Igniting Sales Transformation

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Igniting Sales Acceleration with High Performing Teams with Alea Homison, AlphaSense

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In this Conversations with Women in Sales interview, I talked with Alea Homison, Vice President of Sales Enablement and Sales Development at AlphaSense .

Here are the questions we covered:

When contemplating a career path of individual contributor vs. manager, what are some key elements to consider?

Why is managing a team hard?

As a manager, what do you owe your team?

What are some of the key cultural elements that facilitate a high performing team?

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself when you first became a manager?

Enjoy the interview!

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About Alea

She is Vice President of Sales Enablement and Sales Development at AlphaSense where she is responsible for the development, acceleration, and optimization of talent across the sales and service organization.  Alea has built and managed a variety of high performing teams throughout her career which spans sales, client service, corporate strategy, and investment banking roles.

Connect on LinkedIn 

Thanks to our Sponsors!

This podcast is presented by our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster, along with other female leaders in the company, are driving for change, trying to bring more women into the technology industry. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women.” You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast. Or visit partner.microsoft.com 

Thanks to our Media Sponsor. Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Trends in Selling with Allen Mueller, Miller Heiman Group

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Much continues to change in the world of selling, and in this conversation, I talked with Allen Mueller, Chief Revenue Officer at the Miller Heiman Group about their data on what’s changing and what’s coming.

As I do with most guests, we started out talking about Allen’s history and she landed in a career in sales.

From there we dug into her role as Chief Revenue Officer at Miller Heiman Group.

That was followed up by talking about the state of the sales and service industries today.

How organizations can optimize their sales enablement strategy and execution.

How organizations can leverage data and analytics to improve their sales processes.

And finally, we talked about what is driving the future of sales.

Also, during the interview Allen mentioned a new book being released which you can now purchase on Amazon called Sales Enablement: A Master Framework to Engage, Equip, and Empower A World-Class Sales Force. The book is co-authored by Tamara Schenk, Research Director at CSO Insights and Byron Matthews, President and CEO of Miller Heiman Group. For anyone in a sales enablement or leadership role, I highly recommend you buy a copy for yourself and your team!!

Enjoy the interview!

Apple Podcasts  – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify  Stitcher  Google Play

About Allen:

Allen Mueller is the CRO (chief revenue officer) of Miller Heiman Group. Mueller leads a global team of sales professionals and is responsible for the management of the company’s business solutions. Mueller’s ability to lay out a strategic plan, infused with data analytics, has enabled her to achieve a consistent record of sustained growth and overachievement during her career.

Before joining Miller Heiman Group, Mueller was the the managing director of sales and account management for The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) and head of vertical markets for Blackboard.

Mueller has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland.

Connect on LinkedIn

Thanks to our Sponsors

This podcast is presented by our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster, along with other female leaders in the company, are driving for change, trying to bring more women into the technology industry. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women.” You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast. Or visit partner.microsoft.com 

Thanks to our Media Sponsor.  Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers, and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Strategies for Improving the Health of Your Sales Pipeline with Lisa Muller, Lantevasin Sales Enablement

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Today is a big day! I am launching a special interview series devoted to Women in Sales Leadership roles in corporations across the globe. My first interview is with Lisa Muller, CEO of Lantevasin Sales Enablement and we talked about building a strong and healthy sales pipeline.

I talked to Lisa about:

  • Why she got into sales and what she loves about the profession.
  • Why keeping the pipeline full of qualified opportunities is a  challenge for many organizations.
  • CRM information is used to forecast sales revenue, but is it always accurate?
  • Tips for sales leaders on how to improve the quality of the pipeline.
  • Why coaching is so important to great sales skills but also in ensuring that the sales pipeline is healthy.

Finally, I asked Lisa to share her advice for women in sales who want to move into leadership roles. She shared her thoughts about some of the traits of individual contributor’s vs leaders?

This episode is sponsored by Hubspot.

