Amy Volas, Founder & CEO, Avenue Talent Partners
Named as one of the most dynamic women in sales by LinkedIn in 2020, Amy helps B2B tech companies hire sales leaders “without the cringe.” Her enterprise sales career in startups with over $100M+ in closed revenue equips Amy with a wealth of knowledge to share that other recruiters simply don't have.
On this episode of 'Selling to Enterprises', Amy shared great advice for sales professionals, especially on getting started, finding new jobs, and getting hired. Please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Here is the link to Amy's blog: https://avenuetalentpartners.com/blog/
Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyvolas/

Ian Koniak has been a top performing Account Executive for 18 years, with over $100M in career sales at Fortune 500 companies. He's led and developed teams, and was recently the #1 Account Executive in the Enterprise Select Division at Salesforce. Ian is now sharing his secrets to success as a leading sales coach and advisor.

Whether you're looking to boost your own numbers, train your team, or inspire your sales organization at a conference or sales kickoff, Ian delivers results. Ian offers online courses for individual contributors and sales teams as well as live keynotes to inspire your sales team to perform at the highest level.

Follow Ian at https://iankoniak.com or reach out to him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/iankoniak/.

Thanks for listening, please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Rob Waddell is a Sales Leader at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global leader in business and technology services. Rob & Zia discussed many points related to enterprise sales and Rob shared his best practices and insights around:

- Importance of Culture and how do you ensure you show your best side to the client 
- How do you identify & develop a coach in an organization
- Key attributes for an enterprise salesperson
- what does he do when he starts on a new job to lay the foundation for a successful career in the company
- How does he handle a down day.... keeping himself motivated
- Learnings/insights from deal losses
- and much more 

Hiring Alert: TCS is hiring. Please check out https://ibegin.tcs.com/iBegin/.  If interested, please reach out to me at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com and I will be happy to make introductions to Rob. 

 Jessica Cornell is the Enterprise Account Executive at Databricks, a Data + AI Company.  She shared great insights and her best practices of selling into Enterprises. 

She spoke about having empathy, building relationships, and building credibility.... she gave advice on how to approach new accounts, how to move things forward in an enterprise sales cycle and why it is better to walk away if your offering is not a good fit....... and many more great points for enterprise sellers to learn from.

Jess has previously worked in a sales role with companies like Siemens, Talend, Tibco Software, and Qvidian.

Hiring Alert:  Databricks is hiring. Please check  https://databricks.com/company/careers/open-positions and if you are interested, let me know at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com and I will be happy to make introductions. 

Ajay Kumar is the Chief Executive Officer at SLK Software (an enterprise technology services Company).  Ajay is hugely passionate about making a positive client impact while leading SLK to the next level of growth. An industry veteran, Ajay brings an entrepreneurial conviction, to grow and scale the business performance and give back to the community. 

In this episode, Ajay shares great insights & best practices on attracting, building, and managing high-performing sales teams..... and keeping them motivated to deliver at the highest level possible. 

Thanks for listening.  Please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com 

Ramesh Dorairaj is a consultant, coach, and mentor. As founder of Leaders Anvil, he helps companies sell more in an attention-deprived and crowded marketplace. He enables them to understand the nature of the market and calibrate their messages to suit changing patterns of influence and power. Ramesh's book 'Games Customers Play' has been rated by Amazon as a memorable business book of 2018.  

In this episode of 'Selling to Enterprises', Ramesh shared great insights and best practices around building great buyer-seller relationships. Please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Ramesh's book is available for purchase at - https://www.amazon.com/Games-Customers-Paperback-Ramesh-Dorairaj/dp/0143442147

Ramesh can be reached at - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rameshdorairaj/

Nate is the Founder of Fluint, a platform helping Enterprise sales teams stop losing deals when they're not in the room, by selling with champions. He's a 3X sales leader, 2x founder, and loves his wife, dark chocolate, and the Rocky Mountains.

We discussed the following topics:
-  Who are Champions, and why do they matter? 
 - What are ways to figure out if someone's actually a champion in your deal? 
-  How do you work with a champion to develop the business case? 
-  What should you be doing when a deal stalls? How do you get it moving again? 
 - What's something that most enterprise reps get wrong about champions? 

