Sales Success Stories

Rachel Shi is currently the Senior Manager of Partnerships at Vidyard, after leaving her previous company as their number one Account Executive. Vidyard is the video platform for Marketing and Sales Video hosting, enablement, and analytics that help their clients connect with more buyers, close more deals, and optimize their content for real results. Rachel is a driven, curious and quick on her feet sales and partnerships professional with a heart for creativity and a mind for business. Her experience driving business impact for startups to Fortune 500 companies is underscored by over ten years in design thinking. Currently, Rachel is building and scaling strategic partnerships for Vidyard's ecosystem while growing her own sales consultancy business.

In today's bonus episode, I wanted to share with you Nina Butler's virtual presentation at last year's Sales Success Summit where she talked about The ABP's of Gifting in Sales. Alyce has been an incredible sponsor of ours all year long, and rather than telling you about Alyce this time. I'd really like for you to experience what it's like to get a gift from Alyce. If you're in the US or Canada, all you have to do is write a short review of this podcast either on Apple Podcasts or if you're not using an Apple Device then on Podchaser. Take a screenshot of that review and email it to me at [email protected] and we'll set you up with the gift of your choice worth up to $50 from Alyce. I'll remind you again, but in the meantime, here's Nina to talk about gifting in sales:

Derek Sentner is the VP of Sales & Business Development at Driver Studios, an award-winning media and entertainment company focused on the development, production, distribution, marketing, and licensing of entertainment content. Derek is a highly motivated and entrepreneurial sales leader who is focused on driving revenue and building businesses. Employing a conversational sales style and a consultative sales philosophy, Derek has been able to achieve incredible results at Driver Studios and is consistently a top performer.

As we come up to the close of Q2 and the first half of 2021 I thought this was the perfect time to share Leila Mozaffarian's closing presentation from last year's Sales Success Summit on Writing Your Next Chapter. I think we're about to see another dramatic shift. We're not going back to where we were before the pandemic. We're accelerating and going forward to our future together post-pandemic. This is a great opportunity to reflect on what that could mean for each of us, as we start the second half of the year and Leila's message is perfect for just this type of transition period. You can get Leila's slides and the slides from all of the presentations from last year's Summit at top1.fm/2020slides, and I sincerely hope you'll consider joining us this October in Austin at this year's Sales Success Summit, sponsored by Proposify, Outreach, and Gong. You'll find all of those details at Top1Summit.com. And now, here's Leila:

George Mann is the top Account Executive at Multiverse, an organization based out of London, England that empowers and supports people to create their own realities as they journey through a fulfilling career. Multiverse is a true alternative to both a one-track university route and often uninspiring corporate training. Working with a range of companies from large corporates to small boutiques, George provides counsel and support to allow them to utilize the English Apprenticeship Levy, while also championing the role of young and diverse talent. George has extensive experience in public relations and public affairs and is a Teach First ambassador and advocate.

Brandon Fluharty is the number one top seller at LivePerson out of Sarasota, Florida, an organization that aims to make life easier by transforming how people communicate with brands. In his role as Vice President of Strategic Account Solutions, Brandon focuses on acquiring top-tier, strategic enterprise accounts. Through a combination of sales expertise and his PREP approach, Brandon has been able to close over $40M in sales in less than three years.

Sid Nazareth was the number one salesperson worldwide at Appian for two years in a row before starting his current role as a Strategic Account Manager at Amazon Web Services. During his time at Appian Sid made significant contributions in winning new business and was known as one of the best pre-sales consultants with technical skills, dedication, and work ethic second to none. Today, he works with some of AWS' largest customers. Sid is the epitome of a thoughtful and intentional sales professional who believes in being compassionate and kind. It is his ability to relate and connect with people – one of his superpowers – that has led to a tremendous amount of success in his profession.

Today on the Sales Success Stories podcast Scott provides another bonus episode, this time with Avenue Talent Partners' Amy Volas. In addition to being the CEO of Avenue Talent Partners, Amy is the co-founder of Thursday Night Sales. In this episode, Scott and Amy discuss all things sales, including why the market for sales professionals is currently brimming with lucrative opportunities and potential. Amy provides her thoughts on what she looks for in a sales organization before deciding the join it as well as the importance she places on culture and sales leadership.

Kevin Piket is the top Business Development Executive at Ascend Technologies, an organization that enables business growth through innovation and technology. Even though Kevin has just recently started in this role, he very quickly ascended to the top of the leaderboard after his first full quarter at full quota. There are two things Kevin really enjoys in his professional life; he enjoys everything about the sales and marketing profession and he enjoys helping people. Whether it's coaching sales professionals with skill development or helping customers solve their challenges and achieve their goals, it truly is Kevin's passion. Kevin believes in using a blend of relationship sales, targeted marketing programs utilizing data, and working through his personal network to generate revenue. Overall, Kevin likes to bring his high energy and positive attitude to any opportunity that he's involved with.

Today I've got another presentation from last year's Sales Success Summit for you, and this may have been my personal favorite presentation. I definitely learned some new things from Evan and his delivery is hilarious. It's even funnier if you see that slides that go with it and you can access those a top1.fm/2020slides If you ever sell to publicly traded companies and haven't ever dug into various financial statements, this could be game-changing for you, and even if you have I can almost guarantee that you're going to learn something new. Here's Evan Kelsay, Senior Director of Global Account at Seismic on Demystifying the 10K for Sales Professionals:

Jheryn Kenney is the top Enterprise Relationship Manager with LinkedIn Sales Solutions and is also Global External Partnerships Lead for LinkedIn's Diversity Inclusion and Belonging. Throughout her illustrious career, Jheryn has had the privilege of working with talented people at leading enterprises including Pfizer, Abbott (AbbVie), Mary Kay Inc, Grainger, and now LinkedIn. She's also learned from some of the very best minds in both academic and personal capacities about critical thinking, cause and effect, and problem-solving. Today, she partners with enterprise leaders to think differently, strategically leveraging the LinkedIn ecosystem to help their organizations become smarter and more insightful.

In today's bonus episode, I've got the audio from another session from the 2020 Sales Success Summit. This is Vin Matano from Demandbase talking about "The Prospecting Checklist and Advanced Multi-Channel Prospecting." There are quite a few visuals in this one and you can get the slides from Vin's presentation at top1.fm/2020slides. Here he is:

Qayam Noorani is a recently-promoted Account Executive at Klue, an AI-powered Competitive Enablement platform designed to help product marketers collect, curate, and deliver actionable competitor insights to empower revenue teams to win more business. Prior to his promotion, Qayam had an unbelievably successful run in SDR-level roles where he put up some incredible numbers. Qayam credits much of his success to a moment in his SDR career where everything clicked. He started prioritizing the relationship-building aspect of prospecting and that made a huge difference in the results he achieved. Qayam realized that, to be a successful sales professional, you can never play the short game. It's all about putting in the time and effort to reach the goals you've set out for yourself.

In today's bonus episode, I've got the audio from the top-rated session of the 2020 Sales Success Summit from Matt Du Pont for you. Matt is an Enterprise AE who's obsessed with improvement. He's finished #1 in attainment for the last three years, and currently works at LaunchDarkly, a SaaS company selling to software engineers. Oh, and before we get started. You can find the slides for Matt's presentation and all of the 2020 Summit presentations actually at top1.fm/2020slides. Here he is:

Until very recently, Alex Whyte was the top Enterprise Account Executive at GoCardless, an organization that makes it simple to collect recurring and one-off payments from customers worldwide. Alex just started a new role at Zscaler, a company that operates the world's largest cloud security platform, protecting thousands of enterprises and government agencies from cyberattacks and data loss. Alex is an experienced business development professional with a demonstrated history of working in scaling hyper-growth businesses in the information technology and services industry. He is an intentional and dedicated sales professional who knows firsthand the power of mentorship, listening and following your passion. Alex's expertise ranges from market research, software as a service (SaaS), business development and finance, to name a few.

On Today's bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast I actually have the intro episode of a brand new show that we just launched yesterday. I guess this was kind of a thing before, but there's now officially a Sales Success Media Podcast Network. I'm not the host of this new show. I've kind of got enough on my plate already. Some of you who've been part of the Sales Success Community for a long time may recognize Thom Singer, because he was the MC of the first-ever Sales Success Summit and I've asked him to host the brand new Sales Tech Podcast.

Irfan Jafar is a top Sales Specialist at VMware, an organization that believes that software has the power to unlock new opportunities for people and our planet. VMware looks beyond the barriers of compromise to engineer new ways to make technologies work together seamlessly. Irfan is a technology sales professional with a clear goal to help his customers become more successful. He believes that, as a sales professional, it is his responsibility to be able to provide the best possible solution to his customers' business and IT challenges. Irfan is a big believer in personal growth and development and strives every day to be a better human than he was the day before.

