Sally Duby, Chief Sales Officer & Partner for The Bridge Group, Inc. is a veteran in the field of technology inside sales. Having started out with Oracle in their early days as an inside sales rep, Sally learned the power of building strong foundations and where that success can lead.
In today’s episode, Sally dives into what her experience in sales leadership has taught her about building strong process, rallying a team through a pandemic, and how pivoting is vital in times of change.
Tune in to today’s episode to learn about strong leadership in the face of adversity!
Watch or listen to this episode:
Transcript:
Tue, 3/22 · 09:58:22 43:11
Summary Keywords
sales, people, companies, field, selling, technology, tools, sally, email, deals, prospecting, crm, business, enablement, buyers, sell, phone, customer, sales team
Speakers
Sally Duby , Christopher Smith
Intro
Welcome to the sales lead dog podcast hosted by CRM technology and sales process expert Christopher Smith, talking with sales leaders that have separated themselves from the rest of the pack. Listen to find out how the best of the best achieve success with their team and CRM technology. And remember, unless you were the lead dog, the view never changes.
Christopher Smith
Welcome to Sales Lead Dog. Today we have joining us someone from my hometown of Denver, Colorado- Sally Duby. Sally, welcome to Sales Lead Dog.
Sally Duby
Thanks so much, Chris, very excited to be here and I’m newly from your hometown. I just moved to Denver just a couple of years ago.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, it’s great. I’m sure you know, it’s a great town to be from- so thrilled to have you here. Sally, for those of you who may not be familiar with her, Sally is the Chief Sales Officer and Partner for the Bridge Group. Sally, tell us a bit about your journey and how you got to be where you are now with the Bridge Group.
Sally Duby
Yeah, so you know, it’s funny because I was just at a college graduation for a young man who’s like my nephew. And you know, he’s struggling with I don’t know, really what I want to do now that I’ve graduated, and what direction I want to go. And it’s like, you know, I who would have thought my journey, which after I graduated from college, I graduated in Hotel and Restaurant Management can tell I’m doing a lot with that right now. And, you know, I stayed in it for two years, and realize that probably wasn’t what I really wanted to do. But it was my steppingstone, because a gentleman that I worked for, at a Western hotel, left the industry and went into sales and he recruited me into sales. And so that was how I ended up many, you know, years ago, getting into sales, and have never looked back since I started the journey. I started in insurance sales, and realized I didn’t really like that kind of selling. At the same time I moved from Michigan to California and even back many years ago, tack was getting going. And so I got into selling tack and loved it started in field sales actually. And for a very small company, before VC firms was in vogue, and really a lot of them out there. And so stayed for five years working in various management positions eventually for this small company, and realize that really to beef up my background and my resume I needed to get in with a larger company. And so, I actually got in with Oracle earlier on at Oracle’s days. And I started in the inside sales group with Oracle and I was the 10th inside sales rep; had the privilege of working alongside Marc Benioff for a little bit before he moved onto much bigger and greater things along the way. But that was really my official launch pad and into this. And I have to say I love the inside sales. I loved the fast pace of it. I love that it was repeatable and scalable. And once I figured out what my success was, and how to, I could repeat that and just keep doing it over and over again. And it fit my lifestyle at the time because I was starting to have children. And so I knew every night I’m going to be at home and I could make good money. So, I decided to stay in it. And we moved on to you know, from Oracle, we were really kind of beat up by the field sales teams and you can’t sell anything you can sell maybe RPC product, but you can’t sell anything everybody wants to meet in person to in three years, we were a $25 million organization. And then, you know, it’s billions today and 1000s of 1000s of people globally. So to really get a piece of that early journey within PTAC I went on to several other tech companies and helped build or transform inside sales, sales development renewals teams for those companies and moved into various leadership roles and stayed with it and then got into the consulting, which I love because I’m talking to so many people, different companies and people today and learning so much from all those conversations. And but there’s a lot of things that that I’m hearing in common. But the consulting other tech companies in particular, really understand and utilize the full power of inside sales and sales development. And that’s how I joined the Bridge Group about five or six years ago with Trish to increase our business. So, I do sales every day.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, and you know, inside sales is really, it’s, you know, we’ve had a crazy 18 months, you know, getting through COVID, and all that. And, you know, so as a sales leader, how should I be looking at or thinking about inside sales? Coming out of this pandemic?
