Celeste Berke

Celeste Berke

Welcome to "The Sales Edge," the podcast exclusively designed for B2B sales professionals seeking to excel in the rapidly evolving business landscape. Join us as we delve into engaging interviews with industry experts, thought leaders, and seasoned professionals who possess invaluable insights into the world of B2B sales. In each episode, we explore the dynamic nature of B2B sales and uncover the latest trends, strategies, and transformations that are reshaping the industry. "The Sales Edge" provides a platform for our guests to share their wealth of experience, highlighting how sales methodologies have evolved and what's new in the B2B sales arena. Through thought-provoking conversations, we explore the groundbreaking techniques and innovative approaches that successful B2B salespeople employ to navigate the ever-changing market. Our guests offer practical advice and tangible solutions to help you enhance your sales performance and gain a competitive advantage in the B2B sector. From leveraging cutting-edge technologies and analytics to adapting to the digital age, we examine how sales professionals are capitalizing on emerging tools, training, and platforms. We delve into the psychology behind B2B buyer behavior, dissect the power of personal branding and new-age prospecting, and explore the strategies that drive meaningful and profitable connections with clients. "The Sales Edge" transcends theory and provides real-world insights, as our guests share their triumphs, failures, and invaluable lessons learned. We explore how B2B sales teams are harnessing problem-centric selling, using data-driven decision-making, capitalizing on social media and digital channels to connect with prospects, and successfully navigating the nuances of remote selling in today's competitive marketplace. Join us on "The Sales Edge" as we uncover the secrets to B2B sales success in a rapidly changing business landscape. Whether you're a seasoned sales professional seeking inspiration, a veteran sales leader or new to sales leadership strategies, or an aspiring salesperson entering the dynamic world of B2B sales, this podcast is your go-to resource for valuable insights and practical guidance. Tune in, take notes, and gain the winning edge necessary to thrive in the fast-paced and ever-evolving world of B2B sales.

  1. 11/22/2024

    Ep: 26 - The Secret to B2B Success- Don’t Fall for This Sales Trap!

    In this episode of The Sales Edge Podcast, host Celeste dives deep into the challenges and misconceptions in B2B sales with special guest Mike Mulfelder, a seasoned fractional head of sales and Gap Selling advocate with over 35 years of experience. If you’ve been stuck in the same sales cycle or questioning why your pipeline forecasts are off, this episode will hit home. What You’ll Learn: Business Acumen Blind Spots: Why understanding how your customer makes money is the ultimate sales advantage and the key to building trust. Pipeline Purge & Rebuild: How Mike has taken underqualified pipelines, reduced them by up to 90%, and rebuilt them into revenue-driving machines. Stop the BANT Obsession: Why traditional qualification methods like BANT don’t work and how to shift your focus to uncovering actionable problems. Tech Won’t Save You: The pitfalls of relying on AI and technology to mask broken processes, and why fixing the fundamentals is essential for scaling. The Competitive Replacement Myth: Why trying to replace a competitor is often a trap that distracts teams from truly winnable deals. Key Moments: [00:05:00] Business Acumen 101: Mike shares the importance of understanding your buyer’s financial ecosystem and how it influences purchasing decisions. [00:10:00] The Catalyst Question: Why identifying the catalyst for change is more critical than tracking surface-level pipeline metrics. [00:19:00] Competitive Replacement Realities: The hard truths about why most competitive replacements fail and how to approach these deals more strategically. [00:29:00] Call Coaching & Accountability: How a single bad sales call can derail progress—and why leadership must prioritize coaching and honest accountability. Takeaways for Sales Leaders: Don’t confuse pipeline volume with qualified opportunities. Technology isn’t a fix-all; it amplifies your processes—good or bad. Focus on foundational strategies that align with your growth objectives, rather than flashy shortcuts that won’t move the needle. Mike’s Sales Edge: Mike’s unyielding honesty and commitment to empowering others set him apart. He shares why being straightforward, even when it’s uncomfortable, is the true mark of a sales leader who wants their team to succeed. PS: Check out Mike’s recent article on the “Magic Bean” myth in sales to dive deeper into how tech obsession is steering teams off course. This episode will challenge the way you think about sales strategy and leave you asking the tough questions about your own processes. Don’t miss it!

    43 min

  2. 09/07/2024

    Ep 25: From Office Hopping to LinkedIn Stalking: How the Game Has Changed for Hospitality Sales with Caleb Rice