Nate on LinkedIn and link to Fluint  Please share your feedback at Zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

End of season 2. Thanks for your time and continued support..... we will soon be back with the next season. In the meantime, please do not forget to leave a review.

If you have any thoughts, feedback, or suggestions for future guests, please send me a note (zia@sellingtoenterprises.com)

Guest Bio: 
Michael Wagner is a Sr. Commercial Account Executive with Zoom, where he's worked for the past five years. Michael has consistently been a top sales professional throughout his 10-year career, recently being recognized as Zoom's #1 Sales Rep.  Outside of Zoom, Michael is a Board Member of Make-A-Wish Colorado and Founder of the KU Sales Alumni Group. 

Michael shared great insights and best practices for selling to enterprises. 

Michael can be reached at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljwagner18/

Please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Shawn is an expert in sales, driven by a passion to help business owners, executives, and sales leaders accelerate their sales results. As a keynote speaker and virtual speaker, he enables companies, their leaders, and teams to accelerate their sales results.

A prolific writer, Shawn frequently writes about best practices and proven strategies to generate more sales. His insights can be found online in publications such as Fast Company, PLANT Magazine, and INC magazine to name a few.

Shawn is also the author of “The Unstoppable Sales Machine”. To learn more about Shawn and his work you can visit www.shawncasemore.com .

Shawn's Books:

The Unstoppable Sales Machine

https://www.amazon.com/Unstoppable-Sales-Machine-Connect-Customers/dp/1032180544/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3BIYOJZQQ6UG1&keywords=unstoppable+sales+machine&qid=1659016570&sprefix=%2Caps%2C46&sr=8-4

The Unstoppable Organization

https://www.amazon.com/Unstoppable-Organization-Empower-Customers-Revenue/dp/1632651246/ref=sr_1_1?crid=29X56VNY3WX7&keywords=the+unstoppable+organization&qid=1659016676&refinements=p_n_feature_browse-bin%3A2656022011&rnid=618072011&s=books&sprefix=the+unstoppable+organization%2Caps%2C50&sr=1-1

 Kevin McManus is an accomplished CIO with 34 years of IT Leadership experience including seven years as the Sr. VP & CIO at Corning Incorporated, a Fortune 500 Global Industry Leader. 

In this interview with Zia, Kevin shared great insights and his experience of buying from and selecting long-term partners. He has great advice for both the sales leaders and the executive buyers on how to invest and build a long-term win-win partnership.

Please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com 

The Man Who Thinks He Can Walter D. Wintle:

If you think you are beaten, you are
If you think you dare not, you don’t,
If you like to win, but you think you can’t
It is almost certain you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.

"Don't Quit"

When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high;
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are;
It may be near when it seems afar.
So, stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –
It’s when things go wrong that you mustn’t quit.

 Saurabh Atre is the Chief Business Officer at L&T Technology Services Limited (LTTS) 

Some of his top insights for B2B sales professionals :

- 'You never really lose a deal, you always get outsold '
-  Having empathy is the key...... every sales person should have empathy.
-  The importance of having a coach during a deal and how to develop one.
- We learn  from every deal loss - don't miss out on the steps .... stick to the fundamentals.
- Bringing design thinking principles to sales 
- Avoid 'Balti Ulta' phenomenon (you have to listen to the episode for this)
- How to keep a distributed sales team motivated & performing at the highest level

.....and many more great points around selling into enterprises.  

He also referred to his favorite books -  'Only the Paranoid Survive' by Andy Grove and 'Great By Choice' by Jim Collins.

Saurabh is hiring for multiple sales roles (Individual contributors and Sales Management) , if you are interested please write to zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Saurabh has previously held sales & business leadership positions with Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, MindTree  & Wipro Technologies.

Please give it a listen and please share  your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com  

Amy Volas, Founder & CEO, Avenue Talent Partners
Named as one of the most dynamic women in sales by LinkedIn in 2020, Amy helps B2B tech companies hire sales leaders “without the cringe.” Her enterprise sales career in startups with over $100M+ in closed revenue equips Amy with a wealth of knowledge to share that other recruiters simply don't have.

On this episode of 'Selling to Enterprises', Amy shared great advice for sales professionals, especially on getting started, finding new jobs, and getting hired. Please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Here is the link to Amy's blog: https://avenuetalentpartners.com/blog/
Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyvolas/

During the time of this interview Peter Galdi was the Senior Enterprise Account Executive at Signavio and now is the Account Manager - Business Process Intelligence at SAP, after the acquisition of Signavio by SAP.  It was great talking to Pete about his journey and his overall experience of selling into the Enterprises. 

Pete shares his best practices, talks about how he handles the down days and how he approaches new prospects. He shares his mantra for adding value to your conversations  with the client. He shares his learning from a deal loss  and what tools does he leverage...... and much more.

Thanks for listening. Please subscribe to the podcast and share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Debasish Mishra is currently the CTO at WNET Group - in this episode Debasish draws from his experiences of working with vendor partners  at companies like WNET Group, NBC Universal, Corning Incorporated, Microsoft and Merck & Co.  He re-iterates the importance of listening to the customer and why it is  key to invest in the partnership. Give it a listen and please share your feedback at Zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Bio:
Debasish Mishra is Chief Technology Officer for The WNET Group.

In this role, Mishra oversees and advances the technology which supports and enhances the mission of The WNET Group, including content delivery for broadcast, cable and web; information technology, and new media applications. In addition to leading a team of technology professionals, he leads innovation and strategy for future technological developments.

Prior to joining The WNET Group, Mishra served as Vice President & Chief Architect for NBC Universal. During his tenure, he led the modernization of the IT landscape supporting 60 brands plus corporate functions. He was the executive sponsor of NBCU’s cloud strategy for which he was recognized with a Stevie Award for Cloud Innovation by the American Business Association.

Previously Mishra held technology strategy and transformation roles for global companies in multiple industries including Corning, Microsoft and Merck & Co.

Mishra received his Master of Science from Carnegie Mellon University and his Bachelor of General Studies from University of Michigan.

Judith Apshago discussed her experience of working with external sales organizations  and shared valuable insights for the enterprise sales teams to leverage on a daily basis.

Judith Apshago is an accomplished IT executive and an award-winning CIO.  Judith was awarded the 2018 Enterprise Capital CIO of the Year Orbie Award and the Norma Miller Passionate Philanthropist Award in 2016.

Judith currently serves as Vice President IT for Amtrak. Previously, Judith was Vice President and Chief Information Officer of U.S. Silica.  Prior to U.S. Silica, Judith held various IT leadership roles with Sigma-Aldrich, BioReliance, and Invitrogen, and spent several years as a consultant with ePresence and PricewaterhouseCoopers. She began her career implementing process improvements within the Department of Defense.

Judith holds a Masters in Public Administration from Troy State University, a Masters Certificate in IT Project Management from George Washington University, and Bachelors degrees in Finance and Math from Hood College. She currently serves on the CapitalCIO Leadership Association Advisory Board, the Innovation Advisory Council for Vation Ventures, and the Washington DC CISO Executive Leadership Summit Advisory Board, and holds several volunteer Board roles at Hood College including the Board of Associates, Computer Science Advisory Board, and the Chair of the Career Center Advisory Council.

These are the resources mentioned by Judith:
The Enterprisers Project - A community helping CIOs and IT leaders solve problems: https://enterprisersproject.com/
RedZone Technologies Podcasts with Bill Murphy: https://www.redzonetech.net/podcasts/
Inspire CIO – CIO-only community but vendors may nominate CIOs for the Orbie Award or may sponsor the awards for a given chapter or nationally: https://inspirecio.com/

Karen Palmquist ,  Enterprise Sales and Alliances at the BORN Group, shares her best practices around selling and building long-term strategic alliances.  Karen discussed some of her wins, shared her learnings from lost deals and  discussed how to effectively leverage the alliances especially in the technology ecosystem.

Some of the books referred by Karen on this episode include:

- The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton-Porter ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107933.The_Keeper_of_the_Bees)
-  Talking to Strangers  by Malcolm Gladwell (https://www.gladwellbooks.com/landing-page/malcolm-gladwell-books/) 
-  Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
-  Blink by Malcom Gladwell
-  Quantum Marketing by Raja Rajamannar (https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Marketing-Mastering-Tomorrows-Consumers/dp/1400223954)

Motivation Episode - If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Biren shares the founding story behind MonetizeGTM.com. He talks about how to leverage partnerships effectively , shares his best practices around selling to enterprises and his learnings as a quota-carrying sales rep while working with companies like Optanix, arago GmbH, Wipro and CA Technologies / Computer Associates. 

