On The Flip Side

The path to a perfect demo is through a great discovery call.  Basically, you need to run a recon mission before you even think about perfecting your pitch for the demo call, says Mor.   You need to have all the information about the prospect, know exactly what they need, and which solution(s) will address their pain points.   Mor Assouline, the founder of FDTC, is an expert on giving mic-drop demos. He helps AEs in B2B SaaS companies close more sales without interrogative discovery and feature dumping.    In this episode, Mor talks about:  - The secret sauce to succeeding as a sales leader. - How sales leaders can help their teams to give better demos. - What companies get wrong about demos.

“We have two ears and one mouth for a reason – you need to listen.”  In Nigel’s opinion, listening is one of the most undervalued skills in sales. Salespersons need to be excellent listeners.  Because if you don’t listen, you don’t know what the prospect needs.   And if you can’t understand their needs, you’ve already lost the deal.   Nigel Thomas is the CEO of Alpha Inbound, a marketing agency that runs paid social campaigns for DTC brands.   In this episode of On the Flip Side, Nigel talks about:  - His 3-step sales process. - Setting up next steps and knowing your ICP. - 3-door closing technique.

“What does it mean to talk less about yourself and more about the other person?”  Listening and empathizing, while always important, are really the pillars that make prospecting a truly rewarding activity.  According to Jason Bay, the science of prospecting can be boiled down to 3 key aspects:  - Finding the right fit  - Crafting the message in a customer-centric manner  - Delivering the message the right way.  Jason is the Chief Prospecting Officer at Blissful Prospecting. He’s an outbound sales coach and trainer for B2B reps & sales teams.   In this episode of On the Flip Side, Jason talks about:  - How to master the top prospecting skills. - How to keep prospecting better and be successful at sales. - Sales and prospecting in the time of economic downturn.

“It always starts with a goal.”   Before you even begin to set up an inbound motion, think about what that goal is. Ideally, it's one that’ll have an intrinsic value for both sales and marketing, says Josh.   According to him, the age-old rift between marketing and sales can be mended by establishing trustworthy inbound processes.   Josh Harcus, founder & Head of Growth at Huify, is an expert on all things inbound. He is also the best selling author of Closing Culture.   In this episode, Josh shared his insights on:  - Obvious mistakes people make while setting up their inbound motion. - The ideal way of setting up a lead follow-up process. - Building the right tech stack.

Waiting to meet every requirement in the job description? You might just be waiting longer than you need to, says Jennifer Ives.  She suggests saying yes to opportunities when they present themselves instead. “Women like to be overqualified for things, and we need to stop that. We need to say, yeah, I have six or seven of the ten items that they're looking for and I can do an amazing job. And I can learn the other three on the fly.”  Jennifer, a geospatial engineer by profession, is passionate about encouraging more women to shine in technical fields and leadership roles.   In this episode of On the Flip Side, she also talks about:  - Barriers that stop women from taking up leadership roles. - Initiatives company leadership should take to ensure diversity. - How to encourage young people to not be held by their gender.

Turns out, the only thing holding you back from getting started on TikTok, or any other platform for that matter, is your own brain.   So, Leslie’s advice is to stop putting up false barriers for yourself and stop overthinking.   “Just admit your first videos are probably going to be terrible, but that’s okay. You’ll iterate, you’ll learn what does and doesn’t work.”  Leslie Venetz (aka the SalesTipsToker) is among the first salespeople who started using TikTok for social selling. She has also been working to transform sales into a more inclusive and respected profession.   In this episode of On the Flip Side, Leslie also talked about:  - How one should go about research for creating content on TikTok. - The tools you need to get started on TikTok. - Why sales still gets a bad rep.

“In technology partnerships, you have to be everything all at once.”  Be it sales, customer success or marketing, people in partnership roles have their fingers dipped in all every other team in the company.   

To get a better understanding of the partnership team’s role in a company, we hosted Autumn Carter on our latest episode of On the Flip Side.   Autumn, Manager, Technology Partnerships at Aircall, is all about creating partnerships between companies and people.   

Other than taking us through what a technology partnerships team does, Autumn also talked about the following in this episode:  

- Things people get wrong about technology partnerships. 

- Tips to become a better people’s manager.  

- Why a fun work culture works.

