Ilya Levelev

𝗜 𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗗𝗥 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹. Here is how it did it: When I stepped into an interim SDR Lead role, I had no clue about sales. MQL, SAL, SAO - just abbreviations I could not even define. So I told myself not to pretend - everybody knew I did not do sales before. I wouldn’t win credibility by faking expertise I didn’t have. So I focused on something else entirely: the people in my team. We sat down and I basically said: “𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵”. So I listened. About their roadblocks, what makes their day-2-day hard, the pressure, the anxiety calling in front of the complete office. In this moment I knew that I had to do the same job to understand what they are up to & so I started to do the SDR job myself: Preparing lists, doing cold calls, making appointments. Following up, getting ghosted, having great conversations about our product and not so great talks about features. And step by step, as a team we learned what it takes to get better every day. At the start, my job was less about sales but more about creating an environment where selling could improve. Clear expectations. Honest feedback. Psychological safety. Over time, the team started to perform. Not because I suddenly became a sales expert, but because ownership increased on both sides of the table. That role reshaped my understanding of leadership. You don’t need to be the smartest person in the room. But you do need to create a room where people can get smarter together. What’s your key learning moment in your leadership journey?

51

16 Comments

DACH B2B Sales Leaders have NO IDEA how to identify the best Account Executives. They think it's about: - Role plays - Case studies - Endless Interviews - Putting candidates under pressure What it's REALLY about? Cutting through the noise and asking the right questions in your qualification call. At Nobel Recruitment, we've placed hundreds of Account Executives in B2B SaaS companies across Europe over the past years... And 91% of them stayed in the job longer than 6 months. Many have even gone on to make our clients MILLIONS in revenue. Thousands of calls later, we know which questions to ask and how to ask them to truly understands someone's skillset. You know, like asking the name of the economic buyer of a €1M ARR deal they claimed they closed... If they cannot answer that one, that's a red flag! Use this framework to help improve your interviews and if you want to know more context/tips, just give me a shout.

7

Turning “no-shows” into new opportunities. 🚀 What happens when empty spots at the world's premier tech conference sparks inspiration in a future talent? Our partners at Startup Portugal gifted their vibe through TIMEPLACEME - and the magic happened instantly. Meet Anastasiya Tyurina - founder of Garage Tech Academy in Barcelona and one of TIMEPLACEME’s very first early adopters. Today, thanks to this initiative, one of her top students, Yaroslav, stepped into the world of 4YFN for the very first time. Instead of unused tickets - a magical "first impression." Instead of empty spots - a transformative experience that could define a career. We are thrilled to have gifted these moments. The magic worked - which means everything is going according to plan. After all, TIMEPLACEME was built exactly for these kinds of encounters to happen. ✨ #TIMEPLACEME #Lisbon #StartupPortugal #4YFN26 #Barcelona #TechAcademy #SerendipityAI #brave4real #ExperienceTech

15

2 Comments

I think that most sales leaders are thinking about Enterprise Sales all wrong. A lot of leaders I talk to STILL believe that the way to close more deals is to pull a list, then cold call every possible stakeholder. But let's look at these two situations ⬇️ Situation 1: - Pull a list of 1,000 companies from Apollo. - Guess who might be a decision maker - Cold call 3 stakeholders at each company. - You connect with a couple hundred. - Book 60 meetings. - Close 5 deals (if you’re insanely lucky and good on the phones) Situation 2: - Find the ONE person in your network, or that is connected to someone at your company, who can connect you with 43 ICP accounts. - You get 43 warm referrals from this one person to companies in your ICP - Some don't work out because of timing, or you're not a great fit - You close 20 of them - because they’re the right fit, and trust is already built in. - This is the difference between reach and access This sounds ethereal, but companies that are building sales engines that begin with their network, are outcompeting companies that are doing sales the 2019 way. Leverage > activity metrics - any day of the week. What’s your close rate on warm referrals vs. cold outbound?

56

28 Comments