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© 2024 Decoding Sales
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A podcast where an engineer (Alex Allain, CTO @ U.S. Digital Response) and salesperson (Peter Ahn, Tech sales coach) demystify what it means to build meaningful business relationships in the modern age.
40 Episodes
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Send us a textAt the end of the year, Peter and Alex look back on what Peter's learned coaching startups and three places he's changed his mind.They cover: Peter's new thoughts on BANT and MEDDIC as discovery and sales qualification frameworks. (Originally discussed in the BANT and MEDDIC episode from December of 2022)Why Salesforce may not be the best CRM to start with if you're an early stage founder (originally discussed in in the CRM 101 episode from 2021)The changing archetype of wh...
Send us a textHaving all worked together on Dropbox for Business, Tido, Alex, and Peter share a special bond and respect for building the foundational elements of enterprise sales at Dropbox when it was still seen as a consumer brand. Now, as founder and CEO of Koala (getkoala.com), Tido shares his learnings, obstacles and opportunities that all founders who are learning enterprise sales for the first time should tune into. They discuss: Early challenges Tido faced learning to ...
Send us a textPeter and Alex discuss founder-led sales mistake #2: Spending too much time on bad-fit leads. They dive into:What makes a bad-fit lead? How do you qualify for fit and what questions can you ask to get clarity around this?When are some examples you may continue working with non-ICP customers? How do you know when to eject out of a deal midstream?To get more sales advice from Peter, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and subscribe to his newsletter for bi-weekly coach...
Send us a textPeter and Alex discuss one of the most common founder-led sales mistakes he's seen early stage founders make: assuming they have a brand when initiating outbound sales. They dive into: Why establishing a digital footprint ahead of going outbound is importantThe value of offering lead magnets and thought leadership content ahead of asking for a meetingWhy personalization may not be what it once wasHow to get your digital brand started and tips to start posting on Linked...
Send us a textPeter and Alex discuss the state of sales at large companies and what it means to scale authentic sales. They explore the following questions and topics:Can startup sales be relevant at large companies?Why sales training isn't working for large sales teams What Toyota's innovation with building cars has to do with salesWhat leaders at public companies can do to reimagine what sales means for their growth and brandTo get more sales advice from Peter, check out Peter Ahn Sale...
Send us a textPeter and Alex review the elements of an effective pitch:The elevator pitch and leaning into your origin story (regardless of what VCs will tell you)What makes a compelling pitch deck and how not to bore your prospect with deckwareTeasing a demo to sell the second meetingOther episodes referenced: Episode 32: BANT and MEDDICEpisode 3: Call LeadershipTo get more sales advice from Peter, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and subscribe to his newsletter for bi-weekly coaching n...
Send us a textAfter a break from recording, Peter and Alex are back at it with regular recordings. Catch-up to hear what Peter and Alex have been up to and how the state of play has changed within startup enterprise sales. Peter and Alex discuss:Standing out in a hyper competitive environmentThe importance of establishing founder brandingMulti-stakeholder sales in today's environmentThe role of AI in salesFounders mentioned on the episode for thought leadership examples:Victor Hunt,...
Send us a textEvery day you're presented with moments where you can decide whether to take what's offered, or you can negotiate. Most of us take what's offered because it's comfortable and easy, but are you leaving something on the table? Peter and Alex share expert strategy for mastering negotiations with vendors, sales staff, contractors, and even friends. Learn to build stronger relationships, reach win-win outcomes and secure fairer deals for everyone, while also sharpening your your nego...
Send us a textBANT and MEDDIC are two popular sales methodologies. Learn what each of them are for, how to apply them, and how they help you create a more effective sales process.This episode is sponsored by our friends at Salesroom who are building a video conferencing platform specifically for AE's and their buyers to build strong relationships in the virtual world. Built from the ground up specifically for sales interactions with video note-taking, real-time transcription and question dete...
Send us a text Sales and marketing teams need to be able to reach out to prospects cold. But prospects hate getting bombarded by irrelevant messages. What do you do with this necessary channel for building awareness for your company? Peter and Alex debate what makes cold outreach emails bad, what makes them effective, and look for common ground on what you should do if you want to make cold outreach emails that prospects don't hate.For more on outbound and how to be successful with cold ...
