Sales Development Podcast

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Ep 91 James Nielsen

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews James Nielsen, the CEO of Vendition, a Sales Apprenticeship program that gives individuals the training and experience needed to earn entry-level jobs in tech sales. Getting a job as an SDR is definitely harder than most people think and James believes the best way to learn is by doing. Listen as James and David discuss how training and apprenticeship are key in sales development.

3 Key Points:

The best way to learn how to sell is to actually sell something.
It’s paramount to use technology in making SDR work efficient and effective.
Your people need mentorship and support, and that’s exactly what you should be giving them.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 23, 2019
00:38 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
00:59 – David welcomes James to the show
02:16 – James has personal experience of the two problems they solve at Vendition
- And the hardest role to hire for was SDRs
04:41 – “The best way to learn how to sell is to actually sell”
- Learn by doing is a key part of sales development in training
06:33 – “It’s extremely hard to find people who are interested to become an SDR”
08:59 – Vendition works with both internal and external recruiters
09:50 – James talks about dealing with very competitive markets
- Even large B2B companies experience challenges finding talents
11:15 – The biggest tip in hiring new talents — be honest and be upfront in what they’re getting themselves into
13:30 – James believes we are still in the early ages of what sales development is turning into
- Topline revenue is mostly the goal
16:56 – Most B2B companies have bigger sales development teams than marketing
17:14 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
19:52 – James is excited about AI but he doesn’t think AI can replace SDRs
- Use technology to enhance and improve how you operate as an SDR
- This debate of AI replacing people is present in almost all industries
23:18 – Humans are better at selling than robots are
- Companies should get their people trained up and not just throw them in the deep end
- Invest in your SDRs — sales training is such a crucial part that gets neglected
27:50 – David finds the apprenticeship models very interesting
- James shares their sales apprenticeship program
- People need mentorship and support
30:22 – Everyone needs mentorship and that’s a fact
31:50 – If you’ve been into sales development, rejection is just off your back
32:53 – Do one thing every day that scares you
- Push yourself outside your comfort zone
34:08 – Connect with James on LinkedIn
34:32 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
34:40 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Vendition – Where James serves as CEO

Ep 90 Addison Lee

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews Addison Lee, Director of Sales Development in Conversica, a company that provides leading Sales AI Assistants that engage your leads through personalized emails and SMS texts. Tune in as Addison shares with us the importance of focus, and the impact of AI in sales development.

3 Key Points:

Focus on what you’re doing and what you’re going to do.
Increase productivity by creating a culture where employees can have their in-the-zone time.
No matter how automated things are for your business, never forget to include the human element in your processes.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 23, 2019
00:54 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:15 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
01:40 – David introduces Addison to the show
02:25 – Addison shares how he got into the sales development industry
04:25 – Racecar driving is one of Addison’s hobby that came from his father
05:34 – Sports require hyperfocus which translates to becoming an effective SDR
07:24 – Everything just comes back to “focus”
- Figure out where to focus and what to think about
09:21 – Figuring how to focus people in a team has been a huge thing
- It’s less effective when you spend less than 30-60 minutes on a task you’re supposed to complete
- Blocking tasks into time buckets actually increases results by 50%
13:19 – Addison’s tip for leading SDRs — You’ve got to get people bought into what they’re doing
14:43 – “Hiring strategy is one of the most important thing”
15:20 – Open-Floor Plans aren’t working anymore in terms of productivity
- In-the-zone hours is what’s in for SDRs
19:11 – More about Conversica from Addison’s point of view
- “We give the ability to have sales teams and a hybrid workforce to businesses thru an AI platform”
20:33 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
21:20 – Addison talks about how their platform looks like at the customer’s end
23:52 – David drops that a lot of inbound leads are never followed up on
26:26 – Focus your efforts on things that are human, where SDRs create a value
- Anything that is repetitious can be automated
29:02 – The 4P’s report for the follow-up process
- Promptness
- Persistence
- Personalization
- Performance
34:34 – The human element that’s missing in some important processes may be costing companies millions of dollars
37:40 – Addison believes that customer experience is the way things will go
40:39 – David talks about The Sales Development Conference on August 23, 2019
42:00 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
42:08 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Conversica – Where Addison is the director for sales development.

Ep 89 Mike Farrell

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with Mike Farrell, the expert in running a big complicated outsourced sales development company. He has been with BAO Inc for 15 years and 20 years in the IT space. Today, Mike shares with us his biggest learnings and tips in the sales development industry. Listen as he drops value throughout the show.

3 Key Points:

It’s important to give your customers what they want, but it’s also important to make sure they’re not taking advantage of you.
Using the phone as a medium is still effective — it just depends on how you use it.
Create a culture where employees would focus on investing in themselves.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 23, 2019
00:54 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:15 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
01:36 – David introduces Mike to the show
02:30 – Mike shares his extensive experience in the industry
04:43 – Niching down to outsourcing in 2003 even if it wasn’t highly accepted was what made Mike a leader in his industry
07:35 – BAO Inc grew in spurts, not directly because of the recession
- BAO’s performance-based model has been a factor
10:12 – Mike talks about different pricing models for outsourced companies
- Performance-Based Models, Hourly Rate, Full Cycle Selling Outsourcing, and more
12:01 – Mike’s #1 tip: You’ve got to set a definition for your service agreement
- You’ve got to be focused on making sure the customer gets what they want but not taking advantage of you
- Recording calls of appointment setting was vital in evaluating their performance
18:15 – Mike believes that “Calling still works”
19:56 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
21:06 – BAO’s clients would give them company or account names and locations and the persona they want to get with
- The job was to find the right person
- “The more targeted the list, the better”
25:34 – There are 6 different skill levels of people making calls under BAO
- Coaching tools, like BAO Academy, were available to train each person
- Each person goes up on their own pace — career progress just depends on how they do
27:53 – David talks about not having a lot of diversity in the SDR field
- Mike learned that there were 2 camps where SDRs either fall into — a younger age group and a more mature one
31:14 – Employees get a 6-month training under BAO Academy
- They believe in the culture of investing in yourself and taking accountability for your own development
- Mike mentions how Factor8 has academy-type content with a reasonable price
37:34 – The 3 things Mike’s been working on right now:
- Building SDR teams
- A digital marketing play
- A direct mail play
41:15 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
41:22 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

BAO Inc – An outsource company providing appointment setting and other sales development services.
Factor8 – An award-winning rep and manager training company focusing 100% on making digital sales teams successful.

Ep 88 Jake Dunlap

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Jake Dunlap to the show. Jake is the CEO of Skaled, a modern sales-consulting firm that helps startup and established companies scale more efficiently. Listen as Jake talks about why building your personal brand as an SDR is important, how to do it, and a plethora of tips on how to make your social media efforts effective.

3 Key Points:

The more content you give, the more value that comes back.
Blogs, webinars, and ebooks should be used to delight and help customers, not as lead gen tools.
The key is consistency — social is not about perfection, you just have to be consistently posting.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 23, 2019
00:54 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:15 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
01:36 – David introduces Jake
02:54 – Jake was born in the midwest and took telemarketing in college
- He landed a job at CareerBuilder and was able to grow as a salesperson there
- CareerBuilder helped Jake understand the “process and science” behind sales
- He then later moved to GlassDoor as Vice President of Sales
- He founded Skaled over 5 years ago and is moving through the journey
05:37 – Skaled is composed of experts who transform companies and take them where they should be
- Jake talks about sales technology and their way of scaling companies
- “We’ve done more sales technology-specific implementations and overhauls more than any company outside of Salesforce”
- Early in 2015, Jake knew that sales engagement would be a huge space
- “I know it’s tough and I know it’s challenging but there is no choice”
08:12 – “Marketing went through the same evolution”
- It’s just history repeating itself for sales
09:58 – Jake walks us through his beginnings
- It was in May 2018 when Jake started to look at engagement and metrics
- They learned that people want “bite-sized” information
- No matter how great the content is, if nobody sees/reads it, who cares?
- The engagement started when Jake made himself and his business two different entities
13:18 – Important note: What’s happening in B2C, it’s happening in B2B — it just takes time
- Investing heavily in marketing even though there is no direct ROI measure works for Skaled
- Aim for the longer business value
16:49 – Jake thinks every SDR should be building their brand
- Jake mentions about Morgan Ingram
- Your brand can be malleable — if you’re in sales, marketing, or tech, talk about those things
- Your profile should reflect who you are
21:10 – David shares about the missing link: SDRs taking jobs without really caring for the buyer
24:44 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
25:24 – “What nobody has actually figured out is a whole quadrant for account-based sales development“ – David
- Very few teams have pursuit marketing teams
28:19 – Everything starts with the buyer journey
- Marketing should be integrated into that journey
- “Our goal is to provide the right experience to convert customers”
34:27 – Long-form content is still relevant but Jake found that people are getting interested with “bite-sized content”
- Blogs, webinars, and ebooks should be used to delight customers
- Talk about something that’s relevant and create a build-up are two things, Jake iterates
- “Until things become saturated, they are amazing. When they become saturated, they lose some of their effectiveness”
39:40 – Spend time to look at B2C trends — these will be applicable to B2B as well
- Go where the data points you at
- “Your people are your brand now”
43:17 – Tips on how to get your videos clicked on LinkedIn
- The key is consistency
- Social is not about perfection
47:10 – Let the audience tell you what they want to see
48:10 – Jake is just so excited about their new products: LinkedIn Strategy & Creative Services
50:24 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
50:32 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Skaled – Jake’s company
CareerBuilder – Where Jake first worked as a salesperson
GlassDoor – Where Jake worked as VP of Sales

Ep 87 Lauren Bailey

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Lauren Bailey to the show. Lauren is the Founder and President of Factor 8 and the founder of #GirlsClub. Lauren helps companies outsource their sales development employees and makes sure they’re ready for the job they’re taking. Listen as she shares how she started this business, and how she helps women in sales development get higher sales positions by working on their confidence.

3 Key Points:

Companies should realize that training employees should still be part of the budget.
Coaching and call-coaching are two different things; and managers, unfortunately, are not the best coaches for your reps.
Social media both has its pros and cons, the difference is how you utilize its use.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:38 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
00:58 – David introduces Lauren
01:24 – Lauren was Top 25 Most Influential Leaders in Inside Sales, Top 25 Sales Coaches and Top 35 Most Influential Women in Sales this year
02:08 – 90% of Lauren’s business comes from referrals
02:36 – Lauren started out as a sales manager — and she was frustrated with new SDRs she handled
- She decided to build a training department in the BPO she was working in
- Her last corporate gig was running a software company’s global sales training strategy
- She thought, “We can do better” and she started her own company
05:43 – “The tech is really cool. But sadly, what we’re doing is accelerating crappy conversations”
- Coaching is NOT training
06:20 – Lauren believes that what a company should do is check their budget and allocate for training their people
08:26 – The first thing what managers do is ask for the budget
09:10 – Research says that the #1 reason why people leave — the lack of development
- Training should be built-in to budget
11:19 – At Factor 8, they guarantee 3X the ROI from training employees
- Salespeople also need continuing education credits like other professionals
13:05 – Lauren shares how much training you should be doing
13:47 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
15:38 – Coaching vs call-coaching
- Coaching is a style, skill development is call-coaching
17:50 – David shares how training looks like for him
19:04 – Outsource what you can, self-study what you can
20:23 – Lauren describes #GirlsClub as “the best damn accident ever”
- Growing up in sales, Lauren realized the power of role models
- She got sick of talking about why there aren’t enough women in sales and decided to fix this issue
- Lauren fixes women’s lack of confidence to apply to higher sales positions
24:07 – Rise Up On Record is a series where women talk about their F-ups
25:14 – Lauren has been sharing her journey of having low self-esteem
26:26 – #GirlsClub is hosted by The Sales Bar by Factor 8
- Here’s their website wearegirlsclub.com
29:29 – It’s by tech and social media that sponsors come in to fund the #GirlsClub’s Rise Up Summit
- Members meeting face-to-face
- Hands-on skills training and certifications will be available
33:32 – Lauren’s personal mission is helping more people feel successful at work
34:10 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
34:18 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Factor 8 – An award-winning rep and manager training company focusing 100% on making Digital sales teams successful.
#GirlsClub/wearegirlsclub.com – Lauren’s mastermind where women in sales development can join
The Sales Bar – Online rep and manager training for a low monthly cost by Factor 8

Ep 86 Jackie Woods

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with Jackie Woods, Manager at Sales Development at Optimizely, a platform that enables businesses to experiment deeply into their technology stack and broadly across the entire customer experience. Tune in as Jackie shares with us her amazing journey from college to sales development manager, how she manages her team, and tips for people who are interested in taking another role.

3 Key Points:

Always do your research and understand what value a company provides its customers, not just the product/service they offer.
It’s not just about being the best candidate for a position, it’s about being the best fit for the entire role.
Motivation is partly intrinsic, but remember, as a manager, you can help your people find that missing piece.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:39 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
00:58 – David introduces Jackie
01:35 – Jackie started in sales development straight out of college
- She started as an SDR in Optimizely
- 2 years after, she got the manager position
03:51 – Jackie shares 4 tips to applicants:
- Don’t just understand what the product is or what the company offers, understand the value that the company provide its customers
- Share your background and past experiences that drew you to the company
- Focusing on the value vs reciting cool things about the company
- Do your research and speak intelligently about the market you’re going into
06:36 – David and Jackie talk about the importance of reading customer case studies
08:22 – Think about translating what you learned in the past to the new role you’re taking
10:15 – Use resources like Google, Crunchbase, and other platforms to research about the company you want to get in to
14:02 – Keep in mind that companies look for a candidate that fits the position and the team well
14:39 – Jackie shares some of applicant feedback they get
16:20 – Setting yourself up for an AE role requires taking stock on your skills very honestly
19:51 – If you want to move into a different role, “You have to do well in your current job”
- Depending on company culture, you can leverage manager roles into helping aspiring candidates for the position they’re rooting
- Find a mentor in the department you want to get into
- Understand that sometimes you will have to do a double-duty
22:13 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
23:13 – In the last 6 months, 2 SDRs went to move to different cross-functional roles
- Jackie shares how one wanted to get into the customer success route
26:27 – Jackie answers what to do when you feel demotivated in your SDR job
- Think about why you’re feeling this way
- View motivation as something in your own power to control
28:39 – Motivation is intrinsic, yet managers can still do something to help their people
- Figure out the reasons with them through one-on-one meetings
- Try to understand what they’re struggling with
31:10 – “Don’t diminish your role or your value” is Jackie’s #1 tip to SDRs
33:08 – Jackie talks about using the telephone strategically
- Their team uses different structures of outreach
- Using the phone for testing and for outreach is still relevant
36:07 – “There’s so much opportunity to help and enable our SDR team to be better by leveraging any key data points”
39:40 – To scale effective processes to everyone, you need to understand what you’re looking for and how it’s going to work, and a person to oversee through it
41:46 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
41:54 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Optimizely – Where Jackie works at as manager

Ep 85 Chris Castaldini

Summary:
In this episode, David introduces Chris Castaldini to the show. Chris is the Director of Global Sales Development at Optimizely, a platform that enables businesses to experiment deeply into their technology stack and broadly across the entire customer experience. Listen as Chris walks us through his experience getting into sales, the importance of leading your employees, and what it takes to run a global sales development team.

3 Key Points:

Go for what makes you happy and what you see in yourself.
Never make decisions based on ego.
It’s important to make your employees feel supported in whatever role they may be in.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:38 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
00:59 – David welcomes Chris
01:38 – Chris has been in the sales development field for 6 years now
- He got into sales development just by chance
03:00 – Chris shares about his work in Optimizely for the past 1.5 years
- The process of getting into his role was hard, intense, and time-consuming
06:09 – Chris shares about a sales development role at Amazon he got interviewed for
10:12 – Go for what makes you happy and what you see yourself in
12:56 – If you feel you’re not in the right path, try to figure out what you don’t like
- Assess if the role or the company is influencing your experience
15:26 – Salespeople are ambitious, driven people
17:04 – Making decisions based on ego can destroy you
19:03 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
20:57 – Stop being impatient and focus on what you do are two pieces of advice from Chris
22:38 – Chris shares about Optimizely’s career flight plan for their employees
23:57 – The gap between sales development and sales is widening
25:49 – An effective tactic to make employees feel supported
- Get the future leader bought in to the individual they’ll be working with
- Invest in your employees
27:16 – “We encourage any path”
28:12 – The biggest mistake Chris sees is SDRs getting complacent in their role
- People that have been successful consistently are people who look back and are constantly iterating
31:19 – David struggles on how to get people care about the buyer
32:03 – If someone genuinely doesn’t care, a career in sales is probably not a fit
- “It’s important to be very passionate about what you do”
35:30 – Optimizely don’t host formal meetings, they “set the TONE (Targets, Objectives, New, and Execution)” every week
37:42 – Chris talks about what he’s excited about for himself and Optimizely
39:30 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
39:37 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Optimizely – Where Chris works at

Ep 84 Chris Fago

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with Christopher Fago, Cloud Security Inside Sales Manager at Palo Alto Networks, a multinational cybersecurity company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. Tune in as Christopher shares his thoughts and insights on how to skyrocket your career in sales development.

3 Key Points:

SDR or salespeople-shaming is no different from cyberbullying.
There’s a time for learning, and there’s a time when you have to step up and give your own ideas.
There is no one track that SDRs go — it’s a wide variety of choices for anyone in this field.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:38 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
00:59 – David welcomes Christopher to the show
01:40 – Christopher shares about how it is in the early days after getting acquired by Palo Alto
03:21 – He thinks we’re only seeing “half of the story” on bad messaging getting posted online
- “Sales is all about humanizing...your prospects need to be humans too”
- “I don’t understand how people can be against cyberbullying but okay with SDR-shaming”
09:32 – If there’s something being sent on your behalf, you should say something
- Trust in your management is important
- There is a time, around after 6 months, when you have to start sharing your ideas
12:36 – Selling the sales development role as a 2-year investment
15:05 – Christopher always asks people applying for SDR positions how they see themselves in a couple of years
- There is no one-size-fits-all track
- You have to understand that recruiters are also “just doing their job”
18:09 – Outsourcing is not necessarily a bad idea
- If you have the mindset of owning your job, you might get promoted
19:23 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
20:59 – The promotion is a stem from financial reasons
23:03 – David talks about the failure rate of SDRs going to AE positions
- How can leaving be beneficial if you’re doing a good job?
- David shares the possibilities when you’re in a “good” company
26:21 – At the end of the day, you just have to weigh out the risk of staying or leaving
27:55 – New Sales Simplified is a book that solves the “failure problem”
- David’s advice to new SDR managers: keep doing the SDR job for at least an hour a day
- More SDR managers should have a shortlist of accounts
32:23 – A bittersweet bonding moment was when Christopher gave his script to his colleague and his colleague just crushed him
33:50 – Connect with Christopher on Linkedin
34:18 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
34:26 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Palo Alto Networks – Company where Christopher works at
New Sales Simplified – Book Christopher recommends reading

Ep 83 Carolyn Betts

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Carolyn Betts, founder & CEO of Betts Recruiting, the leading recruitment firm for revenue-generating, marketing, and people operations roles. Carolyn started in sales straight out of college and then later shifted to recruiting. Today, she shares how she started her company and how she helps businesses in finding a good fit for SDR positions and more.

3 Key Points:

The best way to start a business is by filling in a gap you see in the market.
Meet as many people as possible — it’s key in networking and recruitment.
Focus on what you’re good at and delegate the others.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:38 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
00:58 – David introduces Carolyn
02:16 – Carolyn started in sales right after college and then shifted to recruiting
- She sold recruitment media at CareerBuilder.com
- Carolyn realized there’s a gap in the market for sales hiring so she started Betts Recruiting
03:34 – The demand for their services led to growth for Betts Recruiting
04:51 – Carolyn shares the challenges they’re facing in SDR recruiting
- The inexperienced person vs the experienced SDR
06:37 – How they find people in recruitment
- Referrals
- Advertising
- Leveraging tech and working with universities
08:45 – Meeting as many people as possible is key in recruitment
10:11 – Most clients want Betts Recruiting to prep applicants
10:32 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
11:23 – Carolyn talks about the pros and cons of doing your own recruitment
12:43 – Majority of their clients come in-bound
14:22 – Carolyn’s thoughts on the upcoming years for her business
15:50 – How it was like taking the entrepreneurial leap
- Scaling the organization was the biggest challenge to Carolyn
18:15 – Two pieces of advice from Carolyn in sales
- You have to have a good product
- Execution in sales
19:54 – Focus on what you’re good at
22:31 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
22:38 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Betts Recruiting – Carolyn’s recruitment firm
CareerBuilder.com – Where Carolyn sold recruitment media

Ep 82 Liz Cain

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Liz Cain to the show. Liz is a partner at OpenView, an expansion stage venture firm helping build software companies into market leaders. From the Tenbound Conference last August, Liz, shares with us what product-led companies are, how they work, and how they do sales development. Tune in as Liz drops value on monetizing your product and approaching your users to sign up.

3 Key Points:

Be thoughtful in monetizing your product.
Let your product create the viral loop for you.
Approach will always vary depending on who your customer is.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:38 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
00:58 – David introduces Liz
02:00 – Liz is a partner at OpenView, a VC that invests in enterprise tech companies
- Prior to that, she was AVP for NetSuite
03:33 – NetSuite went public in 2007 and got acquired by Oracle in 2016
05:39 – Liz explains product led growth as a go-to market strategy
- Expensify as an example of a product-led growth company
09:43 – The key is bottom-up approach
- Design to create a delightful experience for the end user
- Figure out your value drivers for your users and monetize on that
11:03 – Be thoughtful in monetizing your product
- Involving your sales teams at the right point
14:08 – A leadership alignment that’s hard to create is having one that’s reactive to the customer needs
14:52 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
15:53 – Liz shares about millennials and immediate responsiveness
- “People intuitively knew how to do it”
- Think about de-laboring your own motions
- Letting products create the viral loop
20:49 – David mentions about Drift, a conversational marketing platform for your website
22:19 – “Even in a product-led business there is a role for sales development in sales”
- These companies use most traditional sales plays
25:01 – Liz’s advice in approaching single users to sign up:
- It depends who the buyer is
28:03 – There are roles of product growth leaders
29:49 – Liz sees some companies where growth leader skill set is highly valued
30:17 – How events and community-building play in the mix for product-led companies
33:28 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
33:35 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

OpenView – Company where Liz currently is a partner
NetSuite – Company where Liz started her sales development career
Oracle – Company that bought NetSuite
Expensify – An example of a product-led growth company

Ep 81 John Barrows

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with John Barrows. John is a sales trainer for both individuals and teams for the world’s leading companies. Listen as he walks us through how he got started in sales, and eventually becoming the sales entrepreneur he is today. He also shares some tips and tricks on SDR success.

3 Key Points:

Sometimes the struggle is not in starting, but in capitalizing on opportunity.
It’s important to know what your priorities and goals are.
AB Split Test everything you do to hone in what’s working and what’s not.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:38 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
00:58 – David introduces John to the show
02:11 – John started in sales because it was the “default” profession
03:51 – Basho Technologies came to him and asked him if he wanted to be a trainer
- John didn’t like sales trainers
- He took the job because of the offer they gave him
06:19 – John shares his leap from sales training to becoming an entrepreneur
- The struggle was keeping up and capitalizing on opportunity
10:17 – How important mental health is in keeping yourself on track
12:23 – David recommends the book The Myth of Multitasking
15:43 – Sales should stop inbound lead
16:19 – John talks about how he realized he was a problem in his reps’ time management
- Know what your priorities and goals are
- “If you’re not setting goals in your life, somebody is dictating the path”
20:29 – “You have to back in what your numbers are”
- Look at your numbers and be analytical
- Set daily goals on what you need to do
24:50 – John explains using AB Testing in different industries
26:07 – Engage with leads & close deals! Go to VanillaSoft and start your free trial
26:56 – Job satisfaction in sales can be bland very fast
29:13 – The model of sales is going to change, and it has to
- For John, a frontline marketing person is needed in a sales team
33:16 – Making sales development a customer-centric approach
- There’s always going to be the need for outbound but have people own accounts all the way through
36:16 – Prospecting is one skill you have to learn to be great at
- Put yourself in the position that you want a business, not need it
- Take responsibility and don’t blame other people
40:29 – Connect with John on his website
41:43 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
41:51 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Basho Technologies – The first company who asked John to become a trainer
The Myth of Multitasking – Book David recommends reading

Ep 80 Dan Gottlieb

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Dan Gottlieb to the show. Dan is a sales development industry analyst at TOPO, a research and advisory firm that helps sales, marketing, and sales development grow revenues faster. Tune in as Dan talks about today’s sales development landscape and a ton of tips on keeping your SDRs happy and focused.

3 Key Points:

Listening is key in understanding and solving industry problems.
Conveying value means connecting your offer to another person’s problem.
It doesn’t cost much to keep your SDRs motivated in their job.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:38 – David introduces Dan
01:27 – Dan was an independently employed sales consultant
- He found that content out there was not rooted in reality
02:17 – He shares the variables that led him to sales development
04:25 – It’s important to become an exceptional listener to find out the best practices in your industry
- Listen to the problems and how people are addressing them
- “We’re just listeners”
07:42 – Useful and actionable solutions for the industry
08:36 – The consistent execution of touch patterns and consistent messaging are problems that keep coming up
12:12 – Dan shares some suggestions to managers
- Approach consistent touch patterns by being specific about the kinds of people and accounts and prescriptive about the kind of touch pattern you put them in
- Be experimental in your prompts
19:30 – Dan shares about a team that crafts incredibly relevant first emails
21:28 – Persona challenge benefits
23:15 – The true meaning of conveying the value
- Connect what you’re offering to the problems the other person is facing
- “It’s all about framing”
24:33 – Have multiple problems you’re alluding back to
28:44 – Dan thinks benefit of sales engagement is the difficulty of using CRM
29:34 – Now, marketing is understanding that emails from people have higher open rates than emails from companies
31:25 – CRMs could buy SalesLoft and Outreach
32:30 – Make sure you understand your go-to market strategy is ultimately being reflected in your contact database
35:34 – Dan talks about keeping people engaged in sales development
- Be straightforward with what the job is like
- Offer career growth opportunities
- Compensation, promotion and recognition
- Have a culture where there’s fun in the job
43:12 – Connect with Dan on LinkedIn
44:46 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
44:53 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

TOPO – Company where Dan works
SalesLoft and Outreach – Sales development solutions mentioned

Ep 79 Sarah Harbison Tosh

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with Sarah Harbison Tosh, Senior Director on Sales Development and Enablement at Sigstr. Sarah started out as an SDR and later found her way to become senior director. Listen as she talks about her journey climbing to the top and the importance of diversity in hiring people to join your team.

3 Key Points:

Be prepared and show up 100% every time in a meeting or in a conversation.
Diversity is how you change the way your team operates.
It’s important to each team to have their own framework.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:38 – David introduces Sarah
01:40 – Starting out on a job with ExactTarget now, SalesForce
02:42 – Her former boss that left invited her at Return Path to start their sales development team
- 6 months into the job she was promoted as their first account executive
- After that position, she was invited to become manager and look over a team of account executives
- When Sigstr knocked, Sarah knew it was a match made in heaven
05:13 – Showing up 100% every single time is Sarah’s major tip
- Always be prepared in every meeting or conversation
07:04 – Find an organization that aligns with your own values and morals
07:52 – What to look for in a candidate
- Someone who is motivated by the NO
- You control what you can control
08:43 – “This ship doesn’t stay afloat without our team”
10:13 – Realize what motivates every person in your team
10:37 – Diversity in Sales Development, a meetup on November 14th in Boston
11:44 – Sarah shares about their Wednesday Book Club
14:06 – The importance of your hiring process
- Diversity is how you change the way your team operates
17:10 – At Sigstr, it’s about knowing who your customer base is and being creative in capturing their attention
19:33 – Sarah shares measuring their team’s matrix
21:01 – Encouraging creativity with a points game is one driving method
- Fall back on your network give you ideas too
- The more you can share, the better off you’ll be
22:59 – Sarah is a big believer of brand identities
- It’s important to each team to have their own framework
28:58 – Sarah talks about Sigstr – who they are, what they do, and everything in between
- Now they’re also offering data on your most authentic relationships
31:33 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
31:41 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Ep 78 Andrew Mewborn

Summary:
In this episode, David shares the mic with Andrew Mewborn, a solutions consultant at Outreach. Improv has been and is a huge part of sales development especially for SDRs. Tune in as Andrew teaches us the basics of improv, how it can be beneficial for salespeople, and the life skills it instills.

3 Key Points:

Improv teaches you life skills in general.
Don’t be scared of failing because failing is success in improv.
Embrace discomfort.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:38 – David introduces Andrew to the show
01:44 – Andrew tells us how Improv can be beneficial to salespeople
- Joining an improv class lets you learn life skills in general
- Listening to understand and building on offers
- Pausing rather than responding
04:52 – How teamwork plays in improv
- Building on anything that someone is giving you
- For Andrew, “Improv is just a sequence”
07:39 – Implementing improv in sales development always starts with the 7 sentence story structure
09:00 – Failing is a success in improv
10:21 – The key factors in improv mindset
- Say YES, AND to everything
- Making your partner look good
- Accepting failure and getting comfortable in discomfort
17:55 – How Andrew and his team setup for improv in Outreach.io
21:05 – Getting people together with sticky notes in improv
22:01 – Good resources for improv
- Watch Saturday Night Live
- Hubspot Improv Articles
- Taking an Improv Class
24:25 – Connect with Andrew on his email
25:32 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
25:39 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Outreach – Company where Andrew works at
Saturday Night Live and Hubspot – Resources to learn improv

Ep 77 Florin Tatulea

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews Florin Tatulea of Loopio, an RFP software that enables your team to collaborate and respond to RFPs with ease. Florin has been featured in Scott Ingram’s new book, Sales Success Stories: 60 Stories from 20 Top 1% Sales Professionals. Today, Florin walks us through the tactics he shared in the book for SDR success.

3 Key Points:

AB Testing results should always be statistically significant.
Using your own data for your industry is important.
Use the platforms you already have to keep your projects on track.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:39 – David introduces Florin
- Previous guest, Scott Ingram recommended Florin
01:13 – Florin’s sales experience started at selling newspapers at 14 year old
- He eventually made it to the account executive role now
01:46 – About Loopio and their market
02:42 – David mentions Scott Ingram’s new book, Sales Success Stories: 60 Stories from 20 Top 1% Sales Professionals where Florin is featured in
- After his time as an SDR, Florin shared his tactical advice that Scott featured in the book
- Florin talks about AB Testing and different methods on outreach
06:00 – How to start on AB Testing
- Try different email subject lines
- Put call-to-actions
07:26 – Florin shares setting up your contact data
09:29 – One AB Test on email subject lines that Florin did
- Changing the first letter to a lowercase increase open rates by 9%
- “Make sure your results are statistically significant”
- Get a sample size of at least 100 people
12:14 – Florin has a full chapter on AB Testing in the book
- A lot of the systems like SalesLoft and Outreach, have AB Testing built-in
13:42 – Some things that Florin found out effective in his time as an SDR
- Using 1 or 2-word subject lines drastically increases open rates
- Calling outside of business hours can be better
- Florin encourages to use your own data in your industry to figure out what works now
17:45 – Don’t be stuck to one thing
18:22 – What it looks like in the life of Florin as an SDR tracking his numbers
- Let your system run the sequences for 1-2 weeks before assessment
19:24 – Keeping your projects on track with platforms you already use help you be more accountable
20:28 – What sacred time is and how serious it is for Florin
- Respecting people’s time blocks is something incorporated in Loopio’s culture
23:40 – How Florin keeps a positive mindset every day
- Some things come from within
- Company culture also plays a key
25:17 – Florin drops by managers shouldn’t “just hire” people
28:10 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
28:16 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Loopio – Where Florin works at
Scott Ingram – Previous guest that recommended Florin to the show
Sales Success Stories: 60 Stories from 20 Top 1% Sales Professionals – Book that featured Florin
SalesLoft and Outreach – Systems with built-in AB Testing features

Ep 76 Haley Katsman

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with Haley Katsman. Haley is the Vice President of Growth and Account Development at Highspot, a company that delivers the industry's most advanced sales enablement tools and software for improving marketing effectiveness and increasing sales. Listen as Haley shares with us what sales enablement is, how it works, and the importance of companies investing in teaching and training their sales development employees.

3 Key Points:

It’s critical to understand and know who your audience is.
Let your calls be informational interviews to get to know your customer.
Make sure your sales development people are able to start with all the information they need.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:16 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:37 – David welcomes Haley to the show

●      02:03 – Haley talks about what she does at Highspot
○      Haley leads 3 different teams in the organization
●      02:46 – She has both a sales and marketing background
○      She spearheaded Highspot’s sales development 2 years ago
●      04:30 – It’s critical to have an understanding who your buyers are
○      Do a lot of research to understand your avatar
●      06:41 – More details on how they do customer research
○      You don’t have to know all the answers right away
○      Treat calls like an informational interview
●      09:18 – For Haley, it’s quality before quantity
○      “You have to be data informed”
○      The conversion rate is the “sweet spot”
●      13:00 – David believes that sales development is the foundation of your career
●      14:38 – How people use sales enablement from Highspot
●      16:59 – Haley explains what sales enablement is
○      Have customer content that’s easy to pull
○      A layer of guidance with the content
●      21:25 – Making sure the ADR has everything they need to start
○      Understand how the function is organized in the company you’re working at
○      At Highspot, they’re extremely collaborative and interactive
●      27:36 – David mentions the book, Brotopia
●      28:42 – Driving Diversity In Sales Development meetup in Boston

November 14th at the Open View Office
November 13th David will host a sales development manager workshop

●      29:55 – The importance of having a clear career path for your sales development teams
●      32:55 – Growth as a centralized function
●      35:01 – Connect with Haley on LinkedIn
●      35:22 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes

35:29 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Highspot – Where Haley works as vice president for sales and account development
Brotopia – A book David mentioned

Ep 75 David Dulany

Summary:
In this episode, David walks us through the things they’re working on now at Tenbound and how these can potentially support you. And the highlights from the last Sales Development Conference and what to look forward in the next one.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:38 – David thanks everyone who supported this year’s conference!
02:33 – There’s going to be a meetup in Boston
- November 14th at the Open View Office
- November 13th David will host a sales development manager workshop
04:45 – Checkout our feedback at G2 Crowd Reviews
05:06 – The 3 Major Things David talked about in the conference
- We have support; we have an ecosystem
- Private and public groups (Tenbound also started a coaching program)
- The rise of the Chief Development Officer
06:46 – The problem in the attention economy
12:21 – David shares his talk on taking resources
14:35 – See you on the next Sales Development Conference!
16:47 – What to do on our 100th episode
18:22 – Connect with David on Tenbound.com/contact
18:48 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
18:55 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Ep 74 Dan Jourdan

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with Dan Jourdan, the Cold Call Guy. Today’s age and industry tells us that Cold Calling DOES NOT WORK anymore. BUT, today, Dan shares that IT STILL DOES WORK and all the benefits of using cold calls. Listen as he lists down a plethora of reasons and benefits for cold calling, the 4 ways to get people to buy, and the 7 magic words that will get you everything.

3 Key Points:

Your job as a salesperson is to share your positive energy with the people you’re talking to every single day.
Cold calling is great for building relationships and learning to sell.
Regularly following through is key.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:38 – David introduces Dan to the show
01:19 – “Sales in general has a bad wrap”
- Coming as a real person is unexpected
03:03 – Dan talks about Cold Calling and the benefits of it
- Today’s industry tells us that cold calling does not work
- Now, there’s a resurgence for cold calling
- Talk about “if they need your stuff”
- Dan shares getting kicked out of an office
08:04 – Cold calling is best for teaching you how to sell
09:23 – Keeping your attitude up when everyone gets grumpy
- “Your job as a person who’s going to be selling anything is to spread your positive energy to them”
- 4 Ways To Get People To Buy: Like, Trust, Believe, and Desire
12:25 – The 7 Magic Words that will get you everything: I wonder if you could help me
- Use the need to help
- Ask someone’s opinion
- Ask for somebody’s advice
17:30 – Cold calling is great for building relationships
- The best way to utilize cold calling is including it in a system
20:19 – Attitude is what you can control on the front end
21:18 – “People are buying you before they’re buying your product”
24:40 – You can only measure what’s under your control
26:12 – David recommends the book, The Slight Edge
26:49 – The answer to success is simple discipline practiced everyday
30:01 – Dan advises to start with a list and regularly follow through
- People in your list are YOUR leads, not the company’s anymore
- Everybody needs to have a contact list
35:40 – The difference between having a job and being a salesman
- Security doesn’t come in a job — build your own machine
39:22 – Download The Ultimate Cold Calling Guide For Beginners
41:25 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
41:32 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Cold Call Guy – Dan’s website
The Slight Edge – Book David mentioned

Ep 73 Scott King

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Scott King, Director of Pipeline Development at ZIMPERIUM. Scott also runs a podcast called, The Scott King Show. Tune in as he talks about bringing focus to sales development alignment — how you’re your own SDR at times, why you have to personalize your messages, and the importance of investing in your SDR’s resources.

3 Key Points:

Sales development fit both sales and marketing departments.
Always tailor your messages — never send out automated messages that are generic.
Invest time in resources to help your SDRs understand the whole journey.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:31 – David introduces Scott
02:00 – Check Out Scott’s Podcast, The Scott King Show
02:50 – Scott talks about getting into sales development tech at i2 Technologies as a sales rep
04:00 – His job at ITKO was learning how to market and pitch
- Scott was offered a position in the marketing department and that’s how he started then
05:52 – In Scott’s view, everyone is in sales
- Sales development teams counts as both sales and marketing teams
07:51 – Scott shares how he thinks of sales development in small and large companies
- In some cases, “You are your own SDR”
09:50 – David says inbound marketing was the trend a couple of years back
10:56 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
12:36 – Scott believes that “it’s easier to get the message out” and that’s why people’s attention span gets shorted
- Automated messages sometimes don’t know who they’re talking to
- “We’re fighting against all the complexity”
15:12 – Teams put too much pressure on growth
16:44 – Scott mentions that Aaron Ross talks about sales roles and specialization
19:19 – Confusion means not understanding the whole journey
- Invest time in resources
21:21 – The importance of putting your SDRs in support emails/calls
22:31 – David believes that “people need pipeline”
24:32 – Be careful in the recruiting process — get the right person at the upfront
- You always want to have the best talent
26:57 – “You need to look at the entire value chain”
27:58 – Connect with Scott on TheScottKing.com
28:22 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
28:30 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

ZIMPERIUM – Where Scott works at
The Scott King Show – Scott’s podcast
i2 Technologies – Where Scott started his career in sales development
Aaron Ross talks about sales roles and specialization – Article Scott mentioned

Ep 72 Kyle Vamvouris

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Kyle Vamvouris to the show. Kyle is the Sales Development Manager of ForUsAll and the author of the book, Cold to Committed. Listen as Kyle share with us how he started as a comedian selling gym memberships to becoming the committed person he is now in what he does, and what inspired him to write his book to help SDRs get a jumpstart.

3 Key Points:

Failing helps you to understand what works and what doesn’t.
Find your purpose and live for that purpose.
Always hold yourself accountable for whatever you said you’d do.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:35 – David introduces Kyle
02:15 – Kyle started as a comedian and selling gym memberships
- He started his SDR career at Intuit then moved to another startup where he wrote about sales development
- He wrote the book, Cold to Committed
04:10 – Kyle talks about intertwining comedy and sales development

○ Keep doing the same thing over and over again until you get different results
○ Failing so many times will lead you to find what’s working and what’s not

06:40 – What works best doesn’t work all the time
- Chasing the silver bullet is what causes the frustration in sales development
08:32 – The core issue is not being solved
09:46 – Mindset is a forgotten aspect in sales development
- Mindset controls the stress levels in your body
- How you think is translated in your body
13:46 – Kyle shares the importance of having a purpose
- “You have to have a purpose”
14:49 – Peak Performance is a good book about having a purpose
16:13 – There are exercises you can do to find your purpose
- Why do you fight for what you fight for
18:26 – Control what you can: Your environment and your circle of friends
- Be intentional about your environment
- Constantly remind yourself of your purpose
- Journaling is another important thing for Kyle
22:28 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
23:22 – Control the reminders
24:32 – Are you settling or are you content and happy?
- Do not limit your growth – commit to what you said you’d do
- Discipline equals freedom
28:30 – Make the commitment to yourself higher
- Hold yourself accountable to something
30:19 – The reason behind writing the book Cold to Committed
- A basic book to get started as an SDR
33:09 – Kyle shares his experience in Intuit
- The importance of taking action for yourself
35:22 – Kyle believed the turnover problem was just about mindset
40:01 – He developed a sales wiki page for his SDRs
41:34 – Connect with Kyle on LinkedIn
41:58 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
42:05 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Cold to Committed – Kyle’s book
ForUsAll – Company where Kyle works as sales development manager
Intuit – The company that inspired Kyle to write his book
Peak Performance – A book Kyle recommends

Ep 71 James Bawden

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with James Bawden, Inside Sales Representative at Evalueserve. James takes us through his unconventional journey to sales development with a little bit of luck and an interesting decision to make a change. Tune in as he shares his story in discovering the career he loves and how giving value to people through his content led him to better things that happened organically.

3 Key Points:

Networking is extremely important in any field you’re in.
Believe that you can do so much more and you will.
Putting out content in your own unique way gives value to people.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:33 – David introduces James
02:07 – James has an interesting sales career for 10 years
- He graduated college in 2008 when most of his plans fell through
- He moved into the b2b sales world
04:50 – Most recently, James became an Inside Sales Representative at Evalueserve
06:38 – “Let yourself become comfortable with the idea that you can do more than what you’re doing currently”
- James’ journey was very unconventional – it was deciding to make a change
- His life today is like a dream from the old James
10:50 – Look outside the usual resume that comes in
12:01 – James shares how he feels a little lucky in his career
- Curating a network and providing value to that network is paramount
- The difference in personal branding and social selling
14:58 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
15:54 – David talks about the value of helping people and documenting what you do
18:25 – It’s super easy to document what you’re doing right now
- Your point of view is unique to your experience where people might find value in
20:27 – The content James creates is geared towards the sales development community
21:39 – SDRs are fighting from a place of obscurity
23:08 – There are advantages all around giving value to people
- “You’ve got to up your game”
26:54 – Getting great education in business at Evalueserve is one thing that James appreciates a lot
28:32 – James doesn’t have a defined goal for the next couple of years
- Things happen organically
32:21 – Connect with James on LinkedIn
32:59 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
33:06 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Evalueserve – Company where James currently works for

Ep 70 Chris Kinnard

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Chris Kinnard to the show. Chris is the Director of Sales at Totango, a customer success software that helps enterprises drive revenue growth, with focused programs for every stage of the SaaS customer journey. Tune in as Chris shares how a missed deadline for a PhD program led him to sales development and how he came to love the industry he’s in now.

3 Key Points:

Processes in the back end should always be matched up with the processes at the front.
Help your team find that motivation to strive and get better.
Understand that automations are not failproof and that you always need to put personalization as a priority.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:33 – David introduces Chris
02:02 – Chris came through the Tenbound management program
02:55 – Chris took a common route in sales development
- He studied cognitive neuroscience in college
- He took an interview at his dad’s company and worked as an outbound SDR
05:53 – MLM is great for your first experience in sales
06:21 – Chris shares the difference between telemarketing and sales development
- It was like trying to set up meetings with potential customers
08:09 – He stayed with that company for more than a year
- Chris was promoted to junior account reps before he moved to a B2B SaaS company
- He moved into account management
- After the economy took a downfall, he moved to San Francisco and took on his first AE role
10:35 – More about Totango and Chris’ work
- For the first few months, Chris observed the team and their motivations
13:20 – Introducing automation to the AEs helped Chris and his team avoid missing follow ups
- Chris monitors the process
14:35 – The structure ratio: 2 AE’s: 1 SDR
- Totango has a TP Program for their SDRs
- It also helps working directly with the AEs
17:01 – Chris shares how their marketing department help in the process
- Make sure all processes behind the scenes are matched up
18:02 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
19:36 – Chris’ compensation depends on his team’s attainment of their goal
- “We’re always trying to get better”
23:25 – Chris talks about Totango’s Zombie Campaigns
24:49 – Farm Don’t Hunt is a book written by Totango’s CEO
26:57 – Lower risks = lower ASPs
29:13 – Compensate towards the behavior that you want
30:35 – What works for Chris and his team
- Introducing automations and ghost campaigns help a lot
33:26 – Automation is great BUT NOT FAILPROOF
- Personalize ahead of time
38:10 – Being an SDR is a hard job
- You want to make things as easy it is as possible for them to do their jobs
- LeadIQ is an app that Totango use to help their SDRs
41:45 – Connect with Chris on LinkedIn
42:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
43:00 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Totango – Company where Chris works
Farm Don’t Hunt – A book that Chris recommends
LeadIQ – App that helps Totango’s SDRs

Ep 69 Matt Amundson

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews Matt Amundson, one of our first guests on the show. Matt is the Vice President in Marketing for EverString, a marketing and sales intelligence software powered by automated data science and the world's most reliable business data. Tune in as Matt talks about the changes in the industry, his advice to SDRs, how to know when you don’t have a market fit, and how to set your sales prospecting program on FIRE.

3 Key Points:

Be ready to go on the market before actually jumping into the market.
You have to make tough decisions especially when you don’t have a product market fit.
Personalization wins but the use of it depends on the audience you’re serving..

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:29 – David introduces Matt to the show
02:46 – Matt talks about what has changed in the past couple of years in the industry
- SDRs are on with better technology than before
- Account-based sales development has not changed — it’s still relevant and working
- Personalization is becoming more popular
05:24 – More and more people are needing a single platform to deploy
07:12 – The importance of sales development platforms allowing to integrate apps
09:29 – Matt is an advocate of hiring SDR managers first before SDRs
- Build a solid foundation first
11:50 – Downsize or eliminate the sales development program until you are ready
13:02 – When your “win” rate is below 10% then you don’t have a market fit
15:03 – Matt reminds that “You are the master of your own career”
16:17 – Matt’s advice to every SDR: whatever role you want to move into, you got to move into it in a place you’re at
16:58 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
18:50 – Personalization of messages depends on the audience you’re serving
- Keep your emails short, let your marketing department educate your audience
- Personalization WORKS
22:22 – Using LinkedIn to make meaningful outreach to your prospects is important
- Any account knowledge can be utilized across multiple personas and emails
25:33 – Matt talks about FIRE and how businesses should go to market
- FIT
- INTENT
- RECENCY
- ENGAGEMENT
30:51 – How the workflow is for FIRE accounts
32:06 – What Matt has seen in his business is a reduction in sales cycle by 40%
34:07 – Matt discuss where you have to be in the go-to market stage
36:16 – Layering a platform by yourself can be difficult
39:54 – Get the FIRE Ebook on EverString
43:20 – If you have ANY Question: Connect with Matt on [email protected]
44:04 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
44:11 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

EverString – Matt’s company
LinkedIn – A platform where you can get lead information

Ep 68 Tito Bohrt

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with Tito Bohrt, founder and CEO of AltiSales, a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, technology and operations of Sales Development. Tito started as an SDR in Costa Rica for the ambition of creating the world’s best SDR team. Listen how his passion turned into a business that he runs now, and why he believes SDRs should get more pay than what they’re currently getting.

3 Key Points:

Get in a position where both the business and employees benefit each other.
Leverage your sales development representatives for innovation.
Sales development is the most important function of the sales funnel.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:28 – David introduces Tito to the show
02:34 – Tito started in sales development with an idea of having remote teams
- He started as an SDR in Costa Rica
- After 3 years, Tito went to Silicon Valley to build SDR teams
04:27 – He talks about the two trends that gave him the idea
- Traveling the world while working
- Virtually outsourcing work from overseas
06:09 – Tito was in the intersection of consulting and outsourcing
07:42 – AltiSales employees love the set-up of working in another country
- “They’re grateful for the opportunities and experience”
09:05 – Tito runs 3 programs in AltiSales
- Build SDR teams for US startups overseas
- US employees and US managers for medium-sized businesses
- Onboard/train employees for huge companies who want to have internal SDR teams
09:57 – The biggest challenge in hiring employees
- Tito has 4 different steps of career program as an SDR
13:53 – Tito talks about how they utilize Outreach.io
- User profiles and permissions are different for different employee positions
- Hack sequences to get better results
- Classify call flows in different categories
- One-on-one meetings are given importance so reps would know their performance
19:10 – AltiSales’ ambition is to run the best SDR teams ever built
19:20 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
20:33 – Tito believes sales development is the most important function of the sales funnel
23:33 – Everything revolves strategically around setting the meetings
25:03 – Where the brand fits in? — The brand is never quantifiable
27:55 – Define who the account you want to go after
28:30 – Tito lists down the first things you need to ask your clients
- When your client and your service is not a fit, just let them know
33:50 – Always start with the hypothesis first
34:17 – Connect with Tito on LinkedIn
35:33 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
35:41 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

AltiSales – Tito’s company
Outreach.io – The platform they use in sales development

Ep 67 Brandon Bruce

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews Brandon Bruce, COO and co-founder of Cirrus Insight, a plugin for Gmail and Outlook for salespeople. The road to entrepreneurship is never easy, and today, Brandon talks about how his partnership with his co-founder, Ryan Huff, made the journey better. Tune in as he shares how to stay motivated in the face of adversity.

3 Key Points:

The decision to become an entrepreneur is a risk itself.
Creating your personal brand and building your reputation is paramount.
Don’t wait for the perfect time, just take action and do it now.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:29 – David introduces Brandon to the show
03:18 – Brandon and his partner, Ryan Huff started Cirrus Insight 7 years ago
- SAVE TIME is the main purpose of this software
04:51 – He shares his background growing up in a small town in California
- Brandon talks about the education system in his town
- He grew up to be a free-thinker
06:30 – Ryan called Brandon to work on a startup that became Cirrus Insights
07:29 – David shares about his connection in Brandon’s place
10:28 – Brandon’s thoughts in the education system today
- Extra curricular activities and art play a role in each person’s learning
12:06 – The entrepreneurial path allows Brandon to be a generalist
- People become entrepreneurs because the signals they convey to the market are not strong enough compared with the value that they think they otherwise bring
- Entrepreneurship is an economic decision
15:06 – Creating a personal brand
17:27 – Building your reputation is valuable
20:25 – “An entrepreneur is someone who will work 80 hours so they don’t have to work 40”
- Differentiators of entrepreneurs are hard to convey in a resume
21:56 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
23:24 – How Brandon processed the idea of working on a startup with Ryan
- The promise of the internet attracted Brandon to join the venture
25:03 – Ryan coded while Brandon seeked people for trial and feedback for Cirrus Insight
- Brandon finished their first website right before his second child was born
- Google indexed the website and a pilot user bought the service
27:23 – Launching Cirrus Insight was the best thing that happened to them
28:32 – The perfect time to start launching is NOW!
29:23 – Brandon shares how he and Ryan bootstrapped the company
- They started with their own resources and a loan from family
- They paid the loan in 3-4 months and then left their jobs
33:32 – Brandon talks about his insights in working with friends
- The grounding of an 18-year friendship is what helped Brandon and Ryan do well together
- Being able to hold each other up even in an emotional level
- The key is emotional stability
38:55 – Connect with Brandon on LinkedIn and on Cirrus Insight
40:31 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
40:38 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Cirrus Insight – Brandon’s company
Ryan Huff – Brandon’s business partner and co-founder of Cirrus Insight

Ep 66 Victor Baglio

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Victor Baglio to the show. Victor is the director for global sales development in BrightTALK, a technology media company that provides professional webinar and video solutions to a variety of industries. Listen as Victor shares the ultimate sales development program that is in a supportive environment that promotes culture and open communication for all members of the team.

3 Key Points:

Always have that genuine want to help people.
Making your SDRs feel supported will lead to better results.
A winning effort should always be recognized even if it had a different result.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:28 – David introduces Victor to the show
02:19 – Victor has been in sales development for 7 years
- Getting into sales development was an accident
- Victor filled in an SDR position
03:29 – The brand message of, “What are you growing today?”
- Victor grows 3 things: people, pipeline, and revenue
04:10 – His involvement in hiring people
- The question that pops up, “How can I help this person grow?”
06:44 – Culture is the #1 thing Victor would want to fix right from the start
- Introducing early product training and basic office 101
- Victor shares the importance of booking internships
- Bringing the generation into the workforce
10:02 – Help millennials see through the lenses of their peers
11:25 – Victor talks about opening other difficult conversations
12:49 – Victor’s role is helping his people take care of the distractions
- Making SDRs feel they’re at their best will yield to better results
13:49 – The only thing Victor asks is a winning effort
13:55 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
15:20 – How Victor deals with down swings
18:40 – Victor shares a big factor in his cultural attitude
20:45 – How Victor handles possible problems with SDRs and executives
21:32 – Sales development is a hybrid of both marketing and sales
23:53 – The theme of knowing your number
24:26 – Whatever you have to face in your career, “You should be willing to try it”
27:20 – Victor’s advice: Come in completely prepared to learn
29:48 – The biggest differentiator is the ability to shut down distractions
30:19 – Know more about BrightTALK
33:04 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes

Resources Mentioned:

BrightTALK – Company where Victor serves as director for global sales development

Ep 65 Richard Harris

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with Richard Harris, of The Harris Consulting Group. Richard’s work involves teaching sales reps how to earn the right to ask questions and which questions to ask and when. Today, he talks about the 4P’s that continues on to sales and sales development. Tune in as Richard drops valuable information that everyone in sales development should know.

3 Key Points:

Let your representatives audit the process, not the management.
Sales and salespeople are not replaceable commodities.
Always figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
01:07 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:28 – David introduces Richard to the show
02:21 – How Richard works with companies:
- Focusing on the SDR
- Middle the funnel
- Sales operations
04:20 – Customer success is a MAJOR sales component
04:42 – Richard finds a strong niche in customer success
05:59 – The shift in consulting and sales
- The millennials are always reading and willing to learn
08:03 – The 4P’s that continues on: Process, People, Planning, and Performance
- “Anything comes back to those 4P’s”
- The world of business moves quickly today
- The missing pieces are usually in these 4P’s
- Richard reminds to: Examine your processes along the way
10:50 – Starting down with a top-down and bottom-up strategy in unpacking the sales process
12:53 – Richard’s favorite question to ask:
- If you could snap your finger 3x now and make something better tomorrow, what would those 3 things be?
13:40 – David mentions the book, The ONE Thing
14:35 – Tip for the People category: Start with an ideal candidate profile
- “Stop discounting experience in the SDR world”
- Make sure you leverage technology
- Always hire in pairs in sales
18:42 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
19:58 – Planning – Happens everywhere
- Map out what the next 5 days look like
- “You’ve gotta put the plan together before you execute”
- Most CEOs think of sales as a replaceable commodity
22:47 – “Sales reps, SDRs, AEs, customer success reps are NOT commodities”
23:48 – Richard’s advice to CEOs on putting people in place
24:56 – Richard highly recommends reading The Sales Development Playbook
27:00 – Performance: What metrics and KPI’s to look at
- Metrics are straight up numbers, KPI’s are conversion ratios
- “Start small. Don’t try and do all of them”
- Look at data quality first
31:58 – You want to figure out what works and what doesn’t
33:54 – Richard shares about the Surf & Sales Summit
- Conference with Scott Leese
- Covering all kinds of topics
37:19 – Richard is coming to the The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
38:05 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
38:12 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

The ONE Thing – Book David mentioned
The Sales Development Playbook – Book that Richard highly recommends
Surf & Sales Summit – The conference Richard and Scott Leese came up with
Scott Leese – Richard’s partner in creating the Surf & Sales Summit

Ep 64 Adam Schoenfeld

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with Adam Schoenfeld, CEO and co-founder of Siftrock, SaaS company building machine learning solutions that help B2B marketers and sales teams operate more effectively. Adam, seeing the need for outbound sales in Siftrock, decided he was the perfect person to first start it and build processes prior to hiring. Listen as he shares his experiences and learnings from doing SDR work for a couple of months.

3 Key Points:

Don’t let failure keep you from doing what you think is the right thing.
Don’t be afraid to seek help when you need it.
Be thoughtful when reaching out to your prospects and/or customers.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:29 – David introduces Adam to the show
02:20 – Adam has been in tech startups for 10 years
- Recently, he joined Siftrock
04:51 – Adam talks about his failure in entrepreneurship
- He learned a lot of lessons the hard way
- His main learning: find and latch on customer pain
06:17 – His interest in technology pushed him to become an entrepreneur even after a failure
09:55 – Adam didn’t understand what being customer-driven was at the start
11:10 – Start with the customer and the problems they deal with
- Everything has to start with them
13:37 – The lesson Adam learned from doing SDR work: It’s all about the prospect
14:31 – From CEO to SDR: How and Why Adam took an SDR position
- He experimented with his company’s outbound end
- Adam realized they didn’t know much about this position so he decided he’ll fill in the role instead of hiring right away
19:28 – You don’t need a thousand accounts to start
20:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
22:02 – BuiltWith and EverString were tools Adam used
22:23 – Knowing your persona well helps a lot in segmenting
24:50 – Telling customer stories versus Pitching
25:42 – Personalization is another key in reaching out to prospects
28:49 – Recognize that you are NOT the most important thing to your prospect the time you reach out
- Don’t waste people’s time
30:41 – Leaders inside the company needs to understand that SDRs “interrupt” people the whole day
31:48 – Having empathy and research skills are two main traits Adam looks for when hiring
33:34 – Adam shares how they track success of SDRs without metrics
- Reply is a leading indicator
36:17 – How Adam managed his business while doing an SDR job for 2 months
36:59 – Adam’s BIGGEST takeaway: Tune in to what’s going on
40:23 – Advice to CEOs: Listen to as many calls and read the email exchanges
42:35 – Connect with Adam on LinkedIn and on his email
– Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
– Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Siftrock – Adam’s company
BuiltWith and EverString – Tools that Adam used while he filled in the SDR position

Ep 63 Brandon Bornancin

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews Brandon Bornancin, CEO and Founder of Seamless.ai. Brandon shares how his father’s transition to sales changed their family’s life from being broke to wealthy and how it influenced him to do sales in his own career path. Listen as he talks about the 10x mindset and how this helps him dedicate time, effort, and accountability to everything he does in order to succeed in this field.

3 Key Points:

Look for a leader who will lead and guide you — not a manager who only cares for their own goals.
Work hard but don’t do it unintelligently — work hard and work smart.
Your own personal commitment and accountability are essential in your success.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:33 – David introduces Brandon to the show
02:31 – Brandon is the founder and CEO of Seamless.ai
- Their mission is to empower the world to connect opportunities, help maximize revenue, and increase sales using AI
- Brandon grew up in a poor family and his parents were barely making it
- In high school, his father started selling computers at Macy’s
- CA Technologies hired his father and changed their lives
06:01 – His father preached Brandon how sales can change his life
- His father went from account executive to vice president
08:33 – Brandon shares how playing online poker opened the doors in sales for him
- He helped Party Poker generate $1.5M in his first year, $3M in his second, and $6M in his third year
11:30 – When the online gambling market became illegal, the party stopped for Brandon
12:11 – He started a second business, EnMobile
- He and his co-founders learned the importance of sales because they couldn’t sell the software
- They had over 50 companies on them and got acquired
- Brandon moved to New York and opened an office while his co-founder finished his last year in college
- He then got recruited by a friend at IBM Interactive as a sales director
16:40 – Brandon focused on search marketing and found out he needed to automate most of his tasks
- He built Seamless.ai to help him sell — it was his secret
- His boss asked him what he does and how he is able to outperform everyone in the team by 5x — he ended up selling to his team
- When they started crushing their quota, Brandon realized he wants to help everyone through his software
20:44 – “Sales is like being an entrepreneur without having to worry about all the b*lls*t”
22:28 – Brandon tells how his transition was from EnMobile to IBM
- Sales is the best career in the world for him
- At IBM, Brandon had all the resources and connections in the world
- Brandon didn’t like the politics game and the internal selling
28:43 – He had “OK” leadership in IBM but at Fathom Marketing, he had a GREAT leader who mentored him
- He ended up launching and selling Seamless.ai full-time
32:17 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
33:43 – Grant Cardone is Brandon’s mentor
- Brandon shares how learning before doing equips him ahead
- He read all the sales books and realized that “Sales is a game of chess, sales is a game of Texas Hold ‘Em Poker”
- Reading Grant’s books and reaching out to him
- Grant offered Brandon to work for him at GCTV.com
- Brandon declined and went full time to Seamless.ai
40:55 – “Have the 10x mindset”
42:45 – The first 3 years of Seamless.ai was “hell” for Brandon
44:21 – Brandon shares more about the 10x mindset
- Create massive goals
- Figure out the daily activity that will lead to that goal
48:35 – Brandon’s advice, “Believe in yourself, you can freaking do it!”
50:00 – Hold yourself accountable
51:48 – “Don’t work hard unintelligently. Work hard smart!”
53:43 – Use data to optimize everything you do
54:10 – Connect with Brandon on LinkedIn, Twitter, and on Seamless.ai
- Brandon is giving away FREE $1,000 WORTH OF LICENSE!
- Just use code: SDPodcast!
56:25 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
56:32 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Seamless.ai – Bradon’s company
CA Technologies – Company that hired Brandon’s father in a sales position
Party Poker – The poker website where Brandon earned commission through his referrals
EnMobile – Brandon’s second company
Fathom Marketing – Company where Brandon worked for in search marketing
Grant Cardone – Brandon’s mentor
GCTV.com – Grant Cardone’s channel

Ep 62 Malcolm J Smith

Summary:
In this episode, David shares the mic with Malcolm J Smith, Sales Development Manager for LEAP Legal Solutions. Malcolm has been in sales since he was 18 years old, starting out in retail. He was unexpectedly brought to sales development as an account executive and moved his way up as the sales development manager. Listen as he shares his journey, what he believes help people become successful at what they do, and the importance of having a motivation in your team.

3 Key Points:

Figure out what you really like to do and then double down on it.
It’s going to be hard giving motivation to people if they lack it within.
Networking doesn’t only mean connecting with people, it also means giving value to them.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:29 – David introduces Malcolm to the show
02:07 – Malcolm has just been recently promoted to a sales development manager position
03:17 – He has been in sales since he was 18 years old
- Retail in sales with AT&T
- He was recruited as an account executive and got into sales development
04:50 – Malcolm was constantly good at setting appointments
- Fanatical Prospecting is a book he recommends
06:48 – Retail experience is what helped Malcolm swing in sales development
08:15 – Become the positive disruption in somebody’s day
09:13 – Have effective conversations with the right people at the right time
10:05 – Believe in what you’re selling
- The give the value to save time and make more money
12:27 – Helping people transition to something that fits their skill set
13:42 – “If sales is the engine, sales development is the oil”
16:00 – As managers, the struggle is teaching your passion to your team
- Teach/coach people to find out what they’re good at
- Uncover the skills your members already have
- You can’t create motivation where there isn’t any
18:19 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
20:13 – The failure of the culture to teach people that passion will push you through
22:18 – You have to be honest to yourself to define what you really want
23:49 – Figure out what you’re ‘obsessed’ with
25:10 – Malcolm is in a point where his job is perfect for his life
27:23 – Stop focusing on external things
28:04 – “Wealth tends to find the people that are the best at what they do”
30:08 – Connect with Malcolm on LinkedIn and on his email
31:49 – Networking should be about giving value to people
34:37 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
34:45 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

LEAP Legal Solutions – Where Malcolm works as a sales development manager
AT&T – Where Malcolm started in retail sales
Fanatical Prospecting – Malcolm’s recommended book

Ep 61 Sanjit Singh

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Sanjit Singh, co-founder, and COO of LeadCrunch[ai]. From a sales position to entrepreneurship, Sanjit shares with us his journey in this arena. Listen as he drops down what LeadCrunch[ai] is, how they help their clients, and how salespeople can use technology as leverage in performing their jobs better.

3 Key Points:

Finding relevant patterns is key in handling data.
Use technology to guide you in the right conversations.
Salespeople don’t have to go through the tedious work to get connected to the right people, they just have to learn to leverage technology.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:53 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:32 – David introduces Sanjit to the show
02:36 – Sanjit’s Story: From sales to entrepreneurship
- His company started in the military space and then pivoted to lead generation
03:49 – “There’s a lot of underlying problems that are solved by the same kinds of technology”
04:09 – Finding relevant patterns was the key for the military, lead generation, and sales
- The importance of pattern recognition in statistics
06:02 – People have been collecting data and the next phase is finding meaning in that
07:49 – “At the end of the day, it’s all revenue”
08:45 – David mentions about Leadspace
09:32 – How LeadCrunch[ai] helps salespeople focus
- The question: how do we get value with what we already have?
- LeadCrunch[ai], using the data you already have, helps hone in on the optimal audience
11:31 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
12:34 – Sanjit talks about how companies can implement LeadCrunch[ai]’s process
- First step: taking a sample of customers and then data mining them
- Second step: creating a DNA strand of your customers then curating relevant contacts
- Third step: reaching out for early-stage engagement
16:14 – Sanjit says the name of the game is getting in early
17:26 – A phone call is still an important part of the stream, especially in confirming information
- Use technology to guide you in the right conversations
18:20 – Sanjit’s biggest challenge is realizing how many hours wasted were talking to the wrong people
- “Hopefully we get smarter”
21:00 – Sanjit is a firm believer of the combination of man and AI for sales
24:31 – There is a shift to sales development now
25:18 – Sanjit started in a sales era where he almost took pride in rejection
26:13 – He’s excited about the new SaaS product they’re working on at LeadCrunch[ai]
27:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
27:25 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

LeadCrunch[ai] – Sanjit’s company
Leadspace – A sales development company mentioned by David

Ep 60 Matt Finneran

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with Matt Finneran. Matt is the Co-Founder and CEO of NoteNinja, an AI to record, transcribe, and share your meetings. Prior to NoteNinja, Matt came up with SparkCentral, an engagement and support software dedicated to increase a business' customer digital engagement. Today, Matt talks about his experience building sales teams from scratch, the tips of the trade he learned from his two startups, and what a game tape is and how it helps him onboard people better.

3 Key Points:

The first question to ask to a person in sales is, “Are you creating curiosity?”
Clearly getting to learn from successful people helps, but often times, the hard work it takes to achieve success is overlooked.
Your work in sales is not a sprint, rather a marathon that you have to be prepared for.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
01:07 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:28 – David introduces Matt to the show
02:28 – NoteNinja started last year
- Matt started another company called SparkCentral before NoteNinja
03:23 – How Matt came up with SparkCentral
- The need in social media for customer care
- They had a traditional model for sales
05:38 – Matt shares building the team in SparkCentral
- Recording demos for everyone and then switching to game film
07:11 – Matt’s brother-in-law’s advice
- Taking the top people to lunch and checking in with them
09:43 – Matt believes that in hour-long meetings, there are 3 to 4 moments of truth
- If you’re getting into sales, hone in to those truths
- “A good meeting is just table stakes”
11:51 – The first question you always have to ask, “Are you creating curiosity?”
13:13 – Why a game tape is critical in your role as a coach to your team
13:48 – Matt gives tips to creating a game tape
- Use your phone to record
- Get a partner and hop on calls
- The key is to be in the moment to recognize what could have gone differently
16:53 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
17:51 – Start slowly in sales to get things right in the beginning and avoid creating bad habits that will fail you later
18:58 – Self-coaching and self-motivation are things that can help you learn your own voice
20:20 – The amount of hard work required for success is often overlooked
22:36 – “Momentum is tough in the SDR world”
23:21 – Getting back on the phone again after a good one is Matt’s advice to ride momentum
24:37 – “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon” — Prepare yourself for workday marathons, not sprints
- Set time blocks for yourself
29:02 – David talks about The Pomodoro Method
- “It’s easier said than done”
- “Discipline begets discipline”
30:20 – Two books David mentioned, The Compound Effect and The Slight Edge
31:32 – “Sales is a transference of energy and passion”
34:14 – Utilize your time
36:55 – The next for Matt: hiring for sales
37:29 – Connect with Matt on NoteNinja or send him an email
38:13 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
38:21 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

NoteNinja – Matt’s new business where he serves as a CEO
SparkCentral – Matt’s startup prior to NoteNinja
The Compound Effect and The Slight Edge – Two books David recommends

Ep 59 Olivier L'Abbe

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Olivier L’abbe to the show. Olivier is the Vice President of Sales in G2 Crowd, a peer-to-peer, business solutions review platform headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Listen as Olivier shares a multitude of his experiences and gold nuggets in sales — from how he started out to what he does to expand his skills now that he’s climbing up the ranks. He also shares about G2 Crowd’s Buyer Intent and how that can help make more sales appointments.

3 Key Points:

Hire people who are hungry to succeed.
Account executives should all be prospecting all the time.
If you’re in sales, you have to believe in the product you’re selling.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018

00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:28 – David introduces Olivier L’abbe to the show
02:32 – Olivier talks about his sales background
04:47 – He currently works in G2 Crowd
05:30 – Meeting the team in G2 Crowd via a recruiter
06:32 – G2 Crowd helps people make better buying decisions
- The site is FREE for everyone
- G2 Crowd offers REAL REVIEWS from actual software users
- Helping buyings to essentially cut the fluff
08:42 – G2 Crowd shows both the pros and cons of each software listed
- Bring transparency to the decision making process
09:37 – Olivier shares why people would want to leave a review
- 1 – An outreach team that engages people online, sometimes giving free gift cards
- 2 – Vendors become partners and they bring in their customers to make reviews
- 3 – Organic reviews from people
12:51 – G2 Crowd has over 40,000 different products and 5,000 different categories
- G2 Crowd’s BDR team’s role in B2B Services
- David’s work on GlassDoor influenced Olivier with BDR teams
- G2 Crowd currently has a team of 20 BDRs and a total of 70 people in sales
15:43 – “I want my account executives selling”
16:16 – Olivier believes in hiring young people who want to succeed
- He checks in with their individual employees to get feedback
- Account executives should also train BDRs on who to target
19:02 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
20:18 – Olivier talks about self-generating meetings
21:37 – Climbing up the ranks means Olivier must be people-oriented
22:25 – Olivier’s reminder to people who want to be AEs, “You will always be prospecting”
23:40 – How Olivier expands his skills as he move up
- Having an open communication line
- Learning through watching, reading, listening, etc.
24:54 – Having good leaders is what Olivier looks for in a company
26:59 – “If you’re in sales, you really got to believe in what you’re selling”
29:28 – Find something you’re passionate about
30:12 – G2 Crowd’s Buyer Intent
- They track buyer behavior and vendor behavior
- Feeding information in SalesForce
32:47 – A sales cycle with Cisco – Olivier shares how BDRs can use G2 Crowd to get info on the product they’re selling
34:27 – G2 Crowd’s premium offering includes giving leads and snippets of information that can be used to close deals
36:37 – Using personalized videos to convert sales through emails
38:55 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
39:02 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

G2 Crowd – Where Olivier serves as a VP of Sales
GlassDoor – Where Olivier and David worked together
SalesForce – Platform the G2 Crowd uses to feed Buyer Intent data
Cisco – A company where they had a sales cycle with

Ep 58 Taylor Scotto

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Taylor Scotto to the show. Taylor is the team lead of sales development at Everwise. His experience in sales started with a job as a banker in Chase and that experience opened up the door in sales. Tune in as Taylor walks us through his transition from an established company liked LinkedIn to getting into the startup he’s in now. He also talks about the importance of learning copywriting for SDRs and the involvement leaders should be having with their sales teams.

3 Key Points:

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy in business.
Invest in training and educating your SDR teams — they build your pipelines.
Leaders should be more involved and supportive in sales development.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
00:52 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:28 – David introduces Taylor to the show
02:30 – Taylor’s start in sales
- He has a degree in marketing
- He reached out to a friend who worked at Chase and got a job as a retail personal banker
- His experience with sales afforded him to become a top performer and got into LinkedIn
- Taylor then joined the startup Everwise
05:22 – Taylor shares his transition from LinkedIn to Everwise
- “Going from that was a huge challenge”
06:48 – He found out that things that worked in LinkedIn does not work in Everwise
- If something is not working, it’s not your fault
08:57 – A person’s success in a company depends on that person’s personality
10:43 – Taylor talks about failure and the unspoken rules in sales
- “We have to look at trying new things”
12:18 – Personalization is vital
- What works for startup companies is TESTING
13:30 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
15:04 – Taylor refers to Heather Morgan’s copywriting
17:40 – There’s a huge demand and need for sales development reps
- The lack of training is unreal
18:14 – Taylor shares the lack of acumen available to SDRs
20:06 – Taylor cannot believe how SDR roles get the least amount of support
- Sales leaders themselves don’t know what works
23:37 – Failing sales organizations has a lack of pipeline
26:56 – We’re living in an attention economy
28:02 – The challenge is in making and building trust with leaders
30:09 – “Sometimes senior sales leaders don’t understand what this role is”
31:59 – Keep on learning
32:56 – Copywriting should be a topic that’s being talked about
34:59 – Connect with Taylor on LinkedIn
36:28 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
36:35 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Everwise – Taylor’s current company
Chase – Company where Taylor first worked in
LinkedIn – Where Taylor worked in prior to Everwise
Heather Morgan – Copywriter that Taylor talked about

Ep 57 Hope O. Baker

Summary:
In this episode, David chats with Hope O. Baker. Hope is an enterprise BDR (business development representative) from Apttus, a Silicon Valley-based global provider of the Intelligent Middle Office platform. Hope shares her journey from being a raw recruit to a rockstar BDR at Apttus. Listen as she lists down her tips and strategies that helped her grow in this career.

3 Key Points:

If you want to grow, you need to put in the work.
Don’t just sell products — be the person who wants to solve your customer’s problem.
If you’re not happy with what you do, leave.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
00:17 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:58 – David introduces Hope to the show
01:54 – Hope started with door-to-door sales in memoryBlue
03:09 – Hope says AISP events, meetups, and networking became her tools to success
04:06 – Hope shares her experience in memoryBlue
- Doing emails and learning the basics of a BDR
05:09 – From raw recruit to rockstar — the process Hope went through as a BDR
07:19 – When you’re new, you have to be serious learning the groundwork
- Hope trained people in California
- Peer-led and company-wide trainings
08:58 – David thinks training is tough for managers to put together
- Peer-led training helps managers with the load
10:14 – Hope talks about her transition from memoryBlue to Apttus
- “At Apttus, we have a lot of resources here”
11:38 – “The main thing would be that I look at everything in a strategic, big picture mentality”
- Hope takes a holistic approach
- Putting the work in is what Hope takes pride of
12:38 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
15:11 – “I’m not here to sell you my products...I’m here to solve a business problem for you”
16:27 – Hope’s research process
- She uses Evernote to organize her accounts
- She checks the social media pages of her accounts and engages with them
18:47 – Loving what she does is what sets Hope apart
- “If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, leave”
20:38 – Training issues are not working anymore
- If you’re not training and growing yourself, you’re out
23:51 – “We need to be talking more about the problems we’re solving”
25:18 – Hope’s tip to BDRs is to role-play
27:23 – She previously suggested other BDRs to sit-in her demos and calls
28:13 – She thinks a team book club would be great
29:08 – Hope wants to be an account executive soon
31:23 – Follow Hope on Twitter
32:12 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
32:20 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Apttus – Where Hope currently works at
memoryBlue – A company where Hope previously worked for

Ep 56 Scott Ingram

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews Scott Ingram, Account Director with Relationship One and host of Inspired Marketing and Sales Success Story podcast. Listen in to know more about Scott’s podcasts, the inspiration behind it and why he thinks it would still be successful even if no one would listen it. Scott also gives valuable insight about doing sales and personal branding.

3 Key Points:

Keep things as simple as possible.
Know your niche and channel.
Branding and sales is about knowing what is unique about you.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:33 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube, iTunes and Spreaker
01:00 – David introduces Scott Ingram
02:30 – Scott talks about his sales career
- 03:42 – Scott was working with Eloqua before Relationship One
04:11 – Scott talks about the inspiration for his podcast
- 05:31 – It is about recognizing the best of the best
- 06:33 – Scott’s rules on who would be his guests
07:40 – David says Scott’s podcast is the first of its kind
08:19 – A lot of content is from sales experts that have only sold themselves
- 09:25 – The world of sales has evolved over the years
10:21 – The challenges the sales world is facing now
11:03 – There is a disconnect with the people using CRM
12:32 – People in the field must deal with many distractions
- 13:31 – There are technologies targeted for sales people but can also be a source of distraction
- 14:42 – The paradox of productivity according to Scott
- 15:36 – It is about keeping things as simple as possible
16:55 – Scott talks about Jeff Bezos of Amazon
- 17:07 – “What’s never going to change?”
18:10 – David wants to bring all the things that can help sales people together
19:03 – Scott’s podcast is about showing the practices of the best sales people
20:15 – Know what is unique with you
20:46 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
21:37 – With personal branding, you have to know what your goal is
22:04 – Why Scott does podcasting
23:31 – For the successful sales people, it’s about time in the saddle
24:30 – How Scott wrote his book Making Rain with Events
25:16 – Scott had a podcast based on what he did with the book
26:23 – People go to events for the content and connections
27:21 – Scott’s podcast is the biggest door opener for his career
- 28:23 – The greatest stuff happens before and after the actual interview
- 29:11 – A lot of things people share are off the record
- 31:01 – There is value in the relationship built with the guest
31:37 – Scott will do 10 podcast interviews at the Oracle event
- 32:01 – Scott’s sales team will serve as the hosts, so they can also build relationships
33:24 – It is important to have great content for your brand to succeed
34:44 – Find your niche
35:07 – Find your one channel
36:55 – Scott has created his own set of mentors through his podcast
37:26 – The problem with the podcast medium
38:01 – “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with” – Jim Rohn
39:47 – Scott’s Conference will be at the Alamo Draft House
- 40:24 – Scott wants people to be able to talk with one another
- 41:15 – There will be a dine around in Austin for the participants
42:42 – Scott wrote an article about tweeting during conferences
43:21 – Tom Singer is a keynote speaker in the conference
44:37 – There are introverts in sales
45:29 – The self-selection bias in Scott’s podcast
46:39 – To know more about the conference, go to top1summit.com, avail of Scott’s special offer at top1.fm/sdp
48:08 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
48:14 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Scott Ingram – Scott’s LinkedIn Profile
Relationship One – company Scott works with
Inspired Marketing and Sales Success Story – Scott’s podcasts
Making Rain with Events – Scott’s book
top1summit.com – for details on the Austin conference
top1.fm/sdp – to avail of Scott’s special offer for the conference

Ep 55 Rex Biberston

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Rex Biberston to the show. Rex is the co-founder and CEO of The Sales Developers and the co-author of the book, Outbound Sales, No Fluff, where he and his co-author, Ryan Reisert lists down everything you need to know about outbound sales at this time. Listen as Rex and David discuss into detail the contents of this new book and how it can help you in your sales development needs.

3 Key Points:

The market changes and evolves — what was “in” during the last 5 years may not be effective tomorrow.
Outbound sales is not just trying to get an account, it’s about checking into people if your product can solve their problems.
Don’t ever use the same script in the same way in every call — you have to own your calls!

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:01 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
00:24 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:52 – David introduces Rex to the show
01:31 – Rex calls himself The Outbound Sales Professor
- 01:47 – He found that the skills he needed as a professor would also work in sales
02:37 – Rex talks about how he connected with Ryan Reisert, his co-author for the book, Outbound Sales, No Fluff
03:56 – The book’s title, Outbound Sales, No Fluff, is what Rex and Ryan are about
05:18 – Rex and Ryan’s credibility from market changes
06:28 – Rex considers being part of InsideSales.com a blessing
07:31 – How Rex and Ryan completed the book in 45 days
- 07:44 – “We also prioritized the book within a short period of time”
- 08:28 – The manuscript was produced in less than 30 days
09:30 – The book lays a foundation for the right mentality in sales
10:24 – “Just because you’re great at sales doesn’t mean you’ll sell everything tomorrow”
11:27 – How technology can help you in accelerating success in sales
13:25 – David talks about the mindset salespeople should have
- 14:23 – Acknowledge what problems your product solves
15:33 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
17:45 – The old mentality to just close deals is changing
18:35 – Rex talks about incentivizing wrong behaviors vs incentivizing correctly
22:24 – Bring in everyone together to a common goal
23:40 – Working with the foundations in the book
- 24:43 – Start with building a targeted list
- 24:55 – Rex highly recommends founders to sell first
28:03 – You need a significant amount of evidence that your product is worth a sales team
29:05 – Rex shares how you get data for leads using lead scraping tools
31:38 – The book gives a basic format for messaging
- 33:23 – Ask if they want you to help them solve their problem
35:12 – A better offer is also recommended
37:31 – Don’t use the same script in the same way
- 37:37 – Own your calls!
39:07 – Currently, Rex focuses on outbound sales consulting
40:21 – Connect with Rex on his website
40:48 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
41:04 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Ryan Reisert – Rex’s co-author
Outbound Sales, No Fluff – Rex’s book
InsideSales.com – Company where Rex started in sales

Ep 53 Chris Bryson

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews Chris Bryson, head of North American Sales Development at SmartRecruiters. Tune in as Chris shares how they use data to help SDRs get better at their work and produce more results. He also shares the process on how their company implemented the changes towards success.

3 Key Points:

Look at the data and learn how to analyze and review it.
The leadership should take time to allow the people to learn.
Let the SDRs focus on making sales.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:40 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
01:02 – David introduces Chris to the show
02:35 – Chris says the best decision he ever made is to go from finance to sales development
- 03:20 – Chris first worked with PandaDoc in San Francisco where he met Taft Love
- 04:26 – With SmartRecruiters, Chris worked as a frontline sales manager
05:33 – The company’s work is data-driven by necessity
- 06:16 – They had problems in sales development
- 07:35 – The SDRs were concerned about how they connect with people
- 08:05 – The company decided to quantify the data and made a bucket for success
09:32 – The problem with using CRM is reporting
- 10:07 – Buckets should be aligned with the different dispositions in Salesforce
- 11:31 – The end result is to move people to set appointments
12:09 – Data made it possible to see the connect rate and make better decisions for the next steps needed
13:02 – When the skill gaps of the reps were identified, they went into the data-driven sales coaching
15:05 – The coaching framework was built to teach people on how to open and close a call
16:32 – The first step is to actually talk to the team and review the data
- 17:33 – This was done to set the philosophy on how the team will run and why coaching is important
18:04 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
18:46 – The company used the tool Guru for documentation
19:43 – During formal trainings, participants were required to write down their questions
20:34 – Roll out was done through the training or a coaching session
21:04 – Homework is assigned using their own tool and the reps also have to complete a scorecard
22:23 – The manager reviews results with the rep on a one-on-one session
23:20 – If something didn’t stick he management will do another review
23:56 – Chris meets with their SDR manager on a weekly basis to review reports
25:45 – The biggest thing they made a mistake on is to move too quickly with the changes
- 26:26 – Leadership should take time to allow people to learn
- 27:32 – Chris says he would hold back even more if he can do it again
28:36 – Chris encourages any SDR manager to keep on making contacts and stay in touch
29:31 – SmartRecruiters has the ability to keep in touch with people
29:47 – Leverage the use of LinkedIn
- 30:04 – Go to events and meet people face to face
31:31 – The head of sales development is almost an SDR for people
32:06 – SmartRecruiters is hiring more enterprise account executives as part of their scaling
33:37 – With prospects, they have an application experience scorecard
34:17 – The company has a research team that helps the sales development team in innovative projects
35:22 – “Use data intelligently to create value”
36:12 – The sales cycle becomes ROI oriented
37:14 – Invest in decentralizing the SDR role
38:02 – Chris says they took away the activities that are most likely to be neglected and gave it out to contractors
39:56 – Increase the pipeline to demonstrate the ROI for hiring the contractor
- 40:26 – Sellers can just focus on selling and not on unrelated tasks
- 41:09 – It’s insane to pay a lot to an SDR to do data entry
41:57 – Connect with Chris on LinkedIn
42:34 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
42:41 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

PandaDoc – company Chris first worked in
SmartRecruiters – company where Chris works now

Ep 52 David Cancel

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews David Cancel, CEO of Drift. David has been a mentor in the tech industry to different companies over the years. Tune in and listen to David talk about how growing up in a pre-internet environment affected him, why discomfort is important for a business to succeed and how you can find your place in the tech industry.

3 Key Points:

Believing you are lucky or not is relative and can be self-limiting.
You must experience discomfort and pain to grow and succeed.
Learn to ride the wave and use it to push you towards success.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:40 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
01:02 – David introduces David Cancel to the show
02:36 – David currently lives in Boston where Drift is located
03:20 – His goal for his podcast, Seeking Wisdom is to help people discover their true potential
- 04:05 – There are people who do not know what they are capable of
- 04:41 – Kids today know more because of the internet
05:26 – Having to grow up in a pre-internet environment has led to self-limiting beliefs
06:08 – People must get over their self-limiting beliefs
07:19 – David is inspired by Dave Ramsey and Sam Walton
08:16 – David succeeded at business because no one expected it of him
09:34 – If you have Twitter or can listen to a podcast, you are lucky
10:55 – There are people who told David that he can’t do things and he wanted to prove them wrong
11:53 – David says he still feels he has not achieved anything
- 12:24 – This is what motivates him to continue working

● 14:25 – Believing that you are not lucky is a self-limiting belief

15:40 – Sometimes luck is just about being born in the right time and the right place
16:17 – Mark Zuckerberg’s success is not just about luck
17:11 – Read about Jim Rohn
18:01 – Set the sail in the way that will lead you to success
18:40 – You can only reap the rewards if you have sown the seeds
19:33 – David says he does not know what makes his companies successful
- 20:23 – Have humility, put away your pride and solve the problem of your customer
- 21:08 – Don’t be blinded by the pride of what you created that you stop listening to the customer
- 22:02 – Be willing to be wrong
22:28 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
23:01 – Getting out of your comfort zone is where growth is
- 24:03 – Training is what helps us go through discomfort
- 25:25 – Taking criticism from customers can be painful but is important
- 26:18 – Don’t run away from taking a beating
27:33 – Everything that Bill Gates creates have already been validated by the customer
- 29:03 – Bill Gates gave his company the daily beating
30:14 – High performing organizations have to be customer-oriented or have a leader that will always keep them on their toes
31:29 – If you know other models of how to lead organizations, please post it in the comments section
32:10 – David’s podcast is his way of talking to himself
33:15 – Aside from products that are executed well and have good marketing, it is also important that the market is ready for it
34:42 – There was a time when messaging was not common for everyone
- 35:39 – Human behavior has changed and now messaging is normal
- 36:10 – “We are just riding on the momentum”
37:18 – Look at the big changes that are happening in the world and when they are becoming normal
38:21 – Power is moving from companies and suppliers to consumers
40:42 – David Cancel thinks Snapchat has become normal to people because it is the environment they grew up in
41:31 – “Pay attention to the shifts that are happening around us”
41:58 – David says David Cancel’s company put the soul in their products
- 42:30 – It’s a lot of work but they do it because it’s how they stand out
- 43:07 – It’s about building a mote and knowing what the mote is
- 44:47 – Build an emotional mote around a brand, product, or service
46:54 – David Cancel will be in San Francisco in September
47:27 – Check out Hypergrowth, David’s upcoming business conference
47:55 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
48:05 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Drift – David Cancel’s company
Seeking Wisdom – David Cancel’s podcast
Hypergrowth – Business conference lead by Drift

Ep 51 Brian Remington

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews Brian Remington of AppsFlyer. Brian is one of David’s mentors and has worked during the early stages of Salesforce and LinkedIn. Tune in as Brian talks about his corporate trinity, his tips on how to help others succeed and how to build sales development in your own business.

3 Key Points:

You don’t have to struggle alone — look for someone who can coach you.
Give people the foundation for them to be able to succeed in the work they do.
Always assume best intent in every situation.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:40 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
01:01 – David welcomes Brian to the show
02:20 – If it wasn’t for technology, Brian would have been a football coach or history teacher
- 02:53 – Brian has worked in Salesforce and LinkedIn
03:23 – Brian’s corporate trinity – Leadership, Product, and Culture
04:15 – Brian shares about his work mobile advertising and mobile analytics
05:22 – He is passionate about coaching others
06:32 – “Without failure there is no growth”
07:50 – Reach out to others and never stop asking for help
- 08:40 – It's easier to look for someone who can help you than to struggle alone
09:32 – The difference between culture and climate
10:42 – Failure is “okay”
11:16 – It is the leader’s job to build the confidence of people before giving them the autonomy to be creative
12:14 – You want people to be directionally confident in the things they are supposed to do
13:44 – A solid foundation is important for people to succeed in their work
14:05 – There are different approaches to success
- 15:40 – Figure out what your specific skill set is and not just follow others
16:23 – The best teams are the ones that recognize diversity
17:26 – Brian doesn’t give people his goals but rather let them have their own goals
17:53 – David talks about the difference between the processes of startups and big companies
- 18:47 – Brian worked with companies that already had their processes set
- 19:30 – Being in a startup means knowing the WHY because you were there when it was built
21:23 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
22:10 – “As the leader, you should be able to take ideas and look at how you can include it in your processes”
22:54 – There are different ways to do things as you bring different people
23:32 – Brian shares how he would build a Sales Development Department
- 24:08 – Ask the company why they want a Sales Development Department
- 25:12 – Sit with the sales organization and look at what they would do if they had more time
- 26:30 – What is the system of work that we want this person doing?
- 27:18 – Brian recommends to always hire cohorts
28:02 – Brian’s take on goal setting
- 28:31 – Brian would reverse engineer from the top down
- 29:07 – He talks about the pyramid of goals
- 30:21 – Why it is important for everyone to have the same vocabulary
31:48 – What to do when someone is upset with the output or process
- 32:18 – A person who is upset usually has a different expectation
- 34:27 – It is important to reassess every quarter
- 35:45 – At the end of the day, it is not about you being right
36:27 – You can always fall back on the numbers you are producing
37:05 – “Always assume best intent in every situation”
38:52 – What are the different avenues for career expansion for someone who works in sales development?
- 39:26 – It depends on your work before you came to a leadership role
- 40:52 – The best way to do something is to do it now
- 41:10 – The question is where do you want to be and how many options do you want?
- 42:22 – Decide what you want to do as early as you can
43:30 – There is a big disparity between data and actionable data
45:28 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
45:37 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Salesforce and LinkedIn – Companies where Brian used to work
AppsFlyer – Company where Brian currently works in

Ep 50 Sangram Vajre

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews Sangram Vajre, co-founder and CMO of Terminus and the author of Account-Based Marketing for Dummies. Sangram is considered as a thought leader in B2B marketing and is behind the #FlipMyFunnel community. Tune in as Sangram shares how he got into account-based marketing and be inspired on how you can implement it in your business.

3 Key Points:

Focus on your targeted audience rather than just leads.
The most selfish thing you can do is be selfless.
Put yourself out there and do not be afraid to try something new.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:40 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
01:01 – David introduces Sangram to the show
01:38 – Sangram has a video interview on Youtube that made an impact to David
02:42 – He talks about the changes in Pardot
- 03:08 – Thinking 10x after the acquisition by ExactTarget
- 03:20 – Acquisition by Salesforce had him think 100x
03:41 – “It really matters how you think and how big you think and what big really means to you”
04:42 – Sangram’s friends who were working on B2B marketing led him to do Account-Based Marketing and the book
05:47 – David talks about category creation
06:10 – Sangram shares how the inspiration for Flip My Funnel came about
07:39 – The difference between the upright funnel and the flipped funnel is targeted audience
- 08:20 – Start with the customer first
- 08:45 – Expand your reach
- 09:11 – Engage people on their terms
- 09:30 – Turn them into advocates
09:44 – It is about changing the perception of volume-based marketing and sales activities to targeted account marketing and sales
10:25 – Explaining the flipped funnel to executives who are used to the original funnel
- 11:45 – Start with identifying who your target is
- 12:23 – Align marketing and sales together
13:14 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
13:31 – The alignment between the executives and the sales and marketing team leaders
- 14:06 – “The buck stops at the CEO when it comes to account-based marketing”
- 14:40 – There is a disconnect in the leads that is being sent by the marketing to sales
- 15:40 – Leads don't matter if they are not your target audience
16:29 – In Terminus, the CRO and VP of Marketing has the same exact number and work as #oneteam
17:13 – Implementing account-based marketing was also hard for them but it paid off eventually
18:25 – The metrics to identify success in using Salesforce and the measure of effectiveness of ABM
- 19:23 – Marketing can see the pipeline
- 20:42 – ABM is way broader than how marketing or sales activities used to work
- 21:15 – You can measure success by the time and engagement spent
- 22:47 – Focus your time on the accounts that are engaged with you more
- 22:57 – Time is one of the most important metrics
23:18 – There are a lot of tools to track time, one is Google Analytics
24:08 – The SDRs role
- 25:30 – Sangram shares how their process works
28:09 – Reduce the number of accounts and add more value to it by adding personalization as a factor
30:39 – Harness the creativity of people
32:26 – Trust transcends everything: When you trust something, you pay more for it
33:31 – We are in the business of creating trust
34:29 – Flip My Funnel is about bringing the B2B community together
36:58 – The most selfish thing you can do is be selfless
37:14 – When you drop your logo, you become human and this makes you more attractive to people
39:21 – Connect with Sangram on LinkedIn and Twitter
40:05 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
40:15 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Account-Based Marketing for Dummies - Sangram’s book
Terminus – Sangram’s company
#FlipMyFunnel – B2B marketing and sales conference community spearheaded by Sangram

Ep 49 Mark Ripley

Summary:
This week on the Sales Development Podcast, David welcomes Mark Ridley to the show. Mark is the founding director and partner of Transform Performance International, and co-author of the book, The Salesperson’s Secret Code. Listen as Mark shares more about his book, their journey on finding the secret code, and the 5 core destination beliefs of salespeople.

3 Key Points:

Salespeople are not just transmitters. Good ones know there needs to be a dialogue.
Look after your network and there will come a time that your network will look after you.
Self-awareness is a trait for successful people.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:01 – David introduces Mark to the show
01:23 – Mark’s book, The Salesperson’s Secret Code, has launched
01:56 – Mark has been in sales his entire career
- 02:31 – He talks about beliefs, values, and ethics around sales
- 03:26 – He realized a lot of beliefs in old selling don’t apply anymore
03:56 – Transform Performance International started in 1999 when Mark and his partners decided to create a business around sales and technology
- 05:44 – “The world of sales hasn’t stopped evolving”
- 05:55 – Mark now looks at where marketing and sales are interrelated
06:30 – A new generation of sales people have come up because of automation
07:41 – What Mark realized from their research is that salespeople who recognize they are part of a larger collaborative unit cannot be the end to end point for the customer
09:25 – “The customers have changed as well”
10:10 – “Forge relationships within your own organizations”
10:48 – Mark tells the story on how they found the secret code
- 11:05 – Like many businesses, they’ve been adept at delivering skills and knowledge-based development
- 11:35 – The day came for sophisticated CRM systems
- 12:28 – It’s not about skill, but something to do with behavior
- 12:42 – If you don’t believe in using CRMs, it will manifest
- 12:59 – Mark and his partners asked to interview salespeople from different companies
- 13:54 – They interviewed each person between 1.5-2 hours using clean questioning
- 14:31 – They transcribed and analyzed a thousand interviews to know the secret code
15:07 – Ethics come from holding certain beliefs
16:16 – What Mark got from the interviews was a pattern of beliefs
- 16:31 – The 5 core destination beliefs
  - Fulfillment
  - Accountability
  - Resilience
  - Influence
  - Communication

○ 19:59 – The top 5% of salespeople have an optimal balance between fear of failure and being better than they already are

22:20 – Be careful in hiring! Recognize people who are afraid to fail too
24:11 – Lower performers talked about influencing
- 24:48 – “Influence is about flexibility”
25:59 – The need to communicate is another thing that came up in the interviews
- 27:03 – “It’s not always about simply transmitting. It’s about being able to create a dialogue”
- 27:28 – Communication is a continuous dialogue
29:47 – The network is all important
- 30:49 – Make the time to look after your network
- 31:35 – Be mindful of the appropriate behavior for the situation you’re in
- 32:07 – Successful people are those who are self-aware
  - 33:09 – Ask yourself important questions
35:11 – Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence, also talks about the behavior of influence
37:31 – Mark talks about trying to box the careers of some of the best people in the planet
- 38:26 – The humility in sales
40:31 – Don’t forget to check out The Salesperson’s Secret Code
40:39 – Connect with Mark on Salespersons-Secret-Code.com, Transform Performance International, and on LinkedIn
43:20 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
43:27 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Transform Performance International – Mark’s company
The Salesperson’s Secret Code – The book Mark co-authored
Influence – Robert Cialdini’s book Mark and David mentioned

Ep 48 Scott Leese

In this episode, David interviews Scott Leese, author of the book, Addicted to the Process. Scott is one of the top sales leaders in the country and has built and scaled sales teams at numerous multi-million dollar companies. He’s one of AA-ISP’s TOP 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals in 2017. Tune in as Scott tells us his story on how he got into sales, what his new book is about, and how you can discover your prospects’ pain points.

3 Key Points:

There is no reason you can’t succeed — it’s only yourself that’s holding you back.
Ask the right questions.
If your process is proven to work, stick with it.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:40 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
00:55 – David introduces Scott to the show
01:24 – Scott is the author of the book, Addicted to the Process
02:30 – Scott studied psychology with a minor in religious studies
- 02:58 – He never studied business or sales
- 03:09 – After graduate school at age 23, he had numerous serious illnesses
- 03:32 – He got hooked on pain medication and had to recover from that on top of the healing process
- 03:52 – He went into sales completely strategically
06:00 – In his mind, the way to business is into sales
- 06:39 – “You can really use sales to empower yourself and change your life in a really meaningful way”
- 07:34 – Scott’s job is to make people better, not better sales people
09:16 – Building the mindset to succeed
- 09:37 – Scott’s experiences made him close to fearless
- 10:17 – When he started in sales, Scott told himself, “There’s NO reason you can’t do this”
- 11:03 – Having the GROWTH Mindset is important
12:54 – The Growth Mindset CAN be taught
- 13:06 – Make a decision
- 14:32 – Be mentally tough and believe you deserve success
15:46 – There are so many good opportunities out there
- 16:00 – Scott talks about his first sales job at Reply
- 17:43 – After 9 months of being a sales rep, Scott moved up as a sales manager
- 18:10 – Just because something doesn’t go your way, that doesn’t mean it’s not the place you’re meant to be in
18:19 – DiscoverORG – The world’s leading prospect intelligence platform
18:37 – Ego can drive a lot of bad decisions
19:54 – Everybody’s process is different
- 20:04 – For Scott, sales is like an addiction
- 21:42 – Help someone understand WHY they NEED to FIX their problem ASAP
- 22:00 – Scott’s Process = Pain → Value → Urgency → Solution
- 22:48 – Ask the right kinds of questions
- 23:52 – The key is to get your prospects admit they have a problem
26:10 – Scott shares about Qualia
- 28:16 – Building credibility with outbound messaging
30:00 – Part of the process is TRUSTING every step
31:24 – if you find something that works, STICK with it
35:02 – Scott talks about his plan to have a sales surfer mastermind in Costa Rica
39:56 – Connect with Scott on LinkedIn
40:44 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
41:01 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Addicted to the Process – Scott’s book
Reply – Company where Scott first landed a sales job
Qualia – Company where Scott currently works in

Episode 47 - Falon Fatemi

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Falon Fatemi to the show. Falon is the CEO & Founder of Node.io, a platform that aims to help businesses better understand their market opportunities through data. Today, Falon comes to the show to talk about how her experiences in working with Google and the startup world helped her in starting Node and how they help businesses.

3 Key Points:

Businesses need to stop guessing numbers and start using available data in their strategic and tactical implementations.
The relationships you build are worth more than what you think they are.
Use your passion, interest, and experience in finding out which problem you’d like to solve in the market.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:37 – David introduces Falon to the show
01:21 – Falon was the youngest employee at Google before she founded Node
- 01:29 – She spent 6 years in Google and 6 years in the startup world
- 02:08 – Network and relationship are what got Falon into Google
03:42 – “Google is an incredible company”
- 03:56 – Falon was focused on global expansion
- 04:38 – She joined YouTube and got to work into exciting programs
- 05:26 – Google is a data-driven company
- 06:56 – Google has been an incredible launching pad for Falon in founding Node
07:34 – The story behind Node
- 07:47 – Falon made an analysis on all the introductions she’s made in the 6 years she spent in the startup world
- 07:55 – Outcomes led to life-changing opportunities for both individuals and opportunities
- 09:27 – Falon saw the need of an engagement model
10:50 – Falon talks about how they work with Blue Jeans
- 14:26 – Node provides an end to end solution from strategic to tactical implementation
17:23 – Why are the businesses still guessing to what their total addressable market is?
18:22 – Node owns 3 steps to an entire product value chain
- 19:47 – “The math is only as good as the data”
- 20:01 – The core IP is connecting all the data points acquired
23:14 – Node doesn’t require companies a certain number of customers to work with them
24:42 – Node is not just for the sales rep, but for the marketing team, sales team, and operations team as well
25:42 – Falon’s biggest advice when starting a business: Use your passion to solve a problem
- 28:05 – “It’s certainly NOT EASY”
- 28:31 – Test the waters before going double down on a decision
- 29:14 – “It’s all about the power of your network”
29:45 – Falon explains the founder market fit
- 30:21 – Create a business around the intersection of your passion, interest, and/or experience
32:18 – Learn more about Node.io
32:34 – Check out Falon’s blog
32:46 – Falon is currently working on scaling the value of Node and expanding on empowering everyone to use Node to leverage opportunities
34:10 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
34:17 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Node.io – Falon’s business startup
Google and YouTube – Companies where Falon worked with
Blue Jeans – A client of Node
Falon’s blog

Episode 46 - Sahil Mansuri

Summary:
Gone were the days when hitting hundreds of cold calls or sending thousands of emails were the trend. As SDRs get smarter and tools more sophisticated, it’s not about the quantity of leads you have anymore – rather the quality of them and the process on how you actually get these leads as paying customers.

Today, David interviews Sahil Mansuri, CEO of Bravado, a new platform that aims to make salespeople who give value to stand out more. Sahil shares a multitude of insights and examples from his past and present experiences in sales. Listen as he talks about what importance personalization plays in getting your leads to notice you, why it’s more about the service differentiation these days, and what benefits you get from being the person to provide value to people.

3 Key Points:
1. Stand out from the crowd by being extremely personalized with your approach.
2. No automation or robot will understand your clients’ pain points — use that to your edge by being the person to solve their problems.
3. Differentiate your product or service to people by providing them real value.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
00:37 – David welcomes Sahil to the show
01:13 – Sahil shares how he met David 7 years ago
- 01:24 – They were both part of the first classes of salespeople hired by Glass Door
01:45 – Sahil ended up in product & marketing at Sales Predict, a lead scoring platform
02:12 – He recently founded Bravado, a place where salespeople can build reputation and credibility
03:01 – Sales development for Sahil is now on 2 different planes
- 03:12 – “I think sales teams are getting smarter”
- 03:40 – SDR teams are getting more sophisticated
- 04:23 – Buyers are getting sick of getting cold calls and generic emails, and ultimately, they are frustrated and distrustful of sales development practices
07:28 – Personalization is KEY
08:34 – Being extremely personal with messaging is something Sahil saw that’s most effective when he was in Sales Predict
09:34 – You only have one chance — make sure that when you reach out, you’re being personal and targeted
13:00 – It’s laziness when SDR teams use quantity to cover quality
13:42 – Sahil talks about his Meltwater experience
- 14:12 – Every single PR person in the list has been called and everybody hated Meltwater — it took years to repair the relationship
- 14:55 – Learn to be respectful
15:45 – Bravado was built for warm intros and referrals
- 16:30 – 71% of customers are willing to give testimonials or referrals for products they enjoy using
- 16:54 – Only 11% of sales people are willing to ask for testimonials or referrals
- 17:51 – The future is building your business through referrals
19:11 – Utilize every single referenceable customer that you have to build a community of ambassadors
20:25 – Bravado focuses on the single methodology of asking for referrals
21:43 – There is a time and place for outbound outreach
- 22:06 – Sahil walks us through how they did outreach at Virool
- 26:11 – It’s important to invest in a mighty sales process
- 26:50 – Make sure every email is VALUABLE, PERSONAL, and something that will NOT EMBARRASS your company
28:26 – Sahil hates when companies think that leads are prey for hunting
30:47 – Step away from volume and focus on quality
32:27 – “We just need to hold on a higher standard of what success is”
- 32:40 – Creating a GREAT EXPERIENCE for a buyer that makes them want to engage with your brand is SUCCESS
- 34:10 – Focus on creating REAL VALUE with every interaction
36:23 – Growth EQUALS Retention
37:30 – Sahil was a customer first before he joined Sales Predict
38:00 – Retain and delight your customers and you will magically get more
39:45 – “Growing without a scalable product and market fit is suicidal”
42:12 – Sahil talks about why sales territories doesn’t make sense for him
- 44:49 – “The only way you should get into an account is if you get referred to it”
46:39 – Concept of territory makes sense within industry
- 48:22 – Create industry expertise within your sales team
- 51:17 – Today, it’s all about service differentiation
54:28 – Become a source of information for people
- 57:49 – Try to spark a conversation and create value in that
- 58:30 – No robot will deeply understand your clients’ pains — build your brand as a trusted advisor
01:00:21 – Sahil built Bravado because as a buyer, he had a difficult time choosing who to trust
01:01:17 – He mentions Breezy, a representative from Moo.com
01:04:32 – Bravado aims to create a way to make salespeople who give value to stand out
01:05:25 – Bravado wants to ensure that people who join them are ones who are people centric
01:05:56 – The waitlist is open! Sign up at Bravado.me
01:07:23 – David and Sahil talk about John, a great person in sales
01:09:35 – Be honest, be transparent, and be yourself
01:12:10 – “Be known as the breath of fresh air”
01:14:00 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
01:14:10 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Bravado – Sahil’s new venture where salespeople can build reputation and credibility
Glass Door – Company where David and Sahil met
Sales Predict, Meltwater, and Virool – Past companies where Sahil has worked with
Moo.com – Website where Sahil found an outstanding representative

Episode 45 - Braydan Young & Nick Casale

Getting your target’s attention is becoming harder each day and emails aren’t working as good as it used to. Today, setting up appointments for prospects take more than just a phone call or an email — creativity has become the battleground for SDRs.

In this episode, David interviews Braydan Young and Nick Casale of Sendoso, a B2B engagement platform that helps companies amplify account-based marketing and sales with eGifts, handwritten notes, mailers, and more. Together, they talk about what Sendoso is, how it works, and how creativity changed the game for all sales accounts.

3 Key Points:
1.Be creative to get in front of your customers.
2.Leverage the internet and tools you have and incorporate them into your strategy.
3.Don’t just sell — build long-term relationships with people.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Talk to the experts at Inside Sales Team for all your sales development needs
00:46 – David welcomes Braydan and Nick
01:27 – Braydan is the cofounder and head of sales, while Nick is the account executive
02:04 – They started 3 years ago with a company called CoffeeSender
- 02:34 – From eGifts to everything you can send
- 03:49 – People started to be more creative in getting in front of their customers
04:38 – “Direct mail is something everyone knows they should be doing”
04:50 – Sendoso operationalized and scaled direct mail
- 05:31 – The most successful BDRs they work with incorporate some sort of gifting to their prospects
- 06:00 – “The more personalized, the better”
- 06:38 – Nick’s favorite “sends” are the handwritten notes and the post-it notes
- 08:09 – Gifts that involve more people than just one target are the best ones that work
08:53 – Braydan talks about when eGifts work well vs when they don’t
10:58 – Get smart at leveraging the internet
11:33 – Sendoso has an Amazon integration
13:07 – The back end is a big logistical process
14:00 – David shares about what past episode guest, Stu Heinecke did for contact marketing
15:28 – Braydan worked as a recruiter prior to co-founding Sendoso
- 16:00 – Braydan’s co-founder, Chris, had the idea to send out gift cards to mail to people
- 16:46 – Their business idea quickly turned to the direction of account-based marketing even before it was around
- 17:26 – Using personalization and gifting helps build a relationship with the end person you’re targeting
18:13 – Nick shares about setting up strategies over accounts
- 19:26 – Be proactive in thinking about how to get all decision makers involved
20:24 – Both marketing and sales departments coordinate with Sedoso on where they want their budget spent
22:46 – Sendoso is a Chrome Extension that sits inside SalesForce
23:51 – Nick shares about his favorite send
- 24:41 – Braydan talks about his favorite send that was made by a team
- 26:38 – Setting appointments is getting harder
- 27:12 – “You’ve got to get creative today”
29:03 – Braydan talks about The Renaissance of Direct Mail
30:18 – “No one likes to be sold to”
31:35 – Connect with Nick at [email protected] and with Braydan at [email protected]
32:08 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
32:35 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Sendoso – B2B engagement platform where Braydan and Nick works
CoffeeSender – The company Braydan and his co-founder, Chris, started before Sendoso
Amazon and SalesForce – Platforms where Sendoso have integrations with

Episode 44 - Maria Pergolino

Luck is not what takes a company from 70 employees to a thousand — it’s the hard work and good marketing that’s behind the success. And Sales Development plays a huge role in achieving that.

In this episode, David shares the mic with Maria Pergolino, Apttus’ senior vice-president in global marketing and sales development (now with Anaplan). She is one of the key persons who helped grow Apttus to its current size with over 1,100 employees. Listen as Maria shares her insights and stories how they grew Apttus, some tips, tools, and tactics to effectively reach your customers, and why people should consider getting into sales development if they want to be in marketing.

3 Key Points:
1. Have yourself responsible for bringing insights to your team.
2. Sales Development is NOT a subset for sales or marketing — this department plays a role in every business.
3. Use tools to leverage and manage the tasks in your teams and in your business.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Talk to the experts at Inside Sales Team for all your sales development needs
00:44 – David welcomes Maria to the show
01:22 – Maria has been in Apttus for 5 years now
- 01:52 – Prior to being in Apttus, Maria worked for Marketo
03:01 – When Maria joined Apttus, they had about 70 employees — now they have 1,100
- 03:37 – Their success came from marketing
- 04:46 – “Be with the winners”
05:56 – Founders tend to paint the picture of the future but at the start, you have a quota and a pipeline to hit
07:17 – Businesses should be able to create clear messaging for their marketing personas
07:58 – Some companies are “too early” in the industry that it may take time for success
09:12 – Employees tend to count on their bosses to set a company culture
09:54 – Maria encourages everyone to stop waiting and bring in ideas to their teams
- 10:43 – “Take personal responsibility for yourself and the vibe you’re creating for the team”
12:29 – Sales development is NOT a subset of sales nor a subset of marketing
- 14:03 – Sales development needs a voice in a company and the sales development team should know how they’re running their business
- 15:03 – Sales teams usually tries to take sales development teams as their subordinates
- 15:46 – Marketing teams bring a process to help create continuity with sales development teams
17:11 – The pipelines, both quantity and quality, of Apttus have been very successful because of the alignment to marketing
- 17:57 – It’s a tricky balance for sales development and marketing departments
- 19:20 – Maria shares how they hit their numbers at Apttus
- 20:45 – For outbound sales, sales development team members are aligned to reps to work around a plan
22:20 – Maria uses events as a way of urgency for outbound accounts
- 24:11 – Apttus uses Salesforce, Microsoft, Marketo, EverString, Engagio, and InsideSales
- 25:00 – Apttus is big on leverage technology
- 26:02 – Maria shares more about Engagio
28:10 – Even if Engagio is awesome, “We have to invest more time (in knowing and reaching personas)”
- 29:10 – Know who you really want to sell to and make connections
- 30:27 – Maria shares a humorous example about wrong consumer targeting
- 31:31 – The sales development reps at Marketo would send themselves emails so they get a higher return rate
32:57 – Maria thinks sales development will go to marketing in 5 years
34:17 – Teams grow because of the efficiency from sales development
35:16 – Maria talks about how they measure success in creating relevant conversations
- 36:04 – The actual computation is based on opportunities, pipeline created and the different portions of competence based on where the opportunity lands
- 37:56 – “The sales development team has pipeline goals where they can make impact”
39:51 – Maria’s advice for people who want to get into marketing is to “start in sales development”
- 40:41 – “Marketing and sales have the same goal”
- 41:38 – Consider marketing if you’re in sales development
43:26 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
43:33 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Apttus – Company where Maria worked during podcast recording. She's now with www.anaplan.com/
Marketo – Company where Maria worked for prior to Apttus
Salesforce, Microsoft, Marketo, EverString, Engagio, and InsideSales – Tools that Apttus use in their company

Episode 43 - Adam Weitzman

Summary:

Sales Development Representatives bring value to every company by connecting their offer to possible leads and customers — this work, however, is not as easy as it seems. What people don’t realize is the effort it takes to even just connect with a lead.

In this episode, Adam Weitzman, shares with us his experiences as a former SDR in SalesForce and as a current AE in LinkedIn. With David, Adam will walk us through why multi-threaded leads are much more feasible than having just one point person, how important building a relationship is, and how he uses LinkedIn to build trust with prospect leads.

3 Key Points:
1.Start considering having different points of contact in a company vs having just one.
2.Always build relationship and trust first before selling something.
3.Do something that your competition doesn’t.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Talk to the experts at Inside Sales Team for all your sales development needs
00:46 – David introduces Adam to the show
02:27 – After school, Adam decided he will be in a banking-type role
- 02:40 – In 8 months, he left the job and managed to get into an internship program at SalesForce
- 03:06 – He later transitioned as a sales development representative (SDR)
- 03:28 – He was fortunate enough to be an account executive (AE) right after his SDR position
05:12 – SalesForce has a great way of training their talents
- 05:24 – The internship was a great opportunity to get a ton of exposure
- 05:58 – In his first month, Adam’s goal was to inform the SDRs who to reach out to, when, and why
- 06:21 – The biggest opportunity that Adam found in the internship was following through from start to finish
- 07:31 – Adam’s SDR role helped shape everything for him
- 08:06 – After his SDR position, he skipped becoming a BDR and went to take on an AE position at LinkedIn
09:11 – As an intern, Adam supported 12 BDRs with hundreds to thousands of accounts on his team
- 10:58 – There weren’t many opportunities for net new accounts
- 11:09 – The true measurement of effectiveness are based on the opportunities or pipelines that were generated from the intern’s efforts
- 12:33 – The relationship between interns and BDRs is crucial to success
15:01 – An SDR gets a list of inbound leads from SalesForce website
- 16:22 – If an SDR bumps into an influencer it will be one of 2 things: get help to be introduced to the decision maker or seek to gain information
- 18:04 – There are multiple people involved in buying decisions that SDRs are not relying on one point of contact anymore
- 18:38 – Adam’s goal in LinkedIn now is to identify people in an organization who are in the sphere of influence in buying decisions
19:57 – Adam shares about a multi-threaded sales lead
- 20:52 – “It’s all about building relationships and having conversations”
- 21:26 – Adam gets conversations started through personalization and genuine curiosity
- 21:41 – Be willing to learn and share about what you do to find commonalities
22:58 – Adam shares an example of upfront selling
- 24:01 – Learn to ask people or the answer will always be “no”
24:52 – “Who else should we have involved in this conversation?” is a great question to ask a point person who the decision maker is without offending
26:48 – LinkedIn is a platform that gives you information that can help you build a relationship
- 27:05 – Finding commonalities and understanding what’s important to a person without having to ask is valuable
- 28:29 – By interviewing thousands of salespeople, LinkedIn now knows that a lot of traditional sales tactics are not as effective as they used to be
- 29:14 – A few areas LinkedIn Sales Solution help businesses with:
  - Knowing how many people are involved in the B2B buying decision
  - Researching: 75% of research happens online before the company reaches out
32:07 – Revenue Disruption is a great book about the change in buyer processes
33:01 – Sales Navigator allows you to follow individuals and companies regardless of being connected with them
- 33:12 – Adam talks about how he used Sales Navigator to socially “listen,” get a relationship built, and eventually get his software sold
- 36:38 – LinkedIn is now a critical tool in finding out what people need
38:12 – Adam’s biggest tip to SDRs is to generate an opportunity with a much higher close rate by recognizing what happens in a buyer’s process
- 40:25 – Try something different your approach
- 41:00 – “There’s always different ways of going about doing things”
42:22 – Connect with Adam on LinkedIn
43:00 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
43:08 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

SalesForce – Company where Adam worked as an SDR
LinkedIn – Company where Adam currently serves as an account executive
Revenue Disruption – Book David recommends to know about the changes in buyer’s processes
Sales Navigator – A LinkedIn integration tool that Adam uses to connect with individuals and companies

Episode 42 - Kyle Morris

Bootstrapping your own company sure has the ups and the downs, but one thing to note is that it takes more effort you need to put into work to make it successful. In this episode, David interviews Kyle Morris, the founder and CEO of SifData, a software that integrates LinkedIn and Salesforce to help business development in businesses. Kyle shares his experience from being an employee to founding his own business through solving a pain point he struggled with when he was leading his SDR team.

3 Key Points:
1.The problem you solve today can be the gateway to new possibilities.
2.It’s important to take on different roles and to understand what issues these roles face to better understand the business and to come up with a possible solution.
3.Talk to people in the language they speak and in the KPIs that matter to them.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Talk to the experts at Inside Sales Team for all your sales development needs
01:06 – David introduces Kyle to the show
02:31 – Kyle grew up in a little town in Oregon where he set out for the military and into the rangers
- 02:48 – He spent 4 years in ranger school and finished in 2007
- 03:00 – He went to University of Oregon to study entrepreneurship
03:15 – Kyle took a job at Cintas, a Fortune 500 company, as a management trainee and left in 2 weeks
03:32 – His 2nd job was with Gigya, a customer identity and access management platform
- 04:22 – His job was to set meetings for AEs (Account Executives)
- 05:00 – His wife, who works in tech, taught him how to get people’s emails, information, and some tools that Kyle brought into his team
- 05:20 – In 6-7 months, he took over to manage the team they had
- 05:37 – When Gigya received funding, his team grew from 7 to 75
- 05:51 – He worked for Gigya for a few years until he took a leave to figure out what he really wanted to do
- 06:00 – He took the leap to finally start SifData
06:43 – Kyle started SifData because the research portion of being an SDR (Sales Development Representative) just “sucks”
- 06:57 – He wanted to automate things for SDRs as this took most of their time
- 07:07 – One frustration Kyle had as manager was his SDRs spending days for manual research
- 07:40 – One key is to look at the problem perspective and figure how many people have that problem
- 08:24 – Struggling yourself and hearing people complain about the same problem becomes the idea to start a business
09:58 – In middle management, it’s easy to focus on your own problems and not realize how many other issues your team is experiencing
10:10 – Kyle believes that Fight Club Mastermind gave him a fantastic experience where he and other entrepreneurs were able to group think about similar problems they face
- 10:46 – Networking is one of the best ways to talk to other peers
12:42 – Inside Sales Team Commercial
- 13:04 – Networking and masterminds help people make friends as well
- 15:10 – There’s a small group of entrepreneurs in Bend, Oregon that Kyle meets every month
16:17 – Being the SDR manager also has an egotistical side that may resist changes for the team
- 17:12 – Kyle shares a challenge they had in Gigya when they opened a Phoenix office
- 17:49 – Managers face the trap of wanting to more responsibility that’s already out of their hands
- 18:22 – “Different people have different ways of processing information and strategic changes”
- 19:28 – Misaligned expectations bring frustration
- 20:32 – People tend to assume the other person understands the expectations
- 21:11 – Over communicate your expectations
21:53 – Kyle doesn’t see himself as a particularly disciplined person
- 22:27 – Working hard and putting in the effort every day so it works out in the end is one thing that Kyle strongly believes in
- 22:55 – Internal pressure to work hard is Kyle’s boss
- 23:17 – As a founder, having no boss gives you the freedom to be flexible
- 24:14 – Give yourself time to take a break
- 25:29 – Being a founder is scary but liberating at the same time
- 25:34 – “There’s no excuses to blame anyone else...it’s either you did it or didn’t”
- 26:11 – Sometimes it’s desperation when entrepreneurs do the extra grind, especially when first starting out a business
- 27:03 – Do what’s right for you
27:34 – David mentions LinkedIn is integrating with Cadence products
28:13 – Kyle’s reps spend 50% of their time on research before
- 28:32 – Reaching out to former customers was a shortcut Kyle did as an SDR manager
- 29:07 – He found out that the #1 reason for churn was their champions were leaving
- 29:33 – SifData could be a way to integrate LinkedIn and Salesforce
30:22 – The problem stemmed from Kyle being an SDR looking for shortcuts
- 31:23 – It’s important for people to be in a role and understand what the problems are there
- 31:58 – Productivity is a huge driver for companies to acknowledge you
- 32:49 – Learn the other skill that’s needed in your work and it will open more possibilities for you
33:47 – Kyle shares a problem he was facing just last week
34:45 – A lot of times, SDRs trainings revolve only on the product that they’re selling
- 35:24 – It’s important for SDRs to know the different personas they'll be talking to and what their KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are
- 36:09 – Speak to people in the language they use and in their KPIs
- 36:36 – “Understand what people care about”
- 37:49 – Talk to the right person with the right message
- 39:00 – It can be frustrating when a person declines an offer when you have the right solution that they need
- 40:12 – As an SDR, believe that you can really help the person you’re calling
- 41:09 – “Push people a little bit more than you should”
42:17 – There will definitely be downs at times
43:38 – Connect with Kyle thru his email or just go to SifData
44:11– Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
44:19 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

SifData – Business that Kyle founded
Cintas – Company where Kyle first worked in
Gigya – Company where Kyle worked in until he founded his own business

Episode 41 - Kavon "The One Call Closer"

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Kayvon, The One Call Closer. As a kid, Kayvon was diagnosed with ADD and ADHD. His disability was so inhibiting that some people doubted he’d be able to finish elementary school. But that was then and this is now. It took him more than 20 years of blood, sweat, and tears but today, Kayvon shares how he overcame his learning disability to become the man best known as the One Call Closer.

3 Key Points:
1.There is no one-style-fits-all in education and in life.
2.Salespeople and closers are different — closers get to close the deals.
3.Strategy, not tactic, is the game-changer for all entrepreneurs.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Talk to the experts at Inside Sales Team for all your sales development needs
01:00 – David introduces Kayvon, The One Call Closer
01:55 – Kayvon’s sales career started at the age of 12 when he followed his uncle to a local furniture shop
- 03:06 – That one trip would lead to various retail jobs and—eventually—a sales rep job
- 04:21 – He would end his sales career as the #1 sales rep at a large pharma company
- 05:28 – He had a 6-figure job, a company car, a company visa, and only worked one day per week
06:07 – “Sales is about relationships”
06:30 – Even though he was successful in his career, Kayvon didn’t feel fulfilled
- 06:38 – The corporate world was never for Kayvon
07:36 – Kayvon made the jump to his new career in one day
08:16 – It ultimately worked out for him, but may not have been the best strategy at the start
08:30 – Fast forward a year, and he was $120K in debt
09:34 – He realized he was not being congruent to what he was
- 09:54 – His mentor, Dan Lok, woke him up and told him he’s a salesperson
10:10 – When Kayvon accepted that he was meant for sales, he got back on track
- 11:26 – In four weeks, Kayvon was earning $25K/month
13:01 – When you take the leap, amazing things can happen
- 14:48 – “I am not going to be a puppet to anybody”
- 15:25 –– Kayvon respects other people’s choices BUT he personally does NOT want to be average
16:43 – Happiness and money do not come in the same conversation
17:46 – Commercial Break
18:10 – With two kids, David feels school is setup is to create ‘workers’
- 19:13 – The education system was setup in the industrial state where the aim was forming the workforce
19:55 – When Kayvon was in school, entrepreneurship was NOT cool — the kids who went into it were bullies and kids labeled with ADDs
- 21:13 – The moment Kayvon finished school, that was it. He didn’t want to have to do anything with that kind of system
22:54 – The entrepreneurial road makes you sacrifice all the security you have
26:09 – Sales is the only profession you can still do with your hands tied behind your back and your eyes blindfolded
27:28 – If you go from a place of scarcity to a place of abundance, you stop restricting yourself
28:21 – The biggest thing Kayvon learned is: when you call someone, you’re a salesperson; but when they call you, you’re an expert
29:46 – Kayvon is the person who bridges the gap between sellers and buyers
31:21 – Kayvon will take a small group of individuals on an 8-week course where they will teach them the art of high-ticket selling and how to build a business around that art
32:21 – The difference between selling and closing is that closing nets the exchange
34:58 – Kayvon believes that sales is just a transfer of feelings
35:23 – Change your mindset, your paradigm, and the way you operate
38:41 – Everybody teaches the tactics but it’s the STRATEGY that builds the empire
41:07 – If you don’t have a strategy, all your tactics won’t work
41:25 – Connect with Kayvon on his website
42:30 – Subscribe to the Sales Development Podcast on YouTube and review us on iTunes
42:38 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

Dan Lok – Kayvon’s mentor
Kayvon.com – Kayvon’s personal website

Episode 40 - Amit Bendov

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Amit Bendov, CEO and founder of Gong.io. Gong.io enables you to listen to key parts of a sales conversation, improve a sales pitch and increase your close rate. Amit discusses how recorded coaching has far greater benefits than live coaching. He also delves into the importance of data in sales development, and points out how data has been blatantly ignored in the past.

3 Key Points:
1.The ability to listen to key parts of the conversation and improve your sales pitch are the two key benefits of using Gong.io.
2.Coaching via recorded conversations is much more beneficial than live coaching.
3.It is better to invest in a researcher that creates data than an SDR who handles outbound calls.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Talk to the experts at Inside Sales Team for all your sales development needs
01:00 – David introduces Amit Bendov
01:40 – The origins of Gong.io
- 01:42 – Gong.io is the fourth company that Amit is leading
- 02:10 – The idea for Gong.io came from seeing the amount of investments being made in marketing and lead generation
- 02:43 – Facilitates better conversations which leads to higher number of deals closing
03:45 – Listen to key parts of a conversation using Gong and analyze sales calls
04:24 – Possible to improve your sales pitch and convert more deals as well
05:46 – Half of current customers use Gong across the board for sales development as well as sales success
06:57 – Record the sales person only when two party consent is required; possible to learn quite a bit about sales development by hearing the sales pitch
08:20 – PARAPHRASING is a great sales technique
08:43 – Possible to set up alerts and notifications for different type of conversations using Gong
- 09:25 – Can set up competitor differentiation very easily
- 10:13 – Solutions can be set up right away; advisable to have a good quantum of data before you try to analyze it
11:02 – Possible to spot differences between people and make them actionable
11:17 – Recorded coaching is much more effective than live coaching
- 11:26 – You do not know what you will be hearing in live coaching; in recorded coaching, you can pick the right coachable moments
- 11:44 – A lot FASTER to listen to recorded conversations
- 12:00 – Possible to see facts in a recorded conversation and not waste time arguing about what actually happened
14:42 – The premise of Gong is moving from hypothesis and gut feeling to data
15:43 – Generally it is always good to listen more than talk; however different companies have different dynamics
16:15 – Only 10% of companies focused on DATA
17:05 – Better to invest in a researcher that creates data that builds a product rather than an SDR who handles outbound calls
18:18 – Closure of sales deal over phone and online has led to tremendous amount of data being produced
19:15 – Sales development is not a bus stop but a critical, strategic imperative that we need to start taking more seriously
20:33 – Connect with Amit through his website or LinkedIn
21:11 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
21:19 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:
● Gong.io – The company that Amit has founded

Episode 39 - Phill Keene

Phill Keene, the Director of Sales at Costello, sells technology to salespeople in order to solve critical sales problems. A 2017 Top AA-ISP inside sales professional, Phill shares how he took huge risks to progress through his career. He shares the importance of being laser-focused, the value of a militant work ethic, and why surrounding yourself with a dynamic team eggs you on to do your best.

