Hunters and Unicorns

8. Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 Mastery Mission - Kirk Giddens

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns, 20/20/20 Mastery Mission. 

20 topics, 20 guests for 20 minutes. 

We're here to unlock tribal wisdom from tech sales legends to help you get one step closer to mastery. 

Today we are joined by Kirk Giddens, Vice President, Mid Market Sales North America at TripActions, the fastest-growing travel management platform disrupting the 1.5 trillion corporate travel industry. 

In episode 8, Kirk shares his wisdom with us on the subject of pipeline generation and discusses the challenges associated with this integral part of the sales cycle. 

“Take it seriously, but not too seriously. There will be times where someone on the other end of the phone will really ruin your day. There's an emotional side to it where if you're human, you'll probably feel it, and actually, if you're not feeling it, you're probably not doing enough Pipeline Generation.” 

With a wide variety of experience in sales, Kirk shares his unique prospecting methodology and gives us some inside tips on how to nail your sales pitch and make an instant impact on potential clients. He explains how adopting a bullet-proof mindset, applying research, and taking a fact-based approach can arm you with all the information you require to start a conversation, combat objections, and ask questions that will lead to demos. 

Listen to our story session to discover more on how to apply Kirk’s strategies to real life prospecting scenarios, and learn preparation tactics, research tips, and best practices to prepare for future growth at your company. 

7. Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 Mastery Mission - Espen Sjaavik

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns, 20/20/20 Mastery Mission. 20 topics, 20 guests for 20 minutes. We're here to unlock tribal wisdom from tech sales legends to help you get one step closer to mastery. Today we are joined by Espen Sjaavik, Senior Regional Vice President at zero trust cybersecurity leader, Zscaler.

In episode 7, we ask Espen to share more with us on his chosen topic of Sales Champions and the power they have to shape and transform your career.

“If you have a Champion from the beginning, it's like you're driving somewhere, and you have a co-pilot guiding you to where you need to go. It's a top priority. When you create a visible opportunity, you need to make sure that you understand who the Champion should be and then have a plan to build them.”

Without a solid Sales Champion, understanding your client’s pain and accessing the key decision makers becomes much more difficult. Great salespeople know this and actively look for allies within their prospects whom they can nurture to become Champions. However, the question is, how do you find a Champion, and, more importantly, how do you convince them to support you? Offering you unique access to his extraordinary experience and knowledge on this topic, Espen discusses his own strategies for finding and building Champions from the moment a lead turns into a visible opportunity and gives you the tools you need to proactively drive your deals forwards, beat your competitors, and lay foundations for your future career trajectory. Giving an in-depth explanation on how to identify, test and leverage Champions that can guide you through the buying process, Espen shares his multi-dimensional tactics for entering the sales process at various levels and explains the different modes of communication required to access key decision makers within an organisation and build a solid base for your deal. Listen to our story session to discover more on how to apply Espen’s Champion-building strategies to real life scenarios and learn tips and best practices for identifying and developing Sales Champions that have the power and influence to drive change and help close deals.

6. Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 Mastery Mission - Bernd Maehrlein

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns, 20/20/20 Mastery Mission. 

20 topics, 20 guests for 20 minutes. 

We're here to unlock tribal wisdom from tech sales legends to help you get one step closer to mastery. 

Today we are joined by Bernd Mahrlein, Vice President Central & Eastern Europe at Lacework, the data-driven security platform for the cloud. 

In episode 6, Bernd shares his wisdom with us on what it really takes to be the ‘first man on the ground’ in a new territory and offers his strategic advice to individuals who are about to take this career defining step for the first time. 

“Things change constantly. You need to realize the things you can change and the things that you cannot. If you cannot change it, simply put a check mark behind it, leave it to the side and make sure it doesn't emotionally get a hold of you in any way and focus on the things you can influence.” 

As an experienced SaaS leader, Bernd knows how to build a unicorn from the ground up and carry the burden of success or failure on his shoulders. With in-depth insight into the reality of a ‘first man on the ground’ role, Bernd discusses how to lead with transparency and shares his tactics for validating new opportunities, managing extreme pressure, and adapting to unforeseen challenges and constantly evolving success measures.  

Listen to our story session to discover more on how to apply Bernd’s strategies to real life business scenarios, and learn preparation tactics, research tips, and practices to best prepare for a ‘first man on the ground’ role.   

 

 

5. Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 Mastery Mission - Bart van de Burgt

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns, 20/20/20 Mastery Mission. 

20 topics, 20 guests for 20 minutes. 

We're here to unlock tribal wisdom from tech sales legends to help you get one step closer to mastery. 

Today we are joined by Bart Van De Burgt, Regional Vice President, Benelux & Nordics at Zscaler, the leading cloud security company.  

In episode 5, Bart shares his wisdom on how to perfect the discovery stage of the sales process. We discuss best practices and practical tips to ensure the discovery process helps you and your prospective customer realise pain, opportunity and a reason to work together.  

“Transformational deals start with change, but change is hard - people don't want to change. If you want to force a change, you first need to help people understand why change needs to happen. What's wrong with the situation that you're in and why is it broken? What are the negative consequences that arise from where you are today?” 

Everyone in SaaS understands discovery to be the first part of their sales process but in terms of mindset, Bart explains how discovery should continue throughout the entire sales cycle. He provides three fundamental stages and methodologies to help you navigate your sale and align your business outcomes with your customer’s pain points to cultivate better sales conversations and improved win rates.  

“Deals are won and lost in Discovery.”  

Sharing personal experiences and tips on the art of great discovery, Bart teaches us how to slow down the sales cycle, trust in the process and “sell change” in order to build prospect interest, move opportunities forward and open doors to high-level business stakeholders. 

Listen to our story session to discover real life case studies and more on how to apply Bart’s methodologies to everyday business scenarios and learn preparation tactics, research tips, and best practices to prepare for your next discovery meeting. 

 

 

4. Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 Mastery Mission - Lauren Ball

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns, 20/20/20 Mastery Mission.   

  

20 topics, 20 guests for 20 minutes.   

  

We're here to unlock tribal wisdom from tech sales legends to help you get one step closer to mastery.   

  

Today we are joined by Lauren Ball, VP Commercial Sales at Auditboard, the leading cloud-based platform transforming audit, risk, and compliance management. 

  

In episode 4, we chat with Lauren about how to navigate your career as a female in the technology industry and the importance of finding your “Why?” in order to progress in both your personal and professional life.  

 

“You have to believe in yourself, you have to be authentic and know you because if you don't know you, you're not going to be able to be successful in whatever it is you're trying to accomplish and just like we learned with the playbook, you’ve got to ask, why?” 

 

Describing the playbook as a “guardrail” and “the biggest gift I’ve been given in my career”, Lauren explains how adopting playbook structures and processes transformed her career and enabled her to adapt to ever-evolving customer needs and succeed in a fast-developing technology landscape. She identifies some of the typical challenges that female workers run into in male-dominated industries and offers her advice on how to find your voice, overcome imposter syndrome and stay true to your authentic self, whilst adhering to playbook methodologies.  

Discussing her hands-on, team-oriented management style, Lauren provides guidance to the next generation on the importance of self-belief and how to accelerate your career in technology by understanding your “Why?” and setting attainable goals for the present that directly relate to your future aspirations.  

Sharing key insights and experiences from her own career, Lauren embodies transparency and openly shares her story to help others "find a way".  

 

Listen to our story session to discover more on Lauren’s extraordinary career trajectory, how to apply her strategies to real business scenarios and learn tactics, tips, and best practices for navigating your future career in technology.  

 

3. Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 Mastery Mission - Rob Watson

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns, 20/20/20 Mastery Mission. 

20 topics, 20 guests for 20 minutes. 

We're here to unlock tribal wisdom from tech sales legends to help you get one step closer to mastery. 

Today we are joined by Rob Watson, VP Sales at Sutter Hill’s next rocket ship, Observe Inc. 

In episode 3, Rob talks about how to set up a framework for win-win buyer and seller relationships and how to navigate the sales process and beyond with this at the forefront of your mind. 

“Technology companies sell by leading with the solutions, but truly transformational deals can only be secured when you find a win for your client and a win for your company.” 

Rob discusses the importance of the discovery process and the need for salespeople to adopt a win-win philosophy so that they can leapfrog beyond a traditional, resistant, or guarded interaction, break down trust barriers and truly connect as business partners. 

In order to move away from transactional selling and create a value-based relationship with customers that continues to evolve and grow, it is vital to find the intersection between the win for your company and the win for your client. It is not enough to simply sell your solution, you need to connect the dots and solve problems by offering measurable, tangible value that your customers can continue to invest in. If you want to make transformational deals happen, you need to listen and use empathy as your fuel for success. 

