Latest / Sales Trajectory Podcast / Driving Sales Growth Through Innovation: Paul Fuller on Membrain’s Enablement Tools and Aligning Sales & Marketing

Transcript

Driving Sales Growth Through Innovation: Paul Fuller on Membrain’s Enablement Tools and Aligning Sales & Marketing · Sales Trajectory Podcast

• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the sales trajectory podcast, where innovation meets execution in sales.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jason Howes, your host, a 35-year sales veteran and lifelong student of the game.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is for leaders and sales professionals with a growth mindset.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: You'll hear real sales stories about new products, motivating teams to prospect, and boost productivity.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: We dive deep into sales process, cutting edge tech, and recruiting top sales performers.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get started.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Great to see you again, Paul.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Jason, thanks so much for having me on.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Paul, I must be up front with you here.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is exciting for me because this is the launch of our season two of our sales trajectory podcast.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for being our first guests.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Heck yeah, man.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm honored.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: I can't wait to see where this goes.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited to be a part of it.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Season one of our podcast has only just gone live on uh Apple and Spotify.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Don't talk to me about the challenges of setting it up, but it is live.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And what I didn't realize was I'd actually done some really good interviews and vlogs over the years.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've incorporated those into season one, which is a combination of sales leaders, professionals, and industry experts.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Season two, we are taking a new the theme where innovation meets sales execution.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Great to have um yourself on here.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: From obviously, we're a proud Australian partner of a membrane, and have been for a number of years.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I learn every day when we're having a discussion with you guys.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: So innovation is near and dear to my heart, something we got to be doing every day.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, selling is part art, part science.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: And uh you get to innovate in both of those.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, let's let's dive in, man.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to me about Paul Fuller and uh how you got to where you are today.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and Paul Fuller.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, back in the day.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, professional career has been mainly in sales.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I started actually as uh adjunct professor at a community college.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: I love teaching.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: They my like I love it.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: My uh stated mission in life is to use my gifts to help others use theirs.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and I think teaching is a great way to do that.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: But unfortunately, that paid about uh twelve thousand dollars a year.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: And but my wife and I, you know, wasn't the best situation.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I got a buddy that called me up and said, Hey, you want to stop being a hippie and get into sales?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I said, No, I'm not a hippie, but tell me about this sales gig.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: So since then, I I got into software sales and then uh around that was in like oh three, and I started.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: I figured, hey man, I've done sales for four years.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm an expert.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: So some uh partners and I started uh a sales as a service company where we'd hire China managed the sales teams for other organizations.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh most of that really was around how do you programmatically, I mean, to make that thing successful, it was really how do we programmatically build people up and then help them be successful in the area of sales.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I I mean, I ended up being VP of sales for like 10 companies at at once, or and sometimes it was the V business development, sometimes it was full cycle sales.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: And and if we didn't systemize that thing, I I would have broke early on.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: I did end up breaking, like I ended up having some health problems about 10 years into that uh that run.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: But we had started it, we had the sales of service company, we'd started a digital marketing firm, and then we had bought a SaaS company.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: So we were practicing what we preached.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I had a 10-year run there, grew that business, amazing people.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh grew that well.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: They ended up just recently selling off a big portion of it.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I got sick, had to exit.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: I took a journey from being, you know, president of a company to being an out-of-hout-of-work sick guy.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: That was fascinating.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Meandered around, started my own consulting business, and then ended up getting into ministry for a couple of years, which was great.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: But during that consulting business, I found that uh systems and processes and sales, as well as the really driving the what I believe the heart of sales, which is service, leadership, and what I call wayfinding.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: How do we find this path together?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: I I became really passionate about it.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: It just was because sales drives, it drives the world.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: And there is it is one of the greatest leverage points that we can possibly have to shine bright and to do well by others anywhere, right?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we can do it by being successful and making you can make a great living in it, and you make others successful when you're successful.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I fell, you know, I fell in love with it again after that IDIS administration, and I came onto memory because they shame, they they share the same principles I do.