Hunters and Unicorns

In this story session we cover:      Ceire’s journey to the top and why she needed to understand her success in order to transition into a leadership   How starting at the bottom at AppDynampics shaped Ceire as an empathetic leader and enabled her to help others following a similar path  Ceire’s advice to people entering SaaS from both MEDDIC and non-MEDDIC backgrounds      Today we are joined by Ceire McQuaid, Regional Vice President UK&I at DataRobot, for a Hunters and Unicorns exclusive.   Whether you're at the top of your game or just starting out, listen to discover how to apply Ceire’s strategies to real business scenarios and learn about the opportunities and skillset you should expect to develop when you join a MEDDIC company, with tactics, tips and best practices for finding the right MEDDIC organisation for you. 

In this story session we cover:    How to pivot from business level conversations to transformational execution   The importance of mindset, belief system and creating audacious goals to successfully execute big deals  Tactics for securing EB sponsorship and the transformational impact that results from it    Today we are joined by Stuart Simmons, Regional Director of Financial Services at Snowflake, for a Hunters and Unicorns exclusive.    Whether you're at the top of your game or just starting out, listen to discover real business examples of how Stuart’s approach to sales execution has generated transformational results and learn how to apply his strategies and adapt your own belief system to navigate a successful future career in SaaS.  

In this story session we cover:       - Taking command of your business and understanding your success to survive interview scrutiny - How nailing the interview process paves the way for a bright future - The cost of a bad hire and the long game of recruitment   Today we are joined by Ryan Precious, VP of Sales at Rockset, for a Hunters and Unicorns exclusive.  Whether you're at the top of your game or just starting out, listen discover how to apply Ryan’s interview strategies to real life scenarios and learn preparation tactics and best practices for showcasing your “A Player” characteristics to leave a lasting impression on hiring managers and CEOs in the playbook community.

In this story session we cover:   - Real life examples of how aiming for your “why” can result in career transformation - How to increase motivation and focus in your workplace by honing in on individual goals and objectives - Mike’s personal “why” and how finding his purpose enabled him to unlock his best life Today we are joined by Mike Earnest, Area Vice President at Zscaler. Whether you're at the top of your game or just starting out, listen to discover how to adapt your mindset and apply Mike’s strategies to real business scenarios - learn tactics and best practices for using goal setting to motivate and inspire your team to achieve their career aspirations.

In this story session we cover:   - What it means to be coachable and how to enhance your training to increase your team’s success rates. - Examples of employee transformations that have resulted from overcoming egos and improving coachability. - How to develop a growth mindset to increase your coachability and grow as a person.   Whether you're at the top of your game or just starting out, listen to discover how to apply Florian’s strategies to real business scenarios and learn tactics, tips, and best practices for changing employee behaviour, overcoming challenging situations and reinforcing coachability from the top down at your company.

8. Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 Mastery Mission - Part 2 - The Stories - Kirk Giddens In this story session we cover:    Why you need to do your research if you want to engage customers How to use Kirk’s multi-threaded methods to provoke a conversation and find your champion How to develop a bullet proof mindset, get over rejection fast and learn from your losses Today we are joined by Kirk Giddens, Vice President, Mid-Market Sales North America at TripActions.    Whether you're at the top of your game or just starting out, listen to discover how to apply Kirk’s Pipeline Generation strategies to real life prospecting scenarios, and learn preparation tactics, research tips, and best practices to prepare for future growth at your company.

Out Now – Episode 12/20 - @Espen Sjaavic      In this story session we cover:     The power of internal champions and how to know when you have one  How to develop your champion building skillset   Why you need to make your champion the hero    Today we are joined by Espen Sjaavic, Senior Regional Vice President at Zscaler.     Whether you're at the top of your game or just starting out, listen to discover Espen’s champion-building methodology and learn tips and best practices for identifying and developing sales champions that have the power and influence you need to drive change and close deals. 

