On The Flip Side

The path to a perfect demo is through a great discovery call.  Basically, you need to run a recon mission before you even think about perfecting your pitch for the demo call, says Mor.   You need to have all the information about the prospect, know exactly what they need, and which solution(s) will address their pain points.   Mor Assouline, the founder of FDTC, is an expert on giving mic-drop demos. He helps AEs in B2B SaaS companies close more sales without interrogative discovery and feature dumping.    In this episode, Mor talks about:  - The secret sauce to succeeding as a sales leader. - How sales leaders can help their teams to give better demos. - What companies get wrong about demos.

“We have two ears and one mouth for a reason – you need to listen.”  In Nigel’s opinion, listening is one of the most undervalued skills in sales. Salespersons need to be excellent listeners.  Because if you don’t listen, you don’t know what the prospect needs.   And if you can’t understand their needs, you’ve already lost the deal.   Nigel Thomas is the CEO of Alpha Inbound, a marketing agency that runs paid social campaigns for DTC brands.   In this episode of On the Flip Side, Nigel talks about:  - His 3-step sales process. - Setting up next steps and knowing your ICP. - 3-door closing technique.

“What does it mean to talk less about yourself and more about the other person?”  Listening and empathizing, while always important, are really the pillars that make prospecting a truly rewarding activity.  According to Jason Bay, the science of prospecting can be boiled down to 3 key aspects:  - Finding the right fit  - Crafting the message in a customer-centric manner  - Delivering the message the right way.  Jason is the Chief Prospecting Officer at Blissful Prospecting. He’s an outbound sales coach and trainer for B2B reps & sales teams.   In this episode of On the Flip Side, Jason talks about:  - How to master the top prospecting skills. - How to keep prospecting better and be successful at sales. - Sales and prospecting in the time of economic downturn.

“It always starts with a goal.”   Before you even begin to set up an inbound motion, think about what that goal is. Ideally, it's one that’ll have an intrinsic value for both sales and marketing, says Josh.   According to him, the age-old rift between marketing and sales can be mended by establishing trustworthy inbound processes.   Josh Harcus, founder & Head of Growth at Huify, is an expert on all things inbound. He is also the best selling author of Closing Culture.   In this episode, Josh shared his insights on:  - Obvious mistakes people make while setting up their inbound motion. - The ideal way of setting up a lead follow-up process. - Building the right tech stack.

Waiting to meet every requirement in the job description? You might just be waiting longer than you need to, says Jennifer Ives.  She suggests saying yes to opportunities when they present themselves instead. “Women like to be overqualified for things, and we need to stop that. We need to say, yeah, I have six or seven of the ten items that they're looking for and I can do an amazing job. And I can learn the other three on the fly.”  Jennifer, a geospatial engineer by profession, is passionate about encouraging more women to shine in technical fields and leadership roles.   In this episode of On the Flip Side, she also talks about:  - Barriers that stop women from taking up leadership roles. - Initiatives company leadership should take to ensure diversity. - How to encourage young people to not be held by their gender.

Turns out, the only thing holding you back from getting started on TikTok, or any other platform for that matter, is your own brain.   So, Leslie’s advice is to stop putting up false barriers for yourself and stop overthinking.   “Just admit your first videos are probably going to be terrible, but that’s okay. You’ll iterate, you’ll learn what does and doesn’t work.”  Leslie Venetz (aka the SalesTipsToker) is among the first salespeople who started using TikTok for social selling. She has also been working to transform sales into a more inclusive and respected profession.   In this episode of On the Flip Side, Leslie also talked about:  - How one should go about research for creating content on TikTok. - The tools you need to get started on TikTok. - Why sales still gets a bad rep.

“In technology partnerships, you have to be everything all at once.”  Be it sales, customer success or marketing, people in partnership roles have their fingers dipped in all every other team in the company.   

To get a better understanding of the partnership team’s role in a company, we hosted Autumn Carter on our latest episode of On the Flip Side.   Autumn, Manager, Technology Partnerships at Aircall, is all about creating partnerships between companies and people.   

Other than taking us through what a technology partnerships team does, Autumn also talked about the following in this episode:  

- Things people get wrong about technology partnerships. 

- Tips to become a better people’s manager.  

- Why a fun work culture works.

In Troy’s opinion, SDRs and AEs should ideally be resilient – be able to take the metaphorical punch and get right back up. These are the traits that you want to look for when you’re adding more members to your team.   

Troy has over 15 years of experience in sales and over 8 years of experience as a sales leader in SaaS. He is currently the president of Barter Revenue Consulting.   

In this episode of On the Flip Side, Troy takes us through the process of scaling up the sales team the right way:  

- When to hire for outbound and inbound 

- What makes good SDRs and AEs 

- How to get the most out of your sales team

Sales teams everywhere are heavily dependent on technology today. And it totally makes sense–when you have to close more deals, it’s only fair to automate the grunt work.  But, are you sure you have built the right tech stack?  

Are companies really making the best use of all the technologies they have at their disposal?   

If not, where are they lacking? What's the most common thing that they overlook when they plan for a tech stack?  

And, what would it take to build a great tech stack in 2022?  These are exactly the kind of questions that Asa answers in this episode of On the Flip Side.   

Asa was the VP of sales at McGaw.io until recently and has led various other sales teams throughout his career. He is also the founding member of Sales Hacker, Inc.

“What do you do when you don’t know what to do?”  

The only wrong answer to this question is that you didn’t try anything at all. Right answers can be anything like “I asked a senior for help” or “I googled my way out of the problem”.  

Kyle asks this question every time he interviews an SDR. The answers let him know if the candidate has a penchant for curiosity, which for Kyle is one of the key traits that an SDR should possess.  

This is but one of the great ideas that Kyle shared on this episode of On the Flip Side. Kyle is the VP of revenue growth & enablement at Clari. He has over 10 years of experience in the field of sales and a great digital presence on LinkedIn.  

Apart from what to look for in an SDR, Kyle also talked about the following in this episode: