Tech Salescraft

Joining James on this episode of Tech Salescraft is Michelle Pietsch, Founding Partner of Minot Light Consulting.

Michelle's career journey is extensive, taking her through some exciting start-up firms, and exposing her to a plethora of learns that have informed her approach to sales excellence.

We start at the beginning of a career, exploring hiring and qualification. Michelle and James reignite the conversation around references, discussing their value and role in creating an effective hiring strategy. We also look at the use of role plays and presentations, and how to deploy these revealing tools well.

And data emerges a topical point of conversation. Buying into the power of data is still undervalued, and when it is invested in, it's often not used to its full potential. Michelle reminds us of the role data plays in elevating our potential, particularly when in a start-up environment that lacks the processes and foundations of a more established company.

Thank you Michelle for joining us on the show!

Tech Salescraft is powered by North Starr, global leaders in technology sales recruitment. For more episodes or recruitment advice, please visit our website at www.thenorthstarr.com.

On the latest episode of Tech Salescraft James welcomes Asaf Cohen, VP Sales at Bria to the show.

What are you looking for in a new hire?

In this episode, we talk to Asaf about international growth, and the demands of expanding your physical presence beyond your headquarters. Culture, quality and developments all need to be considered- so how do you ensure this is done successfully?

Asaf shares what surprised him most from a professional standpoint; how valuable his experience in the UK was for helping hire people there; how hiring processes are different between locations; and what's missing in Israel when it comes to salespeople.

We also hear some of Asaf's favourite stories from his time as a pilot in the Israeli military and get an inside look at his journey from there to where he is now.

Tech Salescraft is powered by North Starr, global leaders in technology sales recruitment. For more episodes or recruitment advice, please visit our website at www.thenorthstarr.com.

Welcome back to another episode of Tech Salescraft. Today, James is joined by the incredible Pete Blackhurst, Vice President Revenue, International at Trackforce Valiant. 

Pete has an extensive career in sales– mainly in the Saas space– and from this, he has put together a methodology around how he brings valuable culture into an organisation.

The pair discuss the key points of a typical onboarding process and how many employers miss crucial opportunities to get the best out of the candidate. 

Pete states, "there’s a certain trait that I look at; of course, drive is one and coachability and passion."

From sharing the '5 common goals' methodology, to building a culture of continuous learning, Pete provides a wide range of anecdotes and ideas that all sales leaders can– and should– learn from.

Tech Salescraft is powered by North Starr, global leaders in technology sales recruitment. For more episodes or recruitment advice, please visit our website at www.thenorthstarr.com.

On this episode of North Starr's Tech Salescraft, James is joined by Wendy Harris, Head of EMEA at Gong.

Having started her career at one of the world's most recognisable brands, Wendy helps us trace her career journey to date, honing in the points of pressure that made her both love and question her job.

Spearheading the growth of Gong in EMEA, Wendy offers us an exclusive look at a firm that is making some substantial waves across the industry. Gong gives you visibility of what is truly going on in your business- and it is this comprehensive awareness that is truly important to Wendy.

Wendy offers us her personal take on professional success. Besides a strong work ethic and doing everything to the best of your ability, it's about staying ahead of the game. Just how do A-Players in Sales go about this? 

Wendy shares her take on this in this brilliant episode of Tech Salescraft!

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Tech Salescraft is powered by North Starr, global leaders in technology sales recruitment. For more episodes or recruitment advice, please visit our website at www.thenorthstarr.com.

Welcome back to another episode of Tech Salescraft! Today James is delighted to welcome Roly Walter, Founder of Appraisd to the show.

Roly brings a plethora of insights to the show that have guided his successful career to date. From his computer science degree to starting his own business, we learn where his love for performance and HR all started, feeding into his company objectives. 

Sharing his understanding of team operations, development and success, Roly gives us great advice as a Founder on mentoring, coaching culture, investment and performance management. 

Thank you Roly for joining us on the show, it was an incredible conversation that offers transformative advice to any sales professional.

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Tech Salescraft is powered by North Starr, global leaders in technology sales recruitment. For more episodes or recruitment advice, please visit our website at www.thenorthstarr.com.

Welcome back to another episode of Tech Salescraft. Today, James is delighted to be joined by Dan Thompson, Co-Founder and CEO of Kluster.


Kluster is a B2B SaaS platform that helps revenue teams and leaders plan, engineer and execute their revenue strategies. Before founding Kluster with Rory Brown, Dan was a data analyst at an insurance tech company, so he knows a thing or two about the power behind data! 

Dan shares, "now is more important than ever for people to know their numbers and revenue metrics" as he details the importance of context, especially during moments of uncertainty within the market. 

This is a really exciting time for Kluster and they're certainly a no-brainer solution for SaaS and technology businesses worldwide. 

Tech Salescraft is powered by North Starr, global leaders in technology sales recruitment. For more episodes or recruitment advice, please visit our website at www.thenorthstarr.com.

Joining James on this episode of Tech Salescraft is Liam Corcoran, GM & Head of EMEA at BytePlus.

Having previously founded his own business, Liam brings some truly diverse observations to the show, tracing his learns from his career beginnings to his current role at BytePlus.

We explore the centrality of your value proposition. Liam stresses how crucial it is to build your business around doing one thing extremely well, and establishing a clear direction you want to go in. It's about being known for the value you add, not simply becoming a disposable want in the industry.

James also gets Liams thoughts on talent acquisition, and the often tricky to navigate interview process. At BytePlus, they have created a comprehensive feedback loop that runs throughout the process, allowing them to tailor each stage to the candidate and know which questions need to be asked next.

Thank you Liam for joining us on Tech Salescraft- it's a truly brilliant conversation!

Tech Salescraft is powered by North Starr, global leaders in technology sales recruitment. For more episodes or recruitment advice, please visit our website at www.thenorthstarr.com.

Welcome back to a new episode of Tech Salescraft! And this time James is delighted to be joined by Gal Aga, CEO & Co-Founder at Aligned.

Gal shares his impressive background- from the military, to successfully becoming a sales leader- and it's clear that his drive, determination and mindset propelled his career.

Looking closely at his current position, Gal reflects on the transferrable skills he has adopted through his varied career; and how these have seen him through the biggest challenges he has faced. And Gal applies an optimistic spin to these adversities, sharing the opportunities he received because of these experiences.

We also gain an insight into how to get hiring, the interview processes and sales playbooks right- along with a special recruitment question for James: How do you find top performers?

This is a great discussion not to be missed- Gal, it was a pleasure having you on this episode of Tech Salescraft!

Tech Salescraft is powered by North Starr, global leaders in technology sales recruitment. For more episodes or recruitment advice, please visit our website at www.thenorthstarr.com.

Welcome to today's episode of Tech Salescraft. Today, James is delighted to be joined by Ross Halliday, CRO at Human Made.

Since 2008, Ross has been in a leadership position and found it was a rather fitting role for him due to his natural quality of decision making and supporting others. 

Ross shares his advice for first-time founders and how to support your teams through challenging times. He shares, "the most critical thing is consistency" and believes that, while it can be counter-intuitive, many businesses will opt to change their strategy and behavior quickly, rather than consolidating their strengths.

Finally, we get an insight into the hiring process at Human Made and Ross' thoughts on what to look for in new talent. He believes that seeing the human side of someone, i.e. their personal interests and character, is much more important and telling than how much money that person has made, as it's all relative. Ross also dives into how to build a successful company culture in a global, remote-first team. 

Thank you to Ross for joining us, we can't wait to see what the future holds for yourself and Human Made!

Tech Salescraft is powered by North Starr, global leaders in technology sales recruitment. For more episodes or recruitment advice, please visit our website at www.thenorthstarr.com.

Welcome back to a new episode of Tech Salescraft! And this time James is delighted to be joined by Marie Brunet, Global VP of Sales at Uniphore.

Having worked at  globally recognised firms (including Facebook!), Marie exposes us to her varied career, and what such a diverse professional journey has taught her. 

Marie empowers us to make mistakes. We are reminded just how important the working environment is in boosting our development; and if that space doesn't allow you to fail, you're not going to learn.  This intrinsically links to Marie's thoughts on self-reflection and development where if you can't recognise your downfalls, you're never going to possess a genuine want for improvement.

We explore how the latter links to Marie's approach to interviewing prospective employees. Marie not only looks for their strengths, but also their weaknesses. And a persons response to this is vital to revealing whether they'll be a good cultural fit...

Thank you Marie for joining us on the show- it was a pleasure to feature your attuned thoughts.

Tech Salescraft is powered by North Starr, global leaders in technology sales recruitment. For more episodes or recruitment advice, please visit our website at www.thenorthstarr.com.