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns, 20/20/20 Mastery Mission.  20 topics, 20 guests for 20 minutes.  We're here to unlock tribal wisdom from tech sales legends to help you get one step closer to mastery.  Today we are joined by Andy Whyte, enterprise sales leader, author of MEDDICC, and founder of the leading resource for enterprise sellers, MEDDIC.com. In this interview, Andy explains what salespeople commonly get wrong with sales qualification and why nobody ever regrets qualifying out of opportunities, but so few people do it enough. “We're really focused on qualification, but we work so hard to get opportunities that there's almost a reluctance to qualify out. One of the things I learned earlier in my career was if you go to qualify out, only good things happen.” Andy discusses how sales qualification is often misunderstood as being a checkbox exercise, or even worse, it is used to qualify 'Can this customer buy', rather than 'Does my solution provide enough value to my customer'. He goes on to address the common misconceptions around MEDDIC and explains the origins of the framework and how to use it more efficiently and effectively to qualify deals and generate a clear path to success. With over fifteen years of experience working in SaaS and helping organizations improve their sales velocity, Andy offers his tips on how to view your qualification strategy through your customers eyes and leverage the proven MEDDIC methodology in your sales cycles so that you can articulate and quantify pain, demonstrate the value of your sales solution, and ultimately accomplish a perfect “mutual qualification”. Presenting strategies and best practices on how to successfully implement MEDDIC and navigate qualification, Andy helps us to understand how to stay ahead of complex deals by adopting the “MEDDIC mindset” and focussing on the three pillars of sales - value, stakeholders, and process. Listen to our story session to discover how to apply Andy’s strategies to real business scenarios and learn tactics for using MEDDIC to execute your customer interactions with more purpose, achieve better results and reap the rewards of having a well-qualified pipeline of opportunities.

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns, 20/20/20 Mastery Mission.  20 topics, 20 guests for 20 minutes.  We're here to unlock tribal wisdom from tech sales legends to help you get one step closer to mastery.  Today we are joined by Thea Mayes, Major Accounts Executive at Snowflake.   In this interview, we discuss Thea’s experiences as a former Olympian weightlifter and how she transitioned into tech sales. We explore the importance of self-belief in sport and its application to the world of sales as we delve into her journey to the top as a high-level, competitive athlete and how it prepared her with the essential characteristics needed to win in the field of sales.  “Even though Olympic lifting is an individual sport, you're always training as part of a team, and that's very much the same in sales. You compete against your team; however, you're competing against yourself the most. You use your team to help you move on - if you think someone's doing better than you, or you are doing better than them, you use that conflict to get better.”  As a top athlete, Thea intrinsically enjoys competition and has, through dedication to regimented training and self-development, cultivated a mindset to achieve excellence, making her well-equipped to stand out in deeply competitive environments. She explains how, just like elite athletes, great salespeople continually push themselves to meet increasingly ambitious goals and aim to outperform themselves and their peers to reach the next benchmark.   “In boxing, you learn your combos, you go to training, you get faster, you get lighter, you get quicker, but if I wasn't eating correctly, or showing up every day, twice a day, I wasn't going to get better. It's the same thing with MEDDIC. There is a framework and every time that you go back to that framework you should be adding more to it and getting better at it.”  Having recently transitioned to a Playbook company, Thea offers her tips on how to choose the best coaches and organisations to work for as well as how to overcome adversity and treat setbacks as speed bumps rather than stop signs. She believes that discipline is the secret to success in both sports and SaaS and explains the importance of consistency, organisation, and preparation if you want to scale a career in either of these industries.   Listen to our story session to discover how to apply Thea’s strategies to real life scenarios and learn how to adopt the mindset and apply the discipline of a top performing athlete to improve your sales performance.      

In this story session we cover: • What it takes to thrive and survive in a high growth, high demanding, high excellence organization like Lacework • The importance of doing your homework and leveraging people in your network to gain true understanding of a company • Choosing the right company to work for and how to spot signs of validation • How to develop an adaptable mindset and why this is a prerequisite for survival in tech Today we are joined by Bernd Maehrlein, Vice President Central & Eastern Europe at Lacework, for a Hunters and Unicorns exclusive. Whether you're at the top of your game or just starting out, listen New to the 202020 Mastery Mission – Check out this blog for more information