In Troy’s opinion, SDRs and AEs should ideally be resilient – be able to take the metaphorical punch and get right back up. These are the traits that you want to look for when you’re adding more members to your team.   

Troy has over 15 years of experience in sales and over 8 years of experience as a sales leader in SaaS. He is currently the president of Barter Revenue Consulting.   

In this episode of On the Flip Side, Troy takes us through the process of scaling up the sales team the right way:  

- When to hire for outbound and inbound 

- What makes good SDRs and AEs 

- How to get the most out of your sales team

Sales teams everywhere are heavily dependent on technology today. And it totally makes sense–when you have to close more deals, it’s only fair to automate the grunt work.  But, are you sure you have built the right tech stack?  

Are companies really making the best use of all the technologies they have at their disposal?   

If not, where are they lacking? What's the most common thing that they overlook when they plan for a tech stack?  

And, what would it take to build a great tech stack in 2022?  These are exactly the kind of questions that Asa answers in this episode of On the Flip Side.   

Asa was the VP of sales at McGaw.io until recently and has led various other sales teams throughout his career. He is also the founding member of Sales Hacker, Inc.

“What do you do when you don’t know what to do?”  

The only wrong answer to this question is that you didn’t try anything at all. Right answers can be anything like “I asked a senior for help” or “I googled my way out of the problem”.  

Kyle asks this question every time he interviews an SDR. The answers let him know if the candidate has a penchant for curiosity, which for Kyle is one of the key traits that an SDR should possess.  

This is but one of the great ideas that Kyle shared on this episode of On the Flip Side. Kyle is the VP of revenue growth & enablement at Clari. He has over 10 years of experience in the field of sales and a great digital presence on LinkedIn.  

Apart from what to look for in an SDR, Kyle also talked about the following in this episode:  

• When should you hire your first SDR? 
• The ideal hiring and onboarding process (acc. to Kyle). 
• How to keep your sales team motivated?

What started as a LinkedIn poll morphed into a lively discussion about whether sales folks should shut shop during the holiday season. Pradeep says there are ways to make the most of this time.   

“During the rest of the year, you are net fishing. Now you have the time, bandwidth and mental capacity to go rod fishing and land the exact customer whom you’d like to talk to in the next financial year.”  

Pradeep is the VP of Sales at Wingman. He is also the founder of SaaSSales.io.   

In this episode, Pradeep talks about how the holiday season can be fruitful for sales teams:  

- How to use the holiday season to your advantage 

- Top ways to build your pipeline during the holiday season 

- The right way to do video prospecting

The trick to nailing a cold email is knowing how to go about writing one. If you think cold emails are just spam, you need to listen to Stan. Because folks, cold emailing is not dead.   

Stan is the cofounder at Intro.so, a Chrome extension that shows you sales lead research on prospects on your Google Calendar. He also founded Opara, a lead generation and account-based marketing agency, in 2018. Stan is also an ex-pro Olympic athlete!   

In this episode, you’ll get to know about Stan’s compelling take on cold emails:   

- The benchmark for a good cold email 

- The function of CTA in a cold email 

- Tips to make cold emailing work

Still using old formulas in a new market where your buyer is already armed with all the knowledge they need? Maybe it's time to move to a new way of selling with value, says Brent Keltner.  

Brent is the founder and President of Winalytics, a go-to-market- and revenue acceleration consultancy that helps companies build their go-to-market strategy across sales, marketing and customer success teams. Before starting Winalytics, Brent spent more than decade as a revenue leader in enterprise to early stage companies. He’s also a Phd in social sciences from Stanford University.  

In this episode, Brent talks about the top 3 trends to look out for in 2022 and more: 

- Programmatic prospecting 

- A mindset shift in selling 

- The basics of any good go-to-market strategy

Sales is not seen as a profession for women even today.  

Listen to Kasturi Das Talukdar talk about her experience of being a woman in sales and what needs to change.  

Kasturi is the Director of Business Development at Whatfix, a digital adoption platform that helps enterprises enable their users to quickly adopt any software application thereby eliminating the time spent in referring multiple resources for help and support.  

In this episode, Kasturi gets candid about what it takes to succeed as a woman in sales.  

Learn about things like:  

- The societal taboos for women in sales and what needs to change. 