    [00:00:00] Celeste Berke Knisely:Hello, hello. It's Celeste Berke Knisely on the Sales Edge Podcast. I am joined by Caleb Rice. We had an awesome opportunity to meet in person. We're both sitting here in Colorado, but a couple of weeks ago we met in person in San Diego and he was just such a breath of fresh air and hilarious to boot one some dollars as being like one of the most engaged people in the class and I thought he'd be a great person to have a little chat with. What's changed in the industry as it relates to our buyers and sellers. Caleb, tell us a little bit about your background. Caleb Rice:Thank you so much for doing this and having me on. But also first off, thank you so much for coming out to RBI and helping our team with our training. It was a very informative and very helpful. I know for myself, but also for the rest of the team every day. We have our team chats and everyone's bringing something else up about the training [00:01:00] that they learn and what they're using to source and prospect and all the fun things. So thank, thank you for, for doing that. So yes, Caleb Rice I've been in the industry for a little over 16 years now from Oklahoma, moved out to Colorado for my first job right out of college. I started at the Broadmoor where I started in food and beverage, worked my way up into sales. And most recently I left the Broadmoor at the end of January of this year as director of national sales. The insurance and incentive markets and then joined the Rancho Bernardo in team in San Diego, working fully remote, staying here in Colorado as director of national accounts for the Mid Atlantic, Northeast and the international markets. Celeste Berke Knisely:And what we're talking about here is, how can you be in hospitality and selling a luxury property and you're not there at the [00:02:00] property? You are remote. That has been a huge change in the industry. I've been in the industry since. I won't even date myself, but let's just say 20 years, we would never allow a salesperson to work remote. And nowadays you're actually seeing this happen. Tell us what that switch from on property to remote has been like for you. Caleb Rice:Yeah, no, you know, it, it was interesting because in my mind previously being in an office setting. For a good 10 years every day of my life, literally 7 to 10 minutes south of my house. You're just in that bubble of, oh, this is, this is what's happening. This is how it is. This is what's going on. Everybody else is doing it. Nobody else is working remote. And then as I travel and go to conferences, you know, just talking to industry. friends and [00:03:00] industry colleagues, let alone planners. And I'm just finding this overwhelming growth of, Oh, I work from home. Oh, I've worked from home for years. So then I'm thinking, am I the only one that's not working from home? It's just weird, you know, and interestingly enough, once the pandemic came and went, now it's a thing of the past, people are still working from home. A lot of, a lot of trends and things that you see is like, Oh, everybody's coming back to the office. Are they really, because I'm working on some sales calls next week for New York and a whole company is fully remote and I'm like, okay, so then what, it's this New York address. Oh, we still have the building, but nobody's there. So it's just this different perception of what used to be compared to the reality of what is now. I used to think like, Oh no, home is not my productive place. Work is my productive place. Well, now with the switch, I find that I [00:04:00] get more done here at home because it's quiet. It's me and the dogs. Nobody's coming in my office 15 times within an hour. Like I can actually focus on what I'm supposed to be doing. So it is great, but it's, it's all a mindset. And it's also fun to work fun clothes and shorts and, you know, dress Celeste Berke Knisely:Yeah, nobody knows, but I'm wearing like green, green shorts on her. I don't even match, but nobody knows. They can't see it. In the wintertime, I'm in sweat pants or maybe PJs, but what's interesting is kind of the shift and we're seeing it on the buyer side as well as the seller side where hospitality companies have to, they have to, let me stress that, adapt. I like to say adapt or die, but it's true. Our old school laurels of how we've always done stuff like sales blitzes, riding the elevator, going to visit people, like. Times have changed. And when I worked with your team, I really opened up their eyes to this like digital shift where a [00:05:00] lot of sales and a lot of sales conversations happen on a digital channel, whether that's LinkedIn, whether that's the Facebook or instant message texting. I mean, I, I came from the time and you did too, especially at like luxury, you do like YouTube. That's taboo to text somebody. And now we are texting with buyers colleagues, whomever. All the time. So this shift, let's say in meeting our buyers where they are, you mentioned before we hit record, like part of the problem with the industry is we need more business. We need more visibility. We need more people to know who we are, but our buyers are no longer in the traditional places where they used to be. So I can't visit them with ease. How are you managing that transition from. not being able to go to a company and have a planned visit, but now having to have these conversations online and [00:06:00] still drive the outcomes. How have you managed that knowing that you were in the thick of like, we only meet in person before to now we'll meet over teams or zoom wherever you are. Yeah. Hmm. Caleb Rice:You know, and, and I think you, you made a good point just then you have to meet people where they're at. And that's on a whole multiple levels, whether it be physically, whether it be, hey, I am stressed to the hilt and I cannot meet with you until X day. Okay, that's something as well. So. seeing a need, feeling a need, hearing a need, but then also coming at it with a solution as well. And not just one, but kind of backup solutions. Okay. If this one doesn't work, what are we going to backfill it with? What, whether that's finding your clients, Hey, we're both going to the same conference. I noticed on your professional Facebook LinkedIn wall that you're going to be attending [00:07:00] XYZ conference. I myself will be attending XYZ conference. I would love to buy you a coffee. Let me know what your availability is. Here's my cell phone number, you know, and then pop it into a text message, which again is very odd to be texting a client unless a client is a friend. It just seems weird. Like we need to be on the phone. We need to be emailing. What's this texting? What are we kids? But no, it's just meeting the client where they are. You find that, Hey. I work fully remote. Okay. Well, what city are you in? I'm in Philadelphia. Perfect. Well, this particular trip, I'm going somewhere other than Philadelphia, but I've now made a note in my system and changed your address that says Philadelphia. So whenever I pull in a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania list, next time I find myself that direction, it'll populate and I can go see that client where she's at. Celeste Berke Knisely:Yeah, and that's like, [00:08:00] that's such a good nuance, right? For salespeople. We can assume somebody is tied to their company, wherever their company headquarters is. That's just the building that has the sign on it. I think that's a great tip for sellers is really finding out from your buyers, especially if you're, Looking at bigger ticket items like a luxury experience, right? A conference, a convention, an annual meeting, and you want to meet somebody in person because it is a big deal to them to plan an event. They're putting their personal brand on the line. They want to ensure that you can take care of them, that it. comes out successful, that you have experience in this and often those face to face, if you don't know where that person resides, you can't coincide it. And I think a lot of people, salespeople sleep on that. They have no clue where buyers are these days and you can't take it for base value that where their company is, they're located there anymore. Caleb Rice:Well, you know, and I think it's human nature that we thrive [00:09:00] on interpersonal like connections, right? And not having those face to face connections. Kind of steers us in a completely different direction. And so I also find on the same hand that a lot of planners, because they have a particular job that they are trying to successfully do, a lot of them are very analytical in the way that they do and think and everything. And some people just might not want to talk face to face or see you or have you come see them. They only want to talk over email. They only want to talk over a phone. And then they come, they have an amazing, successful program and you either never hear from them again because they've moved on or you revoke them for a future program, but you also have to somewhat read in between those digital lines of finding that comfort zone with those planners because you can be hot to try and doing what you're supposed to [00:10:00] be doing and your leadership's telling you to get out there. But you also have to be the realist of what's actually happening in your Celeste Berke Knisely:Yes, and you touched on a good point there. We often talk from a gap selling lens about like sales is really helping. It's helping someone achieve, you know, where they are right now and their desired outcome. Should they change? Should they invest with you? Like why change going through this series of like a change management process? And you hit the nail on the head of if you don't understand your buyer and especially in hospitality, which is like. A deluge of RFPs that come your way. And it's, it can be transactional, whereas like, okay, I want to respond because we

    30 min

  3. 07/22/2024

    Ep 22: React Less, Predict More: The New Era of Sales Enablement

    Welcome to another episode of The Sales Edge podcast, where our host, Celeste Berke, dives deep into a thought-provoking discussion with the insightful Hannah Sabetti. In this engaging episode, Hannah shares her expertise in sales enablement and breaks down the myths surrounding the industry. From her years of experience in the SaaS, healthcare, and financial space, she unveils the holistic approach she takes to enablement, offering valuable insights into supporting sales and customer success teams. With a keen focus on empathy and understanding the human side of sales, Hannah provides a unique perspective on how to navigate the challenges of today's sales landscape. So, sit back and prepare to gain valuable knowledge and inspiration from this enlightening conversation on The Sales Edge. Jump to a specific time stamp here! 00:00 Identifying gaps and enabling sales team success. 06:08 Identify gaps, investigate source, and prioritize impact. 06:58 Sellers understanding buyers' needs and gaps. 12:32 Empathetic approach to addressing feedback and struggles. 15:36 New enablement staff need time to ramp. 19:30 Different sales styles exist to meet needs. 23:20 Be succinct, try different ways, people matter.

    27 min

  4. 06/13/2024

    Ep. 21: Hold My Pipeline: Sales Enablement Buy-in Secrets Exposed

    Celeste Berke [00:00:00]: Hello. Hello. Welcome to the Sales Edge Podcast. We are here with Candace who's in sales enablement. I'm really excited. I typically talk with either leaders or ICs. So this is my first foray into sales enablement, which has become a very hot topic on LinkedIn. Let's face it. Celeste Berke [00:00:17]: But what struck me about Candace and why I reached out is she is active on the LinkedIn platform talking about the misses in enablement, where we need to go as a collective sales community, and so we are going to dive in today. Candace, tell us a little bit about yourself and your role. Candace [00:00:40]: Yeah. So, I mean, first about me and, well, my wife and mom and lifelong enabler. And right now, where I'm focused the most is actually sales leadership enablement. So took the opportunity to work with a really great company who had awesome foresight into seeing some glaring challenges that we definitely need to solve. Celeste Berke [00:01:02]: Love that. Candace [00:01:03]: So Set the leadership level. Celeste Berke [00:01:04]: Granicus. Right? I love that nuance there. So, hopefully, the listeners and those who watch us on video from our homes will pick up on that nuance that Candace said. So sales leadership enablement. Candace, tell us about that shift and what you're seeing with most companies, where they're focusing, and where that tiny shift has come in for you. Candace [00:01:29]: Yeah. I think, historically, enablement focuses on the sales process, the sale, right, sales methodology, all things I see. Right? Which is which is great. It's important to support. But I think a key element that continually gets left out of that is how are we equipping sales leaders? And a a big portion to that and something I had shared on another podcast conversation was there's kind of a historical precedence of, you know, companies promoting top performers, right, with the idea that it's gonna translate immediately to a successful revenue or sales leader. And then we start to have challenges, and it's always why. And I think a big part of answering the why is looking at, well, how are we enabling our our leaders to lead, you know, especially our sales leaders? If we look at reasons why people leave companies, we know the data points. There's a lot of times they leave poor poor leaders. Candace [00:02:36]: And so I think for companies, there's a responsibility going forward to develop mature leaders, but just a responsibility to equip your leaders. You're investing in people and leadership. And to make that full investment, you need to make sure that they're equipped and enabled. Celeste Berke [00:02:55]: So something you said, really, it's something that our team, the ASG Gap Selling team has been perplexed about. We recently went up for a huge deal and it became glaring during the sales process that there was well, if we teach the ICs how to do that, everything is magically going to change. The pipeline will get better. Their win rate will improve. In our team, we're really focused on, it doesn't matter who comes in to train your sales team at this point. That's like the minutia. What we are seeing is a complete lack of ownership from the leadership level, enablement, sales leadership to say half of the onus is on us. So we can train a team to a methodology, to a process, but if we don't have any reinforcement and the sales leadership isn't willing to do that, like, heavy lifting every day of let me look at your opportunities, are we having pipeline meeting, 1 on 1 coaching to the skills level? Let me give you some areas of development, now practice, drills, and they turn their nose up late, and we don't wanna do that. Celeste Berke [00:04:03]: Nothing is going to stick. So how are you ensuring that you are equipping leaders to understand, like, how important it is to have their buy in? Candace [00:04:19]: It has to be we have to sell things internally just as much as we do externally. Right? And so the things that we can't forget, I think we often do, is that we think, oh, this is gonna be great. It's gonna be a behavior change. But if we're not demonstrating or providing the ROI versus, you know, cost of inaction or where the gap is to our sales, they're not bought in. They need to be sold to. They need to know what's in it for them. They need to know what they need to give up or what muscle to flex. Now to the ownership piece, this is really important. Candace [00:04:56]: There's this kind of funny back and forth of, like, who's who's coaching? Who's gonna own this? And everyone's passing the ball on the field, but nobody wants to kind of be the quarterback. Some of it's symptomatic of some external fear of not wanting to make a a bad decision, but some of it is about enablement and equipping. Some leaders have to start with some things like an operating rhythm. Like, how are you operating? You got a lot of meetings. But your time has to be spent with your team. So what's your operating rhythm between the meetings that you have and then setting up reoccurring time with your team and then team calls so that you're also even thematically, right, revisiting sales skills because coaching is a collaborative accountability. It's shared. So, you know, hate to spoil this for you. Candace [00:05:45]: It's not enablement's responsibility and sales agent's responsibility. As both. You know? And it's working together on that. We're gonna have the ownership, and we're gonna have an operating rhythm to reinforce the things that we see and partner on it rather than try to pull in each direction. That's it's something that I see over and over again. Right? It's this frenemy kind of behavior between enablement and sales. Right? And you even see some of the conversations, like, on LinkedIn that are a little bit wild in terms of either they didn't have an effective enabler or, you know, they had a sales leader who either was immature or didn't have scales and couldn't ask just didn't have the humility to ask. Celeste Berke [00:06:36]: The revenue speed model that talks about the importance of this shared responsibility across the revenue organization from it's not just skills development, that common DNA, then regardless of methodology, it has to be carried up through operation or, through the opportunity management and then through the forecast management layer. And that, yes, everybody operating from the same playbook, so to speak, so that one team isn't running off in one direction and another in another direction, but I think there is this, like, finger pointing, and I believe some of our language is like, it's not your fault. And even I think people are wondering, well, what isn't sales enablement? Where's the crossover between the IC and leadership? And if it doesn't work, is this sales enablement's fault? And I love how you said it. It's almost like a triangle, like a 3 legged stool of it's really everybody working together to figure this out, and that may look different from organization to organization based on the strength of the leaders that are in place. Candace [00:07:40]: Yeah. And how many leaders you have. Right? Maybe you have couple or maybe you have a larger leadership team. And with your leaders, you're gonna have them at different places in their leadership journey. Right? First time leaders have to get some basic frameworks in place. Right? Starting with one thing that I I think you have to start with is if you were going to step into a role where you're leading other people, you have to unpack your bias, and you have to go through that first, and you have to understand yourself and what your lens is. And listen. The first argument can't be, well, I'm not. Candace [00:08:16]: It doesn't always look like that. You know what's another fun word for bias? It's called preference. Right? And understanding how you operate and your lens because when you have a team of people, they've all come in with a different worldview, lived experience, and belief system than you. And so what you have to do when you look at that is meet them where they are, and you cannot do that. You cannot get to somebody else until you get over yourself and understand yourself first to meet somebody where they are. And so I think that's your first responsibility as a sales leader is, okay, this is the first thing I've gotta go through is at least some unconscious bias training. I've got to dig in with somebody about, you know, when do I get frustrated? When do I show up frustrated? What are gonna be some things that I'm going to react to versus respond, and how do I start to to work through that in helping, you know, assess other people's performance? Am I clear about how people are measured? Right, so that I'm not preferring certain people to other people? Right? Am I clear on how my sellers are going to be measured in the expectations, and then am I clear about how I'm going to be measured? What are they looking at qualitatively? What are they looking at quantitatively with, you know, attainment? So those are some of the first things you've got to step into as a leader and say, okay. These are the things I need to uncheck and be prepared with first, and then, you know, go from go from there. Candace [00:09:55]: Enablement from that leader perspective then is helping you get those tools in place, getting you a toolkit so you can start to step into that leadership role instead of going into it, trying to figure it out, and trying to do it the way you think you led or you performed as a seller. Celeste Berke [00:10:18]: Yeah. And so something I found interesting, I had large organization the other day who's contemplating a sales methodology and and, you know, which way do we go, a lot of misses, Horrible quota attainment. Right? Revenue declines. The pipeline's not there. Things have been in the pipeline for a couple of years years. Seller is not understanding the busi

    30 min

  5. 02/28/2024

    Ep20: Check-Out to Check-In: The Hotelier's Transition into Tech Sales, Parenthood, and Beyond with Jennifer Suski of HotelKey

    Celeste Berke [00:00:00]: Hello. Hello. It's Celeste Berke Knisely on the Sales Edge podcast. I'm joined today by Jen. And fun fact, Friday, we both come up through hospitality and hotels, and she works a lot from home in her bed. We decided we're both going to do this podcast from our beds today Casual Friday. Jen Suski [00:00:21]: And be comfortable. Maybe we have Some people wear Hawaiian. Celeste Berke [00:00:24]: Maybe we have PJ bottoms on. I don't know. We'll see. Jen, tell us Jen Suski [00:00:29]: a little bit about yourself. My name's Jen. I am director of business development for Hotel Key, which is a property management system. I come from Hilton Hotels. I have a long career in hospitality. I'm a mom of 2 amazing boys via embryo donation, and I am excited to talk to you. Celeste Berke [00:00:49]: Same. And we were chatting off air about everybody tells you as a female, don't get pregnant. From age 12 until age 18, it is basically you do not get pregnant. You do everything you can to not get pregnant. And we were chatting around how difficult it is to actually get pregnant as you let Jen Suski [00:01:11]: a boy sneeze in your direction. You'll ruin your life. As You're gonna get knocked up. Celeste Berke [00:01:16]: As you age. Yes. And so you are a fierce advocate, Kip, for talking about pregnancy. Getting pregnant is difficult. The amount of money that it costs in this country to go through the process, the emotional toll it takes on the relationship, on your work. So if if somebody wants to talk with you offline or your DMs open to chatting about those struggles, Jen Suski [00:01:42]: wide open. Wide open. It is it's a taboo con it's a taboo subject of the whole realm of infertility, and so many women are just alone. And there's not a lot of embryo donation, surrogacy, adoption. There's so much out there that needs to be talked about. And I am an open body. Celeste Berke [00:02:12]: The working female balancing that, it sounds like your journey was almost 6 years with this, of balancing that emotional load as well as working full time. Yeah. Probably one of the Jen Suski [00:02:27]: biggest reasons I left working on property for hotels is because I knew I was about to undergo hormone treatment, and I didn't know what how my body was gonna react to that. I needed more flexibility to work from home, and that's what I wanted. And to get that, I needed to leave hotels, and that was very hard. But I jumped into the tech space to be able to sell the hotels, and it was honestly the best decision I ever made. Celeste Berke [00:02:49]: So the hospitality tech space is freaking booming. And I talk with a lot of people who are in hospitality tech who are sellers who don't understand this interesting world of hotels, what RevPAR is, any of that stuff that is the driver of hotels. What I am seeing is a lack of understanding about why technology and keeping up with the advances in technology is so important for the hospitality industry. Obviously, every industry, but hospitality, they often are laggards. They lag behind slow adopters, last to adopt. What have you witnessed from being in this space and leading a team as it relates to old way versus new way? Yeah. Yeah. That's absolutely correct, but it goes both ways. Celeste Berke [00:03:38]: So on the tech side, I have done a lot Jen Suski [00:03:41]: of education and training about what, like, what's a star report? What is a red book? You know what Celeste Berke [00:03:47]: I mean? Like I know. I know. Jen Suski [00:03:50]: It's like, what does the front desk have to do during their shift? Because there's this whole thing of, like, I don't understand why can't the front desk just enter a phone number for the text messaging platform. Well, they got a lot going on. They are the face of that hotel, and they don't need 1 more thing to do, and this is why. And then when you're talking to the hotel, yeah, implementing any kind of change in hotel is is very difficult because, you know, they do have so much going on. So it's kind of that if it's not broke, don't fix it. So they kinda have that blind eye to all of this new tech because they're like, it's a nice to have, not Yeah. A must have. Right? So kind of showing them that it's it's what the guests wants when you, like, you have to remind them when they go to check beast. Jen Suski [00:04:42]: Be our guest. Be our guest. It's not happening. Like, let let the technology help you keep your scores up, help, you know, improve your processes, especially with how the change that has been happening since COVID even and the lack of staffing and just the change in the overall attitude of guests checking the hotel. Celeste Berke [00:05:09]: What people don't realize about the hospitality industry is that a lot of hotels have this turn and burn. Right? Unless your extended stay or in a resort area, it's a lot of 1 to 2 night stays. There's a lot of wear and tear on the property. Imagine someone coming to your house and every single day you're changing the linen, cleaning the bathroom, like, they're in and out, in and out. Guests got really pissed off during COVID about all the amenities were taken away. What do you mean I need to take off my own bedding? I don't get service. And so the expectation of the price point that you're paying is very high. It was an industry that was decimated, myself included, massive layoffs. Celeste Berke [00:05:46]: So trying to get people to come back to an industry where they're often not treated very well by guests is difficult. And also, breaking the stigma around everything is looked at as, like, how how much is this gonna cost? What's this gonna cost per room? What is the bottom line? What is the impact? Because if if I'm not making my GOP or if I don't have this type of flow through, we have an issue versus and you and I chatted about this, turning that conversation into what does this mean for an owner, what does this mean to the bank when we are running more efficiently, We have lower turnover. We have better guest experience, which means guest satisfaction scores are going up. There's a lot of things that hotels are measured on that have, like, a really big impact to refinancing. If an owner is able to acquire more hotels, if they're able to get a loan, like the profitability, all of these things, and we're still at this place where people aren't tying together, but this is how we've always done it versus, alright, this may be a complete change to the way that we're doing business. So that was a rant there. I wanna know from a management standpoint, you come from that side, and you're now managing a team to sell into that space, how are you educating and having conversations with your team for their own growth, educating them on process and people and the buying habits. Jen Suski [00:07:26]: Yeah. It's it's interesting. I mean, like, it's again, like you said, it's education. It works on both sides of of it from the hotels and the staff. I do weekly 1 on ones for sure, and we talk about, you know, developments, where you wanna be, how can we help get you there, that type of thing. But then we also talk about, okay, so you're you're selling into these hotels and what they need the education on. So, again, they don't know what the red book is. They don't know what paper maintenance tickets are. Jen Suski [00:07:56]: I'm like, do you know that they still they still write. Do you know what carbon copy is? I have people that don't know what carbon copy means. I feel ancient. So anyway, yeah, explaining to them that process of what their hotels are doing and how we can help them. We have a maintenance app in our property management system. So if there's an issue, if the housekeeper sees that the AC, the HVAC unit is broken, they can log it and flag the maintenance person. And guess what, GM? At the end of the year, you can go and say, room 305 seems to have issues, like, every month with this this HVAC unit. Maybe we need to replace that, you know, and keeping up with the building and things like that instead of trying to, like, sort through all of these paper tickets or these audit banker's boxes that are filling up your storage closets. Celeste Berke [00:08:47]: Right. It's insane. Bit of data, you're able to make decisions around it. Like, room 305, it's happened this many times. We've dedicated this many man hours to it. It's cost us this much. And we like to say in, you know, gap selling terms, this is the gap. Right? If if it's if our desired state is to have that room occupied 91% of the time, this is how much money we're making per room, but it's costing us this much versus the cost of a new AC units. Celeste Berke [00:09:16]: This is the business case for it. But if you do not have that information and I was trying to tell somebody the other day, like, okay. There was this board, and it had 3 pegs. And engineering used you used to put the ticket up there, and you would write what was wrong, and then they would move it to pending. And when it was finished, the copy went here, and then that copy went over here. And they're just like, what? That does that still exist. Jen Suski [00:09:44]: Yes. Yes. It does still exist. They just don't understand. Then when you explain it to GM, they're like, oh, yeah. That makes sense. They have so much going on in a hotel at any given day. It could be underwater or, like, the sprinkler had burst somewhere. Jen Suski [00:09:59]: You know what I mean? They need somebody to go out there tell them, hey. There is a better way to do this. Yeah. Celeste Berke [00:10:04]: I had someone reach out to me, an internal champion. As we look at elevating a business conversation, we're talking about actual business problems, taking that information and synthesizing it and saying, well, what does this mean to the property overall? What is this preventing us from doing? Is my labor costs sky

    21 min

  6. 02/11/2024

    Ep19: Beyond the Checklist: Earning the Right to Ask Questions in Sales Conversations with Nick Bontrager

    Celeste Berke [00:00:00]: Hello. It is Celeste here on The Sales Edge Podcast. I'm excited to talk with Nick Bonn. He's about to launch his own podcast. We met on LinkedIn. Thank you so much for being a guest today. Tell us a little bit about your current seat, and then we'll dive into this, sales podcast that you were launching. Nick Bontrager [00:00:20]: Thanks, Celeste. So pumped to be on. Thanks for having me on. Account executive at Drata. So we do security compliance for Startups and mid market large companies. So started my journey 5 years ago as an SDR in the multifactor authentication space and Worked my way up to AEs. Celeste Berke [00:00:37]: A lot of times when I'm talking to those who are in a sales leadership role, we forget that the majority of our team and, like, the meat of the people who are helping us get to where we need to be really start in this SDRAE space, and they're usually the ones who are not only customer facing, but they're hearing what's going on, like boots on the ground, What is changing, how the customer journey is changing, and how ticked off buyers are that most Sellers are coming from a product approach. You're in an interesting space in that multi Factor authentication ticks people off. Don't get me wrong. Salesforce, every time I log in, I gotta go to another, but it is there to help us. So I'm curious how because you're you're now about to advise some SDRs and also you've come from that seat. How do you move away from talking about products, especially for new sales reps within an org when it's like what we want to do because it's for SafeSpot and what we know. Nick Bontrager [00:01:45]: Great question. I don't know if I'm a glutton for punishment selling things that people just don't wanna talk about. Right? It's People ask, what do you do? I'm in sales. What do you sell? Multi factor authentication or security compliance. I'm a nerd like that, but There's a real need for it. SDRs do focus a lot on product. And I think, in a lot of situations, companies push product knowledge so much on their SDRs that that's what they focus on, and they're brand new in their selling careers. Right? So they don't know any better. Nick Bontrager [00:02:13]: They're going through a bunch of enablement videos. And don't get me wrong. You you should know your product. But start with the buyer and start with the pains that they have. And as an SDR, a really good way that I did that was talk to other account executives, not other SDRs that were going through the same types of training. Like, get Outside of that organization or find the SDRs that that are buyer centric and that that know those problems. That's definitely something I Think that a lot of SDRs that are getting promoted right now, they're focusing on the pains versus I can talk about this feature with you on this 32nd cold Yeah. Celeste Berke [00:02:47]: It's interesting because there's there's obviously a lot on LinkedIn right now in the SDR space. Companies who are hiring SDRs that seems to be the most open position within a company. It's really stemming from this place where economic times have changed. The big well has dried up. You can only be new and fancy for so long with people flocking to you about your product, and now you really have to build a case for change. And a lot of that is now coming down to SDRs going outbound. Not even SDRs, AEs as well, going outbound in this shift of 80, 90%. I talked to a company the other day. Celeste Berke [00:03:27]: A 100% inbound, and I'm, like, thinking to myself, your time is coming. Nick Bontrager [00:03:31]: Only a matter of time. Celeste Berke [00:03:33]: This focus on you call it pains. I like to call it problems. I have a big bruise on my shoulder right here. I don't want my husband coming up and poking that. I know I have a bruise. It's not life Threatening, so not gonna worry about it. How Like, the SDRs that you work with, how are you advising them when they do go down that technical path? How are you calling that out so that they can change that behavior and feel more comfortable talking about problems and more elevated business conversations when they're so new in their career. Nick Bontrager [00:04:10]: Yeah. I think that's a good question. And really, it in our industry, what we sell, just to I won't go too far into the weeds But basically, the main pain or problem that folks face is as they move up market, they start to have conversations with enterprise companies. And these enterprise companies are asking them, are you SOC 2 compliant? Are you ISO 27,001 compliant? What are you doing to keep my data secure? How do I trust you? That's the main thing. Right? He's building that trust. And we can talk about automation with Drata in all these different features. But at the end of the day, the SDRs that are really crushing it and doing well, they're the ones that actually understand that, okay. This is a revenue opportunity for our customers and also our buyers to unlock different markets, to move To larger deals because that's that's really the value of it. Nick Bontrager [00:05:04]: And I think our our enablement team's doing a pretty good job of pushing that Problem centric approach. And definitely seen a shift in the last couple of years have been inbound. It's been kind of the rosy Sunny days in SaaS, and now it's it's definitely harder. Money's dried up. Money's more expensive now with interest rates. And And, really, there's a a stronger shift towards outbound. So our team has started to lead with that problem messaging as opposed to the feature messaging, which is definitely The big thing on LinkedIn right now, or at least it was a couple weeks ago, was so out for 2024. Oh, so in for 2024. Nick Bontrager [00:05:41]: And so the The feature pushing is is so out. Celeste Berke [00:05:46]: So out. You're right. We're not that far into 2024. It's still still out, and I would assume with everything that's happening with email, it'll be even further out if you go that route. And it's interesting because you're in this space. So in gap selling, We when we do our training, we have a slide that's specific to what you all are facing, which is kind of just like risk analysis. So a lot of times in, like, cybersecurity, any type of compliant, you're not dealing with something that may have happened. A risk that it could happen. Celeste Berke [00:06:18]: Whereas a lot of other buyers are experiencing something in their current state. And it's similar to my dad's a physician. He has malpractice insurance. Well, what happens should you get hit with a malpractice claim. You have to play that out, and it's very rare that you would experience that. I think my dad 45 years in the business, maybe 1 malpractice his claim and his whole career with someone who that worked for him, but on his malpractice. But he buys that insurance because If you get hit with a claim and you do not have that insurance, like, the risk does not outweigh that reward or vice versa. The people that you're selling to probably don't even understand it. Celeste Berke [00:06:57]: Many of them know we have to do this, but we don't know why or, like, what it is. It's a different language. So really educating them on if this isn't happening now, This is what could happen. If it's happened, how many times does it happen, and then what are those impacts to the organization? I was on a call this morning, and this is where the team was missing. They could get the technical problems, which is where many sellers live. We all love our products. Business problems? Okay. Maybe turnover, churn, like, things that you can't fix like this. Celeste Berke [00:07:35]: The impacts is where they were having a really hard time with, and I would assume for some younger BDRs, maybe even some VP's of sales CROs. That's what we miss is what is the impact to the organization? That's where the motivation to buy or changes. It lives within those impacts. We can't clearly define those. Alright. So I went off on a tangent there. You, 5 years in now, Seen a lot of stuff. Mhmm. Celeste Berke [00:08:01]: Obviously, problems over product and features. You told me prior to this You were starting a podcast. Tell us about that. Where did this arise from? What is the concept? Nick Bontrager [00:08:15]: Yeah. So it arose out of a little bit of extra time on my hands during maternity leave. Good time. I'm back this week. But, essentially, I asked myself over paternity leave. Okay. What what am I building for for myself, for my wife, for my son that is outside of, you know, Strata in the career and, and all of that. And it really came down to, okay, I've been posting on LinkedIn for a while. Nick Bontrager [00:08:40]: I enjoy the interaction. Enjoy the community. What if I go all in on that? What if I start to build this brand? And then that brought me to the question, okay, what can I actually teach on? What can I teach people? And I have been in SDR. I was in SDR for 2 years and got promoted out of that role into an account executive selling role. And so that is what I wanna help folks with is the new sellers, the young sellers, both in their SDR roles and the new AEs. I wanna help them Take their next step, but specifically those SDRs who are looking to get promoted. And so here shortly, I'll be recording the 1st episode of the Promotable SDR podcast. So it'll only feature guests that have been promoted from an SDR role up and out within the last couple of years because I wanna keep it recent. Celeste Berke [00:09:27]: This is a great niche sadly for both you and myself because what is happening or what I'm seeing in conversations with individual contributors as well as sales leadership is we don't have any training within the company. Everybody's able to do their own thing, and what we find is that reps are either leaving, they get complacent, you start seeing quota slip, Maybe there's negative

