The problem

I’ve been lucky enough to meet people from all over the world in my sales career. A lot of them are now friends, and, except for a few, they are all working in sales. Most of them have comfortable remote jobs, where they can work from home, go on staycations, and organize their day as they want.

But, as the years pass, a lot of them are tired to of having no professional boundaries, tired to work for crazy tech founders, tired to waste hundreds of hours in useless Zoom meetings every year.

But they are stuck. Why would they leave a comfortable job, as meaningless as it sounds, when they can skip commuting, office politics, and crappy colleague holiday stories altogether?

There has to be a better way.

A different approach: A Portfolio Career

A Portfolio Career is the perfect combination for experienced salespeople who want to:

• find contracts that are interesting, well paid, and flexible
• work from anywhere, without having to become an entrepreneur
• build a diversified income, while working when and where they want to

Instead of looking for a job with the perfect working conditions, a great product-market fit, a founder with human values, and all these impossible attributes to find in a single organization, you focus on building a system to find multiple short-term contracts.

For example, if you have an extensive experience selling low 5-figure deals for a SaaS company, you can approach 5 to 10 SaaS companies trying to hire an Account Executive, and propose to start with a part-time, 6 months contract.

Some organizations won’t be comfortable doing that, but many will find the flexibility and initiative worth exploring.

Tying it back to you

I understand the concrete steps you need to take may not be clear. And that’s where I want to help.

I have spent the last 6 years figuring out how to make more money than I spend, and I still have a roof over my head, food in the fridge, and a ton of time to spend with my son.

I have trained, coached, and helped thousands of salespeople to get more commission with less work, and I have discovered a way to market your skills, so you can diversify your income.

So if you are:

• a remote salesperson with 5+ years of experience
• tired or your job taking most of your awake time
• trying to building a life in your own terms

Then join the waitlist to discover what I’m building.

I’ll show you how to market your experience, without having to launch a business (or create content), so you can build your work around your life, not the other way around.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

Question 1: What’s causing you to have a conversation with me?

This is one of the first questions you need to ask as you’re starting your first conversation with a prospect. Instead of asking them why they are here, ask them “What’s causing you to have a conversation with me?”

This will help prospects open up and share the real reasons they are in the meeting with you. Some may just be curious (don’t waste your time with them), some may have a specific initiative they are working on (dig deeper).

Question 2: What outcomes do you expect from this conversation?

Second question will help you understand your prospect’s initiatives. By focusing on asking what outcomes they expect, you get them to share the agenda and goals they have for the conversation.

This will help you dig deeper, and disqualify prospects who may not have a compelling event. For example, if they answer that they are just checking or making a benchmark, you’ll know you can disqualify them and end the conversation as soon as possible.

Question 3: When can you make a decision?

Final question, and my favorite of all three. By asking prospects when they can make a decision, you do two things:

• you test the energy of your deal
• you understand their buying process

Most prospects won’t be able to give you a straight answer. This indicates they’ll have to involve other people in the buying process, and you can ask them additional questions about the steps required to close the deal.

And these are 3 simple questions you can ask to test the energy of your deals, and close the ones that are qualified faster.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

AmpleMarket

AmpleMarket is the ultimate, all-in-one sales engagement platform. I use it everyday to grab LinkedIn profiles, put prospects into sequences, and make sure that I’m actually reaching out to them on a structured and direct way.

You can use my link if you want to give it a try (and get a 10% discount if you decide to go for it).

Kaspr.io

Kaspr is an amazing Chrome extension you can install to discover phone numbers and emails from prospects. It’s really useful if you’re not using an all-in-one platform, and if you’re looking for hard to find prospect data, especially in EMEA.

LinkedIn Native Videos

LinkedIn Native Videos are videos recorded within the LinkedIn app. They are incredibly powerful to stand out, as most salespeople don’t even know they exist (you can only record them with the app). I wrote a detailed guide to help you use them in 2024.

Prospecting Template Swipe File

The Prospecting Template Swipe File is a collection of killer prospecting message templates from top sales creators and influencers. I have collected over 25 cold emails, LinkedIn, and cold call templates you can use to start more conversations with prospects. It’s regularly updated.

It even includes prompts to help you make these templates yours.

Sales Process Calculator

Finally, my Sales Process Calculator is a resource I use every day to understand how many prospects I need to add to my sequence in order to reach my targets. It’s a simple formula to turn my revenue targets into daily activity.

And these are 5 tools I can’t live without. This shortlist is the result of years of trial and error, and they help me to:

• build lead lists
• find prospect data
• put them into sequences
• reach out in a structured way

Hope this list was helpful. If you know of another tool I should try, just reply to this email.

Cheers,

Thibaut Souyris

There’s a good reason to use that feature over a video prospecting tool. As it’s only available on the mobile LinkedIn app, most salespeople won’t use it because they prospect with LinkedIn on their computer. You will mathematically stand out by using native videos, just like LinkedIn voice notes.

Step 2: Write a simple script

Next, write a simple script. You really need to avoid blabbering for five minutes because no one’s going to actually watch this video. It needs to be direct, concrete, and last 30 seconds or less. You can use this simple template:

• Trigger: Your excuse for reaching out
• Problem: A problem faced by many of your customers
• Teaser: A teaser of a resource to solve that problem
• CTA: A simple ask

Example:

• Trigger: “Ara, saw you also liked Josh’s post about SDRs being too inconsistent.”
• Problem: “I speak with a lot of VPs of Sales who are struggling to keep their SDRs prospecting consistently.”
• Teaser: “If you’re interested, I have a quick checklist to help your team start their day with a prospecting block, and get closer to prospecting every single day.”
• CTA: “Should I send it over?”

Step 3: Record your video

You have your script ready, now make sure to practice before recording your video, because you’ll be stressed. After a few tries, you’ll get better, I promise. Here’s an example with the script from above: