Today, we welcome a fantastic panel of guests to share their insights and experiences on performing deal reviews during a downturn. We are joined by Mark Tanner, Co-Founder of Qwilr, Jonathon Blackburn, VP of Global Sales at Qwilr, and Kendra Berner, Senior Strategic Team Lead at Lattice.

Once you know how and where you win, the next question you need to answer is how much pipeline do you actually need to hit your goal and quota? Perform deal reviews to prioritize the deals that have the best chances of winning and ensure the right timing exists. Avoid the scarcity mindset which is a kneejerk reaction during downturns.

Takeaways

• The answer is not always more pipeline. You need to prioritize the deals with the best possible closing and ensure your leads are quality leads.
• Perform deal reviews with your team to determine which deals are most likely to move forward and convert.

Quote of the Show

"Thinking about in your pipeline, where are your strongest champions and the best business case, and really ensuring that the right timing exists to change, instead of saying things like sticking with the status quo or no change actually happening." - Kendra Berner 

Connect with our guests in the links below:

• About Mark Tanner
• About Jonathon Blackburn
• About Kendra Berner

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube

Today, we welcome a fantastic panel of guests to share their insights and experiences on closing deals during a downturn. We are joined by Mark Tanner, Co-Founder of Qwilr, Jonathon Blackburn, VP of Global Sales at Qwilr, and Kendra Berner, Senior Strategic Team Lead at Lattice.

Most companies know their ideal client profile, but in today's environment, it is more important than ever to look back on it and ensure that the team is working on deals that you are actually winning. This involves revisiting the ICP and communicating it so the team focuses their efforts on deals that win.

Takeaways

• Know where you win. Look at your pipeline and use insights to determine the percentage of deals that have a good chance of closing.
• Be honest about the deals you want to win and the ones you are actually winning.

Quote of the Show

"If you're a revenue leader and you feel like you have a pretty good idea of what your ICP is but maybe you want to cut it up and down or look back on that. I urge you to do the same thing across your team just to make sure that the types of deals that you believe and think you should be working on are the ones you're actually winning." - Jonathon Blackburn

Connect with our guests in the links below:

• About Mark Tanner
• About Jonathon Blackburn
• About Kendra Berner

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube

Today, we welcome Mollie Bodensteiner, Global Revenue Operations Leader at Deel and a trusted advisor for hypergrowth startups. SDRs are treated as the lowest on the totem pole, but the reality is that they are an investment in any business.

SDRs need to receive direction and coaching, as well as be measured against more reliable KPIs to set them up for success. Companies from top to bottom need to be very clear on their focus and remove distractions. Mollie shares how trying, failing and learning led to the meteoric rise of Deel and how other leaders can do this too.

Takeaways

• People expect personalization. Create scorecards internally that measure how many personalized emails are being sent.
• Activity is not a leading indicator. Meetings set is a more reliable KPI for sellers.
• Hypergrowth can only be achieved by focusing and removing distractions.

Quote of the Show

"Get really purposeful on what you're trying to do and make sure you've got that steering at the top. There's nothing worse than the distractions. The thing that I practice a lot with my team is focus. We have to focus, and if it's coming in and distracting from the focus, we've either got to adjust our priorities and adjust our expectations or get it out of here." - Mollie Bodensteiner

Connect with Mollie and learn about the revops positions available at Deel in the link below:

• About Mollie

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Angela Bunner, the Vice President of Solutions for ClickUp. She oversees solutions engineering, professional services, and customer enablement and has more than 20 years of experience in project portfolio management.

Angela shares how listening to the experiences and needs of their end users, not their buyers, has been critical to the growth and development of ClickUp. She shares how staying obsessed with end users not only ensures product market fit but also results in product-led growth. 

Takeaways

• Listen to the needs of your end users because they will be the ones who will ultimately drive your product forward, not the decision-makers.
• Be obsessed with your customer because it goes hand in hand with product market fit.

Quote of the Show

"Over time, when you focus on the sales aspect of it and less on listening to the customers and the product, it becomes shelfware. You don't get the adoption that you need because you're selling to the buyers on top and not necessarily listening to the users, and those are the ones that are going to drive the product and be successful." - Angela Bunner

Connect with Angela in the link below:

• LinkedIn

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Christina Garnett, an award-winning community builder and advocacy strategist who is the Principal Marketing Manager for Offline Community and Advocacy at HubSpot. Today, Christina digs into the benefits of community management and why creating an online community for your business helps your business grow. 

Not only does the community provide excellent support, but they can also act as your brand champions for others to learn from. In terms of ROI, this can be quantified in the loyalty and leverage to your brand, helping provide honest feedback on what you do best (or worst) and why. 

Takeaways

• The CMX SPACES Model shows you different parts of business value that the community can actually provide, like providing support and becoming champions for your product.
• The value of community is loyalty and leverage. A community built on this provides honest feedback that results in positive change and growth.

Quote of the Show

"Communities can answer questions and really kind of take a large lift off your support team. They can help your product. They can tell you exactly what kind of product features they want, they can tell you what product features they need, if there's any bugs, if there's anything that needs to be different." - Christina Garnett

Connect with Christina in the link below:

• LinkedIn

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we have an amazing panel of guests to share their insights and experience in crafting stories. We are joined by Jorge Soto, Head of Community and Partnerships at Reprise; Joe Caprio, Operating Partner at Glasswing Ventures; Ed Jaffe, Director of Research and Customer Experience at 2Win!; and Tyson Goeltz, CRO at Reprise.

