Karl Hughes’ Post

The Great Sales Industry Reset is here 📍 What do I mean by that? 15 years ago, being called a salesperson was almost looked at as a bad, potentially even sleazy job title. Sure, outsiders knew you could make money, but at what cost? Fast-forward post-pandemic, entry-level sales was the most sought-after role coming out of college. Work remote? Make six-figures or more from home? Say less! Fast-forward to the present day. People are jumping ship or getting let go like the sales industry is the Titanitic. Here's why: ➡ Old-school sales guys can't keep up with the tech knowledge required to stay ahead of the game in prospecting. ➡ Founders know they have to have smaller teams because they can't just throw around the abundance of capital investors were giving away only four years ago. ➡ Younger salespeople are starting to figure out it's not as easy as they thought it would be. ➡ AI is taking jobs and simultaneously disrupting the industry and making it harder this year What does this mean to the sales industry? This means that if you want to play the game at a high level and last, you must quickly become a sniper. You can't just be a soldier. 💡 Build your network here and in other communities and attach yourself to a mentor 💡 Read, read, read. There are a few great books out there that will help you perfect your craft. 💡 If you're not performing or looking to get better, you must be willing to work your ass off. 8 hours, or however long it takes for you to hit your goals! The sales industry will be leaner in the next five years, but the best of the best will again be some of the highest-paid people in the world! btw - this show is CRAZY ⬇ #richhitsgoals

With data becoming easier to source by the day, choosing the right leads to contact can almost feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. The real question we should be asking is how can we ensure we are talking to people who are genuinely interested? Here are a few tips that make a difference: 🔍 Spot the Right Signals: Look out for signs that a company might be ready for a conversation. Things like new hires, product launches, or major changes in their sector often indicate that they may be open to exploring new solutions. 💎 Quality Over Quantity: Casting a wide net is tempting but it can water down the quality. Instead, hone in on specific industries and find your niche. By doing this you'll find that each lead becomes a much more valuable opportunity. 📨 Use Multiple Channels: Some prospects are happy to jump on a call, while others might respond better to a LinkedIn message or a well timed email. Mixing it up often leads to higher response rates and more warm conversations. For any business looking to grow, these small shifts can make a big difference in connecting with the right people. #leadgeneration #appointmentsetting #outreachstrategy #multichannel #networking

Imagine you enter a store ready to spend. You browse, pick up items, but leave without buying. Maybe it wasn't the right time, or you were unsure. A week later, circumstances change, and you're back, ready to make a purchase. This shopping scenario mirrors prospecting in business. Some prospects are ready immediately, others need time due to various life circumstances. This hesitance doesn’t make them less valuable. Prospecting, a blend of science and skill, requires continual development and a system to stay in touch. Not joining immediately doesn't mean a prospect won’t be a great addition later. Without follow-up, they might join elsewhere, potentially leading to significant growth in another team. Stories of those who were approached but joined later on highlight the importance of persistence. Keep engaging, learning from our resources, and adapting. Ongoing education and follow-up are key to successful prospecting. https://leadpower.com

🌟 Personalization is the name of the game in tech sales 🌟 When I decided to transition into tech sales, I knew that standing out would mean personalizing my outreach. That’s when I discovered Clay, a tool that transformed how I approach networking and job applications. With Clay, I personalized outreach to over 50 connections, boosting my response rates by 30%! It allowed me to focus on building real relationships, rather than just sending generic messages. If you’re navigating a job search, especially in a competitive industry, tools like Clay can be a game changer. What’s your go-to strategy or tool for building connections? Let’s share insights and grow together! 🚀 #JobSearch #TechSales #CareerTransition #Networking #Clay

We’ve got something really exciting to Unlock… Look who’s joining in on all the fun! From a solopreneur to a partnership! Welcoming my partner in life and now in business, Paul is joining the party! With an extensive background in sales management and a focus on the client experience, Paul is excited to come on board and assist businesses to elevate their brand through sales strategy, lead generation opportunities and building strong customer relationships. What does Paul bring to the table you might ask? Paul really understands people, whether it’s staffing you require, training and development for your existing team or sourcing the right clients to fit your business goals, he’s the man for the job! More about Paul: · Over 20 years of solid sales experience and achieving high level KPIs. · Recruited hundreds of staff to suit different aspects and skills required by the business to ensure efficiency and the right support for the team. · Exceptional skills in the training and development of sales staff so they can achieve high level KPIs. · Working closely with people, demonstrating empathy and genuine interest, building solid rapport with customers and suppliers for an amazing customer journey. That’s all well and good but what does that mean for your business you might ask? We know as small business owners ourselves that you wear many hats! Sometimes allocating tasks that take up too much time or tasks that others specialise in allows you to focus on building your business and can give you better results! We can't wait to share with you our plans for the future of PS Unlocked! #SalesSupport #Recruitment #CustomerExperience #CustomerJourney

Hello again LinkedIn, I vowed to try and do a daily post here to kick off 2025 and I thought, maybe an introduction to me? How do I work and think? How could it help others? Throughout my career, I’ve always put my client’s interests ahead of my company’s. It's not just a strategy, it's who I am. I’ve never been a "pushy" salesperson. Sales, to me, has always been about building trust, solving problems, and genuinely helping people. This approach has allowed me to build lasting, meaningful relationships with clients, many of whom I’m still in touch with years later. Some even reach out to me for advice, long after our business relationship has ended, because they know I care about their success. I know it's almost a curse phrase in sales, but I'm "NOT" money-motivated. My wife and I have a great quality of life in an area with an ultra-low cost of living. I don't do sales for the money (though it has been good to me for sure), I do it because I genuinely love helping others. Now, at TPD® Workforce Solutions, I bring this same mindset to the world of workforce solutions. Helping companies overcome hiring challenges isn’t just about making a sale. It’s about finding the right solution for them. Sometimes that means working with TPD, and other times, all it takes is a fresh set of eyes to uncover a simple fix that helps our partners improve their hiring processes independently. We’re focused on making a difference, not just making the sale. At TPD, we don’t just work with potential partners—we engage in conversations. These conversations are about more than securing a contract—they’re about gaining valuable insights into your business and industry. We take the time to listen and truly understand the unique challenges you face, recognizing that every company has its own set of hiring hurdles. Through these candid discussions, we not only uncover potential solutions but also gain insights that help us stay ahead of trends and shifts in the labour market. Our goal is to bring a fresh perspective that can help refine your hiring strategy. Sometimes that means offering guidance or suggesting small adjustments that lead to big improvements, even without us directly working together. Whether you choose to partner with TPD or simply walk away with new insights, our aim is always to help you succeed. It’s not about filling a position—it’s about building a lasting partnership, rooted in trust and mutual understanding, where both sides grow and succeed. If you’re facing hiring challenges or looking for ways to refine your workforce strategy, I’d love to connect. Together, we can solve problems and drive success. So for this, I offer one promise: A genuine conversation with no strings attached: Mike.Luke@TPD.Com Let’s start the conversation. #TPD #ImHiring #HowCanIHelp #NoStringsAttached #Sales #SalesLife #Recruiting #Mining #MiningJobs

I’m not going to lie to you. Posting on LinkedIn… If you’re trying to break into tech sales, makes you overthink: WHY? 🎯 You don’t want to overshare 🎯 You don’t want to seem stupid 🎯 You don’t want to post something thats not valuable But if you want to get noticed and land that first role, you need to be visible. My advice 🔻 🏎️ Your perspective, even as a newcomer, is more valuable than you think. 🏎️ The cringe? It’s normal. Push through and post anyway. 🏎️ Most people won’t remember your ‘bad’ posts 90% of those trying to break into tech sales don’t post because they don’t know where to start. My advice - Start with YOU You’ll never know what resonates until you start sharing. The people breaking into a new industry or climbing the corporate ladder didn’t get their by magic Majority of them utilised the resources around them - NETWORK! #TechSales #SalesJourney #CareerAdvice #BreakingIntoTech #NewBeginnings #SalesTips #Networking #PersonalGrowth #CareerDevelopment #VisibilityMatters #TechCareers #LinkedInTips #SalesSuccess

