One of the greatest challenges we have observed for enterprise sales professionals is – How to win 7 or 8-figure ($10M+) deals. A lot of salespeople talk about closing mega deals, but the reality is that most don’t achieve it or at best had a deal driven by their management. We’ve found that its usually a small percentage of sellers who’ve cracked the code and have done it multiple times. We’d like to unlock the mystery of closing these deals.

One of the most accomplished people I have seen, first-hand, is Paul Evans.

Paul an over-achieving enterprise sales director, with 20 years plus software industry experience. He is typically brought into an organisation to accelerate revenue growth - this is always achieved by creating high performance and a positive people culture.

He has a rare ability to create compelling narratives that connect solutions to decision makers - enabling them to align with key business objectives. He is a stellar relationship builder and thoroughly decent human being.

A declaration - Paul is a client and we have worked together multiple times.

Thank you, Paul, for taking time out:

1) Can you tell us about your career and how you have successfully moved from Individual Contributor to Manager to Director?

• Early career spent at IBM and a systems integrator; sales foundation skills built here. Spent eight years at Oracle and moved through these positions from account director to lead to sales director to country leader. Now at IFS on the senior leadership team.

• Paul a self-confessed “Bit of a geek”, enjoys and understands the technology and loves what it enables.

• Paul’s long hinterland of experience - he has sold every type of technology from, consulting, infrastructure to applications, feels an authenticity when leading teams as never as them to do something he has not.

• Nothing gives him great pleasure than ensuring his teams are successful and him contributing to that success. As a sales leader my success is assured through their success.

• A key inflexion point for Paul was when we started working together. He invested in himself at a time when he wanted to be more assertive about his future. He felt that as a coach I brought him an independent lens which allowed him to see a path beyond what was visible and known. Allowed him to build a stronger narrative about himself.

2) How have you been able to make the transition from working for a globally recognised brand that employs 100,000+ people to a smaller business culture yet still overachieve?

• Raise the level of ambition and scale of transaction.

• Transformed UK Sales team at current company IFS. Changing the culture, mindset, expectation, and execution resulting in significant success during the last challenging 18 months.

• Coaching and supportive of his team and specifically being wingman for high performing Account Executives on significant opportunities.

3. How important is it to gain executive level buy-in to influence the size and scope of an enterprise deal? How do you navigate a complex organisation?

· Alignment to value.

· Build an impactful business case and investment case. One or two-page executive summary.

· Go deep and broad in the customer organisation, multi-level engagement. Create early executive engagement, its genuine and authentic.

· 3 areas where software add value by enabling:

Do more with it to drive revenue.

Reduce costs.

Managing risk or Compliance. Blend these together. Build a solid business case to take to the board.

If you have found this podcast valuable, please like, re-share and pass onto a work colleague or someone within your network whom it could help at this stage of their career.

To discover exclusive content for our community, go to https://www.enterprisesalesclub.com.