Lately we once again visited Pipeline Summit in Gdynia, Poland to learn from the best about sales. It was the 4th edition of the event and the third we attended. As you may remember, we were amazed by fall’s event. And frankly, speaking, we had high expectations this time.

About Pipeline Summit

If your read last edition’s report, you can skip this paragraph. If you’re new to Pipeline Summit or want to remind yourself what it is about – carry on.

Pipeline Summit is an international conference organised by Mick Griffin, who is also a Chief Revenue Officer at Brand24. The main focus of the event is to provide businesses with tools and knowledge that will help improve their sales processes, increase their number of leads, and at the end of the day, increase their revenues.

Because of this mission, Pipeline is packed with advanced facts, use-cases, and studies so it’s the perfect venue for professionals who want to increase their expertise and are looking for some inspiration. Invited guests are experienced in sales, many of them are either CEOs or Sales Directors who are willing to share their knowledge. Every presentation is held in English, so you don’t have to speak Polish to attend.

To make sure that presentations were interesting and would actually provide guests with some value, organizers invited people from across the globe and set up a few rules:

  • Every speaker must share 3 practical things you can do the very next day,
  • Each speaker must share how their company will make their next 10 sales,
  • No speaker can appear in two consecutive events.

Pipeline Summit travels between Warsaw and Gdynia on Baltic Coast, in May it was Gdynia’s turn to host the Summit. The event was held in Pomeranian Science and Technology Park.

General idea of Pipeline Summit Gdynia 2017

May’s edition was different in a way that the organizers focused on basic, grassroots even, things, setting aside the great visions and life-changing presentations. This edition’s goal was to remind that as important as breakthrough vision are daily activities, tweaking processes or establishing them. The most repeated quote was: “we’re not gonna change your life in this presentation, but to remind you about small things that may be decisive”.

Three best presentations of Pipeline Summit Gdynia 2017

Just like the last time, we decided to choose the best from the best and share with you our three favorite presentations, the ones that gave us the most insights and inspiration.

  1. Jane Van Sickle – Building a Great Sales Team or Hiring Great Sales People
    We had a hard time choosing the best presentation, but all in all we chose Jane Van Sickle’s of Unbounce. This presentation gave many great insights in Sales Team building and hiring. Jane shared many practical tips we can implement in our Sales Team, but also confirmed some of our methods of recruitment. Every candidate we want to hire is meeting with their team and with all employes to check if we get along. Some of her advice and ideas we will implement for sure, like regular one on one meetings in Sales Team.
  2. Steli Efti – Sales Alchemy: How to Turn a Dry Pipeline into a Well of Golden Opportunitie
    Steli Efti from Close.io reminded us that people often forget about very basic rules of sales. Those small mistakes can hurt your sales process really badly. You should resolve them as early as you can. Don’t stop activities even if you have worse month or quarter. Think about your strategy, activities and relations with clients in long term. Especially that last piece of advice struck us, because this what we want to achieve in Sotrender, making every client a long-lasting partner.
  3. Ivan Hernandez – Selling Professional Services at the Highest Level
    Ivan Hernandez from EY gave seven principles of great sales (timing, resilience, aggressive, goal-driven attitude, product is everything, effectiveness, zero in, execution). All those principles are crucial to make your sales better. We try to follow those rules in our own sales process, so it was good to hear how we can perform even better.

What we’re taking for ourselves?

We learned a lot, but also confirmed that in many aspects we do a great job, which was very satisfying and gave us even more energy to become better company. Our Sales Team works closely with Marketing Team, many of the blogpost ideas come directly from our clients needs and we do our best to satisfy their crave of knowledge of social media.

Like I wrote before, our recruitment process coincides with the advice given by Jane Van Sickle, and it really works, we have very small employee rotation, if you start working with us, chances are that you’ll stay in Sotrender for several years (did I mention that we have six open jobs positions?).

Summary

Pipeline Summit Gdynia 2017 did a great job as usual. It was knowledge packed and served as a great opportunity to share ideas and learn from the best. We can’t wait for the next edition!