Hunters and Unicorns huntersandunicorns

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?” 

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 this interview, 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. 

“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

You 100% join a leader; you join a person. If you join an average company with an amazing leader, you're going to have a great experience. If you join a great company with a bad leader, that's not going to work. Often, younger generations think in terms of market share and market potential which are still very important factors, but they forget the most basic things - who is the person on the other side?”  - Cedric Pech  


 


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 23 features Cedric Pech, CRO of MongoDB. With over 20 years of sales leadership experience, Cedric has a track record of building high-performance sales organizations that deliver strong and consistent results. Prior to MongoDB, he led worldwide sales at Fuze, an enterprise global cloud communications and collaboration software platform. He has also held senior sales leadership roles for four different software companies, including three publicly traded companies - BladeLogic, BMC, and BazaarVoice. 


 


Cedric first joined MongoDB in 2017 to lead Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) sales and was promoted to CRO in 2019. Since then, he has continued to drive exceptional growth for the company, expanding into new markets, implementing new processes, and scaling formidable sales teams that have generated billions of dollars in revenue.  


 


“There is no greatness without pain but there is fairness and attention to the people – I don’t treat them like cash machines who are just there to produce software. I'm not in the software business, I'm 100% in the people business. My job is to help people fulfil their dreams.” 


 


Cedric is committed to the development of his people and dedicated to creating a nurturing environment for employees so that they can develop their skillset and thrive both as part of the teams at MongoDB and throughout their careers. His aim is to build confidence in a new generation of sales leaders by offering well-defined paths for career growth, open feedback and a culture of learning and development. In terms of how to succeed in building a great sales organization in the software business, Cedric believes in the importance of being consistent, disciplined, following the sales process, and, above all, creating a sense of purpose.  


 


“Keep reminding people why we are building the ship in the first place - keep reminding them that one day we are going to be sailing on the ocean and it's going to be fun. Remind them of the vision that you embarked on together and reinforce it - a sense of mission in the team is really, really important.” 


 


In this vodcast you will discover: 


·         An insight into the continuing growth and exciting future for MongoDB.  


·         What motivates Cedric to succeed and how Carlo Carpenelli shaped him as a leader.  


·         How to scale your career in SAAS and the importance of great leadership, especially in the early days.  


·         How use the playbook as a tool to motivate high performing teams and build a healthy culture of development.  


·         How to build solid foundations for a successful career in SAAS.  


 


 


Cedric Pech knows how to build a legendary sales organization. His incredible success in this industry is a testament to his values and unique approach to developing people. To him, MongoDB is more than just a

“I want to codify every element of selling into a formula that is so flawless that any intelligent, coachable individual regardless of their experience can thrive. I want to dispel this art into such a science that I can create an elite sales force without having to hire lions - just brilliant, determined people that can learn.”  - Luke Rogers


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 1 features Luke Rogers, VP of Sales at Instabase. Luke founded his first company at the age of 15. Selling computers online, Luke grew the business from zero to a quarter of a million turnover annually before he had even finished high school and experienced such explosive growth that he was able to leave home and fund his own university education. His degree in artificial intelligence and cybernetics combined with over a decade of enterprise sales experience has equipped Luke with a rich technical and business skill set. He believes that experience is the least important quality when building an elite go to market team and has dedicated his career to teaching sales as a science and diversifying the tech landscape through empowering and recruiting new voices into sales. Prior to joining Instabase, Luke was part of the team that helped take AppDynamics from $100M to a $3.7bn sale to Cisco in just four years. His current role at Instabase not only unlocks the next phase of growth for Luke, but also provides an opportunity for him to pay it forward and help change the lives of his teams and customers. “If you make it simple and merit based then people will thrive and if you give them the right training and the right mentoring, people can achieve things that they didn't think were possible. That's what happened to me.” After university, Luke worked for two of the largest tech companies on the planet, Cisco and IBM, but his hunger for growth, continuous learning, and making an impact led him to seek new opportunities in an environment that would challenge him to do better every day. He knew what he was looking for and when he met Jeremy Duggan, VP of Silicon Valley’s newest “unicorn”, AppDynamics, he knew had found it. Although Luke had never sold software before, his confidence, determination and “do whatever it takes” mentality shone through and secured him a role that would transform his career. With an industry veteran as his mentor and in an environment where “everyone was running as fast as they possibly could”, Luke “left his bags at the door” and became a disciple of Jeremy’s playbook, following the process exactly, learning it and living it better than anyone else. He received the training and enablement he needed to develop and become a master of his craft and learnt lessons in entrepreneurship that changed his life. Luke developed into the inspirational leader he is today, committed to supporting and progressing his teams whilst maintaining and developing a culture of respect, excellence, and diversity. “If we keep fishing in the same ponds, we're going to keep hiring the same people and end up with the same types of teams, and the same types of leaders, but it's new leaders that come from those different backgrounds that are diverse - they're the ones that are going to change things because they'll hire different people and then everything will change. That's what we need to do and that is important to me.” In this vodcast you will discover: The framework that enabled Luke to transition from having zero software sales experience to leading and managing teams an

“You have to know who you are as a person and you have to know what your strengths and weaknesses are. When you're in a leadership position you cannot take on the personality of someone else because people see through that. Learn how to be yourself. Be curious, be open to learning from others and have everyone else's interest in mind. If you take care of other people, they'll take care of you.”  - Paul McGrath


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 16 features Paul McGrath, Vice President Central at Snowflake. Paul has over 20 years of experience in managing and leading sales teams in the software industry, but his professional career actually started in the U.S. Army. After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, McGrath transitioned into a sales role at Eastman Kodak Company and was recruited by PTC where he mastered the art of aggressive selling and laid the foundations for a truly remarkable career. Rising through the ranks at an impressive pace, Paul has since worked for tech heavyweights including BladeLogic, BMC, Bazaarvoice, AppDynamics and is currently in command of the record shattering teams at Snowflake, making history on the New York Stock Exchange as the largest software company to IPO in the U.S., ever. “When you're an individual contributor in the software sales game you just worry about yourself. When you become a leader, you've got to put yourself in the back seat. You've got a responsibility to your team and I was well aware of that because of my experience in the military as a leader and then at PTC.” In 2004 Paul joined BladeLogic as a Regional Director and hit the ground running. He had resilience, experience and the fundamental skills required to succeed at selling unique technology at a rapidly developing software company. Having focused on numbers and productivity at any expense at PTC, Paul already had a results-driven mindset but with John McMahon at the helm of BladeLogic, investing in training and placing a premium on good leadership, Paul discovered a new approach. McMahon was establishing a new culture centred around the development of people - leaders taking care of their people, making them better and holding them accountable. Surrounded A payers and “loving the hell out of it” Paul built enduring relationships, learnt the importance of working in partnership with his team and developed into a talented, humble leader. “If you're a hiring manager and you look for people that bring something to the table that you don't have, your life becomes so much easier. The biggest mistake that young leaders make is that they lack humility. If they look at hiring someone better than them, they might be worried that this person might outshine them, but I think nothing could be further from the truth.” In this vodcast you will discover: The pillars of Paul’s playbook and his journey to becoming a leader How to identify, recruit and enable good talent The importance of humility and learning from others What attracted Paul to Snowflake and why this is a truly remarkable company to work for Paul McGrath knows what it takes to launch and lead sales organizations. He has a unique eye for talent and is passionate about building innovative, diverse teams with big ambitions. We discuss his upward trajectory from military roots to record breaking IPOs and find out what advice he would give to the next generation of leaders looking to create their own network and ecosystem of accomplishment