The podcast discusses the gap in traditional sales training, importance of engaging executives, understanding business aspects in sales, challenges in current sales practices, need for a shift in sales training, strategies to better prepare salespeople, understanding corporate finance, business case modeling, and being prescriptive in sales pitches to drive value.
Compensate salespeople based on profitability to drive strategic deal-making aligned with company goals.
Salespeople must understand financial implications, net cash flow, and project management for value-driven conversations.
Sales leadership should prioritize coaching and skills development in corporate finance for strategic, profitable deal-making.
Deep dives
Shift in Sales Compensation Model
Implementing a change in how salespeople are compensated towards profitability rather than just revenue and factoring in cost structures can drive more thoughtful deal-making and align sales behavior with company goals effectively. This approach focuses on paying salespeople based on the profitability of their deals and deducting certain costs like SG&A investments from the revenue earned, encouraging more strategic and profitable deal closures.
Importance of Financial Acumen in Sales
The discussion emphasizes the significance of salespeople understanding the financial implications that influence buyer decisions. Experts stress the need for sellers to grasp concepts like net cash flow impact, discounted cash flow analysis, and project management to have meaningful, value-driven conversations with buyers and present compelling business cases.
Problem with Activity-Focused Sales Management
The conversation highlights how sales management often fixates on activities like call volumes and pipeline coverage, emphasizing compliance over performance. This can lead to a disconnect between sales reps focusing on meeting activity quotas but lacking the essential business acumen and skills required to engage in strategic and value-driven sales conversations.
Need for Change Management in Sales Leadership
There is a consensus on the necessity of instigating a change in sales leadership to prioritize coaching and developing sales teams with skills related to corporate finance, business acumen, and project management. Encouraging effective change management from the top down can drive a shift towards strategic, profitable deal-making and long-term business growth.
Sales Training Focus on Business Value
The discussion underscores the need for sales training to evolve from product and process-centric approaches to emphasizing business value creation, financial acumen, and effectiveness in presenting compelling business cases. Training sales teams to communicate value proposition in terms of cash flow impact and business outcomes can lead to more successful engagements and higher win rates.
Today Andy brings you yet another packed roundtable of sales pros, Adam Zais, CRO of Sales & Business Development at AiLert, Mark Raffan, CEO at Negotiations Ninja, and Eric Shaver, Managing Partner at Kensei Partners. They begin by discussing the gap in traditional sales training, emphasizing the importance of engaging executives as peers and understanding the business side of sales, rather than just the sales process itself. The conversation goes further into the distinction between business and sales dialects, the significance of approaching sales with a business mindset, and the challenges in current sales practices, including the reliance on process over genuine understanding of business impacts. They also talk about the need for a shift in sales training and strategies to better prepare salespeople for modern challenges, touching upon the importance of understanding corporate finance, business case modeling, and being prescriptive in sales pitches to drive value and achieve better outcomes.
Host Andy Paul is the expert on modern B2B selling and author of three best-selling, award-winning sales books, including his latest Sell Without Selling Out. Visit andypaul.com to subscribe to his newsletter for even more strategies and tips to accelerate your win rate!
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