If you are interested in better monetizing your B2B partnerships, please visit https://www.MonetizeGTM.com or reach out to Biren at gosai@monetizegtm.com.

Motivational Poem - It Couldn't Be Done, by Edgar Albert Guest

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done
       But he with a chuckle replied
 That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one
       Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.
 So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
       On his face. If he worried he hid it.
 He started to sing as he tackled the thing
       That couldn’t be done, and he did it!
 
 Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you’ll never do that;
       At least no one ever has done it;"
 But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
       And the first thing we knew he'd begun it.
 With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
       Without any doubting or quiddit,
 He started to sing as he tackled the thing
       That couldn't be done, and he did it.
 
 There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
       There are thousands to prophesy failure,
 There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
       The dangers that wait to assail you.
 But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
       Just take off your coat and go to it;
 Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
       That "cannot be done," and you'll do it.

Kevin Brown is the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at 1Kosmos.  Kevin is a seasoned sales executive who has extensive leadership experience in global business development. He has a proven track record of building global  sales and channel teams that produce high revenue growth at companies including Savyint, Wipro, and CA Technologies. 

Kevin shared many best practices and experiences with the Host - Zia Zaid. Please give it a listen and please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com.

My guest on this episode is Sudip Dutta, Founder & CEO at Relatas. Sudip started Relatas to address issues he faced as a sales rep and a sales head. He shared his best practices and how Relatas is helping companies to sell better, faster and to sell more. Let me know your feedback - zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

About Relatas:
The biggest challenge that most CEOs, CROs, VP Sales, Sales Reps face today is unpredictable sales forecasting. This happens mainly due to no-data or worse, bad data in the CRM. Commit call are more of a status call, Sales reps hate entering data into CRMs leading to limited visibility for management and limited to no insights for sales reps.

With No-Data-Entry CRM, Relatas pulls in authentic data. Relatas applies Artificial Intelligence to solve one of the biggest challenge - Sales Forecasting. Relatas is used by professionals from Enterprises, mid-sized companies to startups.

Vignesh Markandan leads the New Business / New logo acquisition for Wipro Limited 's Manufacturing Business unit. Vignesh spoke to us about many sales best practices and his 22-year journey at Wipro. The two main takeaways from this conversation are  a) How to build a high-performing sales team and keep them continuously motivated to achieve at the highest level possible and b) Key learnings from deal losses, especially the large complex deals  and how to keep moving forward.  This is a great listen for all Enterprise Sellers. 

Please leave a review or write to Zia at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com. Thanks for listening.

Sudhi Bangalore  is  the Chief Technology Officer for Global Operations. at Stanley Black  & Decker. In this position, Sudhi manages the company’s Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence and leads the automation efforts with technologies such as the internet of things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, 3-D printing, robotics and advanced materials.  

Prior to joining the company in 2017, Sudhi was the Global Head of Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 Solutions with WIPRO, and before that was the Global Practice Head for Industrial Automation. Sudhi also held leadership roles with companies such as Danaher Corporation, Siemens and Rockwell Automation.

In conversation with Zia Zaid on this podcast, Sudhi shared his experiences of working with various sales organizations and has provided great guidance / advice to enterprise sellers and sales heads on how to work with large enterprises especially with the CXOs & top executives in these organizations.

Please leave a review or share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Saurabh Atre is the Chief Business Officer at L&T Technology Services Limited (LTTS) 

Some of his top insights for B2B sales professionals :

- 'You never really lose a deal, you always get outsold '
-  Having empathy is the key...... every sales person should have empathy.
-  The importance of having a coach during a deal and how to develop one.
- We learn  from every deal loss - don't miss out on the steps .... stick to the fundamentals.
- Bringing design thinking principles to sales 
- Avoid 'Balti Ulta' phenomenon (you have to listen to the episode for this)
- How to keep a distributed sales team motivated & performing at the highest level

.....and many more great points around selling into enterprises.  

He also referred to his favorite books -  'Only the Paranoid Survive' by Andy Grove and 'Great By Choice' by Jim Collins.

Saurabh is hiring for multiple sales roles (Individual contributors and Sales Management) , if you are interested please write to zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Saurabh has previously held sales & business leadership positions with Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, MindTree  & Wipro Technologies.