    30 min

  7. 02/01/2024

    Ep18: The Sales Meat Grinder Unveiled: Candid Conversations with Peter Wheeler on the Churn & Burn of Sales

    Celeste Berke [00:00:00]: Hello. It's Celeste on the Sales Edge Podcast. I'm joined by Peter Wheeler. We were chatting off air, and Peter said, hit that record button. We're talking about some juicy stuff as it relates to being an entrepreneur, selling your tech stack, Having mental breakdown. Peter Wheeler [00:00:17]: Oh, yeah. Mental breakdowns are part of the job. Celeste Berke [00:00:19]: Yeah. Definitely. It's typically I ask Individual's 2 questions, and we flow in and out of that. What's your sales edge? But I think out of all of my guests, you're about to drop some value. So, Peter, introduce yourself. Little bit about your background, what you're working on. Peter Wheeler [00:00:42]: Well, I can talk about what I've worked on. That might be the easiest thing because I I Based on what you and I were talking about, that's that's gonna be the more fun conversation, especially for if we're talking to salespeople and we're talking to entrepreneurial salespeople And we're talking to entrepreneurs or founders or people that aren't traditionally salespeople that need that element. I think that's gonna be a lot more fun. So I am a serial entrepreneur, for lack of a better term. My first business, I founded in 1998, drop shipping car stereo. I was Oh. In high school, I think I was old enough to drive. I think I had my license. Peter Wheeler [00:01:18]: I think I had my credit card. Celeste Berke [00:01:19]: Because I graduated 97. And I do remember driving 30 miles to get a bomb car stereo in my Honda Accord. Peter Wheeler [00:01:30]: There you go. So I can joke that I was a .comer. I really wasn't, but It was interesting having ecom, having drop shipping that that early. I seem to always be ahead of the curve, and it always Seems to bite me in the butt. Anyway, did that. Got an automotive for a very long time. Got into philately Celeste Berke [00:01:53]: I'm sorry. Peter Wheeler [00:01:53]: Which is stamp collection. Celeste Berke [00:01:55]: I Could you repeat that one more time? Peter Wheeler [00:02:00]: So being one of those jack of all trades, Master of none, but often better than a master of 1 style scenarios. In high school, I had 2 to 3 full time jobs. I had the side thing that I was doing for myself. I went and, applied for a role at a place called Regency. It was right around the corner from my high school, And it was a Philatelic auction house. So we're talking a place that would auction postage stamps to stamp collectors, like, $3,000,000 worth a year. By the time I left, we were doing 3,000,000 a quarter, which is pretty cool. And when they hired me, they didn't realize I was a high schooler until I said I can't start till 3:30. Peter Wheeler [00:02:40]: They actually they put a team under me. You wanna talk about super weird as being, like, not old enough to vote, But old enough to have that kind of responsibility. Weird world. At the same time, I was training to be a developer And doing developer work in continuing medical education and the bankers training. Celeste Berke [00:03:02]: Okay. Peter Wheeler [00:03:02]: So writing in, Flash and action script and visual basic. And thanks to Adobe 2021, I'm officially retired as a developer, so I don't even have to Think about that channel anymore other than I like doing dev rel work, but that was wild. Same time, we're talking overlap. Ended up offloading my car stereo stuff to another car stereo shop, stuck around there. It was one of those things that I pop in and I'd sell on the floor because I was bored or I needed extra Cash did that quite often, and then you were noticing my license plate wall. Celeste Berke [00:03:35]: Plus you're right next to a fireplace. It looks like you could Have that going. Peter Wheeler [00:03:39]: I am next to a fireplace. Yeah. This this whole room's built out of Legos except for the fireplace wall. Giant Everblocks that is placed called it's called Everblock, And they're in Minnesota. American made giant LEGOs to make rooms or pop up displays for trade shows and events. So love of cars, big time love of cars, was collecting them, and that was part of the reason I was working full time so much Across so many places and ended up with the hated the developer work, left that role. They actually hated the company. And then the stamp place, They shipped me out to Los Angeles, Beverly Hills specifically, the ripe old age of 18 on my summer break senior year, To do an m and a with a place called Superior Collectibles. Peter Wheeler [00:04:26]: We were expanding into sports collectibles in addition to the philately. So little old me got to live out of a hotel in Beverly Hills to do this acquisition, and it was hell on earth. So I left there as well. Was not my last m and a, but it was certainly my most unpleasant, and I walked away with a lot of great knowledge from it. Anyway, started doing, some work with the shop that I was getting my cars repaired at and purchasing from, and they're like, hey. You know the Internets? Why don't you do why don't you become our eBay salesperson? You know how to write. You know how to do graphic design. You have all this stuff from before. Peter Wheeler [00:05:05]: To Ebay sales. Okay. Cool. Came on, started doing that, walked in the park, started writing service, started doing all this kind of stuff, and eventually became the GM of the Store. Opened 2 more stores and then was legally able to drink. Yeah. Yeah. So took it from a $3,000,000 a year to, 1 repair store, 2 sales stores at 15,000,000 a year. Peter Wheeler [00:05:30]: And they shuffled In the mid 2000, and now it's just 2 repair stores. And we always knew that that's where the real money is. Sales is terrible, especially car sales. Now that's another episode. So there. That's why my dealer plate's there. We're gonna we're just going through the stack real quick. Celeste Berke [00:05:46]: No pun intended with the tech stack. Yeah. Mhmm. Peter Wheeler [00:05:50]: There we go. So I left there, went to work for BMW, kind of. It was an indirect placement for launching their after sales and lifestyle in the region that I live in Saint Louis basically building boutiques inside car dealerships and selling the wheel wax and the hats and golf bags and all those things as well as performance parts, so I got to stay in my happy category. The majority of it was teaching salespeople how to sell Trash and trinkets without busting the deal because we all know once something gets into finance, you're gonna lose it. The joke that we have in the car industry is Some people can afford the car. Most people can only afford the payment, and so you have to keep in alignment with how the payment works. That went awesome. I got to build cars. Peter Wheeler [00:06:36]: I got to be a YouTube influencer. I got checks from YouTube. We're talking 2007, 2008, And left that. Did some big work for Dolby. It's where Xcede comes from over there. Start I picked up the moniker XcedeR as as well as Bespoke Gorilla. That's where Bespoke is there, doing work for agencies that sold jobs that they didn't know how to fulfill. Picked up some really cool clients of my own, Miller Kors. Peter Wheeler [00:07:02]: I continued with BMW. I continued with MINI Cooper. For Miller, I gave birth to a beer. 2012. Invented a dinner series in for an off premise product, Which means you can only buy it at liquor stores or gas stations bringing it into restaurants. And if you if you know Blue Moon, there's literally a Blue Moon tap handle everywhere. Every restaurant has a Blue Moon Tap Handle. That's what they're famous for. Peter Wheeler [00:07:31]: And it was innovative for two reasons. Number 1, Tom Schlafly makes a joke about his business, but I was trying to start a religion in Mecca. St. Louis was the home base of this campaign, which is where AB was based, so that was the 1st uphill battle. 2nd uphill battle was dinner series. Like, these were brand new. So I did a prefix thing, 3 courses, $30. Like, it's normal now to hear that kinda And it's a beer pairing, so I did a beer pairing. Peter Wheeler [00:07:57]: The restaurant got a wild card dish. They could do whatever they want, and the big differentiator, the thing that made it work, Was I had a course where it was mandatory to use the beer as an ingredient, and the chefs loved it. And they'd come out and talk about it, and they brag about the work that they're doing. The beer at the time was called Blue Moon Farmhouse Ready. That's a mouthful. It was a mouthful of a beer. It's now called Short Straw. There's nothing more cool than being leading on a project that brings something to life. Peter Wheeler [00:08:25]: I'm a father of 2 kids now, and I'm just as proud of my beer as I am of them. Anyway, launched a platform called Eat Local because I really liked working with those restaurants, that to a large, RDS, restaurant delivery service. In that, I had a platform called Dell Assist, which was where I managed the people ops dispatch and basically the whole back office for competitors of mine around the country, Which also made m and a easy because I can understand markets, I can understand where to open. Granted, I had tons of of noncompetes, but the United States is pretty dang big. And it was also just offset payroll. So a lot of things on entrepreneurship, and you and I were talking about this before the show. It's like, how much can I offload To focus on what's important, how much can I subsidize somewhere else to make it worth it? So to provide great customer care, I needed a Huge headcount, like 48 people doing our 1st year, we did $99 in business. And, Like, how do you balance that out? Well, debt is one of them. Peter Wheeler [00:09:32]: Subsidizing with your agency is another one of them. Thankfully, I had the cash to do that. But bringing on these customers, it became a profitable entity. I got paid to have staff. How cool is that? So, anyway

    43 min

  8. 01/15/2024

    Ep17: Knock-Knock, Who's There? Will Aitken's Cheeky Take on Challenging Sales Norms (Trust Him - He's a Salesperson)

    Celeste Berke [00:00:01]: Hello. Hello. It's Celeste Berke Knisely on the Sales Edge Podcast. I have a unicorn with us, A legend, Will Aiken. You made a huge announcement recently about your of this. Will Aitken [00:00:18]: The logo. My AI generated graffiti art logo. Celeste Berke [00:00:22]: Yeah. I Will Aitken [00:00:23]: don't know why I went through all the graffiti as well because I'm not street. I'm not urban, But I just like color. But you can listen to my voice. You can hear more teas and biscuits rather than spray painting graffiti on the wall outside, but It just it just felt right. I launched I launched willakin.com. Celeste Berke [00:00:38]: Tell us about your new venture. Will Aitken [00:00:41]: I got tired of For point to the mat, you know, done that. For a long time, I've I've I've felt like I could do this by myself, and I didn't because that the ever cooling, that siren sound of Safety of having a job. It's so tempting, especially, I've got a young family, got 2 young kids. I'm the breadwinner in my house. It it it it's so easy to just keep doing what you're doing and get paid for it. But I know that the value I could bring, it will be much more for myself than it would be The salary that I was taking. Right? I'm sure I loved what I was doing. I loved the job I was doing and and the work, and that's that's a position of luxury if you haven't say that, but I just I gotta do it. Will Aitken [00:01:18]: You know? I gotta take the risk. I gotta go all in. And even if I fail, which I probably won't because I won't let myself do that, I can say I did it. Right? But I've always had that nag at the back of my head, and it just happened to be the right time. So I went all in, and here we are. And, it's going pretty well so far. I won't lie. I mean, launch week, you're gonna get a bunch of support. Will Aitken [00:01:34]: Got a ton of great friends in the space who have all been super supportive. I know it's gonna probably harder from here. Yeah. It's been Overwhelmingly positive so far. Celeste Berke [00:01:43]: What's interesting and what I love listeners to take away from this is you put in the reps ahead of time to build your brand, to build your network, to give back, to build in public, to show what you were doing so that when you did take that leap and and this is, like, akin to salespeople is what I'm getting to. Akin akin. To salespeople, you can't just get in the seat and start prospecting and think, look, these are gonna go in. The shooter's mentality. No. You gotta get in the dirty reps, the practice just upfront and build before things stick. Will Aitken [00:02:22]: I I think that's that's a really good point. It's something I thought about as well. A lot of Business owners, they go out and they create this idea, and then they go and try and build a brand. What that it it took me 2 years to build this brand. And I grew quicker than most because I did some outrageous stuff and had this very little filter, which people seem to like for some reason. Mostly we don't have as quick of a come up. Right? So, like, if I was stuck my business and didn't have any followers today, I'd be I'd be dead in the water. You know? I'd already have to be looking for a new job With my tail between my legs, obviously, would have made the decision if it didn't have what I have. Will Aitken [00:02:55]: But, Celeste Berke [00:02:55]: It's tough. Someone asked me that a couple of weeks ago. It was actually Daniel Ryan. He probably know Daniel from aligned. So Will Aitken [00:03:04]: Nice. Celeste Berke [00:03:05]: He was saying, this is so hard for you to build a pipeline because I self source. I was that person for 20 years in corporate. Never thought about my personal brand. I knew everybody in the industry, but not online. And 3 years ago, having to start at 1500 connections on LinkedIn and start building public, This isn't an uphill battle, and he said, what if this doesn't work out? What are you gonna do? And I said, Daniel, there is no it has to. So I will keep going. Will Aitken [00:03:37]: Yeah. I I I think that's what you just said is pretty darn true and great for an entrepreneur. It has to. It's like a little chip in your shoulder. Got something to prove. You can't fail. You won't allow yourself to. But I can tell just from the the vibe you give Selassie. Will Aitken [00:03:52]: You know? You've got some interest to say that people would wanna listen to. You know what I mean? Celeste Berke [00:03:56]: Having female over. I know I don't look it. I'm 44 with a 4 year old. Right? Slaves. Slaves. Corporate after 20 years, and now I'm in my 2nd act, and I Will Aitken [00:04:11]: You look like Younger than I do. I'm 29 with a 4 year old. Celeste Berke [00:04:16]: You are not 29. Will Aitken [00:04:18]: That's what I mean. Yeah. I'm 29. I just I just forgot to moisturize for all those years of sales. They they're not nicer to the to the wrinkles. Celeste Berke [00:04:28]: Well and that's what's interesting is This I think as a salesperson, you also have to have a little bit of an the entrepreneurial bug because you are in a little bit of a silo in a sales role. I heard from a huge company the other day. 500 reps on the team, they get no coaching. There is no nothing. They're winging it in the wild, wild west. And if you don't have that little flame inside you that says I'm competitive, I can do this, this month sucked, Next one's gonna be better. This is what I'm building. You just go in and collect your paycheck and waiting for the day that you get axed. Will Aitken [00:05:04]: Yeah. Celeste Berke [00:05:04]: How do you think that entrepreneurial bug served you as a employee, like a traditional w two employee? Will Aitken [00:05:14]: It's just total accountability and ownership of everything you do. I kind of hate that word accountability because it's so synonymous with, like, toxic people who just don't recognize that they've got a ton of privilege. Like, Me go out there and be like, no excuses. I'm a posh British tool, handsome, very handsome white dude. Come on. Like, I can't go out there and be like, You're just making excuses, people. But