Our 65th guest is Nicki Paterson, Chief Growth Officer of Solutions Driven.
Owen and Nicki discuss the importance of a growth plan in a business.
Including:
– What a growth plan is
– The importance of being informed by data and the important metrics when it comes to growth
– Nicki’s take on demand vs headcount growth
Ethos: “We Not Me”
We support, celebrate, acknowledge and understand one another. We seek to make others’ day better, not worse.
A – Ambitious
We strive for high performance and always deliver the best in everything we do.
I – Innovative
We seek to innovate and improve, challenging the status quo.
R – Resilient
We tackle challenges head-on, we’re pragmatic, solution focused and tenacious.
P – Positive
We build positive relationships with our colleagues and with our clients. We support, celebrate, appreciate each other, and seek to understand. We value diversity and we look for the positives in everything we do. We make other people’s days better through our interactions with them.
O – Ownership
We turn up on time and choose a winning attitude. We take ownership of our actions and output. We are accountable for driving our own development. We strive to become the best version of ourselves that we can be.
Introducing our 64th episode of ON AIR: With Owen – our latest interview video series with honest conversation about scaling revenue, hosted by our Founder & CEO, Owen Richards.
Our 64th guest is Charles Smee, Founder & CEO of Transaction Focus. Owen and Charles discuss best practices for expanding your business into international markets and territories.
Including:
– Most common reasons for companies choosing to explore new territories
– Misconceptions around moving into international markets
– Frequent mistakes made by leaders when breaking into new markets
– Adapting to cultural differences in business around the world and adjusting internal company culture accordingly
– How to ensure you are recruiting the right people in different countries
– Are there certain countries or markets which are easier to break into than others?
– Setting expectations for the ‘bedding in’ period
– Three key bits of advice for leaders who are considering taking their organisation global
Introducing our 63rd episode of ON AIR: With Owen – our latest interview video series with honest conversation about scaling revenue, hosted by our Founder & CEO, Owen Richards.
Our 63rd guest is Chris Loveridge, Regional Sales Manager for EMEA at BigPanda, previously Account Director at SAP Customer Experience. Owen and Chris discuss leveraging the team around you through a sales process and managing the politics within enterprise.
Including:
– What are you typically doing and who are you working with through an enterprise sales process?
– Who is accountable for the end result?
– How to effectively manage internal and external relationships and how you should split your time and effort between the two
– The most common politics you have to navigate through an enterprise sales process
– When and why you would break the process
– How to get an ‘A-team’ on board
– In-fighting: what does it mean, when do you tend to experience it and could it be a good thing?
An introduction to who we are and what we do.
#TeamAir
It will tell you:
Scroll down to read the Q&A.
Owen’s answer here was – it depends on the team.
“If you’re managing an SDR team, look at meetings booked. If you’re managing AEs, then look at pipeline and revenue contribution. For outbound sales, the key drivers are: is revenue coming in and is it staying stable?”
Owen identified a problem with revenue as a metric.
“The problem with revenue is it’s a lagging metric – it’s showing you what happened 2 or 3 months ago. By the time you spot a problem, it’s too late. The sales cycle for most SaaS businesses is between 3-9 months. If you look at revenue today and you see that it’s down, then that’s from 3 months or more ago.”
For Owen, productivity metrics are the ones to focus on.
“Look at things like activity metrics. The number of calls and the number of conversations – remember these aren’t always the same. Look at connect rates – are people calling the right numbers? Post-pandemic, you get better results from calling mobile numbers than switchboards or landlines.”
“Then look at conversion rate – the number of people that your reps speak to and actually book a meeting. Meeting quality is also important – how many of those meetings become opportunities and enter the pipeline?”
Owen stressed the importance of going beyond metrics and considering the mood of the team.
“Look at climate – how does it feel to be in the room? Are people happy or stressed? It’s a tough one to measure but it’s critical.”
