0:00

Are

0:01

you ready to up level your performance, become

0:03

a better sales coach, and grow revenue?

0:06

Are you ready to be ready? Then ready,

0:08

set cell.

0:09

I'm Hannah, a b to b sales

0:11

enthusiast and sales consultant, advocating

0:14

for sales to be a little more human.

0:16

And I'm Tony from MindTickle, where

0:18

I'm a sales leader and coach.

0:19

And you're listening to Ready Set

0:21

Sell, a podcast dedicated to

0:24

helping revenue and sell professionals like

0:26

you adopt a sales readiness approach

0:28

to ensure your team is always ready

0:30

to

0:30

win. In each episode, we share

0:33

smart insights, tangible advice,

0:35

and actionable tips that can be applied

0:37

directly to work you do every day

0:39

to drive organizational growth.

0:42

Let's

0:42

dive into the episode.

0:45

When

0:46

it comes to the success of any modern

0:48

sales team, effective sales operations

0:51

tactics can play critical role. I

0:53

have to agree, Tony.

0:55

By addressing common gaps in bottlenecks,

0:57

the entire process can be made more

0:59

efficient, which Well, in

1:01

turn, paid the wait for improved

1:03

outcomes. Absolutely. And

1:05

our guest today is someone who can speak

1:08

to all of this and more. Anna

1:10

Louise Fisher Jeffs is the sales operations

1:12

manager at Unilever, a global

1:14

SaaS company that provides an employee experience

1:17

platform to its customers.

1:19

And

1:19

she recently moved to the UK

1:21

from South Africa where she spent most

1:24

of her career in management consulting and

1:26

sales management.

1:27

And Anna Louise definitely

1:29

wins the prize for most names on our podcast,

1:31

but she's here with us today to discuss key

1:34

strategies for making the sales process

1:36

more efficient. She'll also explain how

1:38

sales team leaders need to look at the data

1:41

to determine where the team can make tangible

1:43

improvements. Oh,

1:44

we're also gonna touch on scalability

1:47

and more in sales text back, and forecasting,

1:49

which we all know is extremely important. So

1:52

get ready for a great episode.

1:55

Hi, Anna. Really happy to have you on

1:57

a podcast today. How are you feeling?

1:59

Good. Good. Thanks.

2:01

Amazing. Amazing. So I I'm really

2:03

interested in this I know we're saying a little

2:05

bit beforehand, but sales

2:07

operations. We don't often

2:09

get the the sales

2:10

operations folks to the front of

2:12

the in front of the line to have conversations

2:15

around sales

2:15

enablement and really where the sales industry

2:18

is moving to. So

2:19

I see education. I see management

2:21

consulting. I see sales and then

2:23

I see operations. And

2:24

I'm like, I need to know more about this career

2:26

that you've had so far. So please, can you let us

2:29

know and also our listeners what

2:31

you've been up to? Great.

2:32

And I started my career

2:34

with few false starts before finding

2:36

my way to management consulting, where

2:38

over a number of years I gained a lot of experience

2:41

in data management, problem solving,

2:43

and strategic thinking. When

2:45

the time came on to move on, someone in my network

2:47

recommended me for an in-tech company

2:50

as head of sales. I was

2:52

a bit skeptical initially as I've

2:54

not had a classic selling experience before,

2:56

essentially actually sales operations

2:58

and strategy roles. So So

3:01

I took that up and that was great.

3:04

And from there, I moved on to a fintech business

3:06

as the sales operations manager before

3:08

relocating to the UK. can hear from

3:10

my accent. I'm I'm from South Africa.

3:13

So

3:13

now I'm the sales operations manager for Uniti,

3:15

which is a global SaaS business that provides

3:17

an employee experience platform to inter

3:19

price businesses. Oh,

3:21

that's great. Yeah. And, you know, I

3:23

actually I like it when someone comes

3:25

from a different perspective into a

3:27

role. Right? because you don't need to have that traditional

3:29

experience in order to bring value to

3:32

a specific task or or a

3:34

role. So that's that's always interesting

3:36

to me. But You know, so

3:38

Anna, sometimes individuals and

3:40

leaders of sales teams, you know, they

3:42

believe their problem is something specific. Right?

