Lessons from a World-Class Seller – Brian LaManna

I’ve worked with a bunch of different sellers. Some were good. Some not so much. But one or two were truly next level.

They had consistently better results. They brought in bigger deals. They closed accounts no one else could. And they just seemed to “get it” in a different way.

They were switched on—you didn’t need to tell them what to do. Whatever challenge you threw at them, they found a way. They seemed built just a little bit differently than other people on the team.

I’ve always been curious about what makes those great sellers great.

To help answer that question, I sat down with true superstar of the sales world, 5x President’s Club winner Brian LaManna, Strategic AE at Gong.

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*About Today’s Guest*

Brian LaManna is a Strategic Account Executive at Gong and Founder of Closed Won, where he offers resources and playbooks for sellers. He is a 5x President’s Club winner and regularly achieves 200%+ of quota.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlamanna/

*Key Topics*

[00:00] – Introduction
[01:28] – Role of a seller in the revenue process
[03:50] – Sales is not convincing
[04:42] – Defusing prospect defensiveness
[06:27] – When to break the sales process
[08:00] – Are good sellers born or made?
[10:05] – Attributes of a great seller
[12:04] – Developing a “CEO” mindset
[14:13] – Cultivating real relationships with customers
[16:50] – Mindsets, strategies, and routines
[24:57] – Benefits of selling Gong
[26:07] – The sales / sales ops relationship
[29:32] – How ops can get sellers to cooperate
[32:24] – What does Gong’s RevOps team do well?
[34:22] – Why AEs should always be prospecting
[39:41] – Current state of outbound
[42:18] – Live example: creating a tailored cold email
[45:26] – Personalization vs. relevance
[47:24] – How sellers can win at “social selling”