“You can get a feel for climate from things like conversation quality, if you have conversation analytics. You can get it from 121s, from your line managers reporting back. It’s a lot less tangible but very valuable, in my experience.”
“In larger teams, employee retention data is a good way of spotting trends. If staff turnover is high, then there’s likely a climate issue.”
Owen gave us his checklist for spotting an underperforming sales team:
“Those are the metrics I’m looking at consistently – and usually one of them can tell me where the problem lies.”
Owen was very clear on this point.
“Can you do it manually? Yes.”
“Can you do it as effectively? No.”
He explained his thinking…
“Manual is very retrospective – it’s all about looking backwards.”
“But with tech, you can spot the problem almost straight away. It also tends to be more accurate. I’ll say that’s not always the case – tech is only as good as the data going into it and humans are capable of messing up data input.”
“But in general, it’s a no-brainer. If you want to be best in class, you need a sensible tech stack. It doesn’t have to be too complicated – the essentials are a good CRM, a good phone system and good B2B data. Conversation analytics and pipeline tracking are also very useful.”
Owen walked us through how reporting worked at Air Marketing.
“I receive daily reports from my SDR Managers. These include activity metrics and conversation metrics. When you report on a daily basis, it means you can jump on problems a lot quicker. It’s been very successful for us.”
Owen’s first step is to diagnose the problem. The second step is to find out why it’s happening.
“To do this, you work backwards through the funnel to find out why. You have to get to the root cause of the issue.”
“If it’s an activity problem, then you have to ask: are we not talking to enough people? Or are we talking to enough people but we’re not getting enough of them to say yes?”
“Then you work backwards. If we’re talking to enough people, but a lot of them aren’t saying yes – then I know it’s a conversation quality issue. If we’re not talking to enough people in the first place, then chances are it’s either the data is wrong or the team’s work ethic is lagging.”
“Or it could be that the team is getting distracted. Are people having too many internal meetings, for example – leaving them with not enough time to call? Then you need to get even more granular – does the problem affect the whole team or just certain individuals?”
The third step in Owen’s process is to solve the issue.
“Think about what you can put in place that will solve the problem. Is it better data or more training around messaging? It isn’t always telling people to work harder – there’s no point getting SDRs to make more calls if they don’t have the right messaging or the right numbers.”
“So here I’d schedule some refresher training sessions around messaging, cold calling and conversations.”
“Or I could be looking at removing things that are standing in their way – helping them to reduce their admin, for example.”
In Owen’s experience, activity reduction is usually driven by just one thing – climate.
“A number of factors affect climate in your sales team, namely: are your SDRs feeling ok at work? Has their manager left? Maybe some people have come into the team and disrupted it. Maybe there’s been a lot of sickness in the team recently. It could be down to lots of things like that.”
“As a B2B sales leader – you need to understand what’s causing it.”
Owen told us about his solutions for improving climate.
“If your SDRs aren’t feeling as motivated as they should be, schedule some 121s with them and understand what’s causing it.”
In situations like this, Owen is a strong advocate of data-led management.
“You have to provide some proof backing up what you say. Let’s say their activity has dropped by 20% compared to last month – present them with a graph showing this and ask them what’s causing it.”
“Usually, you’ll get a straight answer. If they’ve been distracted, then it’s usually something like they’ve been asked by marketing to contribute to a project or they spent 2 days at an expo. Sometimes they might not even realise there’s a problem.
“Then you ask them a simple question: what can they do to improve this month? Get the SDR to suggest their own solutions. People are more likely to adopt change if it’s their own idea, rather than you telling them what to do.”
The next step is to maintain consistency and accountability.
“Once the SDR has provided the solution, agree to hold them to it. Schedule weekly catch-ups for the next 4 weeks and find out how they’re getting on.”
Owen’s preference for data-led management doesn’t stop at the first 121.
“Transparency is very important. Give the SDR access to their activity data; let them see it and track it themselves. If their activity improves over the next month, then that’s a job well done.”
What about improving climate for a team, not an individual?