3:44

It might be training or team management

3:47

when in fact it's really something completely

3:49

different. So do you have an example of

3:51

perhaps where the data showed the problem to be

3:54

something else other than what was believed

3:56

by the team and by the leadership?

3:59

Good question.

3:59

When I was working for the IT tech company,

4:02

which I transitioned to from management consulting,

4:05

the leadership wanted to understand why sales were

4:07

slowing down dramatically. They've had a really good

4:09

start to the, you know, first couple years.

4:11

and

4:11

suddenly they were slowing, but

4:13

the total addressable markets still seem to be

4:15

far bigger than what we or even

4:18

the competitors that we had had captured.

4:20

given

4:21

the fact that no clear leadership in the sales

4:23

team had existed to this point, nor any

4:25

insight driven data analysis. It took while

4:27

to to unwind the problem.

4:30

We implemented a new sales process

4:32

methodology. We improved the CRM

4:34

configuration and usage and

4:36

started looking at data and improving reporting.

4:39

We

4:39

spoke to customers and

4:41

tried to do a thorough

4:43

investigation. Ultimately, while

4:46

training and team management were required,

4:48

I believe that the issue lay in the positioning of

4:50

the product in the market, something the

4:53

leadership were not keen to accept as I think they

4:55

felt that undermined the value of the product.

4:58

But when the company was merged with another one and

5:00

the commercials were reworked, the market opened

5:02

up. No.

5:03

I really I really enjoyed that share. Thank you for sharing

5:05

that. But as someone who's

5:07

had a complete view of

5:09

the sales funnel and the associated

5:11

analytics every step along the

5:13

way, where do sales teams

5:16

tend to have gaps or bottlenecks

5:18

and

5:18

the most room for improvement?

5:21

I

5:21

think sellers tend to focus quickly on

5:23

the features of the product they are selling and

5:25

spend too little time connecting and developing relationships

5:28

with prospective customers. I think

5:29

a lot of them know this in,

5:31

you know, in theory, but

5:33

in practice, they find that

5:35

difficult. And I think it's particularly difficult

5:37

because many prospective customers come to

5:40

the first sales conversation already

5:42

eighty percent through the buying process, which

5:44

they've gotten to on their own through

5:47

research, and they're eager to

5:49

move quickly and the mining the sellers attempt

5:51

to build impactful relationships. Figuring

5:54

this art, I guess can make a

5:56

big difference to the success of a seller.

5:59

Yeah.

5:59

I

6:00

I have to agree with you on that. I think that

6:02

a lot of that comes down to comfort

6:05

zone. It's really easy for me to

6:07

talk about what I know, which is the products, the

6:09

features, the functionality, It's

6:11

harder for me to ask questions and

6:13

then listen deep enough

6:15

to respond to things

6:17

that are completely unknown to me. at the moment.

6:20

Right? So it's like, if I ask a question and the

6:22

client says something or postmortem says something, it

6:24

it maybe something I haven't planned for. haven't

6:26

heard this before. So how do I then talk

6:28

about it. So it's much easier for me to just

6:30

bounce back and say, oh, yeah. That thing you

6:32

mentioned, yeah, we have a products feature that allows

6:34

you to do. This like, that was so much easier

6:36

and I've done my job and Okay.

6:38

On to the next one. Right?

6:40

Rather than

6:41

let me just listen. and

6:43

really start

6:44

to paint a picture and and have AA2

6:46

way dialogue. Yeah. I

6:47

think that's a great call out. I said as someone who's

6:49

in the

6:50

consulting space, I see that. It's it's just

6:52

some every single time, every single company,

6:54

big small high growth, whatever it is,

6:56

that is always something that comes up.

6:59

Yeah.

6:59

And tying to your your earlier

7:01

response, you know, sometimes it's just

7:03

the harshness of reality. Right? Sometimes

7:05

people don't really want to think it

7:08

could be something until they're actually

7:10

confronted with it. Right? Like you said earlier,

7:12

the they didn't wanna think it was

7:14

that one specific thing that could be the

7:16

issue, but then it was, which changed

7:18

everything. Right? So sometimes you have to be

7:20

confronted by something. And sometimes it's,

7:22

you know, it's the data. Right? Sometimes it's

7:24

the data itself that really makes that change.

7:27

So when you think about it from an operations

7:29

perspective, if a sales department,

7:32

if they wanna start making better use of their

7:34

data, you know, they have more effective dash for

7:36

us to get better understanding of performance,

7:38

where should they really start from an operation

7:41

standpoint?

7:42

They need to start with data quality.

7:45

Using data is obviously extremely valuable,

7:48

but only useful if the data is correct,

7:50

which it often isn't before

7:52

it's managed effectively. it's

7:54

important to set standards for how this data

7:56

can be used and to ensure that it's being

7:58

done correctly. Yeah. Absolutely.

7:59

Yeah. If you don't have good good enough foundation

8:02

to start with in good quality, then you're you

8:04

really have nowhere to go at that point. So it's

8:06

it's always a it's a great place to start. Yeah.

8:08

It's fun trying to get salespeople. And

8:11

and surrounding units to

8:13

actually put the right data in the right fields.

8:16

It's a yeah. I mean, fifteen years later,

8:18

it failed. It's still the same thing.

8:21

thinking about data and transitioning into, like,

8:23

systems, but

8:24

how how does a team identify

8:25

the right set sales tech

8:28

stack for their team? Because know,

8:30

we we see that that lovely graph and that

8:33

picture that comes out every year where it's like

8:35

one thousand piece of tech. three thousand pieces

8:37

of tech, five thousand pieces of tech that

8:39

you could possibly touch on is across a

8:42

a revenue org. How do you

8:44

even begin to look at what gonna

8:46

be right for your organization? Well,

8:48

I think you can't just base it on what a previous

8:50

organization is used or what, you know, other

8:53

people are using. you really need to look

8:55

at the needs of your team, and those

8:57

needs can evolve over time. So generally

8:59

doing a needs analysis first and then looking for

9:01

solutions that will help you find the right

9:03

solutions for your team is the

9:05

best way to do it. And

9:06

then to

9:07

to probably do that regularly, to

9:10

sort of assess whether

9:12

you still have the right sales stack?

9:15

I was gonna say that, you know, with that

9:17

regularity because people are you've

9:19

got you

9:21

know, it's companies want it's not as hard

9:23

to buy solutions. Right? That's why we have customer

9:25

success, people in place. We'll keep things stickier

9:28

because of the subscription model when economies changed

9:30

over the last ten years, frankly, to

9:32

Salesforce. But

9:33

if we think about the fact

9:35

that

9:36

a lot of sales teams

9:38

are being incentivized to

9:40

create multi year contracts. Right?

9:42

So it's like, you

9:43

need to be signed up for two in a year. Two years or

9:45

three years.

9:46

How do How how does that

9:48

tally

9:48

up to a team when we're trying to say,

9:50

hey, review what you're using regularly?

9:52

Like, how how regular is is regular?

9:55

That's

9:55

difficult to say because I think as needs

9:57

come up, you should consider, you know,

9:59

I think you need to have flexible approach

10:01

where you're looking at things maybe annually. but

10:04

also ad hoc, you know, in terms of,

10:06

you know, a need might come up and you

10:08

might need to look at something ad hoc. But I

10:10

think, Sydney and Annually, an annual review

10:12

would be important. Yeah. No. That's that's really good

10:14

to hear because I'm just thinking they oh, just thought that

10:16

might be a question that comes up like, okay. So that

10:18

sounds great and I get it, but, like, when and

10:20

how often and appreciate that. I think

10:22

it's forming that. You

10:24

could do it with your annual operational planning

10:26

once a year and and just have a look

10:28

at see, you know, how well

10:31

suited your sales stackers to

10:33

your needs? Yeah.

10:34

Now, and you mentioned something interesting about

10:36

evolving over time. Right? It seems like

10:39

people are evolving very quickly and organizations

10:41

are evolving quickly. Actually, everything is.

10:43

I I feel like my kids evolve about every other

10:45

week, so I'm always having to catch up in some way. Right?

10:48

But It's always about being agile.

10:50

And, you know, sometimes change can be tough

10:52

for people. It's not the easiest thing to go

10:54

through. So when you introduce a

10:56

new process, how do you get buy in

10:59

from all the individuals? And,

11:01

you know, how do you overcome any of that

11:03

resistance that you might face? I think

11:05

there are a number of things you need to do,

11:07

starting off with eliciting inputs

11:09

from the team during design and

11:11

incorporating these as much as possible, that

11:14

really helps to create buy in with

11:16

the team. And then thorough training

11:19

and support systems should be put put

11:21

in place when rolled out.

11:23

a common language for the change and

11:25

weaving the change into as many facets of

11:27

the job as possible to drive adoption.

11:29

good example of this might be

11:31

when awarding commission only

11:34

doing so on deals recorded in the CRM

11:36

that might help drive a new CRM

11:37

adoption. Tony,

11:42

I

11:42

must say. Anna had to kiss a few

11:44

frogs job wise before she could find

11:46

the right fit for her skill set.

11:48

What's our I'm saying, like,

11:50

a few key hints that

11:51

a role is right for you or

11:54

with you, of course.

11:56

Well, that's a great question, Hallead. You know, I I've

11:58

been around the block a few times as you know,

12:00

and I've had all sorts of jobs

12:02

in my day. From I started as a landscaper,

12:05

I wore the stripes at Foot Locker selling

12:07

sneakers, before eventually landed in

12:09

software sales. And I've had,

12:11

you know, my share of roles over the years

12:13

as well. I think

12:16

For me, you know when you have the

12:18

right fit when you have a good rapport

12:20

with the people that you're working with. It's

12:22

always great to have a great product that you're selling,

12:25

of course. But if you don't have a good mesh

12:27

with the team that you're going to battle with,

12:30

then it's it's never going to

12:32

feel all that comfortable. So

12:34

to me, that's when I know it's a really good fit

12:36

when not only do you feel passionate about

12:38

the product and the company, but also about

12:40

the team members that you're working with. To

12:43

me that, I think that's really what makes

12:45

it a good fit in some place

12:47

that I wanna be.

12:49

Yeah. I have I have two rules, Tony.

12:52

Again, in so two rules and it's I think it's

12:54

underpinned by some of what you're talking about, so like that

12:57

culture people be. But if if

12:59

if I go through a long stem of of

13:01

not earning or a lot learning, then it's

13:03

not the right fit for me. I need to

13:05

be, you know, if you think about typically

13:07

being in disruptive start up environment, where

13:10

sometimes there may be slight

13:13

there may be a slight delay in

13:15

the earning potential that you're hoping to

13:17

to achieve. in that space, but

13:19

at that time, at the same time, you're hoping

13:21

that there's a way to learn. There's a way to learn

13:23

because the way in which the companies approach Nicko

13:26

to market because you're having lots of conversations,

13:29

you're interacting with the, you know, your court,

13:31

your your key custom profiles. But

13:33

at that moment, let you stop learning

13:35

as well as you can't really see much career

13:37

trajectory. It's it's a note for me. It just

13:39

doesn't really make sense. So I feel like

13:42

sometimes you get there's a there's a peak that

13:44

that you hit, which means that a

13:46

company or an environment is not over serving you.

13:48

And it's not always a bad thing. I think sometimes we

13:50

think of of it being

13:52

a wrong fit, which does happen. You kinda get into

13:55

that. I think you know in the first, like, twenty four hours,

13:57

like, what am I done? But,

13:59

like, in general,

13:59

sometimes it's just people

14:01

were, you know, they're here for a season. Companies

14:03

are here for a season, and that could be two years,

14:05

could be five years to ten years, but it's not always

14:07

wrong. It just served you for what you needed to

14:09

to achieve in that time. You

14:12

know, Anna made great point when she

14:14

said sellers tend to focus too quickly

14:16

on the features of the product they're selling.

14:18

and spend too little time connecting and developing

14:21

relationships with prospective customers.

14:23

I, one hundred percent agree.

14:26

I think relationship development is a key

14:28

piece of the puzzle when it comes to sales if not

14:30

the whole engine other. If

14:33

sales professionals can learn to mask this,

14:35

They'll find it much easier to close deals

14:37

and make a big impact within their organization.

14:40

I totally agree. And I think when

14:42

you have that relationship, you can establish

14:44

a rapport with the customer that you come across

14:47

in such better way. And, you know, of course,

14:49

it's much easier said than done. It

14:51

can be difficult to scale back on seeing

14:53

the phrases of your product focus on

14:55

relationship building, especially when

14:57

you're really passionate about your product and the

14:59

value it can add to your customers' lives.

15:02

Well, I mean, in that case, I think an

15:04

important thing to remember is the value

15:06

of reading this into your customers and taking

15:08

the time to truly understand their needs designers

15:11

and specific challenges. You

15:13

know,

15:13

Hannah, I know you're gonna find this hard to believe

15:16

because I'm a a movie guy, but I was

15:18

recently watching the HBO series

15:20

industry and one of the lessons they taught

15:22

new grads was to flip an hourglass

15:25

upside down at the beginning of each sales

15:27

call and only get into talking business

15:30

once the hourglass had run out of sand.

15:32

Now in this hourglass, it was like fifteen

15:34

feet tall, so you can imagine it was really tough to

15:36

do. But Yeah. I think it's a great rule

15:38

of thumb to remember. If you're hoping

15:40

to build authentic relationships and

15:42

get to know customers on a personal level,

15:45

to gain their trust, that's where you're gonna

15:47

find your most success. I

15:48

mean, I love that, but I stuff. I'll be honest.

15:52

I'll definitely have to give that one a go next

15:54

time I wanna

15:55

call. But let's get back to the interview. If

15:58

I'm just thinking about the

15:59

sales team, right, and and then how we

16:02

start to think

16:03

about some of those high performance or and

16:05

sometimes

16:05

they're lone wolfs. Right? They they get things

16:07

done. They deliver, but they're

16:09

not fantastic at following protocol.

16:13

If someone in the sales team is a high performer,

16:15

but doesn't follow the processes

16:17

in place, how can that start to

16:19

negatively affect the team

16:21

or reporting?

16:22

So besides setting a bad precedent,

16:25

it can make forecasting reporting difficult

16:27

as the data around processes and

16:29

sailing won't be accurate or in place.

16:31

really the rigor that you get from

16:34

sales processes, sales methodology yields

16:37

the fruit of predictability. And

16:39

if someone is not able to and

16:42

adhere to those, you really find it

16:44

difficult to forecast and predict well even

16:46

if they end up closing lots of sales.

16:48

just

16:49

the the way in which salespeople tend to work

16:51

is really what's

16:52

driven, particularly the the lack

16:54

of adherence to process is really what's

16:56

driven whole market of AI

16:58

in sales. It's it's not just

17:00

about delivering next best action. It's

17:03

about what have you done and how do I

17:05

automate basically put that in the systems that

17:07

it needs to be in so that I don't have to rely on

17:09

you salesperson who's probably not gonna do it

17:11

to

17:11

kind of to to get that data in the

17:13

right places. And it's

17:15

billion dollar market out there for those of you

17:17

who are thinking about launching that as a as

17:19

your next best platform.

17:22

And

17:22

it's fine. The CRM is so central to

17:24

everything. Right? It it almost be it's obviously

17:26

table stakes in any organization, but

17:28

people take it for granted sometimes and how

17:30

important it is for people to be able to

17:33

get the right data out to make decisions. But,

17:35

you know, as as you look at, you

17:37

know, what you're doing right now at unity and

17:39

and and other roles, but What's

17:41

one thing that you wish to sales team would

17:44

would made do better in regards

17:46

to the things that they're doing with their CRM?

