Win with a Disciplined Sales Process. With Bridget Gleason. And special guest, Phill Keene [Episode 598]

Bridget Gleason is VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner on Front Line Fridays. We’re joined on this episode by Phill Keene, Director of Sales at Costello.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Bridget and Andy discuss travel and weather, as Bridget is just back from Tel Aviv.
• Phill Keene, Director of Sales at Costello is the special guest. Costello helps align front-line reps, managers, VPs, and CROs about pipeline deals to identify gaps and remove roadblocks in a three-part solution.
• Phill explains the parts of the solution. One aspect proactively simulates a pipeline review to visualize what steps are needed for deals.
• The Costello solution works with reps on calls, capturing notes and information, and guiding a rep through a conversation to find the path to a signature.
• Phill describes how Costello saw that reps were using only the required fields in Salesforce but they were recording copious data on paper or stand-alone apps that never made it into a CRM. Costello addresses that issue.
• The next aspect is to look at competitor statistics, the number of problems to solve and other data points to visualize gaps in the pipeline and how to fill them.
• Ideal customers for Costello are companies already on Salesforce, with more than 15 and up to 200 reps, following a documented sales process, and having a VP of Sales who is motivated to enforce it.
• 50% of SaaS reps hit quota, casting doubt on the efficacy of methodologies. Phill asserts that top performers follow a process. Andy says that top performers have their own process that is not often the general company process.
• Phill uses examples of Costello customers improving their conversions by leaps and bounds when uniformly following a methodology.
• People buy from people. Building a rapport precedes methodology. Principles come before methods. Methods must be built on engagement and the basic principles of sales. Phill dives into Costello guidance to the process.
• It requires hiring for sales ability and investing in training and development; reps will feel purpose and they will want to stay and excel. The primary reason for sales rep turnover is the manager.
• The inside sales model has a low close rate compared to other industries and market segments. Andy suggests rethinking every position, especially SDRs.