell. How? They either flip to the demo because they hope that will get the buyer talking or they keep asking random questions, desperately seeking the answer to the question they should have asked at the start, which is a version of our Perfect Discovery Call opening script. Discovery calls are first dates - the first few minutes can set a totally different tone for the call, and can be very hard to recover from if handled poorly. Page one of our asset on PDCs is attached - the call should start with a few minutes of rapport-building based on your SMYKM research (not the weather...or asking where they're based...) and then roll into this script. Try it out - I promise it'll change the trajectory of every call you have. #samsales #perfectdiscoverycall

Which email are you opening? If my inbox looks like this, imagine what your buyer's looks like. In the age of scaled-and-veiled outbound, be the Hermes + Occidental. Show Me You Know Me stands out more than ever today - ditch the AI automation, do our research, and I promise (promise.) your open rate will soar. As for your reply rate? That's a whole different issue, but I can tell you why yours are low in just 90 seconds of looking at your cadence, and exactly how to fix it. #samsales

That's a wrap on Q1, which closed out at our highest seven-figure quarter ever!! No matter how far we keep going, the joy of what this team achieves will never dull, but it's also surreal to think that a company I started can close this kind of revenue in a quarter. And no matter what we achieve next, I'll probably never shake the idea of #samsales just being a small lemonade stand vs. the incredible company we've built. Thank you to those who continue to invest in us and therefore your teams, who advocate for us everywhere you go, and who are repeat customers - what a joy for all of us to do this work every day, none of which would happen without this community and all of you. ❤️ #samsales

In 2014, I created a process around leads that created 1.433M of pipeline in one year, none of which was mine, and that I leveraged in my annual review. How? Just by tracking the job changes of my champions and buyers. Some were promotions or scoots to different divisions, which helped me if I still owned the account, but most were out of my territory or on accounts that had already been passed to AMs. One of the many features available in ZoomInfo's GTM Studio, you can track the same for your own pipeline, and capitalize on speed-to-(job change)-lead. Or you can keep an eye out and flag big moves + details for your peers, like I did in the above. Here's the kicker: When the job changes happened, I wrote a quick note to the AE + their leader, gave them the scoop, and offered to make an intro. Then, looked to see if a meeting was booked and if pipeline was created, and then logged it. Not only did I contribute to cross-functional company goals in a different way, but it gave me visibility to different leaders, who could advocate for the initiative I took. And come my review (and imminent request for a million dollars 👋), I could then offer tangible data around ways I contributed to our company outside of exceeding my number. #samsales #zoominfopartner

This week, I delivered our fourth five-year anniversary gift. When someone has devoted 1/8th of their career to your team or company, I think it’s worth celebrating and with a momento worthy of the occasion. As for what’s in the box, who knows. A coat? Jewelry? A Birkin?! Who’s to say, but here’s what I know - it’s in our colors (which are inspired by Hermes anyway), it’s the same that everyone else received, and it pales in comparison to the ten year gift. <—pls see shameless attempt to get everyone to stay until ten years 😏 Happy early anniversary to our very own, Kea Thorstenson, who is indescribable, irreplaceable, endlessly positive and talented, and the super mom we all vie to be adopted by.

"I take my work very seriously, but I don't take myself seriously." I think there's a point in our careers where we age into a new decade or get promoted to a scary role, and we suddenly think, "I need to button up. I need to be someone else." Emma Stone beautifully said that quote years ago and it was a simple line that defined my personality. I will always be impossibly committed to my work, taking our deliverables and what we build seriously, and to ensuring anything that I sign my name is something I'm proud of, but... While I know when to be buttoned up and when to bring executive presence to something, 97% of the time, you'll find me just being me. I'm loud and enthusiastic. "HI!!" is perhaps my most over-used daily word. I'll weave humor into anything as much as I can. Sarcasm and giving a hard time are my love language. I'm overly friendly, a little too bouncy, and will talk to just about anyone. And a whole host of things that would make my mother say, "SaMANthA!" You'll rarely find me looking and sounding like a CEO would or what you envisioned an (almost) 45 year old would when you were a kiddo, but it will also never mean that I'll cease bringing that hustle, drive, and seriousness to the work that I love so very much. You can, in fact, be wildly successful while being exactly who you are. #samsales