Sally Duby
Yeah, so boy, there’s a lot we could talk about with that one. So first of all, I guess probably the best thing is, let’s sort of clarify some terms, because inside sales is one of those terms, that means a lot of different things to companies. So how we use it in typically uses in inside sales is actually your selling over the phone through zoom through digital means. And closing deals, right. So you’re generating revenue, your quota based, and you’re paid, right? Incentive comp, based on how much you close, there’s another facet of it, that we typically refer to as sales development, which is more generating pipeline on the front end of the sales cycle; And that sales development reps are doing outbound prospecting and following up on inbound leads, and setting meetings with the right companies, the right people that have a need that you can solve, and then passing those on to a sales person, whether that’s an inside sales person or a field salesperson. So now that we have sort of the groundwork laid out there, you know, when COVID happened, it presented a whole new opportunity for inside sales. And because everybody was selling inside sales, so field sales people, whether they wanted to acknowledge it, and believe it or not, we’re actually selling totally over the phone. And so we went from this that I thought all my career was you can’t sell this over the phone, it has to be a relationship, you have to be in the field, you have to do this and that and all this other bull, too, you know what people were selling. Once we got settled in COVID. People realized, yes, there was a lot of bad things that happened, but the sky didn’t actually fall. And we were carrying on business, that companies were selling million dollar deals over the phone and through Zoom and whatever other means they used. They were selling $100,000 deals and cut companies prosper. Eventually, it took a few months from the start of COVID. And so, you know, we really went full circle around this. And now we have all these reports out by McKinsey. And I’m trying to think of who else put out some of these reports. But where they’re stating, you know, 75% of buyers feel that this selling mode and methodology is much more effective and efficient than face-to-face. And oh, by the way, only 20% buyers want to go back to the old way of being in their office and being in their face. So, we’ve got this reality now, where this is the preferred method that our buyers want to buy. And we’ve proven that they can buy this way, whether it’s a million dollar deal, or it’s a $5,000 deal. So, it’s opened up a whole new thing. But it’s also you know, we’ve caused a lot of challenges for our sales models and how people operate that both inside sales needs to up level their skills, and field sales needs to get skills that they never had before. So yeah, we’ve proven you don’t have to be in the field.
Christopher Smith
Do you think that this proves or alters? I think it probably really significantly alters but just the process of how we sell that money? Maybe we’re making it harder than it needed to be?
Sally Duby
Yes. I think so, again, I mean, you know, those million- $2 million, or even greater deals, those are all gonna be the anomalies that, you know, they may still go back and follow the old way of doing things at certain points in time. But, you know, I think what we’ve seen happen is like what field salespeople have struggled adapting to this, is that they tried to take their, 90 minute- 120 minute dog and pony show, if you will, that they used to do in front of a room of you know, 20 people, executives, and they tried to redo that on Zoom. They fell flat on their face for the most part, right? So that doesn’t work. And we have to figure out our buyers, everybody, we’re all crazy busy, right? People, we don’t have patience, it’s like, get to the point, get to the point, tell me what you got to say. And so the companies that have really thrived are the ones that have been able to adapt, not just taking exactly what I used to do in the field, and do it over zoom today, that again, doesn’t work. About 13 years ago, now, I started up a group called the VP of Sales forum. And we didn’t meet in person, it was for VP of sales, shocking. In the Bay Area, where I was for many, many years. And it was a forum to get VPs of sales to meet peers so that they would be able to have somebody a trusted network that they could call up and get help with advice, throw things around with, as well, as we brought in guest speakers five to six times a year. And to keep them up to speed on latest trends, what’s happening, what are the new things that you need to know about to do your job properly? And so, when COVID happened, we went to a meeting on Zoom. And we brought in Jeff Williams, who was president of RMS security. And Jeff realize really clearly, really early on, I should say, when COVID struck is that his heavy field sales model needed to change. And that as they were looking at cost, and how do we make all this work until we figure out, you know, because sales did fall flat for like two or three months, right? For pretty much everybody. You know, how are we going to survive how we’re going to pull this off. So they focused a smaller number of field sales people on the really critical key strategic accounts, right, they were still selling over the phone, but they focused on up at the very high end of the pyramid. And then they raised where it they did have an inside sales team, they’ve grown it. And they also went from the inside sales team used to sell up to employee size of 2500. He raised it up to 5000. And their inside sales teams were routinely now bringing in $200,000 deals $250,000 deals, and this was new business. This wasn’t existing accounts. Then earlier this year, they were looking at let’s maybe why are we limiting to 5000 employees there to go really well, maybe we should look at raising it up to 10,000. So you keep growing, you know, where your, your less expensive resources are, but still are doing a really good job. And so, yeah, that’s where you know, there’s an opportunity though, because now that inside sales is selling bigger deals- are selling more complex deals; enablement has taken on a huge importance for many companies, and we see enablement. That’s like one of the top, you know, open positions that we see around was trying to get sales enablement people on board to help with the training to raise the skill set of inside sales. How do you sell to multiple buyers? How do you sell complex systems? How do you do these presentations to multiple buyers? And then as well, again, they need to help the field sales team rework their presentations, and the way that they’re selling to accommodate the really impatient buyers and this new way of selling today. So again, it’s opened up a whole lot of new opportunities around these creative challenges, but we like to think of those as opportunities in the consulting world.
Christopher Smith
Right? Exactly. If I realize that I’m going through this process of I have to shift the structure of my sales team, how should I approach that training to make sure that I’m elevating the skillset of my inside salespeople, but also supporting the people that were field sales that that are now having to shift to inside? Yeah, it makes sure that really, I’m supporting them in the way I should be in giving them the skills they should be having?
Sally Duby
Yeah, it’s a great question. You know, I think everybody’s still, to some degree struggling with that. But I think they’re two different issues. So they do need to be separated out, right, you can’t do like one training for, you know, that’s going to cover both helping your inside sales as well as your field sales, right? So I’m really looking at, you know, what’s your sales model? What are you trying to accomplish? So one of the other things that, you know, we’ve heard from Jeff Williams and others is, they also went to a model of, you know, what we’re gonna really focus on land and expand models, true land and expand, where we’re not going to always try to go in for the biggest deal possible, right from the beginning, maybe it’s a $25,000 deal, maybe it’s a $50,000 deal. But then we’re going to put a ton of resources around that. What we just landed, right, that first initial deal to make sure it’s successful, that we all understand what criteria we’re being judged on, that we give them a success sheet afterwards that says, here’s what transpired. And here’s what happened, so that the expansion part becomes a no brainer. And you can easily get that. But then on the expansion part, you can also send that over to your field sales. So, you’re teeing up almost leads for your Field Sales Team. But their actual customers that are actually using your product, and it gained a lot of benefit from it. But they can go also go and negotiate. So, it really does start with what’s your strategy? What’s your model? What are you thinking you can do? How do your customers want to buy? Right? You always got to keep it at the forefront, right, which I think we always kind of forget about. Yeah. In the tech world, in particular, and you know, what are they looking to do? How are they buying? Now I know, you know, we went through a lot last year where pretty much any purchase didn’t matter, it was $1,000, 10,000 20,000, the CEO of all science companies had to approve it. And so that is loosening up some budgets are still kind of people aren’t really sure if they have a budget, if they don’t have a budget, how much of a budget do they have? So, you know, there’s still some squishiness there and some unknowns. But we always need to take that into account. And, you know, it’s an opportunity for customer- for companies to right size may not be the right word here. But it’s an opportunity to reevaluate their model. And see, can we make more money by serving our customers the way they want to be served in a more efficient model and method, but still grow it? Right, right, and still get those larger deals? Because I know, you know, your investors, and the public that’s invested in companies don’t want to see, you know, these large opportunities go by the wayside. But so, you got to start with a strategy. Getting back to your original question. Sorry, it’s a long, roundabout answer. And then really work on you know, what is that new sales process that your inside sales team is going through? Right, selling into, you know, these larger size accounts? Where are their skills deficient? And, you know, and then provide that particular training, and help them with decks? I mean, I think that’s one of the biggest things that we do see, and where we’ve seen some really amazing things happen with some of our clients and their enablement teams is the enablement team. So, ones that really have people in enablement that sold in their past and know how to sell like- Okay, let’s take your typical 30 PowerPoint deck, and it’s going to go be five or six slides now. No, you know, so how do we cut it down? What are we cutting out to get to that point? Right, and to be effective and to keep these busy executives because if you can get five executives on a zoom call today. You need to state your case and have them understand that the value that you bring and what you’re going to be able to do for them.