In this bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast I have the audio from another of the presentations from last year's Sales Success Summit. This is Lisa Palmer's talk on "Team Selling, Visual Dartboarding and Winning at Enterprise Scale," and I've also included the Q&A from our more recent Encore Series session together. Both of these should serve as a really nice primer for my Enterprise Sales focused conversation with VMware's top enterprise seller that will release next week. For the visuals that go with this presentation, you can click over to top1.fm/2020slides to get access to those, and you'll also find lots more about Lisa Palmer at top1.fm/100 because of course, she was the start of episode 100 here on this show. With that. Here's Lisa:

Constantine Johns is the top relationship partner at Bloomberg Industry Group, an organization that empowers professionals in government, law, tax, and accounting with the news, data, and analysis they need to take decisive action and make the most of every opportunity. Constantine is a curious, passionate and ever-evolving sales professional who is dedicated to his journey of self-awareness and self-development. Constantine is always working to be the best version of himself that he can possibly be. This constant drive to be better has been a major driving force in his life and he aspires to make a positive impact in every interaction he has. With Constantine, it's always more than sales; it's about partnership and collaboration that come along with it.

Today on the Sales Success Stories Podcast, along with all of our sponsors who you can find at Top1.fm/sponsors, we're celebrating women in sales on this International Women's Day. If you'll click over to Top1.fm/Women, you'll find 29 deep dive interview episodes featuring some of the most successful women you'll find in sales today. If you're new to the show, it's worth noting that I only interview active quota-carrying individual contributor sales professionals, who are either the outright number one top performer at their companies, or they're at least in the top 1%. So these 29 women are some of the best of the best. And I hope you'll help me find more like them. If you know a female seller who holds that spot at the very top of the leaderboard, I would love an introduction. Send me a note to [email protected] or connect us on LinkedIn either way works. And I appreciate you for helping me find more of the best of the best. So that's it for today. Just go check out that list at Top1.fm/Women. And then tomorrow I've got a brand new interview episode for you that I think you're really going to like. Thanks for listening and for sharing this resource with your friends and other women in sales or women who would need to be in sales. I appreciate it.

In this bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast I've decided to share the audio from one of the sessions from the 2020 Sales Success Summit. This is Camille Clemons' talk on "Sales is a Team Sport." You may have noticed a theme here, since my conversation with Katie Jane Bailey in episode 111, I've been kind of obsessed with this idea of World-Class Sales teams and Camille's presentation from the Summit adds in a really nice perspective. Now there are quite a few visuals in this, and you can get the slides from this session and actually all of the sessions from the last Summit if you'll go to top1.fm/2020slides. That's T-O-P the Number One dot FM forward-slash 2020slides (all one word). With that. Here's Camille:

Alexine Mudawar was the company's high achiever at Displayr in her role as a Major Account Executive, and she did that as the newest member of the sales team! Displayr is an organization working to solve the biggest problem in data science. Their core business is a combination of advanced software engineering and data science, coupled with elegant design. Alexine is a dedicated and passionate sales professional who is always willing to go out of her way to help others. She is a big believer in the power of mentorship and paying it forward. Not only does she give so much of her time to coach and help others, she does everything she can to empower other women and help others break through the glass ceiling. Her extreme talent and no-nonsense attitude have earned her the respect of her peers, her managers, and her clients.

Today, I've got a bonus episode for you in the form of a replay of our new, All Things Sales Success Series. That's part of the sales experts channel on BrightTALK, the second Tuesday of each month. You can learn more about that show at Top1.fm/ATSS. And it gives me an opportunity to bring on some different voices and perspectives beyond the number one and top 1% level individual contributors that I exclusively interview here on this podcast. In this episode, I talked with Zeeshan Hafeez, who is one of the best and most innovative sales leaders. I know he's currently the Chief Revenue Officer at VeeMed, and I asked him to start by introducing himself and to share a bit about his background. Here's he.

Alex Bruschi is the number one Director of Acquisitions at TowerPoint Capital, a wireless telecommunications infrastructure and real estate investment company that operates throughout North America. Alex is an incredibly thoughtful sales professional whose number one goal is to help others think about their situation differently. He is a big believer in keeping things simple and remaining consistent in every aspect of his career, from prospecting to professional development. Alex speaks to his role at TowerPoint, the power of deep thinking and the importance of having the right mindset in sales.

How are you doing with your digital selling and virtual selling efforts in 2021? In this bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast, Scott Ingram talks with Vidyard's VP of Marketing and Chief Video Strategist, Tyler Lessard.

Katie Jane Bailey is the top Senior Enterprise Account Executive at Figma out of San Francisco. Figma is the first professional-grade online tool created specifically for interface design. Born on the Web, Figma helps the entire product team create, test, and ship better designs, faster. Katie Jane is a naturally curious sales professional who came into the industry from a fairly unorthodox path. As a musical theater professional, Katie Jane was an accomplished singer, dancer, and actor in productions ranging from Off-Broadway and national tours to extensive regional theater and concert work. But don't tell Katie Jane that acting and sales have nothing to do with one another. Katie Jane has leveraged her performing skills to achieve a successful sales career.