He also discusses the importance of reaching out to other SDR players in order to learn from each other. Tune-in to discover how cultivating the right habits and adopting tactical strategies can help you succeed in the world of sales development.

3 Key Points:
1. Being with a dynamic, hardworking team will push you to work harder; surround yourself with a great team and avoid toxic people.
2. Reach out to knowledgeable folks in the SDR world to understand the fallout of different hypotheses.
3. Normally, the best prospector gets promoted to an AE role; unless you have someone to fill your position, you should not take this promotion as it will harder for you to hit your sales numbers.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:16 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
01:03 – Introducing Phill to the show
03:12 – Phill co-hosts the Real Sales Talk Podcast
04:14 – Tracing Phill’s journey so far
- 04:23 – A sales professional of 10 years, he started his career as a BDR with TinderBox
- 04:59 – Prospected clients from 9pm to 2am every day
- 05:53 – Started blogging about sales development which eventually turned into his website
- 07:31 – Set a goal of having 50 coffees aka business conversations in 2015
08:55 – Important to STAND OUT in a horde of people; engrain a militant work ethic to facilitate this
10:13 – Phill’s mentor at Boston College was the first to point out that he had the potential to be the CEO of a company some day
11:30 – In spite of putting in long hours every week, Phill makes his family top priority; wishes to do something that his family is really proud of
12:37 – Turned down a great offer to work at BestBuy with his colleagues and business mentor
- 13:51 – Took a huge RISK by taking an 80% pay cut to work at the company of his choice
14:02 – Having kids puts a mirror in front of you and pushes you to do your best
- 15:03 – Important to think what LEGACY you are going to leave behind
16:13 – Important to be laser-focused and productive instead of just bouncing around without making any progress
17:16 – Responsibility of parents to make their kids realize their immense potential
18:21 – Being with a dynamic, hardworking team eggs you on to work harder and put in your best
- 19:17 – Be deliberate about the people you surround yourself with; cut off TOXIC people from your life
20:11 – Approach sales development problems with logical reasoning and back it up with repeated tests using different scenarios
- 21:04 – Reach out to knowledgeable folks in the SDR world to understand the fallout of different hypotheses
- 21:21 – Recognize the trend and use minor tweaks to get the desired outcome
23:42 – Reach out to industry players who have already solved the problems that you are facing via LinkedIn
- 24:58 – Always responds to a genuine caller that tries to help out; cares about sales and would like to share his knowledge
26:40 – Get a good, high-level view of the company and its operations by being the Director of Marketing
- 27:10 – Being at the top of the corporate ladder enables him to help people to grow
27:55 – Made a lifelong commitment to learn—Phill is constantly figuring out ways to get better and help people
28:30 – Companies that are unwilling to change are bound to fail
28:41 – Journaling is critical – important to pen your thoughts down
30:35 – Started working at Costello since he got an opportunity to sell sales tech to sales people to solve their sales problems
- 31:03 – Costello attempts to identify GAPS in your work
- 32:33 – Shows data that helps you understand how you are progressing through your sales process
34:50 – Need to cultivate the skills to have a sales conversation
36:13 – An SDR needs to have experience of at least eighteen months before being promoted
36:52 – Important to develop your prospecting abilities; the only person who is responsible for your sales numbers in YOU
- 38:22 – A recent study concluded that the longer you stay a SDR, the higher the chances of success as an AE
- 39:09 – Normally, the best prospector gets promoted to AE; unless you have someone to backfill you, you should not take this promotion as it will harder for you to hit your sales numbers
39:39 – Connect with Phill via his email or LinkedIn

Resources Mentioned:
● Costello – Phill’s organization

Episode 38 - Fred Shilmover

Summary:

Sales development is the connecting tissue between sales and marketing; however, it is treated as a second-rate business function. Sales Development Podcast guest Fred Shilmover is the founder and CEO of InsightSquared, a sales intelligence platform that provides insights into sales development.

Today, you’ll learn why it’s important to take a holistic view of sales development instead of concentrating on specific issues. Fred also discusses the importance of data and the need for analysis at regular intervals. Tune-in to discover how to correctly approach sales development and find out the ins and outs of InsightSquared.

3 Key Points:
1.A shorter, compressed sales cycle has made it possible to make iterative changes at a faster rate.
2.Goal-setting can be done top-down or bottom-up; important to analyze key metrics at regular intervals since key drivers are always changing.
3.Industrialization of sales has resulted in economies of scales and efficiencies.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:16 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
01:03 – Introducing Fred to the show
02:00 – The idea of InsightSquared, a sales intelligence company struck Fred while working for Salesforce
03:20 – Creating reports from data produced by Salesforce is an incredibly cumbersome process
04:17 – Sales cycles have compressed and gotten shorter as the trend shifted from traditional sales to inside sales
- 05:28 – Shorter cycles make it possible to iterate and improve quickly
06:03 – Important to be DATA driven in the sales world of today
06:34 – Concentrating on one aspect will not necessarily have the desired effect down the sales funnel; a HOLISTIC view is necessary in sales development
07:41 – Sales development broadly consists of four quadrants: Activities, Appointments, Pipeline and Revenues
08:38 – Important to slice and dice and look at data from different angles in order to diagnose a problem
09:53 – Goal-setting in sales can be done top-down and bottom-up
- 10:28 – Activity ratios and capacity are examples of bottom-up metrics that you need to consider
- 11:25 – Internal metrics are analyzed by running analytical cycles every six months; need to adapt since key drivers are changing
13:03 – Oftentimes, organizations make the mistake of considering sales development as a second-rate function
- 13:49 – Sales pipeline is the lifeblood of the company; sales development team is at the center of pipeline generation
15:33 – RAMP was the first conference focused exclusively on sales operations
16:08 – Sales operations is at the core of the six month analytical cycle at InsightSquared
- 17:15 – Adding a 10% operational overhead and knowing the questions you need to ask beforehand is a lot cheaper than attempting to analyze data at a later stage
18:47 – The BDR reports to sales because they are the future account executives
19:38 – BDRs are compensated based on sourcing qualified opportunities and not on meetings scheduled
- 20:04 – The old compensation plan encouraged an attitude where the BDRs scheduled a meeting and ran away
21:25 – The sales development team is the connecting tissue between sales and marketing
23:00 – Joe Chernov is the CMO of InsightSquared
- 23:44 – Believes that marketing is in service of sales
- 24:18 – Concentrates on educating a targeted set of accounts
- 25:21 – Need to ensure that the demand generated through the market is properly serviced
27:11 – Industrialization of sales has resulted in economies of scales and efficiencies
27:59 – Requirement of a different skillset for a sales leader and marketing leader; there is a large creative component to marketing whereas sales is human capital intensive
- 28:33 – The idea of a CRO stemmed from the need to align sales and marketing
29:19 – Think about the entire customer lifecycle in order to ensure customer success
30:20 – Remove any business constraints so that the silos do not blow up
31:27 – Businesses fail for only one reason: they run out of cash
31:51 – Is excited about their new product, Signals, which asks the question and pushes the answer
- 32:40 – Another product, Slate expands the ability to write reports and do analysis
33:39 – The decision to bring in a sales operations person depends on two factors: the first one is scale and complexity and the second one is where you are headed
- 35:07 – Firms that are trying to scale up try to bring discipline into the process by getting a sales development person

Resources Mentioned:
● InsightSquared – Fred’s organization

Episode 37 - Steve Woods

Sales efforts are often slowed down by the long, drawn-out process of prospecting. Potential leads want your time and attention and oftentimes, sales reps need a helping hand to acquire that next client.

In today’s episode of Sales Development Podcast, Steve Woods, CTO of Nudge.ai, breaks down a tool that will “nudge” you in the right direction regarding your target accounts and relationship building efforts. Tune-in and learn how you can enhance your prospecting efforts and increase your closing rate by taking advantage of the latest machine learning technologies offered by Nudge.ai.

3 Key Points:
1.The Buyer wants you to INVEST more time and effort into the relationship.
2.AI frees you to scale your relationship building efforts and focus on those target accounts.
3.FOCUS on smaller steps that offer greater VALUE.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:16 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
00:25 – Introducing Steve to the show
01:02 – Steve’s longest marketing stint has been with Eloqua; this company started in the year 2000 and was bought by Oracle twelve years later
- 02:25 – Eloqua is one of the pioneers in the marketing automation space
- 02:55 – The internet changed the way information flies
- 03:54 – Back then, marketing operations and demand generation people did not exist; today the entire marketing process is analytics driven
- 05:18 – Activity became trackable due to the changing technology landscape
05:57 – Revenue Disruption: Game-Changing Sales and Marketing Strategies to Accelerate Growth is a book by Phil Fernandez, the founder of Marketo; he talks at length about the technology change that took place
07:04 – A profound behavior change was observed on both sides of the revenue equation
08:17 – The human touch in sales
- 08:17 – Sales are dependent on trust and relationships; sales reps who commoditize their outreach efforts have a low chance of success
- 09:08 – Today, in the world of sales, we are going back to the BASICS; the human component is becoming increasingly relevant again
- 10:06 – There was a GAP in the market when it came to understanding relationships and the deals in play
- 10:23 – Today, there is a SHIFT from looking at sales as a volume exercise to a relationship exercise
11:13 – The CHALLENGES facing sales teams today
- 11:13 – 90% of your outreach efforts do not result in an immediate closing
- 12:34 – The buyer wants you to invest time and effort into the relationship and get meaningful stuff in front of them
13:34 – What Nudge can do for you
- 13:34 – Nudge understands where your relationship with the prospect is strong and where it is falling off; provides the big reasons why you should stay in touch
- 15:50 – Get various relationship statistics by adding Nudge to your Chrome extension
- 18:01 – The AI capabilities of Nudge handles the workload that you would otherwise be doing manually
- 19:04 – Nudge does the research for you and gives you a set of actions that will enhance your relationship building efforts
- 20:15 – The professional version lets you focus on your TARGET accounts
- 21:26 – Possible to scale up due to enhanced AI capabilities
- 23:10 – Looking through a different set of eyes (with AI) enables you to consider patterns which you would not have otherwise seen
24:11 – The idea that AI is going to replace humans is a total MYTH
25:30 – Avoid over-reliance on technology in your sales efforts
26:25 – Shape your technique based on what buyers are anticipating right now
28:00 – Nudge is not targeting huge volumes of prospects; instead, they are starting the prospecting process and targeting specific accounts
30:36 – Just like we tend to become immune to disease over a period of time, messaging tends to lose its effectiveness with increased usage
32:13 – Rely on a long-term strategy that relies on a point of view rather than a tactic
33:12 – The sales team, marketing team and product team should focus on the smaller steps that offer greater value
- 33:39 – TRIM down the “ask” and INFLATE the reward
35:32 – The Sales Development Conference is coming up on the 21st

Resources Mentioned:

Eloqua – One of the pioneers in the space of marketing automation
Nudge.ai – Steve’s organization
Revenue Disruption: Game-Changing Sales and Marketing Strategies to Accelerate Growth – Phil’s book on the technology disruption that took place

Episode 36 - David Priemer

Summary:

Thinking smart or being one step ahead of your competitor is a prerequisite to attracting and retaining customers. But how does one think and act smart in today’s fast-paced, ever-changing market? Today’s Sales Development Podcast guest, David Priemer, VP of Sales at Influitive, attempts to answer this question by providing various tips and tricks to better our outreach efforts.

David talks about achieving balance between data and our instincts in our sales efforts and explains why we need to focus our energy on managerial training. He also explains why our messaging needs to be bold, educational and polarizing in order to pique the interest of potential prospects. Tune-in to learn how you can effectively change your outreach efforts for the better!

3 Key Points:
1.Think smart when attracting a customer; relying on age-old techniques will not help you to crack through the defenses of a prospect.
2.Your sales messaging should be bold, polarizing and educational.
3.The experience that the customer has with your company is your product.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:16 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
00:22 – Introducing David to the show
01:56 – David has been in sales for 20 years now, but he started his career as a research scientist
- 02:20 – A sales engineer for a company that went public three years after David joined
- 02:58 – Sales is a system; there are reasons why people buy things and reasons why they don’t
- 03:37 – Is currently working on his fourth startup; the third startup he was a part of was acquired by Salesforce in 2012
04:55 – Has a PASSION for constant iterative learning that is demanded of anyone in the world of sales
06:15 – Sales is the harmonization of data, but there is a huge human component to it that cannot be overlooked
06:45 – Sales leaders are those who others want to fight to work with
07:37 – At the end of the day, we are selling to people and selling ultimately boils down to emotions
- 08:34 – Emotional needs have to be satisfied in order to do business; until AI capabilities are further enhanced these nuanced interactions need to be carried out by salespeople
- 09:29 – Salespeople need to cultivate resilience and conviction to taste success
- 11:26 – Over-reliance on gut instinct and proven tactics can be problematic; sales is an evolving game and it is imperative to give data its due importance
12:13 – We do not spend enough time training new managers, so managers tend to rely on age-old techniques
- 13:29 – The number ONE reason why people leave jobs is because of a poor relationship with their manager; cost of a failed manager is 4x that of their direct report
15:35 – Need to UNLOCK the effort that most people have but don’t tap into
- 16:07 – Leadership is the key which can enable you to unlock this effort
18:02 – Check out David’s blog post titled, “Salespeople: Here is Why Prospects Ignore Your Outreach”
- 18:50 – Ironic that we use BDRs for lead generation efforts, though we do not like to be prospected by BDRs from other organizations
20:02 – Think SMART while designing your outreach efforts
- 20:02 – Data driven sales management is passé
- 22:06 – Using the same sales script and doing what everyone else is doing results in LOW VALUE
- 22:49 – Use the latest tools to crack through defenses
- 24:13 – Sales reps need to remember that the attention of a prospect is taken up by a million different things
- 25:29 – The prospect needs to STOP what they are doing to concentrate on your pitch
- 26:45 – Difficult for a prospect to give 10-15 minutes of valuable time to a sales rep who sounds no different than the rest; showing value is critical to retain the interest of the prospect
- 28:11- Most of us appreciate the concept of value, but do not practice it in our outreach efforts
28:21 – Implementation of a system leads to creativity and prevents sales reps from just sleepwalking through the day
29:05 – The best MESSAGING is bold, polarizing and educational
- 29:37 – Messaging should be easy for people to decipher without spending a lot of time
- 31:01 – A message should be simple and yet, pierce through
- 31:40 – An educational message will resonate with your prospect and result in reciprocity
32:29 – Add value early and often
- 33:08 – Send articles relevant to the customer’s business and do not ask for anything until much later in the outreach process
- 34:03 – Invite prospects to high value events where CEOs get a chance to talk to peers
- 35:03 – People are conditioned to respond well to gifts
36:16 – David quotes Gary Vaynerchuk: “It is 80% value that you are putting out in the marketplace”
37:01 – The experience that the customer has with your company is your product
- 37:50 – The best compliment a salesperson can receive from a customer is being hired by them
40:06 – The faster we learn, the better we will be able to meet the changing needs of the customer; “Cerebral Selling” is all about learning fast and delivering an amazing customer experience
41:23 – Access David’s content and podcast on his website
42:15 – Check out the amazing case studies on the Influitive website
42:53 – Sales is ultimately about TRUST; the quicker a prospect can trust you, the faster he can make a decision
43:45 – Going into the future, trust is going to shift from businesses to individuals

Resources Mentioned:

Influitive – Company where David is VP of sales
Cerebral Selling – David’s website
“Salespeople: Here is why Prospects Ignore your Outreach” – David’s article published in the SalesForce blog

Episode 35 - Jason DeAmato

Summary:

Those in sales today have differing stories as to how they eventually stumbled upon this profession. Today’s Sales Development Podcast guest, Jason DeAmato who is the director of training at EF (Education First), is no exception. From studying psychology to working on his music, Jason finally found his calling in sales while employed as an orthopedic technician. Jason shares with us his journey into sales and how it led him to not only start a sales company with his friend, but also co-author the book The Pocket Guide For Sales Survival. Tune-in to learn Jason’s take on mentorships, partnerships, and the role salespeople play in the world, today.

3 Key Points:
1.Do something that you love and it won’t feel like work.
2.Communication is the KEY to a great life.
3.Sales is ALL about the customer; find a way to connect with them and be mindful of their social style.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:16 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
00:24 – Introducing Jason to the show
01:36 – Jason ended up in sales by accident – he was studying psychology but derailed from that path because of being part of a band
- 02:01 – When he graduated school, it was just music for him
- 02:15 – He worked as an orthopedic technician
- 02:29 – A sales rep would come into the clinic and sell orthopedic supplies; Jason built a relationship with him over time
- 02:52 – This rep saw something in Jason and offered him work on his days off
- 03:12 – Jason’s task was to go to orthopedic clinics and offer doctors and therapists help
- 03:31 – He was technically a BDR (business development representative) without even knowing it
- 03:44 – This set-up worked for Jason and he helped out for the next 10-15 years
04:11 – A few years later, Jason’s friend, who had a major sales operation moved back to California
- 04:28 – Jason decided to quit his job and join his friend start a sales company
- 04:38 – The company they started was a call-center for hire
- 05:18 – They made $1M in revenue in 14 months
- 06:10 – Those years taught Jason what it is to be an entrepreneur and what it is to grow a sales team with very little resources
06:34 – After that venture, Jason went on as director of sales for a finance company where he helped them turn their business around
06:49 – Finally, Jason found EF (Education First) in 2010 and so far, this has been the most amazing experience for him
07:00 – Sales has been a passion for Jason even before he knew it; this is the reason he wrote the book, The Pocket Guide For Sales Survival
- 08:48 – He reached out to his old business partner and offered to write the book together
- 10:59 – Jason tried to write for 1-3 hours everyday and when life became hectic, he would dictate to his laptop on his way to work
- 11:43 – They initially came up with 161 rules in marketing, then they divided and conquered
- 12:26 – Jason needed his partner—he fed off of his energy
- 13:47 – Jason wouldn’t let his circumstances be an excuse for not completing the book
14:15 – “When you want something, it doesn’t seem like work”
15:28 – In the 2 years Jason wrote the book, he didn’t watch any TV—he exercised discipline
16:41 – David noticed that the companies he’s worked with always look at the theory of constraint to find their choke points
17:47 – Jason says he wouldn’t be where he is now if he didn’t have an amazing mentor and partner, Randy Bernard
- 18:13 – It was Randy who showed Jason the ins and outs of sales
19:45 – The book is filled with stories that mean a lot to Jason and express his love for life
- 20:21 – People don’t realize that sales is so relatable
- 21:03 – The key to a good life is communication
- 22:01 – Jason was told his advice didn’t just apply to sales but to relationships, too
- 22:51 – “Sales is communication”
23:22 – When Randy and Jason created the 161 rules, they all boiled down to attitude
- 23:38 – Rule #2: Attitude is Everything – Jason said they need to be proud first
- 24:26 – Jason tells his team they have every reason to be proud because they’re in sales
- 25:41 – Salespeople enhance others’ lives
26:26 – 50% of college graduates end up in sales, yet only 200 universities out of 4,000 teach these students how to sell
28:19 – Some of David’s friends started sales bootcamps in San Francisco
29:29 – There are two positions available in most startups in The Bay area – engineering and sales
30:35 – Rule #1 in The Pocket Guide For Sales Survival is “Be Proud”
31:34 – “The more we can grow those people, I think, the better because we will breakdown these stigmas”
32:27 – Jason believes sales is more important now than ever
- 33:22 – David created a conference solely dedicated to sales development
- 34:09 – “It’s all about the customer”
34:44 – EF is a customer-focused company
35:35 – Any person can give an amazing pitch, but if it’s not hitting the correct target, it’s not going to make it
37:26 – There are 4 social styles: analyzer, driver, expresser, and amiable
- 38:46 – If you’re talking to a person in the wrong social style, you won’t connect with them
40:30 – Get a copy of The Pocket Guide For Sales Survival at TheBestSalesBook.com

Resources Mentioned:

EF (Education First) – Company where Jason is currently working as director of training
The Pocket Guide For Sales Survival – Jason’s book co-authored with Randy Bernard
Randy Bernard – Jason’s co-author, partner, and mentor
TheBestSalesBook.com – Website where you can purchase The Pocket Guide For Sales Survival and see Jason’s offered services

Episode 34 - Kevin Dorsey

Summary:

In this episode, David speaks with Kevin Dorsey. Sales development now is far from how it was years ago in terms of technology, information, and methodology. But, what did these changes do to the industry?

Listen as Kevin Dorsey shares his own personal journey in sales and the lessons he’s learned along the way. He outlines the essential qualities of a great sales development representative, new tactics that make your pitches more effective, and what millennials need in order to succeed in the workforce today.

3 Key Points:
1.Sales is not about being passionate about a specific product you’re selling – it’s about being passionate about the act of selling itself.
2.It’s important to reach out to the end users first and identify their problems before talking to high-level executives you plan to sell your product to.
3.You are NOT going to be taught everything – be proactive and start to educate yourself.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:17 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
00:23 – David introduces Kevin to the show
02:02 – Kevin chose to get into sales 15 years ago, while he was still in college
- 02:52 – After college, he moved back to Los Angeles to rent out personal training studios to members
- 03:01 – Kevin grew 1 studio to 3 studios and started selling fitness equipment
03:43 – Kevin initially thought he wanted to get into physical therapy, so he studied kinesiology
- 04:04 – His education major required him to take a number of psychology courses
- 04:19 – His background in psychology helped him get through sales for the long-term
04:53 – There were always positions available in sales for Kevin
05:17 – Kevin was an introvert and was not initially strong in sales
- 05:46 – “Make something better by getting better at it”
06:39 – Kevin is not a ‘big’ product-believer
- 06:52 – “You have to be passionate about selling”
- 07:17 – Kevin coaches people to love sales – you can only sell something you’re passionate about
- 07:40 – The best salespeople in the world would sell the same thing forever
- 09:06 – If a salesperson needs the product to drive him to get to the customer, he’s already going in the wrong direction
11:10 – David thinks sales development reps are setup to fail if the management doesn’t set up enough time to train and coach them
- 11:55 – Kevin wrote “The Sales Industry is Backwards - Part II - The SDRs”
- 12:25 – If SDRs truly understood what it’s like to be a sales executive, they would change their approach completely
- 13:07 – Kevin believes that companies should train SDRs using the “bottom up” approach rather than the “top-down” approach
13:13 – Kevin shares about the SDR who tried to talk to him through his company’s sales rep
14:15 – The go-to outreach strategy of most SDRs is the usual product offering approach
14:34 – SnackNation’s playbook includes training regarding the full buyer’s persona
14:40 – Buyer’s Matrix is a great tool for training reps
15:10 – You need to know your buyer and their problems
15:18 – Kevin emphasizes that there is a difference between a persona and a person
- 16:51 – Getting in touch with executives through cold-calling is nearly impossible
- 17:15 – SnackNation deals with a lot of product managers – people who use their product day-to-day – before they sell up to the next-level individuals
- 17:51 – If the end user doesn’t have a problem, no executive will sign up for your product
- 18:51 – Solving a problem for a company you’re pitching to is the best way to approach them
19:50 – “The sales automation marketing industry absolutely killed itself because everyone is doing the same thing to everybody”
- 20:12 – Old tactics still work for lower level employees
- 21:53 – Present what you’ve learned about the company you’re pitching to
- 22:05 – The sales development rep’s job is to create curiosity – not interest
- 23:50 – Kevin didn’t realize salespeople are still using ‘quick question’ emails to reach c-level executives
- 24:16 – A quick tip from Kevin is, “a takeaway sale only works on someone who wants something”
25:13 – Remember: Curiosity is a lower form of interest
26:21 – SnackNation emphasizes using the “gap-creating questions”
- 26:37 – Gap-selling is creating a gap and selling through your questions
28:00 – 28:15: Commercial Break
29:12 – So much of Kevin’s journey has been him educating himself
- 29:27 – Read from the experts every single day—you don’t have to be coached
- 29:50 – At SnackNation, they go through books with their sales reps
- 30:13 – Kevin recommends reading: SNAP Selling, The Science of Selling, Sales EQ, Fanatical Prospecting, The Sales Development Playbook, and New Sales Simplified
30:31 – One interview question of Kevin’s is: “What did you do to prepare yourself for sales?”
30:55 – Kevin has an article on LinkedIn titled, “How to CRUSH a sales interview and get the job you want”
32:35 – One quality that Kevin looks for in an SDR is curiosity
- 34:09 – For anybody who wants to get into sales, curiosity and resiliency are a MUST
- 34:45 – David shares about the atrocious lack of knowledge about who he is and his company when he interviews for SDR positions
- 35:55 – The generation of millennials expect to be taught how to do everything
- 36:24 – Unfortunately, no one is teaching them how to do sales properly
- 37:03 – Millennials need help
- 37:10 – “Information is so accessible that people are not naturally curious anymore”
37:41 – David thinks the art of communication is already diminishing
38:00 – If you’re listening to the podcast, you’re trying to be curious – and that’s a positive thing!
38:24 – Everything is out there and you have to take a step to go out and get it
38:51 – Kevin looks forward to this vision – a perfect sales team
40:35 – A vision is always the starting point

Resources Mentioned:

The Sales Industry is Backwards - Part II - The SDRs – An article Kevin authored about how the sales industry is backwards
Buyer’s Matrix – A tool Kevin recommends to use to help train SDRs
SNAP Selling, The Science of Selling, Sales EQ, Fanatical Prospecting, The Sales Development Playbook, and New Sales Simplified – Books Kevin recommends everyone in sales to read
How to CRUSH a sales interview and get the job you want – An article Kevin wrote to help people get the job they want

Episode 33 - Jeremy Leveille

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Jeremy Leveille from Navisite. Jeremy shares some tips and tricks which will help you succeed in the world of sales development. He shares his own journey into become a better salesperson and the particular resources and actions that have contributed to where he is today.

He’ll outline the importance of growing comfortable in your own skin, developing a knack for talking to complete strangers and taking advice from mentors—all strategies that will help you improve your selling skills. Tune-in to hear the KEY lessons Jeremy takes from his successes and more importantly, his failures.

3 Key Points:
1.Three recommended ways to improve as a salesman: be yourself, learn to be comfortable while
talking to strangers and get advice from a good mentor.
2.The SDR rep AND leadership need to be proactive in helping improve sales numbers.
3.Be TRANSPARENT and AUTHENTIC while putting out content; always check in with the authors whose work resonates with you before sharing their ideas with others.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Talk to the experts at Inside Sales Team for all your sales development needs
00:31 – David introduces Jeremy Leveille
01:47 – Tracing Jeremy’s journey so far
- 01:47 – Was in a sales development/business development role for The Chameleon Group for two and a half years before joining Navisite
- 02:17 – Got let go from four different sales jobs before joining The Chameleon Group
- 02:31 – Graduated from college in 2008 when the economy was pointing south; has improved upon his sales skills considerably since then
- 03:25 – Had to figure out the intricacies of Navisite’s business when he joined them 15 months back
- 04:20 – After hitting his quota for 10 months in row as a BDR, Jeremy got a chance to move up within the organization when a position opened in the channel sales team
05:52 – What helped Jeremy evolve into a good salesman
- 05:52 – Lesson #1: Be Yourself

05:52 – Was performing miserably at his first job as a sales rep at PC Connection
06:06 – Be yourself and let your personality shine through
- 07:06 – Lesson #2: Get comfortable talking to strangers
- 09:09 – Lesson #3: Get advice from a mentor

10:02 – His manager listened to his calls and gave advice on what worked, what did not, deciphering pain and buying signals, opening a conversation, recognizing a window of opportunity and closing with confidence

12:47 – SDR’s need to make a conscious effort to improve if they are not hitting their numbers; listen to podcasts, read books and blogs and talk to people in order to learn to sell better
13:34 – At the same time, the SDR leadership needs to take it on to themselves to coach SDR’s and get them where they want to be
14:17 – Progressed from BDR to Channel Sales Manager by going ABOVE and BEYOND his call of duty; would often work till 9 pm
- 15:45 – Listening and watching the CXO talk podcast helped him to get better
19:35 – Most people stumble into sales and have little PASSION for the product they are selling; better off finding another product to sell or getting into another field altogether
20:31 – Talk to the experts at Inside Sales Team for all your sales development needs
22:36 – Talking to your product team, discovering your product’s USP, talking to your manager and customers, and reading case studies will help you DISCOVER your PASSION
25:51 – Get a firm grasp on who your ideal customer is and what their world is like
26:36 – Found out about the CXO talk podcast from a comment that someone had posted on his LinkedIn profile; the POWER of putting yourself out there is immense
27:40 – Connecting with people and building your network takes time and effort
27:58 – As a channel manager, Jeremey is dealing with resellers now and has started listening to a new podcast called Channel Outlaws
29:55 – Be TRANSPARENT and AUTHENTIC when putting out content
- 31:00 – Put out content using quotes from CXO talk after getting permission from the host, Michael Krigsman
- 32:48 – Get inside a client’s head, understand what they are dealing with and then put out content that RESONATES with them
- 34:06 – If you are successfully managing to overcome a particular objection by providing a response, you can write a blog post around it
- 35:54 – Writing on particular topics boosts your confidence
38:11 – Did not get selected for the account executive role at Navisite since they were looking for someone with more closing experience; as a channel manager, his role is less about selling and more about enabling his partner to sell
39:28 – Check out the shows transcript on the David Dulany website
39:43 – Recommended Business Books: Sales acceleration formula and Fanatical prospecting: The Ultimate Guide for Starting Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, E-Mail, and Cold Calling

Resources Mentioned:

Navisite – Where Jeremy works as Channel Sales Manager
Sales acceleration formula – Business Book
Fanatical prospecting: The Ultimate Guide for Starting Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, E-Mail, and Cold Calling – Business Book
CXO talk – A podcast that has helped Jeremy get better at selling tech products
Channel Outlaws – A new podcast that has helped Jeremy in his role as a channel sales manager

Sponsored By:

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 32 - Rob Anderson

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Rob Anderson, Outbound Sales Manager at Docebo. Rob shares how Docebo has managed to acquire 1400 clients in North America within two years of operations. He talks about the attributes that make a great team lead and how your outstanding sales rep may NOT be the right choice for that next lead.

He discusses the importance of finding your niche and researching your competition for the sole purpose of knowing how you can differentiate yourself in a saturated market. Tune-in to learn the leadership strategies that Rob lives by and passes on to his teams that have contributed to putting Docebo firmly on the path of remarkable growth.

3 Key Points:
1.Focus on differentiating yourself in the marketplace and finding your niche—studying competition is a great way to differentiate yourself.
2.Top reps might not always be great team leads; a good team lead has to be selfless and help out the younger sales reps achieve their goals.
3.Situational leadership is critical while managing employees; since no two employees are trained the same way, it is important to place yourself in the employee’s shoes to figure out your management approach.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Talk to the experts at Inside Sales Team for all your sales development needs
00:23 – David introduces Rob Anderson
01:10 – Tracing Rob’s journey so far
- 01:10 – Currently working for Docebo as an outbound BDR manager
- 01:18 – Studied visual communications at the University of South Carolina
- 01:25 – Got inspired by his dad, a successful salesman at General Mills
- 01:35 – Interned with Campus Special as a B2B salesman in Columbia, South Carolina
- 02:17 –Worked as an SDR, BDR and team lead at Achieve It, Atlanta right after graduation
- 02:55 – Got an offer from Docebo to build their outbound program from scratch
03:48 – Rob attributes his success in sales to his highly competitive nature and people skills
04:18 – Does not feel challenged in a stagnant, repeatable job
04:45 – While some salespeople are naturally gifted, most are chiseled over time due to hard work and experience
06:19 – Mastering sales early on in your career helps you as you rise up the corporate ladder
07:21 – Working your way up from a sales rep to a team lead
- 07:23 – The top reps might be self-serving and hence, may not turn out to be good team leads
- 07:45 – Apart from hitting their sales goals, a good team lead also goes out of their way to help newer reps learn the tricks of the trade

08:10 – Should be able to delegate tasks and hold reps accountable

09:00 – Team leads are looking for a responsible, high performing team player
- 09:18 – A sales rep needs to show his skills and communicate his ideas to the team lead to receive guidance
- 09:40 – You can even lead without a title; even as a sales rep you can display an inclination to help other people
11:20 – What sets Docebo apart
- 11:20 – Offers LMS (Learning Management Solutions) which can be defined as an ENGINE to deliver training and education to customers, partners and internal employees
- 11:47 – Key differentiators from other players: training is not a one-time event, a formal piece as a well as a social piece is offered within their platform

12:00 – 70% of training is done on the job
12:13 – Facilitate a transfer of knowledge by having employees go in on their own to create their own content
- 12:28 – Product works well with high-growth, high-tech companies who have complex products and who cater to the retail segment as well

12:50 – When Rob started with Docebo as an SDR, they had a client roster of 1400 companies acquired through organic and down marketing
- 13:07 – Possessed inbound sales knowledge when he started off, and had to consult other sales development leaders for working out the intricacies of outbound
- 13:26 – Had to resort to trial and error to come up with a scalable model
- 13:46 – Started out by building the playbook first, and then moved on to hiring
- 14:21 – Enthusiasm and work ethic of older salespeople tends to rub off on the newer reps that come in
- 14:45 – Has a total of 7 reps and 2 interns at the moment
15:15 – Trains new reps through hyper-focused, two weeks sessions; build in certifications as well
- 15:45 – Starts teaching reps platform features after a month
17:09 – How did Docebo manage to get 1400 customers
- 17:10 – Started North American operation two years ago with an office staff of five
- 17:18 – Today 80% of Docebo revenues come from North America
- 17:24 – Offering something which delivers results and addresses a market need
- 17:43 – While everyone else was concentrating on performance reviews, Docebo offered a different product based on social learning
18:41 – Different niche products targeting varied sectors such as higher education, corporations, Quick Serve Restaurants (QSR’s) and lawyers; no need to customize products for each customer
- 19:07 – Need to understand what you offer, what makes you different and where you are trying to play
19:50 – Focuses sharply on competition so as to achieve differentiation; if a prospect already has an LMS, sales reps make it a point to inquire about the manufacturer
21:21 – What does the internship program entail
- 20:24 – Since the University of Georgia is close by, it is easy to scout young talent
- 21:34 – Georgia houses no other tech company other than Docebo; people wanting to work in tech inevitably land there
- 22:15 – Paid internships with a SAAS company are much sought after
- 22:35 – Trains interns in the same manner as he trains BDR’s; using outreach, CRM and storytelling techniques
- 23:03 – Would be great to retain interns as BDR’s; since interns have already been working for a year and half, ramp up in a BDR role is non-existent
24:00 – Running a tech company in a developing tech hub has its own set of challenges; not possible to poach any talent since there are no exits
25:53 – CEO and CRO at Docebo are of Italian origin; another reason for choosing Athens, Georgia as it reminds them a lot of Milan
26:57 – Assigns great importance to situational leadership; no two people can be managed in the same way
- 27:06 – Structure your management style after putting yourself in your employees shoes
27:26 – Lead by example; don’t sit behind the computer, hit F5 and hope that the dashboard starts showing results
27:57 – Always start with “why”; over-explaining things to your team will get you that all crucial, employee buy-in
29:35 – Rob is working on scaling up his team, putting his certification program in place and organizing the first Docebo user conference in Boston, in September
30:46 – Sales Development Conference is coming up on September 1st in downtown San Francisco
30:52 – Message Rob if you wish to be a part of the Docebo Inspire conference in September

Resources Mentioned:

Sales Development Conference – Upcoming sales conference in San Francisco
Tenbound.com – Where you can get your early bird ticket for the Sales Development Conference
Cadence Audit 2017: What 145 Thousand Activities Tell Us About Sales Reps Behavior – An InsideSales study
Docebo – Where Rob works as Outbound Sales Manager

Sponsored By:

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 31 - Gabe Larsen

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Gabe Larsen, Vice President of Inside Sales Lab. Gabe talks about how Inside Sales Lab conducts research with an astronomically high number of data points and the many insights they can gather from their research.

He states the importance of A/B testing to gauge the effectiveness of various selling tools and explains the phenomenon of illusory superiority. Tune-in to find out why mixing outbound and inbound selling is a terrible idea and some other interesting studies Inside Sales has in its pipeline.

3 Key Points:
1. Use A/B testing to test the effectiveness of various selling tools.
2. There is a bias in what we believe we are doing and what we are actually doing—the philosophical term for this phenomenon is called illusional superiority.
3. Mixing outbound and inbound selling is NOT a good idea; study shows that developing one specialty enhances productivity.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Sales Development Conference is coming up on September 21st in downtown San Francisco
- 00:20 – Keynote speakers include Henry Schuck, CEO, Discoverorg; Manny Medina, CEO, Outreach; Kristina McMillan, Director of Research, TOPO and John Barrows, Legendary sales trainer
- 00:46 – Get your early bird ticket from tenbound.com
01:08 – David introduces Gabe Larsen
01:55 – Tracing Gabe’s journey so far
- 01:55 – Spent a couple of years as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, consulted with Accenture and then went for a consulting stint in the Middle East
- 02:09 – Affinity for sales since his younger days; Gabe’s first job was with Sales Team Automation which is today known as Inside Sales Lab
- 02:25 – Boomeranged back to Inside Sales Lab after fifteen years
- 02:32 – Realized the importance of people, systems and processes. On the basis of this philosophy, started the Momentum Strategy team focused on sales strategy and process optimization
- 02:55 – Got a chance to be on the road and study different sales playbooks and hence, shortlist best industry practices
- 03:15 – Drawing from this, Gabe started Inside Sales Labs, the research arm of Inside Sales; Gabe divides his time between reading, writing, hitting the road and consulting with clients

03:56 – Loves the balance of being with clients, thinking and writing

05:19 – Using The Coffee Play, Gabe and another sales rep sat down and built a campaign in partnership with their SDR’s
06:14 – Data provides Inside Sales with an edge over its competitors—within 10 years, Inside Sales has gathered more than 100 billion sales interactions
06:44 – Contrary to perception, Inside Sales dabbles in research as well as sales development
- 07:13 – The average Sales Development team tends to get frustrated if it does not have the research to back up their iterations
08:25 – Need to instill the best practices of marketers by adopting a testing mindset if you want to reach a higher level in sales development
- 08:37 – Analyzing effectiveness of first call sequence and different email subject lines will help clinch more sales
10:00 – Use A/B Testing to up your contact rate and closing rate
- 10:00 – Resort to A/B testing to test the effectiveness of different selling tools
- 10:42 – Gabe, along with an SDR conducted A/B testing to test the effectiveness of emails against a handwritten note, also called a High Impact Mailer
- 11:15 – Test your chosen means of communication—do not use a communication method blindly just because you are comfortable with it
- 11:57 – Even mini tests can get you an extra percentage point in your contact rate, and potentially another opportunity to close
12:44 – Give prominence to quality over quantity in sales development. Important to step back, analyze and “sharpen your axe” once in awhile
13:42 – Access different training modules and research reports by InsideSales. Gabe particularly recommends Cadence Audit 2017: What 145 Thousand Activities Tell Us About Sales Reps Behavior
- 14:28 – Studied 15,000 cadences from 8,742 companies
- 14:40 – Cadence is a sequence of activities to increase contact and qualification
- 15:21 – Research results can be used as a benchmark to determine your outreach strategy
16:09 – Studied 10 million sales opportunities as a part of a pipeline management study
- 16:53 – An interesting aspect of this study was to determine if people actually did what they said they did in the survey
- 17:30 – Gabe recommends The State of Sales Development Survey by Topo. According to this study the average number of touches on an inbound lead is 15.5
- 17:50 – Analyzing these 10 million responses revealed that the actual number of touches is 4.05—there is a bias in what we believe to be true and what we actually do
- 19:20 – Study further revealed that the optimal number of touches is between 10 and 15
- 20:02 – Illusionary superiority is an actual psychological bias
21:08 – Merging inbound and outbound sales is a bad idea
21:42 – Studying 17 million outbound cadences
22:30 – Build these five elements to optimize your cadence:
- 1. Attempts: which is the overall number of touches
- 2. Media is the communication method that was utilized
- 3. Duration between the first touch and the last touch
- 4. Spacing is the time between each activity
- 5. Content is the messaging that you utilize in your emails, social media. Content is the most powerful component of the overall cadence
23:07 – Cadences are completely different for outbound and inbound; therefore, you are better off specializing either in inbound sales or outbound sales
24:31 – Law of specialization says that you are going to go the least common denominator where there is the least amount of effort or pushback
- 25:18 – Coming out with a study involving 1500 companies to back this up
- 25:33 – Specialized inbound sales development teams leads to a sharp productivity increase
26:00 – Use of AI in inbound selling
- 26:34 – Inside sales has started to take on field sales responsibilities, as a result e-commerce is starting to take on inside sale responsibilities
- 26:44 – Gabe’s hunch is that AI is the right tool for inbound selling
- 27:12 – Companies using automated phone responses for outbound selling have experienced moderate success
- 27:35 – Finding the balance between personalization and automation is KEY
30:45 – Future research
- 30:45 – Will be coming out with various benchmarks computed from a study of the market of remote sales across Europe and the United States
- 31:19 – Study on state of sales development in partnership with Dave—this study will cover technology and best practices
- 32:00 – Studying outbound cadences, effectiveness of phones and emails
- 32:38 – Planning on coming out with an Account Based Sales Play which will be along the lines of The Coffee Play, The Lunch Play is another fun thing that the InsideSales team is working on

Resources Mentioned:

Sales Development Conference – Upcoming sales conference in San Francisco
Tenbound.com – Where you can get your early bird ticket for the Sales Development Conference
Cadence Audit 2017: What 145 Thousand Activities tell Us about sales reps behavior – An InsideSales study
Goldman Sachs – Gabe started off his career here
Inside Sales Lab – Gabe’s Organization
Topo – A organization researching in sales, marketing and sales development, and highly recommended by Gabe

Episode 30 - Trish Bertuzzi

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Trish Bertuzzi, CEO of The Bridge Group. She has also authored the bestseller Sales Development Playbook: Build Repeatable Pipeline and Accelerate Growth with Inside Sales. Trish believes that today’s job market works in the favor of potential candidates. Therefore, she outlines the key strategies companies can employ to retain their top talent, keep them engaged, and have them operating at their strongest by investing in their training.

Tune-in to hear why being a sales development rep prepares you for any future endeavor. Trish will also discuss other topics such as how to be effective in outbound sales and leveraging client feedback to create new services that will drive your growth.

3 Key Points:
1. In the business of sales, those who focus are those who win.
2. Work for an organization that is willing to invest in your training.
3. Examining client feedback is the best way to come up with new products and services—and pave the way for future success.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Sales Development Conference is coming up on September 21st in downtown San Francisco
- 00:20 – Keynote speakers include Henry Schuck, CEO, Discoverorg; Manny Medina, CEO, Outreach; Kristina McMillan, Director of Research, TOPO and John Barrows, Legendary sales trainer
- 00:46 – Get your early bird ticket from tenbound.com
01:09 – David introduces Trish Bertuzzi
01:35 – Trish still works as a sales development rep and focuses mainly on outbound sales
02:20 – Trish’s approach to outbound sales
- 02:20 – Expansive B2B database which has been developed over 20 years
- 02:34 – Keeps a tab on all her contacts via LinkedIn
- 02:52 – Those who focus are those who win—get focused on your sweet spot
- 03:05 – Resorts to storytelling to engage clients
04:40 – Importance of onboarding and training
- 04:40 – If a new SDR has not been handed a sales playbook, this shows that the company is not willing to invest in the rep’s success—a sales rep should consider finding another job in this scenario
- 05:53 – Job seekers should take advantage of the fact that it is a candidate’s market and to inquire about onboarding and training before accepting a job
07:00 – While you might not get to learn as much in a big organization as compared to a startup, you can receive perks such as stock options
07:46 – Back in the day, it was common for sales reps to get trained at IBM and Xerox—find companies today who are willing to invest in reps and create a talent pool
- 09:04 – Training budget is miniscule when compared to the hiring budget
10:11 – Critical to structure training in an appropriate manner
- 10:11 – Start off by teaching reps about your buyer, their buying habits, appropriate language
- 10:50 – Talk about the product and solution once you have informed the rep about the buyer
11:32 – Publicly shaming SDR’s on LinkedIn is disgraceful
13:30 – Contrary to popular belief, a well-structured voicemail does manage to create awareness and subsequently value
14:50 – Traditional selling tools such as phone and email can still provide results
15:22 – Use as many different forms of media as possible since buyers may react differently
16:46 – Try something different that sets you apart from your peers—this will make your job less of a grind
19:54 – “If you can do this job, you can do any job, any job. If you can figure this out, there is never going to be any job that you can’t figure out. It is the most amazing launchpad to the rest of your life and to the rest of your career”
21:03 – Important to ask for feedback from your clients—you will learn so much about your method and process that you will leapfrog ahead
- 22:10 – If you can learn and get feedback, even a “No” is a positive thing
23:28 – Incorporating client feedback to structure new services and drive growth at Bridge Group
- 23:27 – Best ever quarter at the Bridge Group; Trish attributes this performance to the fact that they learn from their clients
- 23:51 – Created a new service focusing on account based revenue last year
- 24:17 – Will be offering a new service focusing on customer success
26:22 – Selling account based revenue services rather than account based sales development or account based marketing makes it easier to convey your vision across the entire organization
28:06 – Likely to see a cross over the long run—CRO’s and CMO’s will end up managing sales as well as marketing
29:37 – Get in touch with Trish via email or Twitter

Resources Mentioned:

Sales Development Conference – Upcoming sales conference in San Francisco
Tenbound.com – Where you can get your early bird ticket for the Sales Development Conference
The Bridge Group – Trish’s organization
LinkedIn – Trish’s recommendation for keeping tabs on your contacts
“Sales Development Playbook: Build Repeatable Pipeline and Accelerate Growth with Inside Sales” – Trish’s Sales Playbook

Sponsored By:

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 29 - Steve Mayernick

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Steve Mayernick who is in charge of product management at Guru. Guru is a knowledge management solution that can be integrated with Slack to create sales playbooks that are client and situational specific.

Steve gives listeners the rundown of how sales teams can leverage Guru with Slack to make sales easier and faster. They also discuss the many integrations that turn your Slack into a well-oiled machine.

3 Key Points:
1. By using Guru, you can create highly personalized and relevant dynamic sales playbooks in an non-intrusive manner.
2. Using Guru will result in higher collaboration within sales, marketing and product teams.
3. A well-oiled Slack machine with the right integrations can do wonders for your sales development team.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:00 – Sales Development Conference is coming up on September 21st in downtown San Francisco
- 00:20 – Keynote speakers include Henry Schuck, CEO, Discoverorg; Manny Medina, CEO, Outreach; Kristina McMillan, Director of Research, TOPO and John Barrows, Legendary sales trainer
- 00:46 – Get your early bird ticket from tenbound.com
01:09 – David introduces Steve Mayernick
01:26 – Slack has become the go-to resource for internal communication
01:45 – Tracing Steve’s career path
- 01:47 – Prior to Guru, Steve was running marketing at sales enablement at RJmetrics
- 02:03 – While at RJmetrics, Steve used Guru to develop SDR playbooks and transfer onboarding material to the workflow
02:54 – Understanding how Guru works
- 02:54 – Guru is a knowledge management solution that sales teams use to access dynamic playbooks anywhere they work
- 03:27 – Access sales playbook and marketing assets by running a Slackbot query
- 03:41 – Answers provided by subject matter experts are stored as FAQ in Slack and can be accessed easily
05:29 – Understanding how a dynamic sales book is made and used
- 05:30 – Situational playbooks are compiled by adding relevant tags
- 06:15 – The plays are compiled specific to a particular sales scenario, by taking into account persona, industry and competitors
- 06:46 – Works in a non-invasive way as a part of the browser extension
- 07:39 – Useful to compile and send relevant information like a deck or an article while prospecting a client; this information is compiled from a prospect’s LinkedIn profile and endorsements
08:19 – McKinsey points out that sales reps spend 33% of their time looking for information; Guru aims to cut this down so that reps can spend time more time selling and prospecting
09:49 – Guru enables sales personalization and hence, increased relevancy
10:00 – In-built workflows make it possible to save client specific messaging that can be accessed by everyone within an organization
10:56 – Setting up Guru
- 10:56 – Entire data migration cannot be automated; the manual part involves tagging and creating structures which make navigation possible
- 12:26 – Possible to determine Guru’s influence by analyzing Guru usage and onboarding success of different reps
- 13:05 – Data migration takes 2 to 4 weeks; adoption takes another 2 weeks
13:50 – Allows you to see if information is up-to-date, and keeps information up-to-date
14:09 – Guru facilitates easier access to data which has led to Optimizely
14:45 – Go to tenbound.com/contact to sponsor the Sales Development Podcast
15:45 – Guru results in higher collaboration between product, sales and marketing teams and makes your development reps stronger
16:49 – Guru manages to capture valuable information that development reps gather from prospects that otherwise would be lost
18:00 – “Sales development is like the connective tissue between a lot of different organizations on the revenue side”
18:36 – How is Guru being used internally for sales development?
- 18:45 – 3 sales reps, 4 account executives
- 19:00 – Leverage Guru to answer objections, research and prospect clients
- 20:00 – Possible to answer questions in a fast and fluid manner; repeating questions have gone down due to all questions being stored as FAQ in Slack
- 20:56 – Ability to track effectiveness of marketing assets to figure out what is working, and what is not
22:32 – A well-oiled Slack machine with the right integrations in place can do wonders for sales development:
- 23:07 – Clearbit allows you to push new user information to Slack
- 22:30 – Setting up a money channel results in Slack pop ups every time you hit a sales goal
- 24:16 – Intercom enables different teams within an organization to actively collaborate while helping out prospects
- 24:45 – Datafox to monitor competitors
- 24:50 – Troops to access Salesforce information
- 24:56 – Product Board to collect information for the product team
- 25:02 – Trello integration for project management needs
25:53 – Buyers are influenced by the speed of response—integrating Guru with Slack can improve your speed of response dramatically
27:30 – The future roadmap
- 27:40 – Leveraging threads to make Guru less invasive
- 28:00 – Bridging the gap between sales and marketing by using marketing analytics
31:20 – Check out the Guru website for resources on Slack integration

Resources Mentioned:

Sales Development Conference – Upcoming sales conference in San Francisco
Tenbound.com – Where you can get your early bird ticket for the Sales Development Conference
RJmetrics – Steve’s previous employer
Optimizely – An experimentation platform
Clearbit, Intercom, Datafox, Troops, Productboard, Trello – Slack integrations recommended by Steve

Sponsored By:

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 28 - Brian Vital

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Brian Vital, Vice President of Growth at Inside Sales Team. Together, they talk about Brian’s journey in sales development—from starting as an SDR (sales development representative) to becoming a VP of Growth in just four years.

Listen as Brian gives us the ins and outs of Inside Sales Team, how they collaborate with their company partners, and how they tailor their training of SDRs according to the needs of their targeted clients.

3 Key Points:
1. Growing a company does not pertain only to an increase in revenue, but the growth of its employees and sales team in terms of quality and performance.
2. Sales managers are NOT just coaches – they are motivators, trainers, and leaders that bring out the best in their sales’ staff.
3. Coachability is a vital trait of a potential SDR, but it is something you cannot see in a resume.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:04 – David introduces Brian Vital
01:47 – Brian started at the Inside Sales Team 4 years ago
- 01:53 – He started on behalf of the client, DiscoverOrg
02:16 – Inside Sales Team’s focus is being a high-producing sales development function
- 02:22 – They focus on targeted accounts
03:14 – Brian was older when he came to sales development and he climbed his way up in 4 years
03:53 – Growth at Inside Sales Team means doing anything possible to grow the company – not just acquire revenue
04:11 – Brian still runs a few sales development teams
05:07 – Inside Sales Team looks not for just companies, but partners
- 05:24 – They work with their partners for the long-term (yearly terms)
- 06:27 – They don’t just focus on quantity, but quality as well
- 07:11 – Company problems that Inside Sales Team solve include time, specification, and training
- 07:45 – Clients also come to Inside Sales Team to create a successful development program
09:22 – Studies show that SDRs are in the trenches
09:33 – Sales development managers are not just coaches for the players
10:15 – The infrastructure of a highly successful, performance-based, sales development program is partnering with Inside Sales Team
10:36 – Inside Sales Team does recruiting and invests in their SDR’s training
11:23 – Augmenting internal SDR teams is the best fit for Inside Sales Team because of:
- 11:30 – General sharing of best practices
- 12:08 – Competition
- 12:38 – Spend more time and focus on internal team
13:38 – DiscoverOrg has 20 SDRs in Vancouver and 6 in Buffalo, New York
14:04 – Commercial Break
15:09 – Inside Sales Team has a director for Improvement
15:14 – The first week of the SDR training program is about the ins and outs of sales development
- 15:32 – Second week includes certain training regarding services and products
- 16:15 – Once a representative shows their performance on the training program, he’s then moved to analyze data
- 16:53 – Their teams all have a morning huddle
- 17:26 – Customization for clients starts in the onboarding stage
- 17:41 – Training for specification and customization comes from the director of sales development and the team lead
- 19:08 – Their training is done every, single day
- 19:43 – Inside Sales Team also have company-wide weekly training and meetings on Fridays
20:55 – There are certain things they look for in potential representatives such as high intellect
- 21:52 – Hard work and perseverance over time
- 22:53 – Coachability
  - 24:03 – It’s hard to know whether a person will be coachable
24:28 – Inside Sales Team also uses Omnia Group for their candidates’ assessments
25:45 – An SDR journey in Inside Sales Team starts from being a representative
- 25:49 – Team lead promotion is anywhere from 6-18 months
- 25:56 – From team lead, there is a manager of sales development
- 26:10 – The next step would be the director of sales development
- 27:01 – By end of the 3rd quarter, there will be more available positions
27:35 – David met Brian through DiscoverOrg
29:06 – Send Brian a message on LinkedIn or check out his blog
29:50 – David recommends to subscribe on SDR Huddle, Brian’s blog

Resources Mentioned:

Inside Sales Team – Company where Brian works as VP of Growth
DiscoverOrg – A company Brian worked with personally
Omnia Group – Company that provides personality assessment services
SDR Huddle – Brian’s blog

Sponsored By:

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 27 - Brandon Compher

Summary:

In this episode of Sales Development Podcast, David interviews Brandon Compher, Sales Development Manager at ChannelAdvisor. Brandon shares his journey from pursuing coaching and sports management to diving head-on into sales as a sales development representative or SDR.

With no prior sales experience, Brandon discovered quickly the value of asking for help. He also learned what it means to lean on one’s support and how how one must fight for balance in a profession that has such a high, burnout rate. Tune-in to gain these valuable insights and so much more.

3 Key Points:
1.A minimum effort on your behalf will yield you minimum results.
2.Acknowledge your need for help; then, go out and ask for it!
3.The more passionate you are about the work and company, the more energy you’ll bring.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:58 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
01:04 – Introducing Brandon to the show
01:40 – Brandon has a Masters of Science in Sports Management and now works as a sales development manager
- 02:08 – He went to East Carolina University and started out as a manager for the basketball team
- 02:29 – He’s always been in coaching
- 03:02 – Later on, coaching became laborious for Brandon and he couldn’t see where he really wanted to go
- 03:18 – He took a semester off
- 03:34 – Brandon did an internship in game operations at Duke University
- 04:00 – He got burnt-out and ended up taking another job at Denison University, in Ohio
- 04:09 – He discovered athletics aren’t really for him
04:16 – He helped in their family business for awhile
04:35 – His friends and former classmates told him he had an outgoing personality and should go into sales
- 04:51 – Brandon worked in a small company taking hundreds of calls every day
- 05:09 – He transferred into sales development and he took off as an account executive
- 05:32 – Because of his coaching mentality, he felt he could really provide more by helping others reach their goals
- 06:19 – Coaching does not come naturally to everyone
07:28 – Brandon believes telling stories is very impactful
07:35 – When Brandon started out as an SDR, he didn’t have any sales experience
- 07:47 – He didn’t hit his numbers for the first 2 months
08:15 – If you do the minimum, you’ll get minimum results
- 08:58 – You have to start going the extra mile
09:20 – If you want to make a career, invest in yourself
- 09:50 – Ask for help and seek out advice
- 10:44 – Be careful about what company you’ll work for
- 11:08 – The more passionate you are, the more energy you’ll bring to the table
11:31 – David is currently reading The 10X Rule
- 12:03 – You’re estimates to success are wrong – it’s probably 10X the numbers you have
12:46 – Brandon had a late start – his first SDR job was at 29
- 13:06 – His wife was a full-time nurse
- 13:29 – Brandon finally decided to start putting more effort into prospecting
- 13:47 – He took his team leader’s advice about going the extra mile
- 14:18 – He realized he could turn things around
- 14:41 – “There’s gotta be something in your life that can drive you”
15:48 – Balance is still a very important factor to consider
- 16:34 – “Sales development is a role that can really burn people out”
17:18 – An SDR role is a great way to start out in a company
18:25 – For Brandon, he felt he really needed help, so he asked for it
- 19:46 – His stress level was to the roof and it took him one month to realize he needed help
- 20:15 – Brandon was surrounded with quality colleagues, family, and friends
- 21:15 – If he didn’t have this great group of people with him, it would have been really tough for him
- 21:23 – “I highly encourage people to talk to coworkers”
- 22:19 – You have to talk about your problems with somebody
- 23:20 – Sharing your problems with someone to gain outside perspective is paramount
- 24:41 – Swallow your pride and ask for help because you will definitely get something back
26:20 – Brandon realized that their connect rate at ChannelAdvisor was relatively constant
- 26:39 – The team had been focusing on the quality of the call
- 27:31 – They created a grading system for their reps
- 27:50 – They made the work more fun and competitive by creating a spiff (incentive for a sale)
- 28:42 – The spiff created a culture of quality for their reps
- 28:54 – Call quality drastically improved for ChannelAdvisor
- 29:17 – It’s great to see how much their reps pushed to improve
30:29 – David mentions his interview with Steve Richard where they talked about how to make calls better with systems and processes in place
31:32 – A point-to-point needs analysis
32:49 – “You definitely have to empower the reps”
33:13 – From a management perspective: come in, take ownership, direct people, but don’t forget to listen
34:20 – David shares about an article in LinkedIn of a company that does 40K calls/week and how they analyze the data
36:11 – Own your personality when you’re taking calls
38:01 – “Call blitz” is not as relevant anymore
38:45 – Long drawn-out emails are unsuccessful as well
40:20 – People are used to reacting now – use it to make them respond
41:37 – Brandon sees himself in a leadership role at a sales development organization
42:42 – David is a huge advocate for growing your career
43:39 – End of podcast

Resources Mentioned:

ChannelAdvisor – Company where Brandon works for as sales development manager
East Carolina University – University where Brandon worked as a basketball team manager
Duke University – University where Brandon had an internship in game operations
Denison University – University where Brandon took another job at before working in their family business
The 10X Rule – Book that David recommends

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 26 - Stu Heinecke

Summary:

When it comes to the weapons in a salesperson’s arsenal, few things are as valuable as the meeting. The meeting is how you get your face, your energy, and your value-prop directly in front of the prospect—it’s how you humanize the sales process.

With that in mind, please welcome Stu Heinecke, author of How to Get a Meeting with Anyone, on the Sales Development Podcast. During today’s interview, Stu will highlight his inspiration for the book, and how he helps his robust portfolio of clients get a meeting with anyone, no matter their title.

3 Key Points:
1. Breaking through does not require much in the way of funding, but it does require a lot in the way of creativity and thoughtfulness.
2. Never rely on hope as a strategy.
3. Don’t single-source your entry nor single-thread your contacts.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:49 – Introducing Stu
01:19 – One of David’s clients bought Stu’s book for all their representatives
01:49 – In the sales development world, getting meetings is an obsession
02:31 – Stu started his career as a cartoonist, but his education was in marketing
- 02:52 – Stu loved cartoons because they were a part of publication readers always remembered
- 03:14 – “Humor doesn’t work in advertising or in marketing” a common misconception Stu doesn’t believe in
03:27 – Creating direct marketing campaigns for magazines
- 03:35 – Two test campaigns – one for Rolling Stone and one for Bon Appetit
- 03:47 – The two tests beat the magazines’ controls—this was Stu’s big break
04:07 – Connecting with two-dozen VPs and directors of print media companies
04:43 – Using a “Contact Campaign”
- 05:25 – His contact campaign had a 100% response rate
06:43 – “Contact Marketing” is Stu’s favorite term
- 08:18 – “This is not the kind or marketing we’re used to”
- 09:14 – “Micro-Focus” is not about mass marketing – it’s about who do we need to connect with to propel the scale of everything in our business
10:05 – Stu thinks you need to be audacious to break into people who are almost ‘impossible’ to reach
11:05 – There’s some form of truth in humor
11:32 – Stu is writing a new business strategy book
12:52 – Stu discusses Dan Waldschmidt’s amazing process of watching stories and mistuning estimates
- 14:18 – “There are a lot of different ways to breakthrough and create new relationships with people that are important to us”
15:20 – You don’t need a million people to target, you need to be Micro-Focused
- 16:06 – Who are the people who could use of your service most?
- 17:25 – Don’t be single-threaded in your approach
17:59 – Stu is used to going to the top management to ask for referrals
18:14 – Stu has a podcast called Contact Marketing Radio that talks about how to breakthrough to important people
- 18:25 – Stu had a guest – a contestant on Shark Tank who sells jewelry
- 18:38 – She used social media to find the interns in Oprah’s organization and started sending them jewelry
- 18:56 – Somebody brought it to the attention of Oprah and the she ended up being featured in the show
- 19:55 – Creating community in the marketplace opens doors
20:20 – Don’t single-source your entry into an account and don’t single-thread your contact efforts
21:28 – Commercial Break
23:52 – Marketing by volume means wasting a lot of opportunities
24:43 – Stu shares a story of a guy who contacted him via LinkedIn
27:25 – You don’t have to spend a lot in contact marketing
- 28:39 – The cost is really the creativity
29:06 – Be a free-thinking individual
30:20 – Stu has a Fortune 250 client that uses APM
- 31:19 – Client told Stu before they did his campaign, they had 0% response rate
- 31:29 – When they applied the campaign, the contact rate came up to 75% and the meeting rate, 50%
- 31:53 – “These things can help you grow whatever it is you’re doing”
- 32:03 – “If you can’t breakthrough, you can’t sell”
32:59 – Hope is a terrible strategy
- 33:58 – One sales rep was calling Apple’s engineering department for a software solution
- 34:12 – He was forwarded to the purchasing department but they wouldn’t return calls
- 34:47 – One day a plywood box arrived for the CEO with a handwritten note
  - 35:16 – The plywood box was the final attempt of the sales rep to contact the CEO
  - 35:44 – There was a carrier pigeon with a capsule and paper
- 35:52 – If the CEO writes the name of his favorite restaurant, the date, and time that he’s free on the paper, puts it in the capsule, and let’s the pigeon to fly, it’s a confirmed meeting
- 36:13 – The representative emerged from the meeting with a $250K deal
36:52 – Being audacious, clever, and thinking out of the box helps you breakthrough
38:01 – It’s not about the budget, it’s about the creativity

Resources Mentioned:

How to Get a Meeting with Anyone – Stu’s book
Rolling Stone and Bon Appetit – 2 magazines that Stu first tried his contact marketing with
Dan Waldschmidt – Person Stu mentioned as an example
Contact Marketing Radio – Podcast that Stu co-hosts
Forest Gump – Movie that Stu referenced for his example

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 25 - Andrea Waltz

Summary:

“No.” It’s a word most of us hate to hear. But what if we didn’t think about it as a means of rejection? What if we thought about it as a means of success? What if went for “no” the same way we usually go for “yes”?

These questions and more are what we’ll tackle in today’s episode of the Sales Development Podcast, where David interviews Andrea Waltz, the bestselling author for Go for No! Together, David and Andrea will do a deep dive into the essence of “no”, and why the “Go for No” strategy might be something you need to employ in your life.

3 Key Points:
1.A “No” is not a bad thing – a rejection can be an opportunity to grow.
2.Don’t pre-judge—don’t take people off your potential prospect list because they’ll probably say “no”.
3.Going for the “No” is the way to the “Yes.”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:50 – Introducing Andrea Waltz
- 01:32 – Andrea has been studying the word, “No” for years
- 01:39 – She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice that she has never used
- 01:52 – She worked for Lenscrafters where she got multiple promotions until she became one of the youngest general managers in their history
  - 02:02 – It was in Lenscrafters where Andrea met her husband, who convinced her to quit her jobs and start a speaking/training company
02:30 – One Andrea’s earliest lessons?—the Go for No strategy
02:52 – After a few years, they decided to just focus on Go for No
03:35 – Richard Fenton, the co-author of the book, is Andrea’s husband
- 04:20 – Go for No is about intentionally increasing your failure rate – go out and hear NO more often
05:40 – “Your fear of getting the word ‘No’ is going to kill you”
- 06:41 – We incorrectly associate “No” with “Bad”
08:08 – The reason why Andrea and Richard want people to Go for No is because they want to change people’s view on failure
08:57 – There are different strategies to train your mind
09:56 – No is not a failure, and definitely not the end of the world
11:06 – The subtitle of the book is so important – Yes is the Destination, No is How You Get There
12:26 – With a “Go for Yes” mindset, you eliminate other opportunities because of pre-judgement
- 13:34 – Setting “NO Goals” – set a goal for a number of NOs you’re going to collect

14:28 – Commercial Break
15:26 – If you can switch your mindset that No is getting you toward Yes, you will be empowered
16:59 – Make sure you talk to qualified people
- 17:35 – A lot of salespeople want to pad the numbers and won’t really Go for No
- 17:58 – Are you willing to hear no?
20:09 – Managing the No and figuring out what’s behind it is what people forget to do
- 21:19 – David believes the Go for No is key to a successful life
- 21:41 – “Just ask for what you want”
22:30 – Andrea mentions about The Aladdin Factor, a book co-authored by Richard
23:20 – When Richard and Andrea made a documentary for Go for No, they interviewed Jack Canfield, Richard’s co-author
23:29 – Andrea told Jack The Aladdin Factor changed her life
23:53 – Going for Yes leads to constant disappointment
24:20 – Face your fear
25:41 – You have to train yourself to revert the notion of “No”
25:56 – There are big NOs out there
26:29 – David’s wife is a natural go-for-no person
26:58 – “Know your stuff”
27:13 – You have to be a professional and have everything together
28:28 – GoForNo.com is where you can find Andrea and Richard

Resources Mentioned:

Go for No! – Andrea’s book
Richard Fenton – Andrea’s husband
Lenscrafters – Company where Andrea worked as general manager
The Aladdin Factor – Book co-authored by Andrea’s husband, Richard
GoForNo.com – Andrea and Richard’s website

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 24 - Nick Ruiz

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Nick Ruiz, author of Flip: An Unconventional Guide to Becoming a Real Estate Entrepreneur and Building Your Dream Lifestyle. Today, Nick shares his journey from Scratch to Success—the name of his new book that released on July 18th.

Tune in to learn how Nick started building a blossoming career by flipping hopes, only to lose it all in the 2008 crisis. If you think you wouldn’t be able to recover after blowing a million-dollar portfolio—this is an episode you can’t afford to miss. Nick will show you how he got back on his feet after the Great Recession.

3 Key Points:
1.When you’ve been broke before, being broke again doesn’t hurt so bad.
2.Do what makes you happy in your life – you only live once.
3.There’s no one single way to do something – do it your way, and don’t be afraid to break the rules.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:20 – Introducing Nick to the show
- 01:32 – He’s the founder of Alpha Home Flipping
02:32 – Success from Scratch is Nick’s new book, releasing on July 18
03:56 – Nick has been an entrepreneur since he was a kid
- 04:07 – In his late teens, Nick already knew he wanted to do something BIG
04:18 – In 1999, he saw a commercial for a “no money down” real estate course
- 05:19 – He made a move, took the course, found a home for sale, creatively financed it, bought it, collected rents, sold it, made money and did it all over again
- 05:36 – But the time he was in his mid-20s he had a million-dollar portfolio
05:42 – Then the 2008 crisis hit
- 06:07 – Nick went into bankruptcy
- 06:17 – “When you’ve always been broke, the pain of broke is less severe than if you had success and then went broke”
- 06:32 – “I’ve been in both places”
07:23 – Nick was in rough shape – physically, emotionally, and mentally
07:34 – All the personal development resources in the world don’t prepare you from your collapse
08:06 – What happened to him forced urgency
- 08:14 – Embrace the urgency to make something happen
- 08:51 – Nick had to make something happen for his family
09:15 – His story matters because it gives people hope
09:30 – Nick wrote his book, Success from Scratches because he has been successful from scratch multiple times
- 09:58 – “This is stuff you haven’t read”
- 10:23 – “Everyone has a unique evolutionary success path”
12:28 – Perks and benefits are created to make sure employees are happy and the company’s vision and dreams happen
13:03 – Comfort may slowly be extinguishing the dream inside of people
- 13:44 – We only have one life to live
- 14:18 – If you feel you’re in a job that you’re meant to be in, that’s already successful
- 14:25 – There are people who want to do more, but are afraid to leave their jobs because of the benefits
15:36 – The capitalist economy is nature – if you don’t evolve, you get eliminated
- 16:20 – “It’s very simple. Get rewarded or get eliminated”
17:41 – Nick doesn’t remember how he got out of his depression after the 2008 crisis, but he remembers he just snapped out of it
18:19 – When he got back in business, Nick was very strategic with reinvesting his profits
- 18:47 – Freedom is a cash purchase
- 19:32 – Buy your freedom first before you buy luxury
19:37 – Commercial Break
21:54 – All about free money in tech
- 22:07 – Running a business behind an app is a whole different skillset
- 22:52 – Selling apps and app ideas is a disconnect for Nick
23:18 – Nick believes bootstrapping is a healthy way to start a business
23:55 – A business is supposed to earn money
25:12 – The killer app idea is only a key to walk in the door to pitch in – it’s not business, essentially
- 25:51 – Nick thinks a lot of things lack common sense
27:05 – Invest your other profits in real estate if you already have a business
- 27:10 – 95% of the world’s wealth is either created or maintained
27:56 – “Understand how rough draft moves change everything”
- 28:20 – Make a rough draft moves
- 29:17 – Working is making moves
- 30:00 – “Just do things!”
- 30:19 – “Your plans on the whiteboard don’t exist...your move is real”
31:36 – “Everybody does things differently”
32:04 – Nick speaks and transcribes – he speaks his book
- 32:22 – There are no rules in anything
- 32:31 – Do things your way
- 33:56 – You don’t have to follow the steps to write a book – do what works for you
36:28 – People need to give themselves the permission to make mistakes
- 37:18 – Entrepreneurship is making mistakes and correcting consistently
38:21 – Go to Amazon and search Success from Scratch to get a book
38:35 – SuccessfromScratch.net is where you can find the book and Nick
39:14 – Check out Nick Ruiz’s videos here

Resources Mentioned:

Flip: An Unconventional Guide to Becoming a Real Estate Entrepreneur and Building Your Dream Lifestyle – Nick’s book
Alpha Home Flipping – Nick’s business website

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 23 - Tom Corley

Summary:

David welcomes Thomas Corley to the show. Thomas is an internationally recognized authority on the habits that create wealth. He is the bestselling author of Rich Habits and Rich Habits, Poor Habits and is also an award winning speaker. The basis of Thomas’ books and research is from his 5-year study evaluating the key differences between the rich and the poor.

He was able to compare and contrast 300 daily habits of each demographic and gives listeners a brief overview of his findings in today’s Sales Development Podcast. Discover the #1 habit most rich people have in common and how our use of time directly affects the degree of success we experience.

3 Key Points:
1.Our daily life habits—from what we eat to how we spend our time—is what separates the rich from the poor.
2.Follow your passion; this will provide you with the greatest source of energy.
3.Be intentional when it comes to choosing the relationships in which you want to invest.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:32 – Introducing Thomas Corley to the show
02:38 – The US Census Bureau in 2015 says that 43M Americans live in poverty
02:51 – Another 100M live at twice the poverty line
03:03 – In Tom’s study, he realized that daily habits are what separate the rich from the poor
03:45 – There are 140M people who are literally one paycheck away from being homeless
04:00 – Thomas know what it means, because he lived in poverty himself
04:20 – Thomas’ family started out very wealthy
- 04:38 – At the age of 9, they lost everything overnight
- 04:54 – His father’s partner, who did the sales, died because of a heart attack
- 05:11 – His dad ended up selling the business
- 05:20 – His dad was supposed to get paid in 3 payments, but they didn’t get the 2nd or 3rd payment
- 05:28 – 18 months later, his dad took the business back
- 05:32 – They had the same customers and vendors, but the buyers ran the business the opposite way
- 05:49 – 30 days later after Thom’s dad took the business back, the warehouse burned to the ground
- 06:03 – His dad lost everything and even had to pay $4M in inventory
- 07:08 – Thom had to work as a janitor for 20 hours/week so he could afford his college education
07:54 – Tom was completely blown away when he interviewed wealthy people for his study
08:21 – Tom had negative assumptions regarding how these people acquired their wealth and found he was wrong
08:32 – Wealthy people were superior to those who are poor in almost every area
09:01 – These people had build so many powerful relationships
09:35 – Tom strived to be like them
10:42 – When David was a kid, the wealthy people in his area were the specialists
- 11:08 – When he got older, he started to resent the rich
- 11:19 – His resentment fuelled his desire to become wealthy
11:28 – An important factor is how a person is raised
12:15 – In Tom’s research, the wealthy were concerned with health and exercise
- 12:56 – It was only an afterthought to study those who are poor
- 13:12 – Only 16% of the poor people interviewed flossed
- 13:28 – 97% of poor people ate junk food every day
- 13:49 – 76% of the wealthy exercised at least 30 minutes per day, 4 days a week
- 16:06 – Exercise also increases IQ
17:16 – 65% of rich people have at least 3 streams of income
- 17:25 – 45% have 4 streams and 25% have 5 streams or more
- 18:02 – These wealthy people create multiple streams of income off of their core business
18:26 – Dream-setting is the number one habit of the rich
19:52 – Tom’s summary reveals 344 habits, behaviors, and thinking of the rich
20:11 – There are 20 categories and 144 questions in Tom’s survey and he surveyed 230 millionaires
20:58 – Tom created a research summary, then he started conducting training sessions
- 21:16 – He wanted to try and get better at communicating the habits of the rich
- 21:30 – Some people in his group had real success and begged him to write a book
- 22:36 – Yahoo Finance interviewed Thomas and it had 2M hits in 24 hours
- 23:02 – Dave Ramsey scheduled to have Tom on his show
- 23:28 – The next thing Tom knew, his book was already #7 in Amazon
24:44 – Two of Thomas’ books are launching in China, in July
25:53 – When Tom was wrapping up his research, he was running a small CPA firm
- 26:11 – He made about $130-140K/year and he had 3 kids to put through college
- 26:25 – He panicked and wanted to establish other revenue streams ASAP
- 26:35 – He added financial planning services which added $75K/year
- 26:41 – He wrote books that generate more income
27:13 – “You never know what thing is going to obsess you, but you have to follow the string”
28:04 – In 2004, Thomas wouldn’t have called himself an early riser nor a workaholic
28:36 – When you pursue a dream, it reveals your main calling or purpose in life
29:14 – The energy you feel from your passion is tapped into your emotions
30:22 – You shouldn’t have to will yourself to do the work
31:49 – Thomas devouts an hour to an hour and a half every morning to reading
- 31:56 – 1 - 1.5 hours of writing
- 32:02 – 20 mins to 1 hour for exercise
- 32:27 – He runs 2-3 miles every day
- 32:49 – He also jumps into social media in the morning, at lunch, and at the end of the day
33:19 – Thomas has 3 businesses – CPA, financial services, and Rich Habits
34:22 – The big difference with successful people and those who are not is how they focus their time
- 34:40 – Poor people waste their time on social media, watching tv and watching Youtube
- 34:58 – Poor people have more time than rich people
36:05 – From high school on, Thomas was a B student
- 36:20 – He was in the corporate world for 10 years
- 36:23 – Thomas was petrified when the whole finance department took an IQ test – he honestly believed he was an idiot
- 36:36 – When the IQ test came back, his score was 136 and his boss’ was 134
- 37:18 – “If your beliefs are negative beliefs about yourself, you’re going to develop habits around those beliefs”
- 37:42 – If you’re an average worker, you’ll build habits proving that you ARE indeed average
38:32 – Proactively implement rich habits before something bad happens
- 39:01 – If you can implement these habits in your 20s, you’re set up for a better future
- 39:13 – “All you need is 1, 2 or 3 rich habits”
- 40:30 – The exercise habit motivates you to alter your other habits automatically
- 41:11 – Reading everyday for self-improvement is also a keystone habit
42:19 – The more you learn, the more you will see opportunities
43:26 – The rich do 3 things to grow their relationships: happy birthday call, hello call, and life event call
44:16 – Thomas asks questions and writes down new information of people he calls
44:45 – The “hello call” should be done once every 3 months to individuals you want to grow relationships with
45:04 – The “life event call” is the most significant call that you can make
- 45:54 – Life events are emotional events
- 45:56 – Anytime you tap into someone’s emotions, you transform the relationship
- 46:51 – “Emotions create memories”
48:49 – The only value social media has is if you use it as a stepping stone to further a relationship
- 50:43 – “If you’re not interested in growing a relationship, go back to social media”
52:35 – Thomas shares about one individual from his study
- 52:43 – At the end of 2008, the guy lost his job and called Thomas
- 53:11 – He told Thomas that he might want to take him off the list because he lost his job
- 53:26 – Thom questioned how he was going to get a job in this economy
- 53:52 – A month later, the same guy called Tom again and said he was starting work on Monday
- 54:34 – This guy literally had to make one phone call to change his life around again
54:43 – Mentor people
56:01 – Connect with Tom on his website
57:52 – End of podcast

Resources Mentioned:

Rich Habits and Rich Habits, Poor Habits – Tom’s books
Yahoo Finance – First company to interview Tom on his study
Dave Ramsey – Influencer who first invited Tom to guest on his show

Sponsored By:

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 22 - Katherine Andruha

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Katherine Andruha, Sales Development Director at Apttus. Katherine began her journey in finance and found herself in the world of tech sales as a business development representative. This is where Katherine began to thrive in sales and grow in her understanding of what it actually takes to reach your potential prospect.

Tune-in as Katherine shares why you need to be passionate about your product, but even more focused on WHO your customer is and how you will solve their problem. Katherine shares valuable tips that will help you as a sales or business development representative and give you a preview of her work with Apttus.

3 Key Points:
1.Be passionate about your product—if you can’t be, why would your future prospect be.
2.Approach your customers by using their pain points as YOUR entry point.
3.Reaching out to people NEEDS to be personalized—sending generic messages that link people back to their web page does not communicate care.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:47 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
01:05 – Introducing Katherine to the show
01:28 – David held a panel discussion a couple of months ago in San Francisco where Katherine was present and the topic was leadership vs management
02:01 – At first, Katherine thought she would become a doctor when she went to college
- 02:17 – She shifted and fell into finance
- 02:24 – After 3.5 years into finance, a friend told Katherine she would be great in tech sales
02:52 – She gave tech sales a try and started off as a BDR (business development representative) for Aruba Networks
- 03:13 – Katherine absolutely loved sales and it turned out that she was good at it
- 04:25 – Katherine found that the conversations were quite different in finance than they were in tech sales
- 04:37 – In tech sales, she learned about different personas and ways to pitch products
- 04:54 – “It wasn’t too much of a transition, but it was a scary transition”
- 05:02 – “If it does not make you nervous, then it’s really not just worth doing”
- 05:59 – If you’re not passionate about your product, why would your prospect be?
- 06:46 – People tend to be so fearful that they lose their confidence
- 07:30 – No one cares more about you the way you care about yourself
09:13 – Katherine is a procrastinator at compiling information
09:51 – She constantly asks for a new dashboard
10:11 – Katherine learned a lot from her bosses, Maria Pergolino and Dan Frohnen
- 10:51 – Whenever Katherine is presenting, she looks and thinks as Maria or as Dan would
- 11:48 – She has great mentors
- 12:14 – She’s learned to be humble about her answers
12:47 – David is currently running a training program for sales managers
13:08 – As a sales development leader, you have to be vocal to get what you need
13:44 – As a person in sales, you need to know how to do reporting in any type of CRM (customer relationship management)
14:12 – If somebody asks you and you can’t answer, you’ve lost credibility in 30 seconds
15:17 – Katherine typically sold everything as a BDR, but what’s important is that you don’t get wrapped up in what the product is
- 15:45 – Focus on WHO you’re selling to
- 16:59 – As a BDR, Katherine looks up collaterals that the marketing department gives her to know her market persona
- 18:22 – Tell your target you understand there’s a pain point they need to address and you want to learn about it and maybe help them out with it
- 19:31 – Your customers only care about the problems they need solved
- 19:43 – If you’re the first one to show some value to your target, you will be the person they think of all the time
- 21:42 – Reaching out to people is NOT sending them links to your landing pages
- 22:32 – Katherine always ends her emails with, “I look forward to your response”
- 23:30 – Start your playbook with personas and pain points
24:02 – Learn more about Sales Development Podcast Sponsorship at tenbound.com/contact
24:49 – Apttus has a ton of ways to share customer info to BDRs
- 24:54 – They had a playbook in the past and Katherine quickly removed that and replaced it with slides
- 25:20 – A lot of the information came from what her managers are using
- 25:34 – Katherine created a tool section on how to build reports
- 26:25 – Now, Katherine is breaking down her playbook into processes and procedures, rules of engagement, tools, and personas that are posted in their Sales Force Chat and Dropbox
- 27:00 – They also have revenue success activity recorded every week
27:18 – Katherine is beyond transparent in her messaging
28:03 – She is involved in all their chatter groups
29:17 – In February, Apttus created a fielding team of BDRs
- 29:36 – Apttus is day-in and day-out with their leads
- 30:37 – Additional BDRs are in the enterprise sector where they are at a 2:1 ratio to the field teams
- 32:07 – A BDR doesn’t just get leads in their accounts, they get 10-12 that are most actively interested in their product
- 32:42 – BDRs are doing mostly outbound calls, reaching out to contacts that have been nurtured in the past by Apttus
- 33:54 – When Apttus was planning for the fiscal year, they laid out their ideal customer profile and the industries they had success in for evaluation with their sales operations organization
- 35:24 – They increased scores for returning leads and open leads
- 35:58 – They also have a call counter for their lead views
- 36:28 – Marketing Operations Team determine lead scores by using tools like EverString, LeadGenius, and ZoomInfo
- 37:16 – Apttus uses Inside Sales to manage their workflows
- 37:21 – They also have Power Dialler and Vision built into their CRM
- 38:56 – They decided to start their processes from scratch
41:41 – End of podcast

Resources Mentioned:

Apttus – Company where Katherine currently serves as Director for Sales Development
Aruba Networks – Company where Katherine first started
Maria Pergolino and Dan Frohnen – Katherine’s bosses and mentors
SalesForce Chat,Dropbox, EverString, LeadGenius, ZoomInfo, Inside Sales, Power Dialler and Vision – Tools Apttus are using for their business development

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 21 - Chris Casillas

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Chris Casillas, Director of Sales Development at Appfolio. Chris takes us on a journey back to where it all began for him in sales development and the role Appfolio has played in shaping his journey.

You’ll learn how Appfolio grew from a few customers to tens of thousands of customers and Appfolio’s processes for finding, training, and entrusting their SDRs (sales development representatives) with those sales calls.

You’ll also learn about the characteristics of a great SDR which includes enthusiasm, a growth mindset and much, much more.

3 Key Points:
1.It’s important for those in sales development to put on a growth mindset.
2.Communication is key to any team’s success—have a common language across all departments to streamline communication.
3.Always consider how coachable a potential hire is when finding your next sales development representative.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:48 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
00:59 – Introducing Chris Casillas
01:15 – Chris is The Director of Sales Development
- 01:35 – He has been with Appfolio for 8.5 years
- 01:44 – He’s been doing sales for over 10 years
01:49 – He started off at Citrix Online in late 2006
- 02:00 – He was hired at the age of 19 as an experiment
02:17 – After a couple of years, he was invited to join Appfolio
- 02:35 – They went from a few customers to tens of thousands of customers
- 02:42 – They are a publicly listed company
02:56 – Appfolio creates a cloud based software for their customers
03:30 – You want to make sure that the people you hire in the beginning are properly representing the organization
03:46 – Sales development allows Chris to share everything he’s learned to his team
04:16 – They have a sales development team in Santa Barbara and in Dallas
- 04:30 – Within that group, they have subgroups for outbound and for big clients
- 04:58 – SDRs start on outbound, then they move up to a hybrid group that deals with inbound & outbound
- 06:03 – “Time kills deals”
- 06:49 – People usually get stuck in one particular model in SD
- 07:29 – “The system should be serving you, you shouldn’t be serving the system”
08:25 – Hiring people straight out of college is NOT Appfolio’s default position for recruitment
- 09:18 – Enthusiasm is extremely important – it can make all the difference
- 10:22 – Appfolio is also interested in knowing what their applicants do outside of work – how they make a better version of themselves
12:49 – If SDRs don’t take advice, Appfolio already knows they’re facing a challenge
- 12:56 – “Having a growth mindset is so important”
- 13:08 – Growth mindset plays an effect both inside and outside the company
- 13:22 – Understand that you can change
14:45 – Don’t wait for the job title or position to add value in a way that’s outside of your job description – take initiative
15:57 – If a person wants to become an account executive, they have to starting knowing people on the inside sales team
16:16 – Every company has their own nuances regarding how they do accounts
16:54 – It took David 20 years to figure out how businesses work
17:55 – The high-volume play is NOT the best approach
18:50 – David remembers that before sales customization platforms, they only had lead lists, Salesforce, excel sheets, and post-its
- 19:14 – Now SDRs have marketing automation programs like Marketo, Peridot, or HubSpot
- 20:16 – The approach that Appfolio takes is to get smart on who they want to win and be thoughtful about how they approach those people
- 21:15 – A call and email combo is more effective than just sending out an email
22:52 – Start with WHY
23:14 – Ensure you increase efficiency
23:26 – Appfolio focuses on the account to opportunity conversion rate to understand their efficiency
25:13 – Take a snapshot based on how long it takes for accounts to turn into opportunities
26:35 – Appfolio’s sales development team works closely with their marketing team
28:36 – Have an established framework of what you’re expecting from your teams
28:46 – Having road maps for a call or an account is very important
29:41 – "Request for removal" process is a system that Appfolio has in place
30:24 – You don’t want an account system framework to turn into a low quality cadence
31:21 – Make sure that you communicate to your SDRs why a transition is happening
- 32:22 – Communication is huge in every launch of an account-based program
- 34:36 – The alignment of sales to the SDRs for Appfolio is better when they start with a common language
- 35:37 – Make sure the hand-off (of the client/account) is done really well
- 36:24 – Ensure notes taken are front and center so anytime a sales manager looks into an opportunity, they know exactly why the SDR passed it to the salesperson
38:35 – “You can’t take totally a high-level approach to run in an SDR team” Get in the weeds!
39:25 – Conversion rates are good for Appfolio, but they know they can do better
- 39:39 – They were able to see clearly what factors allowed them to predict the outcome of their leads
40:25 – It’s the SDRs job to let the sales team know who they’re getting
41:49 – The root of success is having a shared vocabulary that teams understand across all departments
42:28 – “We do everything based on opportunity”
42:42 – Appfolio has criteria documented clearly to identify when a lead is an SQL
44:09 – Chris loves the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and lists the habits:
- 04:14 – Seek first to understand than to be understood
- 44:43 – Break down the knowledge gap
- 44:50 – Belief governs behavior
- 46:35 – If your people do not believe something works, show them success stories
- 46:52 – If their belief is not in line with your expectations, give them concrete examples
- 47:13 – The resistance a person cannot overcome is another challenge you need to be able to work with
48:26 – Coachability is a critical aspect in hiring a sales development rep
49:40 – Chris shares about an amazing rep whose performance started to drop
50:51 – David wrote a blog post early this year, 2017: The Year of the SDR Manager
51:42 – Being at the beach every morning before coming to work is one thing that helps Chris manage pressure and stress
53:04 – At 18, Chris decided he would leave the country to travel at least once per year
- 53:16 – Travelling is very important to Chris
53:33 – They’ve had a number of people on their team who have quit to pursue their passion outside of sales—these people have found that working their job gave them the skillset to do what they really wanted to do
55:00 – Chris’ approach has always been to be useful in and outside of his job description
- 55:09 – He’s had a total of 4 different positions in Appfolio
56:33 – Chris’ advice to SDRs
- 56:50 – When you’re on a call, you have to focus on the reasons why they “should” opt-in
58:52 – Connect with Chris on LinkedIn or send him a message at [email protected]
59:18 – End of podcast

Resources Mentioned:

Appfolio – Company where Chris is currently working for
Citrix Online – Company where Chris landed his first job
Salesforce, Marketo, HubSpot – Sales customization platforms
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Chris’ recommended resource
2017: The Year of the SDR Manager – David’s blog post

Episode 20 - Jim Brown

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews Jim Brown. He’s a sales trainer and sales coach for Sandler Training.

David and Jim talk about the path to becoming an effective salesperson and how to uncover and address the problems potential buyers face. Jim opens up about his humble beginnings as a salesperson and how candid feedback from a Sandler rep became his ah-ha moment to turning his career around. Jim now focuses on sharing his sales knowledge and inspirations on his podcast, Sales Tuners.

3 Key Points:
1. An SDR and Salesperson should always keep prospecting, work to understand their potential client, and focus on the things within their control.
2. By having a system, you create a scalable and repeatable process with predictable outcomes.
3. Quotas only limit a salesperson’s ability to do more—always reach for a higher goal.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:34 – Most of David’s listeners are trying to get into sales
00:56 – Jim has been in sales his entire life and started as a bookie in middle school
01:29 – Jim started his professional sales career when he got out of the marines
- 01:36 – It was a graphic design business and Jim really wanted to be a designer
- 01:40 – Jim realized that he’s better at talking to clients and understanding their needs
- 01:50 – Jim found a designer who did the job better than he did so and he took the sales side
02:17 – Jim has the entrepreneurial spirit—seeing the need and filling it
02:44 – Jim was 22 when he started his own business and wasn’t interested in going out anymore
- 03:02 – Jim first didn’t understand what he was doing
- 03:17 – Jim started to lose deals and couldn’t figure out why
03:27 – In just 2 weeks, Jim’s career changed
- 03:30 – Jim was introduced to Andy Elsberry as a lead or referral
- 04:00 – Andy asked Jim where he learned to sell and answered that he’s self-taught
- 04:07 – Andy told Jim that he sucks
- 04:23 – Jim was awakened by Andy’s comment
- 04:30 – After a week, Jim was pitching to someone who also told him that he’s bad at sales
- 05:09 – That person was a Sandler sales trainer and Jim signed up to learn from him
06:03 – “No way on earth are salespeople born”
- 06:12 – There are people who are just naturally able to connect with people
06:21 – Salespeople are made and need to follow a process
- 07:01 – If you don’t have a system or process, you have to adapt the buyer’s system
- 07:08 – Buyers don’t know how to buy and they’re looking for someone to guide them
- 07:33 – Buyers don’t know the real questions to ask
07:46 – Salespeople should try to solve the buyers’ problems
08:11 – David has been on the buyer’s side
- 08:26 – David observed that some of the sales people’s processes are not enticing at all
- 08:58 – Looking at presentation slides does not solve David’s problem
09:23 – David has a scenario where he has a sales development team with a terrible CRM process
- 09:34 – David needs an attack and has put out 3 inquiries to the big data providers
- 09:46 – How should they run that call?
  - 09:49 – What Jim does first is an upfront contract
  - 10:23 – Jim rolls out a verbatim conversation that he would have
  - 10:50 – Jim will give the buyer options
11:26 – Think about sales or the pain as an iceberg—what percentage is visible?
- 11:40 – Buyers only give you the tip of the iceberg when they discuss a problem
- 11:48 – It may not be the actual pain indicator
- 12:32 – A salesperson needs to push back more, playing the role of a dummy in order to find the actual problem their consumer is having
13:41 – “The greatest presentation that you will ever give is the one your prospect never sees”
13:51 – You have to know the question that other salespeople don’t ask
- 14:14 – Other sales people are just showing presentations without understanding the “why” behind the question
- 14:29 – Asking questions will show a buyer that you have answered the same question before
14:38 – You should be able to tell a salesperson that he’s wrong
- 14:53 – However, if the salesperson already tells you that he has solved similar problems in the past, you can’t tell him he’s wrong
15:17 – In David’s experience, there have been instances where the final decision maker is NOT the one who has actually talked to the salesperson
- 16:16 – A salesperson may not know there’s another decision maker
- 17:15 – A salesperson has to understand the buyer’s timeline
17:55 – Is there a way a salesperson can influence the decision?
- 18:03 – A salesperson has a choice if he wants to participate in the process
- 18:12 – It is important for Jim to create equal business stature
- 18:18 – Jim now has the same right to say “no”
- 18:53 – It usually draws customers back when they know that a salesperson can say “no”
- 19:00 – By establishing that, Jim can now set the ground rules for the process
- 19:18 – Jim will now ask questions that a buyer can’t answer
- 19:52 – Jim can now ask if the other person can be in the process, too
20:44 – “Don’t clutter up your pipeline with something that’s never going to happen”
21:23 – Being a salesperson is a difficult job
21:36 – 2-3 things that a sales development rep can do right now to step up to the next level of their career:
- 21:52 – First is to realize that the SDR role is the hardest job in sales
  - 22:23 – Keep prospecting
- 22:36 – Second is to create a relationship with an account executive and understand what a good or bad meeting is for them; ask questions and understand the patterns
  - 23:04 – This shows you’re really trying to understand the roles
- 23:32 – Third is you can’t control a close
- 24:04 – As soon as you introduce a discount, that becomes your new price
- 24:18 – Focus on the things that you can control
- 24:32 – If you have a big pipeline, focus on the percentage that you know you can close
25:22 – Jim would suggest to look at the pipeline of an SDR who became an AE
25:35 – Jim hates quotas
25:41 – The best salespeople look at their quotas, hit it and do more
26:54 – David read the book The Machine and it says to get rid of commission
27:11 – Jim believes quotas limit behaviors
- 27:18 – The largest quota Jim had was $4M and he hit it, but he could’ve done $6M
28:13 – Make your own quota and go out of your comfort zone
28:53 – Jim has a quota as a sales coach and sales trainer
- 29:05 – Jim is on the prospecting business
- 29:19 – Jim’s goal is to call 10 CEOs a day
- 29:51 – Jim’s frustration is the difficulty of getting his prospects on the phone
30:14 – Sandler’s training summary includes prospecting
30:40 – There are 150 Sandler offices around the US
30:53 – “Content is one thing, context is another”
- 31:16 – Jim’s prospect already talked to someone and Jim knows that someone’s background
- 31:29 – If you compliment your competitor, it does 2 amazing things for you
- 32:00 – Jim’s prospect had issues with his competitor about not fully understanding procurement and enterprise
33:35 – 2 jobs in the future
33:48 – The sales people are valuable now because of their context
35:00 – Why Sandler is known, especially in the Bay area?
- 36:00 – Sandler focuses on the actual pains people have
- 36:17 – “We’re tired of the motivational BS and we just want something that actually works”
37:18 – Find Jim on Twitter and LinkedIn
37:36 – Jim’s podcast is SalesTuners.com

Resources Mentioned:

Sandler Training – Jim’s training team
SalesTuners.com – Jim’s podcast

Sponsored By:

Credits
● Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Past episodes with transcripts

Episode 019 – James Nielsen

Summary:

In this episode, David interviews James Nielsen, CEO and founder of Sales Bootcamp. David and James talk about the disconnect between what universities teach students and what is ACTUALLY needed by companies from their sales representatives.

James shares the origins of his own sales experience and how the lack of mentors and training sparked his idea of a Sales Bootcamp. James aims to bridge the knowledge and skills gap in sales for the benefit of both the company and the student— a win/win situation for everyone.

3 Key Points:
1. No matter your focus is in university, take a business class as this will help you in your future endeavors.
2. Learn to personalize your emails and have a soft call-to-action when approaching your target prospect.
3. Optimize for a RESPONSE rather than just another meeting.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:34 – David’s interest for his show is sales education—especially for those who are just coming out of school
- 01:20 – James agrees that universities should be offering sales courses
01:34 – James is an electrical engineering guy and has always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but did not know how to do this at first
02:18 – In working at tech companies, James found himself moving towards the sales profession
02:40 – James got into a sales engineering role
- 03:05 – James was told to stick with his work and let the salespeople do their work, but he proved that he could do anything and taught himself to sell
03:30 – While searching Google, James realized there was a lack of information on how to do sales other than to go buy a sales book
04:10 – David says people go into sales without having any training at all
04:32 – James got the idea for a Sales Bootcamp because he had trouble looking for a mentor; he learned through just doing it
05:05 – In the first quarter of 2009, James got the opportunity to train others in sales
- 05:30 – James was fascinated by the process of training salespeople and realized that the problem of finding good sales reps was shared by several companies
05:46 – James realized there is a need to train people in tech sales and that is why he built Sales Bootcamp
06:27 – “The best way to sell is to actually sell” is the business model for the company
- 07:27 – Sales Development leaders don’t want someone with less than a year of experience
- 08:16 – Three months is the magic number for actual on-the-job sales development experience
08:42 – Students are training with the program and are on a fellowship with another company learning how to do actual sales
08:46 – The program starts with a free 5-day online bootcamp
- 09:05 – The fundamentals of sales development are taught and it includes one-on-one personalized coaching
- 09:25 – After the bootcamp, the company chooses the people that will go through the fellowship; they will be placed in a partner company while also doing the 12-week program
- 09:47 – This includes online video tutorials, assessments, assignments, coaching and office hours
10:21 – The product-market fit works for both the corporate partners and the students
11:08 – Training is time consuming for the sales development leaders and the program helps in addressing this problem
12:42 – Every SDR has their own strengths and weaknesses and the fellowship looks into each individual traits
13:16 – David worked for a company that has a sales enablement manager and sales analytics person and thought he would get support from them, but they were also working on the sales stuff and did not have time for training SDRs
14:18 – Small usually companies do not have time to train SDRs
14:40 – David asked, in Linkedin, what people thought the biggest problem in sales development was, today
- 14:55 – Most answers include the viewpoints that executives have in sales development as a function
- 15:22 – There is a lot of finger-pointing towards millennials
- 15:50 – James says he has seen companies NOT give priority to building the pipeline through sales development training
- 16:54 – Companies are unwilling to invest in good SDRs
17:13 – SDRs are the first filter of an organization
18:50 – The generational gap is always present and the reality is that generations are just different from each other
- 19:18 – The millennial generation does have different expectations and is more outcome-oriented
- 20:01 – James thinks millennials are great SDRs
20:48 – Promotions can be programmed into the company and this can keep your employees happy and more willing to stay with you
21:31 – You can put into play the process of giving micro-promotions
22:13 – David hosted a podcast with Matt Amundson of EverString where he said that people do not want to be treated like sales machines, so he created a program where they can circulate and be involved in the different aspects of the company
23:24 – People have a lust for knowledge and want to learn everything about the business
23:50 – Sales Bootcamp is successful because people want to learn and participate
- 24:23 – A good SDR is thirsty for knowledge and wants to improve
25:21 – Business acumen is part of the bootcamp
25:49 – There is a current debate on universities and companies regarding skills and education
- 26:25 – There is a disconnect between what is being taught in universities and what companies need and James is trying to bridge that in the sales aspect
27:46 – Learning business and economics is something you can use no matter the course
- 28:30 – James advises everyone to take a business classes
29:32 – Differentiate yourself by knowing about the company and not just sending templated messages
30:10 – Sales development has changed over the years and it has become more challenging
31:18 – James’ work with Ooyala involved referral email marketing even before companies started doing it
32:40 – Aaron Ross’ book, Predictable Revenue, talked about referral emails and it has now become mainstream
33:44 – It has never been harder to get meetings and it is important to personalize them
34:33 – Stop doing things that do NOT work
- 35:37 – Check the size and the growth of the business and what you are offering to make sure that you can get your ROI
- 36:10 – If you are a small company, you might need to spend more time personalizing your message to get a meeting
- 36:44 – Optimize for a response rather than a meeting
- 37:38 – Come up with a soft call-to-action and stick to that to get a reply
- 38:14 – Follow up on your initial email and ask for feedback
39:29 – Gary Vaynerchuk says the attention economy is when we are overwhelmed with content marketing; getting one’s attention to just plant a seed is what matters
40:07 – Grant Cardone says 80% of value creation is helping people and the 20% is where you offer your service or product
41:25 – There is a lot to learn outside of the tech space
- 42:12 – The sales development space needs fresh ideas and it can come from outside the industry
43:42 – David got a LinkedIn email explaining their product and wanted to set a date to call him
- 44:35 – Companies do tend to get stuck in the past and there is a need to adapt their strategies
44:57 – David has a meetup on June 15
45:18 – Sales Bootcamp is working on their own marketing and growth in terms of company partnerships and students
46:36 – The best way to sell is to actually sell and universities cannot give actual experience—Sales Bootcamp will do this for you
47:29 – Sales Bootcamp is the model on how sales teams should be built
47:47 – Check out Sales Bootcamp
48:19 – Connect with James on Linkedin

Resources Mentioned:

Sales Bootcamp – James’ company’s website
Linkedin – where David asked people about the biggest problems in sales
EverString – Matt Amundson’s company
Ooyala – James worked with this company where they did referral emails
Predictable Revenue – Aaron Ross’ book that includes doing referral emails
Gary Vaynerchuk and Grant Cardone – experts who talked about attention marketing

Sponsored By:

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 18 - Steve Richard

Summary:
In this episode, David interviews Steve Richard, founder and CRO of ExecVision, a SaaS platform for AI assisted call coaching & conversation intelligence. He’s built a sterling industry reputation as an inside-sales operator and innovator. His insights on sales and business have been featured in Harvard Business Review, Washington Business Journal, Washington Posts, CNN Money, and NBC. Listen as Steve drops tons of value in today’s show as he discusses the importance of indexing your calls, the 2 most important ratios for sales development, the 4 forms of feedback, and the DEPTT model in sales development.

3 Key Points:
1.USE what you learn; otherwise, there’s no purpose in learning.
2.Know your parameters, conversion rates, and metrics—this will inform your target goals and baselines.
3.Have a definition and description of what makes a GREAT CALL and communicate this to your team.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:46 – Introducing Steve Richard
01:46 – Steve is named as one of the top 25 most influential people in inside-sales
02:20 – A year ago, Steve reached out to David and they talked about entrepreneurship
- 02:34 – That call meant a lot to David and it inspired him to help others
- 02:50 – David thanks Steve for the help
- 03:28 – Steve’s support in that tough time in David’s life was greatly appreciated
04:01 – Steve shares about his experience in Washington, DC where they cold-called C-level executives
- 04:49 – Steve learned from failure
- 05:12 – “I just observed. I observed what they did”
- 05:24 – Observation was the origin of his outsourcing business
05:42 – They were not good at selling, but they were good at getting the meeting to happen
06:02 – They started an outsource company for sales development called Vorsight
06:27 – This was the origin of their training business
- 07:24 – All training that is out in the market presumes you have an opportunity
- 07:35 – Steve has trained 100 sales development teams
- 07:46 – Unfortunately, after training, these people didn’t do anything differently
- 08:31 – Steve had an identity crisis
08:33 – Foresight acquired a tech company called ExecVision
- 08:49 – Game Film vs Game Tape
- 09:45 – The magic is indexing by keywords
- 10:02 – People don’t want roleplays – they want what happens in the real world
- 10:53 – There are a lot of people who claim to be entrepreneurs
- 11:21 – Steve has never written a business plan
- 11:34 – Learn by doing vs planning to death
13:14 – Indexing your calls automatically helps the process so the SDR doesn’t have to think
13:40 – Use your index to find the calls that you need to address:
- 13:52 – Place a #1 on all calls that result in a “NO”, where they asked for coaching
- 14:31 – Watch out for the signal from all the noise
- 14:56 – Help your SDR change their behavior
- 15:10 – Have the rep listen and comment on the call
- 16:23 – Use your observations to point out errors
17:32 – Aggregating using software can be the missing link for missed conversions
17:44 – Foresight’s Call of the Month Contest
- 17:51 – Every rep, every month sends their best call to their managers
- 18:10 – They play the winning calls with video pop ups that serve as lessons
- 18:27 – Today, Steve and his team talked about making the numbers
18:33 – An SDR needs to know 2 ratios in sales development: dials to conversations & conversations to appointments
- 19:02 – These 2 conversions are the 2 most important gauges in SD
- 20:00 – These 2 conversion metrics are EVERYTHING
20:38 – 38 US States have 1 part consent – as long as the calls are being recorded, it’s fine
- 21:03 – A telephone recording consent form serves as evidence
- 21:20 – 12 US States need to a recording consent
- 21:37 – In-bound is easy if acquiring this consent
- 21:41 – There are technologies available for out-bound like InsideSales, SalesLoft, and Outreach where it only records the seller side of the conversation
- 22:33 – For out-bound, you can’t cold call and inform people it’s getting recorded
- 24:02 – In working with companies who use this approach, these one-party recorded calls represent 20% of all calls
- 24:12 – 80% of calls are still being recorded in 2-way
24:43 – David recommends sales managers read the book, New Sales Simplified
25:44 – There’s a big analytic component in sales calls
26:21 – 4 forms of feedback – voice notes, comments, highlights, and scorecards (call review sheets)
26:49 – The biggest miss is having no particular definition of a great call
27:37 – At Foresight, it’s 30 dials to 1 conversation
- 28:24 – “You can’t hit a target that you don’t see”
- 29:13 – Your metrics depend who you’re selling to and what you’re selling
- 30:16 – Establish a baseline
31:03 – Sales development is expensive
31:22 – Seek out other people in sales development and check their benchmarks
32:30 – Ultimately, SDRs need to understand expectations and baselines
32:39 – DEPTT Model – DNA, Environment, Performance, Training, and Technology
34:14 – Buying technology can be fun, but it’s not the only thing to consider in your sales development model
34:53 – Sales development com-plans are an absolute mess
36:27 – How do you keep yourself from CEO/CRO isolation and surround yourself with people that understand what you’re going through? – “You have to interact with other business owners, other CEOs and other founders”
37:30 – “If you want to be an entrepreneur, JUST DO IT”
37:51 – Figuring it out is a critical factor in the equation that a lot of people are missing
38:31 – The tools to become an entrepreneur are available
39:58 – There’s nothing wrong with being a sole proprietor
40:12 – Join ExecVision’s call camps on their website
40:30 – Steve’s cell phone number is on his LinkedIn profile
41:08 – End of podcast

Resources Mentioned:

ExecVision and Vorsight– Steve’s companies
New Sales Simplified – Book David recommends for sales managers

Sponsored By:

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 17 – Brian Walton

Summary:
In this episode, David shares the mic with Brian Walton, Sales Development Director at LinkedIn. Listen as Brian walks us through his journey from starting off on the talent solutions team of LinkedIn to becoming the Sales Development Director. He has managed and reorganized the sales development teams of Latin America into segments so that each team can focus on their target people and maximize their efficiency. Tune in as Brian discusses the importance of training your sales reps and what he’s fired up about, today, in his work at LinkedIn.

3 Key Points:
1.Managers and directors: spend time with your sales reps, educating them on the fundamentals of how business leaders think.
2.Sales reps: if your point of contact is a VP of sales, go to your own company’s VP of sales—study and learn from them so that you can be better equipped for that meeting or call.
3.At the end of the day, you are just two people connecting and and that point of connection is what people appreciate and respect.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:03 – Introducing Brian Walton
01:22 – Brian is the director of sales development at LinkedIn
01:39 – He leads the Americas’ teams for the sales solutions business
02:07 – He has been in sales for most of his career
02:17 – Prior to LinkedIn, he spent a couple of years in a public relations software company
02:51 – Brian started out in the talent solutions organization at LinkedIn
03:02 – In 2015, he moved to sales development leadership
- 03:11 – Brian moved because the majority of his experience has been in sales leadership
- 03:55 – He loves coaching and working with early-in-career sales professionals
04:23 – He scaled his team from 4 to 8
05:10 – Before Brian went into the sales development function, the department had been up for 3-4 years
05:23 – As they grew, they had to continue to innovate and refine the sales development function
05:50 – The playbook that works for their talent solution team doesn’t work in their other lines of business
- 06:00 – The customers are different
- 06:35 – They have gotten more sophisticated
07:02 – “Even within the lines of business, you have nuances”
07:41 – There was a lot of tailoring and customization in their sales development
08:13 – They have now consolidated the global inbound organization of LinkedIn
08:48 – Ultimately, they are developing their reps and load balancing
09:52 – Brian does not lead inbound teams outside the Latin American market
- 10:10 – He runs all lines of business in Latin America
11:04 – LinkedIn has essentially been organized by GEOs
- 11:42 – They ran this model for a couple of years until Brian reorganized it in 2016
- 11:58 – Teams focused on specific business segments
- 12:20 – It was a fairly easy transition
- 12:29 – The managers of these teams now have more sanity
- 12:48 – Reps are able to go deeper into the segments they support
- 13:09 – The team becomes more closely aligned with the sales organization in that segment
- 13:44 – The big risk assumed was that removing GEO locations would affect productivity in a negative way
- 14:39 – LinkedIn is now maintaining their new structure
15:22 – LinkedIn has too many metrics
- 15:39 – One of their most useful analytics determine when sales development reps move into their post SDR (Sales Development Rep) career
16:16 – Pipeline productivity metrics
- 16:22 – Activity: calls, mail, emails, etc
- 16:36 – Net new opportunities
- 17:00 – Bookings
17:36 – If you’re hiring the right people and managing them on the right KPIs, you’ll get the result you want
18:19 – Paid metrics include qualified opportunities and the bookings that you drive
18:48 – Leadership Leveraging Results Framework
- 18:54 – Measures all employees
- 19:01 – Leadership is how you inspire others to a shared result
- 19:22 – Concept of thinking globally and growing 10x
- 19:46 – SDRs are given career performance profiles
- 20:01 – Semi-annual ratings
21:39 – There are circumstances that contribute to one having a challenging year that every sales rep is aware of
22:15 – Results is a primary metric, but it’s important to staff a company with well-rounded individuals
23:37 – Working at LinkedIn, they were able to make a lot of homegrown tools
- 24:33 – How do I connect with this individual via a common connection? How do I break-in?
- 25:14 – If you find the right connection, the person will make the introduction and link you to the target contact
- 25:48 – If they cannot find a person to introduce you to, they tend to over-invest in a high quality message
  - 26:41 – Even if you get a “no”, that’s a small victory
28:43 – The biggest challenge is to train people on how to craft that personalized email and have a good conversation once they’ve caught someone on the phone
29:07 – Brian leverages their LinkedIn learning platform for their employees
29:35 – It’s easy to get caught up in the info you find at LinkedIn
30:00 – You have to deliver a strong value proposition to get the opportunity
30:38 – Spend time with reps and educate them on the fundamentals of how business leaders think
32:23 – Remember that at the end of the day, it’s just 2 human beings communicating
32:53 – If you have a normal chat with someone, you’re going to make a connection that people will appreciate and respect
34:10 – Framework from Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn’s CEO
36:13 – Brian is excited about the work they’re doing; pursing a system of engagement—find the right people, know what to say, and say it, then, be able to repeat that
37:56 – David joined LinkedIn in 2006
38:41 – One of LinkedIn’s core values is “Transformation”
39:27 – “We are here to transform the sales function and really create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce”
40:26 – End of podcast

Resources Mentioned:

LinkedIn – A platform where you can build and engage with your professional network.
Framework from Jeff Weiner – A blog post on The Three Qualities of People I (Jeff Weiner) Most Enjoy Working With

Sponsored By:

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 16 – Joe Payne

Summary:
In this episode, David welcomes Joe Payne to the show. Joe handles the Demand and Partnerships at LeadGenius, a lead generation company that takes marketing to the next level. Listen as Joe shares with David why he considers the old lead generation methods to be a waste of time and resources, the different ways LeadGenius works with their customers to maximize on their ad targeting and sales development, and why hiring a sales intern can be the first step to building a lead generation process for small companies.

3 Key Points:
1.Lead generation is more than just acquiring a list of names and email accounts—the opportunity to save time and narrow in on your targeting is KEY.
2.Your messages to prospects MUST translate into a valuable, personalized message, otherwise, it just becomes a noise.
3.Smaller companies can start building their lead generation processes and systems by utilizing the people that are available to them—sales interns are a great resource for this.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:05 – Introduction to the Sales Development Podcast
00:29 – Please suggest guests that you’d like be on the show! Send your suggestions via email at [email protected], LinkedIn, or on Twitter
00:37 – Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
01:06 – David welcomes Joe Payne from LeadGenius
01:49 – Joe has been working on demand generation for LeadGenius for 2 years now
01:56 – He started with sales timeline development, but expanded to more marketing roles
02:15 – Prior to LeadGenius, he was with Radius Intelligence
02:57 – LeadGenius is a lead generation company
- 03:04 – They have a team of human researchers that take data to the next level
- 03:24 – They help with market strategy and market planning
- 03:40 – Having human researchers allows LeadGenius to use any data point and translate it into something their client can understand
- 05:11 – The process is like having an effective SDR team
05:26 – LeadGenius tries to cut down research time and have the team fill in the gaps for the process
06:22 – The most important thing to figure out is what messaging will stick to a prospect
06:49 – They try to have brainstorming sessions with clients
07:36 – The critical missing piece is where SDR teams spend 50% of their time
07:54 – Joe shares about one of their top client’s SDR team
- 08:03 – They have a small, but effective SDR team
- 08:15 – What LeadGenius did for them was pull info and photos of food from Yelp
09:46 – Generic messages become noise
09:51 – “The only way to personalize is to research”
10:02 – Sales teams are doing a great job in APM to increase personalization
10:54 – “Most people are still in the lead generation model”
11:05 – Consider account based generation with personalization
11:31 – The funny thing is, potential clients are often still in the 5-10¢/lead world
12:10 – “You can’t just spray garbage everywhere and get deals”
- 12:19 – Put in thought and care when targeting leads
12:49 – Research takes time
13:19 – LeadGenius has around 600 researchers
13:41 – They have an amazing database where people can find great starting points
14:18 – LeadGenius has one of the lowest bounce rates in the market
14:32 – Their pride is in data quality
14:58 – One of LeadGenius’ biggest clients had 20+ lead sources
- 15:10 – With LeadGenius, they were able to narrow it down to 5 lead sources
- 16:07 – LeadGenius is keen in lead generation stack
17:18 – “We have so much power...like where do we start first”
- 17:43 – Having a lot of data and power made them struggle internally
18:20 – Researchers are also used to boost the marketing team
- 19:06 – Use researchers to figure out what a company is going after and what target market looks like
19:33 – LeadGenius works with companies with at least 100,000 prospective customers
20:00 – Customers must realize they are wasting time and money by using the old methods of lead generation
20:14 – By using services like LeadGenius, businesses not only save time but unlock more opportunities
21:04 – It’s always interesting to see how sales leaders react when they’re confronted with that value
22:05 – Joe encourages small companies who may not have the resources to use LeadGenius to utilize a sales intern to help research their accounts
- 22:49 – Joe also encourages to get people from Upwork (formerly oDesk)
- 23:43 – Do the intern route when you’re starting out small
- 24:39 – “It’s the scalability that is just concerning”
26:06 – What’s coming up for LeadGenius
- 26:28 – The biggest thing that they’ve been focusing on is the concept of the total addressable market
- 26:36 – To be able to effectively map people’s market and segment those in ways people didn't know was possible
27:10 – One of LeadGenius’ clients is only going after the food and beverage market
- 27:23 – There were 15-20 sub industries that weren’t segmented properly
- 27:44 – They brought down the market segmentation
- 28:10 – How can you create the right message at the right time, in the right segment?
28:25 – Joe mentions the episode with Carrie Simpson
29:23 – LeadGenius help companies tweak some things in their list to come up with an addressable market that works for their business model
30:56 – They brainstorm with companies to find the numbers that works for them
31:46 – Sales and marketing is about creating the right hypothesis and then proving it
33:07 – Don’t play the blame game – use the data that you have
34:17 – David thanks Joe for joining him as a guest
34:46 – Connect with Joe on LinkedIn and Twitter

LeadGenius – Joe Payne’s current workplace
Radius Intelligence – Joe Payne’s previous workplace
iTunes – Sales Development Podcast
Upwork – Great place to find new hires for your team
Episode with Carrie Simpson – Joe refers to this episode of the Sales Development Podcast

Sponsored By:

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Episode 14 - Russ Hearl

In this episode, David interviews Russ Hearl, Vice President of Sales at PatSnap, a company that offers innovation intelligence, patent searches, and IP analytics. Russ attributes his success to his strong background in cold calling. He addresses the strengths of cold calling and debunks the myth that it is dead. Tune in to find out how he was able to raise $82M for Double Dutch through cold calling, the importance of researching your target market, and some key advice to strengthen your sales teams.

3 Key Points:
1.Cold calling is NOT dead – its success is dependent on a number of factors including the demand for your product and the research you put into targeting those calls.
2.Set up structures, methods, and define roles and expectations clearly for the success of your sales teams.
3.Always use data to analyze your target market and do your research to hit them at the RIGHT time.

Time Stamped Show Notes:
●00:34 – Introducing Russ Hearl – VP of sales at PatSnap
●01:19 – Russ’ career in selling started 20 years ago
●01:27 – He worked for Rolling Stone Magazine in Ohio
●01:33 – While doing his undergraduate studies, he worked for Merrill Lynch doing cold calls
●01:42 – By the time Russ finished his undergraduate degree, he already had 6 years of cold calling experience
●01:46 – To Russ, a sales career can be built around cold calling
●02:01 – He worked in sales for FedEx, for 7 years
●02:16 – Russ believed that his abilities in cold calling, prospecting, identifying the target market, and tailoring his pitches were the reasons why he was promoted so quickly
●02:35 – As Russ progressed and evolved, cold calling was always the basis of his success
●03:23 – Russ always had the passion of building businesses through sales
●03:42 – He shares his experience with Double Dutch, raising $82M
○04:08 – Over 90% of their wins were from cold calling
●04:28 – Now at PatSnap, Russ has a team of over 45 people across 2 offices
●04:54 – PatSnap has a very large investment in inside sales
●05:10 – PatSnap sells innovation intelligence software to professionals and large companies
●06:03 – They’ve just raised a large series C from Sequoia
●06:55 – Cold calling results depend on several different factors
○07:04 – “Your chosen go to market strategy is often predicated upon how much built in demand there is in the market for your product or service”
○07:18 – Russ explains this further using the example of Hubspot
●07:44 – The role of cold calling is different for other businesses
●08:08 – Saying cold calling is dead depends on several factors
○08:15 – What’s the demand for your product?
○08:25 – “We’re not running inbound shops”—so we need to reach OUT into the market
●08:54 – “There’s a significant need for intelligent outbound prospecting” so that you use your time and efforts efficiently as you look for leads
●09:41 – PatSnap’s significant wins came from outbound cold calling
●10:26 – The amount of content marketing got everyone on the bandwagon
●12:44 – “It always starts with targeting”
○13:28 – Make sure to put together centrally determined territories with account lists
○14:15 – Have a method for how to reach contacts
○14:28 – Measure your conversion rates
○15:23 – Compare your business against businesses with similar market dynamics
●16:01 – A sales development team helps build opportunities and pipelines
●17:06 – Sales development transcends as a strategic function of a business
●18:34 – In many organizations, there’s now a merging of sales operations, sales development, and sales strategies into one leadership structure
●19:36 – The CRO became a title of a person who is in charge of revenue, closing deals, and customer success
●20:27 – “The linchpin of the organization is your ability to effectively, smartly, target the market”
●21:19 – Use market intelligence to understand what the competitive landscape looks like
●21:38 – Setting up an efficient outbound sales machine can defeat the competition
●21:58 – Russ and his team made millions of cold calls at Double Dutch
○22:26 – “There is an approach there that works where you can out in front of other businesses before they have the need”
●23:00 – Waiting for your sales team to improve can make you lose the race
●24:04 – Double Dutch used data on upcoming conferences and events to sell for those events
○24:27 – “We can time the market”
●24:44 – PatSnap knows that the companies that produce the most patents are probably the best candidates for them
●25:34 – Get the information you need and start calls
●26:14 – It’s vital to know when your fiscal year ends
●27:14 – The timing of when you target the market can make the biggest difference when it comes to your success
●28:34 – If calls are missed, they can be missed forever leading to negative ramifications for your business
○29:10 – Too many sales leaders overlook facts and miss variables
○29:40 – Representatives may know a lot, but they need a senior leader to centralize strategies for them
○30:11 – Everybody wants to know the “art” of cold calling but it’s not where the waste is
○30:50 – The lack of planning is often to blame
●31:18 – What Russ tries to do in his sales teams is to “improve the transparency of the inputs that it takes to get to the outputs”
●32:08 – Prevent blaming and unproductive conflict by adoption of the CRM process
●32:35 – Separate the sales development team from the account executive team
●33:31 – Changing the structure of teams after they’ve scaled can lead to bigger issues
●34:49 – There’s a need to spot check to see if all processes are being followed
●36:14 – Use a comp plan to monitor sales representatives’ behavior
○36:23 – For example, the plan is to make 80 activities a day
○36:30 – They may make 60 emails and 20 half-hearted calls
○36:34 – “Making calls is what you want them to do”
○36:51 – Consider monitoring only meaningful activities – this does NOT include email sending
●37:39 – Younger salespeople takes the path of least resistance
○38:34 – Make sure to design their roles properly
●39:27 – “It’s always been about your business acumen—are you demonstrating personal and professional growth and are you a good team player?”
●40:00 – Selling is about communication and asking the right questions
●41:09 – Skills is a mixture of classroom training and in-field exercise
●42:25 – “If you’re just sending emails, you’re not going to have those swings”
●43:12 – Invest in yourself, build relationships, and be a great team player
●44:39 – End of podcast

Resources Mentioned:

PatSnap – The company where Russ is serving currently as VP of sales
Rolling Stone Magazine – Where Russ worked for when he was in Ohio
Merrill Lynch – Where Russ started his cold calling experience
FedEx – Company where Russ worked for 7 years
Double Dutch – Company where Russ helped to raise $82M through Sequoia
Hubspot – Russ uses this company to illustrate cold calling

Sponsored By:

Credits

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Welcome to the Sales Development podcast, the only audio forum focused and dedicated to helping Sales Development professionals get better at their jobs and push the practice of Sales Development forward!

This is a place for practitioners in the trenches getting it done every day, whether they are called SDRs, BDRs, ADR's or others, it's the team charged with creating pipeline out of inbound lead activities and outbound approaches.

Learn from the best minds in the business and grow as a Sales Development professional.

Click on links to access via itunes, Youtube, or Spreaker....

SHOW NOTES - Also available on Tenbound.com !

Ep 91 James Nielsen

Ep 90 Addison Lee

Ep 89 Mike Farrell

Ep 88 Jake Dunlap

Ep 87 Lauren Bailey

Ep 86 Jackie Woods

Ep 85 Chris Castaldini

Ep 84 Chris Fago

Ep 83 Carolyn Betts

Ep 82 Liz Cain

Ep 81 John Barrows

Ep 80 Dan Gottlieb

Ep 79 Sarah Harbison Tosh

Ep 78 Andrew Mewborn

Ep 77 Florin Tatulea

Ep 76 Haley Katsman

Ep 75 David Dulany

Ep 74 Dan Jourdan

Ep 73 Scott King

Ep 72 Kyle Vamvouris

Ep 71 James Bawden​

Ep 70 Chris Kinnard ​

Ep 69 Matt Amundson

​Ep 68 Tito Bohrt

​Ep 67 Brandon Bruce

​Ep 66 Victor Baglio ​​

​Ep 65 Richard Harris ​​

​Ep 64 Adam Schoenfeld ​

​Ep 63 Brandon Bornancin

​Ep 62 Malcolm J Smith

​Ep 61 Sanjit Singh

​Ep 60 Matt Finneran

​Ep 59 Olivier L'Abbe

​Ep 58 Taylor Scotto

​Ep 57 Hope O. Baker

​Ep 56 Scott Ingram

​Ep 55 Rex Biberston

Ep 53 Chris Bryson

Ep 52 David Cancel

Ep 51 Brian Remington

Ep 50 Sangram Vajre

Ep 49 Mark Ripley

Ep 48 Scott Leese

Episode 47 - Falon Fatemi

Episode 46 - Sahil Mansuri

Episode 45 - Braydan Young & Nick Casale

Episode 44 - Maria Pergolino

Episode 43 - Adam Weitzman

Episode 42 - Kyle Morris

Episode 41 - Kavon "The One Call Closer"

Episode 40 - Amit Bendov

Episode 39 - Phill Keene

Episode 38 - Fred Shilmover

Episode 37 - Steve Woods

Episode 36 - David Priemer

Episode 35 - Jason DeAmato

Episode 34 - Kevin Dorsey

Episode 33 - Jeremy Leveille

Episode 32 - Rob Anderson

Episode 31 - Gabe Larsen

Episode 30 - Trish Bertuzzi

Episode 29 - Steve Mayernick

Episode 28 - Brian Vital

Episode 27 - Brandon Compher

Episode 26 - Stu Heinecke

Episode 25 - Andrea Waltz

Episode 24 - Nick Ruiz

Episode 23 - Tom Corley

Episode 22 - Katherine Andruha

​Episode 21 - Chris Casillas

Episode 20 - Jim Brown

Past episodes with transcripts

​Episode 019 – James Nielsen

Episode 18 - Steve Richard

Episode 17 – Brian Walton

Episode 16 – Joe Payne

Episode 14 - Russ Hearl

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Ep 71 James Bawden

Ep 70 Chris Kinnard

Ep 68 Tito Bohrt

Ep 67 Brandon Bruce

Ep 66 Victor Baglio

Ep 65 Richard Harris

Ep 64 Adam Schoenfeld

Ep 63 Brandon Bornancin

Ep 62 Malcolm J Smith

Ep 61 Sanjit Singh

Ep 60 Matt Finneran

Ep 59 Olivier L'Abbe

Ep 58 Taylor Scotto

Ep 57 Hope O. Baker

Ep 56 Scott Ingram

Ep 55 Rex Biberston

Episode 21 - Chris Casillas

Episode 019 – James Nielsen