Send us a textHigh inflation, negative GDP - possible recession? It doesn't matter what you call it, it matters what you DO. In this episode:👀 Peter shares his view of the state of play and how sales teams should be reacting🎯 How a recessionary environment forces you to up your game and what you need to do differently🎱 How to forecast and adjust your quotas in the face of uncertainty 🤝What to do when a customer wants to renegotiate a contract due to layoffs or lost businessTo get more sa...
Send us a text* How body language and subtle cues can tell you if a deal is on track - or not* How to take the initiative when you get clues that the conversation is going off-track* Cues to look for in a virtual sales environment* How to recreate casual "lobby moments" during a virtual callThis is our first video episode! Find it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzNtJUyjKoAThis episode is sponsored by our friends at Salesroom who are building a video conferencing platform specific...
Send us a textCompetition is a fact of life and business; in this episode, learn how to sell and win against your competitors.* How to understand what the competition is saying about your weaknesses - and turn it to your favor* Why understanding technology trends is crucial to winning deals against competitors* How to credibly undermine the competition - without seeming petty* Why and when it's OK to lose some deals* How to stay authentic when you're trying to beat the other guysThis episode ...
Send us a textVirtual-first selling is here to stay--what does the future hold?How virtual-first and in-person sales will merge into a hybrid sales processWhen to stay virtual and when and how to leverage face-to-faceHow virtual sales unlocks access to high level prospectsKeeping a prospect's attention in a high-distraction selling environmentBuyer-friendly tactics made possible by the freedom of virtual callsPrevious episodes mentionedFuture of Sales post-COVID - https://www.buzzsprout.com/1...
Send us a textZoom fatigue, everyone has it because it's taken over our lives. But what makes a seller successful over Zoom?- Zoom etiquette for dealmakers.- Peter's stack rank of Zoom backgrounds (including the weirdest Zoom background he's ever seen).- How tools like Zoom and Slack work together to change the game.- Tips for successful - non-embarrassing - demoing over Zoom.Plus we try out publishing automated transcripts for the first time!Enjoying Decoding Sales? Leave us a rating or revi...
Send us a textIf you build it, will they come? Maybe not. How do you build a modern outbound sales motion that brings in new customers?- Peter's moment of insight about the modern sales motion- How to go beyond cold prospecting- ...and how to do cold outreach without being obnoxious- Why you shouldn't think of inbound and outbound as completely independent- Peter's pep talk for a new rep doing outbound for the first timeFor more on outbound and how to be successful with cold prospecting, visi...
Send us a text💸 How do you organize your sales team to scale?🔗 The importance of aligning your product roadmap and sales org design.📞 How do you share knowledge across sales teams and offices?📍 The ways sales teams can specialize and how to tell it's time to specialize?To get more sales advice from Peter, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and subscribe to his newsletter for bi-weekly coaching nuggets!
Send us a textHow to navigate the modern sales tools suite to accelerate sales🛫 What tools do you need beyond your CRM?🤼 How to close deals faster by bringing data out of Salesforce and into your workflows🌎 How to pull in publicly available data to make your sales data more useful🔮What the future of sales tools might look likeThanks to our episode sponsor, Momentum. Momentum is a no code deal collaboration platform to automate sales workflows. With pre-assembled recipes that seamlessly operat...
Send us a text🛤 Career tracks in sales vs engineering.🏁 The importance of staying in the trenches to be a sales leader.💲 Setting and managing the sales team's quota.💸 How to manage + raise quotas as a team grows.😰 How to tell if your sales leader is mismanaging the team.To get more sales advice from Peter, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and subscribe to his newsletter for bi-weekly coaching nuggets!
Send us a textWhat to do when you aren't making the sales.❓ The first question to ask when debugging the process. 🎎 How to figure out the right buyer persona for your product.🪓 How to tell you should fire your sales leader.🔬 The importance of being hands-on when sales isn't working.To get more sales advice from Peter, check out Peter Ahn Sales School and subscribe to his newsletter for bi-weekly coaching nuggets!
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