The Predictable Revenue Podcast

Jeff Koser, Founder, and CEO of Zebrafi, joins Sarah Hicks on this episode of the Predictable Revenue Podcast. Zebrafi is the Guided Selling Cloud for the Enterprise that helps sellers find great-fit prospects with the help of AI. Highlights include: the Zebra (1:24), what happens if you get this wrong and why so many companies do (3:25), the 7 attributes of a Zebra (5:54), a detailed example of a company defined by the Zebra attributes (8:45), opportunity scoring against the 7 attributes (15:22), how to forecast with 90% accuracy using a colour system (20:46), turning a selling cycle into a buying cycle (23:48), and what to do once you’ve found your Zebra (35:40).

Kim Brown, Director of Sales and Business Development at Quick Base, joins Sarah Hicks on this episode of the Predictable Revenue Podcast.  After doing stints in sales, sales operations, sales development, demand generation, go-to-market strategy, marketing, team building, cold call training, and client prospecting, Kim has learned a thing or two about working cross-functionally within a large revenue org, and how to wrangle rogue sdrs. Highlights include: the difference between sales ecosystems in startups and large companies (3:33), what working cross-functionally looks like for a leader in the day-to-day (8:35), the ideal relationship between sales and marketing (11:01), where strategic focus should come from (15:24) and how sdr teams influence it (17:36), how to stage outbound experiments and ensure adoption of new strategies (21:36), and Kim’s top tip about always finding a way to win (43:06).   SHOW NOTES:    More on sales/marketing alignment: How to align marketing and sales to increase revenue with expert coach and consultant Jeff Davis   How to combine marketing and outbound skills to drive leads Kim’s past episode: How Catavolt Evolves its Sales Development Process to Perfect Account Based Sales

Claire Chandler, President and Founder of Talent Boost, is this week’s guest on the Predictable Revenue podcast.  Having worked with many diverse startups and corporations over the last 25 years, she has experienced that most companies fall apart once they start to scale. As a solution to this, she created a revolutionary way to align your leaders and teams around a unifying vision that attracts, retains, and motivates the right talent to achieve your mission. Sarah Hickschats with Claire about why culture is so important (4:29), the key elements of a positive culture (7:02), finding your company’s mission, not its mission statement (9:09), how to retain the greatness of startup culture as you scale (14:31), replicating your culture in a remote environment (20:15), hiring the right salespeople to fit into your company culture (28:48), keeping up momentum as you grow (38:13), and how to be a startup founder that behaves like the leader of a big company (55:33).   SHOW NOTES:    More on taking things virtual:  Manage a large sales team virtually and build a kick-ass discovery process How to Manage a Small Sales Team Virtually And more on culture:  How to build a culture that attracts top performers with Justin Welsh How to develop and hire people with a winning mindset

Troy Angrignon shares his account management wisdom on this episode of the Predictable Revenue podcast. Troy has more than 25 years of experience as a sales leader and management consultant for companies selling into large accounts in multiple industries. Highlights include: what you need to know about someone before going for the meeting (4:19), capturing and sharing this knowledge (7:56), mapping a large account your company has sold into before (12:17), how to book a cold outbound meeting with a speaker during a virtual conference (17:09), nailing the first call you have with a decision-maker at a target account (20:28), how to prioritize a setlist of accounts (29:15), and the secret about CIOs (34:40).   SHOW NOTES:  Similar to Troy’s reverse-engineered and scaled approach, Michel Feaster also starts with a critical problem that is plaguing a particular persona to be the foundation for new software products she wants to build: The Framework For Creating a Product – And a Brand-New Category More on selling into large accounts: Swimming upstream: how Proposify went from selling self serve deals to working with enterprise clients with CEO Kyle Racki

This week’s guest on the Predictable Revenue podcast is Growth Stream’s Kieren O’Connor, interviewed by Sarah Hicks.  He was breaking company records as a Commercial Director at Nobly POS by 22, and at 25 he is the co-founder of a consultancy that has generated over £10m in sales for its clients and is challenging traditional consultancies everywhere. Keiren shares how he gained 35 years of experience in 10 (1:44), what sets him apart (8:25), how to improve your knowledge as a salesperson on a daily basis (11:14), how to learn from the people around you (13:26), why Growth Stream is different from other growth consultancies (16:21), why having skin in the game makes such a difference (18:05), the 4 pillar sales process rivaling traditional growth models (20:44), and easiest way increase your sales and conversion rates right now (42:47).   SHOW NOTES:  More on touchpoint process (sequence design): The Secret Formula to Building Sequences that Convert And on executing a flawless follow-up process: Deal Mechanics: How to Work (And Close) 3x The Deals And on providing value to your prospects in the follow-back process: How to turn 100 LinkedIn profiles into 10 meetings with Tom Abbott