Please give it a listen and please share  your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Jessica Cornell is the Enterprise Account Executive at Databricks, a Data + AI Company.  She shared great insights and  her best practices of selling into Enterprises. 

She spoke about having empathy, about building relationships and building credibility.... she gave advice on how  to approach new accounts, how  to move things forward in an enterprise sales cycle and why it is better to walk away if your offering is not a good fit....... and many more great points for enterprise sellers to learn from.

Jess has previously worked in sales  role with companies like Siemens, Talend, Tibco Software and Qvidian.

Hiring Alert:  Databricks is hiring. Please check  https://databricks.com/company/careers/open-positions and if you are interested , let me know at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com and I will be happy to make introductions.

Peter Strohkorb is a B2B Sales Acceleration Specialist. For a decade now, Peter has been advising  companies on four different continents to improve their enterprise sales approach. In this discussion with Zia Zaid, he presented great insights and highly relevant points for enterprise / B2B sellers to learn from.

Some of the points discussed:
- What is the biggest challenge in sales today?
- Are you still selling like it's 2018
- Guess when the sales funnel was first invented? (answer: 1898)
-  Is (ABC) always be closing still relevant today?
-. Is your sales approach is focused on how you want to sell, or on how your buyers want to buy?

Peter is offering a free Sales Acceleration Self-Assessment for the listeners of 'Selling to Enterprises' podcast.... please use this link to access the assessment:
https://peterstrohkorb.com/sales-assessment

Here is the link to access books written by Peter - https://peterstrohkorb.com/books

Please let us know your feedback at Zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Andy Nixon has recently retired as a senior IT Executive at a Fortune 300  Company...... Andy has been involved in many technology (services, software , hardware and networking) related buying decisions..... and many of them were significantly large and materially impactful.

In this interview with Zia Zaid,  Andy shares many insights including how decisions are made in large companies, what are the dynamics involved, what do they look for in a long term partner..... the importance of integrity and culture in this decisions..... many more great points from his experience of working with external sales organizations over a stellar career journey of last 30 years.

As usual, we welcome your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com..... please keep them coming.

Gary Meadows and Zia Zaid discussed Gary's experiences of working with vendor sales organizations, especially during his time as the Chief Architect for a Fortune 300 Company. Gary shared valuable advice on how to approach and respond to RFPS .... also talks about making effective presentations to the CXOs and many more great insights for Enterprise Sellers.

Please give it a listen and please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Katrina Gosek’s Bio:

Katrina leads go-to-market strategy for Oracle CX Sales, Commerce, CPQ, Content and Subscription Management. She has nearly twenty years-experience in technology product strategy. She has a BA from Vanderbilt in European Studies, a Masters from Harvard in Renaissance French Literature and an MBA from Babson College in Technology Intensive Enterprises.

Katrina discussed multiple things that are effecting B2B sales and CX today including the shift to subscription based models, the relevance of a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), B2B buying behavior and much more. 

Please leave a review, wherever you listen to the Podcast and please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Rob Waddell is a Sales Leader at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global leader in business and technology services. Rob & Zia discussed many points related to enterprise sales and Rob shared his best practices and insights around:

- Importance of Culture and how do you ensure you show your best side to the client 
- How do you identify & develop a coach in an organization
- Key attributes for an enterprise sales person
- what does he do when he starts on a new job to lay the foundation for a successful career in the company
- How does he handle a down day.... keeping himself motivated
- Learnings / insights from deal losses
- and much more 

Hiring Alert: TCS is hiring. Please check out https://ibegin.tcs.com/iBegin/.  If interested, please reach out to me at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com and I will be happy to make introductions to Rob.

Prasoon Saxena is currently the President of the Manufacturing Business Unit at NTT DATA Services. In this role, he is responsible for profitable growth, industry strategy and client satisfaction through modern, innovative solutions. With more than two decades of global leadership, Prasoon is intensely passionate on driving value, innovation and trust while delivering on business outcomes for his clients. Prior to joining NTT DATA, Prasoon held leadership positions with Dell Services and Wipro Limited.

Prasoon shared a Business Head's perspective on what is required for sellers to be successful in today's market and also how a sales leader should help motivate, inspire and build the right sales team for the long run. Prasoon shared many great insights, highly relevant for both the individual contributors and the sales heads, focused on selling to enterprises.