“You follow the same principle. Take 2 or 3 people in the team and present them with the data. Ask them, why has 80% of the team seen a 20% reduction in calls?”
“Then involve them in the discussion. Let them recommend solutions. People are always more accountable if they’re working with their own solutions.”
Owen had some great advice for SaaS sales leaders:
“As a leader, you’re not there to tell your team what to do. You’re there to facilitate them and help them to be the best they can be.”
Owen had lots to say about how sales teams should best use data.
“If we’re dialling lots of people but meetings aren’t being booked, then I know that’s a data issue.”
“The thing is, data can be good for a period of time. But it doesn’t always last. If things start to go wrong, look at your tech stack.”
“Have you pulled data from a different data provider than usual? Also, consider your targeting – have you gone into a new market or segment where the data isn’t as good?”
“Another problem you often encounter is that sometimes your messaging doesn’t match the data. And if that happens, if the messaging and data don’t match, then your reps will be calling prospects and saying the wrong things.”
“My advice is to structure and segment your data and ensure the messaging is right for each segment.”
Owen keeps a couple of questions in mind when thinking about this:
Owen said:
“Almost always this is down to reps.”
Why?
“They change what they do without realising it. They listen to podcasts, they listen to each other and they learn new things. They try things out and copy what they hear. Then you get a drift in messaging – they say something new without realising it.”
“Drift happens incrementally, it’s not a radical change. A cold call an SDR made 3 months ago will sound completely different to one they make today. The changes happen subtly over long periods of time.”
Owen shared his process for dealing with message drift.
“This is where call recording software comes in. As I said earlier, you need tech to do this. It gives you the ability to listen back to calls. It’s vital for an outbound sales team.”
What would Owen do if he noticed a rep was having this problem?
“I’d sit down with them and play them their successful calls from 3 months ago and the calls they’re making now. Then I’d ask them: what’s different? What’s changed in your conversation? Are any of those changes conscious and if so, why?”
“Again you need to present them with the evidence that things have changed. The key is listening to call recordings and comparing them.”
The things that Owen looks out for in recorded calls are:
“The way of solving all of these issues is through more training.”
We’ve all heard about company culture – but what’s company climate?
Owen said:
“Culture is the things you do – socials, perks, training, incentives. A good culture is one that constantly invests in its people and makes the workplace the best it can be.”
“Climate is how it feels to work here. How does it feel to work in that team or walk into that room? Are people engaged and happy? Are they feeling positive? Do they like coming in every day?”
Owen highlighted why it’s important to be aware of the difference.
“You can have a good company culture but a bad company climate. For me, climate creates the biggest impact on how people work.”
“Climate isn’t always consistent; it can change from day to day. But generally, you want your team to be feeling positive most of the time.”
What sort of things affect climate in a sales team?
“All sorts! Someone in senior leadership leaves, for instance. Or if a couple of redundancies are made and then everyone else gets worried.”
In Owen’s opinion, why is it important to measure climate?
“It drives all the other things I’ve talked about. If people are feeling unhappy, they won’t work hard. They won’t put the effort in or be as motivated, so then your activity levels will fall.”
“Climate can cause drift in conversations because if your SDRs are thinking about what’s happening in the business, then they won’t be as focused on their calls.”
“This is a really important part of running a sales team. Reps need constant motivation – it’s a challenging and repetitive job. They’re affected by external factors all day, every day. Often they’re in the early stages of their career; they’re not as experienced or commercially mature as managers.”
What are Owen’s tips for maintaining a healthy climate?
“It all comes down to management. Good sales team managers don’t just manage, they do. They get on the phones, they speak to customers and prospects. They lead from the front. They run team meetings and let their team speak.”
So you need to make sure your SDR team leaders/managers are:
Owen answered this question by saying:
“Leadership is all about communication. It’s also one of the things that people find hardest about leadership.”
“As humans, we’re often uncomfortable about having difficult conversations. In a leadership role, you can’t be nice all of the time. You need to have honest, straightforward conversations with people.”