Don’t miss out HubSpot’s annual sales event – Inbound Sales Day – on June 6th! 30 leading sales experts will be sharing their knowledge and expertise. Register now for FREE at hubspot.com/inbound-sales-day

About Lisa:

Lisa Muller, CEO of Lantevasin Sales Enablement. Lisa has over twenty years of experience based helping organizations in the corporate and not-for-profit sectors. She has worked with small and large companies across the world, overseeing national and global sales teams, driving sales as a sole contributor and providing consultancy services to increase sales and commercial success. Her projects have spanned the achievement of a variety of revenue objectives from $2m to $64m.

Connect with Lisa:

www.lantevasin.com
Follow Lisa on Twitter @lantevasin
Skype: Lisa1334
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamuller/

Sales Enablement Growth and Declining Sales Performance with Tamara Schenk

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Sales enablement as a discipline is growing although it still means different things to different people. In 2013, only 19% had such a program, function or initiative. And in 2016, 33% reported having an enablement program, initiative or function. But at the same time, quota attainment is decreasing (from 63% in 2012 down to 55.8% in 2016).

In a nutshell, only one-third of all enablement initiatives meet or exceed their expectations, but two-thirds are not. That’s a problem, and Tamara shared her views on why that is happening.

Enjoy the interview!

About Tamara:

Tamara Schenk is research director at CSO Insights, the research division of Miller Heiman Group, focused on all things sales force enablement, frontline sales managers, and collaboration.

She enjoyed more than twenty years of experience in sales, business development, and consulting in different industries on an international level. Before becoming an analyst in a research director role in January 2014, she had the pleasure to develop sales enablement from an idea to a program and a strategic function. At T-Systems, a Deutsche Telekom company, she the global sales force enablement and transformation team.

Status Quo is Your Biggest Competitor

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Stand out of a crowdWhen CEB reported that 57% of the buyer’s journey was happening without the engagement of sales, it led to the mistaken assumption that sales had no role in the early part of the buying decision. Similarly, when SiriusDecisions reported that 67% of the buyer’s decision-making journey happens digitally, once again the assumption was that sales had no role in the process. Yes, buyers do leverage online tools to do their early stage due diligence and research when they believe they have a business problem that needs addressing. How that became translated into buyers never talk to sellers at that stage is interesting.

I never viewed either of these statistics as something to be afraid of, instead, I saw it as an opportunity for salespeople to find ways to be out in plain sight when buyers were in that early education and research phase. How to engage buyers online whether through content or direct interaction has been the subject of many of my blog posts and that of many others in the sales profession. When it comes to improving sales pipeline or what to do to move deals along to close, what isn’t talked about enough is that your most challenging competitor is the status quo.

Planning for status quo.

Status quo is Latin for existing state. Typically when buyers decide to maintain the status quo, they are often resistant to the risk associated with doing something differently than they do today. If your deals are stalling out because buyers do nothing and stick with the status quo, one reason this is happening is that the risk they associate with making a major change to a new solution was not mitigated. That’s where you have an opportunity to help them. If the perceived risk of making a change is greater than staying with what they’ve got, you won’t close the business. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you will help buyers assuage their fears with data to back you up, which then positions you more strongly for moving a sales opportunity along to close.

Let’s talk about ROI.

A key theme that emerged from Demand Gen’s 2016 B2B Buyer’s Survey Report was the subject of ROI. That’s an important hurdle that salespeople have to help buyers get over. Overwhelmingly respondents said they are feeling the pressure of financial scrutiny from corporate.  And when asked how their purchase process had changed over the past year, the survey revealed that 61% said they “conduct a more detailed ROI analysis before making a final decision.” Now that company leadership has increased scrutiny on the financial side to justify purchase decisions; it is easy to see why buyers proceed with caution.

More decision makers also increase the odds of status quo winning.