In the last 20+ years, Billy has worked in 86 countries, learned to fluently speak 5 languages, and has called Europe his place of residence for the better part of 15 years. With this personal growth experience, he has developed professionally by leading teams of up to 16 people and managing multi-disciplined businesses of +€70M in the application software sector.And he is here to tell you why you should consider moving to a different country to sell.TIMESTAMPS: (0:00) Intro (2:18) Moving to a different country to sell (8:29) What living/working abroad teaches you (10:10) What’s harder than expected (12:17) How to get out of your head (14:47) Working abroad as a single person vs a family person (17:42) What to do to immerse yourself in the new culture (20:44) How to land a role that will let you go global   SHOW NOTES:  More on virtual or inside sales teams:  Why sales teams should WFH, permanently with Gabriel Moncayo And being a top-performing salesperson:  Why SDRs should set their own targets with Mark Garrett Hayes  

Michael Lagoni, co-founder and CEO of Stackline, chats to Sarah Hicks on this episode of the Predictable Revenue podcast. He shares some really interesting insight on how to make sure you’re building the right product or service. Stackline is a retail technology company founded by a group of Amazon veterans that activates data, automates execution, and optimizes e-commerce marketing performance for thousands of the world’s largest companies. Before founding Stackline, Michael held data analytics roles at Amazon and The Boston Consulting Group where he helped consumer brands turn insights into commercial excellence. Highlights from Michael include: (1:00) How Stackline was profitable from day one (2:28) The decisions that led to such quick initial success (3:32) Before you commit to building a new product (8:37) How to make sure you’re building the right product (11:20) Training your eye for external indicators and “tech-tonic” trends to predict the future (14:51) Striking a balance between the trends and what your clients are asking for EDITOR’S NOTE: Another blog post on creating a product in an emerging industry: The Framework For Creating a Product – And a Brand-New Category More on product: The key to getting your first 10 customers isn’t sales – it’s product And product-market fit: 8 Growth Secrets I Learned from Reading Every Interview with Alex Schultz, VP of Growth at FacebookRe-establishing growth: when to scale, and how fast?

Michel Feaster chats with Collin Stewart on this value-packed episode of the Predictable Revenue podcast. If you’ve ever thought about designing a brand new product to capture a brand new market - this one’s for you. Michel is the Co-Founder and CEO of Usermind, responsible for company vision, strategic direction, planning and execution. Michel’s enterprise software career spans almost 20 years with roles in sales, products, strategic marketing and general management, and she has designed a framework for building new categories. She dives into what constitutes a category (1:38), the rule of disruptions (5:22), validating a category (6:50), moving from validation to product design (14:04), differentiating (19:17), timing (24:10), degrees of product-market fit (32:36), business impact and TAM (35:33), competitive analysis (40:49), continued iteration (50:06), and how to identify the best, fastest growing saas startups to join at any stage in your career (56:38). SHOW NOTES:  More resources on product market fit: The key to getting your first 10 customers isn’t sales – it’s product   Re-establishing growth: when to scale, and how fast?   8 Growth Secrets I Learned from Reading Every Interview with Alex Schultz, VP of Growth at Facebook   How Predictable Revenue built its innovative Outbound Validation program with CPO Kenny MacKenzie  

Nick Cegelski, Account Executive at SurePoint Technologies, joins Sarah Hicks on the Predictable Revenue podcast. As a top-performing software sales executive, Nick not only executes on perfect discovery during meetings, but his strategies on what to do in the white space in between meetings allow him to carry more pipeline and close more deals. Nicks shares his thoughts on deal mechanics (1:38), using video to engage multiple stakeholders during follow up (2:54), leveraging collateral (5:35), picking up the phone at a stage when most salespeople don’t (7:20), giving the prospect and out (16:42), and setting next steps (17:09). SHOW NOTES:  More resources for closers: How to unlock the growth potential in your account executives with Lessonly’s Justin Clifford   Manage a large sales team virtually and build a kick-ass discovery process   This Is What You Should Be Asking On Your Discovery Calls   7 Keys to Discovery Meetings That Close More Deals  

INTRO Joseph Trodden joins host Collin Stewart on the Predictable Revenue podcast.  Joseph is an experienced consultant providing structure and clarity for visionary entrepreneurs who want to focus on reaching their next level. He focuses specifically on what he calls “the Inflection Point” - the pivotal moment when a founder relinquishes control and takes the first step towards turning the business into an organization. Joseph shares why founders never get this right the first time (2:36), who to hire first and why (8:39), the pros and cons of the player/coach (22:13), who to bring on as the second key hire (28:59), and how entrepreneurs should psychologically prepare for letting go (30:07).   You remember Goldilocks and the Three Bears. A flaxen-haired and doe-eyed ingenue stumbles into the furry quadrupeds' family home and samples each of their porridge, chairs, and beds. In each instance, after some grumbling at the inadequacy of the first two she tries, she settles on one bowl, one seat, and one mattress as “just right”.      SHOW NOTES:  More blog posts for early stage founders/sales leaders: The key to getting your first 10 customers isn’t sales – it’s product   Getting your first 100 customers with Salesflare Co-Founder Jeroen Corthout   How to build and evolve your first sales playbook with Bowery Capital’s Andrew Oddo