Tech Sales Insights

IS TECHNOLOGY FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE?It’s part 2 with John Barrows, CEO of Sell Better by JB Sales, and the author of I Want To Be In Sales When I Grow Up.In this episode, John will be talking about the future of sales, particularly on the benefits of in-person networking for sales reps, the importance of work-life integration, the impact of platforms on sales, the generational divide in the workplace, and the impact of recent layoffs in tech sales. So tune in and learn more! HIGHLIGHT QUOTESJOHN: NETWORKING IS CRITICAL IN SALES“I think that a sales rep has to be in the office for the first two years of their sales career. Because you've learned so much just by being around other people, and listening in and osmosis and all that other stuff. So I just think it's a critical part that I'm worried right now is being ripped away from their development,”JOHN: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS WORKING YOUR ASS OFF“what's the secret to success? And it's easy, it's working your ass off. That's the secret to success, people say to work smart, but I’m like Shut up. You got to work. Yeah, fine, work smart. But you got to work your ass off to be successful in this game and in any game.” Don’t miss the previous part/s of this amazing series with John Barrows:E103 Part 1 - WHAT LIES AHEAD: The Future Of The Sales Profession With John Barrows Find out more about John in the links below:John BarrowsSell Better by JB SalesSellBetter.xyz Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/

WHAT AWAITS US IN THE FUTURE OF SALES?Welcome to another series in Tech Sales Insights, and in this series, we have John Barrows, CEO of Sell Better by JB Sales, and the author of I Want To Be In Sales When I Grow Up.To kick off this series, John will be talking about the future in sales, particularly on design thinking, how technology is taking over and the impact of technology on sales. So tune in and learn more! HIGHLIGHT QUOTESJOHN: DON’T SELL IT IF YOU’RE NOT EVEN USING IT“I can't stand trainers that don't use their own stuff when they're selling I mean it's weird to even experience that. So yeah, we use our own techniques. We do everything I mean, obviously, and other people's stuff too. I mean there's no one right answer and sales anymore.”JOHN: THE BOTTOM-UP APPROACH“There's the bottom-up approach, which I think a lot of people look at, from like a PLG standpoint, like a product-led growth approach, where you get it in the users, and then you cross it, and then you go up. But the bottom-up approach also from gathering insights at the bottom layer, and almost looking at it as design thinking for sales.” Find out more about John in the links below:John BarrowsSell Better by JB SalesSellBetter.xyz Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/

It’s Part 3! Stu and Randy discuss the ins and outs of sales leadership, the importance of initiative, flexibility, and action, success in sales being dependent on the whole team, and many more. Don’t miss out on this final installment of the Stu Gold series, only here in the latest episode of Tech Sales Insights. HIGHLIGHT QUOTESSTU: Flexibility + Initiative = SDR’s Success“Flexibility is very, very important, and you need to be able to kind of go with the flow a little bit and shift to different priorities as they come up. To do that, you also need to be very proactive on our teams, and you have to have to take initiative, and I'd rather see people take initiative and make some mistakes along the way, than kind of sit back and just wait for things to happen.” Don’t miss the previous part/s of this amazing series with Stu Gold:E102 Part 1 - OLD BUT GOLD: Stu Gold On The Innovative Legacy Of Blattner Technologies - https://youtu.be/Qq074xezVg8E102 Part 2 - GAME-CHANGING: Beneficial Importance of AI, ML, and Data with Stu Gold - https://youtu.be/oeKu3ogrb9M Find out more about Stu in the link below:About StuBlattner TechnologiesBlattnerTechnologies.com Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/

Welcome to Part 2 of this series with Stu Gold, CRO of Blattner Technologies. In this second installment, Stu and Randy will talk about the benefits of and importance of AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning), and Data to businesses, particularly in Sales and Marketing. Tune in and learn more about these benefits in this latest episode of Tech Sales Insights. HIGHLIGHT QUOTESSTU: DATA IS THE NEW OIL“We recognize and have a project in place to focus on the data, data is the new oil man, if I can leverage all the data of the companies that are not part of Blattner out Our ability to accelerate growth and be even more knowledgeable about what's working in sales. And marketing is, is really critical for us. And we recognize that's a huge opportunity.” Don’t miss the previous part/s of this amazing series with Stu Gold:E102 Part 1 - OLD BUT GOLD: Stu Gold On The Innovative Legacy Of Blattner Technologies - https://youtu.be/Qq074xezVg8 Find out more about Stu in the link below:About StuBlattner TechnologiesBlattnerTechnologies.com Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/

