Tech Sales Insights

IS TECHNOLOGY FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE?It’s part 2 with John Barrows, CEO of Sell Better by JB Sales, and the author of I Want To Be In Sales When I Grow Up.In this episode, John will be talking about the future of sales, particularly on the benefits of in-person networking for sales reps, the importance of work-life integration, the impact of platforms on sales, the generational divide in the workplace, and the impact of recent layoffs in tech sales. So tune in and learn more! HIGHLIGHT QUOTESJOHN: NETWORKING IS CRITICAL IN SALES“I think that a sales rep has to be in the office for the first two years of their sales career. Because you've learned so much just by being around other people, and listening in and osmosis and all that other stuff. So I just think it's a critical part that I'm worried right now is being ripped away from their development,”JOHN: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS WORKING YOUR ASS OFF“what's the secret to success? And it's easy, it's working your ass off. That's the secret to success, people say to work smart, but I’m like Shut up. You got to work. Yeah, fine, work smart. But you got to work your ass off to be successful in this game and in any game.” Don’t miss the previous part/s of this amazing series with John Barrows:E103 Part 1 - WHAT LIES AHEAD: The Future Of The Sales Profession With John Barrows Find out more about John in the links below:John BarrowsSell Better by JB SalesSellBetter.xyz Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

WHAT AWAITS US IN THE FUTURE OF SALES?Welcome to another series in Tech Sales Insights, and in this series, we have John Barrows, CEO of Sell Better by JB Sales, and the author of I Want To Be In Sales When I Grow Up.To kick off this series, John will be talking about the future in sales, particularly on design thinking, how technology is taking over and the impact of technology on sales. So tune in and learn more! HIGHLIGHT QUOTESJOHN: DON’T SELL IT IF YOU’RE NOT EVEN USING IT“I can't stand trainers that don't use their own stuff when they're selling I mean it's weird to even experience that. So yeah, we use our own techniques. We do everything I mean, obviously, and other people's stuff too. I mean there's no one right answer and sales anymore.”JOHN: THE BOTTOM-UP APPROACH“There's the bottom-up approach, which I think a lot of people look at, from like a PLG standpoint, like a product-led growth approach, where you get it in the users, and then you cross it, and then you go up. But the bottom-up approach also from gathering insights at the bottom layer, and almost looking at it as design thinking for sales.” Find out more about John in the links below:John BarrowsSell Better by JB SalesSellBetter.xyz Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s Part 3! Stu and Randy discuss the ins and outs of sales leadership, the importance of initiative, flexibility, and action, success in sales being dependent on the whole team, and many more. Don’t miss out on this final installment of the Stu Gold series, only here in the latest episode of Tech Sales Insights. HIGHLIGHT QUOTESSTU: Flexibility + Initiative = SDR’s Success“Flexibility is very, very important, and you need to be able to kind of go with the flow a little bit and shift to different priorities as they come up. To do that, you also need to be very proactive on our teams, and you have to have to take initiative, and I'd rather see people take initiative and make some mistakes along the way, than kind of sit back and just wait for things to happen.” Don’t miss the previous part/s of this amazing series with Stu Gold:E102 Part 1 - OLD BUT GOLD: Stu Gold On The Innovative Legacy Of Blattner Technologies - https://youtu.be/Qq074xezVg8E102 Part 2 - GAME-CHANGING: Beneficial Importance of AI, ML, and Data with Stu Gold - https://youtu.be/oeKu3ogrb9M Find out more about Stu in the link below:About StuBlattner TechnologiesBlattnerTechnologies.com Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Part 2 of this series with Stu Gold, CRO of Blattner Technologies. In this second installment, Stu and Randy will talk about the benefits of and importance of AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning), and Data to businesses, particularly in Sales and Marketing. Tune in and learn more about these benefits in this latest episode of Tech Sales Insights. HIGHLIGHT QUOTESSTU: DATA IS THE NEW OIL“We recognize and have a project in place to focus on the data, data is the new oil man, if I can leverage all the data of the companies that are not part of Blattner out Our ability to accelerate growth and be even more knowledgeable about what's working in sales. And marketing is, is really critical for us. And we recognize that's a huge opportunity.” Don’t miss the previous part/s of this amazing series with Stu Gold:E102 Part 1 - OLD BUT GOLD: Stu Gold On The Innovative Legacy Of Blattner Technologies - https://youtu.be/Qq074xezVg8 Find out more about Stu in the link below:About StuBlattner TechnologiesBlattnerTechnologies.com Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For over a century of pioneering innovation, Blattner Technologies is geared to be the leading provider of predictive transformation services and tools in the Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning industry, and with that, we have Stu Gold today to talk about Blattner’s mission and it’s go-to-market strategy, only here, in Tech Sales Insights. HIGHLIGHT QUOTESSTU: Focusing on making the most of your data“Blattner Technologies is focused on being a leading provider of what would be considered predictive transformation services, and solutions, which is utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning to really get the most out of your data.” Find out more about Stu in the link below:About StuBlattner TechnologiesBlattnerTechnologies.com Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the last part of our conversation with Nick Candito, Founding Investor at Flatfile and Co-Founder of Angel Collective Opportunity Fund (ACOF). He explains the need for balance between technical and go-to-market founders and how each plays a pivotal role in defining the product that will ultimately solve the customer's problem. And just as important, Nick also discusses the need for feedback to climb to the next stage of growth. HIGHLIGHT QUOTESHave a feedback loop between the technical and strategic founders - Nick: "Every technology-first company needs a product and I think that's... the skillset of the founders. I think the ones that have a founder around the table who knows how to think about strategy, ops, go-to-market, they tend to be able to have every part of that conversation." "You represented the fastest. But I also think there's something to be said about the feedback loop with strictly technical founders that know how to kind of see each other's strengths and then just trust what maybe others are getting for observations."Be mindful of the bigger picture and the people you work with along the way - Nick: "Thinking very deliberately about relationships and opportunities, you always think you're going to have your next opportunity or there's more relationships that you can get introduced to, so I've tried to now be much more relationship-focused, much more patient, and it's tough to balance that with the founder DNA." Find out more about Nick in the link below:About Nick Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the second part of our conversation with Nick Candito, Founding Investor at Flatfile and Co-Founder of Angel Collective Opportunity Fund (ACOF). He discusses how companies need a great product and customers to even begin a PLG motion. Nick also talks about determining product-market fit using product signals, as well as choosing the right customers that help you define the market together. HIGHLIGHT QUOTESYou need a great product and actually have customers to be successful at PLG - Nick: "The reality is, to build a great company, you're going to need the best product, good marketing, and probably exceptional go-to-market, which means everything that goes into how you think about predictably finding, acquiring, and then making a customer successful."Finding product-market fit early and picking the best customers - Nick: "You really want to optimize for how do you get in the door for those customers, and picking great customers means they're going to help you define the market together