Please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com. Thanks for listening.

Hiring alert: Prasoon has many sales positions available... please check out the podcast to learn more. If you are interested,  please send me an email.

NTT DATA Career Page: https://careers-inc.nttdata.com/search/?createNewAlert=false&q=sales&locationsearch=United+States

Edward Wilson-Smythe (he/him) is a leader (within Industry Strategy & Solutions group) at one of the largest technology & business services companies in the world , and focuses on defining and executing digital innovation strategies, integrated solutions and innovation partnerships for strategic Manufacturing, Automotive and Energy clients. He has over 20 years of diverse experience as a management consultant, technology strategist and industry practitioner, focused on leveraging innovation to drive superior business results and social outcomes. Prior to his current assignment, Edward led Gartner’s Sourcing Advisory Consulting practice in North America, and set up and led the Digital practice for Avasant, a boutique consulting firm focused on digital business transformation.

Edward is also a co-author of a book called ' Digital Singularity  : A Case for Humanity". Available on Amazon. 

Please continue to send your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com. Thanks for listening.

Ian Koniak has been a top performing Account Executive for 18 years, with over $100M in career sales at Fortune 500 companies. He's led and developed teams, and was recently the #1 Account Executive in the Enterprise Select Division at Salesforce. Ian is now sharing his secrets to success.

Whether you're looking to boost your own numbers, train your team, or inspire your sales organization at a conference or sales kickoff, Ian delivers results. Ian offers online courses for individual contributors and sales teams as well as live keynotes to inspire your sales team to perform at the highest level.

Follow Ian at https://iankoniak.com or reach out to him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/iankoniak/.

Thanks for listening, please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

We have brought back one of our greatest episodes - an interview with Debasish Mishra, the CTO at WNET group discussing his experiences of working with external sales organizations.

Please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Bio:
Debasish Mishra is Chief Technology Officer for The WNET Group.

In this role, Mishra oversees and advances the technology which supports and enhances the mission of The WNET Group, including content delivery for broadcast, cable and web; information technology, and new media applications. In addition to leading a team of technology professionals, he leads innovation and strategy for future technological developments.

Prior to joining The WNET Group, Mishra served as Vice President & Chief Architect for NBC Universal. During his tenure, he led the modernization of the IT landscape supporting 60 brands plus corporate functions. He was the executive sponsor of NBCU’s cloud strategy for which he was recognized with a Stevie Award for Cloud Innovation by the American Business Association.

Previously Mishra held technology strategy and transformation roles for global companies in multiple industries including Corning, Microsoft and Merck & Co.

Juveria is a marketing leader with over 16 years of experience in B2B technology marketing. In her current stint, she is building programs that helps engage customers, prospects and influencers and build stronger relationships. She is responsible for positioning a high-growth Cybersecurity company, ColorTokens' brand, and enabling new channels that drive revenue.

She has extensive experience in building integrated customer engagement and demand generation programs through account based marketing, multi-channel campaigns, analyst engagement, media and social media from her experience in working with Wipro, HCL and Aditi Technologies.

On this episode of Selling to Enterprises, Juveria talks about Sales and Marketing collaboration and many other best practices around B2B marketing.

Please share feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Chris Beall is the CEO at ConnectAndSell. Chris shared great insights on how to make cold conversations happen, the key attributes of top sellers, the best practices around selling to enterprises and much more. Please share your feedback - Zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

About ConnectAndSell:
Hosted in the cloud, ConnectAndSell enables you to have more conversations with your intended targets than serial dialing, either manual or technology-enabled. The reality of serial dialing is that the average person can’t make more than 75-100 outbound dials a day to their intended targets, which may result in 6-8 conversations with decision makers. ConnectAndSell can make that same number of dials in less than an hour. The result? Every 2-5 minutes ConnectAndSell allows you to speak with one of your intended targets: Conversations On Demand. 

Get your free trial at : https://connectandsell.com/free-trial/

 While waiting for the Season 2, please enjoy these greatest hits from Season 1

During the time of this interview Peter Galdi was the Senior Enterprise Account Executive at Signavio and now is the Account Executive - Business Process Intelligence at SAP, after the acquisition of Signavio by SAP.  It was great talking to Pete about his journey and his overall experience of selling into the Enterprises. 