For over a century of pioneering innovation, Blattner Technologies is geared to be the leading provider of predictive transformation services and tools in the Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning industry, and with that, we have Stu Gold today to talk about Blattner’s mission and it’s go-to-market strategy, only here, in Tech Sales Insights. HIGHLIGHT QUOTESSTU: Focusing on making the most of your data“Blattner Technologies is focused on being a leading provider of what would be considered predictive transformation services, and solutions, which is utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning to really get the most out of your data.” Find out more about Stu in the link below:About StuBlattner TechnologiesBlattnerTechnologies.com Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the last part of our conversation with Nick Candito, Founding Investor at Flatfile and Co-Founder of Angel Collective Opportunity Fund (ACOF). He explains the need for balance between technical and go-to-market founders and how each plays a pivotal role in defining the product that will ultimately solve the customer's problem. And just as important, Nick also discusses the need for feedback to climb to the next stage of growth.  HIGHLIGHT QUOTESHave a feedback loop between the technical and strategic founders - Nick: "Every technology-first company needs a product and I think that's... the skillset of the founders. I think the ones that have a founder around the table who knows how to think about strategy, ops, go-to-market, they tend to be able to have every part of that conversation." "You represented the fastest. But I also think there's something to be said about the feedback loop with strictly technical founders that know how to kind of see each other's strengths and then just trust what maybe others are getting for observations."Be mindful of the bigger picture and the people you work with along the way - Nick: "Thinking very deliberately about relationships and opportunities, you always think you're going to have your next opportunity or there's more relationships that you can get introduced to, so I've tried to now be much more relationship-focused, much more patient, and it's tough to balance that with the founder DNA." Find out more about Nick in the link below:About Nick Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the second part of our conversation with Nick Candito, Founding Investor at Flatfile and Co-Founder of Angel Collective Opportunity Fund (ACOF). He discusses how companies need a great product and customers to even begin a PLG motion. Nick also talks about determining product-market fit using product signals, as well as choosing the right customers that help you define the market together. HIGHLIGHT QUOTESYou need a great product and actually have customers to be successful at PLG - Nick: "The reality is, to build a great company, you're going to need the best product, good marketing, and probably exceptional go-to-market, which means everything that goes into how you think about predictably finding, acquiring, and then making a customer successful."Finding product-market fit early and picking the best customers - Nick: "You really want to optimize for how do you get in the door for those customers, and picking great customers means they're going to help you define the market together which is how do you grow the addressable opportunity." Find out more about Nick in the link below:About Nick Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/ 

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the first part of our conversation with Nick Candito, Founding Investor at Flatfile and Co-Founder of Angel Collective Opportunity Fund (ACOF). He shares his professional journey in investing and operations and how he ensures the health of their portfolio today together with their fund managers. He also explains how they do not lead rounds and instead facilitate the introductions that lead to the next rounds of financing. HIGHLIGHT QUOTES Working with large family offices with an emerging manager problem - Nick: "It's been helpful right now to be more active with existing companies, especially the ones that are doing better than maybe the broader market knows because they're not out fundraising."  Making introductions to facilitate the next rounds of financing - Nick: "We're not leading rounds. We do facilitate a lot of introductions. If our managers are inception stage, we describe ourselves as inflection. So right when the business is starting to really work and doing better than people realize."Find out more about Nick in the link below: About Nick Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by:  Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the last part of our conversation with Carl Eschenbach, Partner at Sequoia Capital. He shares his wisdom on the secret sauce to effective leadership and how to become a leader who motivates, inspires, and lives the true meaning of servant leadership as well.  HIGHLIGHTSThe CRO's scope of responsibilities and leadership across rolesAim to become the motivational and inspirational leaderUnderstanding the servant leader QUOTESThe true meaning of servant leadership inspires success - Carl: "If you go and study what true servant leadership is, think about the very first word of servant leadership, and that is to serve. And I fundamentally believe the greatest leaders, regardless of role or capacity, are the ones that serve their people. They're not leading them. And through that servant-type approach, your leadership gets displayed and everyone becomes more successful."First level is motivational leader, second is inspirational, third is both - Carl: "The third level of leadership is the one who knows how to do both, because there are times, Randy, when you needed to be pushed probably and get that little extra out of Randy, but then there's other times when people inspired you and pulled you in." Find out more about Carl in the link below:About Carl Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is the second part of our conversation with Carl Eschenbach, Partner at Sequoia Capital. He provides deep insights into how they choose companies to invest in, as well as the primary importance of change management to survive economic headwinds. Carl also gives actionable tips on how companies must sell and the shift in messaging that this requires. HIGHLIGHTS"Look inside and outside the building" to decide when to invest in a companyGet things done by focusing on change managementHow to sell effectively in a down market QUOTESAdapt as fast as the changes come to survive - Carl: "In the climate we're in today and potentially even broader headwinds going forward, if your company is not changing as fast as what's happening outside the walls of your company, death is near. You just got to be open to change. You have to communicate change."Show a strong ROI to attract buyers during a downturn - Carl: "In down markets, nothing sells like a strong ROI, so I encourage people to revisit their value proposition, number one, around ROI. The second reason people buy is if you're going to help them drive revenue growth. And if you can have a value proposition that shows tangible evidence of it and you can back it up with quantifiable numbers, people will buy your technology."The growing complexity of operations has eroded operational rigor - Carl: "Simplicity scales, complexity doesn't." Find out more about Carl in the link below:About Carl Send in a voice message to us: https://anchor.fm/salescommunity/message This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: Sales Community | https://www.salescommunity.com/OpenSymmetry | https://www.opensymmetry.com/