which is how do you grow the addressable opportunity." Find out more about Nick in the link below:About Nick Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the first part of our conversation with Nick Candito, Founding Investor at Flatfile and Co-Founder of Angel Collective Opportunity Fund (ACOF). He shares his professional journey in investing and operations and how he ensures the health of their portfolio today together with their fund managers. He also explains how they do not lead rounds and instead facilitate the introductions that lead to the next rounds of financing. HIGHLIGHT QUOTES Working with large family offices with an emerging manager problem - Nick: "It's been helpful right now to be more active with existing companies, especially the ones that are doing better than maybe the broader market knows because they're not out fundraising." Making introductions to facilitate the next rounds of financing - Nick: "We're not leading rounds. We do facilitate a lot of introductions. If our managers are inception stage, we describe ourselves as inflection. So right when the business is starting to really work and doing better than people realize."Find out more about Nick in the link below: About Nick Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the last part of our conversation with Carl Eschenbach, Partner at Sequoia Capital. He shares his wisdom on the secret sauce to effective leadership and how to become a leader who motivates, inspires, and lives the true meaning of servant leadership as well. HIGHLIGHTSThe CRO's scope of responsibilities and leadership across rolesAim to become the motivational and inspirational leaderUnderstanding the servant leader QUOTESThe true meaning of servant leadership inspires success - Carl: "If you go and study what true servant leadership is, think about the very first word of servant leadership, and that is to serve. And I fundamentally believe the greatest leaders, regardless of role or capacity, are the ones that serve their people. They're not leading them. And through that servant-type approach, your leadership gets displayed and everyone becomes more successful."First level is motivational leader, second is inspirational, third is both - Carl: "The third level of leadership is the one who knows how to do both, because there are times, Randy, when you needed to be pushed probably and get that little extra out of Randy, but then there's other times when people inspired you and pulled you in." Find out more about Carl in the link below:About Carl Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the second part of our conversation with Carl Eschenbach, Partner at Sequoia Capital. He provides deep insights into how they choose companies to invest in, as well as the primary importance of change management to survive economic headwinds. Carl also gives actionable tips on how companies must sell and the shift in messaging that this requires. HIGHLIGHTS"Look inside and outside the building" to decide when to invest in a companyGet things done by focusing on change managementHow to sell effectively in a down market QUOTESAdapt as fast as the changes come to survive - Carl: "In the climate we're in today and potentially even broader headwinds going forward, if your company is not changing as fast as what's happening outside the walls of your company, death is near. You just got to be open to change. You have to communicate change."Show a strong ROI to attract buyers during a downturn - Carl: "In down markets, nothing sells like a strong ROI, so I encourage people to revisit their value proposition, number one, around ROI. The second reason people buy is if you're going to help them drive revenue growth. And if you can have a value proposition that shows tangible evidence of it and you can back it up with quantifiable numbers, people will buy your technology."The growing complexity of operations has eroded operational rigor - Carl: "Simplicity scales, complexity doesn't." Find out more about Carl in the link below:About Carl Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the first part of our conversation with Carl Eschenbach, Partner at Sequoia Capital. Today, Carl shares his remarkable career journey, from working at a PBX company in 1987 to the present day at Sequioa, and all the sales jobs in between. He discusses what they do and do not do as a company and how working in a VC keeps him young. HIGHLIGHTSCarl's professional journey to becoming a legend in tech sales salesTaking care of a growing family and joining Sequioa QUOTESFrom sales to sales leadership and culminating in becoming partner at Sequioa - Carl: "I got a fortunate opportunity to join Sequoia and I've been here six and a half years and it's been a great experience. I've learned how to be an investor. I think I'm a better executive. I'm much more detailed on how to operate and run a company here." Find out more about Carl in the link below:About Carl Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to another episode of the Tech Sales Insights Podcast! We have a special episode for you today as we check out the best moments from our conversation with Craig Hinkley, CEO of WhiteHat. He discusses the key attributes of successful sales reps and leaders alike and how to lead your team from within. HIGHLIGHTSThe key attributes for success for sales reps and leadersEvery great team needs a coach, and so do sales leadersBe a leader that pushes an organization with a vision "Stop wearing the clothes of the CEO. Stop pretending that you have to do this and just be yourself. So lead from within because confidence that comes from knowing who you are and what you stand for and what you believe is far more authentic." - Be yourself and let your vision and passion emanate from you Find out more about Craig in the link below:About Craig Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to another episode of the Tech Sales Insights Podcast! We have a special episode for you today as we revisit the best moments from our conversation with Andrew Ettinger, CRO at Astronaut. He digs into some early mistakes that founders make and how grit, passion, and intellectual curiosity remain the top characteristics that indicate future success. HIGHLIGHTSEarly founder mistakes and traits to watch for in sales repsSpotting grit, passion, and curiosity and building these skillsListen to implicit and explicit signals from all channels "It was really trying to take the time to not rush into the sale, the sales engagement, or rush through things without really trying to build that proper connection with people. I know it sounds very silly, but when you double click on that, it's sort of the old adage that, as a sales professional, you've got two ears and one mouth for a reason and so it's to listen right really well." - Create a connection and be intentional about listening Find out more about Andrew in the link below:About Andrew Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to another episode of the Tech Sales Insights Podcast! We have a special episode for you today as we throwback to some of the most memorable moments from our conversation with Jennifer Haas, CRO and Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, on the 3 "ships" for growing young leaders into their full potential and much more. HIGHLIGHTS"Clarity is kindness" and creating a team culture based on integrityHiring virtually and revops for forecastingDevelop rising talent with Leadership, Mentorship, and Sponsorship "By sponsorship, I mean finding a project or leading a program, something that you can pull somebody up and say, this person would be perfect to lead this program, lead this project. Something that's highly visible that they can really showcase their skillset." - Sponsorship means providing younger reps a visible platform for their skills Find out more about Jennifer in the link below:About Jennifer Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome everyone to a special episode of the Tech Sales Insights Podcast! This is the last part of the discussion on SKO by David Nour, CEO of The Nour Group. Today, he shares ten ideas to consider to make your SKOs more consistent, and ultimately, more successful. David also talks about using image and story to deliver your path forward and how that relates to the customer lifecycle journey. HIGHLIGHTSAlign image and story to cascade the vision throughout the organizationThe sales loop vs the sales funnel10 ideas to make your SKO more impactfulDavid's planned marquis events “If it's all rosy, then it looks too manufactured. But every healthy relationship goes through some challenges, right? We had this challenge and your team took over, I am now drinking Kool-Aid. I am eating our own cooking of "Oh my God, how amazing are we" because now there's an independent. And that's the key.” - David on having an independent identity that can say how great the organization is Find out more about David in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidnour/Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidnourWebsite: https://nourgroup.com/ In case you missed part 2, check it out [here - Part 2 Link]! Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome everyone to a special episode of the Tech Sales Insights Podcast! This is the second part of the discussion on sales kickoffs (SKO) by David Nour, CEO of The Nour Group. Today, he dives deep into the biggest mistakes those in leadership roles make when doing SKO and, of course, how to effectively address them. HIGHLIGHTS10 costly mistakes leaders could make Using new technologies and tools to present ideasA sales kickoff is an opportunity to create new excitement “If you inspire them to really think about what and how they should behave differently, what skills and what knowledge they need back in their territories and back with their relationships, you'll create [a] much longer-term impact.” - David on not confusing motivation with inspiration Find out more about David in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidnour/Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidnourWebsite: https://nourgroup.com/ Check out the first part of the discussion in: https://tech-sales-insights.simplecast.com/episodes/think-diversely-about-your-sales-kickoff-tech-sales-insights-special-ft-david-nour-part-1 Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome everyone to a special episode of the Tech Sales Insights Podcast! Today we have David Nour, CEO of The Nour Group, taking the helm to talk about approaching your sales kickoff (SKO) in more effective and cost-efficient ways. Tune in as he shares a few misconceptions about growth, challenges leaders face when it comes to SKO, and many more valuable insights! HIGHLIGHTSLeading and thinking differently about your sales kickoffA good analogy for approaching SKOMisconceptions around COVID growth and forever growthOn infusing a sense of urgency “We've got to get beyond these things before we get those sellers together. It's a "we" challenge and "we" opportunity. Anytime I go into a company and hear us and them, what I'm not hearing is that we're all rowing with the same velocity and voracity in the same direction.” - David on working around some of the dysfunctions and challenges in organizations Find out more about David in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidnour/Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidnourWebsite: https://nourgroup.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to another episode of the Tech Sales Insights Podcast! We have a special episode for you today as we bring back some of the best moments from our conversation with Ed Sim, Founder and Managing Partner of boldstart ventures. Tune in as we talk about finding and working with start-ups and helping them reach new heights. HIGHLIGHTSWorking with founders and identifying their common mistakesSales reps that a company should attractThe right timing of bringing a high-caliber individual to work with technical foundersThe best way to learn about start-ups “When I think about SaaS, I think about the thing that I said a couple of years ago which is that you want to win the hearts and minds of the developer or the end-user before you win the hearts and minds of the enterprise. The whole idea of how you sell and reach these large orgs is changing.” - Ed on how business models have begun to shift towards SaaS Find out more about Ed in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edsim/Twitter: https://twitter.com/edsimWebsite: https://boldstart.vc/ Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to another episode of the Tech Sales Insights Podcast! We have a special episode for you today as we bring back some of the best moments from our conversation with Peter Quirk, previously General Manager of the Global Enterprise East at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and now Chief Revenue Officer at ThreatWarrior. HIGHLIGHTSWhat global enterprise and global accounting mean for HPEBecome a life-long learner because there are always opportunities, especially in techWhat it takes to become a great sales managerKnowing the true value you can provide the company “The only thing that I can say the shift has taken place are the partners that are making the shift along with us. Because you still have to do the same things you had to do before, you just end up having to do it remotely. I think you see the partners that are managing their business the best are the ones that are making this transition the best.” - Peter on how global enterprise teams shifted their strategy Find out more about Peter in the link below:About Peter Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to another episode of the Tech Sales Insights Podcast! We have a special episode for you today as we bring back some of the best moments from our conversation with Ken Dougherty, Vice President of North America Storage Platforms and Solutions Sales at Dell EMC. HIGHLIGHTSTrends in tech sales that could have an impact post-COVIDThe hallmarks of a successful salespersonUse social media and tools to stay connected with peopleBe more patient as a salesperson and you're likely to get better outcomes “Don't forget what made you successful as a salesperson when you become a sales leader. Don't change your approach in how you engage with clients and stay customer focused. But also lead from example and go back to that term I referenced earlier, be action-oriented” - Ken on the mindset of becoming an exceptional sales manager Find out more about Ken in the link below:About Ken Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the last part of our conversation with Annelies Husmann, Head of Enterprise Sales and Growth at Gong. She shares some of the best advice she had learned over the years, including riding out overwhelm by focusing for 24 hours.She also discusses the importance of building multi-threaded relationships at the executive level. In sales, she comments on the magic of in-person meetings and the need to balance it with the mandate of doing things online. HIGHLIGHTSSales and rev ops are strategic counterparts of salesAdvice: Focus and ride out your ship in 24 hoursBuilding longer-term relationships with executives QUOTESSales and rev ops allow teams to see around corners and execute more effectively - Annalies: "The importance of rev ops and sales ops and having a great strategic counterpart to help balance you out is just so mission-critical nowadays. And it's been great to see even how our team has evolved over the last couple of years."The best advice a former manager taught her - Annalies: "No matter what the problem is, if you really do take away distractions and focus on something, you'll probably be able to ride or at least have a path forward within 24 hours." Find out more about Annelies in the link below:About Annelies Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the second part of our conversation with Annelies Husmann, Head of Enterprise Sales and Growth at Gong. Annalies dives into mentorship and how other women in sales should explore their networks to find a good mentor.In her experience, just having these conversations allows other women to see themselves in quota-carrying roles too. Annelies also discusses value selling as a requirement in today's macroeconomic situation and how sales conversations must always be tied back to value. HIGHLIGHTSWomen in sales and the value of mentorshipValue selling should be tied to the company's key strategic initiativesHire based on competencies and behavioral traits vs past experiences QUOTESValue selling is more important now with economic headwinds - Annalies: "I think now where we are, you really need to be very thoughtful with how you're building your business cases and how you're engaging with your executives, and you just have to stay 100% tied to value."Avoid getting stuck hiring certain profiles by focusing on behaviors - Annalies: "Focus more on competencies and behavioral traits versus past experiences, and here's why. I think if you focus just on past experiences, you could really go down this path of going down a profile that you typically for very, very quickly." Find out more about Annelies in the link below:About Annelies Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the first part of our conversation with Annelies Husmann, Head of Enterprise Sales and Growth at Gong. Achieving true diversity in organizations is admittedly difficult.Annelies discusses how leaders need to be thoughtful during this process and to stay committed to this cause. She emphasizes how leaders must go out in the field as well to find the best talent. HIGHLIGHTSGong: Aggregating data streams and improving day-to-day livesDiversity best practices: Sales leaders need the commitment to recruit actively QUOTESGong aggregates data in a tangible and life-changing way - Annalies: "I have a command over my business I never had before. I'm making more money. And it's all those really small, personal levers of how gong is just changing their day-to-day operations. And those are the best customer stories."Leaders must do the legwork to find the best talent - Annalies: "When I start sending notes out to people, personally, through LinkedIn and email, I get great responses. And so, if I'm a leader saying this is something that's important to me, I'm also going to put my time where my mouth is and go out and start recruiting and selling people as well." Find out more about Annelies in the link below:About Annelies Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the last part of our conversation with Eric Brock, Chairman & CEO of ONDAS Networks and Diana Shapiro, CEO of Dynam.AI. They talk about who their buyers are and what it takes to weather recessions and come out of them successfully. They also share some of the insights they've gained from mentors and their own personal experiences. HIGHLIGHTSIt takes different skill sets and experiences to be successfulAutomation helps cut costs in a recessionary timeSelling to non-tech-savvy buyers in target marketsDiana and Eric share about the mentors they've learned from and the things they also want to teach QUOTESWeathering the trying times in a struggling financial market - Eric: "You have to deal with outside forces. And today those forces are difficult, they're tightening up. I think in this environment, like everyone, you have to spend time prioritizing what you need to do. You could have a hundred things to do but you can actually do them all in the next 6 months and you have to make these difficult decisions."Value selling when going through recessions - Diana: "The easiest way to increase the bottom line is by cutting costs. While that's not what salespeople want to hear, they can position themselves with companies that are looking to help companies reduce costs, increase ROI, and the very best way to accomplish that is through automation." Find out more about our guests in the links below:About EricAbout Diana Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the second part of our conversation with Eric Brock, Chairman & CEO of ONDAS Networks and Diana Shapiro, CEO of Dynam.AI. Eric first introduces ONDAS and what they do for businesses that need connectivity over wide areas. They then talk about defining automation at the highest levels and what their partnership means in creating relevant technologies and solutions. HIGHLIGHTSEric talks about ONDAS and their focus on dronesAutomating decision-making and manual processes at a high levelBringing together different technologies to create great solutions QUOTESOn having something that defines the industry and defines solutions - Eric: "It is about understanding what the customer needs and we come in solving that critical bottleneck. We're removing the pilot and the FAA is giving us permission to do that which is really difficult to do from a fully-autonomous platform that works every day as a workhorse without human intervention."The partnership of ONDAS and Dynam.AI - Diana: "They're not just solving a problem for one customer, they're solving an industry-related problem. When you do that, you're just levels above your competition because you're thinking way bigger than just one customer. You're thinking, what can I do for the industry to help get it to the next level?" Find out more about our guests in the links below:About EricAbout Diana Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights features Eric Brock, Chairman & CEO of ONDAS Networks and Diana Shapiro, CEO of Dynam.AI. When we think of AI in the business space, it's only natural to first think about using it to automate manual processes.Today, Eric and Diana each talk about their careers so far and how they arrived in the tech sales world. Diana first introduces Dynam.AI, how we're approaching an upcoming space called decision intelligence, and the AI technology they are currently working on. HIGHLIGHTSHow Eric and Diana each ended up in tech salesDiana talks about the decision intelligence space and introduces Dynam.AI QUOTESThe top things CEOs are looking to use AI for - Diana: "Interestingly, the top business priorities for AI at companies start with automating business processes, improving existing products or services, improving competitive differentiation and it just goes down the line." Find out more about our guests in the links below:About EricAbout Diana Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the last part of our conversation with MJ Leslie, Owner & Principal of Chapter 3 Ltd and Larry Irvin, Principal of Black Diamond Revenue Advisors. MJ and Larry share their points of view on how sales will look 5 years from now. They also talk about trying out new markets demographically as a start-up, value selling, and the leaders in the space that they follow and respect. HIGHLIGHTSHow sales will change 5 years from nowWhen should a start-up explore new markets?Supplement the talent pool with alternative choices for value sellingLarry and MJ talk about the sales leaders they respect and learned from QUOTESOn using effective tools and strategies - MJ: "Through the pandemic and going into whatever the next stage of society is, knowing who you're going after and what is the value to sell to them becomes really important. So the more intel that you can gather on the individual you're trying to connect with is why I like ZoomInfo."US SaaS start-ups looking to explore different markets - Larry: "The whole idea of the game is revenue acquisition. Sometimes, especially early-stage founders, get wrapped around the idea of wanting to be a global company and selling in all these different countries. And they lose sight of the fact that the whole goal is to capture revenue. Especially if you're a US-based company launching here, there's a ton of opportunity just within this country." Find out more about our guests in the links below:About MJAbout Larry Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/DecisionLink | https://www.decisionlink.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the second part of our conversation with MJ Leslie, Owner & Principal of Chapter 3 Ltd and Larry Irvin, Principal of Black Diamond Revenue Advisors. MJ and Larry share their opinions on the increase of titles and if they actually matter for a company. They also discuss the sales, marketing, and customer success functions being part of the CRO role and the importance of SaaS experience for reps even outside of sales. HIGHLIGHTSShould the CMO report to the CRO?Go-to-market functions being added to the CRO role is laborious but can make sense.The customer success side is becoming an increasingly important functionHow important is SaaS experience when hiring sales reps? QUOTESCustomer success develops advocates within an organization - MJ: "I have seen a ton of peripheral success not just by a certain customer renewing and expanding their deal but them going out and becoming very much like public advocates or referrals coming through those solid accounts because you've invested in them and they have a relationship with the company."Importance of CROs in revenue retention - Larry: "The easiest people to sell to are those that have already bought. The ability to expand is super important. I love the function, I think it's an easier way than traditionally putting this on sales. As a sales rep, if you close the big deal and you know that you probably block yourself out of an account revenue-wise, you're not going to spend time there." Find out more about our guests in the links below:About MJAbout Larry Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/DecisionLink | https://www.decisionlink.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights features MJ Leslie, Owner & Principal of Chapter 3 Ltd and Larry Irvin, Principal of Black Diamond Revenue Advisors. In the world of SaaS and many other industries, companies are becoming more and more focused on not only acquiring customers but also retaining customers. Hence, the introduction of the Chief Revenue Officer or CRO.MJ and Larry talk about their sales journeys and some key lessons they've learned so far. They share their insights into what a Chief Revenue Officer actually offers and what level of a company actually needs the CRO role. HIGHLIGHTSMJ and Larry talk about their careers and sales journeysWhat is a Chief Revenue Officer anyway?The ideal stage of a company relative to having a CRO QUOTESThe CRO's job in a macro level - MJ: "Anything that falls within that big, wide umbrella can be part of that. Larry and I were chatting about what stage of that makes sense for a company because if you only have five people, that's a pretty small umbrella. But as you grow, just understanding and looking at what departments make sense in the revenue generation versus retainment section define the CRO role."Is it ideal for start-ups to have CRO? - Larry: "You start getting into that, 'alright, we need to have a structure.' You need to have separate disciplines within marketing, sales, within customer success. That consistent look and feel is key. But to early stage, you're creating layers of structure that creates inefficiency when you can least afford inefficiency." Find out more about our guests in the links below:About MJAbout Larry Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/DecisionLink | https://www.decisionlink.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the last part of our conversation with Kevin Connolly, SVP of the North America Mid-Market at Dell Technologies. He shares his insights into the importance of partnerships when it comes to medium businesses. Kevin also talks about how building trust and confidence has changed over time across different generations. HIGHLIGHTSPartnerships as a key piece to the sales puzzleHow do all generations build trust and rapport with clients without face-to-face meetings?Kevin and Randy discuss their mentors QUOTESThe difference between generations in getting trusted relationships fast - Kevin: "This generation of buyers want it a different way. Their version of trust and confidence might come through social media, it might come through text, or through email. What I perceive as building trust and confidence comes through servicing them really well in the way that they want to be serviced."Leveraging the partner community's reach - Kevin: "Sales partnerships are critically important. But if you even think about this as not too much of an intellectual concept, our job at this type of business at scale is to bring new customers. We have a lot of opportunities to do that even if you just look at market share alone." Find out more about Kevin in the link below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinconnolly222/ Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/messageThis episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/Dell Technologies | https://www.dell.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the second part of our conversation with Kevin Connolly, SVP of the North America Mid-Market at Dell Technologies. He shares about taking advantage of technology to inspect and provide feedback for those working remotely. Kevin also shares how ramping, productivity, and the sales cycle in the remote work environment have changed since Covid. HIGHLIGHTS How do you inspect in real-time those who are working remotely?What it means to marry sales, operations, marketing, and AI The relationship with the inside sellerChanges in ramping and the sales cycle since Covid hit QUOTESGetting sales, operations, marketing, and technology right - Kevin: "We try to really get them productive actions each week, each month, and each quarter. That's kind of the internal engine and, of course, the marketing. We're trying to ignite someone to come at us whether it's using that technology, or bots, or what have you." Customers still enjoy that relationship with the inside seller - Kevin: "I would say that in its simplest form, the complexity will drive the interaction. But it should return back to the owner inside to dictate and help the customer with their journey." Find out more about Kevin in the link below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinconnolly222/ Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/messageThis episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/Dell Technologies | https://www.dell.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights features Kevin Connolly, SVP of the North America Mid-Market at Dell Technologies. Shaping young leaders and medium businesses until they graduate to an enterprise is a fun challenge and a big responsibility at the same time.Kevin talks about his transition from EMC to Dell and his roles under Dell's Medium Business umbrella. He shares about his experience in managing a young, in-career force, the differences between managing large and small teams, and the dynamics of moving to scale. HIGHLIGHTSKevin's responsibilities under the Dell umbrellaThe biggest challenge in managing large sales teams vs small teamsHow to create and keep an amazing culture intact QUOTESManaging large vs small sales teams - Kevin: "There are a million challenges but when you have scale, one of the golden rules is to try to keep it simple and not overthink it. Especially when you have a lot of solutions to provide and you get excited about that. So I'd say simplicity will rule the day."On mental health in sales - Kevin: "It is hard but not as hard as I thought it would be. It's amazing if you just shut up and open your ears a bit, young leaders migrating through the sales community would be surprised." Find out more about Kevin in the link below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinconnolly222/ Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/messageThis episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/Dell Technologies | https://www.dell.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the last part of our conversation with Jon Festejo, Co-Founder and CEO of Salesbricks. He talks about the many possibilities of CPQ and overall software five or ten years from now. Jon also shares a few of his favorite sales tools to use with Salesbricks to add more efficiency and produce more results. HIGHLIGHTSPossible changes to CPQ five years downWhy it's CPQ and not CQPOther sales tools Jon uses QUOTESHow software will be trained for the future - Jon: "In software, we'll be doing a better job in figuring out what that right moment is to go upsell your customer. Because in sales, timing is everything. Time also kills all deals and so the software will learn how to go compete and figure out when it is the right time for you to actually visit the customer."Software will eventually do a better job on its own- Jon: "Today in software sales technology, it's human first and then tools that help them augment and make their jobs a little bit easier. But there's now a tipping point and crossing the chasm where it's going to be technology first and then you apply a human organization to augment that and add additional value." Find out more about Jon in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-festejo-59233b23/Website: https://www.salesbricks.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/messageThis episode of Tech Sales Insights is sponsored by: SaaStr | https://www.saastr.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the second part of our conversation with Jon Festejo, Co-Founder and CEO of Salesbricks. He talks about the three main aspects to think about in order to secure enterprise transactions, namely transparency, flexibility, and building trust. Jon also shares different insights and analogies when it comes to software sales and being a salesperson in general. HIGHLIGHTS3 things to consider when leading enterprise sales dealsBeing the Shopify of B2B SaaS companiesThe "If you give a mouse a cookie" analogy QUOTESThe importance of flexibility - Jon: "What a lot of people don't really understand is, not every deal is going to look exactly the same. Your one million dollar deal, your nine million dollar deal, your fifty thousand dollar deal, there's a lot of permutations and a lot of things that are very different."Building trust is also about telling the truth - Jon: "There's going to be times in your career and sales cycle where you need to stop pushing customers and say 'you gotta trust me.' That's important, right? To be able to have that painful conversation."What selling software could look like in 10 years - Jon: "A lot of these industries that invest in technology, focus on customer experience and accessibility, and democratizing the product, those industries, and companies, in particular, are going to win the race. If you see what Netflix did to steaming media and what Expedia did for travel agencies, we want to do the same exact thing for software sales." Find out more about Jon in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-festejo-59233b23/Website: https://www.salesbricks.com/ Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/messageThis episode of Tech Sales Insights is sponsored by: SaaStr | https://www.saastr.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights features Jon Festejo, Co-Founder and CEO of Salesbricks. Creating a user experience where even new sales reps can take the software and effectively build out a strategic workflow is essential. However, not many realize how painful it can be to work with legacy CPQ.Jon talks about the amount of work that salespeople do especially with CPQ software even if it's supposed to make things easier. He shares about how dealing with CPQ implementation for the fourth time pushed them to start Salesbricks and create a better experience for customers on their software implementation. HIGHLIGHTSImplementing CPQ and the start of SalesbricksHow Salesbricks creates the ideal experience for sales repsCPQ insights from the decision-maker's perspective QUOTESThe way that CPQs are architected makes them difficult to implement - Jon: "In fact, the CPQ market basically invites a billion-dollar business in consulting. You go hire somebody offshore and spend 6 figures, sometimes even 3x what you spend on the actual software to have somebody implement and maintain it."Salesbrick's focus on the modern-day buyer - Jon: "When you were going to sell software back in the '90s or 80s, that technology had a long sales cycle, right? Nowadays, if you don't get the attention of a millennial buyer in their 30s or 20s, they're going to move on to go research some other solution. And so we have to go focus on that kind." Find out more about Jon in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-festejo-59233b23/Website: https://www.salesbricks.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/messageThis episode of Tech Sales Insights is sponsored by: SaaStr | https://www.saastr.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the last part of our conversation with Matt Handler, President and COO of Coralogix. He discusses value selling and how the different departments must be aligned on what your value is to extract it in every part of your messaging. Matt also discusses retention and compensation. Coralogix boasts the best in class retention at 150% as they compensate salespeople for the right things, consider upsells and cross-sells as new business, and follow it up with attractive accelerators. HIGHLIGHTSProduct, marketing, sales, finance, and HR must know the product’s value intimately wellValue selling: Constantly check your messagingRetention: Compensation drives behavior, so incentivize correctly QUOTESAlign your messaging so value selling becomes organic - Matt: "Every conversation that we have, the frontline managers, second line managers, CRO, me, we are speaking the same language of ‘Do you understand what the current situation is? The pain? How do they measure that?’ ‘What's the future stake? What is it that they're looking for and how does that apply to their business? How do we do it? How do we do it better? Who have we done it before?’ And we run those conversations all the time. And around that, did we need the economic buyer. ‘Do we have a champion? Do we understand the decision process?’ All of those things are built-in."Compensate according to where you want to go as a company - Matt: "Incentivizing the right things, we make it fun. We pay well. I don't pay considerably over market for the initial OTE, I hate that. It's a personal thing for me. I want someone who's hungry to work here. We make sure that the quotas are great, that the territories are great. And then, as soon as you get over your quota, we absolutely crush it with accelerators." Find out more about Matt and check out Coralogix’s open positions in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthandler/Website: https://coralogix.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the second part of our conversation with Matt Handler, President and COO of Coralogix. He shares their creative ways for lead generation which gets emails opened and creates relationships with prospects immediately over a cold call. Matt also talks about the tools they use that aid their lead generation and the value of authenticity in forging strong relationships. HIGHLIGHTSCreative lead gen gets emails opened and relationship-building over cold callsReferrals and getting customers from champions who have left the companyGive discounts but you must absolutely get a customer referral in return QUOTESGet your emails opened with creativity and research - Matt: "Knowing the business, connecting to something in the business value on their 10k or their press releases that resonates with your audience. Know your audience, know the company, do the research. It actually works and you get the opens."Build a relationship from a cold call through authenticity - Matt: "Be authentic. So if you get someone on a cold call, and Randy you know we're out and you're barbecuing or you're with your family. My team, honestly, says ‘Listen. I know I caught you on a cold call. This is my job. I have something that I think is absolutely germane to you guys. Give me 30 seconds.’ And if you don't like it, one of two things. You can tell me to screw off and we would actually take you off our list. Or, you can say ‘Hey, this is interesting.’" Find out more about Matt and check out Coralogix’s open positions in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthandler/Website: https://coralogix.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the first part of our conversation with Matt Handler, President and COO of Coralogix. He introduces how Coralogix operates in the observability space and their unique way of organizing "digital exhaust."He talks about how they help clients migrate from legacy as log data is constantly growing at a rate faster than revenue. Matt discusses how their technology lowers this cost to allow companies to scale. HIGHLIGHTSCoralogix: Analyzing and optimizing "digital exhaust" for observabilitySelling to fast-growing mid-sized companies and PLG for smaller companiesMarket expansion and new products QUOTESGo-to-market requires people who execute and operate well - Matt: "You have to screw up enough to get successful and then, honestly, if you can really prove that you can scale and execute, there are a lot of financial-minded folks and that's very much needed in our industry. But people that can execute and operate a business, which Randy was great at, is really important."Lowering the cost of digital exhaust and allowing companies to scale - Matt: "The key to observability is being able to look across distributed architectures, especially in today's world, and understand where you've got performance issues, or if you have an issue, how do you identify and fix it?"Starting with two markets and being smart about expansion - Matt: "We're really trying to thread the needle of smart growth with our company but not overgrowing and just trying to throw a bunch of salespeople to drive ARR that aren't really productive. We're all about productivity and optimization." Find out more about Matt and check out Coralogix’s open positions in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthandler/Website: https://coralogix.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the last part of our conversation with Kelly Breslin Wright, President and COO of Gong, and Founder and Thought leader at Culture Driven Sales. Culture-driven sales recognizes that people are behind every single interaction in business.Kelly shares what it means to prioritize people in terms of valuing your team and truly understanding the customer journey. She discusses how teams must be aligned in putting the customer first to reduce confusion and build up customers to be successful. HIGHLIGHTSPeople build great companies, so companies must prioritize peopleBe authentic with mistakes and own themManaging sales and customer success managementWhen the going gets tough, companies need to have very tight focus QUOTESPeople are the priority no matter your stage of growth - Kelly: "What are the top 3 priorities? Priority number 1 is people. Priority number 2 is people. And what is priority number 3? It's people, you got it, Randy. Because, you know, it's people who actually build your product and services. It's people who engage with your customers and sell to your customers and support your customers."Sales and customer success are not mutually exclusive and loop together - Kelly: "Most companies, because they have 1 team that's selling and then another team with customer success, I think that it's really important for us as companies to understand the entire customer journey. So it's not just there's sales that's 1 function and then they go to post-sales because everything is a continual loop." Find out more about Kelly in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellybreslinwright/Website: https://gong.io/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the second part of our conversation with Kelly Breslin Wright, President and COO of Gong, and Founder and Thought leader at Culture Driven Sales. At the heart of culture-driven sales is people. This challenges the idea of a sales-driven culture where operating principles are the priority. A strong people-first approach gets you the best talent and creates a positive work environment, which ultimately drives toward more and better sales. This means that companies must be very firm with hiring based on behaviors that align with the culture that they are trying to create within their organization. HIGHLIGHTSCulture-driven sales has a common mission and challenges conventionsOn hiring: Determine the right behavior traits that align with your cultureFeedback and managing your culture with care and intention QUOTESAttract top talent with a strong mission - Kelly: "It's culture-driven sales. If you have a strong mission, strong culture, strong operating principles, strong people-first approach, then you're going to be able to get the best people and help to provide an environment where it's a positive place to work where you can get the most out of those people because they're empowered and then that in turn will drive more sales."Be intentional in determining behavioral fit during the interview process - Kelly: "Mission is really important to make sure the whole company understands the purpose and their why. This is a really important way to determine who wants to work for you, who [does] not. Are they passionate about that why? Do they care? So that's the first.” "The second is making sure that we're asking the right questions in the interview process that are teasing out not only experience and resume, but also how they align with the right behavioral traits that are core to your culture and your operating principle." Find out more about Kelly in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellybreslinwright/Website: https://gong.io/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights features Kelly Breslin Wright, President and COO of Gong, as well as Founder and Thought leader at Culture Driven Sales. Seeing a comprehensive view of a salesperson’s reality and taking insights from that is a powerful way to unlock their full potential. Kelly shares how Gong takes a holistic approach to data and uses AI to glean insights into customer conversations. This has sweeping advantages for salespeople and many other departments which have a stake in understanding what is going on with customer conversations and getting prescriptive guidance on what to do next. HIGHLIGHTSSelling books door to door: Kelly's journey in sales and entrepreneurshipGong offers a holistic approach to data and insights to create effective sellersProviding salespeople with actionable insights on what to do next QUOTESGrit and resilience are necessary to be successful - Kelly: "So much of being successful in sales and successful in business, it's about grit and learning how to put hard work in, learning how to get knocked down and how you stand back up and you keep on going. Learning how to persevere. And there is no job in the world that is harder than selling something door-to-door because you're sized up in 15 to 30 seconds."A holistic approach that makes people work more effectively - Kelly: "We capture all of this data and then we're able to provide a lot of diagnosing and understanding of what's happening with that reality so that we can help improve coaching, onboarding of your teams, help to understand what's going on with your competitors, understand what people are saying about your products so all different groups—marketing, sales, CS, product—who are interested in knowing what's going on in our customers conversations, can get that learning from Gong."Gong takes data from different work streams to produce holistic insights - Kelly: "If you only get a slice of the data, it's only going to tell you a slice of the story. So, first, you have to have a comprehensive view of what's going on with the data, and that's really been Gong's approach. We're going to be much more comprehensive of creating this foundational platform." Find out more about Kelly in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellybreslinwright/Website: https://gong.io/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights features Chris Bowen, Senior Vice President for Sales at Hammerspace. Sales and marketing are essential pillars in any business and Chris discusses how these 2 departments align to ensure that their messaging is synced. He also discusses the central role of enablement to ensure that the sales team is always focusing on the problems they solve rather than the technology and features which do not contribute to value-selling. HIGHLIGHTSAligning sales and marketing to the problems they solveValue-selling: It's not about the tech, it's about the use cases they solveSales leaders to look up to and advice from mentors QUOTESCustomer success today and moving forward - Chris: "Most of it's more on implementation to make sure that we're getting customers that have gone through the POC stage, getting them implemented into production, and then make sure they're happy. So that's something that we'll also start to grow as we move into early 2023."Build your network and keep learning - Chris: "It's really about building relationships. I mean, at the end of the day, whether it's relationships internally or externally with customers, those last a lifetime. Whether it's this company or 10 years from now."Tips for new sellers to be a great salesperon - Chris: "You should have, at any point, when you're 6 to 8 months into your new sales job, you should have 16 to 20 opportunities and 4 to 6 of those should be at various points of the POC stage. And you should be touching 5 partners a week and even 5 customers a week." Find out more about Chris in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bowenca/Website: https://hammerspace.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights features Chris Bowen, Senior Vice President for Sales at Hammerspace. Nailing down product-market fit is one of the biggest challenges for any startup and Chris shares how they figured out theirs. He also speaks on how they hired their sales team based on a builder mentality and their ability to sell a vision. He discusses their 4 pillars namely sales, partnering, technology, and marketing. HIGHLIGHTSProduct-market fit and hiring a sales team with a builder mentalityPartners and alliances accelerate growthFocusing on big deals and customer acquisition compensation QUOTESFigure out product-market fit with these questions - Chris: "Do you have multiple sites? Are you where are you at in your journey to cloud? Do you have multiple types of storage or tiers of storage? Do you have a workflow that you're trying to share across multiple sites? If they answered 2 of those questions, that's a potentially very good fit for Hammerspace." Spending time on the biggest deals and sales enablement - Chris: "I'm always looking at where the deals for the quarter are. We have a top 10 deal list that I tend to focus on. Most of them are the bigger deals for the quarter. I keep an eye on obviously for next quarter and where we are for the year. And then a lot of it's with the sales folks, enablement, and then really how do I drive partners and technology." Find out more about Chris in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bowenca/Website: https://hammerspace.