Owen told us about the first thing he teaches new team leaders at Air Marketing.
“Data-led management is one of the most powerful tools in sales leadership. If you’re showing someone that their performance has dropped, and it’s all there in the data, they can’t argue with that. It’s not your gut feeling or guesswork; you’re not singling them out or having a go at them. It’s fact.”
“Presenting them with a problem is just one part of it. You then have to involve them in the solution – what would they do to solve it? Give them the opportunity to come up with a fix.”
And the most important part of communicating with your team? Owen concluded with:
“It isn’t speaking – it’s listening! That’s the key to it.”
“Ask the rep a question, then sit back and let them answer. A really good question to ask is: what would you do if you were managing someone in this position?”
“That gets them thinking like a manager – they get thinking about the solution, rather than the problem.”
“In sales, you can have hundreds of problems every day – but it’s how you deal with them that counts.”
In our latest video series, we’re hosting roundtable discussions with our team around hot topics at Air Marketing and within the sales industry. In our first episode ‘Life As A Business Development Executive (BDE)’, we explore:
Featuring:
If you’re interested in joining Team Air as a BDE, please take a look at our Careers page.
In the 10th instalment of our ‘Ask The MD’ series we ask the question ‘what are your top 3 priorities in business?’. Find out the answer in this video featuring our Managing Director, Owen Richards, and sister company Forrest Marketing Group’s Managing Director, Richard Forrest.
Exeter-based outsourced sales specialist Air Marketing Group has agreed a collaborative partnership with Blackburn-based training company Sales Geek.
Air Marketing Group (Air) is the UK’s leading supplier of outsourced sales services, helping businesses to generate sales pipeline using proven sales and lead generation strategies.
Sales Geek is an award-winning provider of sales training to a huge variety of businesses, with clients across the UK and internationally.
The partnership agreement will see Air providing lead generation and telesales for Sales Geek in return for Sales Geek providing training to the Air sales team. In building their relationship in this way, the intention is that the companies will act as structured referral partners to one another.
Sales Geek Founder and CEO Richard Few said: “While the contra deal will see both companies providing significant mutual value to one another in a direct exchange of services, the really exciting part for me comes from the opportunities for bilateral referrals.”
“Sales Geek provides training on lead generation, but we don’t provide actual outsourced telemarketing. Customers often ask us if we do though, so it’s great to have a trusted referral partner we can put them in touch with if they have that need.”
“Air on the other hand are experts at lead generation, but are often asked for help with sales conversion – which is where Sales Geek come in.”
“We are really looking forwards to working in partnership with Air and we feel the partnership will be of huge advantage to both companies.”
Air Marketing Group CEO, Owen Richards, said: “Learning and development is at the top of our priority list for Team Air. It’s something that we’ve always had a focus on and will continue to hold in high regard as we scale up in our exciting growth journey.”
“While we continually hit and exceed targets for our clients, we pride ourselves on generating quality leads. Our Business Development Executives (BDEs) therefore require a wide variety of skills and rigorous training is an incredibly important way of achieving this.”
“Our team can’t wait to start their training with Sales Geek and are excited to learn new skills. On a personal level, I have a fantastic relationship with the Sales Geek team and look forward to seeing how our partnership flourishes.”
To celebrate the partnership, Air and Sales Geek are combining to bring you some great sales insight with a deadly Halloween twist. Our CEO, Owen Richards, and Sales Geek Group Sales Director, Jonathan Finch, will take you through the SEVEN deadly sins destroying your pipeline.
Join us on Thursday 22nd October, 3pm – 4pm, for our FREE Webinar. Register here.
In this episode of our ‘Expert Sales Advice’ series, we ask the question ‘how do you manage mental and physical wellbeing when social distancing?’. Find out the answer in this video featuring our Managing Director, Owen Richards, and and sister company Forrest Marketing Group’s Managing Director, Richard Forrest.
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