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Clarity

Michael Van de Velde

Dublin, Ireland

I have been in sales as long as I can remember. First at FedEx Express, responsible for a quarter of Belgium and now at LinkedIn (Sales Solutions Belgian market). before working in sales I studied Philosophy and Applied Economics. I'm also PRINCE2 certified and received a STIMA certification in Business Development. I have been giving consultancy and advice for a long time and helped many start-ups get those first order forms signed. I approach sales from a strategic viewpoint but at the same time I keep it real and actionable. Sales is sometimes ugly and because I'm a sales professional myself I fully understand that. If I haven't tried it myself I will not advice it - it's that simple.

I'm fluent in English, French and Dutch

$1.00/min

2 Calls

5 Reviews

31 minutes
Avg. call

Entrepreneurship Sales Marketing Strategy Solution Selling Cold Calling Market Analysis Management Salesforce.com Thought Leadership

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Sales (New Bizz Dev, Market Entry, Sales Strategy)

I have been in sales as long as I can remember. First at FedEx Express, responsible for a quarter of Belgium and now at LinkedIn (Sales Solutions Benelux market). before working in sales I studied Philosophy and Applied Economics. I'm also PRINCE2 certified and received a STIMA certification in Business Development. I have been giving consultancy and advice for a long time and helped many start-ups get those first order forms signed. I approach sales from a strategic point of view but at the same time I keep it real and actionable. Sales is sometimes ugly and because I'm a sales professional myself I fully understand that. If I haven't tried it myself I will not advice it - it's that simple.

Answers 7
Reviews 5

Answers

Michael Van de Velde answered

How to launch a community/blog on a technical specific argument? (es. international Taxation)

I would suggest setting up a LinkedIn Group and then sending out individual inMails to experts. You want to craft your inMail in such a way so they'll want to participate in the group. You should be able to find the right experts by leveraging your own network or using filters to find the people you need. Make sure you have some running threads/topics in the group. If there is nothing to talk about your new found expert will quickly walk away.

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Customer Engagement

Michael Van de Velde answered

How do I expand my network with people who are MORE influential than I am? I'm looking for tips and tricks to do this online (with LinkedIn, etc)

always follow up a connection request / connection invite with a phone call. ALWAYS.

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Networking

Business Networking

Michael Van de Velde answered

What are the best practices for sales compensation when dealing with multiple types of deals?

It all depends what kind of deals you want to attract. It is healthy to have a good mix between smaller and bigger deals. Bigger deals are often more time consuming and from a risk perspective quite dangerous. I have seen many companies go bust because they lost their biggest client. Revenue is a bit like a layercake. You want some bigger deals and lot's of smaller ones. The bigger deals are your spungecake layers and the smaller ones are your filling.

I would therefore suggest to pay out a fixed fee whenever a small deal is signed (this will incentivize your salesforce to sign the small deals that you need to decrease revenue volatility and not waste their time on very big deals). At the same time you do want to reward signing bigger deals. All deals big and small should therefore count towards a set revenue target. The trick here is to implement ramps, decelerators, and accelerators. No compensation is payed out when all deals combined remain under 60% of the set target, from 60-100% of target your compensation follows a linear function, from 101% you pay out following an exponential function.

I'm happy to schedule a call with you to discuss all this in more detail. Do not hesitate to contact me.

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Sales

Compensation

SaaS

Michael Van de Velde answered

Looking for help determining ideal marketing automation -> CRM workflow.

Hi, I have supported some companies in a similar situation, so pretty sure I can help. I'm answering backwards:

(2) You should create somekind of CRM solution ASAP. There are various products out there, some free, some very cheap, some very expensive. The truth is that you're hemorrhaging money if you don't do something asap... Have you calculated how much revenue you have lost, already. If you haven't do so, it will give you a sense of urgency!
(1) You also might need some advice on your whole sales cycle. Create a sales process that allows you to start disqualifying leads. Maybe you need more leads, maybe you need more people, those are all answers that you can only start addressing once you have some kind of rudimentary sales process in place.

Willing to run you through what you need to get fixed (steps, plans...). Ask yourself, what is the point of running a b2b startup if you are only spending money on marketing and don't have any revenue... Always available for a call!

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Sales

Sales Management

CRM software

Michael Van de Velde answered

What is the best way to find the appropriate decision makers of Fortune 500 companies?

I would say ... "linkedIn" but then I would be selling my own products, which is not necessarily what I like to do on Clarity... :D

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Sales

Marketing Strategy

Michael Van de Velde answered

Do you have a proven well converting sales funnel that can be used for selling men's dress shirts online that we can use as a template?

I could help you. Worked with a friend on a sales funnel a few months ago using best in class practices. My rate is very low.
Looking at your website, it seems to me you don't have an onboarding process. You're just showing the shirts. Not underlining what you're good at and so on so forth...

if you want we can do a quick call. Afterwards, I can provide you with a whole plan / model

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Sales Funnel Optimization

Sales Process

Funnel Optimization

Michael Van de Velde answered

What is the easiest to use customer support platform for founding startup team?

zendesk. They have a pricing scheme for start-ups: http://www.zendesk.com/product/features/startups/

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Customer Support

Customer Service

Reviews

I spoke with Michael for about 1 hour and it was great! From the moment the call started Michael jumped into understanding what I need and he immediately provided me with a complete step by step blueprint to achieve my sales goals. I was deeply impressed with his wealth of knowledge in the field and I will definitely contact him again soon.

Ari Freidman Source: Clarity

Very good info. Thank you.

Dan Dobos Source: Clarity

Michael is a balanced mix between ethics, business and efficiency in matters of business models and communication strategy. His different backgrounds confer him a very strategical view on growth possibilities for small and large business. It was really interesting working for him, he asks the right questions, gives a good helicopter view on your business and propose innovative solutions that cost few and bring as much results as possible.

Stefan Ifrim Source: LinkedIn

Michael is a very creative mind and expert in its domain. He was very fast to understand the challenges my start-up was going to face in the future and came up with innovative solution to tackle them.

Nicolas Finet Source: LinkedIn

I met Michael at a networking event, talked to him about my project, Pictawall, and as he liked the concept, he decided to help me find some new clients and how to deal with them. He explained me the process from getting in contact until closing a business deal. His large portfolio of valuable business contacts and his expertise in the art of selling really boosted my sales and helped me find new ones easily. He listens to your needs and puts you in contact with amazing leads. I am really happy I met him.

Thomas Paris Source: LinkedIn

Member since March 2014