GTM 97: The Neural Network Training Approach to Enterprise Sales Process with Robert Brooks
Jun 4, 2024
auto_awesome
Experienced sales leader Robert Brooks IV discusses training sales teams for technical buyers, applying neural networks to sales, turning around challenging relationships, and scaling revenue. Highlights include SpaceX case study and importance of empathy in successful sales.
Deep understanding of industry and product crucial in AI sales.
Prioritize comprehension and regurgitation when engaging technical audiences.
Apply neural network concepts for successful enterprise sales processes.
Deep dives
Educating Team on Market and Preparation for Interviews
Spending time educating the team on the market, conducting exercises with articles, and having team members regurgitate key information to ensure preparedness for one-on-one settings. Emphasizing the importance of deeply understanding the product, industry, and showing care and preparation in interviews to establish credibility and professionalism.
Energy and Focus from Personal Motivation and Parenthood
Discusses the newfound energy and primal drive derived from parenthood, highlighting the unmatched motivation and dedication that comes from personal connections and responsibilities like parenthood. Reflects on the sleepless yet fulfilling experiences of caring for a newborn and finding purpose and drive through familial bonds and responsibilities.
Teaching Sales Teams to Understand Technical Audiences
Exploring the process of teaching sales teams to engage with technical audiences by prioritizing comprehension and regurgitation of industry articles to evaluate critical thinking, understanding, and alignment with market trends. Emphasizing the importance of caring deeply about the industry, preparing extensively, and building confidence through technical knowledge for successful engagements.
Bonus: Connecting Dots in Enterprise Sales Like Training Neural Networks
Drawing parallels between enterprise sales processes and training neural networks, highlighting the need for pattern recognition, data accumulation, and understanding to effectively connect with buyers. Emphasizing the importance of attention to detail, data collection, and regurgitation of key insights in enterprise sales for successful outcomes.
Building Trust Through Extra Effort
The podcast episode delves into a scenario where a company went above and beyond to deliver a product to SpaceX on a tight timeline. Despite a two-hour delay in shipping, the company's representative personally flew crucial components to ensure timely delivery. This extraordinary commitment showcased the vendor's willingness to go the extra mile and build trust with SpaceX.
Emphasizing the Importance of Caring in Sales
Another key point discussed in the podcast is the significance of caring in sales interactions. The speaker mentions the importance of understanding the pains and needs of prospective clients to build successful relationships. By focusing on providing support and solutions to clients' challenges, sales professionals can establish trust and secure long-term partnerships. The strategy of prioritizing care and empathy in sales interactions is highlighted as a fundamental element of successful sales approaches.
Robert Brooks IV has spent 12 years leading sales, marketing and customer success at early-stage startups. Typically, he has served as the first sales (and first non-technical) hire reporting directly to a technical founder. Robert started his career at Charles Schwab but joined Stack Overflow ($1.8B exit), then Tempo Automation ($900M IPO) and is now part of the founding team and VP of Revenue at Lambda ($1.5B valuation). Robert is an advisor to several top-tier VC firms and some of the most high-profile AI startups in Silicon Valley.
Discussed in this Episode:
The importance of deeply understanding your industry and product when selling AI.
How to train your sales team to sell to highly technical buyers and decision-makers.
Applying the concept of neural networks to enterprise sales processes.
Strategies for turning around challenging customer relationships, with a case study on closing SpaceX and growing it from 0 to 10M ARR.
The role of empathy, curiosity, and genuine care in successful sales and partnerships.
Tactics for scaling revenue in tough economic times, from personalized executive briefings to strategic event presence.
Highlights: (10:27) Robert's background and early involvement in AI startups. (15:09) Convincing technical founders to value go-to-market expertise. (19:06) Applying the concept of neural networks to enterprise sales. (25:25) The importance of comprehension and curiosity in sales hiring. (27:55) Delivering a crucial hardware project for SpaceX. (33:37) The role of genuine care in building trust with customers. (39:56) Balancing product training and sales process training. (44:39) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Robert thinks is bull$***. (49:02) The benefits of full-stack account executives in early-stage startups. (53:27) One thing that is working for Robert in go-to-market right now.
Brought to you by Demandbase.Demandbase helps B2B companies hit their revenue goals using fewer resources by using the power of AI to identify and engage the accounts and buying groups most likely to purchase. Their account-based technology unites sales and marketing teams around insights that you can understand and facilitates quick actions across systems and channels to deliver big wins. It’s flexible, scalable ABM built for you.
The GTM Podcast The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.
Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.
