#Inbound19 recap and highlights

I spent last week at INBOUND in Boston where I was on the show floor for most of the week, but had a chance to sneak away from our booth a few times to sit in on some sessions I was really excited for.

My 30-second highlights: Elizabeth Gilbert has some thoughts on the power of relaxation over hustling, Liz Simpson, the founder of Stimulyst, reminded us that people’s purchasing decisions are driven by emotions which they then justify with logic, and Dani Buckley, the General Manager at LeadG2 has four steps that allow her to create sales playbooks in under 30 minutes.

Check out the details below!

Session 1: Elizabeth Gilbert Keynote

I loved Liz Gilbert’s keynote. That woman is wickedly smart, relatable, and has a way of putting words to the human experience that makes you feel so seen and understood.

In her keynote, she spoke about how our culture promotes qualities like hustle and grit. The “go and DO ALL THE THINGS!” type of qualities that we hear about in the tech space all the time.

We’re so busy and so caught up in our pride of being busy, that we’re losing out on the magic of creativity in all aspects of our lives, including work.

She tossed out a suggestion to shake things up.

Instead of focusing so heavily on hustling, what if we all strived to be more relaxed?

She didn’t mean going to the spa every day or scheduling more massages (although, I’m not against that idea). Instead, she had us reflect on how we feel around someone who is relaxed.

When things go wrong you’re drawn to the person who is the most calm, no? Who do you want to listen to and follow? Who becomes a natural leader? The relaxed person.

The person in the room who is most relaxed has all the power.

Did you know that the most relaxed mare becomes the leader in a group of horses? And nobody approaches her without her consent? I didn’t. But that’s pretty amazing.

Liz gave the audience what she felt were the components to become relaxed, so we could all be more like the alpha mare.

1. Get clear on your priorities - what are they and who are they?
2. Enforce your boundaries - this is the only way you keep what’s sacred, sacred!
3. Embrace the mysticism of the universe - the belief that there are forces operating in the universe that you simply cannot explain. It’s those moments that remind us that no matter what’s going on, we’ll somehow all be ok.

That keynote was such a good reminder that no matter how busy our lives are, we have agency over deciding what we prioritize and how we spend our free time. And that there’s always room for creativity.

Session 2: Buyers Buy Outcomes: Why Your Sales Messaging & Process Attract Undesired, Price-Obsessed Customers

Liz Simpson, the founder of Stimulyst, reminded us that people’s purchasing decisions are driven by emotions which they then justify with logic. So, when we think about capturing our buyer's attention, we should be thinking about both mind share AND heart share.

Technology is not a strategy

Liz shared how so often she sees organizations struggling with attracting the wrong prospects and customers. The default reaction is often to turn to technology that’ll increase reach.

But, she makes a case that if you amplify a strategy that’s already attracting the wrong client, you’re just going to get more of the wrong client.

Technology can be a huge help, but you need to have a solid strategy in place that your tech stack helps support, not the other way around.

Speaking of which …

Be an Asprin, not a vitamin

When you have a migraine, you NEED to take something. A vitamin, on the other hand, is more of a nice to have. We know it’s important, we know we should take it, but we’ll probably forget every so often and we won’t notice the difference.

What is the costly problem your solution solves? What’s the urgency?

The number one thing buyers value is specialized expertise.

More than being simply understood, buyers are looking for someone who has deep domain expertise and is uniquely qualified to help them with their problem.

Liz points out that a critical mistake a lot of companies make is not having a sales messaging strategy that helps to very clearly communicate value and expertise.

Session 3: How to Build a Sales Play in 30 Minutes or Less

Dani Buckley, the General Manager at LeadG2 had a lot to say about the importance of sales playbooks. To level-set, she’s talking about helping salespeople get to the right step at the right time with the right person.

Her session shared a lot of examples of playbooks her team created for various stages of the sales cycle and virtually any scenario a salesperson encounters from what to do after they’ve presented and are waiting for a decision to upselling an existing client.

Here are the four steps she shared to building a sales play:

1. Figure out your who, what and when: Who is the buyer, what’s the challenge the rep is encountering with them, and when specifically in the sales cycle is it happening?
2. Outline the steps and cadence using best practices: What is your sales process? What expectations do you have of your salespeople for this specific stage?
3. Fill in the strategy, tactics, and resources for each step: What do you want your salesperson to know, use or share during each step?
4. Involve your salespeople: This seems like an obvious one but it’s so easy to skip this step. Dani’s advice? Don’t.

Here’s an example she showed us to give you an idea of what this could look like:

Step	When	Action	Content/Resources
1	Once qualified and claimed in CRM	Send email	Use “Intro Deck” and email template Refer to “Valid Business Reason checklist”
2	3 days later	Phone call	Use call script
3	Same day	Email follow up	Use email template Share case study video
4	2 days later	LinkedIn	Connect on LinkedIn/Use “LinkedIn Connection Template”
5	3 days later	Send email	Use email template Invite to monthly webinar
6	2 days later	Send email	Create a personalized intro video Refer to video checklist

Just start

Dani shared how so often people get stuck in overthinking playbooks. They talk, analyze and plan for them, sometimes for months. Her advice was to stop waiting and just get started.

Start small, train your sales team, track adoption and continue analyzing and optimizing.

Dialpad at Inbound

This was our first year exhibiting at INBOUND. We were there to talk about our Dialpad Ai Sales product, a business phone system designed specifically for sales teams. We also recently launched a HubSpot integration, so the timing was perfect for us.

I’ve always thought of Inbound as an event for marketers so I wasn’t sure how many sales folks would be there and was surprised to encounter a number of sales leaders and AEs at our booth. Many of them were trying to find ways to better coach their teams, track outbound call center KPIs, and consolidate as much information in HubSpot as possible. Our team noticed that across the board, people were really curious about Dialpad Ai and how they can incorporate artificial intelligence into their sales process.

Big kudos to the HubSpot team for putting on a great event. Y’all ran a tight ship. Excited to see what next year brings!