Tech Sales Insights – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In this episode of Tech Sales Insights, Randy Seidl is joined by Steve Jow, EVP of Sales at TD SYNNEX, to discuss strategies for building a winning sales culture. Steven shares insights from his 34-year career at TD SYNNEX, emphasizing teamwork, customer focus, and leveraging partnerships. The role of culture in sales performance is highlighted, along with the integration of AI and technology for enhanced efficiency and solutions selling. Steve’s experiences and anecdotes provide a personal touch to his professional philosophy, underscoring the value of optimism and a service-oriented approach in the tech sales industry.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Company Profile: TD SYNNEX is a leading technology distributor, emphasizing a holistic approach that includes market planning, comp design, and channel setup.
• Sales Culture: A winning sales culture involves creating a team that celebrates wins, adapts to challenges, remains optimistic, and values customer experience.
• Team Synergy: Best team practices include strong internal relationships across all functional areas, highlighting the importance of teamwork and individual contributions.
• Customer Experience: Focusing on customer satisfaction and feedback is crucial, leveraging tools like QBRs and NPS scores to maintain high customer experience levels.
• Evolving Competencies: Modern sales require a balance of traditional and new skill sets, including technical acumen, accurate forecasting, and the ability to leverage AI and digitization.
• Portfolio & Solution Selling: An emphasis on solution selling across various verticals helps drive comprehensive portfolio selling, supported by strong vendor partnerships.
• Efficiency through Systems: Utilizing integrated systems and AI to streamline processes and enhance seller productivity is a focal point.
• Family and Culture: Maintaining a family-oriented culture within the company is valued, supporting employees' personal commitments alongside professional responsibilities.

QUOTES

• "It's always good to drive success with optimism. Remember, pessimists sound smart, but optimists make money."
• "Focus on the customer experience because that is part of our culture."
• "It's important to have a winning culture. A team that wants to win, that likes to celebrate those wins, and can adjust to any challenges."
• "It's not just getting the order out the door; it's about understanding the entire customer experience."
• "Family means everything. A good company culture values both personal and professional family."
• "Look, success breeds success. And everybody wants to be a superhero."
• "As long as tech is about improving productivity and experience, there's always a wildcat opportunity."
• "Sellers must remember: you're not just selling a product but a solution."
• "Customer experience trumps everything. If you get the customer experience right, you'll have successful sales orders."

Find out more about Steven Jow through the link below.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-jow-279806/

This episode is sponsored by The Alexander Group, our GTM & Sales Compensation Partner. Alexander Group provides revenue growth consulting services to the world’s leading sales organizations. When clients need to grow revenue, they look to Alexander Group for data-driven insights, actionable recommendations, and results.

In this episode of Tech Sales Insights, Randy Seidl is joined by Scott Harvey, Chief Customer Officer of Sprinkler. They delve into Scott's career journey, from broadcast journalism major to tech sales leader. They explore the importance of outcome-based selling and value creation in the sales process, emphasizing the critical role of customer relationships and consultative selling. Scott shares insights on transitioning strategies at major companies like VMware, ServiceNow, and Stripe, highlighting the significance of personalized engagement and value selling in post-sales and customer success. The conversation underscores the need for continuous sales training and the collaborative effort of teams in achieving success. Sponsored by Octus IQ, the episode offers a deep dive into modern sales strategies and leadership in a rapidly changing market.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Outcome-Based Selling: Focus on understanding customer priorities and aligning your product capabilities to drive specific business outcomes.
• Customer Value: Continuously create, realize, and measure value post-sales to improve customer retention and satisfaction.
• Sales Enablement: Importance of thorough training and enabling sales teams to speak the customer's language and have consultative conversations.
• Old School Tactics: Leveraging traditional methods like cold calling to enhance lead generation and build stronger customer relationships.
• Team Collaboration: Success in sales requires a collaborative effort across various teams such as SDRs, sales enablement, and RevOps.
• Leadership Lessons: Importance of being genuine, maintaining high energy, and having a strong emotional connection with the team and customers.
• RevOps Importance: Using data-driven insights for accurate forecasting, pipeline management, and understanding customer lifecycles.
• Innovative Tools: Utilizing advanced tools and methods for pipeline generation and account management.

QUOTES

• "Talent's a lifeblood, man. Talent's a lifeblood." - Scott Harvey
• "If you focus on the outcomes, it's at the C level that you need to be." - Scott Harvey
• "It's all about value; if you can tie to their key priorities and initiatives at sea level, then you can build a value mountain." - Scott Harvey
• "Sales is a team sport; winning as a team is about all functions in the go-to-market working together." - Scott Harvey
• "The more the customers educate you on their business, the better engagement and outcome you can have for both of you." - Scott Harvey
• "It's okay if you ask a dumb question or say something wrong. Be willing to be vulnerable." - Scott Harvey
• "If you keep focusing on the customer's language, you build better strategies." - Scott Harvey
• "We built what we called the value life cycle: enable value, create value, realize value, and champion success." - Scott Harvey
• "Realized value through the operational process is what drives your renewal and upsell." - Scott Harvey
• "Getting to the customer's personal and measurable value is crucial in a successful sales engagement." - Scott Harvey

Find out more about Scott Harvey through the link below.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottharvey2/

This episode is sponsored by AuctusIQ, the Sales Performance Assessment sponsor of the Sales Community. AuctusIQ is a sales data and science software company, with the mission of providing the right data to solve your three biggest challenges: selecting and retaining exceptional talent, coaching to ensure readiness to meet or beat quota, and winning more deals.

In this episode of Tech Sales Insights, Vinay Nachani, VP Worldwide Software Sales at Cisco, joins Randy to discuss software sales success, enterprise agreements, and sales transformation. Vinay shares his journey from an engineering background to a pivotal sales leadership role, highlighting the importance of customer trust, strategic partnerships, and the evolution of Cisco's software offerings. The conversation covers effective sales enablement, leveraging customer renewals for growth, and the significance of meditation and personal grounding in navigating a high-stakes career. Vinay also acknowledges the invaluable support of mentors and the diverse talent within his teams.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Building Trust: Learn how engineers and sales executives can leverage trust to drive customer satisfaction and sales success.
• Software Transformation: Insights into Cisco's journey from a hardware-driven to a software-driven company, and the pivotal role played by Vinay in this transformation.
• Customer Engagement: The importance of customer-centric sales approaches and the impact of SEs (Sales Engineers) as trusted advisors.
• Innovative Sales Models: Explore Cisco's unique enterprise agreements (EAs) model, offering insights into price protection, overconsumption policies, and customer value.

QUOTES

• "Customers fundamentally buy from people they like and trust."
• "Our focus is on simplifying the customer journey and delivering value."
• "In software sales, understanding customer needs is as crucial as technical excellence."

Find out more about Vinay Nichani through the links below: ttps://www.linkedin.com/in/vnichani/

This episode is sponsored by Sandler. Sandler is a world leader in innovative sales, leadership, and management training. For more than 50 years, Sandler has taught its distinctive, non-traditional selling system and highly effective sales training methodology, which has helped salespeople and sales managers take charge of the process.

Joe Koenig is back to discuss more about persevering at work and home. In his last round with Randy, Joe shares his advice for new ISRs (Inside Sales Representatives), best practices and diversity initiatives, wisdom for people breaking into tech sales, and many more. Get a load of Joe's amazing insights in this latest episode of Tech Sales Insights.

INSIGHTS OF THE DAY

JOE: ADVICE FOR PEOPLE BREAKING INTO TECH SALES

“You have to have the passion to learn, because you may all know here on the hall, technology is ever-changing, ever-evolving, and someone needs to understand, and take the time, and had that passion, not during work. You can do that all day but on your own too.”

JOE: ADVICE FOR LAID-OFF PEOPLE

“Be resilient, because I do think that good people will find good homes. This is a circle, there will always be layoffs, the hiring boom, and so forth. But continue to work hard, network with your people, and I guarantee you'll find a good spot that makes sense for you.”

Don’t miss out on our previous episodes and watch out for the next ones!

• E114 Part 1 - POWERING THROUGH: Practicing Perseverance at Work and at Home with Joe Koenig
• E114 Part 2 - PERSEVERANCE PREVAILS: Joe Koenig on Overcoming Challenges at Work and Home
   

Find out more about Joe Koenig in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joekoenig-wwt/
• WWT Website: https://www.wwt.com/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: 

• Sales Community: https://www.salescommunity.com/
• Gong: https://www.gong.io/

Welcome to another episode of Tech Sales Insights, where Randy and Joe are up for round 2 of their conversation. In this episode, Joe talks about how leveraging the best and most disruptive technologies from partners help provide real outcomes for customers. The two discuss how data and feedback can be used to improve customer experience and how partnering with the right companies can create an ecosystem that drives innovation. Stay tuned for more in this latest episode of Tech Sales Insights.

INSIGHTS OF THE DAY

RANDY: HOW TECH SALES HAVE CHANGED

“Back in the old days, it was, you’re selling in any of those platforms, and that was the sale. Now, you've got your intellectual property, your secret sauce, around the methodologies and service providers, and business outcomes. You're slotting in, obviously, all these different technologies that help with the outcome, but kind of this other layer in terms of the differentiation, so you're just not reselling.”

JOE: HOW LEADERS PLAY A ROLE IN GETTING PEOPLE TOGETHER

“I think we have to be more intentional about bringing people together at the right times for the right reason, understanding that people have cost challenges. But what can we do to help enhance and drive this culture in a different way, some people are a little bit more remote now, and it's up to our leaders and managers to help provide feedback and an additional perspective on the best ways you can accomplish that, knowing that we have to have some face-to-face with them.”

Don’t miss out on our previous episode and watch out for the next ones!

• E114 Part 1 - POWERING THROUGH: Practicing Perseverance at Work and at Home with Joe Koenig

Find out more about Joe Koenig in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joekoenig-wwt/
• WWT Website: https://www.wwt.com/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: 

• Sales Community: https://www.salescommunity.com/
• Gong: https://www.gong.io/

It’s another episode series here at Tech Sales Insights, and today, Randy welcomes a long-time friend, Joe Koenig, President at World Wide Technology. Joe will be talking about perseverance at work and at home, and in this first installment, he focuses on his first job, the challenges he went through, and his key takeaways after. Stay tuned for more as Joe talks about the evolution of tech in sales in this latest episode of Tech Sales Insights.

INSIGHTS OF THE DAY

JOE: DRIVING TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS OUTCOMES

“We're very careful about prescribing whether it's cloud and cyber and data, and infrastructure modernization is still a play that's out there that we spend a lot of time on, and really ultimately driving technology and business outcomes. And so that's what we have to do. You know, we have to understand our customers care about what's important, their measures of success, and then tailor what our business is all about to create those outcomes, and that's where we spend a lot of focus.”
 

JOE: ALWAYS HAVE THE PASSION TO LEARN

“I always really promote to our sales team, you have to have a passion for learning. If you don't have that passion to learn, then that's a problem because things are moving fast, and you need to move fast, and then stay ahead of that curve.”

Find out more about Joe Koenig in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joekoenig-wwt/
• WWT Website: https://www.wwt.com/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: 

• Sales Community: https://www.salescommunity.com/
• Gong: https://www.gong.io/

TIME TO ACHIEVE THE WORKLYFE BALANCE YOU TRULY DESERVE

Travis Ashby is back to talk further about work-life balance and how Worklyfe can help companies and salespeople alike achieve it. Together with Randy, Travis will be talking about Worklyfe becoming a bridge for eroding relationships, his advice for people trying to break into tech sales, the startup founders he admires and respects, and many more. Make sure to stay tuned until the end as Travis will be discussing how you can set up your own Worklyfe account.

INSIGHTS OF THE DAY

TRAVIS: WHAT COMPANIES SHOULD REALLY DO

“What companies need to be doing though is just find how to help them inspire work while they're there, and then the whole goal is, the whole key is to help them accomplish what they want in work and life, and so I tell companies all the time, stop talking about yourself like nobody cares about your company, or making you rich or your investors. Nobody cares about your mission, vision, or goals unless you care about theirs. You've got to start with them first.”
 

TRAVIS: ADVICE FOR PEOPLE BREAKING INTO TECH SALES

“Find those people that you admire or respect, and I would say find the people that sell the right way. Find the people that sell with empathy and ethics, and that lead out with relationships because people want to do business with people they like. So find out how to be likable, and figure out how to create a likable personality, because people will just want to do business with you.”

Don’t miss out on our previous episodes; watch out for the next ones!

• E113 Part 1 - WORKLYFE BALANCE: Travis Ashby’s Journey In Sales And Conceptualizing Worklyfe
• E113 Part 2 - HAPPINESS EQUATION: The Ins and Outs of Worklyfe with Travis Ashby

Find out more about Travis Ashby in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travisashby/
• Worklyfe: https://worklyfe.io/beta/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: 

• Sales Community: https://www.salescommunity.com/
• Decision Link: https://www.decisionlink.com/
• Gong: https://www.gong.io/

WHAT’S THE FORMULA FOR A WORKER’S HAPPINESS?