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights features Chris Bowen, Senior Vice President for Sales at Hammerspace. Today he shares his professional growth, from working in sales straight out of college to ultimately joining Hammerspace. He gives an overview of what it means to build a startup sales organization from the ground up, solve the most pressing issues of storage and product-market fit, and focus sales on the media, entertainment, and gaming verticals. HIGHLIGHTSBuilding a startup sales org: ICP, culture, and solving product-market fitA go-to-market plan that focuses on media entertainment and gamingHiring sellers with strong networks in media and entertainment QUOTESSolving the storage issue so sellers can focus on selling - Chris: "I would say to a recruit is one, we solved the holy grail of storage. How many times have you gone into a customer and they said, “Yeah, what if, it'd be great if you could do this?’ So we've been hiring folks that have been selling to customers and listening to customers ask this question, this global file system that connects data around the world."Hammerspace focused on hiring sellers with established networks - Chris: "We went and hired folks that had experience and a very strong network in media and entertainment so they can go to their customer base. We had to build content. We had customers that were willing to talk about us publicly. So that's been very successful." Find out more about Chris in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bowenca/Website: https://hammerspace.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights features Roger Sands, CEO of Wyebot. A high-powered team is behind the past and future successes of Wyebot. Roger shares how they create and retain these top performers and their focus on nurturing team members who share common values. He also provides his own sales prediction where sellers must return to some form of face-to-face interaction while also balancing the advantages of video selling to create successful partnerships. HIGHLIGHTSCreating and retaining a high-powered teamBuild relationships with your team and customers to create conversationsSales leaders to emulatePredicting a return to face-to-face sales optimized by video conferencing QUOTESCreate a high-powered team by listening to internal referrals - Roger: "Listen because they're going to have great ideas on how to solve the next challenge in scaling. Who to hire? They'll have contacts in the industry and the best hires are references, in most cases. Over half, I think, of the folks that we've hired in sales in the last 18 months came from internal referrals. So it's building this culture of wanting to do something special."Balance the return to face-to-face with video sales - Roger: "I think the key thing here for not only Wyebot but for CEOs and sales leaders around the globe is the balance. How do we balance the leveraging, the technology because, of course, if you're always traveling continuously, there's a lot of time spent on that. The travel time, the expense associated with it. So there's a balance here where I don't think it makes sense to be travelling everywhere all the time, but also relying on video conferencing all the time is not the right solution either." Find out more about Roger and explore their open sales positions in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sands-4142673/Website: https://wyebot.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights features Roger Sands, CEO of Wyebot. He talks about Wyebot's early preference for direct as they were creating a new market segment and building a large customer base. Moving forward, Wyebot is shifting toward channels. Roger also emphasizes the need to be selective with technology partners, ensuring they understand the value they provide, and communicating that on sales calls. HIGHLIGHTSLeaning on direct when creating Wyebot's new market segment and shifting to channelWyebot's value message: ROI of mean time to resolutionBe selective with technology partners QUOTESSelling direct and channel is comp-neutral - Roger: "If we've been in the channel long time and if you want the channel to be effective, you cannot compete with them, you can't take deals away from obviously, so we comp the sales team the same way."Wyebot's value message to prospects - Roger: You're talking to a CIO, they have business-critical networks and they need to have those uptime has to be 99.9% in most environments. We're not talking to stock exchange inflations where it's even higher, but we're talking high availability. Our value at Wyebot is we ensure they have high availability, and high availability is the ROI." Find out more about Roger and explore their open sales positions in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sands-4142673/Website: https://wyebot.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Tech Sales Insights features Roger Sands, CEO of Wyebot. He discusses how their company optimizes business-critical wireless networks using AI. Wyebot has taken what used to be a manual process and automatically identifies performance issues and provides actionable items to solve them. They are in a fast-growing segment offering a gamechanger product that helps scale businesses to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. HIGHLIGHTSRoger's career and starting Wyebot with a focus on automationEducation, healthcare, and manufacturing are Wyebot's 3 core verticals Doubling the sales team and offering unique opportunities in the market-creating segment3-year plan: Scale to hundreds of millions of dollars and accelerate with channel partners QUOTESWyebot automates business-critical networks using AI - Roger: "We started Wyebot with a whole focus on automation, so we're changing the game here, Randy, in IT automation where we're taking what has been a traditional, manual, reactive type solving performance issues on these business-critical networks, and we've automating it with AI technology."How technology partners help you scale to hundreds of millions of dollars - Roger: "When you're a smaller company and scaling and you want to get to hundreds of millions of dollars and beyond, then the technology partner can be a huge asset. Huge asset. And there's different types, as you asked, different types of technology partnerships. You can do all the way to an OEM where you're literally licensing and rebranding your solution into the market. And then on a real light side, you can do reference selling." Find out more about Roger and explore their open sales positions in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sands-4142673/Website: https://wyebot.com/Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode is sponsored by OpenSymmetry, our Plan-Deploy-Manage Sales Compensation Technology sponsor. OpenSymmetry provides best practice advice and considerations when assessing, deploying, and managing Sales Performance Management technologies. Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode is sponsored by our two Up & Coming Sponsors salesbricks and Spotlight.ai. Salesbricks , our CPQ sponsor, is a better way to manage quote-to-cash for your enterprise, inside-sales, and self-service go-to-market motions. Spotlight.ai, our Value Intelligence sponsor, provides a Value Intelligence AI driven platform to transform sales discovery, auto build differentiated business cases and optimize value positioning for field and remote teams. Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week's episode of Tech Sales Insights LIVE features guest Frank Palumbo, Corporate VP at AMD Pensando This episode is sponsored by The Alexander Group, our GTM & Sales Compensation Partner. Alexander Group provides revenue growth consulting services to the world’s leading sales organizations. When clients need to grow revenue, they look to Alexander Group for data-driven insights, actionable recommendations and results. Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.