17:48

I think

17:50

I'm gonna give a fairly boring answer

17:52

here. I think ensuring the

17:54

notes and insights are accurately recorded

17:56

as well as linking email to their profiles. Both

17:59

of these help to quickly gain insight into

18:01

an opportunity without the selling the seller

18:03

having to explain it to you. Mandatory

18:06

fields can help a lot, but do not ensure

18:08

quality of, you know, free text

18:10

fields that can really add a lot of flavor

18:13

to

18:13

the insights that you can get from

18:15

the CRM. Yeah.

18:17

It seems like a lot of salespeople that

18:19

wanna do the bare minimum. Right? But if you don't

18:21

put this, it's garbage in, garbage out. If you

18:23

don't put good data in, It's really

18:25

hard to make the right decisions on,

18:28

you know, product decisions, marketing

18:30

decisions. So it's it's really crucial

18:32

to get that data in there. at least, you

18:34

know, the places I've been that's always

18:37

been extremely important and something that we've always

18:39

strive for. Yeah. I think what comes up a lot

18:41

as well is when we are when we're

18:43

building out these processes and then we're

18:45

trying to create mandatory fields or whatever it

18:47

is inside CRM. We we don't

18:49

always as an industry do fantastic

18:51

job of educating the salespeople on how

18:54

they then operationalize

18:54

that data themselves in

18:57

the future. to

18:57

say, like, you know, this is what

18:59

you'll be able to do with this data. Not just like, we

19:02

need this for reporting or we need this for that. It's like,

19:04

this is what you'll

19:05

literally be able to do go back

19:07

to your clothes or stills, go back to,

19:09

you know, opportunities that won't stay or

19:11

without having to figure

19:12

out what the hell's happened. Like, alright. be

19:14

able to go on holiday. Take annual leave and

19:16

your your your your your reps, your friends

19:18

can go and check opportunities and manage them. Your

19:20

manager can do

19:21

half your job for you. All of these things that

19:23

allow them to actually operate better. I don't

19:25

know if we we socialize those things as much.

19:28

And think that's where a lot of the reluctance

19:30

comes in as well. So just thinking

19:32

about that data and and and the role that

19:34

leaders actually play here,

19:36

How can sales managers

19:38

create more reliable forecasts? I mean, this is

19:40

a conversation that comes up all

19:42

the time with with the client side

19:44

and work with And are there processes that

19:46

can be used to make forecasts more accurate?

19:49

Yeah.

19:49

Forecasting is always

19:51

tricky by its nature because it's essentially

19:53

predicting the future. And you

19:55

cannot say for a hundred percent certainty

19:58

that any deal will close until

20:00

it does. However, I think the

20:02

more rigor applied in the sales process

20:04

and methodology, the better the predictability,

20:07

which links back to that loan Wolf

20:09

question

20:10

where it's so important to sort of apply

20:12

the methodologies, apply the processes because

20:15

it helps with predictability.

20:18

And

20:18

they're different forecasting methods

20:21

such as using a weighted pipeline forecast,

20:23

which uses the average probability based

20:26

on pipeline coverage and conversion rates to

20:28

predict sales. I think this is

20:30

quite good for quarters further

20:32

into the future where, you

20:34

know, you still

20:35

have quite

20:36

a lot of, you know,

20:38

variation in deals.

20:41

You're not sure how things will close. In the

20:43

near term, I think what's a

20:45

better methodology is that sellers can

20:47

forecast specific opportunities that

20:50

they're confident about, excluding those that they

20:52

are less confident about. And

20:54

then using certain indicators such as engagement,

20:57

which can be tracked nicely through some apps,

20:59

such as reporting and conversational intelligent

21:01

apps, insights can become more accurate.

21:04

Yeah.