Travis Ashby, founder of Worklyfe is back with Randy for Round 2. In this episode, Travis discusses what Worklyfe is all about, as he defines it as his personal happiness movement. He also breaks down how Worklyfe can help people in surfacing what really matters to them and how it helps in finding a worker’s happiness equation. There’s a whole lot more to find out so tune in to this latest episode of Tech Sales Insights.

INSIGHTS OF THE DAY

TRAVIS: THE PAIN POINT THAT WORKLYFE IS TRYING TO SOLVE

“It's a happiness movement for me. I just felt like the number one problem in the world was unhappiness, like we've never had higher levels of depression and addiction and divisiveness.”

TRAVIS: SURFACING WHAT REALLY MATTERS

“How Worklyfe helps them is we surface what matters to them. So we actually go to people and say, Hey, let's figure out your personal happiness equation, we're going to help you, our software is going to help you surface your purpose and your why and then create goals that are going to help you actually be happier.”
 

Don’t miss out on our previous episode, and watch out for the next ones!

• E113 Part 1 - WORKLYFE BALANCE: Travis Ashby’s Journey In Sales And Conceptualizing Worklyfe

Find out more about Travis Ashby in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travisashby/
• Worklyfe: https://worklyfe.io/beta/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: 

• Sales Community: https://www.salescommunity.com/
• Decision Link: https://www.decisionlink.com/

HOW DO YOU STRIKE THE REAL BALANCE BETWEEN WORK AND LIFE?

Randy welcomes Travis Ashby, Founder of Worklyfe, a platform for individualized incentives and benefits platform for the modern workforce, which helps companies improve performance and retention by motivating employees with things they actually care about. Travis talks about his first sales job and how his experience made him notice the issue with the usual incentives being given to employees. He also talks about sacred money, how to spend it, and how he got the idea of Worklyfe. Stay tuned until the end of this latest episode of Tech Sales Insights.

INSIGHTS OF THE DAY

TRAVIS: COMPANIES’ LACK OF SUPPORT

“There's any number of reasons why people are struggling at their job, and companies don't do a good job at all about being able to be there to support and help people maybe understand and overcome those things.”

TRAVIS: OUTDATED INCENTIVES AND MOTIVATION TACTICS

“Gift cards, cash and swag and stuff. Is that really like, does that really matter to people? Is that really still the thing we're doing to motivate sales?”

TRAVIS: TIME TO DECONSTRUCT INCENTIVE PROGRAMS

“I just started kind of thinking about like, Well, how do we like, deconstruct these crappy incentives, like President's Club, for example, it's like three months into an annual incentive, you already know who's gonna win, and so demotivates 80% of the team.”

Find out more about Travis Ashby in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travisashby/
• Worklyfe: https://worklyfe.io/beta/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: 

• Sales Community: https://www.salescommunity.com/
• Decision Link: https://www.decisionlink.com/

HOW DOES A SALES LEADER JUGGLE INNOVATION, SKILLS, AND MANAGEMENT?

Paul Hunter is back to close his interview with round 3 with Randy. In this episode, Paul gives his insights on the need to evolve compensation to drive behavior for better performance, the primary goal of a Chief of Staff, the kind of skills needed to be a good salesperson, and advice for the younger generation and to his younger self. Let’s get a deep dive into these topics in this latest episode of Tech Sales Insights.

INSIGHTS OF THE DAY

PAUL: THE GOAL OF A CHIEF OF STAFF

“One of the things you learn in the Chief of Staff job it’s not enough to make the principal successful, you've got to make the principal and their team successful.”
 

PAUL: FORMULA OF A GOOD TECH SALESPERSON

“Good listening skills, good questioning skills, I have always found in the best technical people, but built on a foundation of great knowledge.”
 

Don’t miss out on our previous episodes and watch out for the next ones:

• E112 Part 1 - IN FOR THE HUNT: Paul Hunter’s Sales Story And Insights On Social Sales Tools
• E112 Part 2 - GOING THROUGH CHANGES: Reconfiguring and Evolving Sales Teams with Paul Hunter

Find out more about Paul Hunter in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-hunter-3743a8/
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise: https://www.hpe.com/us/en/home.html

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by: 

• Sales Community: https://www.salescommunity.com/
• Gong.io: https://www.gong.io/