Hey Salespeople

Now that working from home has become the new normal, what’s going to happen to the future of sales? Bryan Elsesser’s been asking himself questions like that for months. As Senior Director of Sales Development at Aircall, Bryan monitors trends in his own company, and in the industry at large, that have given him an idea of which cultural shifts will last (hint: expect a lot more WFH). Bryan breaks it all down for Jeremey, while dropping insights about shifting workplace culture and the importance of trust and professionalism in the current landscape. Visit SalesLoft.com for show notes and insights from this episode. 

Data may drive innovation, but what data are right for optimizing sales operations? JM Wilke, Head of Sales Operations at Qualia, has a good idea. While revamping Qualia’s enterprise sales team, JM developed a simple process for training low-performers to demo like high-performers. JM gets in the weeds on the subject — and why feature-dumping is a rookie mistake — in her conversation with Jeremey. Visit SalesLoft.com for show notes and insights from this episode. 

What distinguishes high-performing salespeople from average ones? Some might say competency, or empathy. But Nicolas Vandenberghe, CEO of Chili Piper, believes that “mentalizing” — the ability to understand what motivates others — is the most valuable skill that a salesperson can possess. Talking to Jeremey, Nicolas breaks how mentalizing differs from empathy and offers tips on how to improve the skill. Visit SalesLoft.com for show notes and insights from this episode. 

There’s no shortage of talk about uncertainty right now. So what’s a sales org to do? If Mark Roberge, Managing Director of Stage 2 Capital, could make only one recommendation, it would be this: Pivot boldly. Fortunately, he shares even more recommendations. SalesLoft CEO Kyle Porter, serving as a special guest host to celebrate our 100th episode, also warns against the danger of late pivots and provides a neat formula for measuring customer retention from short-term data. Visit SalesLoft.com for show notes and insights from this episode.

Lauren McGuire is a product of sales career pathing. She knows the value in learning skills and layering them nicely instead of trying to master them all at once. And as VP of EMEA Sales at TripActions, she knows what it’s like to look back from a high rung on a career ladder to reflect on the journey. In doing so, Lauren and Jeremey discuss embracing feedback, jumping into roles, and working through a recession. Visit SalesLoft.com for show notes and insights from this episode. 

Envision a world where useless, hourlong training sessions don’t exist. Sounds incredible, right? Luckily for us, Kyle Coleman, VP of Revenue Growth & Enablement at Clari, has spent his management career not only envisioning this world but creating it. In this episode, Kyle lets Jeremey in on a few secrets of his success refining enablement trainings — mini-lessons by video, “just-in-time” info drops, a little healthy competition — and explains a succinct way to tell marketing to tone down the fluff. Visit SalesLoft.com for show notes and insights from this episode.

As teams are built, the first hire makes all the difference, something that Alexandra Adamson, Executive Director of WISE, knows all too well. Thankfully, Alexandra has developed a simple framework for determining how to confidently pass the baton to the ideal first sales hire — and how to know when it might be time to let them go. In her conversation with Jeremey, Alexandra drops tips on how to identify a “Renaissance rep,” how to help more women excel in sales, and why it’s important to build playbooks during the initiation phase. Visit SalesLoft.com for show notes and insights from this episode.

For SDRs, dial hangover is definitely a thing. That’s why Greg Nigro, Director of Business Development at Blackbaud, has spent the past couple of years honing strategies to cure dial hangover by keeping SDRs feeling engaged and on-task. While chatting with Jeremey, Greg provides insight into why sharing company stats empowers SDRs to make more sales and why waiting to promote SDRs leads to more success. Visit SalesLoft.com for show notes and insights from this episode.

By her own account, Julia Segel, Senior Director of Sales Strategy & Operations at Catalant Technologies, gets heartburn when she can't concisely explain what “good” looks like for a company. Fortunately, her years spent using data to optimize efficient sales inputs and effective sales outputs have given her the toolset to identify what “good” is — and then make it better. Listen to Julia and Jeremey parse through the pros and cons of ruthless prioritization, how to start transferring the top-seller productivity to the rest of the company, and the importance of selling Scholastic wrapping paper. Visit SalesLoft.com for show notes and insights from this episode.

Brad Smith, Co-Founder of Sonar Software, can’t predict the future - but he knows how to get ready for it. The years Brad spent using metrics to manage his own sales pipelines have fashioned him into a tech-stack tactician. Brad and Jeremey lay out strategies for keeping a healthy pipeline, predicting trends, and ensuring that sales goals are set up to get knocked down. Visit SalesLoft.com for show notes and insights from this episode.