Extreme Feedback

New tools provide the opportunity for you to give better feedback when working with customers and prospects. Take advantage of these new tools to improve the effectiveness of your GTM team.

May 21, 2024

A dynamic scene showing extreme feedback in a workplace setting. A manager with an exaggerated, intense expression is giving feedback to an employee, who appears overwhelmed and stressed. The setting is a modern office with desks, computers, and glass walls. The manager is pointing at a chart with a steep decline, while the employee looks down, gripping the edge of the desk. The background includes a few colleagues who are reacting with surprise and concern, emphasizing the intensity of the moment. The overall atmosphere is tense and dramatic.

No, this is not what I mean by Extreme Feedback. ExtremeFeedback is amped up feedback - it’s specific, actionable, consistent, and both positive and constructive. It’s the feedback we all want in our jobs.

People generally want to improve and get better. They Want constructive and timely feedback on how they can improve at their jobs. Nothing is more frustrating than doing what you think is a good job but not getting the results and not getting direction on how you can improve from your manager.

The rise of conversational intelligence tools

Conversational Intelligence tools like Gong and Chorus along with more remote meetings ushered in an incredible change in meetings. How often do you now see a Notetaker when joining a meeting online? I remember when it used to feel a bit strange but now no one even mentions it (except when some people ask to turn it off). It’s an incredible change that allows anyone to get that feedback on a regular basis from their managers - and it can be bidirectional. hey can hear what questions are asked, what the exact responses are without being filtered through the AE who might have forgotten the full context or, what often happens, not fully understood the context of what that person was talking about.

Not only does this provide a more accurate picture of different prospect and customer interaction. It’s also more comprehensive. Most meetings can be recorded if they are done virtually and even in person meetings can be recorded for future reference, especially if somebody in the meeting is remote.

The Old Way to Give Feedback in GTM

Before these tools became more prevalent there was a variety of ways to get and give feedback in GTM settings. The problem was that, unlike many other jobs, others couldn’t see the work output. They had to rely on what happened from someone else’s recollection.

A humorous scene in a business setting with two professionals communicating through cups on a string. The setting is a modern office with desks and computers. One person is standing near a desk, holding a cup to their ear, listening attentively. The other person is across from them, speaking into the other cup with a focused expression. Both individuals are dressed in business attire. The background is minimal to keep the focus on the two people and their unconventional communication method. The overall vibe is playful and lighthearted.

There were different levels of observation and feedback provided – some more removed than others.

Guessing at the issue

An AE is not delivering the results expected and their manager does their best to determine what the issue is. Maybe they don’t think that they are generating enough pipeline or they aren’t making contacts at a high enough level. Whatever the reason they are basing it off of what they are seeing (or not) and hearing secondhand and sometimes even thirdhand.

Responding to request for help

Maybe the AE comes to them with challenges that they see. For example, they know they need to get to the economic buyer, but don’t know how to do that so they asked their manager for feedback on the best approach.

Sometimes this works, but maybe the person providing feedback is only getting the symptoms and not hearing about the root cause. Maybe the real issue is that the AE hasn’t developed a champion who is willing to take them to meet the economic buyer. A good manager will eventually figure this out but it might take a bit of time and digging to really understand this.

Attending meetings

This was the best way to see an AE in action and to provide feedback. By attending the same meeting with their team, the manager could see directly what they were doing, what they were not doing, and provide feedback and coaching based on that. It’s often general feedback, and some high-level since they usually don’t recall specific questions or parts of the conversation

Extreme Feedback - The New Way

A scene showing distant and removed feedback in a workplace setting. A manager is sitting behind a large desk, looking at a computer screen, and typing an email. On the other side of the desk, an employee is sitting with a neutral expression, holding a piece of paper with feedback written on it. The setting is a modern office with minimal interaction between the two. The background includes other employees working quietly at their desks. The overall atmosphere is calm and detached, emphasizing the lack of direct communication.

Extreme Feedback is giving specific, actionable, and consistent feedback to attendees of a meeting. You’re just like a coach, who might give very tactical and specific feedback to a player trying to improve their hitting in baseball.

Extreme Feedback can be used by anyone - even an AE can let their VP of Sales or CEO know that they would’ve liked them to jump in and talk about their new funding at a certain point in the call.

There are several components to extreme feedback:

It’s Specific

With revenue intelligence tools, you have the exact transcript and audio of the conversation so instead of saying something “You should ask more questions about the timing of their project”, you can say “When she was talking about her project goals, you should have followed that up with a question on overall timeline before jumping to next steps".”

It’s Actionable

Because it’s so specific, it becomes much more actionable. In the situation above, the AE knows now that they should be asking questions about timeline when a their prospect is talking about their timeline.

This is much more actionable than feedback like “Do better discovery” or even somewhat targeted feedback like “Get more details about their project timing.” You’ve gotten feedback exactly where and how you can use it in the future.

It’s Consistent

Managers should make this part of their daily or weekly cadence. They can listen to calls of folks on their team to find opportunities provide feedback. This has to be done regularly to ensure that it’s acted upon.

Maybe the AE forgets about the feedback on asking about project timelines and the next time the situation comes up, they make the same mistake. By doing this consistently, the person providing the feedback can ensure that their suggestions are being acted upon.

It includes both positive and constructive feedback

Constructive feedback is good to help people grow and improve. We all have areas that we need to work on. But extreme feedback should also reinforce the things that are being done well. No one wants to listen to feedback where everything they do is wrong. The positive stuff should be highlighted to reinforce those good things and not get the person frustrated that they feel that they aren’t improving.

Scoring meetings

One way that you can take extreme feedback to the next level is to create a scorecard for certain types of meetings - for example, initial discovery calls. By using a scorecard, you can highlight what parts of a meeting are most critical ensure that people are executing on this as part of your overall sales process.

It also helps to create a trend over time so that the person can see if they are improving. It can be used to compare different individuals on the team. Everyone is going to have different strengths and weaknesses and if someone is doing particularly well in an area like presenting a proposal, the scorecard will capture this and you can use to share with other members of the team for them to learn.

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