Another contributing factor to overcoming status quo is the number of decision makers now involved in buying decisions. This new reality is especially true if you are selling into a complex B2B environment. CEB has said their research indicates that 6.8 people are involved in the decision-making process these days. I would say that those numbers are conservative because there are far more people inside an organization who have influence into the ultimate decision than you may realize. The stakeholders involved in these buying decisions are in a variety of roles, work in multiple geographies or regions, each with a unique perspective on the challenges and pains that a particular business problem may be causing. They also have their unique opinion on what will be the right solution to correct the situation.

There is good news.

The challenges of beating your toughest competitor in any deal situation – status quo – provides an opportunity for salespeople who understand this challenge and plan for ways to overcome it.

In Demand Gen’s Report, there were four top reasons why buyers ultimately choose a winning vendor. They are:

98% – Timeliness of a vendor’s response to inquiries

97% – Demonstrated a stronger knowledge of the solution area and business landscape

94% – Demonstrated a stronger knowledge of our company and its needs

90% – Provided content that made it easier to show ROI and build a business case for purchase

Notice that these buyers didn’t say, we choose a winning vendor because of their product pitch! The salespeople who “ditch the pitch” and focus on demonstrating their consultative business value to buyers have a greater shot at kicking status quo out the door to win deals more often.

I’ll Be Honest, This Isn’t Another Sales Pitch

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Another laughable piece of email spam hit my inbox today. As a result, I feel compelled to get right back up on my soap box. I’m begging all sales and marketing folks to listen up, but more importantly, I am appealing to sales management. Random content and poorly constructed messaging is NOT helping you achieve your numbers.

Sooo…let’s start with the email I received and go from there. By the way, I don’t call people out so names and video link were removed.

“Hi Barbara,

I’ll be honest, this is not “another sales pitch” from Sales 🙂 Instead, I’d like to send you a 2-minute demo video of XYZ’s Customer Success Management solution.

We are VC backed ($9M Series A) by Battery Ventures and our key customers include Marketo, DocuSign, Xactly, Jive, Informatica, YouSendIt, etc.

One of our core value props is “Success for All” and we would like to offer everyone a 1-on-1 with our Customer Success experts to simply discuss best practices (reducing churn, structuring your customer-focused team, increasing up-sells, etc).

Who is the best person to speak with about Customer Success? Let us know if there’s someone else who heads up those efforts.

-Signed…Clueless Account Development Manager”

WAKE UP!

As a sales leader it is time to start addressing what I consider to be a pretty serious sales problem. Intentions don’t matter, but your prospects perception does. This spam email approach doesn’t further a sales opportunity, it cuts it off at the knees.

Let me break down the problem for you by assuming that this account development manager works for you.

Not another sales pitch from sales? Really? This is a pitch even if it did not come from sales. Prospects see through this kind of communication. They are not going to drop what they are doing to watch a demo video that came from a stranger. Why should they? They merely hit delete without giving it a second thought. As for the smiley face…uh, I just can’t go there.

Clever girl says that your company is backed by VC money. That is important because…??  Is that an attempt to convince someone that the company is stable? Lots of companies backed by VC money fold. I don’t think I’d use that as a benefit statement.

Key customers are mentioned. Are you sure they helping your sales cause? Are they even relevant to the receiver of the email?

One of your core value props is “success for all”…what the heck does that mean? Why in the world would your prospect even care?

You want to give your prospect the gift of a 1-1 call with an “expert” to discuss best practices and that’s it? Your prospect isn’t stupid. They know your rep is trying to book a sales call. At least be honest and admit it. If you are serious about educating without expecting anything then host a webinar. Bring a panel of experts together that educate and challenge your prospects to think differently about their business. Wow them and earn the right to move to the next step.

Who is the best person to talk to? If you don’t know who the right person is then why send the email in the first place? I know why. It is a fishing expedition. Nobody is taking the time to properly target the messaging. Confusing activity with effectively driving a sales result is a big mistake and costing you time and money.

I am an ardent supporter of using social media and other technologies as part of the sales process. It is the people behind the technology that worries me. When your prospects can tune you out faster than you can say boo, shouldn’t that suggest to you that some changes are in order?

Wake up…fix your messaging…your revenue and pipeline is suffering!

I'll Be Honest, This Isn't Another Sales Pitch

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Another laughable piece of email spam hit my inbox today. As a result, I feel compelled to get right back up on my soap box. I’m begging all sales and marketing folks to listen up, but more importantly, I am appealing to sales management. Random content and poorly constructed messaging is NOT helping you achieve your numbers.
Sooo…let’s start with the email I received and go from there. By the way, I don’t call people out so names and video link were removed.

“Hi Barbara,
I’ll be honest, this is not “another sales pitch” from Sales 🙂 Instead, I’d like to send you a 2-minute demo video of XYZ’s Customer Success Management solution.
We are VC backed ($9M Series A) by Battery Ventures and our key customers include Marketo, DocuSign, Xactly, Jive, Informatica, YouSendIt, etc.
One of our core value props is “Success for All” and we would like to offer everyone a 1-on-1 with our Customer Success experts to simply discuss best practices (reducing churn, structuring your customer-focused team, increasing up-sells, etc).
Who is the best person to speak with about Customer Success? Let us know if there’s someone else who heads up those efforts.
-Signed…Clueless Account Development Manager”
WAKE UP!
As a sales leader it is time to start addressing what I consider to be a pretty serious sales problem. Intentions don’t matter, but your prospects perception does. This spam email approach doesn’t further a sales opportunity, it cuts it off at the knees.
Let me break down the problem for you by assuming that this account development manager works for you.
Not another sales pitch from sales? Really? This is a pitch even if it did not come from sales. Prospects see through this kind of communication. They are not going to drop what they are doing to watch a demo video that came from a stranger. Why should they? They merely hit delete without giving it a second thought. As for the smiley face…uh, I just can’t go there.
Clever girl says that your company is backed by VC money. That is important because…??  Is that an attempt to convince someone that the company is stable? Lots of companies backed by VC money fold. I don’t think I’d use that as a benefit statement.
Key customers are mentioned. Are you sure they helping your sales cause? Are they even relevant to the receiver of the email?
One of your core value props is “success for all”…what the heck does that mean? Why in the world would your prospect even care?
You want to give your prospect the gift of a 1-1 call with an “expert” to discuss best practices and that’s it? Your prospect isn’t stupid. They know your rep is trying to book a sales call. At least be honest and admit it. If you are serious about educating without expecting anything then host a webinar. Bring a panel of experts together that educate and challenge your prospects to think differently about their business. Wow them and earn the right to move to the next step.
Who is the best person to talk to? If you don’t know who the right person is then why send the email in the first place? I know why. It is a fishing expedition. Nobody is taking the time to properly target the messaging. Confusing activity with effectively driving a sales result is a big mistake and costing you time and money.
I am an ardent supporter of using social media and other technologies as part of the sales process. It is the people behind the technology that worries me. When your prospects can tune you out faster than you can say boo, shouldn’t that suggest to you that some changes are in order?
Wake up…fix your messaging…your revenue and pipeline is suffering!

Selling is Social in a 2.0 World

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Recently, I attended the Sales 2.0 conference. As a first-timer at the conference, I wasn’t completely sure what to expect, but I have to say that it was one of the best run, most  informative conferences that I’ve attended in some time.

The overall theme of the conference was sales and marketing alignment, in addition to social selling. What I find curious is all the time spent talking about the need for sales and marketing alignment (it has been a topic of conversation for years), but somehow the problem has yet to be resolved in most organizations. Now that social media has entered the scene, I believe that alignment between these two departments is even more critical.

Social marketing campaigns must be tied to current sales processes and CRM systems but I don’t see that happening in most instances. Case in point. I met a Marketing Manager recently from a sizable organization who became defensive when I asked if her company had a social media strategy. “Yes, of course, she huffily replied. I handle all of that.” I said, “Cool. How are you tying your marketing campaigns and social lead generation activities to your sales teams CRM system and sales process?” She didn’t even know what a CRM system was much less understand how social sales leads should be tied it. Folks, social media marketing success is more than putting up a Facebook fan page and it certainly requires more than hiring the young 20 or 30-something who knows how to tweet, but I digress.

