Today’s guest has over 15 years of experience in strategic sales and leading sales teams focused on customer-first, long-term relationships. He has a passion for value-driven conversations and engagements, and a proven track record of driving SaaS growth and customer satisfaction. He brings s a global perspective from working and living in different countries and cultures, such as Argentina, Spain, Mexico and Costa Rica. Ben Kennedy is the Sales Director at Alation! Ben joins Host Matt Benelli to discuss how to maximize the productivity of a sales team, why more sellers does not equal more sales, and where generative AI can help both sellers and customers.

Takeaways:

• Instead of increasing the number of sellers, companies should focus more on the quality of the sales force, and the suitability of their product or service to the customer profile. 
• Sales leaders, especially the CRO, have a responsibility to work with the CFO and CEO to avoid them from pressuring the sales organization to overhire based on a flawed mindset. Overhiring can lead to a number of problems including the dilution of the culture.
• AI tools can help sales professionals not only increase their efficiency but also their effectiveness. They can significantly improve outreach efforts with hyper-personalization and provide valuable support in customer relationship management. 
•  In today's fast-evolving sales landscape, sales leaders should remain open to learning new strategies and adapting to changing dynamics, such as AI. This requires leaders to be curious, humble, and willing to evolve constantly.
• Even in the post-COVID era, in-person marketing activities can significantly help teams differentiate themselves and provide the customer with a personalized experience. 
• Stay hungry and never stop learning!
• Understand the individual motivations behind every person on your sales team and make sure they can get closer to their goals by getting closer to the team goal.

Quote of the Show:

• “The best leaders sales or are continuously evolving and continuously learning.” - Ben Kennedy

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benkennedy/ 
• Website: https://www.alation.com/ 

Shoutouts: 

• John Rosso: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsrosso/ 

Ways to Tune In:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Yb1wPzUxyrfR0Dx35ym1A 
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coach2scale-how-modern-leaders-build-a-coaching-culture/id1699901434 
• Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50cmFuc2lzdG9yLmZtL2NvYWNoMnNjYWxlLWhvdy1tb2Rlcm4tbGVhZGVycy1idWlsZC1hLWNvYWNoaW5nLWN1bHR1cmU 
• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fd188af6-7c17-4b2e-a0b2-196ecd6fdf77 
• Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/coach2scale-how-modern-leaders-5419703 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Coach2Scale 

CoachEm™ is the first Coaching Execution Platform that integrates deep learning technology to proactively analyze patterns, highlight the "why" behind the data with root causes, and identify the actions that will ultimately improve business results going forward.  These practical coaching recommendations for managers will help their teams drive more deals, bigger deals, faster deals and loyal customers. Built with decades of go-to-market experience, world-renowned data scientists and advanced causal AI/ML technology, CoachEm™ leverages your existing tech stack to increase rep productivity, increase retention, and replicate best practices across your team.

Learn more at coachem.io