Derek Grant pulls inspiration for Sun Tzu in motivating, training, and succeeding in sales development.

1. The Art of War
3 Sales Development Lessons from the 6th Century
Derek Grant
VP of Sales
@derekgrant

2. A Quick History Lesson

3. Sun Tzu
●Chinese War General, Strategist &
Philosopher
●Lived in the “Warring States” period
●Served King Ho-Lu

4. Lesson 1:
Be Unconventional

6. You can be sure of succeeding in your
attacks if you only attack places which
are undefended.

7. You can be sure of succeeding in your
communication if you communicate
where your competitors don’t.

8. 132,000,000,000

9. 78%

10. Future
Email
Marketers of
America

12. Add Phone

13. Mix In Social

14. Lesson 2:
Be Prepared

15. He will win who, prepared
himself, waits to take the
enemy unprepared.

16. He will win who, prepared
himself, is able to engage
the prospect perfectly

17. 1.8

18. 14.3

19. 11,628

20. The Pupil vs. The Teacher
SDRs generally call on people with substantially
more experience
Your prospect has forgotten more about many topics
than your SDR will ever know during their short tenure

21. Listen
Our SDRs bring their best and worst calls of the week to
their 1:1’s, and review them with their manager. The best
of the best go into our “hall of fame”
-Margaret Weniger, SalesLoft

22. Practice
Matt Amundson, director of the
SDR team at EverString, has the
SDRs conduct mock phone calls
on a daily basis...and leverages
the product marketing team to
train his SDRs every other Friday.
-Gartner

23. If words of command are not clear and
distinct, if orders are not thoroughly
understood, the general is to blame.
But if his orders are clear, and the
soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it
is the fault of their officers.

24. If you know the enemy and
know yourself you need not fear
the results of a hundred battles.

25. If you know the prospect and know
yourself you need not fear the
results of a hundred interactions.

26. 3x3

27. SalesLoft + Wine

28. Blog Post

30. Lesson 3:
Don’t Back Enemies Into A Corner

31. To a surrounded enemy, you
must leave a way of escape

32. When you encounter a
competitor, you must leave a
way of escape

33. “We’re Using XYZ”

34. Sh!t
Sandwich

35. Sh!t
Sandwich

36. What Would Sun Tzu
Recommend
for your SDR Team?

37. 1.Be Unconventional
2.Be Prepared
3.Don’t Back Enemies into a Corner
Final Thoughts

38. Thanks!