Sharing key insights and experiences from his own career, Rob explains the science behind the success of his win-win approach and how to use it to yield deeper client relationships, lead successful negotiations and achieve great results in sales. 

Listen to our story session to discover more on how to apply Rob’s strategies to real business scenarios and learn tactics, tips, and best practices for creating win-win situations in your business. 

 

2. Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 Mastery Mission - Keith Butler

Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 Mastery Mission - Keith Butler

 

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns, 20/20/20 Mastery Mission. 

 

20 topics, 20 guests for 20 minutes. 

 

We're here to unlock tribal wisdom from tech sales legends to help you get one step closer to mastery. 

Today we are joined by Keith Butler, Chief Revenue Officer at Sutter Hill Venture’s next rocket ship enterprise, Observe Inc.  

In episode 2, Keith shares his wisdom with us on the subject of Economic Buyers and why, despite the rise in product-led sales, it is still mission-critical to meet with the ultimate decision maker early on in your sales process. 

“Consider yourself a problem solver versus a flogger of technology. Your job is to help your customer and your champion win and solve problems. If you're going to solve a problem effectively, you’ve got to get to the person that owns the problem. So, if you want to be efficient with your time, if you want to understand where you can win and where you're going to lose, get to the economic buyer as fast as possible.” 

In recent years, there has been a radical shift in the way people use and buy software and there is no doubt that product-led growth is here to stay. However, when it comes to SaaS companies, Keith believes that ignoring more traditional acquisition tactics could lead to disaster. His experience has shown him that to differentiate and get deals over the line, the best sellers in the world are still the ones that connect real business pain to technology and focus on aligning with the Economic Buyer’s criteria through “hard dollar savings”. 

Helping you navigate this pivotal aspect of the sales cycle, Keith uncovers his “4 essential questions” to structure your Economic Buyer meeting around and reveals the strategies used by his sales teams to validate deals, improve efficiency, and increase close rates. 

Listen to our story session to discover more on how to apply Keith’s methodologies to real life scenarios and learn preparation tactics, research tips, and best practices to prepare for your next  Economic Buyer meeting. 

 

1. Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 - Part 2 - The Stories - John Kaplan

In this story session we cover: 

  

• An example of John Kaplan nailing a first customer meeting 

• An example of John Kaplan “crashing and burning” in a first customer meeting  
• Why preparation is key and how to use John’s Principles to execute first customer meetings effectively 

Today we are joined by John Kaplan, President, Co-founder, & Managing Partner at Force Management. Revealing "real world" techniques, tales and insights from his 20+year career in sales, John breaks down his fundamental sales strategies to help prepare you for your next sales call and ensure you stand out from the competition. 

 

“We closed with revised required capabilities because we wanted them to be more specific, which would be valuable for them, and valuable for us. The economic buyer stopped us in the middle and said, "Hey, one question." I said, "Sure, go ahead." They said, "Are you going to teach our people how to sell like this?" And I said, "Absolutely." And that was it.” 

 

Whether you're at the top of your game or just starting, listen to discover how to apply John’s 3 “Ps” mantra to real business scenarios and learn key steps for warming up cold sales conversations and turning prospects into active opportunities your business.   

 

New to the 202020 Mastery Mission – Check out this blog for more information – https://www.somuchsoap.com/the-202020-mastery-mission/

 

  

“Are you on the mission?” 

1. Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 Mastery Mission - John Kaplan

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns, 20/20/20 Mastery Mission.   

  

20 topics, 20 guests for 20 minutes.   

 

We're here to unlock tribal wisdom from tech sales legends to help you get one step closer to mastery.   

  

Today we are joined by John Kaplan, President, Co-founder, & Managing Partner at Force Management. John has over 20 years of executive experience in sales, leadership, and execution, specializing in corporate sales strategy and performance management. Before co-founding Force, he was SVP of International Sales Operations for PTC, a leading software developer for content, product life cycle management. 

In episode 1, John runs through best practices for conducting effective first meetings in today’s vastly altered SaaS landscape. From warming up cold calls and overcoming “Seller Deficit Disorder” to accessing pain and using his highly effective “Three P’s” mantra to prepare for every interaction, John Kaplan covers it all. 

“When I reach out to them, they're going to go, “Why is this person calling me?” Purpose. Second, “What do they want from me?” Process. Third is, “What's in it for me? What's the benefit? What's the payoff?” I find that the people that are prepared minimally with just that, have a much better way to stand in the moment of truth and consider what the other person's reaction's going to be.” 