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And quite frankly, they had built a platform that I had spent millions of dollars in my previous business and thousands of hours trying to build in other platforms.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: This way to combine sales methodology, sales process enablement in one spot, and then be able to repeat that again and again and again.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I could build this thing one.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh my gosh, you can build this once and I can deploy like these these people use Medic or whatever, and you could give them that same fundamentals and a second company.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I fell in love with that.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and since then, we've had a happy marriage.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Bembrain is a great company.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's based in Sweden.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: I am in the US, run run uh revenue across the world.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: And we have partners like yourself.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: We have over 300 of them worldwide that are just amazing and people that are really out there trying to make an impact and elevate the sales profession.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's our mission, our vision.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's you know, it's slow, slow treading, but it's worth the work, man.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's a good good thing.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's great, Paul.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And thanks for sharing your story there.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that resonates with a lot of people, including myself.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting um over the years, I think the big opportunity at the moment for a lot of companies is moving to new ERP systems, and a lot of those systems have a built-in CRM.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: I normally popped into a trial and looked on YouTube to see how the CRM component of that ERP worked.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: They're just missing so many key elements to best sales practice, and I think it's you get what you pay for.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think from a sales perspective, my opinion's always been to try and bring the best tools to the table for our clients.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think from a salesperson's perspective, they deserve the best tools to use every day.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's like driving a good car.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to put your salespeople in an uncomfortable car that breaks down and doesn't provide them any value.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a r this is a real great opportunity because what you guys have been doing and what I love is that you're updating membrane nearly every day, every week of the year, where you where a lot of companies get caught is that they might go into a CRM that's been built into an ERP and it doesn't get updated ever.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Or it's so far behind the scenes.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some of these systems I've seen are probably going back ten years in technology.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what's your opinion?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: What are you seeing around the world in that area?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I I see fundamentally, fundamentally, most CRMs are built on a core flaw.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a it's a it's a philosophical error that I think most CRMs have.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: And and what that is, is that CRMs are built for the manager.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: And they're built solely for the ability to collect, gather, and analyze data.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now, while that's an incredibly important aspect to any system that you're using for growth, the ability to collect, analyze, and use data, the fundamental change that I think, and it's a fundamental innovation that Membrane made early on, is not really a groundbreaking one.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a a good one, which is it should actually help the person that's executing, the person that's doing the job, do that job more effectively.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we translate that into core things.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: And and there's simple but brilliant innovations from our product team.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how do you actually capture and manage the sales process and the best practice that a company desires?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: How do you do that well and capture that in a way that actually informs the sales rep and helps them close deals?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's not, there's been a whole different uh idea around sales enablement that has grown up because most CRMs have really failed to do this at their core.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so that fundamental flaw is what capture is what most people experience in the CRM realm.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: They say, great, it's a database and it's big brother.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really like being watched by Big Brother.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know you employ me and I know you uh pay my bills, but geez, I gotta hold some stuff back.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um and by the way, this doesn't help me.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta go to six other places to figure out just how to use this darn thing.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: And that's generally what happens.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh you get a whole bunch of half sets of data that are entered illogically, or and especially with people that uh just add them on to things like ERPs.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that has come about, but it's not natural in the workflow of a sale or a process to make it happen.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so you end up with what you pay for, and sometimes with a lot less than what you pay for, because you have salespeople that simply don't want to do it because it's not helpful, and then managers end up with uh um incomplete data, and then your forecasts are terrible.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I and I got a story about this if you want me to share it.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: This is going with a yeah, Fortune 500 company uh here in the USA, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the way that they gave their forecast to a board.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: They'd take the data from the CRM, their sales reps would do, they would take that out, and then individually their sales reps each had to go through their individual data in Excel, right?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then change things like probabilities and and reasons and stages in in Excel.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: That then got shipped up to their managers and director level, which would do another massage of all of that data, and finally then to the VP that would then go to the board with a third third level massage.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: So you got three levels of data away from the place that people were doing their work.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And when you do that, you just and that's very common.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: That is not uncommon, right?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: That is actually a very common thing.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: But when you do that, you destroy reliability of systems because you have simply made the by doing that, you're making the system itself obsolete, right?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: You're saying, I don't trust that.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: So instead, build a system you trust.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Fundamental, but innovative, innovative at the same time.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Innovative, sorry.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting enough.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, data is important, but it's the past.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: What I think, what I love about what you guys do is you're looking at the future.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: I had a uh discussion not long ago about uh with a leader about a CRM and using your CRM membrane.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Really, you know, in-depth conversation.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, I've got pay good salespeople who know a process and they can execute and win the business.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I I understand that, I get that.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: My big question is what happens when those salespeople leave?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get salespeople that are not as good a quality as those salespeople.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's why, from our perspective, you d make the most of the good people you've got, get them involved in building how they do, what they do, into a process that you can follow and then execute long term.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's so many companies that don't put in, you know, don't draw the line in the sand and go, we're paying you to do this job.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And being in being respectful, we're asking you as part of your job is to let us have ownership of the data.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I would rather walk out of a company with my head held high, going, they've got all the information, they know what's going on, and the next person that starts is going to have a much better onboarding experience than what I had when I came here because I got absolutely nothing.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that then reflects back to your customers, the flow of easing someone in to be able to look after a new client much more effectively instead of starting from scratch.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's a false dichotomy that people people make.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: They they say, Well, I got great salespeople with great skills, and uh, you know, they have their their base process.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: So they and I pay them well to do that.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: So why why would I need a system or anything other than to just uh put in in data?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: In my mind, you're doing them a disservice because you're putting skills training on one side.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: You're saying, I got highly skilled people, right?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: And highly skilled people, and I've written out a process, they understand how to do it, and but you're doing them a disservice by you are you are not reinforcing those skills at every potential.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: We all have a forgetting problem.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: The best reps in the world have a forgetting problem, right?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to and and so my my team actually loves using membrane.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Why do they love using membrane?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Is it because it forces us, and the way we use it, it forces us to bring our best quality self every day to a meeting, to a session, to what we deliver.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: It forces us.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: It forces and it's a reminder to do that.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you have a team of high quality reps that want a formulaic approach to winning, and you're not getting them a system to support them that actually supports them in not just tracking their meeting, but helping them do that meeting with excellence, follow up with excellence, record the next steps with excellence, and predict where they need to go with excellence, you are missing the stage.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: You're not giving you're missing the the point.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: You're not giving them the best uh tools to do that.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Traditional CRMs don't do that.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: We just got the idea that, man, this is the spot where most often people are doing their work.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is where they're doing most of the work, other than when we're out with people.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: But when I have to come in and do things when I'm preparing or when I'm recapping, I'm generally in that CRM.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: So why not make that the best spot to record what we want, how we want to behave and to reinforce that continually.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so all due respect to your mate, right?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: He's missing the point.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: The point is not that you're you're paying high people and you're paying good people good money and they they're good reps and they go down to do it.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that's great.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Other people have that too, guaranteed, right?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Other people are out in the market, they have good reps, they're competing that way.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: What you're looking for is the edge to take them to that next level, to ensure consistent excellence on your team.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's the point that gets missed.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: And they miss the point.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And what I love about that part is what you mentioned there is, and and I said this to another sales leader one day, what if we could get your top performers 10 to 20% better, what would that mean to your business?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and he said to me, he goes, That'd be a game changer.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the big thing.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone can get better.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if you just learn those little things and and then help your underperformers or then help the other people in your business that are not as strong, I understand the importance of the data.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think looking back now at my time, the part that I really sort of missed was the process component and the um that ability to create that pathway.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: I do reflect back, and there was a compon a component of our business that we'd done very well, and we'd built a very and and the impact on that part of our business was massive when we had the process.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: We we missed out on was the new business development.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, and I look at a lot of companies we work with these days as well, is the the misalignment of sales and marketing.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: In our industry, unfortunately, marketing is not the greatest.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Some companies do it extremely well.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Some companies do not have any marketing at all.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: What I love about Membrane is the opportunity to provide that opportunity to to help align sales and marketing.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about the first thing that that gap between sales and marketing.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and I also find an all-too common recipe that doesn't work for people to try and solve it.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: And here here's the common recipe.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: Get them in the same system and they'll work together.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Not the way to solve it.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: But the the challenge, there's a lot of people that just go out and just install uh, you know, a behemoth monster of a system that's gonna do everything for you.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: And um, they expect that that is a that's the uh the solve.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: I I push back against that a hundred percent.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: I do think that that uh you know marketing and sales systems should be integrated and and pulled in and you should be speaking the same language, but more often than not, sales and marketing don't get along because there is expectations that are not there are terms that are not defined, expectations that are not delivered upon, and there simply becomes a barrier that gets put up that the words that you hear are you just don't understand, right?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have and and how this goes to our products.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: One of the new wonderful products that we've put out is this this product called Flows.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: I I am so in love with this this part of the product that it uh I I use it every day.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And frankly, I'm using, I'm gonna use it for this podcast.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: So it is it's essentially the ability to assign, um, assign a process to and work through a standardized process within your business and then connect the results effectively to it.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so whether that be on your product delivery side, whether that be on the marketing side, whether that be on the uh, you know, like like marketing side, event side, whether you run events, whether you run services, project management, it is essentially a a repeatable project management tool that allows you to connect everything to the results within your CRM.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I can now look at the full campaign outline that we've agreed upon between my head of marketing and I currently lead the sales uh and head of sales.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: I can look at the goals and results.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: I can look at who's following up, who's not following up, what they're doing, why they're doing, what was expected, how they're how's expected, and what our follow-up process is all in one system.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now that is really important.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: That to me is so much more important and you know, in terms of than measuring clicks.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's just I can now get on the same page and we have the same vocabulary, the same understanding, the same planning to go out and execute.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: I have a podcast process, I have my own podcast, but I know exactly who's executing what, when, how, where, number of listens we're getting, and the all of that stuff based on a flow that's attached to um my CRM data.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I can also understand the impacts of that because it is attached to my CRM data and look at the number of leads I'm getting from it and number closed deals and all of those things.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: So the innovation is amazing.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: It takes, it truly builds delivery mechanisms across your organization in a way that's fantastic and scalable.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then I think a second one that I love is we are working on releasing uh what we call the insight engine.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: We're if you haven't heard from me in the past, you know, 15 minutes, if I haven't said it, we love process.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like if sales process is is but sales process, marketing process, project process, everything.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: And we love to enable that process.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: We're really good at that.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so one of the things that AI loves is structure.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it loves structure.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: You need to control how it's looking at data with your prompts, with your um with the data structures and those type of things.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a process-based mechanism that I can wrap AI around with effective prompting.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it's starting to bring, we're we are testing it now, we're it's starting to bring uh insights and results into this.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: That is it's phenomenal.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: It allows us to understand exactly and and natural language query exactly what's going on in any account, anywhere, at any time, and have the same shared language about it because it's built on our process and methodology.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: And innovation that's kind of out of the, that's out of this world.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: And you add flows to it, man.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm super excited about where we're going.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's uh interesting, Paul, because I only just got introduced to flows very recently.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I actually jumped in and did a trial myself.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Already I have downloaded your templates, which is fantastic.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: One that is front and center for me right now, and I'm actually going to be doing a video which I'm sharing with a client today because we're recruiting for a client, and the feedback I had was that our their onboarding process was really clunky.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: There effectively was no onboarding process.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not uncommon.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: I had the same conversation with another client yesterday.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, what we're what I've done is actually built an onboarding sample for our client, which incorporates a welcome video from the business, which incorporates a learning video on what's required for your first 30, 60, 90 days.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: It incorporates videos from their major suppliers and training that's required for them to be brought up to speed quickly.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really excited.