Christopher Smith
Yeah. And the reality is today that, because of like what we’re doing now over zoom, we’re back-to-back to back on all our meetings, everybody’s like that. And so, when we’re selling, we have to understand and acknowledge that, that’s the world we’re in now.
Sally Duby
Yes, I assume fatigue is a real thing. It’s definitely a real thing, I hear it all the time. And funny thing is, is, a lot of our clients and people that I talk to every day, they’re either back in the office, or they’re getting back to the office or partially in the office, and they are excited to be back in the office, whoever would have thought that, but, you know, and I don’t know, if that’s gonna last a long time, actually, you know, they may get over that excitement of being back in the office in another month or two. But, um, you know, so we have to be conscientious of that, we have to be able to keep people engaged, and talk about what they want to talk about, and how we can help them. You know, again, going through a PowerPoint deck, where you spend the first five or six slides or even more for some people, where you’re starting off talking about you as the vendor, and how great you are, how big you are, you just got this enormous round of funding, Gartner puts you on the Magic Quadrant, or whatever, you know, are telling them about how you helped another customer at that stage. They don’t care about any of that. They don’t care how you help somebody else at the beginning, they wouldn’t know what you’re going to do for them. What problems can you solve? And what’s the business value bringing? So, you know, we’re seeing a lot of companies. And again, this is where enablement marketing and product marketing, a lot of what we do as well, is it’s not about feature and functionality. It’s about the business value. Yep. So how do you change all your conversation around to stress business value that you’re bringing? And what are they going to get out of it? How are you going to help make their life better? Or solve these business challenges for them, so they can move on to something else and grow their own business? You’re trying to grow your business.
Christopher Smith
What are some of the common mistakes or landmines that I should be avoiding as a sales leader?
Sally Duby
Um, you know, I think that it goes back to a lot of what we were just saying is acknowledging that, you know, there’s a lot of things that are different, that I think when we talk to a lot of sales leaders, it’s like, oh, yeah, my reps know how to use Sue. You know, it’s no big deal. I think you really need to take a look at that. It’s a lot more than knowing how to use the technology. It’s about what are you doing on that technology? Right? Again, it goes back to the presentation. How are you structuring it? What are your talking points? You know, have you shortened it down? Again, I don’t make any meetings, especially my first meeting for more than 30 minutes. It’s hard to hold people’s attention. It’s hard to get their time when you’re trying to talk to the executive, for the first time for more than 30 minutes. So you again, you got to make those 30 minutes count.
Christopher Smith
Yeah and with people being able to turn their cameras off or whatever, you have no idea what’s happening on the other side, potentially. Right, if your message is not compelling, and engaging and concise forgetting…
Sally Duby
Right, right, you know, I think the other thing that companies learned probably in the first six months of COVID, was that they also especially from the field sales versus inside sales and sales development, is that they did have enough reporting and tracking and measuring. And they were, it was just a big black hole for them as to what was going on and their sales team. And you know, was there any pipeline, you know, the real value of pipeline. And so I think they realize we really need to up our game, and how we’re using our CRM, making sure that we are recording things and see are in the CRM, that we’ve got detailed enough that we’ve got other tools to help automate things, so that it’s not as much of a manual process and that we’re using the tools in the right way. You know, I think on the other end of the spectrum, for the most part our sales development teams and inside sales teams have been much better at utilizing tools and technology, and are more detailed in recording stuff. Although we still found a lot of gaps, that there’s certain things people weren’t, you know, it’s like, you’re not reporting on this key piece of data. So, you know, one of the big ones that we find is like for inbound leads, that sales development or even inside sales teams may be following up on or sometimes they’re going directly out to the field team. You know, if you don’t have the right dispositions as to what happened with that, you know, we’ve got one that they have an awful lot of Gmail addresses, and no phone numbers coming in from inbound, but they’re not disposition it properly. So we really can’t quantify how big of a problem it is. To go back to marketing to say marketing. You know, these are not MQL. Right? It’s not a business email, there’s no phone number, what do you expect us to do with it? That’s right. You know, so being able to quantify a lot of that stuff is where we’re getting into some nitty gritty with those kinds of teams as well, to get more granular insights and data into what is actually happening.