Your cold outbound email gets opened and opened and opened. At different times, in different geographies, and yet, no one replies. What to do? Use a little humor. First, change the subject line to make it funkier than before. The humor goes in front of the RE to put the new data front/center. SUB: Looks like the emails are resonating?🙂 RE: Your Show Me You Know Me subject line (obviously...) BODY: Hi Bill - I noticed that my emails to you are getting opened and forwarded around which can only mean one of two things: A. There's interest in what we have to offer (she says hopefully!). <--more humor, personality B. They're about the worst emails you've seen and they've been passed around. They may even now be in the Hall of Fame as examples of what not to do. I'll remain hopeful that it's A over B, but if there's a chance to chat with you or your team about what I've written below, I'd be so grateful for the time. Cheers, Sam Bonus: Kill "I'd love" in all of your emails. Everyone would love something. But you? You're "grateful for" or "appreciative of" because you're a #samsales follower and a different kind of rep. #samsales

Here's one easy switch you can make to be more authentic - don't lead with your niceties at the start of your email. Flip them to the bottom. "Hope you had a good weekend! Wanted to check in on..." Becomes "Hi Sarah! I know we're working on scheduling time with the four of us this week - can we take a quick peek at these times and see what aligns? Hope you had a good weekend!" One leads with a bit of a fake smile that makes the person say, "Yeah yeah, what do you want?" while the other gets to the point authentically and then still closes with the nicety and good manners. An easy way to kill "Hope this finds you doing well" from all your emails, but if you need a solid laugh, google the quote + Corporate Bro for one of his best videos, IMHO. #samsales

Buyer: "We're on track to sign by the end of March, no problem." Rep: "Awesome, I appreciate the help and transparency." Then... 🦗🦗🦗 My posts are often devoted to helping reps level up their manners, but here's one for our buyers. We don't chase quarterly goals @ #samsales, so I'm allowed to post this. :) A deal that pushes into the next quarter today does infinitely more good for a rep's reputation than one that pushes on 3.31, or has no update until April 1st. Stuff happens all the time, but the nicest thing you can do for an AE is either find a path to honoring your commitment or simply being brave enough to proactively communicate what barriers exist. Your help towards signature can usually mean a big financial difference to that rep, so if they've been awesome to you, find a path to helping them here. And if you're thinking today that it likely won't happen, call them up. "It might push, here's where we are, let's hear your creative solutions to helping me get this done for you." The nicest thing you can do is sign. The second nicest is to communicate so you can help them maintain their forecasting reputation, which is a big deal. That's it. Start there. Okay, and one tip for our sellers: you're only getting this from buyers you've taken the time to get to know, been urgent/polite with, and been proactive/consultative along the way. We have to be on our game if we expect them to move mountains for us. #samsales

One thing that's different about our company? I made a commitment to have a year's worth of employee salaries in reserves so our team would never worry about waking up one morning to realize their position was no longer financially viable. When I started #samsales, the dream was...well, small. Work part time, make half the money I made in sales, help one or two clients, read more. I should have known myself better - driven, competitive, Type A... But, as a company grows, it's easy to fall victim to grow as fast as everyone else (seems to) grow, and rush to play grown up ("we got funding!" "we're hiring 12 employees this month!"). And yet, as financially motivated as I am, my goal has never been to grow at all costs and to make as much money as we can. Other companies can chase those dreams. My goal is to make as much positive impact as we can, to stretch ourselves for our communities and deserving charities, to continue to create economic opportunity, to change many of the lives of the people we teach, and to do it all while taking as good care of our people as I can. Sure, we could have grown faster at the start. But we stabilized first to ensure we would last, and now we're at the inflection point where we can get a little more foolish with what we spend and add some gas to this fire. Heartfelt thanks for our 300+ customers who have made all of this possible, to the charities that we've raised over $150,000 for in six+ years, and to our team of nearly twenty exceptional all-women crew who make this all happen every day. #samsales

While we use AI in a lot of ways @ #samsales, here are three things I recently used it for in my personal life. 1. One of my favorite book series, the Cormoran Strike books, are long and dense with characters. I tell Chat where I am in the book, ask it to remind me who is who, without spoilers. 2. Negotiating car prices is one of my favorite things. I know, I know. But, I have endless patience, love the thrill, and I'm usually more informed that the sales person. Chat ramped that up by doing the math on what we were offered, comparing lease/buy pricing, analyzing risk of electric resale, and comparing the each option with financial opportunity costs in mind (ex. lease while remaining capital is invested). Finally, pulling records of recent nation-wide sale and lease prices, to give us as much data as possible. 3. I had it roast the exterior of our home. We moved into a home that was built in 2021 with...sparse?...landscaping. So, it roasted our curb appeal, and then did a series of mockups that this non-creative brain would have never dreamed of. Great inspiration to use while laughing at it giving our house a hard time, effectively. I know this is child's play for you brilliant AI minds, but share your hacks back - I'd love to learn from your creativity! #samsales

A buyer replies, agrees to meet, and then...they ghost. You follow up and follow up and...nothing. GAH! Here's my hack that has booked countless meetings and works so often that you might be ticked you didn't think of it sooner. Also, throwback to the early #samsales days, recording this in my original office at 10pm :) #samsales

Need some pipeline? Well, you're in luck - on April 10th @ 12pmET, I'm running a webinar on a few of my best plays in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and I've got two hacks for you in this video. 1. One of your best lead sources? Alumni of your former employers that now work in your existing territory. And, it's easy Show Me You Know Me. SUB: LinkedIn (my former employer) + Komodo Health (my prospect/their current employer) + #samsales They know the first, they know the second, they probably don't know the third, but their curiosity is piqued and the odds are high they'll open the email. 2. Look for your boss's or skip level's former employers + 1st degree connections of (add their name in). In an instant, you'll find common connections and can not only ask for intros, but showcase your prospecting prowess to senior and cross-functional leaders. Boom. LI Sales Nav is THE most powerful prospecting tool you have, and you might know how to use it, but now you need to know how to use it to sell. That's exactly what we teach large global teams, and we'll give you a few tangible things you can use immediately in next Friday's webinar. Come hang out with us! https://lnkd.in/e_63K2MW #samsales #SMYKM

At the doctor's office, someone calls out, "And who is Alex's mom?" and I sit there for a few seconds before I snap to and say, "Oh crap, that's me." Two years in and it still hasn't quite hit me that I'm a "mom". And it's not imposter syndrome because that would make me feel like, "I'm almost qualified for this job, I just need to stretch and rise up." It's more like feeling like a fraud. As if I've been in sales my whole life and that same doctor's office says, "And who will be performing open heart surgery on me today?" and I say, "Oh crap, that's me." And the room goes, "LOL get out of here, nice try..." Two years in, and I'm still figuring it out. What to do, how to wrap my arms around running #samsales and raising a tiny human, and gaining confidence around if what I'm doing is right or enough. ("I only smooched him 84 times today, is that enough? Does he need 193?! I'll Google it...). I know I'll feel this way for a long time, but I will also say, every day gets so much cooler. He saw the rain today and said, "Where are the puddles?" and then "I'm (going to) need a raincoat!" triumphantly, and that's just the best. I thought life was pretty sweet before he arrived, but seeing their brains develop, or hearing him sing little songs back to me, is outrageous. Closing on a moment for his spectacular hair, tiny toes, and the tiny diapered PJs, again, I know will only last a little bit longer. ❤️ #samsales

Tomorrow I'm going to share some news about our Q1, but before we get to the good, I thought I'd share some of the realities of running #samsales and the bumpy stories from the last six years. - We're an all-women team, and still get the occasional perturbed, "You don't hire men?" Sometimes it costs us deals. - We still get asked how we can be so sure our tactics work. After I've broken 13 records, been promoted many times, won Rep of the Year at two companies, and built a bootstrapped company from scratch using those same tactics to close over 300 clients and train tens of thousands of sellers. We still get asked. - Misogyny still shows up from time to time. - I was forced to take a call during maternity leave because a client said only I could help him with his question and he refused to speak with my team. It was a question anyone on my team could have answered. - It's been insinuated that we're greedy for charging a late fee when a client was late on a nearly 100K invoice, and then ignored the contractually accurate late fee for a year. - I've been asked "how's your little business going?" more than once. - I was asked if I was going to close up #samsales after Alex was born. - I was asked when my boss was going to come to the call. For a business called #samsales. "I...am the boss" is still one of my favorite replies. - Big procurement teams often try to bully the little guy with their terms and negotiations with an assumption that we don't know any better. "We won't sign your contract without a cancellation for convenience clause." "Do you allow your clients that clause?" "Well..." 🤷 - People still ask to pick my brain 50x a month, most of which I don't know, and for a business where I charge for my time. - "This is the discount we want and since you designed the pricing and are the CEO, you can approve it." - We've been asked to do a $50,000+ pilot for free, by a company valued at 130B. "Your competitor is doing it for free, and this is your way to get your foot in the door." Oooof. - My face has been used in campaigns without my permission for companies we don't do business with, Show Me You Know Me (which is trademarked) used countlessly without citation, and we even had someone purchase our video shorts playbook (which say single-user license) and play them at their SKO instead of hiring me 😂. The last one you just have to laugh at. There are 10,000 amazing things about this business, and most days, it's "get a room!" level surreal goodness, but it's hard work and not always a smooth ride, so important to be transparent for those wanting to build. And for the really really good stories, that will cost you a martini. 😏 #samsales