Preparing for a deal is critical but preparing others for your sales call can also have equal impacts on your success. Highlighting some of the most common mistakes he sees with salespeople and the discovery process, John educates us on how not to approach initial conversations and offers our listeners advice on how to use great discovery questions during execution to understand positive business outcomes, access real pain and then articulate what you’ve learned back to the customer to demonstrate the value and differentiation of your solution. 

“The more I tell them they have a problem, the more they're going to resist me, but the more I ask them discovery questions that make them stand in their moment of pain, they're going to convince themselves they have a problem.” 

Whether you're at the top of your game or just starting, we break down the best tips to prepare and practice for your next sales call. John Kaplan shares the preparation tactics he uses and teaches to accomplish critical meeting goals and achieve success in his deals.  

 

Listen to our story session to discover more advice from John on the topic of first meetings and first impressions as he delves deeper into his personal experiences with cold calling during his early days of selling and “real world" examples and insights from his 20+ year career in SaaS. 

Hunters + Unicorns: The 33 CxOs - Andy Byron #017

“I go to work every day with the purpose of having a positive impact on people's lives and careers. I want to look back after Lacework and say I had a positive impact on the employees at the company, I had a positive impact on the outcomes of our customers and what they wanted and we had a positive impact in the market, and I could have a positive impact in creating a legacy of the best cloud security company in the world - that's what we're trying to build here.”  - Andy Byron

Hunters and Unicorns shares the playbooks from leaders, founders, executives and investors from high growth technology companies. In this special edition series The 33 CXOs we investigate the greatest success story in the history of software sales. Discover how thirty-three sales execs from one organisation, BladeLogic, became CXOs in the world’s 100 fastest growing technology companies. We uncover the stories and playbooks of the most prolific sales leaders in the industry. Episode 17 features Andy Byron, President at Lacework. Byron originally had his sights set on a career as a professional baseballer before he entered into SaaS sales. His competitive nature and innate drive to “aim for the top and execute against a plan” enabled him to excel in the sporting world, but his ability to recognise his own strengths and weaknesses led him to follow a different path and adapt his skills to software sales. Since making the transition to tech in 2004, Andy has developed a reputation as an outstanding leader with a track record of go-to-market success with innovative, fast growth start-up companies, building and managing successful sales teams for organizations including VeriCenter, BladeLogic, BMC Software, Aveksa, Fuse, Cybereason and CRV. He is now leading the sales and marketing teams for Lacework, driving their mission to be the global standard in cloud security with a personal objective to enable talent and create a legacy for himself. “Early on in my career it was about making money, then it became about, how can I show that I can lead people? At this point in my career it's about, how can I create a legacy where when I look back, a lot of people can say, "Hey, Byron was a fair leader, maybe not the easiest person to work for, but he was fair, and he enabled me to do things that I never thought I could do in my career." Accustomed to instant success in his sporting career, it took Andy a while to master the subtleties of selling technology and adapt to a new level of endurance and persistence in the SaaS arena. When he joined BladeLogic, he was surrounded by people that “pushed each other every day to be the best that they could be” and with John McMahon as his mentor, Andy became a student of the game, relentlessly focussed on four key areas that were to become the pillars of his playbook - recruiting and retainment, training and enablement, pipeline and territory management and accurate forecasting. The implementation of these playbook elements along with his unique leadership style centred around purposeful interaction and an open mindset propelled Andy’s career forward and paved the way for his remarkable success in this industry. “I have to make sure that everything aligns to one strategy and one goal. I also make sure all those things align to product and engineering and what our goals are financially. It's more than just making sure we hit the number every quarter, it's making sure we hit the number, but all the other pieces are aligned to the company hitting the number as well.” In this vodcast you will discover: The parallels between sports and sales – how Andy’s professional baseball career laid the foundations for his sales career. The importance of knowledge and an open mindset - why Andy chose to work for people over companies in the early days of his career. Change Management – what it is and how it is used to transform companies. The evolvement of Andy’s playbook – how strategy and experience has enabled Andy to keep breaking the glass ceiling. Andy Byron understands exactly how to build a first-class sales and marketing team. We discuss his extraordinary career journey from Individual Contributor to President and how his focus has changed over the years. Offering advice for next generation sales leaders, we delve into playbooks, legendary leadership, and ask Andy what key ingredients he thinks are needed for a company to reach unicorn status. This wide-ranging discussion is essential listening for those with an interest in sales strategy, as well as anyone with a passion for the technology space.