The Gartner Sales Podcast

Amid economic uncertainty, technology is crucial to revenue growth. However, investments in sales training and enormous amounts of revenue technology are not improving sales effectiveness for most companies.In this episode, Doug and Betsy speak with professor and author Dr. Howard Dover, discussing:How to develop modern sales methods and become a sales disruptorHow digital buying has changed traditional sales activityHow organizational and environmental obstacles keep the field in a state of paradox

Machine customers aren’t just coming — in some places, they are already here. In this episode, Betsy and Doug speak with Don Scheibenreif and Mark Raskino, Gartner experts and authors of “When Machines Become Customers,” to discuss how machine customers are changing B2B sales. Don Scheibenreif is a distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner based in California and a leader of Gartner’s research on customer experience. He works primarily with IT and business leaders on topics at the intersection of technology and customers. Don has led the development of Gartner’s research on machine customers since 2015. He is an accomplished international keynote speaker and has won numerous thought leadership awards for his work on digital business, Gartner’s IT Symposium Opening Keynotes, and the future of customer experience. Before joining Gartner in 2010, Don spent 22 years as a senior marketing leader in the consumer packaged goods, retail and B2B distribution markets.

In this episode, Doug and Betsy speak with Steve Rietberg, VP analyst with Gartner’s Sales Research practice, about Gartner’s current sales operations leadership vision and the power of comparative performance metrics.Steve Rietberg is a world-renowned author, speaker and sales operations leader with extensive experience conceiving and implementing methodology and technology solutions to address critical business needs. Steve specializes in mobilizing cross-functional teams to streamline operations and deliver actionable insights through data and analytics.

Women remain underrepresented in B2B sales, comprising 24% of individual seller roles and 21% of sales leadership roles, according to the 2022 Gartner Chief Sales Officer Strategy Survey.In this episode of the Gartner Sales Podcast with co-hosts Betsy Gregory-Hosler and Doug Bushée, we talk to Cynthia Barnes, author, sales influencer, and founder of the National Association of Women Sales Professionals. Many recruitment strategies that are geared to women don't work; Cynthia helps us unpack why that’s happening, even as there’s a sales talent scarcity across many industries.Cynthia Barnes, founder of the National Association of Women Sales Professionals, is the first Black woman to keynote a national sales conference. She is a LinkedIn Top Voice, LinkedIn Top Sales influencer, and 2x Salesforce Top Influencer. Cynthia is also the creator of THRIVE: Success Strategies for Women in Sales, a women-centric sales training delivered to more than 15,500 women worldwide.

In this episode, the team speaks with sales thought leader David Brock. David shares his thoughts on the role of the CSO in 2023, the challenges sales leaders are facing, and key trends that are changing B2B sales.

In this episode of the Gartner Sales Podcast, Betsy and Doug sit down with Gartner Chief of Research Craig Riley to discuss our recently published 2023 Leadership Vision series. Each Leadership Vision is individually tailored for CSOs, sales enablement leaders and sales operations leaders. They are designed to help sales leaders anticipate market changes and necessary responses across the coming year. About The GuestCraig Riley is chief of research for Gartner for Sales Leaders. Craig is focused on helping commercial leaders respond to changes in B2B buying behavior in ways that produce long-term revenue growth. As a Gartner analyst, Craig sees countless examples of effective go-to-market structures, sales force deployment models, and pipeline generation strategies. He uses that information to share what top companies and their leaders do to differentiate themselves in the market and pull ahead of the competition.

In this episode, the team speaks with Gartner expert Kristina LaRocca-Cerrone, discussing new research on the successful alignment of sales and marketing. Kristina describes how both digital and human interactions can underperform, where sales leaders are in their alignment journeys, and what smart organizations are doing to get it right. About the GuestKristina LaRocca-Cerrone is a Sr. Director, Advisory for Gartner and helps enterprise marketers better understand how customers (both B2B and B2C) buy and make decisions. Kristina’s work includes topics like how buying groups research potential suppliers and make purchase decisions, and how to create compelling content marketing aligned to the customer journey. Her work examines how to improve overall digital experiences (in a way that is industry-agnostic) to impact customer behavior, and how to effectively engage in customer journey mapping and persona building. Kristina also covers marketing leadership and strategy, and marketing organization trends.

In this episode, Doug sits down with Melissa Hilbert, senior director at Gartner in the Application IT Leaders Group. Melissa discusses her leading work in revenue enablement, including a recent revenue enablement maturity model, revenue enablement Market Guide and key insights for chief sales officers, chief revenue officers and other sales leaders.  Melissa Hilbert is a senior director at Gartner in the Application IT Leaders Group, where she is responsible for the revenue (formerly sales) enablement agenda within digital commerce and CRM sales technology, which includes a Market Guide. The technology includes sales content, training and coaching. She covers the digital adoption platform market, which also includes a Market Guide. She is also responsible for sales performance management (SPM). She has extensive knowledge of SPM systems and processes, including sales incentive compensation, quota management and territory management. She has additional expertise in digital sales rooms. She contributes to research on Gartner’s CX CORE model. She also covers sales force automation (SFA)/CRM tools around adoption and usage and high-level strategy as well as digital twin of a customer for sales.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is finding its way into sales technology, but how can AI impact sales performance and revenue growth? This week, Doug Bushée and Betsy Gregory-Hosler speak with Gartner Senior Director and Analyst Robert Blaisdell to hear how AI helps sales organizations better align to buyer preferences for seller-free engagement and multithreaded sales experiences. Listeners will also hear how AI also enables CSOs to reduce sales cycles and increase forecasting accuracy.Robert Blaisdell is a Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Sales Research and Advisory Practice. He covers all aspects of sales, but has a primary focus on current customer management and growth via account planning best practices and strategic key account management.  Robert has 20 years of experience in strategic account management, account planning, sales enablement, strategic planning and marketing. Most recently he worked as the Senior Director of Sales and Account Management Strategic Planning and Execution at Express Scripts. In his role, he led the division of the sales and account management organization of seven departments in the areas of strategic planning, execution and operations. Robert has extensive experience driving the development and implementation of internal and external business solutions, methodologies and best practices to increase customer retention and account growth. He is leader for research with the Sales Strategy and Leadership Key Initiative.

Today’s selling environment is taking a toll on sellers. Supply chain issues, price increases, and the challenges presented by working in a more remote and digital environment lead to seller fatigue, decreased morale, and higher attrition. Sales leaders are working harder than ever to keep seller motivation high and address these issues. In this episode, the team sits down with Alice Walmesley, director, advisory, from the Gartner for Sales Leaders practice. Alice shares new Gartner research into seller motivation and shows us that a focus on seller drive may be missing the mark.Alice Walmesley is a Director in Gartner’s Expert Advisory team. Alice consults with cross-industry heads of sales/senior sales leaders to understand and address their most pressing challenges and opportunities for growth. She provides guidance derived from Gartner sales quantitative and best-practice research into sales execution, enablement, and strategy areas. She has been with Gartner for nine years.