AI vs. Personalization – Sam McKenna on ‘Closing Time’

#AE, #BDR/SDR, #LinkedIn, #podcasts, #sales

AI in sales – friend or foe?

Here’s our take – as we said in the first section of this email, there IS a place for AI in sales. But before you pivot to an entirely new career, hold up!

We all want to be more efficient in our prospecting and our research so that we can put our energy into tasks that need more time and brain power.

What does need our time and brain power?

Crafting messages and relationships that connect with our buyers on a human level, that prove that we’ve conducted our research and earned the right to be heard.

And for those that think your sellers’ time should be spent sending the MOST amount of emails to the MOST amount of people vs. creating unique subject lines and messages that will actually get responses? Watch the full episode to see what a typical C-suite executive’s inbox looks like. 👀

This is your competition – it’s not difficult to stand out with well-crafted personalization! #SMYKM

Listen to the full episode + watch on YouTube!

About Sam McKenna + #samsales

Samantha McKenna is an accomplished sales leader, recognized speaker, Top Voice on LinkedIn, and founder of #samsales. A former executive at LinkedIn and ON24, she has a distinguished track record of breaking sales records, cultivating high-performing teams, and advocating for authenticity in sales leadership.

#samsales is a leading, all-women sales organization serving over 250 clients across SaaS, technology, and professional services. Our firm is renowned for its expertise in top of the funnel sales trainings utilizing our trademarked 'Show Me You Know Me' methodology, LinkedIn + social selling coursework, and creating brands for F500 execs, founders, and celebrities alike on LinkedIn.

By leveraging innovative, results-driven strategies, we empower our clients to achieve sustained growth while fostering a culture of integrity and authenticity in sales.

Connect with Sam on LinkedIn

It was one of the most engaging and useful training sessions my team has attended in years.
Sam is a sales pro who brings amazing energy, enthusiasm and experience to training and development. We utilized her consulting service for a one hour session where 70+ sellers and sales managers attended her training on the “Top Ten Ways to Win in Sales.” Not only was the session on point, it was one of the most engaging and useful training sessions my team has attended in years, the feedback was exceptionally positive. Oftentimes, training and/or consultants miss the mark but Sam truly gets it, she is relatable, speaks from experience and applies her proven techniques in an easy to digest format. If we had the budget, we would hire Sam to lead all our sales training.
Jonathan Fuller SVP, Head of SMB Sales Intersection, a Google company

Someone Who’s Done It, Gets It, and Knows How To Do It
“Sam is who I go to when I am looking for advice and feedback on how to bring in the BIG deals…She is tactical…she gets in there with you. Not only can she help you with the high-level strategy, but she can also give you that in the trenches feedback – the type of stuff that only someone who’s done it, gets it, and knows how to do it, could give.”

See the Video Testimonial
Kevin "KD" Dorsey, VP of Inside Sales, PatientPop + LinkedIn Influencer

We were fortunate because we were introduced to Sam
“Over a year ago when the pandemic caused us to change the way we sell, our management team asked us how we needed to alter our sales approach to be effective digital sellers. We were fortunate because we were introduced to Sam who quickly began coaching our team on effective digital selling strategies. We started with the basics of how to update our LinkedIn profiles, effective LinkedIn communications and then moved to Show Me You Know Me (SMYKM) and more advanced “hacks”. One of the best things about Sam’s training is our ongoing engagements that will focus on other sales techniques and more importantly emerging best practices for digital and in-person selling.”
Steve Manion, VP of Sales for Financial Services, TransUnion

If you’re looking for operational sales coaching and strategy, you can’t miss with #samsales
As a long-standing member of the bag carrying community and a VC in Silicon Valley I’ve seen thousands of sales leaders, and Sam is one of the best. She is strategic, thoughtful, gets Enterprise and is no bullshit. She’s a remarkable relationship builder and has some serious intellectual horsepower wrapped in creative, hilarious, banter. If you’re looking for operational sales coaching and strategy, you can’t miss with #samsales.
Doug Landis, Partner, Emergence Capital

If you’re looking for a consummate Silicon Valley sales leader, Sam is it
As a Silicon Valley CEO, I have worked with many high performing sales leaders and professionals over the years, and Sam is one of the best. She has the rare ability to be both strategic and tactical; she can generate cold leads yet also close complex enterprise deals; she can build personal relationships while being a successful negotiator; and she is able to coach and lead teams, from junior reps to seasoned peers. If you’re looking for a consummate Silicon Valley sales leader, Sam is it.
Greg Tapper, CEO, Patternai, formerly of McKinsey and TOPO

Sam is one of those rare 1% of the 1% of sales executives who simply gets it
Sam is one of those rare 1% of the 1% of sales executives who simply gets it. She understands the full life cycle of the sales process and not only has her consulting allowed us to pivot to tremendous success, but her team of BDRs have changed our entire revenue model.
Marsha Redmon, CEO, LexTrack

Her energy was contagious and she is a breath of fresh air
I hired Sam to bring some fresh ideas and new strategies to our national sales meeting. Her energy was contagious and she is a breath of fresh air. She is relatable, but more importantly results driven. The team was blown away but how much they took away from sixty minutes with her, and even more impressed with how she engaged with them afterwards on LinkedIn to keep helping. It was motivating and showed tangible ways to differentiate. We implemented her “secret sauce” and saw results that day! Multiple members on our team have reached out to have more time with Sam!
Alyssa Gordon, Director of Sales, Affirma & Co-Chapter Head of Revenue Collective, Seattle

#samsales consulting has been the missing puzzle piece in our business-development and sales efforts
#samsales consulting has been the missing puzzle piece in our business-development and sales efforts. We have all the expertise in the world relating to what we do, but getting projects – especially big ones – to sign was a hit-and-miss affair. Sam not only consults for us on our entire sales strategy, but her team of BDRs has examined and reshaped our outreach-and-messaging approach to both show our expertise and to have the prospects discover why they need it, want it, can’t live without it. The result – after only a few months – has been record-breaking, multi-year deals and a trajectory to have the best year in company history!
Jason Lisi, CEO, LISI

Sam and her team helped us find a sales language and rhythm that is comfortable
While there are a million (or more) sales consultants with a plethora of approaches, Sam and the #samsales team were the first to help us position our firm in a way that not only resonated with the market but also has made a measurable impact on the return that we were getting using their guidance. Society 54 has been able to implement the suggested approaches in ways that feel natural to who we are as people and who we are as a firm. While Sam and her team helped us find a sales language and rhythm that is comfortable, they pushed us to reach beyond our comfort level to achieve even better results than we initially thought possible.
Heather McCullough, Partner, Society 54

Sam is a phenomenal consultant who is always by my side
Sam is a phenomenal consultant who is always by my side (virtually, of course), cheering me on and someone I can call or email anytime, and obtain the advice I need for immediate results.
Nicole Miller, Senior Managing Director, Savills

Working with #samsales has changed our entire revenue model
Working with #samsales has changed our entire revenue model. We previously closed deals for 50-60K over 12 months, and now regularly close deals for several hundred thousand dollars over a 36-month term. We also hit our annual revenue goal on July 16th, due to the changes Sam’s team made for us.