21:04

I think it's it's funny as a as

21:06

a sales leader. I I you work with

21:08

tons of different reps and, you know, you're

21:10

always trying to make sure you're getting the

21:13

real data Right? And I I how many times

21:15

have you worked with reps where, you know,

21:17

it's in stage one, but it's gonna close this

21:19

quarter, and the average sales cycle

21:21

is about three to six months. Well, take

21:23

a closer look at that because I don't know. It's

21:25

really accurate at this point. So

21:28

it's always a challenge to try and get the, you

21:30

know, the the true data out of it. But

21:33

So this next question is, one,

21:35

it's a little bit it's near and dear to

21:37

my heart because we've recently gone through some of

21:39

this this change. But one

21:41

of the the signs of success is

21:44

when a sales team grows. Right?

21:46

You know, hey, we went from thirty reps to

21:48

eighty reps within the last six months or

21:50

or whatever it might be. So, you know,

21:52

what would you say are some of the

21:54

challenges that you see when it when

21:57

a team really grows quickly in a scenario

21:59

like that. Yeah.

22:00

Ramping very quickly leads to

22:02

team of new sellers that lack experience in your

22:04

business. It's without

22:07

good coaching and onboarding programs, this can be

22:09

a risky for failure for many new

22:11

hires, which can be demoralizing for the rest

22:13

of the team. it's not impossible

22:15

to do. It's, you know, if you have the right

22:18

processes, coaching, onboarding, it

22:20

can be enormously successful. And a lot of

22:22

businesses have have done that right.

22:25

It can be done very well, but it needs to be managed

22:27

effectively in order to have

22:29

success. because

22:31

we we know about ramping alignment

22:34

as well. Right? You you can even the structure

22:36

onboarding and and how frequently that happens

22:38

some companies will have you know, we have one

22:41

we have one eporter and you've got new

22:43

people that go, like, two and a half months or three

22:45

months about that. initial onboarding and

22:47

training because of how, like, they're cycled into

22:49

the year. So, yeah, just even just the logistics

22:52

of that are pretty, pretty important.

22:53

How can sales teams ensure

22:55

that the processes they're creating

22:57

are scalable? When you think about these these

23:00

growth that growth question at Tony was just

23:02

going

23:02

through. Yeah.

23:03

A few things help. I think making

23:05

processes clear and simple, repeatable,

23:09

making sure you document them, automating

23:11

where possible, and, of course,

23:14

building processes into the ways of working,

23:16

which should be

23:17

reinforced wherever possible.

23:19

This has been fantastic. take away.

23:21

I really appreciate your time here today, but we're

23:23

not finished yet. We do our rapid

23:26

fire questions at the end. So what we're gonna do

23:28

is, Hannah and I are gonna go back and

23:30

forth, ask you some questions very fast,

23:32

so just top of mind first answer that

23:34

you can think of. So I'm gonna start,

23:37

So what would you say is your sales

23:39

philosophy in just three words?

23:42

Ask great questions.

23:44

I love it. What's the best piece

23:46

of advice you've been given in your career?

23:49

You're going to drop balls, be

23:51

prepared, and choose which ones

23:52

to drop. Oh,

23:54

I never had that. Damn it.

23:58

What is your top productivity

23:59

hack? That's an important one.

24:02

I think, limit email notifications

24:05

and try to avoid avoid

24:07

task switching.

24:08

Oh, I like that. How long is

24:10

that? I'm more familiar with

24:12

that. Okay. So the top

24:14

three apps you couldn't live about.

24:17

My banking app -- Mhmm. -- Salesforce and

24:20

food stuff. So you trust

24:22

the banking out. Okay. Good to know. Good to know.

24:26

Would you say our leaders made or

24:29

born? mostly made.

24:31

And what book has inspired you

24:33

the most in your career?

24:35

From Impossible to inevitable, by

24:38

Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin.

24:40

Alright. Before the next question,

24:42

what is that about? This has a very interesting

24:44

title.

24:45

It's about creating

24:47

predictability in sales cycles and

24:50

how to how to take something,

24:52

you know, a

24:55

sales process that is

24:57

is about to be hard to scale businesses in a

24:59

predictable manner.

