Revenue Builders

In this episode of The Revenue Builders Podcast hosted by John McMahon and John Kaplan they engage in a captivating conversation with Cedric Pech, the Chief Revenue Officer at MongoDB. Cedric shares insightful experiences and lessons learned in transitioning from a VP role to a CRO position, focusing on the challenges of managing global teams, fostering purpose-driven leadership, and creating a unified vision that motivates teams beyond just financial incentives. The discussion delves into the significance of purpose in motivating teams, navigating the complexities of global leadership, and distinguishing between mercenaries and patriots in an organization.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:00:59] Transitioning from VP to CRO: Managing global teams brings a shift in scale, complexity, and the need for a different leadership approach.[00:04:26] Purposeful Leadership: Articulating a collective vision and values fosters team alignment and motivation, especially during challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic.[00:08:15] Building a Vision: Leaders need to emphasize a compelling, meaningful vision that transcends mere financial gains to inspire loyalty and dedication in their teams.[00:12:26] Patriots vs. Mercenaries: Creating a culture of patriots, driven by a shared vision and purpose, sustains resilience in tough times compared to organizations reliant solely on financial incentives.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:04:26] "The moment you start asking [why am I doing what I'm doing], then you start needing to dig into yourself and do some introspection to come up with answers."[00:06:16] "If you don't go beyond execution and don't explain to your people why they need to excel, they start feeling it's a grinding organization, not very inspiring."[00:12:26] "Great leaders build patriots versus mercenaries. Tough times reveal the difference in cultures, where patriots stay dedicated to the 'why' amidst challenges."Listen to the full episode with Cedric Pech through this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/episode-20-cedric-pechsuccess-is-a-marathon-with-cedric-pechCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4Check out Force Management’s Ascender platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/ Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

JP Bolen is the VP of Global Sales at Rubrik. He has a wealth of experience in sales and sales leadership, having worked at various companies such as Wallace Computer, PTC, Primo, Blade Logic, BMC Software, Dynamic Ops, VMware, ClearSlide, MongoDB, and ThoughtSpot.In this episode, JP emphasizes the importance of sales enablement and the three types of training: onboarding, ongoing, and field training. He shares his experience in implementing a comprehensive onboarding program at Rubrik, which includes interactive classes and real-life scenarios to help new hires become conversationally fluent in the problems Rubrik solves. JP also explains the concept of "winning the stage" in the sales process and how Rubrik measures conversion rates between different stages to identify areas for improvement. The conversation also touches on the significance of having a compelling point of view (POV) when engaging with customers and the role of continuous learning in sales success.Tune in to this conversation with John McMahon and John Kaplan on the Revenue Builders podcast.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:08:43] JP's initial perception of enablement and his transition into the role[00:09:50] Introduction to Rubrik's onboarding training challenges[00:13:00] A deconstructed approach to onboarding was implemented for better learning.[00:15:59] Onboarding is structured into three tracks for scalability and continuous learning.[00:18:04] The first track focuses on value-based conversations and messaging.[00:19:41] Importance of leaders following up and providing support[00:25:12] Empathy, listening, questioning, and curiosity in discovery[00:28:30] "Change the Game" initiative to drive mindset shift[00:37:39] Stage 1: Identifying pain, stakeholders, quantifying pain, developing champions[00:39:18] Stage 2: Creating a plan, technical validation, financial conversation[00:40:23] Importance of stage 1 and finding the real champion[00:43:12] Focus on understanding how deals got to their current stage[00:44:08] Importance of quantifying pain and understanding why they have to buy[00:45:17] Difficulty in conversion between stage 1 and 2[00:46:15] Implementing friction and champion go/no-go in stage 1 and 2[00:48:00] The importance of answering the 4 essential questions for success[00:49:17] Example of adding information to the framework[00:51:11] Initial challenges faced and the need for a common framework[00:53:55] Training reps to go into accounts with a compelling point of viewADDITIONAL RESOURCESLearn more about JP Bolen:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpbolen/Download our Sales Transformation Guide for Leaders: https://forc.mx/3sdtEZJHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:05:11] “The single most important metric inside a company is sales productivity. You have quota, a product, and how well you perform against the quota. The variables and leverage points are obviously who you hire because that's going to dictate a lot. But once you get them in, it's how quickly they can actually understand the customer's problems, the things that customers are going through, the pains they have, and how well you differently address those problems and become productive with the skills and execution.”[00:57:10] “I remember you and I spoke a lot before I took this role. I talked to Grant Wilson a lot. At one point, I was talking to Grant about the things that we were doing. I was explaining to save the data. I was explaining these different pieces. And he said, ‘You're not enabling, like you're not just enabling, you're transforming, you're doing sales transformation inside of the company.’” Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode of The Revenue Builders Podcast, hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan dive deep into the critical role of the CFO in sales deals, especially in uncertain times. Michael Cremen joined us when he was the CSO of Elastic. The discussion revolves around the importance of understanding and addressing the CFO factor, failing fast, and asking the hard questions. The episode provides valuable insights for sales professionals on navigating financial implications, engaging champions effectively, and using strategic language to secure deals.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:00:36] Competing Beyond Competitors: Salespeople must recognize they're not just competing against direct competitors but against all the other potential investments the CFO could make.[00:01:44] Stacking Up Against Priorities: The real competition lies in how your cost justification compares to all the other initiatives the CFO is juggling.[00:03:24] The Timing Dilemma: Discussion on whether to go early and seek advice or go late and face critique from CFOs. Emphasis on the importance of early engagement and seeking guidance before formal proposals.[00:05:08] Champion Dynamics: The significance of going with a champion and the potential pitfalls of leaving them out of crucial conversations with CFOs.[00:07:36] Strategic Language: The hosts and Michael Kremen discuss the importance of using precise language that conveys the value proposition and justifies the presence of the sales team at the CFO level.[00:09:28] Embracing Paranoia: Encouragement for sales teams to be paranoid and vigilant, especially when dealing with high-stakes deals and engaging CFOs.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:08:18] "The best sales teams on the planet are paranoid, like viciously paranoid. If you think it's going to sail through and everything's fine, be careful, be paranoid."[00:10:09] "People rarely argue with their own conclusions. When you ask them to walk you through a scenario and they realize that they've just answered the question, it just makes it a lot easier."[00:11:38] "It needs to be in their language, in their parameters. If you're forcing your goals, the way you read things, the way you're measured onto your customers, they don't understand it."Listen to the full episode with Michael Cremen through this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/connecting-to-value-with-michael-cremenCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4Check out Force Management’s Ascender platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/ Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Harsha Jalihal is the Chief People Officer at MongoDB. She has a background in HR and has worked in various leadership roles at companies like Cognizant and Unilever.In this episode, Harsha emphasizes the importance of balancing the needs of the business with the needs of the employees. She discusses the role of different departments in driving business outcomes and highlights the significance of understanding human behavior and motivations. Harsha also emphasizes the role of trust in building strong relationships and the importance of authenticity and transparency in leadership. She shares insights on managing conflicts, setting clear expectations, and addressing stress and burnout, particularly among salespeople.Tune in to this conversation with John McMahon and John Kaplan on the Revenue Builders podcast.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:03:01] Balancing the needs of the business and employees[00:08:55] Understanding individual employee motivations[00:12:59] Embracing reality and being direct leads to success[00:15:48] The power of being honest and authentic as a leader[00:18:06] Trusting gut instincts and giving people space and time[00:22:23] Importance of giving feedback to employees about performance issues[00:29:11] Enjoyment of work environment and culture impacts employee retention[00:39:20] Trust is built through credibility, reliability, and selflessness[00:47:38] Handling conflicting motivations and emphasizing the bigger objective[00:55:00] Employee motivations in a changing economyADDITIONAL RESOURCESLearn more about Harsha Jalihal:https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshajalihal/Download our Sales Transformation Guide for Leaders: https://forc.mx/3sdtEZJHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:51:59] "It's how their words land. The impact they're having is what causes the problem. Sometimes you have to help them see how they are showing up, how the other person is perceiving it. Because when you're in the moment, you don't see it, but a 3rd person watching this interaction between 2 people can see it."[00:57:28] "I think employees are starting to look for slightly different things. Now, even in the technology industry, you talk to our recruiters. They'll tell you simple things like they want just what they just want stability because they've seen so much upheaval up and down. They want to work for a company that is still growing as opposed to a company that's laying people off." Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode of The Revenue Builders Podcast, join hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan as they explore the multifaceted world of sales champions with veteran sales leader and author Richard Rivera. Discover the nuances of champion dynamics, including the often-overlooked aspect of bias for action. Rivera breaks down the four champion tendencies—Complacent, Teaser, Protector, and Transformer—revealing strategies to navigate each and ensure successful deals.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:01:02] Understanding the Bias for Action: Richard Rivera introduces the concept of bias for action in champions, emphasizing its crucial role in sales success.[00:02:29] The Defining Characteristics of a Champion: The importance of champions not just having power and influence but actively taking action on behalf of the salesperson.[00:03:36] Dimensions of Champion Tendencies: Rivera introduces a framework with two dimensions—appreciation for innovation and bias for action—to categorize champions into four tendencies.[00:05:59] The Protector Tendency: Exploring champions who take action but lean towards risk-averse decisions, and how to navigate objections from such individuals.[00:06:38] The Transformer: Rivera's favorite tendency, champions who prioritize innovation and have a bias for action, but with potential pitfalls. Strategies for dealing with Transformers in the sales process.[00:08:44] Selling in a Collective Yes Environment: Acknowledging the shift towards collective decision-making and the challenge of navigating the intricacies of multiple decision-makers and influencers.[00:11:19] Becoming the Protector: When dealing with Transformers, the importance of assuming a protector role—anticipating risks and ensuring a smooth decision-making process.[00:12:48] Early Challenges with Transformers: Highlighting the risk of Transformers going too early to the economic buyer and losing the deal due to lack of preparation.[00:14:37] What We Heard Concept: Introducing a mature approach to address potential conflicts with Transformers by referring back to shared understandings and perspectives.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:03:16] "If they're not taking action, they are not being a champion for us."[00:06:18] "Recognize who you have and then fill their gaps."[00:09:10] "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with."[00:13:46] "What we heard is a mature way to address potential conflicts."Here are the links to our full episodes with Richard Rivera: Part 1: https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/developing-buyer-champions-with-richard-rivera-part-1Part 2: https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/developing-elite-sales-habits-with-richard-rivera-part-2Check out Richard Rivera’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/CHAMPION-SELL-L-I-T-Building-Champions/dp/B0BV415V9M/ref=sr_1_1Check out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4Check out Force Management’s Ascender platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/ Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode of The Revenue Builders Podcast hosted by John McMahon and John Kaplan, Kelly Connery delved into the nuances of transitioning into leadership roles, specifically focusing on the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) position. Kelly shares invaluable insights from his extensive experience in various leadership positions, offering crucial advice on leadership, team alignment, and global perspectives crucial for success in the CRO role.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:01:10] Transitioning to Leadership: Moving from a singular contributor to a manager requires a shift from a selfish mindset to a selfless one, focusing on team success over individual achievements.[00:02:33] Embracing Coaching: Finding fulfillment in guiding and coaching the team often marks a natural progression for effective leadership.[00:03:51] Emphasis on Fundamentals: Emotional connection to the fundamentals is a key indicator of an individual's potential to excel as a coach or leader.[00:04:30] Realities of the CRO Role: Moving into a CRO position involves seeking alignment with the board, understanding growth objectives, leveraging technology, and comprehending global perspectives.[00:07:33] Decision-Making and Managing Influences: Handling situations where multiple stakeholders offer conflicting advice and ultimately making decisions as a CRO.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:01:28] "It's not about certain individuals. It's all about the team."[00:03:51] "If they're emotionally connected to fundamentals, they're typically going to be a really good coach."[00:05:59] "Look for alignment. Challenges will come, but without alignment, it's going to be difficult."[00:07:33] "You have to make a decision. Get all these people whispering in your ear, and the buck stops with you."Listen to the full episode with Kelly Connery through this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/the-art-of-selfless-leadership-with-kelly-conneryCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4Check out Force Management’s Ascender platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/ Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Join hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan in a profound exploration of Product-Led Growth (PLG) and its seamless integration with traditional sales strategies. Guest expert Alex Bilmes, CEO of Endgame, shares practical insights and strategies for revenue leaders aiming to leverage product data to supercharge their sales efforts. Discover how PLG, far from being a threat to sales, serves as a force multiplier when intelligently integrated. Gain valuable perspectives on aligning product signals with conversion and expansion, making sales teams more efficient, and navigating the evolving landscape of modern go-to-market strategies.Tune in and learn more in this episode of the Revenue Builders podcast.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:04:10] Understanding PLG Spectrum[00:05:54] Product Suitability for PLG[00:09:38] PLG Implementation Questions[00:13:28] Sales Integration with PLG[00:22:32] Ownership of PLG[00:35:11] Implementing PLG[00:43:42] Endgame's Role[00:46:39] Implementation Process[00:49:06] Standard Product Signals[00:55:30] Navigating Uncertain EconomiesADDITIONAL RESOURCESLearn more about Alex Bilmes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bilmes/Download our Sales Transformation Guide for Leaders: https://forc.mx/3sdtEZJHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:02:24] "The definition of PLG is effectively that the product is the primary driver of your go-to-market."[00:06:19] "Calendly is a prototypical, very easy-to-get-started-with PLG example. The product would be so great that people could just come in and use it."[00:10:59] "We see a huge opportunity for a PLG company who's done some amount of that work already. How do you better tie in the sales efforts to accelerate the sales process using a lot of that product data?"[00:24:20] "In a PLG motion, everybody's interfacing on the same product data. So that entire team is operating against that shared source of truth, which makes it more multi-threaded, maybe a little bit more complex, but also easier for the customer to understand." Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode of The Revenue Builders Podcast hosted by John McMahon and John Kaplan, Chris Reising, a five-time Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) with extensive experience in scaling sales at early-stage tech companies, shares invaluable insights into the challenges and strategies involved in scaling sales functions for startups. From finding product-market fit to hiring the right sales reps and understanding the importance of pain points, this conversation provides a comprehensive guide for entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:01:17] In the early stages of a startup, you must wear multiple hats, including being a product manager and a sales professional. Understanding the ICP and gathering customer insights are crucial.[00:02:31] The early days of a startup involve learning every day, attending sales meetings, understanding objections, and identifying the value your technology brings. Effective communication with the product team is key.[00:04:05] Investor relations play a significant role. Early-stage investors look for different data points, and their feedback can be invaluable in understanding market signals.[00:06:11] The importance of prioritizing technology components based on customer pain points and the potential to generate immediate revenue.[00:07:44] Recognizing a recurring pattern in sales discussions where customers react positively to specific functionalities is a sign of repeatability and scalability.[00:09:05] Founders who want to remain deeply involved in the sales process need guidance on when to step back. It's a common challenge in early-stage startups.[00:12:42] Breaking down a grand vision into bite-sized chunks of value that address specific business problems is crucial for achieving repeatability and market success.[00:13:30] Expanding the vision is essential but keeping the framework simple enough for the market and sales team to understand and execute is key to early-stage success.[00:13:50] The importance of focusing sales efforts on the most productive areas and avoiding the mistake of spreading sales teams too thin.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:06:56] "When you start to recognize a recurring pattern...you start to say, 'Now I have some sense of repeatability,' and that's really important."[00:10:08] "There's a huge difference between a first and second-time founder...you need to help them understand that stepping away is an important part of growing the business."[00:13:01] "Recognize you've got to break that big vision down into bite-sized chunks that can be digested by your go-to-market team and by the market, by customers."[00:13:30] "Where are we going to place our salespeople? Where are they going to be the most productive? That's really a key point."Listen to the full episode with Chris Reisig in this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/building-a-scalable-culture-with-chris-reisigCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4Check out Force Management’s Ascender platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/ Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Devdutt Yellurkar is a managing partner at CRV and has a wealth of experience as a sales VP, CEO, and venture capitalist. He has worked with several successful startups and has a deep understanding of the sales process and building successful companies. Devdutt is also a co-founder of the VC fund named Propeller, which focuses on investing in companies that address climate change.In this conversation with John McMahon, Devdutt shares his insights on how his experience in sales has helped him as a CEO and venture capitalist. He discusses the importance of sales in building a company and the role of a CEO in selling the company's vision. He talks about making hiring mistakes and how sales has changed with the speed of new technologies and new sales models. Devdutt emphasizes the need for empathy and non-judgmental support when working with founders and the importance of persistence in achieving success. Finally, he discusses the impact of climate change and how venture capital can be a powerful tool in addressing this global issue.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:08:10] The importance of selling as a CEO[00:11:11] Selling enterprise software and the importance of storytelling[00:11:53] Jack Welch admitted to making hiring mistakes as a CEO.[00:14:48] Forecasting in sales helped in forecasting as a CEO.[00:16:49] Pipeline coverage is key to mitigating deal slippage.[00:19:03] Tough experiences provide valuable lessons for growth.[00:27:01] Implementation of sales methodology and importance of qualification.[00:30:51] Importance of being a grandparent, not a parent, as a board member.[00:44:04] The power of persistence in achieving success.[01:04:48] Propeller VC fund was started to address climate change.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESLearn more about Devdutt Yellurkar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devduttyellurkar/Download our Sales Transformation Guide for Leaders: https://forc.mx/3sdtEZJHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:54:15] "Because you want your resource, your best resources are actually focused on taking a pro license and moving it to a strategic relationship, because that's when emotional intelligence is needed."[01:04:23] "You can't just be a sales guy because, you know, as we discussed earlier, a lot of this is around product market fit. And that is a lot through kind of understanding the market, understanding your customer. Understanding technology." Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode of The Revenue Builders Podcast hosted by John McMahon and John Kaplan, Anne Gary, Managing Director at Force Management, dive into the crucial topic of identifying and understanding champions in the sales process. They explore the differences between business champions and technical champions, the significance of the power chart, and the role of coaches. Discover how to distinguish between these key players, the indicators to look for when meeting potential champions, and the importance of aligning with individuals who have both authority and influence within an organization.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:01:21] Start with an organization chart to understand the hierarchy, reporting structure, and positional authority within an organization.[00:02:33] Identify not only positional authority but also influence within the organization, as influence plays a crucial role in decision-making.[00:03:44] Just because someone holds a position in the organization doesn't guarantee their influence in the sales process, especially with the economic buyer.[00:04:30] Look for change agents on the "power chart" who have a track record of making a positive impact on the organization.[00:06:02] Influence and authority are independent of hierarchy; influential champions can be found at various organizational levels.[00:07:23] Business champions focus on articulating positive business outcomes, while technical champions possess deep domain expertise.[00:10:10] Champions provide access to the economic buyer's power, which is essential for controlling the decision process.[00:12:26] Coaches offer valuable insights and guidance but may lack the authority and influence to access the economic buyer.[00:13:40] Continuously test conversations to identify whether you're developing a technical champion or a champion with the necessary business acumen.[00:15:11] Business champions address substantial business problems "above the noise" and speak in terms of business outcomes.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:03:44] "Just because somebody has positional authority in a company, we can't automatically conclude that they have power in the organization over a potential decision to buy our software."[00:04:30] "Start by looking for change agents on the 'power chart,' individuals who have made a positive impact on the organization in the past."[00:07:23] "Business champions focus on articulating positive business outcomes, while technical champions possess deep domain expertise."[00:10:10] "You really know you're in control when you have a champion that's selling on your behalf, helping you control the decision criteria in terms of influence."[00:15:11] "Business champions address substantial business problems 'above the noise' and speak in terms of business outcomes."Listen to the full episode with Anne Gary in this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/finding-your-champion-with-anne-garyListen to the episode we did with Anne Gary on Economic Buyers here: https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/getting-to-the-economic-buyer-with-anne-garyCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4Check out Force Management’s Ascender Platform: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/ Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Paul Ohls is the Chief Revenue Officer at Sprinklr. He has had a successful career in sales leadership, working at companies like Aerotech, Ariba, NuScale, Zillent, Lattice Engines, Medallia, Fuse, tenfold, and now Sprinklr.In this conversation with John McMahon, Paul shares his insights on sales leadership and the importance of hiring the right people. He emphasizes the need for intelligent, driven, and coachable individuals who can ask insightful questions and think critically. Paul also discusses the challenges of forecasting and the importance of focusing on the fundamentals. He highlights the value of understanding the customer's pain points and aligning the solution with their objectives. Additionally, Paul emphasizes the need for a strong pipeline and the importance of conversion rates in driving sales success.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:02:11] - Overview of Sprinkler and its purpose[00:07:16] - Testing for key characteristics in potential hires[00:24:23] - Focus on testing and optimizing fundamentals in the sales process[00:30:06] - Enabling the team to have a realistic view of their forecast[00:35:45] - Considering the stage of new deals and their likelihood of closing[00:38:56] - Diagnosing reasons for consistently high forecasts.[00:40:12] - Implicated pain and alignment with decision criteria indicate a committable deal.[00:42:07] - Differentiating recruiting process through sales manager pipeline generation.[00:44:35] - Using a simulation exercise to assess candidate skills and fit.[00:54:40] - Key KPIs for decision-making: leading indicators and conversion rates.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESLearn more about Paul Ohls: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulohls/overlay/about-this-profile/Download our Sales Transformation Guide for Leaders: https://forc.mx/3sdtEZJHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:19:38] "If you've done the right things and you truly are connected to a corporate objective, if you think about the concept of a value pyramid, those handful of things that are at the top of that value pyramid, oftentimes the things that the C level CEO has promised Wall Street, has promised investors. We aspire to go from X to Y. We are making acquisitions. We got to monetize those acquisitions, those acquisitions, these, these big things. If you have started there and your solution is you can make a direct correlation between what you are working with your champion on. To the inability of a company to deliver upon those things at the top of the value pyramid, the CFO meeting should be relative, like a relatively easy thing to do." - Paul Ohls[00:55:34] “What we ask our leaders to do is we call it sales manager or sales leader PG. So we're asking pipeline generation. For those that don't know what that means. We ask sellers and other people in the ecosystem to dedicate time. To go build their pipeline on future deals, block out the world, spend your time doing this set of work in a defined period every single week." - Paul Ohls Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode of The Revenue Builders Podcast hosted by John McMahon and John Kaplan, Snowflake's CRO Chris Degnan delves into the pivotal decisions and strategies that led Snowflake to its incredible growth. Chris shares insights into recognizing key moments and adapting to changing market dynamics. From selling to large enterprises to navigating the shift to the cloud, Chris provides valuable lessons on scaling a successful business.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:00:53] The pivotal moment when Capital One became a game-changer for Snowflake's growth.[00:02:21] Identifying an ideal customer profile and how it reshaped Snowflake's strategy.[00:03:06] Mechanically expanding the addressable market and pursuing a larger customer base.[00:06:40] Balancing the rapid expansion of the addressable market while maintaining focus and not overextending.[00:08:40] Adapting to changes and reorganizing the sales team to effectively target large enterprises.[00:10:32] The importance of adaptability, coachability, and a willingness to try new strategies.[00:12:40] The significance of understanding your company's culture and capabilities before making major changes.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:01:19] "We got something, and it was a lot of work because they wanted us to do more engineering work than we originally planned."[00:04:43] "You can't build a business on just the large enterprise. Getting new logos matters."[00:05:53] "The competition can't help them vacate the data center; Snowflake can."[00:07:28] "You can't sell to the large enterprise the same way you're selling to small and medium businesses."[00:09:24] "What worked before doesn't mean it's going to work forever."[00:10:50] "You gotta figure out, is this game-changing? How do you balance it and understand what you have in the kitchen before bringing something new?"[00:12:40] "Before you decide to remodel, figure out what's in the kitchen first."Listen to the full episode with Chris Degnan in this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/scaling-and-growth-with-chris-degnanCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4Check out Force Management’s Ascender platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/ Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Pawan Deshpande is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, and a Head of Product & Growth at Linea. He has founded multiple successful companies, including Curata, a content marketing and analytics software company. Pawan has extensive experience in customer success and has implemented a critical care framework to improve customer retention and satisfaction.Pawan shares his experience with customer success and introduces the concept of critical care, a proactive approach to customer support. He discusses the four distinct ways companies handle customer success: reactive support, onboarding, business reviews, and critical care. Pawan emphasizes the importance of a culture of ownership within the customer success team and the need for proactive monitoring of customer health. He also highlights the role of instrumentation and telemetry in detecting issues and setting appropriate thresholds. Pawan concludes by discussing the mindset shift required for effective customer success and the potential for upselling within the customer success role.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:05:11] Discussion of the challenges faced by Curata and the need for a culture change[00:07:28] The importance of breaking down silos between customer success, sales, and product/engineering teams[00:09:00] Creating collaboration between customer success and sales through pod structures[00:10:36] Outcome-oriented goal setting for customer success teams[00:11:01] Reactive support is like urgent care for customers[00:16:58] Building instrumentation and telemetry into the product is important[00:31:04] Importance of setting up thresholds for customer intervention[00:38:21] Incentivizing customer success team through variable compensation[00:41:42] Customer success is more important than sales for sustaining a business[00:46:30] Client success should be involved in upsells, but may need partnershipADDITIONAL RESOURCESLearn more about Pawan Deshpande: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pawandeshpande/How to Make QBRs Valuable for Your Customers: https://forc.mx/3s1Q3JzBecome a Must-Have Solution for Customers in Any Economy: https://forc.mx/45ZRo1zHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:06:36] So what I did is I pulled my desk into the customer success room. And it was really eye-opening when I pulled up a desk in there and I would just work out of there and hear the conversations. What I really heard was a culture of futility. - Pawan Deshpande[00:10:18] And that's like the impetus for critical care. That was one of the key instrumentations we had was detecting if someone hasn't used the product for 14 days, then we kind of swarmed the customer and tried to revive the account. - Pawan Deshpande[00:22:37] And just on the usage, you know, that was particular to us and not all companies are like that. Our product is more like a gym membership. If you don't go to the gym every day, you're probably not going to show up ever again. - Pawan Deshpande Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode of The Revenue Builders Podcast hosted by John McMahon and John Kaplan, growth executive Jim Baum, who has more than 25 years of experience in growing and managing cutting-edge tech businesses, shares his insights into what makes great leadership in the world of entrepreneurship and startup growth. The conversation delves into the significance of a leader's unwavering belief, perseverance, and the importance of market research. Jim's anecdotes and wisdom provide valuable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:02:13] - Leader's belief is crucial for early-stage company success.[00:04:46] - Perseverance can turn setbacks into major victories.[00:07:26] - Beware of blind belief; seek evidence and adapt.[00:11:20] - Primary market research is vital for success.[00:15:01] - Entrepreneurship demands perseverance, intelligence, and a touch of "craziness."HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:02:13] "The belief, the conviction, the strength of the founder or founders is just not to be underestimated as a force for building the company."[00:04:46] "They just needed more time. The market wasn't quite ready. The messaging wasn't quite right. And their perseverance carried it through, turned into a great return for the investors, a great return for the founders, and a big win."[00:07:26] "It's sometimes easy to get caught up in the belief. So you do have to look for evidence and you do have to look for what are we going to do differently to make things turn around here in cases where it's not going well."[00:15:01] "It takes a pretty special kind of mindset to be successful as an entrepreneur. I think that mindset is one of perseverance, a deep belief, and maybe just enough of the craziness to make it happen."Listen to the full episode with Jim Baum in this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/the-entrepreneurial-mindset-with-jim-baumCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4Check out Force Management’s Ascender platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/ Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Leslie Venetz is a corporate sales trainer and sales-led GTM consultant. She has made over 100,000 cold calls, was a 3x Head of Sales & is now the Founder of Sales Team Builder. Leslie uses her expertise to help teams talk WITH their prospects instead of AT them. She is an active content Creator with over 60,000 followers. She has posted daily on LinkedIn for over 1000 days & is a LinkedIn Top Voice. Leslie was also the first B2B sales creator on TikTok posting under @‌SalesTipsTok. ‌Leslie co-authored the book Heels to Deals: How Women are Dominating in B2B Sales. She is passionate about transforming sales into an inclusive, respected profession.Leslie shares her expertise on cold calling. She emphasizes the importance of treating cold calling as a craft and using it as part of a multi-channel outreach strategy. Leslie provides tips on how to maximize success before making a cold call, including creating a segmented and niche list and conducting research on the prospect's business challenges. She also discusses the elements of a compelling cold call pitch and the importance of curiosity, conversation, and conclusion in handling objections. Leslie advises on the best practices for follow-up calls and offers insights on the ideal time to make cold calls.Tune in and learn more in this episode of The Revenue Builders.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:03:24] Definition of cold calling and its relevance in sales[00:07:25] Conducting research on ideal customers and their pain points[00:13:14] Creating ways to make it easy for customers to get value[00:24:59] Introduction to the topic of curiosity[00:27:00] The value of keeping the conversation going[00:30:10] Using curiosity to continue the conversation on cold calls[00:39:19] Using a game-changing question to increase close rates[00:46:06] Guidelines for follow-up calls and adding value[00:51:58] Asking for referral if not the right person[01:02:09] ConclusionADDITIONAL RESOURCESJoin Leslie at her Outbound Sales Masterclass in Tampa November 7th.https://www.eventbrite.com/e/outbound-sales-masterclass-with-leslie-venetz-nikki-ivey-tampa-nov-7-tickets-701193597927Download her FREE Objection Deck for Cold Callers:https://hubs.ly/Q01_NGRj0Learn more about Leslie Venetz through this link.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslievenetz/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:14:44] "The number one most important thing about cold calling is confidence."[00:17:06] "The goal isn't to overcome the objection via email. The goal is to get curious and learn something."[00:25:27] "The number one most important thing that you can do when you hear an objection is just try to keep the conversation going."[00:49:27] "The reason for following up is never just to follow up and just to check in because that gives exactly no value to the person that we're speaking with." Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode, we dive deep into the world of sales leadership with veteran sales leader Andy Byron. We discussed critical aspects of sales scaling, including ideal customer profile alignment, pipeline metrics, and the cost of a bad hire. Andy shares invaluable insights on what it takes to build a successful sales organization and the common pitfalls to avoid. Whether you're a seasoned sales professional or an aspiring leader, this episode offers practical advice for achieving sustainable revenue growth.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:01:08] Define your ideal customer profile to target the right audience effectively.[00:02:10] Avoid blindly copying strategies; adapt to your unique market and product.[00:03:15] Lessons from Andy's experience: Choose your target market, Embrace adaptability, and Surround yourself with supportive, challenging peers.[00:06:33] Blend art and science in sales leadership; establish fact-based decisions, hiring profiles, and productivity models.[00:08:14] Take responsibility for developing team members, ensuring their success.[00:10:00] Focus on leading indicators to build predictability and sustainable growth in sales.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:00:51] "You have to be very smart about developing an ideal customer profile where your differentiators really align with the pain that the customer has."[00:02:37] "Sometimes I've seen where there's a brand new CEO and they're influenced by venture capitalists who never have ever scaled the sales force themselves..."[00:04:37] "Surround yourself with great people that have the same desired outcome in mind... constantly challenge each other, support each other and push each other to get there with good intentions."[00:10:57] "When you can get Sally successful and you can repeat that time and time and time again across these leading indicators, it becomes a really predictable business that can outpace the rest of the market."Listen to the full episode with Andy Byron in this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/tactical-advice-for-scaling-sales-organizations-with-andy-byronCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4Check out Force Management’s Ascender platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/ Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Brian Halligan, former CEO, and co-founder and executive chairperson of HubSpot, is a visionary leader who revolutionized marketing with the concept of "inbound marketing." His tenure as CEO, until 2021, was marked by consistent recognition on Glassdoor's and Comparably's lists of best CEOs. Brian's influence extends beyond HubSpot; he is an esteemed educator, teaching MIT's Scaling Entrepreneurial Ventures class for over a decade and receiving the Monosson Prize for his mentorship in entrepreneurship. In addition to his educational endeavors, he directs a $100 million climate tech venture fund at Propeller Ventures, serves on the boards of Navier and Aquatic Labs, and is deeply involved in preserving the legacy of the Grateful Dead. Brian's journey began with a BSEE from the University of Vermont, leading him to executive roles at PTC and Groove Networks, which later merged with Microsoft. Brian Halligan shares his journey of building HubSpot and the evolution of the inbound marketing methodology. He emphasizes the importance of international expansion and the challenges of scaling a company. Brian also discusses the concept of "grinding it out" and the need for continuous improvement. In addition, he talks about his new venture, Propeller, a fund that invests in companies working on climate and ocean-related solutions.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:01:41] Brian Halligan shares the story of how he came up with the idea of inbound.[00:05:27] Sales experience at PTC helped in building HubSpot.[00:09:45] Grinding it out and no magic moments in company growth.[00:10:23] Setbacks and unforced errors on the road to success.[00:11:12] The creation of the "pothole report" to avoid future mistakes.[00:14:28] Decision to go long and not sell HubSpot.[00:19:05] Changes made in marketing, sales, service, and product organizations.[00:21:28] The importance of constantly refining the ideal customer profile.[00:26:40] Maturity level and skillset needed for different stages of the company.[00:32:10] Don't hire too far ahead in their career.[00:46:12] The importance of having a good co-founder[00:53:51] Starting Propeller VC with a focus on climate changeHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:09:45] "Every time we put in a new system, let's say a new HR system. I start my watch the day we make the decision on whatever system or process we put in because within three years, it's going to break."[00:52:55] "And if you're wrong on a couple in a row, that's the problem. You know, being right is underrated and people talk a lot in the startup world about failing fast and all that being right is really underrated."ADDITIONAL RESOURCESLearn more about Brian Halligan through this link.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianhalligan/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Veteran sales leader Carlos Delatorre joins Revenue Builders for a conversation into pipeline generation and the essential skills and metrics that sales leaders should monitor. Carlos shares his experience in building a sophisticated pipeline generation machine at MongoDB, highlighting the complexity of open source software sales. He emphasizes the importance of conducting thorough research on target accounts and tailoring messages to different personas. The discussion also covers key metrics such as net new meetings and visible opportunities, with Carlos providing insights into what constitutes a visible opportunity. Throughout the conversation, the importance of unambiguous exit criteria for each sales stage is emphasized as a crucial element of successful pipeline management.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:01:08] Pipeline Generation Is Crucial[00:02:02] Building a Sophisticated Pipeline Recipe[00:03:14] The Secret Sauce: PG Recipe[00:03:33] Managing a Large Pipeline[00:04:17] Key Metrics for Monitoring Sales[00:08:15] Importance of Clear Exit CriteriaHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:01:08] Pipeline Generation's Crucial Role - "I would say that I guess the thing that comes to mind the most is, um, pipeline generation." [00:03:14] The Secret Sauce of MongoDB's Success - "Over time, the PG recipe became a big part of the secret sauce for why that company was growing so quickly."[00:04:49] The Significance of Visible Opportunities - "The second really important metric is visible opportunities or scope stage opportunities."[00:08:40] The Power of Unambiguous Exit Criteria - "For each stage, you have unambiguous exit criteria."The full episode with Carlos Delatorre in this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/driving-a-sales-discipline-with-carlos-delatorreCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Keno Helmi is a five-time CRO with a wealth of experience in the technology industry. He has held leadership positions at companies such as PTC, HP, Digby, Duetto, Platform 9, and Pegasus. Currently, he serves as the CRO at Espressive.Keno discusses the importance of proof of value (POV) in the sales process. He explains that a POV is not just about validating the technology, but also about validating the business case. By setting clear success criteria and involving the economic buyer (EB) in the process, sales reps can increase the predictability of the outcome and improve their forecasting. Keno emphasizes the need for a champion to take the rep to the EB and highlights the importance of thorough qualification before engaging in a POV. He also shares best practices for running a successful POV, including defining objectives, setting clear success metrics, and involving the sales rep throughout the process. Keno concludes by discussing the importance of debriefing with the champion and presenting a comprehensive report or presentation to the EB after the POV.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:00:00] POC vs. POV: POC validates technology; POV validates both tech and business value.[00:05:19] Meeting the Economic Buyer is critical for authority and budget.[00:11:50] Don't do POCs too early; understand the customer's use case.[00:14:11] Champions expedite sales by taking you to the Economic Buyer.[00:18:17] POC should lead to a natural close, not put the customer in the market.[00:25:11] The go, no-go meeting with the Economic Buyer is decisive.[00:38:33] Share a comprehensive RFP or scoring template to guide the evaluation.[00:41:45] Leverage serendipitous visits from stakeholders to build additional champions.[00:43:29] Proactively bring in potential champions who may not be aware of the POV.[00:46:13] Actively engage during the POV, troubleshoot discreetly, and showcase successes.[00:48:16] Create a comprehensive report or presentation (Champion's Deck) summarizing technical and financial results.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:10:28] "You want to do a P.O.V. to increase the predictability of the outcome, improve your forecasting, and potentially grow the business value of the deal."[00:13:25] "That person has earned the right to be called a champion and not a prospective champion. You do not have the right to call that person a champion until that person takes you to the economic buyer."[00:15:11] "You want to ensure that your test plan is going to be the scoring mechanism by which all vendors are evaluated."ADDITIONAL RESOURCESConnect with Keno: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keno-helmi-74779329/More on Espressive: https://www.espressive.com/ Engineer Your Strongest SKO Yet: https://forc.mx/46BipZB Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode of the Revenue Builders podcast, hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan are joined by Mark Roberge, co-founder at Stage 2 Capital and Harvard Business School lecturer. The discussion revolves around scaling sales and building a disciplined hiring process. Mark shares his insights into hiring for sales and highlights the importance of context in shaping the ideal sales team. He emphasizes the need to create a hiring scorecard with attributes like coachability, intelligence, and curiosity. Mark also explains the role of role-playing in interviews and the significance of continuous evolution in the hiring process.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:01:52] Context matters in sales hiring, and there's no universal top sales hire profile.[00:02:41] The Role of Context in Sales Hiring[00:04:30] Creating a hiring scorecard with defined attributes is crucial for success.[00:08:14] Role plays are critical in assessing candidates' abilities during sales interviews.[00:11:37] The Ongoing Evolution of the Hiring ProcessHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:01:52] Context Matters in Sales Hiring - "I realized that there is no universal top sales, higher profile, but it's very contextual to your go to market context."[00:04:30] The Importance of a Hiring Scorecard - "What I did was I sat back, and I, like the first thing I did... like a low score? So we have this rubric, right?"[00:08:14] Role Plays in Sales Interviews - "I'll often like throw some curveball technical questions... they're uncomfortable."[00:11:37] Adaptability and Evolution in Hiring - "Your recruiting scorecard needs to evolve as your company evolves... and there's probably already a budget for your product."Listen to the full episode with Mark Roberge in this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/the-blueprint-for-a-sales-dream-team-with-mark-robergeCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

As Founder of Artisanal Talent, Andy is globally recognized for having helped build, and invest in, some of the most successful software startups in history. He has spent 26 years in the industry, built two companies as CEO in the exec search industry, and 2 years inside two of the top VC firms in the world (Redpoint and Index).He continues to work closely with, and learn from, the best VC’s in the history of the space: Mike Speiser (Snowflake Founding investor), Scott Raney (Twilio, Stripe, Hashi), Mike Volpi (Elastic, Pure, Confluent, etc.), Ravi Viswanathan (Plaid, MuleSoft), Eric Vishria (Confluent, Amplitude, Contentful, Benchling), Pat Grady (Zoom, SNOW, etc.), Hemant Taneja (Stripe, Livongo, Olive, etc.), among others. He worked for ~2 years at Index as an EIR, 1 at Redpoint as a Venture Partner, and has been fortunate to be a strategic Limited Partner of most of the top performing venture firms.In this interview, Andy discusses the world of recruiting and talent acquisition in the software industry. He shares the story behind the founding of his companies and how they connect capital and talent to help build iconic software companies. John and Andy delve into the changing landscape of recruiting, the importance of specialization, and the shift towards consultative recruiting. The conversation also explores the role of sales leaders in the recruiting process and the common misconceptions about replacing sales leaders as a company grows. Andy emphasizes the significance of owning the recruiting process and investing in talent acquisition.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:01:24] Introduction to Artisanal Ventures and Artisanal Talent.[00:04:36] Shifting search firms from transactional to contributing to a company's success.[00:10:47] Easy access to capital caused recruiting inefficiencies.[00:20:07] The four phases of company growth: product-market fit, deal stage, scale stage, and maturity stage.[00:24:08] We must plan for the future to avoid disruptions.[00:24:24] Balance between sales and implementing processes is crucial.[00:25:04] Continuity in leadership is vital for a company's stability.[00:25:18] Recruiting talent from large tech companies can be complex.[00:32:32] Sales leadership has become more complex and analytical.[00:45:22] Sales leaders should prioritize team cohesion over just increasing salaries.[00:47:37] Careful evaluation of the first CRO is critical for long-term growth.[00:53:01] The demand for enterprise sales expertise is rising.[01:03:34] AI can enhance candidate selection but won't replace human judgment.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:45:22] "Sales execs sometimes resort to being transactional, just offering more money, but that behavior eventually tarnishes the team's reputation and trust within the company." - Andy Price[00:47:37] "Proper evaluation of the first Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is crucial for sustained growth, and rushing this decision can lead to significant problems down the line." - John McMahon[00:53:01] "You have this gigantic industry-wide scramble for enterprise talent... It's all about efficiency, cost efficiency."[01:03:34] "I think as soon as the customer embraces how they would use technology to de-risk a hire, I think that's going to be a moment that's very similar."ADDITIONAL RESOURCESMore tips for handling an RFP as a seller: https://forc.mx/3ELMidQHow to stack customer requirements in your favor: https://forc.mx/48oUxdFLearn more about Andy through this link.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyprice1/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode of the Revenue Builders podcast, John McMahon and John Kaplan interview Navy SEAL veteran and VMware COO, Mike Hayes, about leadership and decision-making. Mike discusses the concept of dynamic subordination, where anyone in an effective team can take the lead based on their skills and the situation. He emphasizes the importance of leaders empowering others and creating a culture where individuals feel comfortable bringing up ideas and attempting challenging tasks. Mike also shares insights on learning, humility, and continuous improvement in leadership.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:00:28] Dynamic Subordination in Leadership[00:01:38] Leadership is About Making the Best Decision[00:05:29] Creating a Culture of Decision-Making[00:08:23] The Importance of Trying Hard Things[00:10:06] Continuous Learning and Humility in Leadership[00:04:05] Balancing Collaboration and Decision-Making[00:07:07] Fostering Idea Generation[00:09:10] Celebrating Effort and LearningHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:01:15] Leaders Gain Authority by Giving It Away - "I like to say leaders gain authority by giving it away."[00:08:23] The Power of Trying Hard Things - "Helping people lose the discomfort associated with trying hard things and not classically succeeding is what separates the high-performing elite teams from just the teams."[00:10:06] Continuous Learning and Humility in Leadership - "There's no end to it. It's a constant loop."[00:07:07] Creating a Culture of Idea Generation - "I start from a position of saying why might I be wrong instead of why am I absolutely right?"Listen to the full episode with Mike Hayes in this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/mission-meaning-and-impact-with-mike-hayesCheck out Mike Hayes’ book here:Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/3qU7cV6Check out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Scott Sinatra is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bountiful. Scott is a serial entrepreneur and former senior vice president of worldwide sales at Glassdoor. With deep industry knowledge in HR technology, Sinatra also served as a founding executive and head of go-to-market at Glint, which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2018In this interview, Scott shares his experience responding to an RFP during his time at BladeLogic. He discusses the importance of having a champion within the customer's organization, the need to influence the decision criteria in the RFP, and the value of training and understanding your product and competition. Scott also emphasizes the importance of making a go/no-go decision when evaluating an RFP and the need to prioritize activities that will lead to successHERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:01:26] Overview of Bountiful, a referral platform for recruiting[00:03:03] Explanation of how Bountiful works and how scouts can refer candidates[00:09:06] Formation of a committee and funding for the initiative[00:10:11] Surprise of receiving an RFP and the alignment with decision criteria[00:11:14] Conclusion of the RFP discussion and next steps[00:11:14] Scott offers to provide a test plan template for the RFP.[00:23:14] Addendum received with more details on problem to solve[00:24:41] Scott writes another letter declining to participate further[00:25:32] Scott receives a call from the company[00:26:12] Second addendum received with desired changes[00:35:42] Salespeople need to get buyers thinking about their solution[00:36:12] If you didn't write the RFP, your differentiators may not be included[00:37:31] Example of influencing criteria in an RFP to win a deal[00:44:59] Importance of managing the sales process for team success[00:45:40] Introduction and discussion about RFPsADDITIONAL RESOURCESMore tips for handling an RFP as a seller: https://forc.mx/3ELMidQHow to stack customer requirements in your favor: https://forc.mx/48oUxdFHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:17:49] “We can either play by somebody else's rules or we can change the game” - Scott Sinatra[00:24:54] "We really appreciate the time, but if this is the criteria you're going to use to make a decision, we're going to respectfully decline to participate further." - Scott Sinatra[00:33:07] "Understand how to set decision criteria. The shopping list of capabilities required to solve pain is fundamental. You need to know your products and services really well, as well as your competition's, so you can differentiate."[00:44:09] "This is a team sport. If you manage a sales process with the idea that you're going to make your team successful, they're going to appreciate that a lot. You'll build a lot of internal credibility, and they'll be more apt to want to help you." - Scott SinatraLearn more about Scott through this link.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-sinatra-b399312/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode, John McMahon and John Kaplan host Murray Demo, a seasoned CFO with a wealth of experience at renowned companies. Murray shares valuable insights on the transition from sales leader to business leader, emphasizing the need for aligning with company-level problems and becoming a strategic thinker. The discussion explores the ideal profile of a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) with a focus on business acumen and alignment with company goals. Murray also discusses the challenges of budgeting during economic downturns and the delicate balance between fiscal responsibility and agility. Key metrics for evaluating sales performance, including command of the business, pipeline management, and discounting, are highlighted. The episode concludes by addressing the burden of budgeting within organizations and the importance of aligning compensation programs with corporate strategies.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:00:50] Transition to Business Leadership[00:04:05] Aligning with Company Priorities[00:05:02] Adapting During Tough Times[00:16:06] Aligning Compensation with StrategyHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:00:50] Becoming Business Leaders - "The best sales leaders are actually business leaders. They've made a transition from carrying the bag and trying to make their number."[00:04:05] Sales and Business Strategy - "So how do my priorities or the company priorities get funded and does my team know that I utilize my seat at the table as well as I could to try to better the sales organization?"