Today on the Sales Success Stories podcast. I've got another bonus episode for you while you wait for the next interview episode, which I'm so excited about. I can hardly contain myself. Almost all of these interviews are super strong, but this one coming up is next level. And I can't wait to share it with you. So make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so you don't miss it. I should probably also stop calling these bonus episodes because it's been something like two years now that I've always shared something with you in these off weeks between my interviews. In any case, this is my conversation with Jack Wilson on a brand new webinar series. And since it's basically self introducing, we'll just let this roll. But if you want to watch the video, you can click over to top1.fm/ATSS for All Things Sales Success. Here we go.

Stephen Chase is the top Senior sales development representative (SDR) at Findem, an organization that envisions a world in which every people decision is equipped with people intelligence, empowering HR and talent leaders to drive a new era of business growth and productivity. Stephen is a passionate sales professional who has dubbed himself the 'sales weasel,' but not for the reasons you may think! Stephen recalls some of his favorite sales success stories from his career, including one that amounted to multi-million dollar deals for the same client in a single quarter. He provides insights on how to navigate and understand the SDR role from the perspective of someone who has truly mastered that role.

In today's bonus episode, while you wait for another interview to release next week, I thought I'd take this opportunity to update the trailer for the show and give you a look ahead at many of the things we're working on for you in 2021 as part of what I like to refer to as Sales Success Everything.

Kyle Rasmussen is the top sales development representative (SDR) at Talview, an organization that provides enterprise employers across the globe with an AI-led Insta-hiring platform in order to identify and hire top-level talent. Throughout Kyle's career, he has embodied the epitome of what an ideal SDR looks like. He is a passionate sales professional and true relationship builder who listens intently to understand, not to form a response. He strives to be not only the hardest but a smarter worker in the room. He leverages his creative intelligence to navigate difficult situations. He truly has all the tools of a superb SDR and that skillset has led to a successful career in sales.

Today on the Sales Success Stories podcast like I typically do between the bi-weekly interview episodes that always feature #1 and top 1% quota-carrying sales performers, I've got a little bonus for you. This is the audio from a webinar I did on The Sales Experts Channel with Jacob Gebrewold called How to Land Your Dream Tech Sales Job. I thought it was super relevant and deserved a place here because it's not just about running an incredible interview process. There are a lot of things you can take away and consider applying to your regular sales process. Also, if you'd prefer to watch the webinar, it's available on-demand and you can see Jacob and I talk his story through if you'll click over to top1.fm/DreamSalesJob that will take you straight there: top1.fm/DreamSalesJob all one word.

Michele Marshall is the top seller and a player-coach at Experis. In this dual capacity, she is dedicated to delivering direct-hire, project teams, staffing services, and workforce solutions that enable Boise based-companies to achieve their digital transformation objectives. Michele is an intelligent and empathetic leader who leads with patience. She believes in leading by example and being an intentional contributor, whether you are a sales professional with thirty years of experience, or an upstart professional embarking on your first sales job. Michele has had a long and circuitous journey throughout her career that brought her from the Bay Area to the Boise, Idaho and she wouldn't change a thing.

Today I've just got a short preview for you of some things to come and some ways for you to get more involved in the Sales Success Community. It starts with the encore series. Starting Friday, January 8th, and running all through Q1 2021 we'll be getting together each Friday from 2-4pm Central Time. In each of these sessions, we'll replay a presentation from the 2020 Sales Success Summit with the presenter present to answer your questions live during the presentation. That will then be followed by an even more in-depth live Q&A, Ask Me Anything type of session and finally, you'll have an opportunity to connect with each other in our virtual networking environment.

Michael Harris is a top Senior Sales ERP at Epicor, an organization that provides flexible, industry-specific software that is designed to meet the precise needs of their customers. Michael has had quite the career trajectory. He went from being a sales trainer to a quota-carrying sales professional – having never sold tech before – and within two years became the top-performing manufacturing salesperson at Epicor. Michael is also the author of Insight Selling and has been published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR). Michael has worked with technology companies over the past decade to deliver insight so that their customers are better able to challenge the status quo and discover the unrecognized value of change.