Selling a product that you know is better than what the incumbent offers, but no matter what you do, the decision maker keeps replying, "We're good with our solution" while you say, "Ugh, you're really not, you don't know what you're missiiing!"? The unlock lies in the idea that they don't actually know why you're different. They've put you into the same box as their current vendor. Two fixes: 1. Leaders, do this in your team meetings: Play that conversation aloud with your reps. "We're good with our solution", and then say, "You're actually not, because..." and then say, "so what?" until you're blue in the face and you get 2-3 super actionable and important "so what"s that you do, the incumbent doesn't, and you're able to articulate why it matters to the buyer. Example: I sold webinar tech that had a survey widget. "So does our current solution, don't need yours". This is where you have to dig on why yours is different and why it matters. "How are the replies to your survey?" "Non-existent." "I know why." (interest piqued) "It's because of the timing. You send it 60 min after with the thx-for-attending email, and people are disengaged by then. (interest piqued more because that's exactly what they do) Ours is the only platform that let's you send it live during the webinar, between presentation and Q&A, as a best practice, and will send your replies soaring." ^^this is a benefit, not a "so what?". Now I have to get my ass in gear to prove value. "Your survey results are everything, not only for direction of future content and what your attendees want, but for demand gen. I can send you a sample of how to drive more MQLs here, and more pipeline (<--I'm selling to demand gen leaders, I have to know what they care about), and then create more content that's curated to what the attendees want, which will drive repeat attendance, which will drive MQLs scores and interest...all through one tiny advantage we have, amongst 100 others." 🤯 Now we're in "Huh. Shit. Okay, what else do you know that we should be doing with your platform?" territory. 2. Fall on your sword. Email that leader and say, "First, thank you for always replying to my emails, I can't imagine how many you get. Second, I don't think I've done a great job of representing why we're different. I took a deeper dive on (account) and there are two places where we can accelerate your goals and what I can see the company is chasing... My ask: would you be up for meeting in-person in a few weeks, and giving me a chance to prove out where we can make a difference? If I don't nail it, I promise to drop my hope of winning you as a client until you're ready to revisit, if ever." #samsales

Job change alert: Paul Stansik has started a new job + got a promotion! (6 sec later): CONGRATS!! Let's chat next week about buying some #samsales!! 😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑 Here's the thing, we want to be urgent - speed-to-lead wins, but we need EQ here, too. "Paul, congrats on the job change! I'm so grateful for the investments you made in #samsales previously and it'll come as no surprise that we'd be grateful to work with you again. I know you're settling in, but would you be up for a chat in 6-8 weeks about what you're seeing and how we might be of help?" Note: if you haven't talked in a long time, you need some SMYKM in there to get your note to stand out. Double note: pls, don't just comment, "Congrats! We should catch up!" because now you and everyone else wrote that, and you might as well say, "Congrats, hey, do you own budget now and how much and can we have some?" Urgent Bird + EQ + SMYKM, FTW. #samsales

Coming into this Monday feeling refreshed after a long weekend in NYC. Highs include the Comedy Cellar and seeing Neal Brennan (co-creator of the Chappelle Show) perform unexpectedly, seeing a 1030pm show and not falling asleep during it 💁, Rubirosa for pizza/beers, a shop with an entire wall of pens, drinks at Nubeluz (Jose Andres' bar on the 50th floor of the NoMad Ritz - take your dates here!), and a swing by the MoMA, amongst 100 other things. This city always takes my breath away and three days there is never enough. #samsales

