Show Notes:

This episode discusses best practices around responding to RFPs (requests for proposals), including when to bid or not bid, managing internal collaboration, maintaining relationships even if declining to bid, and leveraging AI for efficiency and learning. Listeners can gain insights into strategically approaching RFPs.

Key Discussion Points:

• Starting an RFP process - focus first on content library and single source of truth
• Signs an organization needs a formal RFP process - inconsistencies, lack of process
• Determining whether to bid on an RFP - alignment with goals, capabilities, profitability, competitive landscape
• Making the bid/no bid decision - account team spearheads but cross-functional collaboration
• Maintaining relationships if declining to bid - treat everyone respectfully
• Using RFPs for market learning even if unlikely to win
• Trends in RFP space - AI for efficiency, reporting for optimization

Brad Rosen Bio:

Brad Rosen is President at Sales Assembly, which provides skill development for go-to-market teams. He focuses on sales effectiveness and process optimization.

Tony Germanario Bio:

Tony Germanario is the RVP of Enterprise at Responsive (formerly RFPIO), a software company providing RFP and proposal management solutions. He has over 15 years of experience in sales leadership.

Company Bios:

Sales Assembly - Services firm focused on sales skill development through workshops, custom training, and coaching. Helps teams sell more strategically.

Responsive - Software company with solutions for streamlining and optimizing RFP response and proposal processes. Enables efficiency through content collaboration and AI.

This session of Sales and Stuff and Things discusses how revenue organizations can scale through developing seller skills, rather than solely through adding more headcount. The guests provide historical context on why sales leaders often default to hiring more, despite data showing skill development is needed. They outline essential modern seller skills like decision science, writing, active listening, and empathy.

Main Discussion Points

- Many sales leaders are not formally trained for their roles, so they default to hiring more reps rather than prioritizing enablement (Sam McKenna)
- Throughout history, sales training and education has often declined during economic downturns, leading to more reliance on quantity over quality (Todd Caponi)
- Leaders and boards often prioritize short-term results over long-term enablement due to lack of experience with previous economic cycles (Todd Caponi)
- Sellers today often lack skills like writing, active listening, and intellectual curiosity that are essential for modern sales (Sam McKenna)
- Foundational understanding of decision science and empathy are key for applying modern sales techniques effectively (Todd Caponi)
- Sales messaging and outreach should focus on buyer challenges and perspectives, not just product features (Sam McKenna)

In this episode, Michelle Vu discusses the current state of B2B SaaS sales and customer success with Jonah Mandel of Capchase and Brad Rosen of Sales Assembly. They dig into findings from a recent survey conducted by Capchase on sales procurement in the B2B SaaS space. Key topics include increasing sales cycle length, rising customer acquisition costs, and decline in LTV:CAC ratio. Listeners can expect to learn strategies for optimizing sales processes, managing discounting, improving customer retention, and more in today's climate.

Main Discussion Points:

- Factors contributing to longer sales cycles and how some companies are bucking this trend
- Rising CAC and how to optimize spend on customer acquisition
- Managing discounting behaviors of sales teams
- Turning customer success into a profit center with skills for upsell
- Getting ahead of churn risk before renewal conversations

Guest Bios:

Jonah Mandel is the VP of Sales and Customer Success at Capchase, helping businesses grow through non-dilutive financing. He previously led go-to-market efforts at Alibaba for 5 years and worked in mobile payments at Square and ShopKeep.

Brad Rosen is the President of Sales Assembly, which helps teams build foundational sales skills for greater efficiency. He previously led G2's go-to-market team for 7 years after a long career in finance.

Company Bios:

Capchase: Provides non-dilutive financing to SaaS companies through options like revenue-based financing and a buy now, pay later purchasing tool.

Sales Assembly: Offers sales training and coaching to help companies scale through the development of foundational selling skills.

In this episode of Revenue Jam, Matt Green and Alex Mislan discuss how to create a culture of learning within a revenue organization. Listeners can expect to gain insights on why building a culture of learning is important, how it differs from just having coaching, and practical steps leaders can take to start fostering this culture.

