What are the best sales teams out there doing well & poorly?

Building the Sales Machine (BTM) Event Series: we post clips of the best questions that where answered during our live events, so you can take the best ideas back to your teams and companies for further discussion.

BTM: You’ve seen a lot of sales teams grow, what are you seeing them do well, and what are you seeing them do poorly? (6:01)

• The teams that are doing well are good at focusing on what matters
• If you’re in a startup, 90% of the time, most things will suck (after the first couple months)
• The excitement from watching The Social Network will wear off
• Eventually you see what’s wrong with everything
• I’ve yet to meet a startup that doesn’t feel that everything is wrong
• The teams that do well, don’t get slowed down by this messiness, they don’t get distracted by pretending they are successful
• They focus on what really matters; revenue and customers
• Companies that do well suck at most things, but they don’t get distracted by it
• Major Pitfalls: effectiveness vs efficiency , trying to do things really really well rather than just being effective

Steli Efti dropped out of high school, taught himself to be an entrepreneur, is a life-long learner, and the founder of Supercool School, VibaTV and SwipeGood. As an alumni of Y Combinator, Steli is the CEO and co-founder of ElasticSales and Close.io. As if this isn’t enough already, Steli also advises startups and is the author of “The Ultimate Startup Guide To Outbound Sales.” You can find him on twitter here , or on linkedin here.