Pete shares his best practices, talks about how he handles the down days and how he approaches new prospects. He shares his mantra for adding value to your conversations  with the client. He shares his learning from a deal loss  and what tools does he leverage...... and much more.

Thanks for listening. Please subscribe to the podcast and share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com 

 While waiting for the Season 2, please enjoy these greatest hits from Season 1

Judith Apshago discussed her experience of working with external sales organizations  and shared valuable insights for the enterprise sales teams to leverage on a daily basis.

Judith Apshago is an accomplished IT executive and an award-winning CIO.  Judith was awarded the 2018 Enterprise Capital CIO of the Year Orbie Award and the Norma Miller Passionate Philanthropist Award in 2016.

Judith currently serves as Vice President IT for Amtrak. Previously, Judith was Vice President and Chief Information Officer of U.S. Silica.  Prior to U.S. Silica, Judith held various IT leadership roles with Sigma-Aldrich, BioReliance, and Invitrogen, and spent several years as a consultant with ePresence and PricewaterhouseCoopers. She began her career implementing process improvements within the Department of Defense.

Judith holds a Masters in Public Administration from Troy State University, a Masters Certificate in IT Project Management from George Washington University, and Bachelors degrees in Finance and Math from Hood College. She currently serves on the CapitalCIO Leadership Association Advisory Board, the Innovation Advisory Council for Vation Ventures, and the Washington DC CISO Executive Leadership Summit Advisory Board, and holds several volunteer Board roles at Hood College including the Board of Associates, Computer Science Advisory Board, and the Chair of the Career Center Advisory Council.

These are the resources mentioned by Judith:
The Enterprisers Project - A community helping CIOs and IT leaders solve problems: https://enterprisersproject.com/
RedZone Technologies Podcasts with Bill Murphy: https://www.redzonetech.net/podcasts/
Inspire CIO – CIO-only community but vendors may nominate CIOs for the Orbie Award or may sponsor the awards for a given chapter or nationally: https://inspirecio.com/

It is the end of the first season and we will soon revert with the next season. If you would like to see someone you admire on the podcast, please write to us at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com.

Please leave a review and continue to share your feedback.

Happy Selling!

 While waiting for the Season 2, please enjoy these greatest hits from Season 1

Sudhi Bangalore  is  the Chief Technology Officer for Global Operations. at Stanley Black  & Decker. In this position, Sudhi manages the company’s Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence and leads the automation efforts with technologies such as the internet of things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, 3-D printing, robotics and advanced materials.  

Prior to joining the company in 2017, Sudhi was the Global Head of Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 Solutions with WIPRO, and before that was the Global Practice Head for Industrial Automation. Sudhi also held leadership roles with companies such as Danaher Corporation, Siemens and Rockwell Automation.

In conversation with Zia Zaid on this podcast, Sudhi shared his experiences of working with various sales organizations and has provided great guidance / advice to enterprise sellers and sales heads on how to work with large enterprises especially with the CXOs & top executives in these organizations.

Please leave a review or share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

While waiting for the Season 2, please enjoy these greatest hits from Season 1

Andy Nixon has recently retired as a senior IT Executive at a Fortune 300  Company...... Andy has been involved in many technology (services, software , hardware and networking) related buying decisions..... and many of them were significantly large and materially impactful.

In this interview,  Andy shares many insights including how decisions are made in large companies, what are the dynamics involved, what do they look for in a long term partner..... the importance of integrity and culture in this decisions..... many more great points from his experience of working with external sales organizations over a stellar career journey of last 30 years.

As usual, we welcome your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com..... please keep them coming. 

While waiting for the Season 2, please enjoy these greatest hits from Season 1

Saurabh Atre is the Chief Business Officer at L&T Technology Services Limited (LTTS) 

Some of his top insights for B2B sales professionals :

- 'You never really lose a deal, you always get outsold '
-  Having empathy is the key...... every sales person should have empathy.
-  The importance of having a coach during a deal and how to develop one.
- We learn  from every deal loss - don't miss out on the steps .... stick to the fundamentals.
- Bringing design thinking principles to sales 
- Avoid 'Balti Ulta' phenomenon (you have to listen to the episode for this)
- How to keep a distributed sales team motivated & performing at the highest level

.....and many more great points around selling into enterprises.  