By now it's common knowledge that you should connect with recruiters and hiring managers on LinkedIn when applying for a new job. The problem with that is the same problem you're up against in outbound prospecting... lots of noise. Everyone is connecting with and messaging those same people. Hundreds at a time making it super hard to be noticed. It's not sustainable or effective. Instead, start playing the long game now. Make a list of ~10 companies that you'd kill to sell for. Start connecting with ALL of the sales leaders, sales managers, and sales recruiters at those companies. Make connecting with these folks a daily habit. You can send 100 connection requests every week. Between your 9-5 work and this, your goal should be to max that out every week. The 2nd layer to this is to set up notifications for when these people post. Hit the 🔔 on their profile to set it up. Spend about an hour per week interacting with their posts. Over the course of a few months you're going to become a familiar face for them. Now, when you're unexpectedly RIF'ed, or when your quota is raised and territory shrunk, or when the new BS comp plan rolls out, you'll have a killer network to leverage in landing an awesome new opportunity. Play the long game!

How to Determine the Success of Cold Outreach.......... I’ve been reading $100M Leads by Alex Hormozi, and in the cold calling section, he shares his journey of hiring someone to do cold outreach. Here’s what I learned: - Hire experienced people for faster results. If someone with years of experience still faces challenges, imagine how tough it will be for someone with none. Don’t gamble, experience saves time and money. - Prepare to invest. Cold outreach isn’t a walk in the park. You need to have the right resources, patience, and a realistic budget to see results. - Hire people who believe in your mission. Skills are crucial, but so is alignment. A skilled person who believes in what you do will go the extra mile. Many business owners expect magic from their hires. But even a guy worth $100 million struggled and took risks to make things work. You’re no exception. If you want to minimize the risks, hire experienced people locally. They’re cost-effective and know the landscape. Can’t afford local talent? Maybe it’s time to explore other options. If you’re a hustler ready to make moves, message me and I’ll show you how to make this work. P.S. Success doesn’t come from shortcuts, but from smart decisions.

Have you ever been left alone as a kid?  Your mom or dad told you to wait, but they didn’t come back for what felt like forever.  You looked around. Helpless.  You stood there. Scared.  Looking for help. Asking for help.   And yet, no one noticed.  That’s exactly how I felt when I entered tech sales.  Lonely. Like a headless chicken.   Wearing a fake, “I’ve got this” smile on the outside...   While inside?   Self-doubt. Negative self-talk. Fear.  Recently, I’ve been getting messages from beginners in sales who possibly feeling the same.  They’re brave enough to look for help.  But it reminded me of those early days...   When I wished someone real would guide me.  That’s one of the reasons, why I started COREM.  The mission was clear—EMpower the CORE.   Empower the folks who actually bring cash to a company—salespeople.  I went to universities, and colleges running MBA Sales & Marketing programs, to set up tech sales academies.  Guess what?   Neither students nor universities cared.  Students thought sales meant credit cards, and door-to-door, and universities wanted me to guarantee them to get companies for campus recruitment. Still, I ran 50+ classroom training sessions over a year.  And then, one founder’s “feedback” hit me like a ton of bricks.  “Rajneesh, your sessions were fantastic. My team got motivated… but only for 10 days. After that? Back to square one.”  What?!  It was a bitter pill to swallow.  Short-term, feel-good training just doesn’t work.  It’s a waste of time and money.  But those messages I’ve been receiving?  They’ve reignited the fire in me.  I’m starting.  With a completely different approach this time.  No fluff. No short-lived motivation but long-term support.  Just real, lasting change for tech sales.  Stay tuned.  The beta is coming.  The first topic is frozen, the backbone of all the solution selling skills...and the reason behind why most tech sales folks struggle... Can someone guess..? 🚀