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: About this because onboarding effectively and consistently is a huge issue because you know we we do a lot of recruitment as you know, so we can go and find good salespeople, but we're also so reliant on our client bringing them into their business and onboarding them effectively.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, right now, right now, so many salespeople and leaders are juggling multiple roles.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: They just don't have and I and I I get it, I've been there, and I think it's not until you sort of stop and go, hang on a sec.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing this all the time.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, why aren't we building a process that is repetitive and that will follow someone through?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we're doing some really exciting work on onboarding, and I think the other key area is yeah, really getting in and trying to set up these, you know, using flow and using the new technology to support salespeople.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: So just uh dive back a little bit into another area there, Paul.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And what's your vision and future for the sales industry?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: What's what is membranes seeing around the world?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, this is my vision and future.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I talk about this a lot.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really excited about it, actually.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: I am excited about having um it's it's almost like AI is bringing is bringing us all our own executive assistants.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I think we're going to be able to do more full cycle, full cycle reps that are really good at, you know, understanding the needs of somebody, under discussing that, analyzing it, really diving in, really serving with all the tools at their hands.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's actually doubly important that we are doubling down on our skills in those areas.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we're doubling down on how to do proper discovery and how to understand, you know, what a vision and their current state and where they want to go and the gap and and the impacts they're trying to achieve, and doubling down on the ability to have a conversation, right?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: And and to do so in a human manner that's one-to-one because that has been lost for a long time.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: And what I think and what I see is that actually with AI actually is helping us do things like that more effectively.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's it's I can now put up fathom and I can just have a conversation and focus on the other person.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have to focus on jotting down all the notes that somebody wants from that conversation in my CRM, right?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: I can simply be present and be a servant and a leader.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm finding more and more and more things like that that we're able to do.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so that is the future of sales to me, is almost a return to the relationship where we actually are able to have these.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: I see more face-to-face because I think I'm hearing more and more people that are disgruntled with the amount of just crap they're getting and the amount of time they're spending online and the digital stuff.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: So doubling down on those personal, interpersonal skills and relationship skills, discovery skills, understanding that and more full cycle reps.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I love it because we're really well positioned to do that.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like we, we, we think coaching is incredibly important, effective.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: We have a platform for that.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: We we believe coaching is only effective when you do it in the context of a process that has been outlined that everybody understands.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: We're very good at that.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we believe skills come in at each point in the process.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: So we're very, very well suited to help people develop those skills, especially with partners like yourself around the world.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: So people being able to go deeper, better, more effective, and probably fewer of us.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that's true or not, but the way it's trending, I'm just seeing that that's that is happening.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: That we're yeah.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there'll be less salespeople, but the then we need to be better.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think by having the tools, and that's one big, you know, misunderstanding, unfortunately, from where I see it, with uh what's your version?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: What is sales enablement to you, Paul?
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: Sales enablement to me is how I help that salesperson more effectively leverage the skills of the sales trade, understand and provide a great service to the customer, um, and bring more value to the whole transaction.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that is conceptually sales enablement.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, how that's practiced across across the world is very different in very different areas.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: People think it's all a platform or all a system, it's all a this, that, the other, but you need to keep those fundamentals in mind.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you end up installing systems that that break your company, are overpriced, underused, and don't provide a whole lot of value.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do I help them gain the skills they need, continually improve upon them and practice them?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: How do I help them more effectively interact with a customer and serve them?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: And how do I help them provide and bring about the value that your company promises, both show that value and provide that value?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's sales enabled.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: And on that note, Paul, I think I will wrap up our session here.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I do really appreciate your time.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: The podcast is about innovation and sales execution, and I think we've covered off those areas very well.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for your time today.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's greatly appreciated.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, mate.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: I truly appreciate it.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Love working with you and let me know the next time.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: But season two is off the ground, brother.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Got a product that's struggling or launching something new?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Reach out.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're inviting guests who want to make a real impact.