In this bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast, as we get ready to round the corner into the final month of 2020 I thought this set of 3 tips from the Daily Sales Tips podcast might be particularly useful. These come from James Muir, Todd Caponi, and Mark Schenkius and all have to do with closing deals at the end of the quarter or the end of the year. If you like these, stick around afterward because I've got two other suggestions for you, but first, here are your tips:

Millie Gulley was the top Sales Development Representative (SDR) at Sprinklr, a customer experience management platform. Recently, she's been promoted into an Account Executive (AE) role where she has taken on an even greater leadership role with more responsibility. Millie has been a talented and hardworking leader throughout her career, displaying enthusiasm, adaptability, coachability, creativity, and resiliency in everything she's done. Her mission is to enable organizations to generate brand affinity and increase revenue by delivering personal, pertinent, and prompt digital experiences.

David Weiss: MEDDPICC David Weiss episodes at Daily Sales Tips: 639. MEDDPICC Series Kickoff 641. MEDDPICC Series (Metrics) 643. MEDDPICC Series (Economic Buyer) 646. MEDDPICC Series (Decision Process) 648. MEDDPICC Series (Decision Criteria) 650. MEDDPICC Series (Paper Process) 653. MEDDPICC Series (Identify Pain) 655. MEDDPICC Series (Champion) 657: MEDDPICC Series (Competition)

Janae Dandridge is the top federal Account Executive at Tableau out of Detroit, Michigan. Tableau offers a revolutionary new approach to business intelligence, allowing its customers to quickly connect, visualize, and share data with a seamless experience from the PC to the iPad. Janae is a committed sales professional who helps Federal agencies improve mission outcomes using data analytics. In her unique role, Janae focuses on federal civilian government agencies (think Department of the Treasury or the IRS). Janae is responsible for driving sales across her specified accounts and has consistently outperformed her number, reaching 300% of her annual goals multiple times. She is even on track to hit 150%, despite an economy that has been rocked by a global pandemic.

Richard Balius is the Head of Sales & Peer Group Coordinator at Sales Success Media. Richard has been leading peer advisory boards for CEOs of small to mid-market companies in Austin for over sixteen years. He's also a results-driven sales leadership consultant focused on helping leaders deliver sales results in their organizations. Richard has spent his career helping private owners to build sales teams capable of growing revenue and defending margins.

Jeff Bajorek is taking over the Sales Success Stories Podcast during the Sales Success Summit, talking to speakers in the virtual hallway.

Cash is great, but what motivates top performance beyond that? Can you differentiate your company by rewarding people in whys that really matter to them? Jeff and Scott share some of their own personal stories of recognition and the impact it made.

Jeff Bajorek is taking over the Sales Success Stories Podcast during the Sales Success Summit, talking to speakers in the virtual hallway. Why is our outreach gross? Despite the documented success of personalized approaches, salespeople everywhere continue to reduce themselves to the lowest common denominator. Dave Schwartz mentioned this in their talk today, and I wanted to know more.

Jeff Bajorek is taking over the Sales Success Stories Podcast during the Sales Success Summit, talking to speakers in the virtual hallway. Why is our outreach gross? Despite the documented success of personalized approaches, salespeople everywhere continue to reduce themselves to the lowest common denominator. Matthew DuPont And Dejuan Brown both mentioned this in their talks today, and I wanted to know more.

Jeff Bajorek is taking over the Sales Success Stories Podcast during the Sales Success Summit, talking to speakers in the virtual hallway. Why is our outreach gross? Despite the documented success of personalized approaches, salespeople everywhere continue to reduce themselves to the lowest common denominator. Evan Kelsay and Camille Clemons both mentioned this in their talks today, and I wanted to know more.

Jeff Bajorek is taking over the Sales Success Stories Podcast during the Sales Success Summit, talking to speakers in the virtual hallway. Why is our outreach gross? Despite the documented success of personalized approaches, salespeople everywhere continue to reduce themselves to the lowest common denominator. Vincent Matano and Jacquelyn Nicholson both mentioned this in their talks today, and I wanted to know more.

Jeff Bajorek is taking over the Sales Success Stories Podcast during the Sales Success Summit, talking to speakers in the virtual hallway. Why is our outreach gross? Despite the documented success of personalized approaches, salespeople everywhere continue to reduce themselves to the lowest common denominator. Sarah Brazier and Dale Dupree both mentioned this in their talks today, and I wanted to know more.

I'm taking the week off this week from my regular sales day job to focus on delivering a world-class virtual event next week, and that of course, would be the 2020 Sales Success Summit. Today I thought I'd give you a bit of a preview and let you know what to expect. Hopefully, you're already registered, but if not, real quick, right now, click over to Top1Summit.com and fill out the registration form. It'll only take a minute and thanks to our amazing sponsors the entire event is free to attend.