Colleagues feel a sense of comradery when they walk through office doors (or log onto a morning Zoom meeting) that encourages team conversation and collective brainstorming.
In sales, this is especially important. Some days can be tough, as constant objections roll in or a once-sure prospect changes course. According to Inside Sales Representative EJ Pascucci, knowing you have teammates to turn to for support can make a big difference in morale.
Seeing real-time results can be just as impactful. At ezCater, the online catering marketplace’s sales team utilizes cross-department collaboration to achieve a sense of community. Throughout the pandemic, by practicing authentic empathy and listening to the needs of their customers both inside and outside of work, they were able to find the most effective solutions to common consumer pain points.
Built In Boston connected with four local sales professionals to discuss what exactly makes their teams – all of which are currently hiring – unique. Employee recognition, mutual respect and promoting continuous growth in the workplace are just a few ways they stand out.
Sales managers Bryan Collier and Lauren Canepa know that a project’s victory is a team effort at ezCater. By coming together and building off of their individual customer experiences, they started using food to uplift and take care of the community around them during the pandemic.
What’s something unique about your team from other sales orgs you’ve been part of?
The sales team has shared ownership in how we design, develop and deliver our sales approach. It is truly a team effort and we expect that everyone leverages data and their individual customer experiences to help design, test and iterate our approaches.
The success we experienced in 2020, despite the impact the pandemic had on our business, can be largely attributed to how the team works together – not only as a sales unit but also cross-functionally with marketing, product and operations. We’re helping businesses everywhere safely reopen their offices and feed their teams. The sense of community and ownership is inspiring.
What’s the most valuable sales lesson you’ve learned in the time you’ve been with your company?
2020 was a hard year for many, both personally and professionally. Listening to our customers, developing a real understanding of what they were managing in and out of work, and then being authentically empathetic helped us best understand their needs. We put our people first, and that extends to our customers and partners.
Whether it was helping to Feed the Front Line or ensuring essential workers were fed safely while they worked to develop vaccines, taking an empathetic approach to our work helped us to better understand the needs of our customers and ultimately find the right solution to make them successful.
We put our people first, and that extends to our customers and partners.”
Are there any new or emerging technologies or tools your team is leveraging in their work?
Like most sales organizations, we’ve been remote since March 2020. Collaboration has always been the key to our success. We’re focused on working together, aiming higher and being better each day.
We invested in Gong to continue to be able to share ideas and better track our successes. It has helped us improve and iterate our sales approach, and been instrumental in sharing user insights and feedback to help develop new product features to better serve our partners.
EJ Pascucci, an inside sales representative at sales engine platform Reveneer, says he finds collaborative strength in his team’s diversity. By reaching out for help when it’s needed and taking advantage of more than 150 unique colleague viewpoints, his team has been able to continuously grow in both knowledge and their sense of unity.
What’s something unique about your team from other sales orgs you’ve been part of?
The collaboration is unmatched. I’ve worked at organizations where I was left to my own devices and didn’t have the support of other sales reps to work with.
Let’s be honest, sales isn’t an easy role. Some days can be tough, dealing with objection after objection or getting rejected by a prospect that you thought was a sure thing. Powering through that on your own at other companies could be isolating and discouraging.
Our entire office is dedicated to sales with 50+ teams selling on behalf of our customers of all sizes and industries. Despite being on different projects, you’re surrounded by peers who have a mutual respect for the role, similar mindset and day-to-day experiences. We have joint call blocks and training sessions together and are constantly supporting and learning from each other. Have a tough call? Laugh it off with the team. No matter the title or project, everyone is willing to help. The energy and camaraderie within our organization is what makes being in sales at Reveneer so unique.
What’s the most valuable sales lesson you’ve learned in the time you’ve been with your company?
Never be afraid to ask questions. There’s always knowledge to gain. Be willing to ask for help and learn from others around you. We have a community of more than 150 sales reps with different perspectives throughout the company. One new idea or tactic could have a big impact on your production and success. The desire to grow and develop as a professional will set you apart from the rest and benefit your career in the long run.
You’re surrounded by peers who have a mutual respect for the role, similar mindset and day-to-day experiences.”
Are there any new or emerging technologies or tools your team is leveraging in their work?