Christopher Smith
Oh, you’re speaking my language. I love what you’re saying. Because I see that all the time that a lot of times those little things are they seem like they’re little things, and so they don’t get the proper attention. When you get into periods like this, you realize, oh, man, we shot ourselves in the foot by not devoting the appropriate time really thinking about? How are we going to use this information? You know, it’s one thing to capture to make sure you’re capturing it. But it’s really about how are we going to leverage it to make decisions, right, to get better. And that’s the part that gets the short end of the stick. So how do you advise your clients around that? What do you tell them when it comes to stuff like that to, you know, so there, they are getting the advantages around CRM technology, and for example, the disposition codes on your leads?
Sally Duby
Well, I mean, when we work with them, we’re going in and we’re giving them you know, you’re missing XY and Z, you need to add these fields, you need to add these dispositions, these statuses. And here’s why, you know, you’re asking us today, these questions, we were just on a call with a CEO and a PE firm yesterday, doing a midway check in with one of our clients. And they were asking a lot of great questions. Well, what’s our conversion in this? What’s our conversion on that? It’s like, we wish we could tell you that we asked that same question. And you’re not capturing that data? So, we don’t know. Yeah. So yeah, it’s like, you know, so you need to start capturing. And that’s going to be part of our recommendations very specifically, what you need to do and to capture so that you could get there all relevant and good questions. And they lead to such great information and ways to pivot and change your business, and what you’re doing. If you’ve got the data, and you’re capturing the data, so and most of times, it’s very minimal stuff. You know, but it’s thinking through the process, and how, what do I need to know to know if I’m doing this role properly? Right? If I’m getting the best benefits out of it, you know, you need a lot of different data points to look at. And so that’s help you need to help guide. So, I mean, the one thing I would say off the bat, we have a lot of clients that like, oh, yeah, we had, you know, whoever we got our CRM from, they came in, and they just gave us their generic sales implementations like, oh, doesn’t know. What’s your sales process? You know, that that’s what you need to put in there. But most of the time, they don’t even know what their sales process is. So that’s one of the challenges is understanding that.
Christopher Smith
That’s right. And there’s no system. I see this all the time. There’s not a system out there that can fix crappy process. Exactly. You know that you have to have your process nailed down first.
Sally Duby
Yes, that’s the first tool.
Christopher Smith
Not the other way around.
Sally Duby
Exactly. Exactly. And I just had this conversation. I kind of have the same conversations, but with slightly different versions of them. But I have three of these earlier today. And, you know, they’re like, you know what we’re using, like sales engagement tools, right? To help with prospecting. It’s like, well, that’s awesome. Tell me about what you got in there? Well, the SDR is BDR is an inside sales reps are all making up their own sequences and their own messaging. And it’s like, okay, and all your SDRs, VDRs are brand new to the business world, right? Just graduated college. So, do they know what Director of product marketing does? Do they even know what it exists? How to talk to them? What’s important to them?
Christopher Smith
What keeps them up at night?
Sally Duby
Yeah, it’s kind of like, you know, the tools are great, but I’ll clean it up a bit. But when you you know, the old saying you put garbage in, you get garbage out? Totally. So if you’re just doing more of it, which is not a good thing,
Christopher Smith
And you’re spending a lot more money to create more garbage? Yes, yes. Mine that again, oh, we put in this great piece of technology, it’s gonna solve our problems. No, it’s not.
Sally Duby
No, no. Right? The technology is not the silver bullet. Right. So, it’s what you put in it. And so that that’s the other I think, big thing, again, is getting back to the proper messaging. And you said…
Christopher Smith
Yes, understanding what’s the value proposition? What is the value we’re bringing to you, the customer? It’s, it’s understanding that and communicating that.
Sally Duby
Exactly, exactly. And, you know, we do tend to mix up in technology companies, feature, and functionality for value proposition. And so that’s the big thing that we spend a lot of time on with companies is like, No, that’s a feature. That’s not a business value. So, what is what are, what’s the benefit, they’re gonna get out of you having that feature in your product? Right, right. And so that’s a key thing. And then we use all of that to create the messaging for outreach and for prospecting, which is what really makes things hum and why, you know, one of the other things getting back what we saw happen during COVID, which is making these teams kind of crazy, but also very, very valuable, is that you have to do a minimum of 25% more activities today, to get that first meeting set versus pre COVID. And to just to get the same results, right. And what we’re finding is that email response rates have plummeted dropped like crazy, because everybody went when COVID happened, and nobody was in the office, you know, worried that nobody had this, the phone numbers, so they even doubled down on sending out more emails to everybody. So, executives that I talked to are like, I get 200, 300, 400 emails every day from outside of my company, from vendors trying to sell me. So, you know what? They’re horrible there’s no value, right? Exactly. There’s no reason for me to want to respond to you, right? And so they hit delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, phone has plummeted, but not as severe as email. And if you can find a cell phone number where prospecting via cell phone numbers, pre COVID was a huge no, no, you didn’t do that. Now, it’s okay. And it’s acceptable. So finding those cell phone numbers and find and utilizing technology that and list that have cell phone numbers is huge. And those are the people that are making really great inroads and grounds right now is when they’ve got their prospecting, round, you know, multimedia, it’s not just email, not just phone, either social if your audience and your buyers or social video and reaching out using cell phone. So you know, again, the things are changing, and you got to keep up with what’s going on and how your buyers are responding. And what they’re what they’re looking for…
Christopher Smith
You know, one of the questions I had for you is how did we get so reliant on email for building pipeline? And I think you explain that really well. But what why? Why have we become so dependent upon it and continue to be so dependent upon email?
Sally Duby
Well, so a couple of reasons. I think that the SDR world today and I hate to generalize on this, but they’re younger, right? They’re typically fresh out of college one year out of college. And when you talk about that group, they’re much more comfortable using screens and technology than actually having that phone conversation. So, they’d rather text- they’d rather email than pick up the phone. The other thing is, is that, you know, I think as leaders of these sales development teams, they’re also in the same boat. And we hear a lot of noise on LinkedIn about cold calling stack. And so, people equate cold calling with the phone, and it’s not dead, it’s how you do it, you’re still going to reach out to somebody who did not say they wanted you to call them. So, whatever you want to call them; outbound prospecting seems to sound better for most people. But it’s the same thing. You know, and you have to understand, again, how to do it properly, and be prepared for that. If they answer that phone call, what are you going to say? Exactly. And so, you got to be able to understand how to engage and get them feeling comfortable that either they’ll talk to you then or you’ve said enough, again, goes back to messaging, you’ve said enough, that’s piqued their interest and their curiosity. And they’re like, okay, I do want to talk to you, I just can’t talk now. So let’s get something on the calendar right now. Right, and you go for it. So, it’s setting them up and preparing them and giving them those kinds of tools. Here’s what you say, when somebody answers the phone, until they get comfortable with it. And they get the whole process and what you’re trying to accomplish, rather than we hear too many times. Well, we hired smart people. And so, we give them high level. But they’re smart. They figure it out on their own. You hope. You hope and it may take a year or two years.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it goes back to training, just think how much more effective they would be in that year or two years, if you spend a month or two months upfront on training.
Sally Duby
Right. If you did that, think of what the benefits your company would get. And more qualified quality meeting sat, right? And that the reps would feel better because they’re going to be getting closer or accomplishing or blowing out their goals and their metrics, because right now they’re not right. And they know that they’re not doing well. And that’s not a good feeling. So, you know, set people up for success, and it’s okay. We’ve sort of come to this where it’s a bad thing to say we’re going to give them a prescriptive process and messaging. But let me tell you, that’s what works.
