It finally happened. It’s something we’ve been talking about for a while and we finally spoke it into existence. For the first time in Abstrakt history, our sales team broke a $200,000 monthly recurring revenue goal with a final number of more than $210K (this is 140% of quota). We’ve always encouraged our team to have the mindset of a $200K sales team. We knew that if they believed it and acted like a $200K sales team, then they would achieve it, and they did, regardless of the current business climate we are in due to COVID-19.
That’s what is so impressive about this achievement—it happened during a global pandemic. A time when most businesses, including ourselves, were struggling at the beginning and learning how to navigate our new normal. Whether you’re adjusting to a new work from home schedule or making tough financial decisions, the pandemic has affected every business in some way. But we set out to achieve this goal, and we weren’t going to let anything stop us.
We wanted to share more about our record-breaking sales month and how we were able to achieve these results amidst the current circumstances. It’s a story we’ll be telling for years to come. Here’s a closer looking at everything that went into making this happen:
Always Maintaining a Growth Mindset
At Abstrakt, we’ve had a growth mindset since day one, and nothing was going to change that, not even a global pandemic. When COVID-19 first became serious, Abstrakt quickly made adjustments to keep our team members’ spirits high and to keep the business running smoothly.
Here are a few of the things we did to keep this time as normal as possible for everyone:
A New Work From Home Normal
The executive team at Abstrakt came to the realization early on that COVID-19 was an extremely serious matter. They knew that 300+ employees in the office was not going to be a possibility. Plans were developed and put into action quickly so that we could move our entire team to a work-from-home office environment. Solid planning, effective communication, and teamwork allowed us to mobilize our workforce in 72 hours.
While many businesses allowed remote work to affect them, we knew that a big change like this didn’t have the power to negatively impact our organization. In fact, many of our team members were already taking advantage of work-from-home incentives pre-pandemic. Having the entire office at home for months at a time was definitely different, but we embraced our new normal and continued on with business as usual. This mindset is one of the many reasons why we’ve been so successful as a business during COVID-19.
Shifting Our Culture
Once we moved all team members to their new remote offices, we knew we had to make changes to keep our culture alive and to help team members communicate easily while at home. We used several strategies to do this:
- A new communication platform that allowed our whole team to seamlessly communicate via instant messaging, video conferencing, and custom channels
- Our ‘Work-From-Home Unity Challenge’ — each day, we had a contest where teams submitted photos; then, the top two made it to our social media pages where team members got to vote. The fun competition kept our fun culture alive.
Adjusting Our Goals and Crushing Them
When the realities of COVID-19 came crashing down, our executive team quickly realized that our original goals and trajectory might have to be shifted. Instead of saying that our original goals were unattainable or unrealistic, we just shifted our expectations and remained optimistic. At the beginning of the pandemic, things took a dip; but now, we’re on track to be right back to where we were.
Our Evolving Pitch: Learning That We Provide Value NOW More Than Ever
The pandemic has changed our value proposition from, “here’s why you would want our services,” to, “here’s why you need our services.” Not only are businesses struggling to grow right now, but many of our clients’ most sought after prospects are losing long-term partners due to COVID-19 (their provider went out of business/bankrupt). More companies than ever before are waiting on a call from someone who can fill a need that they have right now.
See what Senior Executive Sales Representative Zach Bayer had to say about the way our pitch has evolved over the course of the last several months:
“A lot of the prospective companies I spoke with last month understand that this pandemic has presented an opportunity, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Companies NEED more revenue and sales to replace the losses they took in the first and second quarters of this year. Right now is the perfect time to double down on marketing because there are so many prospects out there in need of IT, cleaning, HVAC services, etc. Since so many companies are cutting back on marketing spend, there is literally a portion of the market (low hanging fruit) that is waiting for an IT or cleaning company to call them.”
A True Team Effort—Everything That Went Into a Record-Breaking Sales Month
Of course, our pitch and our growth mindset were important at this time, but it’s the hard work and effort from each team member that truly made the difference. Having a month like this doesn’t just happen because of luck. It happens because of a team of lead generation experts who are committed to business growth.
The following are just a few of the things that contributed to our record-breaking sales month.
What we did throughout the month:
- Our fulfillment team shared incredible success stories from past opportunities—this is a way of showing potential customers that our process works using a real-life example
- Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) are each aligned with a Sr. Executive Sales Representative; last month, they put up record-breaking numbers for our sales team and felt connected to the end result
- Sales Enablement/Marketing generated a record-breaking number of inbound leads from website content, email marketing, and LinkedIn ads
- Sales put up their own self-sourced appointments and pitches to a level they never have before
- (3) Executive Sales Reps went over 200% of quota in a month!
- Our CEO committed himself to train our team every week
- We encouraged people within our organization to move freely to where their passions and skillets shined the brightest
- We always BELIEVED that our process is what helps businesses navigate this climate; our belief and passion for what we sell shows with each prospect we talk to
How other teams will contribute to our success in moving forward:
Selling more than 60 new clients is an incredible accomplishment, but it takes a talented team of people to onboard our new clients and keep them happy throughout the entirety of our partnership. We wanted to highlight every single team member because it truly is a team effort.
Here’s how team members will keep 60+ new clients happy and successful moving forward:
New Outbound Programs:
- Implementation Project Managers (IPMs) will onboard new clients, ensuring that they are all smoothly transitioned to their Partner Sales team to start their Outbound program
- Creative teams will work in the background during the implementation month. Copywriters will create content for landing pages and email libraries, while Graphic Designers are bringing landing page designs to life
- The operations team will be gathering data to define the exclusive target markets of our new customers, ensuring that they have a successful appointment setting program with the right targets
- Once a new Outbound client is implemented, the Partner Sales team (Partner Sales Manager, Partner Sales Representative, Partner Success Manager, Partner Performance Manager, and Partner Retention Manager) will all be working together to ensure the B2B appointment setting program is successful
- Marketing Collateral Project Managers will be working to assign content marketing and design teams new projects based on the sales collateral that new clients request
New Inbound Programs:
- Social media strategists will be working to fulfill client contracts by optimizing business pages, creating engaging content, running social media ads, and focusing on organic growth, and forming networking opportunities for clients by forming meaningful connections on LinkedIn
- Website Project Managers and Web Designers will be working with clients to develop beautiful, conversion-focused websites for any website that we sold last month
- Talented Copywriters will be tasked with the responsibility of writing new websites for clients; keyword-rich copy will help our clients generate inbound leads, and these same Copywriters will continue to write blog month as a part of our ongoing content package
- Editors will be working to ensure that copy is error-free before our clients receive. Partners can have peace of mind knowing that content is high-quality and professional
And for both types of programs, Project Managers will be working hard to ensure that projects are completed on time and that schedules are organized. As one can see—it takes a team.
Our process works, and Abstrakt is the perfect example. We practice what we preach to our clients—you can’t sit around and wait for new business, you have to confidently go out and get it. This mindset and our hard work as a team has paid off. We hope that our story inspires other businesses to confidently crush their goals no matter what the circumstances may be. If you believe in what you sell, nothing can stop you.
To all of Abstrakt Marketing Group—THANK YOU for an unforgettable month.
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