[00:05:02] Adapting During Tough Times - "When the recession hits, customers just don't have as much money to buy things. So you're going to have to pull back in marketing and you're going to have to pull back on sales."[00:16:06] Aligning Compensation with Strategy - "I think there has to be some thoughtfulness about how you transition from, you know, here's your quota. Here's what you can do on accelerators. It's all cash. To start mixing in more stock as you go."Listen to the full episode with Murray Demo in this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/leading-through-economic-challenges-with-murray-demoCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Jim Pouliopoulos, known to all as “Pouli” is a storyteller, professional speaker, author, and Senior Lecturer and Director of the Professional Sales Program at Bentley University. In July of 2020, his book, “How to be a WELL BEING: Unofficial Rules to LIVE Every Day”, was published by Wiley Publishing. It shares Pouli’s insights on bringing a happiness-first approach to business, education, and life. In his three TEDx Talks, he explores similar concepts and the question of what drives inner motivation and professional success. He is also a certified trainer for “The Art of Brilliance,” a UK-based firm that specializes in training and development to increase workplace wellbeing and personal positivity. He is a currently a Facilitator at Force Management.He is a self-proclaimed "recovering engineer." After earning two engineering degrees and an MBA, he left the corporate world behind and found true happiness and success as an educator, speaker, facilitator, and author.Pouli holds an MBA in Marketing from Bentley University, a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from RPI, and a Bachelor’s degree in EE from WPI.In this conversation with John McMahon, Pouli discusses the importance of happiness in business and life. He explains that happiness is not dependent on external circumstances but rather on our mindset and daily habits. Pouli emphasizes the need to focus on the process rather than the outcome and shares insights on how to minimize the impact of negativity bias. He also introduces the career satisfaction matrix and highlights the importance of finding enjoyment in our work.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:03:23] The gap between expectations and reality affects happiness[00:09:53] External circumstances should not determine happiness[00:13:39] Many people dwell on regrets and don't learn from them[00:17:13] Recognizing when negativity bias impacts our viewpoint[00:21:33] Importance of empathy and trust in sales conversations[00:26:01] Burnout from doing something well but not enjoying it[00:39:21] Gaining knowledge quickly vs. developing skills through practice[00:49:56] The importance of getting enough sleep[00:50:58] Focusing on daily actions rather than the end goal[00:53:39] Solution to many problemsHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:13:39] "Regret has always sort of been this early warning system that you're doing something against what you truly care about." - Jim "Pouli" Pouliopoulos[00:20:47] "If you just focus on things that are positive on a daily basis, you will be happier." - Jim "Pouli" Pouliopoulos[00:25:42] "If you do something well, but you don't enjoy doing it, it becomes drudgery." - Jim "Pouli" Pouliopoulos[00:32:32] "Mastery never means you stop learning." - Jim "Pouli" PouliopoulosLearn more about Jim "Pouli" Pouliopoulos through this link.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pouli/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode, hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan sit down with Jeremy Duggan, a seasoned sales leader with a track record of success. They delve into the challenges and strategies of building a sales team from scratch and inspiring them to achieve greatness. Jeremy emphasizes the importance of data, facts, and transparent leadership. He shares insights on the three R's of leadership, leading indicators for success, and the role of education and development in reaching sales goals. The episode highlights the value of constant self-improvement and learning in the dynamic world of sales leadership.KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:01:09] Starting from Scratch and Inspiring Teams[00:01:51] Data and Facts in Leadership[00:02:03] Leading Indicators for Success[00:02:44] Education and Development[00:13:13] The Importance of Full Transparenc[00:13:38] Continuous Self-ImprovementHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:02:27] The Winning Lottery Numbers of Leadership - "What I say to people here is, when I talk to you about leadership and the three R's or the leading indicators in sales, what I'm actually doing is handing you the winning lottery numbers. All you've got to do is go down to the shop and buy a ticket."[00:05:41] The Importance of Inspection for Improvement - "Inspection is a mechanism for improvement because they know you have their best interest at heart."[00:09:18] Self-Coaching and Continuous Improvement - "I didn't really remember big mistakes, even though I know I've made loads of little ones because, for me, the whole point of making a mistake is immediately recognizing it, and then you figure out why you did it so you don't do it again." [00:11:28] Participate in Your Own Rescue - "You have to participate in your own rescue and have self-awareness and self-reflection. You don't wait for anybody to tell you or give you feedback. You give yourself the feedback first."Listen to the full episode with Jeremy Duggan in this link:https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/all-you-need-to-know-about-good-leadership-with-jeremy-dugganCheck out John McMahon’s book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Oliver Jay is a former Chief Revenue Officer of Asana and an advisor and leadership coach for various companies.In this conversation with John McMahon, Oliver Jay discusses the concept of product-led growth (PLG) and its impact on B2B sales. PLG is a methodology that focuses on using the product as the primary conduit for acquiring users, driving sales, and retaining customers. Oliver explains that PLG is effective for certain personas and products, but it requires careful planning and consideration as companies scale. He also highlights the importance of understanding the buyer's perspective and the need to articulate the value of the product in terms of revenue, profitability, and risk.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESWhat CROs Prioritize to Scale PLG Success: https://forc.mx/3LaTFPENavigating Product-Led Growth COmplexities: https://forc.mx/44CnwaBHERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:01:29] Oliver Jay's background and experience in PLG[00:06:41] Different models of PLG: self-service, product-led sales, freemium[00:07:59] Factors to consider in choosing the right PLG model[00:09:40] Steering customers towards the best PLG model[00:11:33] The benefits and ease of managing trials in PLG[00:13:02] Time to value as a key consideration in PLG model choice[00:13:46] Differentiating products for PLG vs. non-PLG.[00:23:19] Combination of PLG and sales-led growth for enterprise sales.[00:24:42] Building a multi-layered PLG business.[00:25:42] Challenges of transitioning to a traditional sales motion.[00:32:40] Major elements of a PLG system[00:48:23] PLG companies need to break down into granular components[00:56:46] Importance of product market fit for SLG[00:57:30] Selling to users vs. selling to buyers[00:58:56] Adding SLG motions is hard for PLG companiesHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:03:27] Oliver Jay: "PLG is an elegant model that uses the product as the primary conduit for acquiring users, driving sales, and increasing retention."[00:39:59] Oliver Jay: "PLG companies should view their self-serve and product-led sales teams as part of the same funnel, not as separate entities."[01:00:50] Oliver Jay: "PLG companies need to be aware that outbound sales is rarely the remedy to growth and should only be pursued when there is product-market fit for a top-down sales motion."Learn more about Oliver Jay through this link.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverjayleadership/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Terry Tripp is the Chief Revenue Officer of Tines, a high-growth company in the security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) space. With a background in sales and recruiting, Terry brings a wealth of experience to his role.In this conversation with John McMahon, Terry Tripp, CRO of Tines, discusses the importance of a well-defined sales process and the top three things he focuses on when starting a new role. He emphasizes the need to understand the people, get feedback from customers, and identify early opportunities for improvement. Terry also explains the concept of SOAR and how Tines is disrupting the cybersecurity market.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:02:01] Overview of Tines and its role in the cybersecurity market[00:06:16] Top three things a CRO wants to learn on day one[00:08:54] What a CRO wouldn't find when joining a startup[00:10:27] Importance of a well-defined sales process[00:18:24] The importance of thorough discovery before entering an account[00:19:23] Show up with an informed hypothesis and a provocative point of view[00:20:37] Researching competitors and industry challenges for a PPOV[00:22:11] Understanding the pressures faced by CIOs and CISOs.[00:22:44] Tailoring messaging based on industry and persona.[00:24:55] Moving from a general point of view to specific scoping.[00:33:03] Importance of KPIs and metrics.[00:33:15] Understanding wins and losses.[00:33:45] KPIs to monitor during the quarter and after the quarter ends.[00:35:13] The importance of fundamentals and hiring A players.[00:35:56] The significance of emotional intelligence (EQ) in sales roles.[00:46:35] Priorities for sales leaders: making the number, playbook, pipeline[00:47:59] Pitfalls of having a small pipeline and not qualifying deals[00:51:34] Learning from various role models and experiences in salesAdditional Resources:Connect with Terry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrytripp/Resources for Selling to the C Suite: https://forc.mx/3YTzfQMHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:13:21] Terry Tripp: “I think you've got to have things that you know that as you look across your deal portfolio, your pipeline, your current quarter forecast, next, next quarter forecast that you have confidence that if you see certain deals that are at a certain point in that process, if we're, you know, true to those, to those criteria and, and the stages along the way.”[00:16:55] Terry Tripp: “There's certain, it's somewhat in my experience. Depends a little bit on, on the, on the nature of the lead, if you will, the nature of the opportunity. If somebody is coming and knocking on our door, it's something that's more of an inbound. We probably have a slightly different qualification lens on that inbound opportunity. You know, what's driving it? Why are they coming to us? Try to understand a bit more about the problem they're trying to solve.”Learn more about Terry Tripp through this link.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrytripp/Website: https://www.tines.com/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In this episode of the Revenue Builders Podcast, we take a second look at some of our sales leader interviews over the past few months. This episode features lessons learned from three powerhouse revenue builders.Hear from Veteran Sales Leader Carlos Delatorre on hiring while you scale. Founding CRO of Procore Dennis Lyandres talks about leadership lessons learned and the hard reality of letting people go. And, Tenable Chief Operating Officer Mark Thurmond talks about Command and Control leadership and removing friction for your sales teams. HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:01:51] Carlos Delatorre shares a common mistake made by first-time sales managers.[00:05:57] The importance of assessing the readiness of leaders.[00:08:20] The challenges of scaling without the right leaders.[00:15:22] Taking care of oneself is crucial for making good decisions.[00:18:15] Importance of managing time and prioritizing tasks as a leader.[00:19:21] Paying attention to small actions to understand people better.[00:23:56] Dennis Lyandres discusses his journey in recruiting and training his team.[00:25:26] The importance of taking ownership in hiring.[00:26:44] The need to learn from failure in recruiting.[00:39:29] Communication, work ethic, becoming an SME, mentors[00:45:53] Mark's ability to simplify and remove obstacles for his team.[00:46:31] Mark's approach to removing friction in the system.[00:48:25] The importance of influential leadership over command and control leadership.[00:52:27] The power of persuasive power over positional power.[00:53:34] The importance of explaining the “why” to get people emotionally connected.[00:54:49] The impact of the why on successful M&A integration.[00:55:23] The focus on validating conviction over compliance in leadership. Learn more about our guests through the links below:Carlos Delatorre’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cadelatorre/Dennis Lyandres’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dlyandres/Mark Thurmond’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-thurmond-350a4628/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Dick Thomas is a sales consultant and founder of RW Consulting. He has over 25 years of experience in sales and has sold the largest deals in the history of four different companies.In this conversation with John McMahon, Dick Thomas emphasizes the importance of quantifying the value a solution brings to a customer in order to drive bigger deals. He talks about how salespeople can differentiate themselves and gain access to higher levels in an organization by focusing on solving business problems and showcasing the value of the solution. Thomas outlines four major components of selling business value: the value pyramid, gold miner discovery, value-based demo, and the business case ROI model. These strategies equip salespeople with an unfair competitive advantage and position them as trusted business partners for their customers. Tune in to this episode of Revenue Builders for specific strategies, real-life anecdotes and inspiration on selling on business value.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:03:00] Importance of quantifying the value of a solution[00:06:11] Breakdown of the major components of selling business value[00:06:35] Value pyramid and its importance in understanding the prospect's business[00:08:46] How to build a value pyramid and prioritize prospects[00:11:24] Where to find information for the value pyramid[00:15:19] Importance of gold miner discovery in uncovering pain points[00:34:14] How to get the customer to discuss pain points[00:36:46] The value of a value-based demo[00:40:56] Importance of the business case and ROI model[00:46:08] Difference between operational value and business impact[00:56:03] Unfair competitive advantage from building value pyramids[00:56:12] Differentiation as a business partner and dealing with procurement[00:57:13] Negotiating discounts and preserving solution functionalityHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:06:11] Dick Thomas: “There's four major components [people need to go into selling business value]. One is the value pyramid. That's where you gain a deep understanding of prospects' business. The second, I call it gold miner discovery because it's like swinging a pick and you got to discover down to annualized dollars. The third is a value based demo, which is an interesting methodology to discover and quantify value during the demo itself and actually confirm it with the customer and the last is the business case ROI model, comprehensive business case with an ROI model.”