Surrounding yourself with the right people is one of the recipes for success. Be in the company of professionals who can teach you a thing or two and challenge you to become your best self.
For salespeople, this means attending conferences, trade shows, and similar events, but also joining online sales communities.
In the past two years most of these communities have seen a huge uptick in activity as they host virtual networking events, debate which sales tools, products, and services are best for a newly-remote sales team, and offer advice on how to sell when it seems like no one will want to buy.
But not all sales communities are created equal – some are better than others.
That’s why we’ll discuss the ones you can greatly benefit from.
Professional Networks
These amazing organizations are focused on training, networking, and advocacy for the sales profession or a group of professionals.
Several are membership-based but have online activities open to anyone.
Others are focused on networking but have a fantastic infrastructure that has allowed them to seamlessly move online.
If you’re not already involved with at least one of these groups, you’re missing out.
AA-ISP
The American Association for Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP) is the largest sales organization in the United States.
Their members include all roles which align with internal sales teams and are supported by chapters around the world, conferences for all levels, an Inside Sales Academy and Accreditations, a Resource Center, and Mentor Program.
The AA-ISP helps members improve the professionalism and performance of themselves, their teams, and entire organizations. While the AA-ISP focuses on paid memberships, the local LinkedIn groups are typically open to anyone.
Blacks in Technology
Blacks In Technology is a tech-focused community and media organization that is dedicated to increasing the representation and participation of black women and men in the technology industry.
While this is not a sales-specific community, they are known to be supportive of anyone who works in the tech industry.
Local chapters are in many major cities and growing, and each has multiple ways to meet people online, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Slack.
Out inTech
While OutinTech has built its community through in-person events, they’ve migrated online, and their Slack channels offer information about the upcoming live events and job openings.
With 18,000 members, this community comes with some serious networking opportunities.
Modern Sales Pros
Peter Kazanjy founded this 13,000+ member, invite-only, community as a forum for Sales Operations, Enablement, Management, and Leadership experts.
Their GoogleGroup has everything from strategic questions to a job board to “digital salons,” where they consistently get top minds to talk about everything from improving 1:1s to comp plans to leadership development.
Note: This is a group focused on leadership roles, so they will tend to screen out individual contributors.
Pavilion
Pavillion is an exclusive sales community, which means that you need to apply for membership before you can start participating.
If you’re looking for new business opportunities or want to build connections with other professionals, Pavilion is the right place for you. This community promises confidentiality and a safe space, plus an evergrowing library of resources.
Additional advantages include access to a private Slack channel, virtual and in-person events, career + negotiation coaching, and many more.
RevGenius
RevGenius is an open B2B sales community with a membership of over 24,000 and counting.
Apart from connecting with other members, you can also join roundtable discussions, attend events, find a mentor or become one, exchange tips, and tap into the community’s resources.
But, there’s one more upside – the partner networks of RevGenius include many big companies such as Gong, SalesLoft, and Zendesk, which means that answers to your questions will be packed with some super helpful advice.
SDR Nation
The main idea behind SDR Nation is to offer sales reps all the support they need to make it in the competitive sales landscape.
This community pledges to give its members the tools, training, and advice they need to advance in their sales careers.
By joining SDR Nation, you will get access to a huge knowledge base, mentorship opportunities, and a network of sales experts.
LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn isn’t just a place to stalk prospects, send InMails, and like your friends’ posts so they can improve their social selling score.
Their groups are an incredible way to instantly expand your network and gain access to content and thought leaders who don’t have time to dig through the comments on their public posts.
While many are “gated” (i.e., you have to request to join), they’re all open to the public and have different rules for what goes and what doesn’t.
Check these out to start, and we’ll see you in there!
Inside Sales Experts
Founded and administered by Trish Bertuzzi, the Godmother of Inside Sales, this is THE group to connect for best practices, present your problems and get real-world advice.
The objective of our Inside Sales experts group is to give Inside Sales executives a forum to share ideas and information – as a result, no self-promotion or spam is tolerated.
With 66,000+ members, Inside Sales Experts is the right place to expand your sales knowledge and network.
Bring your problems and leave with solutions.
Sales Hacker
Just like their flagship website, SalesHacker’s Linkedin group is a deep well of information and content.
But their comments are filled with great questions and some heated discussions of the more controversial ideas.
This is a great place to get inspired, debate the finer points of tactics, and meet more salespeople you likely wouldn’t know otherwise.
Women Sales Pros World Community
The online home of the Women Sales Pros organization, this is the group to join if you want to network with people devoted to helping companies to find, recruit, onboard, retain, and promote great women in sales and to help support women to rise within organizations.
Connect online now to get to know some members, and when things open up again, make sure not to miss any of their amazing in-person events.
Bravado.co
Bravado is a relatively new player in the communities game. It is a unique platform aimed at raising the bar for the entire sales profession through
- mentorship,
- building social credibility through reviews for sales professionals,
- and providing a platform to allow content creators to interact with their audience seamlessly while creating a repository for content that makes looking for old posts and collateral a breeze.
You do have to create an account to join all of these communities, but it’s worth it.
There are different discussion boards where you can join conversations with some sales industry household names and learn some valuable tips and tricks that will help you level up your career.
What makes Bravado stand out is the fact that it’s the first anonymous sales community, which means you’ll get candid, first-hand advice from the top sales professionals.
Get Involved in Sales Communities
In-person sales events are slowly making a comeback, but online sales communities are here to stay.
Tap into the power of leveraging the experience and knowledge of thousands of sales experts without leaving your home, and find the support you need at any time. This list contains some of the best and most popular online sales communities, so make sure to join them.