We recently started to leverage the benefits of gamification across our SDR operation. Using a gamification tool like DraftSales allows us to create real-time sales competitions benchmarking against key metrics to bring fun and friendly competition to the teams. Whenever we have a competition live, there’s an increase in production without even realizing it. You have that extra motivation to make more calls, have quality conversations and schedule more meetings. Everyone wants to win and obtain bragging rights! The friendly banter around the office is also a hilarious bonus and a nice break from the typical day-to-day.
At Nexthink, a digital employee experience management platform, there is strength in sharing knowledge. Global Director of Business Development Chris Fraher says that keeping everyone on his team informed of their performance leads to more reflective conversations about ways to prevail.
What’s something unique about your team from other sales orgs you’ve been part of?
With our potential customers, we go out of our way to prepare and research who we’re speaking to so that we can create value on both sides. We try and understand what pain points we might help them solve, and we tailor our conversations to articulate “why Nexthink” so that our outreach is as relevant as possible.
Within the sales team, we put a big emphasis on knowledge sharing, which is very different from what I’ve experienced at other companies. There is a genuine desire to educate and to keep everyone on the team informed of how we’re performing, what’s going well, what needs to be improved, and so much more. We share real-time updates on everything, from the good and the bad to the sometimes ugly. We do believe that a rising tide lifts all boats.
What’s the most valuable sales lesson you’ve learned in the time you’ve been with your company?
I started at Nexthink five years ago as a business development representative, and it’s been fun to witness and play a part in our company’s growth. One thing I’ve learned here from early on is that there really is no “one size fits all” solution to any problem.
To get the best result for both Nexthink and potential customers, we need to bring a genuine curiosity to our roles, really listen to and understand our prospects and their business challenges, maintain a positive attitude, and get creative with the way we operate so that both sides have something to gain. No two interactions are ever the same at Nexthink, which I find exciting and energizing.
We believe that a rising tide lifts all boats.”
Are there any new or emerging technologies or tools your team is leveraging in their work?
Outside of the standard sales software, two tools that we’ve been embracing in our sales process are Vidyard and 6sense. Nexthink is a dynamic product, and we’ve been able to leverage Vidyard’s video platform to really put our features, functionality and use cases on display in a way that’s easy to digest and beneficial to our prospects.
Our BDR team is using 6sense to help us understand buyer behavior, interest, intent to purchase and many other attributes. We use this tool as a compass to get us pointed in the right direction, helping us to customize our messaging, which makes it more relevant to our potential customers and leads to wasting less time on both sides.
Frontend monitoring software company LogRocket doesn’t believe in an “award show season” – they host one for employees every quarter. Sales Development Manager Julianne Cappello said that creating standout recognition and lifting top revenue contributors up are two major factors that have pushed her team to success.
What’s something unique about your team from other sales orgs you’ve been part of?
Every quarter our team hosts an event called “The LogRocketeer” which acknowledges top contributors on the revenue team. This event is unique in the way that there is a winner from each cohort on the revenue team, which allows for diverse recognition and praise. Although we’re working toward one goal, there are a variety of people and teams that contribute to hitting it, and this event shines a light on that.
Additionally, in Q1 we presented a new award acknowledging one person on the sales team who embodies our cultural values. The winner was voted in by the team and honored during The LogRocketeer event. This quarter the winner was from my team, an SDR! Our cultural pillars are always front-of-mind in the work we do, the way we treat each other and our customers.
What’s the most valuable sales lesson you’ve learned in the time you’ve been with your company?
Though I’ve only been in the role for a couple of months, I appreciate our emphasis on being customer first. It’s one of our cultural pillars and it rings true in how we interact with our customers, from the first point of contact all the way through their customer journey. Our team focuses on value-based selling tactics that convert to higher-quality conversations and a better customer experience. We use these same methods on the SDR team and partner with our account based marketing team to ensure that we offer our prospects and customers customized, valuable solutions.
Our cultural pillars are always front-of-mind in the work we do, the way we treat each other and our customers.”
Are there any new or emerging technologies or tools your team is leveraging in their work?
Our sales team has been using Postal.io, which has been a great direct mail tool to increase funnel conversion at scale. Another tool we’ve seen great success from is Loom. With Loom, you’re able to record and share video messages that create a much more personalized touch to out-bounding. Lastly, we’ve been using 6sense, which is an account engagement platform that uncovers anonymous buying behavior. All of these tools have helped boost our conversion rate and result in better quality conversations from the jump.
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