[00:55:27] John McMahon: “That's how they sold in the future. They weren't just doing demos to do demos. They weren't just getting meetings to get meetings. They were doing value pyramids everywhere they went. In fact, I remember going to a meeting in London and the team did such an effective job of discovery and building the value pyramid that one customer in the room banged his fist on the table and said, ‘where did you get this type of information?’”Learn more about Dick Thomas through this link.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dick-thomas-15a01112/Website: https://www.rwtsalesconsulting.com/ Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Anthony Palladino is the Chief Revenue Officer at mabl. mabl is the enterprise SaaS leader of intelligent, low-code test automation that empowers high-velocity software teams to embed automated end-to-end tests into the entire development lifecycle.Prior to mabl, Anthony spent five years at Splunk from pre-IPO through $1 billion in revenue as the leader of their Americas Field Organization. As Chief Revenue Officer at Aisera, the industry’s first AI Service Management solution, he helped define the company’s product market fit, built and ramped their customer-facing functions, and increased revenue eightfold. Prior to Aisera, Anthony was the Senior Vice President at CloudBees overseeing global field operations. In just over three years, CloudBees quadrupled its revenue. A holistic growth leader with experience in building customer-facing organizations, go-to-market strategies, and diverse partner networks.In this conversation with John McMahon, Anthony discusses the importance of focusing on the little things in sales to drive big results. He emphasizes the need for disciplined execution, maintaining urgency with customers, and developing compelling energy in sales conversations. By identifying the deltas and addressing them, sales teams can build good habits and drive successful outcomes. Palladino also highlights the significance of documenting fit and gaining consensus in sales conversations.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT:[00:02:03] Overview of Mabl and its impact on revenue, profitability, and risk[00:05:26] Top priorities for exploring with the salesforce[00:08:02] Importance of focusing on the little things that make a big difference[00:11:01] Example of using a sequence to drive pipeline generation[00:20:26] Importance of identifying and teaching people the knowledge areas[00:32:59] Creating compelled energy to compel customers to move forward[00:39:18] Importance of documenting the fit and gaining consensus in the first meeting[00:44:46] The components of compelled energy and the exit criteria for the first meeting[00:50:41] Importance of documenting customer requirements and identifying champions[00:55:24] The challenges of being a CRO and the importance of hiring well[00:58:00] Building a leadership team and establishing a common goalHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:53:41] "Who do we think is the champion? Right? And it's probably who do we think is the champion? Because an understanding if you're new to the organization, there's probably not a firm notion of what a champion is. And, you know, the definition we have is person with political respect and or technical authority who fights for us when we're not there and I have the and or in their job, because I think in a lot of cases with consensus, certain environments, those 2 things are very distinct today in some cases." - Anthony Palladino[00:57:59] “I think establishing a leadership team that is with each other. They're supporting each other. They're with each other. You're sharing that common goal to the mission. And but doing it, you know, as people and really creating that that's that's I think it doesn't come easy because you have to create a special relationship.” - Anthony Palladino Learn more about Anthony through this link:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonypalladino/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Chris Riley serves as President of Worldwide Field Operations of DataRobot, where he is responsible for accelerating the company’s revenue growth and global footprint, bringing DataRobot to organizations across all industries and geographies. Riley previously served as Chief Revenue Officer for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) leader Automation Anywhere, where he led global sales in over 90 countries and managed an ecosystem of over 1,900 partners. Prior to Automation Anywhere, Riley served as President of Global Sales at Dell Technologies, where he was responsible for a multi-billion dollar route to market. Riley also served as Vice President and General Manager for HP’s storage business at HPE. Riley lives in Naples, FL with his family.In this conversation with John McMahon, Chris discusses the importance of understanding the culture and processes of a new organization when stepping into a leadership role. He emphasizes the need for leaders to be adaptable and willing to learn from their teams. Chris also highlights the significance of metrics and productivity in managing a sales organization, as well as the importance of hiring the right people and providing them with the necessary training and development. He shares insights on building trust with the sales team, prioritizing pipeline generation, and the role of mentors, coaches, and godfathers in a leader's career.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT:[00:01:51] Overview of what DataRobot does and its applications[00:15:13] The importance of work ethic, coachability, and aptitude in hiring[00:23:47] Characteristics of successful leaders and the consequences of failure[00:38:48] The most critical step in the sales process and the importance of a champion[00:47:26] Navigating a sluggish economy and advice for salespeople[00:54:15] The importance of hard work, generating pipeline, and following the processHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:22:02] "A mentor is somebody you can speak openly without fear of judgment." - Chris Riley[00:36:35] “A good leader builds trust with the team and shows genuine interest in their success.” - Chris RileyLearn more about Chris through this link:https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisriley3/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Adam Aarons is a seasoned sales executive with extensive knowledge of the risk and compliance space. Adam is well known and admired for his time as the CRO of Okta, during which Okta grew from a $1M startup to a publicly traded $300M+ ARR category winner. Adam was previously an active advisor to Drata, and has now joined the company full time to drive revenue at scale as CRO.In this conversation with John McMahon, Adam discusses the keys to scaling a salesforce, including productivity per head, average deal size, and ramp times. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the ideal customer profile and where they are located. Adam also highlights the critical role of qualification in the sales process, focusing on the ICE framework (Identify pain, Champion, Economic buyer). He stresses the need for continuous discovery and the importance of establishing decision criteria. Adam shares insights on forecasting, metrics, and the value of customer success in reducing churn and driving revenue. He also discusses the challenges and lessons learned when transitioning from a sales rep to a manager, VP, and CRO on this episode of Revenue Builders.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT:[0:00:42] Introduction to Drata and its automation of compliance data collection[0:49:52] Using an automation platform to coordinate customer outreach and marketing campaigns[0:55:18] The need for effective communication and expectation setting between managers[1:00:55] The importance of coaching for young CROsHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[0:57:08] "Having respect and empathy for people that haven't done it before, that you're working with to make sure that they understand the why versus just saying, hey. Trust me, let me go do my job like I know what I'm doing.”[0:52:03] "If you're a leader and you're doing this work, it's hard work. You should expect it to be hard. You should enjoy the grind and enjoy the challenges because you learn so much in these jobs that even with the things that you and I have talked about, there's so much more depth that you could dive down into."Learn more about Adam through this link:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-aarons-438111/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Brian McCarthy is an accomplished executive and leader with progressive sales and leadership experience building and leading talented teams to achieve hyper-growth within the enterprise software and information services industry. Brian serves as Rubrik’s Chief Revenue Officer, where he leads the global go-to-market sales strategy. Previously he led the sales, services and support teams at ThoughtSpot, where he led the go-to-market function and the company’s SaaS transformation. Preceding his time at ThoughtSpot, Brian came from AppDynamics, which was acquired by Cisco, where he was responsible for leading the Americas organization as GVP and from QlikTech where he served as President of the Americas. He graduated from Franciscan University.Join us as Brian shares shares insights on managing and enabling sales teams. He emphasizes the importance of caring for and developing employees, and the need for leaders to have a secure mindset. McCarthy and John McMahon discuss tracking deals and stages in the sales process, forecasting, and improving the probability of closing deals. Tons of lessons from two top-tier sales leaders shared on this episode of Revenue Builders.HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT:[0:01:15] Brian's background and experience in sales and leadership roles[0:09:30] Brian's approach to managing and training people[0:17:23] The importance of listening skills in leadership[0:24:33] The unique approach to enablement at Rubrik[0:42:04] The critical stage in the sales process for forecasting[0:56:50] The metrics Brian tracks during and after the quarter[1:02:03] The importance of focusing on productivity in a growth company[1:04:35] The impact of churn on productivity and the importance of recruiting and training[1:14:55] Leaders who consistently over forecast or wear rose-colored glassesHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[0:40:33] Leaders job as an ultimate success - John McMahon: “Your job is to get the best players and coaches on your team. And then if you do, you're going to look like a freaking hero, right? And you also hit on something that's really critical is that ‘when is a leader's job done?’. A leader's job's done is when they've been able to prove that they were able to recruit people, train and develop those people to take their spot.That's when it's ultimate success”[1:13:49] The importance of looking at new and existing deals in the forecast - Brian: “I have a much better idea of exactly where they're going to land, plus or minus. And I usually tell them too, as I'm going through, I'll go through and be like, okay, so here's where each of your people are. Here's the range: worst is this all right, I think you're going to be about two and a half million more than you're calling here, but okay, got it.” Learn more about Brian through this link:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bkmccarthy/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Dennis Lyandres spent more than 8 years with Procore during which time Procore grew from $10m to over 900m+ in revenue. Dennis started at Procore as Executive Vice President of Sales in 2014, before moving to the Chief Revenue Officer role in 2018 where he was responsible for driving revenue across all customer-facing functions including Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Rev Ops, Procore.org and Business Development. From Nov 2022 to June 2023, Dennis served as a Strategic Advisor to the CEO working on key strategic projects such as procore’s emerging fin tech business, key partner and customer relationships, and mentoring and developing key leaders. Before joining Procore, he held various sales and sales management roles at Cloudera and Pentaho. Dennis began his career in mergers & acquisitions with BTI Group and holds a BA from UC Berkeley where he finished with highest academic honors.Join us as Dennis shares his journey to sales leadership, from his early days to the phenomenal success he had at Procore. He discusses the core fundamentals he had to learn, including prospecting, business acumen, account planning, and building urgency. Dennis highlights the human aspect of sales leadership and the important lessons he learned in recruiting, training, and developing the right people; as well as the need to trust and empower his team. Dennis also emphasizes the value of continuous learning and the role of leadership in creating a culture of success. Dig into the lessons he learned on his road to sales leadership in this inspiring episode of Revenue Builders. HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT:[00:05:57] Importance of business fundamentals and financial literacy[00:09:39] Skills needed for sales leadership: recruiting, training, developing, promoting, and terminating[00:19:11] Unique aspects of training and development: clear expectations, self-service, certifications, coaching and buddy systems[00:34:42] Transitioning to the CRO role: prioritization, managing time effectively, hiring great leaders, aligning cross-functional teams[00:46:26] The importance of leadership and building more successful leaders[00:49:31] The value of showing care and having each other's backs[00:50:43] Assessing the most important problems and finding solutions[00:51:06] Scaling challenges: assessing the most important problem and finding a solution[00:52:09] Adapting to new challenges and focusing on the next problem to solve[00:54:13] Transitioning from a private company to a public company[00:56:16] Learning from mistakes and being proud of Procore's impact HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:08:48] “If you're talking to someone low level, and maybe that's some way to build a groundswell or get intelligence or whatever your account strategy is there, then yeah, I think you can talk more feature function, more jargon. But certainly, as you get more and more senior, and as you demonstrate more and more of a mastery of the subject. Simplicity is absolutely essential, right?” - Dennis Lyandres[00:46:34] “My mindset really crystallized by this role, which was like, leadership is the most important thing to whether I wouldn't. Right and so I've got to be spending my time hiring great leaders and making sure they can be wildly successful and within leadership. I've come to believe that the highest calling of a leader is to obsolete yourself is to work yourself out of the job.” - Dennis Lyandres Learn more about Dennis Lyandres through this link:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dlyandres/Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