The tail end of a meeting is just as important as any other part of the demo, so AEs and SEs should make sure to leave a good impression instead of flustering to drill in new features and benefits to the buyer. The panel also discusses some best practices for virtual meetings and killer post-demo follow-ups. 

Takeaways

• The end of a meeting is critical to establish credibility. Don't scramble to show additional benefits because AEs and SEs that did their job right won't need to.
• Success is a product of team selling, so maintain objectivity during the post-meeting debrief and avoid opening up subjectivity.
• Be specific in your follow-up to retrigger the reason the buyer is on the call in the first place.

Quote of the Show

"Just know, it is not just one person. The success is a culmination of everyone doing their individual task across the customer journey. I think the debrief, which I'll just spin on for a second... I love objectivity. When we get into a debrief and we say, I think you did that really or oh, I think I really dropped the ball here, it opens us up to all this subjectivity and you're spinning on things that are hypotheticals or maybes." - Tyson Goeltz

Connect with our guests in the links below:

• About Jorge Soto
• About Joe Caprio
• About Ed Jaffe 
• About Tyson Goeltz

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we have an amazing panel of guests to share their insights on the AE/SE relationship. We are joined by Jorge Soto, Head of Community and Partnerships at Reprise; Joe Caprio, Operating Partner at Glasswing Ventures; Ed Jaffe, Director of Research and Customer Experience at 2Win!; and Tyson Goeltz, CRO at Reprise.

AEs and SEs should work together at the front and, much like a dance, learn to anticipate each others' moves. How well AEs and SEs work together is also dependent on how their organization views both roles. AEs and SEs should divide their responsibilities between themselves, maintain objectivity in the debrief, and always be searching for a champion.

Takeaways

• AEs and SEs that work together can spot when customer requests are not commensurate to the person and set up for that call.
• Organizations should promote taking the ego out of the equation to foster mutual respect between the AE and SE.
• A well-balanced meeting between AE and SE establishes roles upfront.

Quote of the Show

"They are going to choreograph a dance together and you can't just step on the dancefloor and say okay, I'm going to lead, you're going to step on my toe... and I think the best again SE, AE relationships, they practiced. They know how each other works. They can anticipate each other's moves." - Tyson Goeltz

Connect with our guests in the links below:

• About Jorge Soto
• About Joe Caprio
• About Ed Jaffe 
• About Tyson Goeltz

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we welcome Ryan Staley, Founder and CEO of Whale Boss and host of The Scale Up Show. SaaS companies do NOT know their customers intimately. Not knowing your perfect customer profile (PCP) prevents them from effectively targeting and selling to their best customers.

Ryan shares actionable tips so that SaaS companies can instead focus on emotionally connecting with buyers and understanding what motivates them to make a purchase. He also discusses quantifiable outcomes in order to be a successful company.

Takeaways

• You can double your deal size by knowing your customers and figuring out who your best buyers are, also called the PCP.
• Double down on knowing the problem you solve to avoid spending too much on marketing to customers who are not a good fit for your product.
   

Quote of the Show

"Look at the last 12 months of data that you have with your 5 biggest wins, your 5 fastest wins, and your 5 biggest losses, and then put it through that lens of what's the vertical, what's the revenue size, what's the ownership structure on top of it. Two, what's the outcome you've created. And last but not least... the actual tangible people you're working with." - Ryan Staley

Connect with Ryan in the link below:

• About Ryan

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we have an amazing panel of guests to share their insights and experience in crafting stories. We are joined by Jorge Soto, Head of Community and Partnerships at Reprise; Joe Caprio, Operating Partner at Glasswing Ventures; Ed Jaffe, Director of Research and Customer Experience at 2Win!; and Tyson Goeltz, CRO at Reprise.

The panel discusses how account executives and sales engineers must work in partnership during demos instead of limiting themselves because of stereotypical views of each other. They also talk about why revenue leaders should respect their AE’s and SE's calendars based on these two's roles.

Takeaways

• Your job during demos is to show why your product is valuable to the prospect, not how the software works
• Sales engineers don't want to be demoing all the time, they want to build too.

Quote of the Show

"I would argue that my job when I'm giving a demo is not to teach you how the software works. That's what professional services deal with later. My job is to show you how it's going to be valuable." - Ed Jaffe

Connect with our guests in the links below:

• About Jorge Soto
• About Joe Caprio
• About Ed Jaffe 
• Tyson Goeltz

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs

Today, we have an amazing panel of guests to share their insights and experience in crafting stories. We are joined by Jorge Soto, Head of Community and Partnerships at Reprise; Joe Caprio, Operating Partner at Glasswing Ventures; Ed Jaffe, Director of Research and Customer Experience at 2Win!; and Tyson Goeltz, CRO at Reprise.

The panel shares their insights on getting the right people involved in meetings to encourage more stories and eventually create more effective demos. They also discuss the idea that some discovery questions are naturally meant to show you how to tailor the demo.

Takeaways

• There are times when your discovery is there to set up a moment of the demo
• There should be a partnership between the account executive and sales engineer but understand that it's never easy

Quote of the Show

"Some episodes are going to focus on one character versus another so, rather than trying to have a power struggle over this particular meeting, there are some meetings that the AE is the focus and I'm more on the support role if I'm the SE. Sometimes it's going to be the reverse of that." - Ed Jaffe

Connect with our guests in the links below

• About Jorge Soto
• About Joe Caprio
• About Ed Jaffe 
• Tyson Goeltz

Ways to tune in:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6KEho9RSaHs