Personally, I don’t think the sales and marketing alignment problem is that tough to solve. Am I just naive? Why doesn’t the CEO put both sales and marketing on the same revenue goals and bonus them on the same objectives; i.e. hitting quota. Don’t bonus marketing on cheap leads, bonus them on the right leads! On the flip side, tie a piece of every reps sales commission to following up on the “right leads” provided by marketing. To be fair, we all know that salespeople often ignore the leads handed off to them by their marketing team and that’s generally because the leads are not adequately qualified. Salespeople want to talk to qualified, motivated buyers. Give them the right leads and they will follow up! By the way, signing up for a free whitepaper – often called “raising your hand” – doesn’t mean that the lead is qualified or that the potential buyer even cares about what you sell. Maybe they just thought that the whitepaper sounded interesting.

Here are a few of my other thoughts as a result of attending the conference:

    •  The right conferences are still an incredible way to expand your network. Yes, I love the power of social media, but let’s face it, people do not buy from companies, people buy from people. I went to learn, speak, to meet people and to make connections, but I didn’t go to “sell”. Take note sales folks…the best sales come from the investment in building relationships that lead to opportunity over time.
    • Your online conversations can move offline. I had such fun meeting people like Joanne Black and Anneke Seley that I’ve been talking to or following online for quite some time. Joanne and I have connected again since the conference and have decided that we are twin sisters of different mothers. We both agree that there are lots of opportunities for us to support each other with referral business. And sometimes, you have to travel 2200 miles to meet a local colleague from your own community. That was the case with Judy Yi of Silverpop who works about 10 miles away from my office and wouldn’t you know…we are also members of the Atlanta Women in Social Facebook group. Small world! Online conversation is great, but taking it offline can be even better!
    • Don’t forget the social in social selling. There were a handful of conference vendors who just couldn’t resist tweets full of selling. The me, me, me got a bit old. If you’ve been sharing valuable information with conference attendees and then mix in a pitch here and there..ok, but tweets simply focused on you and what you sell are a big turn off.
    • Keep presentations focused on delivering value to your audience. This is a nice way of saying…don’t sell from the podium. One vendor in particular spent their entire presentation time selling, selling and more…well…selling. Not only nauseating, but they were the subject of numerous conversations throughout the conference and the comments were not positive. Honestly, is that really how you want your company to be remembered? Just sayin.
    • Bold moves sometimes backfire. During one of the presentations, I applauded the move to do a “live demo” of the sales approach being sold. At the same time, I felt like I was witnessing a car wreck in slow motion. The approach was slightly better than cold calling and the techniques used to get things like email nomenclature from the receptionist were a bit lame. Not to mention the rep went back to her several times asking the same questions she had just answered. Listening skills were lacking. As for the voicemail message being left for the targeted prospect…what a waste. It was focused only on what the vendor wanted – an appointment. Nothing in it for the exec at all!  If I was the exec on the receiving end of that message I would have hit the delete button in 2 seconds flat. Lesson… do  your homework before picking up the phone, so that when you need to leave your voicemail message, you’ll be able to leave one that is compelling enough for your prospect to want to call you back.

I’ll close by saying that aside from a few presentation missteps; I was inspired and energized by the sheer number of smart people with great ideas and approaches to their business. I engaged in many great conversations and appreciated the willingness of so many pros to share best practices.  It can be easy to coast along comfortably in our day-to-day lives without remembering the importance of investing in our professional development. I say thank you to all the people that I talked with who so generously shared their perspectives.

Hats off to the entire Sales 2.0 conference team for creating and delivering a conference experience that raised the bar and puts other conference organizers on notice! Seriously, Selling Power, you rock!

p.s. I’m attending the Sales Strategies in a Social and Mobile World. Why don’t you join me for a meet-up?

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