Key Discussion Points:

- A culture of learning treats learning like a business objective - it's measured, prioritized, and resourced (02:16)

- Coaching tends to be situational and deal-specific, while a culture of learning focuses on underlying skills and behaviors (08:48)

- Building a culture of learning leads to greater innovation, productivity, and optimal performance from teams (04:37)

- Leaders often fall back on coaching instead of building a culture of learning due to desire for immediate results and competing priorities (07:14)

- Important to start with small, measurable steps - open idea submissions, increase visibility, get executive sponsorship (22:24)

In this episode of Revenue Jam, Matt Green is joined by sales leaders Sam McKenna, Jen Allen-Knuth, and Tod Caponi for a monthly session discussing how sales leaders can create weekly wins for their teams. They provide insights on building a positive sales culture, celebrating the right behaviors, delivering effective feedback, and more.

Key Discussion Points:

- Celebrating pipeline versus quality of pipeline (05:13)
- Focusing on the "so what" of your solution for the customer (05:52)
- Not celebrating activities that don't lead to outcomes (08:29)
- Being transparent about losses and learning from them (20:17)
- Giving feedback in a way that elicits self-reflection (27:27)
- Delivering feedback consistently in a 2 by 2 format (29:32)
- Making feedback a natural extension of validation and recognition (37:21)
- Learning from all levels of the organization (39:04)
- Reinforcing positive behaviors tied to company values (43:06)
- Highlighting smaller wins, not just the biggest deals (47:35)

In this episode, Jeff Rosset is joined by Kelly Marberry, Sales leader at LinkedIn, to discuss deep sales, focusing on quality over quantity, and strategies for achieving happiness and satisfaction in sales careers. Kelly provides insights into tailoring outreach, building rapport, and crafting personalized messages to connect with prospects. The two also touch on the importance of finding joy in your work in order to put in the effort needed to get results.

Main discussion points:

- The decreasing effectiveness of mass outreach tactics (00:02:23)
- Transitioning from spray and pray to more strategic, personalized outreach (00:02:06)
- Putting in the time and effort to truly understand prospects' needs (00:03:12)
- Leveraging networks for warm introductions (00:05:34)
- Achieving happiness first to enable greater success (00:12:20)
- Simple daily practices for cultivating gratitude and joy (00:13:12)

Guest Bios:

Jeff Rosset is the CEO of Sales Assembly, a community of sales and marketing professionals in Chicago. He has over 15 years of experience in sales and business development.

Kelly Marberry is an Enterprise Account Executive at LinkedIn. She was previously with Sprout Social and helped them scale during their early growth phase. Kelly is passionate about helping sales professionals find satisfaction and happiness in their work.

Episode Summary: 

Matt Green, co-founder of Sales Assembly, shares his insights on building successful sales teams and developing a strong sales playbook. He emphasizes the importance of finding the right people for your team, rather than relying on big logos or established organizations. Matt also discusses the challenges of transitioning from a founder-led sale to a true go-to-market motion and the need for consistency in training and development. He highlights the shift in Sales Assembly's focus from training for job titles to training for skills, and the impact it will have on their organization. 

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Chapters: 

(00:00) Mistake of founders thinking big logos guarantee success in hires 

(01:09) Accidental entry into sales after studying criminal justice 

(03:40) Sales Assembly started as a solution to common sales complaints 

(06:46) Importance of finding the right people when building a team 

(08:45) Sales playbook should be written by the first sales hire 

(10:28) Critical elements of a sales playbook: process, methodology, language 

(14:25) Onboarding new sales teams can be challenging without consistency 

(20:57) Hiring slower and firing quicker improves team quality 

(22:07) Focusing on hiring A players only is crucial for success 

(26:44) Revenue being seen as a team sport, but sales getting blamed in tough times 

(31:36) Excelling in sales as an introvert 

(33:06) Excitement for training for skills rather than job titles 

(35:31) Quick-Fire Round 

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Key Takeaways: 

- Finding the right people is crucial when building a sales team, rather than relying on big logos or established organizations. 

- Transitioning from a founder-led sale to a true go-to-market motion requires careful planning and consideration. 

- Consistency and alignment towards a mission are essential for building a strong sales team and company culture. 

- Building a sales playbook should focus on defining the sales process, methodology, and language used in communication with prospects. 

- Hiring slower and firing quicker can lead to better long-term success in building a sales team. 

How do we keep all our tech in check?

Well, that’s exactly what Walnut asked their panelists from AI21 Labs, Sales Assembly, and Uniphore during their latest #WeAreProspects webinar. 

And while the event was a blast, what really knocked our virtual socks off was just how many sales leaders tuned in. This shows just how important it is to ensure that AI and tech are making the buying process better and not distancing us from our prospects.

It was really interesting to hear all of the practical tips our experts gave on which emerging technologies they’re currently using and when they avoid them altogether.