- How to make the most of mentorship opportunities. 

- Her experience as a young graduate working in the Middle East.

"Sales development is like a sport. You can't be good at only one or two things to succeed. You need to be good at all of it."  

Tito Bohrt is the CEO of AltiSales, which offers world-class training for SDRs. AltiSales helps companies build and revamp their prospecting muscle in a data-driven way, from creating outbound strategy, conducting data research, developing cold calling scripts, and finally outreach via LinkedIn, SMS, or direct.  

In this episode, Tito gets candid about what it takes to succeed in an SDR role.   

Tito talks about:  

- SDR salaries and the great resignation 

- Hiring top talent across the world 

- How you can get started with prospecting and sales 

- Latest trends in prospecting

"Marketing just needs to take a leap of faith."   

Alex Boyd is the Founder and CEO of RevenueZen, a marketing agency that help startups understand how to craft their Go To Market strategy.   

In this episode, Alex shares his top learnings from his experience of running his own marketing company:  

- Keep your prices appropriate! Don't undersell yourself! 

- Find the right partners and employees. 

- If you're tooo married to attribution, you'll miss out on the best marketing opportunities.

"As women in leadership positions, we have an obligation to help the next generation of women leaders to find their seat at the table."  

Dr. Cindy McGovern is the CEO and Founder of Orange Leaf Consulting, which specialises in helping companies grow their business through assessment, planning, training, execution and measurement.  She’s also a passionate public speaker and loves to present new ideas in sales strategy, personal development and leadership.  

Join Dr. Cindy as she dives into how women in sales can raise their hand and find their seat at the table.  

Learn about things like:  - What's really holding you back from reaching up - How to push forth in the face of resistance - How you can empower the next generation of women leaders

"As a woman who sells, a lot of times I walked into those rooms as the first and only woman. So you find a way to still be yourself but find a way to connect with everyone in the room. And no one in that room is trying to figure out a way to connect with you. They're trying to figure out a way to get you out of that room, right? So it was my job to find a way to connect with everyone in the room so that I could build those relationships that I needed to be successful."   

Listen to Joyce Johnson tell it like it is - on the flip side.   

Here's what you will learn:  - How to use what you have and raise your hand. - How you can become a better ally for women in sales. - How setting up employee resource groups might help.  

Joyce is a 7-time author, speaker, coach & founder of the Why Sales Network, which includes training, podcasts, webinars and other sales programs to empower the next generation of sales leaders in the B2B space.

"When I started out in sales 30 years ago, I was the only woman on my team!"   

So much has changed since then, and so much needs to change.  

Listen to Jennifer talk about finding your humble confidence as a woman in sales.   

- How can you find and become a good mentor. 

- How can you become a better ally for women in sales. 

- How a lack of confidence might be holding you back from leadership roles.    

Jennifer Fisher is a senior sales leader and currently VP of sales at Worldstrides, which provides educational travel and experiences to students. Jennifer has spent almost 30 years in recruiting, hiring, training and managing high-performing sales teams.

Sales prospecting today is a tough job. You need to connect more, convince more, and ultimately, sell more.  

Join Matthew Roberts, who leads on sales development at Mosaic Tech, as he reveales his holy grail for winning as an SDR.  

Hint hint: It has a lot to do with grit, coachability and creativity.

Sam Dunning is the Sales Director and Co-Owner of Web Choice, as well as the podcast host of the Business Growth Show, one of the top 100 marketing podcasts today.  

Join Sam as he dives into how to sell and market yourself in a time when traditional offline methods have left the chat.   

Learn about things like:  

- Building trust and credibility online 

- How LinkedIn is more than just an online CV 

- How understanding your customers > feeding your ego 

- Why marketing and sales should communicate more

“I believe that sales is solving people's problems for profit, and you got to make money at the end of the day. Cause you got bills to pay. Profit is an important component because without it, you don't have a business. But what I learned a long time ago is if your mission is to truly help your customer, the profits will take care of themselves.”  

George Leith is the Chief Customer Officer at Vendasta and the Host and Executive Producer of the Conquer Local Podcast. Join him as he takes a deep dive into what drives a salesperson today.  

Learn about things like: 

- Building trust with your customers 

- Why integrity matters in sales 

- How commissions drive sales reps 

- Why sales is about helping people

Collin Mitchell is the CRO of Salescast and Host of the Sales Transformation podcast.  

Salescast is a fully managed podcast service offering an end-to-end thought leadership platform. Working with salescast allows you to skip the line and put your thought leadership on autopilot.  

In this episode, Collin talks about why every single person should have their own podcast, what it takes to get started, and what not to do.  

Learn about things like:  

- How to use podcast seasons to change the show format  

- Why your podcast's cover art doesn't matter that much 

- How to get the best out of your guest 

- Collin's #1 benefit from podcasting 

- And so much more!

Katherine McConnell is a revenue strategist known for scaling sales and strategic growth for businesses. She’s a member of RevGenius, Women in Revenue, HUMANS Community, and the list just goes on.   

Join Katherine as she dissects what it means to be a woman in sales, how to tackle workplace sexism and how she set up the member onboarding programme at RevGenius.   

Learn about things like:  

- How community is at the core of inclusivity  

- Why you should be an up-stander for change 

- How individual contributions matter, even by male allies  

- Creating a sense of belonging during the employee engagement journey 

- And a lot more…

“I think if you boil down a sale, it comes down to two things - trust and value. Anything that results in a sale is going to fall under one of those two categories.”  

Join Drew Coryer as he dives into what makes a good sale, what makes a good salesperson, and how to stay motivated in the face of fluctuating numbers.  

Drew is an Enterprise SDR Manager at Formstack. He is an experienced sales leader, skilled in sales training, data evaluation, sales management, lead generation, team building, SaaS sales, cold calling and customer retention.  

In this episode, we cover:  - What it takes to stay motivated over the long term in sales - How to decide between the SDR manager vs AE career track - The difference between good and great in sales - And much more...

"We didn't just spend the last year selling remotely."   

We were selling through a pandemic. That's why the big resignation is real. Salespeople are now looking for something better and different. The best sales leaders will know what to ask, offer and how to lead in the sales industry.  

Join Kevin "KD" Dorsey as he dives into what makes a great brand, sales rep, sales manager and sales leader.   

This episode covers all the gold you'll need to win in sales:  

How to build a great personal brand

How to upskill and invest in yourself

How to become a better sales leader

How to win in a competitive market

And so much more!  

KD is the VP of Sales at Patient Pop, founder of Inside Sales Excellence, and well respected leader in the sales industry.

The sales revolution is here. Companies that invest in salestech will have a massive advantage over those that don't. Technology enables massive efficiencies and insights. Venture capitalists are investing in sales tech but sales leaders are yet to catch up.  

Catch Justin Michael talk about all things tech-powered sales, including his latest book, why sales leaders shy away from salestech, and what needs to change.

At least 43% of salespeople struggle with their mental health, and the opportunity to reach peak levels of performance and well-being through better mental health is massive.  

If you're passionate about creating better mental health in sales, you need to meet Jeff Riseley and listen to this episode. Jeff is the founder of Sales Health Alliance, a community of salespeople, sales leaders, health experts and technology providers who are building awareness around mental health within sales.   

In this episode, Jeff talks about why and how to manage your mental health and develop resilience. It's gold y'all.

If you think an ecletic adventure is saved for Marvel heroes, you haven't heard Mark Shalinsky speak. After leaving his job as a biophysicist in a Harvard lab, he later found his superpower - cold calling. Now, as the COO of Data Sales Science, he does everything from shadow ops to creating data-driven tech stacks.  

In this episode, learn about why it's important for sales reps to use data to their advantage, and why you should know how to use marketing automation tools.

Jeff Molander is the authority on making social media sell and a sought-after corporate trainer to small businesses and global corporations. He's an internationally-recognized social selling expert, sales trainer, co-founder of the first Social Selling Summit and adjunct digital marketing professor at Loyola University's school of business.   

Dive in to this episode to know more about sales outreach, with insights into transactional analysis and social selling with empathy. Listen in as Jeff talks about investing in yourself and the templatization of cold emailing.

Anupreet Singh is the Sales Director at Slintel, a SaaS salesintelligence platform. He has set up sales teams and functions from scratch for various companies and firmly believes that the initial revenue target is achieved only when the entire organization works with the grit to support them.  