Days before my 30th birthday, I hit my goal of making 100K before that age. When I got my first front-line leadership role @ 33, I panicked that I'd make less OTE, but that didn't end up happening. In fact, there hasn't been a single year since that crest that I haven't out-earned the previous year, a streak I hope to never end. My last year at LinkedIn was my highest in corporate America, inching out the previous year by just a few thousand dollars, and then things really took off with the start of #samsales. Good negotiating, good performance reviews, great salesmanship - all of that mattered, but one core thing that led me here: I've never taken my foot off the gas of pipeline building. A great majority of reps, leaders, and business owners have a rollercoaster habit: one great quarter followed by a sub par followed by a great one. Why? Because they build pipe (bad quarter), work to close that pipe (good quarter), find themselves empty and have to build again. Five things here: - Don't pay attention to your company's closed/won rate, just chase 5x your quota as your pipeline goal. You probably won't need it but wait until you see what numbers you can put up when you hold yourself to a higher bar. - Carve time out to do it. You don't need to be measured by it to do it - put in the work, be disciplined, schedule time to make it happen. - "My SDR and demand gen do that for me" is an excuse. Why would you ever want to leave your paycheck in the hands of someone else? You're in the pressure cooker of sales for a reason - go print money. - Even as a leader, you have a role to play here. I BEAMED when I sent leads I had self-sourced for my team - connections made, job changes uncovered, quotes in articles they could use to Show Me You Know Me their prospects. Being the boss doesn't mean I absolve myself from this; in fact, my setting my own KPI's for leads means setting an example of what it takes to continue winning. - Here's an easy play - pull up LI Sales Nav, and run a search for anyone in your buyer ecosystem that used to work for your company and now works in your territory. Easiest SMYKM on the planet full of mutual connections and people who probably still have a vested interest in opening doors for your company. SMYKM isn't hard, you just need a few brainy plays, many of which are in our playbooks - https://lnkd.in/esztdYzX #samsales

Does your sales email need to be relevant or personalized? Both, but not how you think. When we reach out to buyers, you have two goals: a. nothing matters if you can't get the open, that's where your Show Me You Know Me comes in and b. with 3% of your buyers in market, you won't get conversions if you say what you do, not what you solve. So: 1. Personalization - one or two things tops. Make it authentic, and don't try to weave it into your entire email. One point addressed in your preview text, and if you have a second, drop it in as a PS 2. Relevancy - you'll come across as a goober if you try to make your personalization tie to your relevancy, most of the time. Read: See you like hockey. Wayne said you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. And that's what your sales reps are doing when they don't have consolidated data to... 🤢 Just, no. 😘 Instead, think of your email like seeing your buyer persona live at a conference. Your personalization is your rapport building to get them to talk to you, your relevancy is your shift to pique their curiosity. Use this formula: Subject line + preview text: SMYKM that earns the open + authentically connects (Look at #SMYKM for 100,000 examples I've written on this) Body: challenge + how you solve + get around hidden or forthcoming objection "While I could talk about (SMYKM) forever, the real reason for my outreach is this - we know pipeline is an issue for everyone and while your teams are sitting on the best prospecting tool you have - LI Sales Nav - they may use it, but they may not know how to use it to sell. (challenge). <--note, adoption isn't the issue, generating pipeline is. With over 2 dozen tactics + team exercises in our prospecting playbook (solve), we can take the awesome education you've already gotten from your LI CSM (<--their objection is "I don't need this, I have a CSM who can train us") and teach your sellers the most actionable "why didn't I think of that sooner" plays that will uncover warm leads and convert to meetings, almost instantly. A few lightbulb moments can make immediate impact, all using plays Sam created as an IC, leader, LI sales leader, and now brand ambassador for the tech." #samsales

If you hear "I don't have time to..." on something critical, it's most likely not a time management thing. It's a knowledge gap. And we know because for every rep that says they don't have time to prospect, or every leader that says they don't have time to coach, they then tell us, "I actually don't know how to do it, but our culture doesn't welcome that kind of honesty" or "...but I'm terrified I'm supposed to know how to do it, and I'll get fired it I admit that I don't." Managers: we tell our people to go do something Leaders: we ask if they've ever been trained on how to actually do it If you want to win in this market, it's not more AI and more tools. That will fast forward you to spamming the same personas at the same time as everyone else with the same AI language, and then to calls that feature/benefit to death, and to recordings that never get analyzed or listened to. Rinse, repeat, "why aren't we hitting our goals??". If you want to win in this market, it's investing in your sellers and front line leaders around the foundations of sales, and how to succeed in today's modern market. #samsales