“Before I begin telling you what I think, I want to establish that I’m a “dumb shit” who doesn’t know much relative to what I need to know. Whatever success I’ve had in life has had more to do with my knowing how to deal with my not knowing than anything I know.” (Ray Dalio)

Jonas Gesslein invested 8 years of his career in face-to-face sales on the street (“Dialogmarketing”) before becoming an SDR leader and it was a true pleasure learning from him on having him on our Europe’s B2B SaaS Sales podcast.

Here are 3 insights he shared on our conversation:

1️⃣ Prioritise learning to (only) KPIs: Enable coachees to figure out solutions themselves and empower them to take action and be confident and proactive themselves to fix problems.

2️⃣ Be incredibly fast in hiring: Jonas dedicated 30-50% of his time as an SDR Leader at Solve Mate to hiring, then strived to “close the deal” within ideally a week if an A+ player.

3️⃣SDRs deserve coaching: Either hire a fantastic sales leader that can lead SDRs. If not in place, get external help & invest into your SDRs to help them ramp quickly & be successful.

Thanks Jonas for sharing these great insights & happy prospecting!

Max worked in several SaaS Sales Leadership positions at such companies as Personio, Homanoo, Oracle and Payfit, and recently started to build his own company. He learned the hard way that measuring important KPIs is really important for decision making in sales and customers success - and something that is not done enough. We are deep-diving into what KPIs you should measure and show you how to improve the game step by step. Happy learning.

SaaStock has grown to be the biggest B2B SaaS Conference in Europe.

But behind the well-known event is a multi-product, fast-growing 7-figure ARR company.

Then revenue went to 0 with COVID-19 but its founder Alex Theuma adapted quickly.

It was a true pleasure having Alex on our Europe’s B2B SaaS Sales Podcast.

1️⃣ Sales-centricity: Alex started SaaStock with 10+ years sales experience and embraced growing revenues & scaling the team with sales at the heart of the organisation.

2️⃣ Adaptability & resilience: Alex needed to scale down the team from 24 to 9 people upon moving from physical to virtual setups, but went 0-1M revenue from virtual conferences.

3️⃣ Educating the market: Professionals where not used to pay for virtual, but only physical events. Employees as well as founders also therefore asked more for discounts or even free tickets, unaware how high the investment is to put an event such as SaaStock is.

Love your “enthusiastic focus” Alex & really looking forward to see you at SaaStock!

But to achieve 8-figure ARR, you need fantastic sales reps closing 6-figure deals.

Oliver Arber is one of the best in the game.

It was a true pleasure having him on our Europe’s B2B SaaS Sales Podcast.

Here’s 3 great insights from him

1️⃣ “Be paranoid”: Constantly “have your radar on” what could go wrong until a deal is closed, avoid the “Happy Ears Phenomenon”, embrace risks and deepen your discovery.

2️⃣ You never do large deals alone: Working closely with your & the prospect’s team, Oliver brings in e.g. Cris Grossmann or Daniel Sztutwojner strategically.

3️⃣ Get a Champion AND a Spy (Coach): You need to know what’s going on in the buyer’s organization at all times, especially if you’re waiting for intelligence but don’t get it.

Special credits to Mila Nussbaumer for keeping Oliver 4.5+ years at Beekeeper because she cares a lot about her people and developed them accordingly!

Raphael Schifferle, newly promoted to CMO at Brugg Lifting has a long background selling cars and industrial products. An angle we have not looked at in the podcast. However, there are still very important takeaways for all sellers in SaaS and tech. Raphael is always preparing well and goes into a customer meeting with a positive mindset. How he manages to do that every day and how he can put the customer's needs in the centre you learn in this episode. Happy learning and stay unique. 

Patrick Minder's story is an incredible success. At 34 years old, he is leading Swisscom's Platform and Software B2B sales business - a unit consisting of over 1'000 sellers and supporters. Prior to working at Swisscom, he was building up JLS Digital as CEO and CSO. In this episode, Patrick is sharing some of the wisdom that got him where he is today. The love for people and the product you sell are among those important factors. Happy learning!

Paolo Donnarumma is a sales legend and knows exactly what you need to succeed in large enterprise sales deals. Even though there might be negative short-term consequences, Paolo is an advocate of closing opportunities that are not hot anymore quickly. It sounds easy but is actually really hard. "But they said they buy in three months!" Well, you do not know and you should not make your feelings dependent on that possibility. Free yourself from those opportunities. How you can do that, and other tactical tips, you learn from Paolo in this episode.

For more than 10 years, Manfred has been engaged in tech B2B business development. In his current role as Head of Growth at RAQUEST, he helps the FinTech with scaling up the business and hire talents. Moreover, together with other sales leaders, he has founded acceederate a network of business angels helping B2B startups to win their first customers. In this podcast, Manfred discloses his five golden rules of how to make proof of value/concept phases to sales success:

1. Make no commitment without commitment

2. Make friends with fans

3. Know the enemy

4. Lead!

5. Be one step ahead

A must-hear for enterprise salespeople

The first episode of this podcast was a discussion between Manuel, Lars and Patrick. That is how it all started. Back then, Lars and Yokoy were at 20 people with three in sales. 1.5 years later, Yokoy finished series A and employs more than 100 people, 40 of which are in Lars' team. Learn how he managed to grow his team so fast and what tactics they are using to win customers every day. 

You do not want to be ghosted again? Then, this episode is for you. James 'saywhatsales' Buckley is currently Chief Evangelist & Master of Ceremonies @ JB Sales and definitely earned his evangelist title. One can literally feel his energy and he has a lot of interesting tactical tips to share for all the salespeople who do regular demos and have difficulty following up with potential clients. Happy learning and let us know your feedback.