at the same time, like, in sales that you do need a level of accountability to say, like, I don't want to rely on. I don't want to rely on marketing. Will Aitken [00:05:42]: I'm going to go get my own pipeline. I'm going to say, even though that deal wasn't my fault, I lost it. What could I have done differently so I can learn from that next time? You need that. Otherwise, you would just sit there, like, going, oh, it's not fair. I sound like one of those toxic assholes on, like, TikTok, like, the the Won't name anyone, but, like, the the car sales dudes who, like but at the same time, you do need a little bit of that because, otherwise, you will just end up in this wallowing pit of self to bear despair, which isn't a fun place to be. I've been there. I've I I I was there for many years before I got good, before I read gap sell. I remember I was in sales, and I was I was working at this company, and I had the worst territory objectively the worst territory. Will Aitken [00:06:22]: I know this because I've measured it. I took a business case to my manager. Like, look at my bad territory. And all these other reps were up for me and me, but I was so focused on what they had and what I didn't. I wasn't even focusing what I was bringing to the role anymore, which was very not enough. Wasn't looking at what I was doing to learn on the side, what I could do to make the most of my territory, what what people with similar territories was doing to still win. I was so focused on what I didn't have. I was Completely blinds to the fact that I was not focusing on what I could do. Will Aitken [00:06:49]: And then I was like, okay. Well, if I work for a different company, it'll be different. And I went into the interview process with a company, and they were like, well, we're looking for someone who's got a sales process. So I Googled sales process, and I, like, read it out on the interview. Like, yeah. I do Discovery, which I didn't do. And I and then I do a, demo call after that, and they're like, oh, that's great. Then I asked them, what resources does your team really love? They're like gap selling. Will Aitken [00:07:13]: So I knew I had 1 week between the 1st interview and the 2nd interview. I had to finish gap selling so I could keep pretending that I knew what I was doing I could get this job because the job was the problem. But luckily, in the process of doing that, I got that job. And when I got there, I got great coaching and applied a lot of the stuff that I from from reading that book in a week and then reading it again. And my manager was both trained and and and believed in gaps on methodologies and a couple of things as well. And Then everything got better, and I realized, oh my gosh. I was the problem the whole time. I just didn't you know, like, it was the product that I was selling. Celeste Berke [00:07:46]: Taylor Swift wrote about. Right? Will Aitken [00:07:48]: It's me. I'm the problem. It's me. Right? But, like, it took me so long to catch that point. I just wish I had known that early because the moment It will start to make sense. It will start to becoming easier and actually a lot more fun as well. Instead of wallowing and clocking off and doing the bare minimum, I was excited to go to work. I was Excited, talked to Claude. Will Aitken [00:08:07]: I was excited to to reach out and prospect and and meet new people and keep learning. And then and then one day I asked for a promotion, and I didn't get one, so I I acted like a toddler and went and became a content marketer instead. Boo. But here I am. I got it. Yeah. Celeste Berke [00:08:22]: But I Will Aitken [00:08:23]: thought I Celeste Berke [00:08:23]: did sales. Here you are. Hold on. Will Aitken [00:08:25

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About

Welcome to "The Sales Edge," the podcast exclusively designed for B2B sales professionals seeking to excel in the rapidly evolving business landscape. Join us as we delve into engaging interviews with industry experts, thought leaders, and seasoned professionals who possess invaluable insights into the world of B2B sales. In each episode, we explore the dynamic nature of B2B sales and uncover the latest trends, strategies, and transformations that are reshaping the industry. "The Sales Edge" provides a platform for our guests to share their wealth of experience, highlighting how sales methodologies have evolved and what's new in the B2B sales arena. Through thought-provoking conversations, we explore the groundbreaking techniques and innovative approaches that successful B2B salespeople employ to navigate the ever-changing market. Our guests offer practical advice and tangible solutions to help you enhance your sales performance and gain a competitive advantage in the B2B sector. From leveraging cutting-edge technologies and analytics to adapting to the digital age, we examine how sales professionals are capitalizing on emerging tools, training, and platforms. We delve into the psychology behind B2B buyer behavior, dissect the power of personal branding and new-age prospecting, and explore the strategies that drive meaningful and profitable connections with clients. "The Sales Edge" transcends theory and provides real-world insights, as our guests share their triumphs, failures, and invaluable lessons learned. We explore how B2B sales teams are harnessing problem-centric selling, using data-driven decision-making, capitalizing on social media and digital channels to connect with prospects, and successfully navigating the nuances of remote selling in today's competitive marketplace. Join us on "The Sales Edge" as we uncover the secrets to B2B sales success in a rapidly changing business landscape. Whether you're a seasoned sales professional seeking inspiration, a veteran sales leader or new to sales leadership strategies, or an aspiring salesperson entering the dynamic world of B2B sales, this podcast is your go-to resource for valuable insights and practical guidance. Tune in, take notes, and gain the winning edge necessary to thrive in the fast-paced and ever-evolving world of B2B sales.

Information

  • Creator
    Celeste Berke
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2024
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Celeste Berke