The SaaS Revenue Podcast

Nearly everybody can relate to the struggle of losing bad habits.  

Habits may feel natural and instinctive, for some they may even come to define your character. The truth is that they are 100% learnt.  

The modern salesperson joining the industry today is riddled with preconceptions from television, movies, or just bad advice about how to conduct themselves during a sale. They may think salespeople should be hyper-aggressive, shark-like characters who ‘always be closing’ and play under-handed games of deception to sell the latest and greatest products or services.  

These ideas become bad sales habits. Here is what you do: 

Separate your personal and work lives. 

Try not to get attached to deals. 

Leave these preconceptions at the door. 

Forget what you think you know and be a person instead of an idea. “Facts fade, but stories stick” argues Testimonial Hero CEO, Sam Shepler, who spoke with us about how to sell effectively and the importance of storytelling.  

Just as any good story has a good plot, come to the table with a strategic narrative and remember to tell your story in the most engaging and inventive way you can.  

Rule number one: care about your colleagues’ success.  

This is a universal truth for all levels of a business but especially management. Running a team, regardless of its size, is a careful balance between company set goals and staff satisfaction.  

It does not matter if you are in the early stages of your management career or a veteran – do not “sacrifice individual success” for targets and never use a colleague “as a vehicle to get your own achievement”.  

These were the words of VP Sales at SAP, Tom Lück who we spoke with recently about the delicate tightrope act of building working cultures that both value individuals and meets quotas. 

Doug C. Brown of Business Succes LLC and previously the president of Sales & Training for Tony Robbins is our guest on this episode of the SaaS revenue podcast. 

Doug reminds us that: “people buy the person as much as they buy the solution”. What if a client or a colleague feels as though you “have their back” and have their best interests at heart, the trust created between both parties will foster valuable future professional relationships.

Having a sound mind flow in sales is one of your number one assets and we dig into why this is so important. 

In this episode of "The SaaS Revenue Podcast" I was joined by Pierre Thompson-Lukas, RVP Central Europe at Datadog. 

Pierre has an exceptional background in software sales, working for the likes of Tableau, Snowflake and now Datadog, where he is responsible for building and coaching software sales reps for his own team across central Europe. 

We covered various areas of how to prepare and interview with a rocketship SaaS company like Datadog, along with the importance of treating the interview like a sales discovery meeting. We spoke about what to do and what not to do in the interview, along with Pierre's top tips, of what he likes to see when he is interviewing top sales reps.  

In this episode of "The SaaS Revenue Podcast" I was joined by Adam Long, RVP UK & Northern Europe at Yext. 

Adam has an exceptional background in software sales and he is now building and coaching software sales reps for his own team at Yext, across the UK and Northern Europe. 

We covered various areas of how to build a solid pipeline from scratch, along with what he teaches his team to do in regards to the science of breaking down your quota into manageable chunks and what the activities and behaviours are that you need to do on a daily basis to be successful in the role.

Adam was very honest about some of the areas where he went wrong at the start of his sales career and what other reps should be aware of. 

In this episode of "The SaaS Revenue Podcast" I was joined by Andy Champion, VP EMEA at DocuSign. 

Andy has an exceptional background in building and scaling sales teams across EMEA and has had the experience of going through two IPO's with software companies in his career to date. 

We covered various areas of what makes a great sales leader, along with some of the key mistakes he has seen from other leaders, that has helped him learn and become a better sales leader himself. 

Andy goes into detail around the core functions of a great leader, along with why sales leadership is not for everyone and that there's nothing wrong with staying put as an individual contributor if that's what makes you tick. 

In this episode of "The SaaS Revenue Podcast" I was joined by Tom Becker, RVP Central Europe for Alteryx. 

Tom's background has been in selling software analytics and growing and scaling large sales teams for the likes of Qlik software and more recently Alteryx. 

We covered various areas of where some software sellers go wrong in their sales career and how they should not be cutting corners and jumping from one company to another to take a step up in their career, or try going out in the field without a system in place, where they can learn and get better. 

In this episode of the SaaS Revenue Podcast, I was joined by a mentor of mine Marcus Cauchi. 

Marcus and I discuss how software sellers listen with what he calls "happy ears" when dealing with prospects and customers and how it ultimately costs us the sale.

We covered various areas of where people go wrong on the cold call, as well as the discovery meeting throughout the sale. 

I warn you, this episode is not for the faint hearted and will challenge what you might believe to be true in the world of sales. 


 

This weeks guest I was joined by Geoff Atkinson Founder & CEO of huckabuy.com and previous to that he was the SVP of Marketing at Overstock.com, at the age of 25!

“Huckabuy is an SEO software company automating key Google initiatives like dynamic rendering and structured data markup to drive organic channel growth for all types of organizations.”

Geoff shared with us some lessons that he has learned in his career to date around the building and growing SaaS companies and how he feels that making a marketing heavy and sales light team has been a game-changer in his business. 

In this episode I was joined by Matt Wolach at Xsellus. Matt is a highly experienced sales trainer with a background in selling and growing software sales teams.

We covered various areas of where field reps sometimes struggle and how important it is for SaaS companies to have a clear sales process in place for their sales teams.

Matt also shared his experiences of where some sellers go wrong in the discovery meeting and how important it is to really understand the prospects pain, before you discuss your solution, which could ultimately be costing you the sale.