If this episode could be summed up in one word - that word is honesty. Anupreet talks about selling with honestly, while being smart enough to make the sale. He also talks about creating a transparent environment where your sales team is empowered to deliver their best. Listen in for life lessons on buiilding high-performing sales teams.

Jen is an award-winning, result-driven sales leader. She is recognized as one of the LinkedIn's Top 100 Sales Stars, with over two decades of experience in sales, marketing and leadership. As the Director of Sales for Inside Out, she leads a team to provide sales development resources and operational excellence; creating pipeline confidence for revenue leaders. Jen believes in leading and selling with heart. That all voices should be celebrated.

In this episode, Jen Ferguson talks about how to short circuit rapport-building, having deeper discoveries and closing more deals quicker - the answer to all three is the same - and we wouldn't want to spoil it for you.

Leaders are lonely. They need to be careful of what they're saying and reinvent themselves constantly. But they can make this process easier by thinking about their legacy, says Paula White, a veteran sales leader.   

Paula is the Founder of Side B Consulting and brings over 30 years of expertise in sales, leading teams, and developing/coaching others. She advises business leaders, owners and C-Suite executives on how to prepare strategically to define and develop a high-performing virtual Inside Sales channel.

Pauline O'Malley is a B2B business development strategist and creator of the RevTurbo® Selling System. Now in its 10th edition, RevTurbo® is applied by 400,000 selling professionals in Canada, the US, England, Australia, India and China.  

In this episode, catch Pauline reveal why she stopped becoming a sales trainer, what's broken with most sales training as we know it traditionally, and what's a better investment to make for your team.

David Zeff is the CEO of Whistle, an agency that helps companies acquire customers by setting effective sales and marketing strategies and processes.  David is a passionate advocate of the 4-Hour Work Week philosophy and speaks of the power of money to set oneself free. 

In this episode, David talks about bringing your whole self to work (or LinkedIn), the right time to outsource your customer acquisition, and what to focus on when in the early stages of your company.

Siddharth Sharma is Head of Marketing at Verloop, a leading customer support automation platform. He's passionate about all things technology and SaaS marketing.  

In this episode, Siddharth talks about what it takes to build up a marketing team from scratch and how to make sales and marketing work better together. Founders, get ready to takes notes.

Scott Leese is a sales consultant and advisor to startups around the world. Scott wears multiple hats, from CEO/Founder at Scott Leese Consulting, Co-founder of the Surf and Sales Summit, podcast host and author, to founder of one of the most popular sales communities, Thursday Night Sales. 

In this episode, Scott talks about the top mistakes that startups make when it comes to setting up a sales process and team and what to do instead

Can salespeople close deals without selling? We didn't believe it either until Ike Krieger opened our eyes to this whole new way of thinking about sales.   

PS: Have you wondered about how sales has changed in the last 40 years? Hear the stories from a communications teacher, an actor, a magazine salesperson and a charming sales coach, all rolled into one.

Ed Porter is the founder of Blue Chip CRO. As a consultant and fractional leader, Ed helps companies create efficient and effective sales and support teams.  

In this episode, he answers a number of tricky questions: How do you jump from managing a call center to being a CRO in tech? Why don't sales quotas work? Does a fractional CRO make sense? Why shouldn't you switch to tech sales? What hiring from within the industry is really a sign of?

Calvin Patterson is a Founding AE at Concert and Founding Member and Head of Mentorship at Revgenius.  

In this episode, he talks about how it's important to take charge of your own development, asking the right questions, the importance of finding a mentor, and the metrics to track when you're starting out in sales. Hint: They go waaay beyond just numbers.   

Bonus: Calvin talks about changing sales compensation plans and how to set yourself up for success.

Larry Long Jr is Director of Collegiate Sales at Teamworks.  

In this episode, he talks about the EPICCCC things that sales reps need to do to find jobs in 2021. You'll also hear about how to choose the right community for yourself, the importance of social selling, and going beyond the echo chamber on social media.   

Bonus: Practicing empathy is key for sales managers and leaders to help their teams win.

Molly O'Sullivan is an independent consultant for technology integration, business process analysis, sales, marketing, social media, and branding services.

In this episode, she shares her experience on managing today's sales teams. You'll hear about the best way to give feedback, the KPIs that matter, and how to break through the noise to reach your KPIs.