25:01

I love that. And this is what happens

25:04

on these podcasts because what I do is

25:06

added some Amazon last year in there. It's

25:08

just making this I'm spending lot of money Tony

25:11

is what I'm saying. Gonna get

25:13

bad enough to for all the book or have to

25:15

buy from this podcast that we do here.

25:17

But our last

25:19

question and I'm a movie, guys, so I always get

25:22

to close this one out, but which which

25:24

which statement would you use? Sell me this

25:26

pen or always be closing. Tell

25:30

me this pin. Excellent.

25:32

Scorsese is at his finest club. Adam,

25:37

thank you so much for today. I hope you had fun.

25:39

We had a blast. This is your great guests and

25:41

great insightful answers. And,

25:43

you know, we look forward to talking again soon.

25:46

Thank

25:46

you. Had lot of fun.

25:51

What a good chat with Anna. Well,

25:53

that was fun. I love everything about data

25:55

so that that that got me going. I'll be honest.

25:57

But she made some really important points

25:59

about

25:59

relationship

26:00

building during the sales process,

26:02

the value of taking flexible approach and

26:04

forecasting methods. What do you think, Tony? Yeah.

26:07

I mean, I'm old schools. my notepad

26:09

was overflowing with ideas from the conversation,

26:12

and I can't really wait to put

26:14

some of these methods into practice, especially

26:16

in my day to day role. So, you

26:18

know, Hannah, what stood out to you as particularly

26:21

helpful advice from Hannah? I think the

26:23

emphasis on the value of conducting thorough

26:25

training and onboarding from the get

26:28

go. Like, that's that's a cool part of

26:30

some

26:30

of the the words I do day

26:32

to day in my role in supporting organizations a

26:34

consultant. So to hear it echoed from,

26:36

like, the trenches

26:38

is it just makes me feel like I'm on the

26:40

right path. Right? But because we we know without

26:42

proper preparation and you definitely know this Toni,

26:45

your sense to be saying the team of the failure,

26:47

which can be massively demoralizing for

26:49

everyone. Absolutely. You always

26:51

have to be prepared. And, you know, in the same

26:53

vein, leaders really should be

26:55

asking for feedback regularly from their

26:57

teams to, you know, actually go that

26:59

extra mile to incorporate it so

27:01

they can encourage buy in from the whole team

27:03

and drive adoption. because if you don't get

27:05

that buy in, you're really just

27:07

gonna be spinning your wheels to get that, you

27:09

know, that pass and really make people

27:12

believe the things that they're getting behind.

27:14

Exactly. And Anna also

27:16

mentioned the value conducting a regular

27:18

needs analysis so you can determine which

27:21

areas of focus need to be prioritized moving

27:23

forward. think there's a pattern

27:25

of doing a lead analysis right at the

27:27

beginning of the time and build out

27:29

your learning programs, and that's

27:31

it. And it's like, okay. But it's never

27:34

reassessed for that frequency of

27:36

leads analysis. I'd love to actually highlight that.

27:38

Absolutely. I mean and that changes all the

27:40

time. Right? So You know, the concepts of

27:43

a needs analysis can be universally applied

27:45

to customers, prospects, and

27:47

teams. So it's really helpful tool

27:49

to keep that in your toolbox. Agreed

27:51

Tony. Big thanks to Anadou for sharing

27:54

all the nuggets of wisdom with us here on the Ready

27:56

Set Sell podcast. And

27:58

thanks to you

27:58

all for listening. We really

27:59

hope learned something that can be applied to

28:02

your everyday life. Thank

28:05

you for listening to this episode of Ready

28:08

Set sell. We

28:09

hope you took away some valuable lessons

28:11

and insights that inspire you to reevaluate

28:13

your approach to sales readiness. Don't

28:16

forget to subscribe, rate, and and

28:18

review the show when you get bitten. And

28:20

stay tuned for the next

28:22

episode of Ready Set Sell.