What attracted you to the role at Qstream?
Foremost, the company culture is a great fit for me – innovative technology, great people with passion for their work and life and high growth. And, as an enthusiastic former customer, the opportunity to combine that belief in the power of the Qstream technology and my passion for enabling sales teams was irresistible.
Thinking back over your career, what would you rank as the biggest/most important innovation in sales and/or sales enablement?
Two things come to mind. It may sound clichéd but the impact of the availability of information to buyers through the Internet has dramatically impacted the way salespeople engage with prospects. The result is a shift to understanding the prospect’s circumstances, goals and challenges more deeply which has put an emphasis on discovery in the sales process. Second, with more scrutiny on SG&A expenses and the great advances in data analytics in recent years, sales management has become exponentially more data-driven.
What’s the one thing you wish all your sales colleagues were doing (that they aren’t today) and why?
It really hasn’t changed over the years – listen more.
Are there sales/training leaders you feel are doing an exceptional job in their organization/market? Why and what can their peers, specifically, learn from them?
Jenny Dearborn, the Chief Learning Officer at SAP, has really helped advance the approach and discussion about using analytics to show correlation between learning interventions and business outcomes.
What piece of advice would you give to a newly promoted sales manager in his/her first role leading a team?
The transition from being a salesperson (often a star rep) to a sales manager is an exciting and stressful time. The most successful managers that have traveled this path ensured that they transformed their mindset and habits from frontline seller to sales coaches. As a sales manager your hero’s get up and smell quota and opportunity in the morning and helping them by being a good coach to win deals, overcome challenges and achieve success is critical and solidifies your new role.
Have you had a professional mentor who was especially influential in your career? If yes, what lessons or advice have proven to be most impactful for you?
I’ve been fortunate to have many good managers and mentors in my career but one of my first sales managers made a real impression about the importance of preparation, envisioning the customer’s perspective and the power of habits. I was just a few years out of college and at first feared the prep calls and ride-along’s but quickly found them to be invaluable and always learned something and felt better prepared. And I’ll never forget his “last 5 minutes drill” of having you sit in the car for 5 minutes before going into a customer meeting and reviewing with him the key points of the call plan. It was simple, but effective.
If your sales philosophy were a movie, what would the title be?
The Black Swan Quest.
What’s the best sales or business book you’ve read this year?
“Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss.