The Rise Science Podcast Rise Science

When your team is working all hours and you’ve equipped them with the best training as well as the latest technology, what more can you do to maximize sales productivity? In this episode, Katie McKay, Head of Sales Enablement and Distribution Strategy at John Hancock Investments, advises what you can do at the margin to drive performance and support employee happiness. We discuss mitigating burnout and strategies on how to support your team’s wellbeing while maximizing success.

Caring and connection were the foundations of success for the sales team at Xerox, where Lars Nilsson began his career. Now VP of Global Sales Development at Snowflake, Lars is teaching us the importance of human connection in selling. We discuss the advancements in sales technology and the "new" tools, such as sleep, that can drive sales success.

We all know we need food, water and air to function, but there's a key lever that's missing: sleep. Dr. Mark Rosekind, Chief Safey Innovation Officer at Zoox and Founder of Alertness Solutions, joins me in talking about how sleep is foundational to health, wellbeing, and workplace performance. He recalls his time at NASA, working with astronauts to improve their decision making in life or death circumstances. We discuss why sleep is the ultimate performance enhancer and why it gives you and your team an advantage. "If you're not paying attention to sleep, you're paying for it.”

Focus on process over outcomes is a sales leadership superpower that allows VP of Inside Sales at PatientPop Kevin "KD" Dorsey to coach his team through small improvements in habits and sales motion to big success.KD joined me on the latest episode to share his unique, people-centric sales and performance wisdom that includes advice on acting with intention, starting "laughably small" with behavior change, and why sleep is "just what matters" when caring for the person in salesperson.

If you want your team to perform at its best…  Everyone needs their sleep needs met. And that’s a whole lot easier when you all go on the journey together. That’s how Lexi Bohonnon, VP of Sales Engineering at Yext, is building a more effective team while also supporting their wellbeing.  She came on the show today to explain how healthy sleep habits are making her team stronger, why sleep is one of her top priorities for this year, and how accountability (and a little competitiveness) helps everyone manage their sleep. 

As a sales leader, you are responsible for equipping your team for success. But there is more to it than investing in sales coaching or the shiniest new tech.  Your team’s health and wellbeing are just as much your responsibility. And that means making sure they get healthy sleep.  In the latest episode of the Rise Science Podcast, I interviewed Ron Needham, SVP Sales & Marketing, North America at ManpowerGroup, the world’s third-largest staffing firm, and a decorated US Infantry veteran. Ron’s impressive career as a sales leader at some of the world’s most successful companies, including elcom, Dun & Bradstreet, SAP, and Salesforce has always been informed by lessons learned serving in the military. Drawing on all of this experience, Ron has made sleep one of the top priorities for his team. We discussed how the military influenced Ron’s leadership style, why sleep is a leader’s responsibility, especially in a crisis, and Ron’s top performance tip.