Ep. 51: Turning a Customer into a Platform Champion with Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald shares a large deal, where his company first landed the initial product sale, and the process of working hard to make them into a successful multi-product and platform customer .

Background:

Ian McDonald is currently an AE manager at Gong with prior sales experience, at LinkedIn and CEB

​Ian shares a past deal including the account management tactics used to expand a customer.

Background:

​Covers deal setup and the process and relationship development with the AE who won the new logo and the champion

Challenges:

• ​Aligning customer's needs with Gong's product roadmap

​Coordinating with internal leadership to build trust and relationships with the customer

• Key Learnings:
• ​Focus on being a trusted partner to help overcome speed bumps in the deal cycle

Know the skills that you need and work backwards to develop those skills

Timestamps:

(02:00) - Ian's career journey so far

(03:15) - Start of the deal

(05:40) - Main challenges in the deal

(08:15) - Expanding the deal

(10:30) - Strategies for getting better

(13:50) - Connect with Ian

Resources:

Connect with Ian on LinkedIn

Learn more about LeaderLev

Thank you to Fluint for Sponsoring this episode. Fluint helps sellers build a business case that can sell for them when they aren’t in the room. fluint.io/dealpod

Questions, comments, ideas - reach out to: ⁠Andrew Kappel