Sales Strategy & Enablement by Revenue.io

Gabrielle Blackwell is the Business Development Manager for Strategic Accounts at Airtable and Co-Host and Co-Founder of Women in Sales Club. She begins by talking about studying in France and hustling as an au pair. Upon arrival back in the US, she shares how she entered sales and quickly moved up the ranks. She imparts some nuggets of wisdom on why a career where you thrive and not just survive should be a priority and how sales leaders can move away from traditional and transactional sales models. In her experience, being cared for as a person and experiencing inclusivity had a direct correlation to her own professional growth. HIGHLIGHTS Studying at La Sorbonne and working as an au pair Entering sales: Starting as an SDR then AE then BDR Manager Choose a career where you thrive, not just survive Get sales leaders who value their people and embrace inclusivity Women in Sales Club: Starting conversations for better choices QUOTESGabrielle: "I don't really feel like just being in spreadsheets all day long even though that's what I do now as a manager, but I can go talk to people. So I'm going to go start off in sales as my first step forward to being a CEO."Gabrielle: "I'm going to be in a career for 20, 30 years and I want to enjoy it. I want to thrive in it. I don't want to just be somebody who's punching in, punching out, miserable. And I made a very thoughtful and intentional choice and over the years I feel like I've been very blessed and fortunate to do what I love to do which is managing BDRs and SDRs."Gabrielle: "I kind of see myself as a shepherd, a guard at that, which is one, we're going to set a standard of professionalism, a standard of performance, but also a standard of here's how you take care of yourself as a salesperson in this career."Gabrielle: "Here's where I feel like SaaS sales or sales in general, I think here's where we can be much better is really demonstrating a level of leadership that raises the standard of sales. And what I mean by this is pivoting away from smile and dial, treating people like resources that can be easily tossed out."Find out more about Gabrielle in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielleblackwell/ Clubhouse (Women in Sales Club): https://www.clubhouse.com/club/womeninsales More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Ann Latham is the President of Uncommon Clarity and author of The Power of Clarity. The effects of business decisions reverberate through an organization whether or not a process is used to arrive at these decisions. To focus the conversation and align to the true priorities, clarity is needed. Ann talks about bringing in new information and options to conversations so that decision-makers can introduce a new set of potential criteria to create different outcomes. Clarity is knowing exactly what you're trying to accomplish, not what you're going to do. So, as sellers, know the outcome of what you want to achieve today, which in most cases is getting prospects closer to a buying decision. HIGHLIGHTS The uncommon clarity and disclarity spectrum Alternative-centric vs objective-centric decision making  Process clarity moves things forward Know the outcome of what you want to achieve Operate with intent and treadmill verbs QUOTESAnn: "If you have someone, for instance back to your example of when someone asks you to please review something and you give them no clarity at all about what you're supposed to be looking for, is it grammar, is it punctuation, is it flow, is it credibility, is it accuracy? You're way down on the disclarity end of the spectrum."Ann: "There's so many different directions a conversation can go and or a review can go. If you're in a room with 15 or take 5 people, and they're dedicated, earnest, determined people, and you bring up a general topic, I guarantee you that they could come up with 50 ways to take the conversation."Ann: "Step one is really to isolate the decision. Step two is what are we trying to accomplish? What are the objectives? Basically, what are the decision criteria? How will we know a good alternative when we see one? So the third step is the alternatives. What are our options? And then the fourth are the risks."Andy: "There has to be an outcome for every interaction. And the baseline interaction of sales is that the buyer is closer to making a decision after meeting than they were before. And if you haven't accomplished that, then you wasted their time and wasted your own time and all because of a lack of clarity." Find out more about Ann in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annlathamuncommonclarity/ Website: https://annlatham.com/ Book: https://power-of-clarity.com/ More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Bret Kramer is Vice President of Sales and Customer Success at Qstream. Sales enablement covers a variety of topics, but the question of training brings up the question of knowledge retention. Microlearning applies the science of the Testing Effect which says that taking a test on previously studied material and getting it right leads to better retention. It's not that sales training in itself ineffective, it's that how it's done is not yielding enough real-world behavior change. Microlearning acts like a consultant when the consultant isn't there by testing proficiency a couple of times each day, thereby increasing it. HIGHLIGHTS The Testing Effect and science behind microlearning Correlating proficiency and sales efforts   Branching out from pharma to wherever knowledge matters Reinforce learnings from conventional settings with microlearning QUOTESBret: "Folks are worried about spending the dollar and it's going to be a little bit tougher so you've got to be ready, you've got to be prepared to answer the questions when they're asked, and you've got to take advantage of every minute you've got with those customers."Bret: "There's so many topics that people are trying to get information into people's heads and make it stick. As long as it matters, as long as counting butts and seats isn't enough for you, then Qstream is a good fit."Bret: "By doing this repetition, you are actually able to change people's behavior and how they think because of the way the science works. They're going to act differently when you set up not just product knowledge Qstreams, but set up sales Qstreams. How should you be selling? How should be reacting in this situation or that situation?"Find out more about Bret in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-kramer-4126187/ Website: https://qstream.com/ Email: bret.kramer@qstream.com More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Frank Cespedes is a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Business School and author of several sales books including Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World that Never Stops Changing. There is a recession looming right now and Andy and Frank discuss what organizations can realistically do to prepare for it, especially amidst the growth-at-all-costs backdrop. Frank discusses the role of sales leaders in hiring for fit, coaching, and doing performance reviews. He also comments on stagflation and the increasing importance of customer selection, flagging bad customers, and closing deals.HIGHLIGHTS Preparing for recession: Going for volume vs profitable value Customer selection, sales leadership, and performance reviews Search for fit and make your own luck Selling is still about people buying from people C-suite is siloed amongst specialists QUOTESFrank: "Sales is increasingly, for lots of reasons that are not going away, increasingly a cross-functional activity, so selling is more intimately connected now with those other areas that inflation makes more difficult. Then, when it comes to recession, the basics apply: if you cannot articulate your value proposition and the outcomes crisply and to the point, you're not well-prepared for a recession."Frank: "I think the people running sales have to be prepared for that. There's a difference between simply going for volume and going for profitable value. There's a big difference there."Frank: "So much of the important information required for customer selection, required to develop the capabilities of salespeople does not reside in the CRM system. It resides in the skulls of the individual account managers, etc and you only get it, you only make it visible and actionable when you do good performance reviews and coaching."Frank: "So many other resource allocations in the business depend on sales forecasts and the ability of the salesforce to meet those forecasts. And that's why, in sales, we have these metrics that focus on what are you doing by month, by quarter, annually, etc. When the metrics reinforce that, salespeople focus on that, and the danger is that even when the market changes, they stick with the devil they know. They avoid the transition cost."Find out more about Frank in the link below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankcespedes/ Website: https://frankcespedes.com/ Amazon book link: https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Management-That-Works-Changing/dp/1633698769 More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Mark Cox is the founder of In the Funnel Sales Coaching. A repeatable process has undeniable benefits in converting prospects into paying clients — and this process is best applied to discovery. But processes are just guides. They are not rigid. And these processes integrate between the buyer's journey and your own sales process. At the core of it, selling is simply solving the problems of your clients and your goal is to constantly add value to the prospect. Andy and Mark discuss an authentic way to achieve this by training sellers to be better people so they can improve their ability to connect with other people.HIGHLIGHTS The buyer's journey and your sales process are not mutually exclusive Repeatable sales processes convert prospects to paying clients A commonsense principle in sales is to always add value   Train sellers to be better persons to be better sellers  QUOTESMark: "Do we know who we're speaking to? Do we understand their world? Can we provide insight to them? Can we provide value in every interaction? So the fact that we might be thinking along what we do as a process doesn't negate the fact that they've got the journey that they're going through."Andy: "Every interaction we have with a buyer is, at sort of bottomline, is that we have to earn the right in that interaction to a next interaction. And there's always a sense you get from sellers, some sellers, and perhaps somebody a little less experienced but those also are just chugging through life and not paying attention, is that buyers don't have to talk to you.”Mark: “Adding value along every step is another one of these commonsense principles about selling. You've mentioned it on many podcasts, I've mentioned it, how often are we getting folks with energy and enthusiasm doing demand generation, cold calling, prospecting us, they've never even been to our website?"Andy: "To me, selling is nothing more than listening to understand what's the most important thing to a buyer and then helping them get that. That's selling to me. And if you're in sales and you have that in mind that you understand your job is to be able to listen, which means you got to ask questions, listen to understand what's the most important thing to the buyer."Find out more about Mark in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markandrewcox/Website: https://www.inthefunnel.com/More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Jerry Brooner is President of Global Field Operations at Enable. The global supply chain is a trillion-dollar economy and the mind-boggling thing is how little coordination there is between the major players. Jerry serves this massive market by offering a digital solution to manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to keep track of their rebates—which is one of the main ways these entities make 100% (or more!) of their profit. Jerry also talks about sales enablement, weathering recessions, and curiosity as the number one quality for sellers.HIGHLIGHTS Digitizing global supply chains to track rebates Test for curiosity in your sellers Prepare for recession by starting and stopping with the customer  Enablement is the number one support revenue teams need QUOTESJerry: "When things are going really well in the world, people have a tendency to skip the fundamentals and skip the basics. They're like oh, I don't really need to know about that customer. I don't need to read that annual report. No, everything is going well. They're just going to buy something. And then things go bad and they wonder why their sales cycles or their motions or they're losing customers because they didn't do the fundamentals."Andy: "I think a vulnerability for a number of companies is, we've had these 14 years served since 2008 of somewhat uninterrupted growth, is I see a lot of sloppiness when it comes to execution, whether it's, as you said, first start and stop with the customer or whatever, and it seems there's going to be some pain in a lot of people that aren't focused on how do we really execute in the best interest of the customer in this tough time."Jerry: "We want to be curious on how this would help your business. And it might not, and that's okay. That's okay. But we have to know that account, know that industry, and know what we do to help that person or team before we can do anything else. Forget our product. Forget our proposal. Forget our sales. If you can't do all those things, you're never going to get your customer."Andy: "Not enough companies do this. New people coming into the work world, they don't know anything about business. I knew nothing about business when I got started. I don't think companies are active enough in providing that type of just basic financial education to sellers."Find out more about Jerry in the link below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrybrooner/More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Bobby Dysart is Head of Sales at Compa and host of the Quotaless Podcast. Sales leadership is definitely about driving revenue, but it's also about empowering sales teams with the right tools and the right mindset too. Bobby shares how living with intention brings forth your authentic self and how quota happens simply as a consequence. He also talks about the undeniable role of luck and embracing the unexpected because the reality is that there is very little you can control as a salesperson. Bobby’s goal is to bring this notion of living with intention into sales so more sellers can find both fulfillment and happiness in their sales careers.HIGHLIGHTS Helping sales teams get quick wins Quotaless: Live with intention so that quota happens Luck plays a role in sales so embrace the unexpected Highs and lows: Receiving top training and the used car salesman trope QUOTESBobby: "I can get some revenue across line in short order. And what I found is entrepreneurs just love that. They're surrounded by a lot of people trying to, I think, take from them, take money from them, and sort of latch on to any sort of success that they have, whereas I'm just coming in and I'm like, watch out. I'm going to, at least, get you 50 grand across the line and pay for the next several months of my service."Bobby: "I want to bring this idea of mindset, of mindfulness, of living with intention, etc, and bring it into the world of sales."Bobby: "The first thing that I think comes to mind is this idea that, as sellers, we think like our life just gets so much better when we hit quota. And I think we have it in reverse. When our life is so good and it's great and we're feeling like our most authentic selves, quota happens."Andy: "I think this is a difficult mindset for most sellers to adopt because there is this quota every month and they're taught about you have to control the buyer, control your prospects, control the sales cycle which yeah, I learned early in my career was just a huge myth."Bobby: "They had craft out of developing those early-stage managers, those sales managers and sales directors that I think is really what plagues series A, series B companies, tech companies. They may even have the leadership right and they may have some of the sellers at the bottom right, but that midlevel management always seems to be missing."Find out more about Bobby in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbydysart/Website: https://quotaless.io/Podcast: https://quotaless.simplecast.com/More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Andreas Jonsson is the co-founder and CEO of SHIELD. As LinkedIn offers the unique opportunity to thrive in sales while leveraging your own personal brand, Andreas shares how individual contributors, entrepreneurs, and companies can achieve this. An individual's personal brand has a direct impact on sales and creates a tribe of like-minded people. When you find your content market fit, double down on it, and post your unique point-of-view around your product or service. When you provide true value, the revenue comes almost as a byproduct of helping others. HIGHLIGHTS SHIELD: Helping individual content creators on LinkedIn  Build leverage through your personal brand Fear is the root of resistance from leaders  Follower count is a vanity metric for content market fit Create a tribe around your personal brand QUOTESAndreas: "We're actually focusing on creators, individual creators, a whole lot more. And when I say individual creators, it's a catch-all phrase right now. So it's someone creating content to help them in their job, so that could be a salesperson, a sales rep, but it could also be a solopreneur who's doing his own thing or an entrepreneur who's doing his own thing."Andreas: "Once