The best advice comes from people who have been there, done that. In this episode, we bring you insights from sales leaders who have led their teams to incredible outcomes. You’ll hear what it’s like to be the first salesperson into a raw startup, why it’s vitally important for leaders to give their people a purpose, how to keep your top sales performers from leaving your company, why execution of all the details in a process matter, the 3 H’s of Interviewing, why sales leaders need to remove “friction” in the sales process and other wisdom shared on this podcast.We’ll hear from Mark Roberge, former CRO at Hubspot, current Harvard Sales Professor and Managing Director of Stage 2 Capital, Cedric Pech, the CRO at MongoDB and Chris Degnan, the CRO at Snowflake:https://www.linkedin.com/in/markroberge/https://www.linkedin.com/in/cedricpech/https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-degnan-524470/ Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064Learn More About Force Management: https://www.forcemanagement.com/ Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Carlos Delatorre is a seasoned sales leader with a career spanning several companies, including PTC, Oracle, Symantec, BMC, VMware, ClearSlide, MongoDB, Vera, and TripActions. He is also an active investor and advisor in several software companies and sits on the board of Yellow. In this episode, Carlos talks about the three basic things he considers when making a career move: market size, product differentiation, and the team. He also discusses the importance of focusing on the customer and the value proposition when selling. Additionally, Carlos delves into the complexity of a product and the selling environment, highlighting the importance of having a sales team that can effectively differentiate from the competition and create demand. ChaptersCarlos' background and achievements (0:01:16)Carlos' career moves and acquisitions (0:01:56)Carlos' decision-making process for his next move (0:02:30)Three basic things Carlos considers when making a career move (0:04:31)The importance of focusing on the customer and the value proposition when selling (0:06:00)The complexity of a product and selling environment (0:06:41)Carlos' lessons learned from climbing the sales leadership ranks (0:10:54)The importance of persistence and going as high as you need to go to get your message heard (0:15:58)The importance of paying attention to the little things about people (0:32:22)Importance of new logos and expansion revenue (0:43:12)Looking at conversion rates to learn from successful sales reps (0:45:23)The danger of only relying on existing new deals (0:48:18)Gaining insights from a combination of metrics (0:48:46)The importance of a Management Operating Rhythm (0:51:23)Defining priorities in each time frame (0:52:11)Quotable Phrases"If there's not a big market, there's a chance everything else could be okay, and then you just run out of market and you can't grow anymore." (0:04:48)"You're really trying to solve a problem for the customer, and that's what you're selling." (0:06:30)"You want to hire people that are going to be able to scale with the business." (0:09:40)"The role of technology is to make the sales process more efficient." (0:11:55)"Data is absolutely critical in sales." (0:13:45)"The most important thing is to focus on the customer and the value proposition." (0:16:20)"The future of sales is about being more customer-centric." (0:18:25)"COVID-19 has accelerated the trend towards digital selling." (0:20:15)"You have to be persistent and creative in sales." (0:11:34)"Your job as a manager is to make the sales reps self-sufficient." (0:18:14)"It's really about developing your people." (0:19:53)Additional ResourcesConnect with Carlos: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cadelatorre/5 Questions to Answer in Every CFO Deal: https://forc.mx/46Dhqcq3 Strategies to Cultivate a Customer-First Mindset: https://forc.mx/3NP899K Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Communication is a critical element of any team. Today, our guest Kevin Haverty, Vice Chairman of the Global Public Sector at ServiceNow, talks about the importance of consistent and approachable communication as a sales leader. Drawing on over 15 years of sales leadership experience and his background as a veteran, Kevin shares insight on communication styles that he’s seen drive success across his career. His conversation with John McMahon touches on recruiting, leading by example, and increasing value for customers. Tune in for lessons on building a stronger and more collaborative team on this episode of Revenue Builders. Here are some key sections to check out:07:25 Developing executive presence23:50 How do you stay in touch with your reps?36:35 The power of being a good listener45:20 Recruiting and hiring a great salesperson49:50 Managing teams with effective communication as a leader55:55 Help your customers gain valueAdditional Resources:Connect with Kevin Haverty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-haverty-0a74091/Leading Sales Teams Through a Challenging Economy https://forc.mx/3JpLFJYFive Characteristics that Build Successful Leaders https://forc.mx/42U1y1QQUOTESRecruiting as a leadership must-have: “Recruiting, it’s probably your most important sale. Look at your biggest deal. Hiring a great salesperson, if you’re a manager, is way more important than your biggest deal. Because that person is going to affect dozens of deals, and if they don’t make it, that’s probably going to set you back for a year… So that’s when you should really be turning on your charm; that’s when you should really be selling – is landing that great prospect.”Advice for young leaders on handling rejection in a tough economy: “Don’t retract and lick your wounds because it’s tough. You gotta stay in the game and just persist. Tough times are made for tough people, and they are the ones who are going to come out the other side – and be better for it. We’ve been through these cycles, and every time we hit these tough times, people get shedded and some leave the industry. But the ones who have great careers are the ones that persist and find a way to grind through it.”If you're confused, there are probably others who are confused too: "Confused people don't buy. If you have a customer and your product pitch is confusing them, you're not getting the deal. And so we all have a lot coming at us, so we've got to keep it simple. We've got to just have the language be crisp and communicate to be understood, don't communicate to sound sophisticated or to use all the buzzwords."Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064HOST: John McMahon GUEST: Kevin HavertyRevenue Builders Podcast Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Today’s episode features world-class insight on driving revenue growth from investors behind some of the most successful startups in recent history. We offer perspectives from both Venture Capital and Private Equity with our guests, Neeraj Agrawal, General Partner Battery Ventures, Dave Tiley, Senior Operating Partner Align Capital Partners, and Izhar Armony, General Partner CRV. Tune in for tips on what to look for when investing in early-stage companies, the attributes investors seek when making leadership hires, and the four key dimensions of investing: market, team, technology, and the deal itself. Learn all of this and more in this conversation with our hosts John Kaplan and John McMahon. Here are some key sections to check out:01:42 Successful versus unsuccessful start-ups7:50 How CEO selection determines success 16:47 The investor’s “Rule of 40”21:47 Differences between VC and PE investors29:47 Focus on growth or earnings?35:10 Attributes to look for when hiring leaders45:10 Common mistakes of early-stage companies53:07 Product-market fit in early-stage companies HIGHLIGHT QUOTESNeeraj on looking for a strong sales mentality when hiring CEOs: “The art of sales is more important than it was a few years ago because there's scrutiny in every decision. Having somebody who can connect the dots between the business problem, the value property or product, ROI, dealing with CFO scrutiny… that's all gone from “nice-to-haves” to super important right now.”Dave on the mindset of going from good to great: “If we're not getting better each and every day in every phase of the business, and we think somebody else is, then we're not putting our best foot forward for our employees, shareholders and investors… You're just trying to optimize it and take it to the next level. Building companies to get to $20 million is one thing, but to get to $50 and then $100, you know, they're just different stages and steps; there's a different playbook for each.” Connect with our amazing guests in the links below:Neeraj Agrawal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neerajagrawal2000/Dave Tiley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davetiley/Izar Armony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/izhararmony/ Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064HOST: John McMahon GUESTS: Neeraj Agrawal, Dave Tiley, and Izhar ArmonyRevenue Builders Podcast Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

In today's episode of Revenue Builders, we have another conversation with Force Management Director Anne Gary. Anne is a skilled sales consultant and trainer with more than 20 years of experience in direct and indirect and channel sales, sales management, sales development, and sales operations. This time, we talk about misconceptions around who the economic buyer actually is, how their role has shifted with recent economic challenges, and strategies for gaining access to the economic buyer effectively by training and educating the champion.Here are some key sections to check out: 01:58 Who is the economic buyer?08:24 The key to a successful EB meeting15:11 Critical things to do prior to the meeting20:33 Salespeople need to understand the pains of the customer process28:13 What questions should you expect from the economic buyer? Additional Resources:Connect with Anne Gary on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-gary-a054aa96/Selling to the CFO - 5 Questions to Answer: https://forc.mx/3qs24qC Listen to our first conversation with Anne: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/finding-your-champion-with-anne-gary/id1610203369?i=1000567466279QUOTESWe should recognize that we should convert KPIs: “This is why, as salespeople, we need to have done all the correct work prior to the EB meeting. So we can ensure that the proposal that we're providing is strong enough for the EB to want to allocate budget, and reallocate budget dollars to our project instead of other projects. And the other thing that salespeople need to think about here is you're not just competing against your competition in the sale, a lot of times you're competing against all the other things that people are fighting for to steal budget dollars also.” Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Force Management Facilitator Anne Gary joins the Revenue Builders. Anne is a skilled sales consultant and trainer with more than 20 years of experience in direct and indirect and channel sales, sales management, sales development, and sales operations. John and I both worked with her at PTC – she was there when PTC was a startup and helped us grow to a $10 billion dollar market cap. Anne spends her time now working with companies and leadership teams – helping them improve their sales performance and helping their reps grasp those key sales fundamentals that are so critical.In this episode, John McMahon and Anne Gary talk about the MEDDICC concept of Coaches and Champions. They discuss common mistakes salespeople make distinguishing a Coach from a Champion, as well as what sales leaders need to do to push their teams to identify and test the coveted role. Additional Resources:Connect with Anne Gary on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-gary-a054aa96/Listen to our first conversation with Anne: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/finding-your-champion-with-anne-gary/id1610203369?i=1000567466279Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

As we commemorate Memorial Day, we wanted to share some of the great lessons shared by some of our veteran guests. There’s no higher-stakes environment in which to learn about leadership, teamwork, and perseverance, and we in the sales world can learn a lot from their service.Tune in as VMWare Chief Operating Officer Mike Hayes and TakingPoint Leadership CEO Brent Gleeson talk about the importance of taking the harder path versus easy decisions, key leadership traits, and adapting the right mindset to succeed. Learn all of this and more on this episode of Revenue Builders.Here are some key sections to check out: 02:24 Mike Hayes on high-performing people living in "two places at once".08:34 Mike on taking the harder decisions and helping others do so as well19:23 Brent Gleeson differentiating between the ones that excel and those that didn't make it23:52 Brent on channeling pain pathways Additional Resources:Learn more about Mike Hayes: https://www.thisismikehayes.com/Get his book Never Enough: https://a.co/d/6sDG3NLLearn more about Brent Gleeson: http://www.brentgleesonspeaker.com/index.htmlGet his book Embrace the Suck: https://a.co/d/9JCAyBB QUOTESYou're only excellent if you know you're never excellent enough - Mike: “Whatever ways we definite 'better', I think it has nothing to do with seniority, age, or where we are in our careers. You can be ninety-something years old and still be trying to get better at different things.”Brent on having a passion for what you're trying to accomplish: “If you think about any lofty goal we've ever pursued in life whether it's sports, work, charitable organizations, or in relationships, no lofty goal is ever achieved without some stress, pain, and adversity.”Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064The Shift Group works to place Veterans in sales roles. If you have open roles to fill, please contact them here: https://www.shiftgroup.io/companies-registration Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