Christopher Smith
Yes, I’ve heard that. It’s funny to go back here read sales books from 30 years ago, or 40 years ago. That’s what they’re saying. I had a previous guest on who sold encyclopedias on the podcast, and he said, the guys that crushed it selling are the ones that followed the script. But the ones that sucked- Were the ones that went off script or tried to do it on their own. Yeah, right. You know, think about selling encyclopedias. 50 years ago?
Sally Duby
Yes, yeah. Or, you know, another one, that’s a good example, if Cutco knives I don’t know if you’ve ever had any. So, you know that they get a lot of college students that haven’t graduated yet that are working their way through college to do it. And so, you know, I’ve had a couple of friends, my nephew’s friends that have come, and the ones that do really well are the you know, they’re on a script. Yeah. And they know exactly how to say it. The ones that don’t do well are the ones that think that they know better. Right? And, and they go off script. And it’s just like a sales process. I mean, the sales process is a really prescriptive when you do it, right. It’s very prescriptive. And here’s what I need to accomplish in this step. Here’s what the client my prospect needs to agree to, here’s what I have to accomplish, before I can move on to the next one. And then here’s the next one. And you just, you know, you go through this logical order of things, try to reach the end, but for some reason, the LinkedIn sphere likes to say that you can’t be prescriptive and you know, and it’s like, okay, well, we know what works. And every time we put in a prescriptive model and messaging, the teams perform like there’s no tomorrow, right?
Christopher Smith
Because what you’re doing is your job- optimizing based on what works. And to me, it’s the same thing when you’re leveraging technology and support the team. You can’t have technology that supports your team if everybody’s doing it differently, right? It’s your technology, you’ve completely taken technology, all the benefits out of the equation.
Sally Duby
Exactly. Exactly. And we see that happen all the time, especially with sales enablement, tools, again, getting back to that is that when they have the reps all creating their own, they don’t have like a naming convention, right? For their sequences or cases. So that when the rep goes to find one, they don’t remember what they named it, they can’t find it. So, they recreate a new one. And they just keep recreating new ones. And before you know it, there’s hundreds, if not 1000s of them out there. And so, the tool has become rendered useless. Basically, it’s nothing but a mass email tool. And you get no metrics. You get no measurements, no guidance, no information. That tells you what’s working, what’s not working.
Christopher Smith
That’s right. That’s right. It’s insane.
Sally Duby
But it’s every organization.
Christopher Smith
It is we talked to, yeah, yeah, Sally, I really, we’ve come up on time, we’ve actually went a little bit over, but I love listening. So, this has been great. I really appreciate you coming on Sales Lead Dog. We’re gonna have all your contact info in the show notes. But if people want to reach out and connect with you, learn more about you and connect with you and your organization. What’s the best way for them to do that?
Sally Duby
So, I’m on LinkedIn, at Sally Duby you be wise the last name, all one word and, or you can go to bridgegroupinc.com. They have a lot of great content resources, surveys, best practices on the website, or my email is [email protected], and I love to connect with people.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, and I’ll read the website. You guys do have a lot of great content on your website. So, it’s a great resource and also check out Sally’s LinkedIn profile. Your career might have paralleled… I’ve been on the user side or the customer side for much of your career.
Sally Duby
Small world.
Christopher Smith
So, Sally, yes, thanks for coming on Sales Lead Dog.
Sally Duby
Thank you very much for having me. I’ve enjoyed it.
Outro
As we end this discussion on Sales Lead Dog, be sure to subscribe to catch all our episodes on social media. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Watch the videos on YouTube and you can also find our episodes on our website at empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog. Sales Lead Dog is supported by Empellor CRM, delivering objectively better CRM for business guaranteed.
Quotes
- “They don’t care how you help somebody else. At the beginning, they want to know what you’re going to do for them, what problems can you solve and what’s the business value bringing.” (33:32-33:41)
- “You have to do a minimum of 25% more activities to get that first meeting versus pre-COVID and email responses rates have plummeted.” (44:03-44:44)
- “That’s going to be our recommendation, capture the data because it leads to such great information and ways to pivot and change your business to get the best benefits out of it.” (39:49-40:29)
Links
Sally Duby LinkedIn
The Bridge Group LinkedIn
The Bridge Group Website