Enterprise sales strategy today isn’t about louder pitches - it’s about trust. Jan Duthoo (CRO EMEA, SAP SuccessFactors) explains how embedding customer references into every stage of the sales process can transform win rates, accelerate sales performance, and strengthen customer retention strategy.

In this episode of B2B Sales Trends, Harry speaks with Jan about building a repeatable, reference-driven enterprise sales strategy. Rather than using references as a late-stage tactic, Jan shares how his teams embed them across the full sales funnel - from cold outreach to legal negotiations.

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⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Why enterprise sales has become harder

04:50 – Turning customer advocacy into enterprise sales strategy

09:30 – How references shorten sales cycles & improve sales performance

15:10 – Using storytelling in sales enablement and relationship selling

24:40 – Coaching sales leadership to build reference habits

38:40 – The 3 skills that separate elite enterprise sellers

You’ll learn:

– How to operationalize customer advocacy inside your sales enablement motion

– Why reference selling improves sales process optimization and sustainable revenue

– How strong customer retention strategy fuels new enterprise sales

– The leadership behaviors that build trust at scale

💡 Key Takeaways

- Customer references should be embedded across the full enterprise sales strategy - not saved for the final negotiation.

- Reference-driven selling increases win rates and shortens sales cycles by shifting the conversation from features to outcomes.

- Sales leadership must model the behavior: build your own reference stories and lead by example.

- Sustainable revenue and 90%+ renewal rates are reinforced by consistent customer touchpoints.

- Elite enterprise sellers master three things: listening deeply, building domain content expertise, and maintaining disciplined pipeline management.

👤 About the Guest

Jan Duthoo is Chief Revenue Officer EMEA at SAP SuccessFactors, leading one of the largest HR cloud portfolios globally. He oversees sales, pre-sales, value advisors, business development, and customer success teams across a highly complex international region.

Jan specializes in building high-performance enterprise sales organizations focused on customer advocacy, sales enablement, and long-term sustainable revenue.

Connect with Jan Duthoo on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/janduthoo/

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