What makes a winning strategy? According to today’s guest Chuck Bamford, PhD, author of The Strategy Mindset 2.0, strategy is about developing and aligning on a competitive advantage that actually moves the needle in your customer’s experience. It’s aligning on strategy from the top down that can often be a challenge for sales organization.Chuck is the author of multiple strategy books used in MBA and Entrepreneurship courses around the country. He joins us today to talk common pitfalls, new realities, and winning implementation processes for strategy. Tune in for some truly golden insights shared in this conversation with our hosts John Kaplan and John McMahon. Here are some key sections to check out: 03:47 Defining strategy and how not to complicate it16:06 The two disconnects in business25:04 The importance of aligning goals with compensation33:13 Avoid knee-jerk reactions during slow economic times43:30 Hygiene around the ideal customer profile50:08 Company culture tied to strategy53:59 Creating a differentiation strategy Additional Resources:Connect with Chuck Bamford on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuck-bamford-ph-d-67b9811/Get The Strategy Mindset 2.0: https://www.bamfordassociates.com/the-strategy-mindset-2-0How to Enable Sellers to Execute on Your Revenue Strategy During Economic Change: https://forc.mx/3OfBtGR QUOTESChuck on converting KPIs:“I think one of the big disconnects in business is that everything that leadership does is hypothesis. They believe that if we invest here, here and here, and our employees do this, this and this, that as we move forward, the number of customers will go up or returning customers or our EBITA, but they don't want to address what the activities are, or to convert it to activity metrics.Chuck on aligning with employees: “I tell everybody that the entire game in alignment with all my employees, I'm trying to get as many employees as I can to buy into my strategy. And the entire game is that it fits with how they view the company in the world, and that they are compensated and rewarded for making that happen.” Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Truly great leaders transform the people and teams that they work with. We’ve been lucky enough to have some conversations with some truly transformative leaders on the Revenue Builders Podcast. This week, we’re sharing some of our favorite golden nuggets from some memorable guests. Tune in as MongoDB CRO Cedric Pech, War Veteran & Mentor Anthony Anderson, Former CEO of Iron Mountain & Chairman for Fairwinds Bob Brennan, and JD Brookhart talk emotions in times of chaos, different types of leadership and leadership issues, and how to help people reach their true potential. Learn what it takes to be a great leader on this episode of Revenue Builders. Here are some key sections to check out: 01:08 Cedric Pech on transactional leadership vs transformative leadership16:13 Anthony Anderson on emotions and understanding the why of everything he does26:42 Bob Brennan on what it means to keep people from themselves 30:24 JD Brookhart on building trust in a team and how bad character can affect the morale of the entire team Additional Resources:Connect with Cedric Pech: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cedricpech/Connect with Anthony Anderson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-anderson-441177129/Connect with Bob Brennan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbrennan236/Connect with JD Brookhart: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jd-brookhart-ba647977/How to Lead through Economic Change: https://forc.mx/3M8NBrU QUOTESCedric quotes a French author on training people on the sales process: “If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them task and work only but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. When you define the sales process, when you train the people on qualifying things, these are all incredibly important things to do you make them competent at doing that.” Anthony on navigating your environment in times of chaos: “This kind of what you're being told and what you're supposed to act on but ultimately what you're observing and what you're feeling. So some of the chaos of war is not just what's happening outside. It's what's happening in your heart and in your mind.” Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Today we continue our conversation with Richard Rivera, Founder of GENNOW Sales Consulting and author of The Champion Sell. This time we discuss his formula for sales success: what he calls the E.L.I.T.E. method for aligning with the buyer. E.L.I.T.E. stands for Emotional Connection, Leading Vision, Inspiring Commitment, Trust Building, and Empowering Champions.Tune in to this episode of Revenue Builders to hear Richard break down these 5 game-changing strategies in an insightful conversation with our hosts John Kaplan and John McMahon.Here are some key sections to check out: 01:23 The 5 ELITE Sales Habits07:02 Going deeper on emotional connection14:27 Elite sellers allow buyers to visualize our solution in their world20:52 Identifying integrated outcomes29:18 Deals begin and end with trust42:19 Addressing gaps of commitment Additional Resources:Connect with Richard Rivera on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-rivera-44532b1/Read The Champion Sell by Richard Rivera: https://www.thechampionsell.com/3 Skills Reps Need to Hit Revenue Targets in a Down Economy: https://forc.mx/3VjFnAdQUOTESRecognize the Survive, Thrive, Think pattern: “I've got to first disarm those survival instincts and the way I do that is I attach myself to the problems that they care about. In other words, what are they surviving in the job today? How many of us have been in an opportunity where we're presenting all of this really cool stuff and all of a sudden the buyer just pushes back and says you have no idea what I'm trying to deal with, I've got problems to solve.”Be intentional with trust-building: “Trust is a force. Out of all the different emotions, whether it's stress, tension, or conflict, trust can make the kind of impact on a deal that will completely stop a locomotive in its tracks. We don't think of it that way, we think of it as this passive thing and say they like me, they trust me, we're good. No, trust is a force and you've got to respect it.” Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

The buyer champion is a crucial part of any deal, but especially important in a challenging sales environment. In this episode, Richard Rivera, Founder of GENNOW Sales Consulting, joins the show to discuss his book The Champion Sell and his insights on what makes a great buyer champion. In his conversation with John Kaplan and John McMahon, Richard shares his view on the different archetypes of champions, along with the risks and benefits of each. The episode contains advice for sellers and leaders on how to incorporate stronger champion practices into their sales rhythm. Don’t forget to tune in next week to catch Part 2 of Richard Rivera on Revenue Builders. Here are some key sections to check out: 03:01 Why Richard decided to write The Champion Sell 06:44 The three common selling habits for reps10:49 Criteria for defining a champion18:25 Sales in the information age26:19 The four champion tendencies34:19 Working with someone that blows past the buying process Additional Resources:Connect with Richard Rivera on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-rivera-44532b1/Read The Champion Sell by Richard Rivera: https://www.thechampionsell.com/Resources to Help Your Salespeople Enable Champions: https://forc.mx/41wD9zC QUOTESDifferentiating the power and influence of a champion: “Typically power is a trait of strength. I can move something, I can make something happen. So power is really about authority whereas influence is about people. So I may have an enormous amount of authority but I can't influence people.” Find evidence that they're doing the work: “The third part of the definition that they have the willingness to sell for you when you're not there or sell on your behalf. That means that you have evidence that they're taking action for you. Then I started relating to my experiences. Regardless of what I'm doing, there's a certain people that don't have a tendency to take action as much as we'd like.” Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Understanding the CFO perspective is becoming increasingly crucial to closing deals in today’s economy. This week, we’re sharing some highlights of the best wisdom shared by financial leaders on our show.Tune in as Six-time CFO and Board Advisor Murray Demo, Drift CFO Jim Kelliher, and Managing Director of Madrona Venture Group Hope Cochran talk forecasting, budgeting, and what a CFO’s priorities really are when the economy presents challenges. Whether you’re a seller, a champion, or a leader, you’ll get a valuable glimpse into the mind of a CFO on this episode of Revenue Builders. Here are some key sections to check out: 02:14 Murray Demo on giving the decision-making power to the CIO20:51 Jim Kelliher on value, forecasting metrics, and accurate forecasting29:50 Hope Cochran on balancing forecasts, accuracy, and transparency Additional Resources:Connect with Murray Demo:https://www.linkedin.com/in/murray-demo-59a31117/Connect with Jim Kelliher:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-kelliher-8a3100/Connect with Hope Cochran:https://www.linkedin.com/in/hope-cochran-96433738/Help Sellers Chart The Buyer Landscape: https://forc.mx/3mGU5Eq QUOTESMurray on giving the decision-making power to the CIO: “I would never take a CFO job unless IT reported to me. So in any software purchase, I felt that if I got too involved too early, I undermined the CIO, and instead of it being sort of their decision and their commitment to the success of implementing that software, because I got too involved in it, I let them off the hook.” Hope on balancing forecasts, accuracy, and transparency: “I want to establish the ability for everyone to be as transparent and honest as they can and to take the game plan out of it. I know that's hard, and I know that there are a lot of reasons why the game plan comes in, people have career ambitions, etc. But that's the moment where we can all help each other.” Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

Your existing customer base is a vital part of your future sales pipeline. Today’s conversation with Allison Pickens explores how to reduce churn and ensure that your retention revenue pipeline stays full. Allison is an experienced investor, board director, and customer success expert. She joins John Kaplan and John McMahon today to discuss the importance of viewing customer success not as a separate activity from sales, but as an integral part of the sales process and, ultimately, the value of your solution. Allison shares strategies for assessing customer health during economic uncertainty, harnessing the power of AI for customer success, and aligning customer success with your overall sales objectives.Here are some key sections to check out: 00:56 Introducing Allison Pickens: Investor, board director, and CS expert01:48 Why has customer success become so important?06:43 Why are companies slow to adopt customer success?10:48 Importance of understanding the customer’s ROI15:18 How do you monitor and manage customer health?25:55 How do you measure customer success?29:38 The importance of strong product documentation and user support35:33 Understanding the root cause of churn42:25 How can CEOs and founders learn from churn?48:53 Injecting CS into the businessAdditional Resources:Connect with Allison Pickens: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-pickens/Get Allison’s book The Customer Success Economy: https://www.amazon.com/Customer-Obsessed-Company-Competitive-Advantage/dp/1119572762Make QBRs more valuable for your customers: https://forc.mx/3Ukt7PbTaking care of customers in a down economy: https://forc.mx/43esCuc QUOTESAllison - You need to invest in supporting your customers: “The revenue model has shifted and because you can't just sell a customer and ignore them after the fact, you actually need to pay attention to them in order to generate revenue for them later. You now need to invest in actually supporting them. So I think that, you know, we go where the revenue goes.”Allison - Not taking customer success seriously will cost you getting left behind: “Nowadays, I would say that we're in the late majority stage of the adoption curve of customer success that, actually, if a company hasn't really started taking customer success seriously, they will probably be left behind in pretty short order.”Allison - Documentation is a product itself: “I think the best companies think of documentation as a type of product in itself where they release updates to documentation in a structured way. They think about the impact of a new release on past documentation and past documentation that was written and ensure that it's kept up to date.” Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

The problem with most negotiation training approaches is they often fail to account for the nuances of a sales negotiation based on value. In this episode, Tim Caito, Senior Partner at Force Management, joins John McMahon and John Kaplan to discuss competencies and common pitfalls associated with negotiation. The conversation covers the perception of power and emotions, early preparation and value-building throughout the sales process, the role of champions in negotiation, handling give-gets and package options, and many more negotiation topics. Learn how these concepts apply to your sales team and the current economic environment in this episode of Revenue Builders. Here are some key sections to check out: 01:58 Introducing Tim Caito, Senior Partner at Force Management05:47 Time, Power, and Knowledge in negotiations09:46 The power of emotions and perception of power14:40 Perceptions of value vs. better alternatives21:00 Power and knowledge and the power of champions28:38 Negotiation is a process, not an event56:03 The concept of multiple options Additional Resources:Connect with Tim Caito: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-caito-b9045951/Help Sellers Negotiate Successfully in a Shifting Economy: https://forc.mx/40BrxLhHow to Align Cross-Functional Teams on a Negotiation Strategy: https://forc.mx/40CP4M4Our Top Negotiation Resources: https://forc.mx/3ZAVNVg QUOTESTim - Negotiations are a battle of perceptions: “In a negotiation, the side that is perceived to have the better alternative is perceived to have more power, and the science and negotiation are pretty clear on this, the side that is perceived to have more power almost always captures more value in a negotiation.”Tim - Start negotiating before they believe you’re negotiating: “Start the negotiation process before the other side believes we're negotiating, and the good news for our sellers out there; when you are executing an effective sales process, you're simultaneously executing a negotiation process, you just got to be aware of it.” Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management

A company's ability to recruit and hire top talent is directly related to its ability to scale effectively. In this episode, we pulled together some of the best moments from three of our best interviews on recruiting and hiring in a growing organization. These leaders share their top tips for getting beyond the resume, creating efficiencies in the hiring process, and key things to look for when hiring sales talent and sales leadership. Join us as we take look back on the best moments from Mike McSally (Talent and Recruiting Expert), Hollie Castro (Chief People Officer at Miro), and Bill Cea (Managing Director at Foster Beck) in this latest episode of Revenue Builders.Here are some key sections to check out: 01:55 Mike McSally on challenges with the recruitment process07:58 Hollie Castro's efficiency method for team interviews19:38 Bill Cea's interviewing components, including the importance of quantifiable success and hiring for cultural fit Additional Resources:Connect with Mike McSally: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemcsally/Connect with Hollie Castro: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollie-castro-mba-nacd-dc-6526452/Connect with Bill Cea: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-cea/ QUOTESMike - The Six-Second step of checking resumes: “The average recruiter, even with all the advancement in technology and machine learning and AI, their eyes are trained to look for two or three certain buzzwords. And they're going to spend about six seconds determining my 30 years of domain expertise.” “If those buzzwords don't pop out and make it easy for them, they're just going to move right on to the next candidate. So, you know, not only does it just suck the life out of talented people that are trying to engage with the right employers, employers are missing out on great talent because of this broken six-second step that happens all too often.”Hollie - Embedding values into career competency: “Our values are embedded in our sort of career competency. Each team is given a competency that they are supposed to test that aligns with our leadership competency. So we've embedded that all the way through.”Bill - The importance of past performance: “Past performance is not indicative of future results, but there has to be a past performance because we can determine the attribute that's most important, which is a quantifiable success.” Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064 Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.  This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.  Connect with Us: LinkedInYouTubeForce Management