Creating a Winning Sales Playbook with Shruti Kapoor, #219

The number of buying options for the average consumer has exponentially grown over the past decade. Many of the winning sales "formulas" that worked before the pandemic have now had to evolve to better reach and speak to the savvy modern buyer.

But, when there are so many options in the market to choose from – especially in the technology space – how you attract, retain, and expand your customer base has become the topic of much debate within the largest sales training circles.

And, that is the exact topic we dive into in this episode of the Modern Selling Podcast. We welcome a leading expert in customer acquisition for technology startups to learn firsthand what works, what doesn't, and the right way to leverage sales data to build a rockstar sales playbook.

Shruti Kapoor is the former CEO and Co-Founder at Wingman (now Wingman by Clari) which is an actionable conversation intelligence platform that unlocks insights from every sales interaction. She loves IronMan, and wants every sales team to have their own Jarvis! As the founder of Wingman, Shruti, as Wingman's official first salesperson, single-handedly sold their first million dollars in revenue. With an eclectic background with expertise in a wide range of industries, including life sciences research, investment banking, technology investing, commercialization, product development, fin-tech, and sales – Shruti brings a breadth of knowledge and unique perspectives to how she approaches startup scaling.

Download the full episode to her the top sales best practices that Shruti has used to transform a technology startup from just an idea into a reputable and highly profitable enterprise.

Top Customer Acquisition Best Practices for B2B Startups

Acquiring your first 100 customers is not for the faint of heart. Because once you've already tapped into your immediate network to leverage those friends and/or family that may support you, then your attention has to shift to more sustainable and scalable customer acquisition strategies.

No one knows how to do this better than Shruti, so I picked her brain to hear what approach she took to grow her technology startup in the early stages.

Shruti shares, "With a startup, the biggest lesson that we learned was that the first thing we had to do was to gain people's trust. And, as your business grows and you hit different stages in your company's lifecycle, you have different levers for building trust. When you're starting out, you may not have testimonials or reviews to lean on, but that's where you start small and build up over time."

We did this exact thing in our early days with Vengreso. Even though Vengreso was born from the merger of seven companies, we didn't have any Vengreso-specific customers.

But, once we had a few customers, we leveraged their experiences with the company and recorded testimonials that we could use in our sales and marketing efforts to build trust with potential new customers.

Listen to the full conversation to hear how Shruti suggests you ask for customer referrals and get an inside scoop into what you can do to quickly acquire new customers with minimal lift.

Proven Sales Coaching Best Practices

Having a steady stream of prospects is only part of the sales battle. The other component is having a solid sales team that is properly trained.

In my 20+ years in sales, I've seen it all when it comes to the do's and don'ts of sales training. And, like I always say, "buyers have gotten smarter at buying faster than reps are at selling." So, without a proven and consistent way to train sales reps, many companies, especially technology startups could be leaving lots of money on the table.

I ask Shruti what her view is on sales coaching – how to do it the right way and what to look out for. Her insights are spot on and shed a valuable lesson for B2B and B2C companies to learn from.

She explains, "Sales training often doesn't happen because of impatience. Sales managers may train their reps once and never revisit upleveling their skills. Or, they'll try to fit in a large amount of training in a short period of time which doesn't truly get results. The key is to be consistent with your training and to leverage technology when you can to build in the discipline and repetition it requires to truly teach sales reps."

I couldn't agree more, which is why, here at Vengreso we follow the OGC approach – on-demand and group coaching. In this model, every sales rep listens to several sales calls each week and provides feedback to one another. In this way, it takes the burden off of the sales manager to be the only one providing coaching or support.

Download this episode to learn more about the best way to structure sales training to help boost conversions to hit quota every time.

Strategies to Increase Sales Call Conversions

With the pandemic and the shift to virtual selling, closing sales has become much more of an art.

Finding ways to connect with someone on the other side of a digital screen and move them to buy takes a certain level of skill and craft that many sales professionals have not perfected.

Shruti has a wealth of knowledge (and the sales data to back it up) in regards to what truly works to move the sale on an initial sales call. I ask her to share her insights and give us several actionable strategies that we can use to instantly boost sales conversions.

She explains, "The most interesting thing the data shows us is that when people set an agenda at the start of the call, the win rate doubles. Yet, despite the data, only 10% of sales reps do this. Setting an agenda gives both parties the opportunity to make sure what they want to be covered is actually discussed."

At Vengreso, our sales reps' meeting invites always include three key components that we refer to as PAL – purpose, agenda, and length. In this way, all attendees know upfront the expectations and structure of the meeting.

Download the conversation to hear a host of other sales call gems that can improve win rates and streamline the entire sales process.

This episode of the Modern Selling Podcast is brought to you by Korn Ferry. Korn Ferry transforms sales teams using their world-class Miller Heiman, methodology, employee assessments, benchmarking and talent advisor capabilities to increase win rates and quota attainment. Korn Ferry offers Korn Ferry Sell, a sales effectiveness app available in App Exchange and app source that helps your sales team develop and replicate powerful sales strategies that help sellers win more deals and crush their quotas. Learn more at kornferry.com/saleseffectiveness.