they started building their personal brand, things got easier. Not easy, but easier... It's never easy but it gets easier and that's something I felt with my very humble growth on LinkedIn and it's something I see everyday amongst the people who we are involved with. And, to me, that's just fascinating that you can work in sales and build leverage on LinkedIn through your personal brand."Andreas: "For the one who actually has a given amount of followers, who puts out content consistently and see that number grow while the engagement rate is maintained, if you managed to get that going so that you can actually grow let's say 10% month over month with your followers, and you're posting everyday Monday to Friday, then you're doing something right."Andreas: "If you're a salesperson, leader, or rep, or whatever and you're looking towards a market or a niche with a certain product offering certain benefits, you have some very unique knowledge around that space even though you sit next to another guy who's selling the same product. Everyone's unique. We've got different backgrounds, different stories, different experiences, different interactions with our markets, so we can all talk from a unique point of view."Find out more about Andreas in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasjonssonn/Website: https://www.shieldapp.ai/More on Andy: Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Nate Nasralla is the Founder at Fluint.io. Especially in the realm of online selling, having champions that articulate your value in the language of the buyer can make or break a deal. Fluint takes your buyer's words and highlights key phrases so that you can make a business case based on their specific needs. Nate also categorizes a champion differently from influencers and coaches and breaks down how influence, incentive, and information are necessary components of a champion. He explains how to use languaging to mirror back your buyer’s language and increase the chances of a favorable outcome.HIGHLIGHTS Fluint: Find champions who articulate your value Use the buyer's language to align your product to their needs A champion's profile: Influence, incentive, and information Languaging mirrors your buyer’s words for maximum effectiveness Sales enablement with the Enterprise Sales Playbook QUOTESNate: "Sales reps don't close deals. Buyers do. You can get a deal done without a sales rep. You cannot ever get a deal done without a buyer in place."Nate: "When I think about the profile of a champion, so one there is influence. They're able to help develop or shape the opinions of others. There's also incentive. There's something in it for them. There's a personal connection to that deal. And then, information. They actually can help you navigate through the sales cycle."Nate: "If I have a request and I want it to be approved, I'm going to make sure to use the same types of things that my exec or my VP is using in the team calls and the team updates, how we're talking about our OKRs or whatever the goals are, to increase the probability that they respond favorably."Find out more about Nate in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natenasralla/Website: https://www.fluint.io/Enterprise Sales Playbook: https://www.fluint.io/resource-content/the-enterprise-sales-playbookEmail: nate@fluint.ioMore on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast

Christine Rogers is the President & COO at Aspireship. In today's episode, we discuss the greater role of competency over experience in becoming successful as a SaaS seller. Although there is a traditional preference for salespeople who have experience selling SaaS, Aspireship provides a course that highlights individuals who may not have the experience in SaaS but have proven, through actual work, that they in fact excel at sales. We unravel how their course provides this service free of charge and their 92% rate of success in placing reps in good standing.HIGHLIGHTS Aspireship: Finding competence and character over experience Training on objection handling, Salesforce, and customer experience Roleplaying tests detail-orientedness and its application Teachers and the hospitality industry are good at sales Helping talent acquisition find the best talent QUOTESChristine: "I believe that most sales leaders will tell you that some of their best hires they've ever made didn't look great on paper but they've done extremely well. And they're trying to replicate that over and over again. Like, how do I find more of those people that are the diamonds in the rough that nobody would give a chance?” Christine: "The most interesting thing is watch them do the work and then look at the resume and you'll be surprised that they haven't had that experience, and watch them do it. They actually can. So we're showing and showcasing people in a totally different way and it's all through the product."Christine: "We look at the 90-day mark. Are they in good standing? And currently, we're at 92% of our grads that we placed are in good standing in the companies that they're in at the 90-day mark. So they're in good standing, so I think that's a really important metric."Christine: "If you've been in our space for any length of time, you know that there's some antiquated thinking that, in order to get great people that want to stay for any length of time, you're going to have to do something different."Find out more about Christine in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinerogers2/Website: https://aspireship.com/More on Andy:Connect on LinkedInGet Andy's new book "Sell Without Selling Out" on AmazonLearn more at AndyPaul.comSponsored by:Revenue.io | Unlock exponential growth with an AI-powered RevOps platform | Revenue.ioScratchpad | The fastest way to update Salesforce, take sales notes, and stay on top of to-dos | Scratchpad.comExplore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe:Sales Enablement PodcastRevOps PodcastSelling with Purpose Podcast