20Sales: How to Close Sales When Selling to CFOs, How to Guarantee You Win Every Renewal, Core Questions All CFOs Ask Today When Buying, Why Revenue Operations is the Most Important Role in a Company with Steve Goldberg, CRO @ Salesloft
Dec 13, 2023
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Steve Goldberg, CRO at Salesloft, shares insights on sales, building relationships with prospects, deal reviews, and ensuring renewals. He emphasizes the importance of understanding customers, mastering the psychology of prospects, and treating every renewal as a new deal. He discusses the value of revenue operations (RevOps) and data-driven decision-making, as well as analyzing changes in customer behavior. Join Steve as he shares his expertise in sales and provides valuable advice for sales reps.
Building strong relationships is key in sales and requires understanding customers' motivations.
Effective deal reviews and forecasting involve first-line managers, data analysis, and blind spot identification through revenue operations and enablement teams.
Balancing urgency in closing deals with building strong relationships is crucial, achieved through aligning on mutual plans and having respectful tough conversations.
Deep dives
The Importance of Building Relationships in Sales
In this podcast episode, Steve Goldberg, Chief Revenue Officer at Salesloft, emphasizes the significance of building relationships in sales. He recounts his own journey into sales, initially viewing it as a negative profession but later realizing the value of salespeople as problem solvers and psychologists for customers. Goldberg highlights the importance of understanding customers' personal and professional motivations to effectively connect with them. He also discusses the role of body language, research, and personalized conversations in getting to know customers better.
Effective Deal Reviews and Forecasting
Goldberg shares insights into conducting effective deal reviews and forecasting. He emphasizes the role of first-line managers in owning the deal review process and maintaining consistency. The goal of deal reviews is to understand the problem being solved, the unique value proposition, and the buyer's commitment. Goldberg emphasizes the need to minimize surprises and uncover any potential issues early in the process. He highlights the importance of data analysis and blind spot identification through revenue operations (RevOps) and enablement teams.
Balancing Urgency and Relationship Building
Goldberg discusses the balance between urgency in closing deals and building strong relationships. He stresses the need for respect and alignment throughout the sales process. While recognizing the importance of meeting quarterly or monthly targets, Goldberg emphasizes that relationships and trust should not be sacrificed for short-term gains. He explains how aligning on mutual plans and having tough conversations with respect can help navigate the challenges of closing deals within specific timelines while maintaining strong relationships with customers.
Shifting Sales Strategy to Solve Big Problems
The podcast episode discusses the importance of solving big problems to drive sales. It emphasizes the need to identify top three problems and focuses on solving them outside of the budget cycle. The speaker highlights the significance of treating every renewal as a new deal, reinforcing the need to demonstrate value to CFOs. The episode also highlights the importance of building a high-performance culture, doing more with less, and enabling sales teams to solve the biggest problems a company faces.
Process Changes for Successful Sales
The podcast delves into sales process changes necessary for success. It explores a shift in the commercial business towards a Hunter-Hunter model, aimed at solving business problems and finding new use cases. The episode emphasizes the importance of involving customer success teams early in the sales process to build customer trust and showcase success. It also discusses the significance of demonstrating company value throughout the entire customer journey, creating production environments, and aligning with key stakeholders across the organization, such as CFOs, CTOs, and CEOs.
Steve Goldberg is the Chief Revenue Officer at Salesloft, the sales engagement platform that was acquired by Vista in 2022 for $2.3BN. Prior to Salesloft, Steve was Group Vice President of Enterprise at Yext and before that was a Senior VP @ InsideSales.com.
In Today's Episode with Steve Goldberg:
1. Becoming a Sales Leader:
When did Steve first fall in love with sales?
Why does Steve believe sales is more psychology than anything else? What can sales reps do to master the psychology of their prospects?
What does Steve know now about sales that he wishes he had known in the beginning?
2. How to Close Prospects Faster Than Ever:
How does Steve build relationships with prospects very fast? What questions does he ask?
How does Steve know if he is really speaking to a buyer? What are the signals?
How does Steve advise sales reps on getting multiple relationships within an account to prevent the potential of losing your champion?
How does Steve feel about discounting? When is the right time to do it?
3. How To Do The Best Deal Reviews:
What makes good vs great deal reviews? Who is invited? Who is not?
Who sets the agenda? Who is responsible for what?
How do deal reviews change throughout the quarter and throughout the year?
Is a deal slipping into the next quarter an acceptable excuse for a sales rep to give?
4. How to Ensure Renewals in a World When They are Not Guaranteed:
Have all budgets centralized back to the control of the CFO?
Are people right to say that no CFOs are buying new technology today?
What is the best way to show to customers the value you provide?
Why does Steve believe revenue operations is the most valuable role within an org?
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