He also referred to his favorite books -  'Only the Paranoid Survive' by Andy Grove and 'Great By Choice' by Jim Collins.

Saurabh is hiring for multiple sales roles (Individual contributors and Sales Management) , if you are interested please write to zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Saurabh has previously held sales & business leadership positions with Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, MindTree  & Wipro Technologies.

Please give it a listen and please share  your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com 

Kevin McManus is an accomplished CIO with 34 years of IT Leadership experience including seven years as the Sr. VP & CIO at Corning Incorporated, a Fortune 500 Global Industry Leader. 

In this interview with Zia, Kevin shared great insights and his experience of buying from and selecting long-term partners. He has great advice for both the sales leaders and the executive buyers on how to invest and build a long-term win-win partnership.

Please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

Season 2 is here with many awesome interviews lined up. Please give it a listen and please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com.

Interview with Helen Fanucci, Sales Leader at Microsoft Corp.  Helen is also a sought-after industry speaker and advisor to technology growth companies. 

She loves leading and building successful sales teams focusing on growing revenue and creating long-term customer value and relationships. Her strong suit is working with sales managers who lead complex enterprise engagements, and groups focused on driving high business impact to achieve revenue in excess of market growth by taking share. 

Helen on LinkedIn -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenfanucci/

Please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

 My guest on this episode is Sudip Dutta, Founder & CEO at Relatas. Sudip started Relatas to address issues he faced as a sales rep and a sales head. He shared his best practices and how Relatas is helping companies to sell better, faster, and sell more. Let me know your feedback - zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

About Relatas:
The biggest challenge that most CEOs, CROs, VP Sales, Sales Reps face today is unpredictable sales forecasting. This happens mainly due to no data or, worse, bad data in the CRM. Commit call are more of a status call, Sales reps hate entering data into CRMs leading to limited visibility for management and limited to no insights for sales reps.

With No-Data-Entry CRM, Relatas pulls in authentic data. Relatas applies Artificial Intelligence to solve one of the biggest challenges - Sales Forecasting. Relatas is used by professionals from Enterprises, mid-sized companies, to startups. 

 Vignesh Markandan leads the New Business / New logo acquisition for Wipro Limited 's Manufacturing Business unit. 

Vignesh spoke to us about many sales best practices and his 22-year journey at Wipro. The two main takeaways from this conversation are 
a) How to build a high-performing sales team and keep them continuously motivated to achieve at the highest level possible 
b) Key learnings from deal losses, mainly the large complex deals, and keep moving forward.  This is a great listen for all Enterprise Sellers. 

Would you please leave a review or write to Zia at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com.Would you please leave a review or write to Zia at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com? Thanks for listening. 

About Larry Levine:
With 27 years of in-the-field B2B sales experience in the technology industry, Larry knows what it takes to be successful. He’s successfully sold office technology, document management solutions, and managed services to customers ranging from up-and-down the street accounts for Fortune 500 companies.

Now Larry coaches B2B sales professionals to do what he did. Since 2015 Larry has coached both quota-busting tenured reps and green millennials just beginning their careers. Both appreciate the practical nature of his coaching. Please check out https://www.sellingfromtheheart.net/.

Thanks for listening. Please share your feedback at Zia@sellingtoenterprises.com

 Dr. Timme is the founder and president of FinListics. Over the past two decades, FinListics has helped dozens of companies and thousands of sales professionals better serve their clients by boosting their knowledge of finance and relevant metrics and how their solutions relate to business goals and challenges. “Buying executives want insight not only into how a seller’s solutions can help them achieve goals and implement initiatives but how much value they can help create,” explains Stephen. It’s no longer enough to recite a solution’s features, functions, and superlatives from sales brochures. Sales professionals need to understand how their company’s solutions will affect their client’s bottom line. FinListics’ Insight-Led Selling provides the business, industry, and financial insights needed to speak the buyer’s language. 

Link to Stephen's book 'Insight-led Selling' - https://www.amazon.com/Insight-Led-Selling-Executive-Credibility-Communicate/dp/1544522193

 Prasoon Saxena is currently the President of the Manufacturing Business Unit at NTT DATA Services. In this role, he is responsible for profitable growth, industry strategy and client satisfaction through modern, innovative solutions. With more than two decades of global leadership, Prasoon is intensely passionate on driving value, innovation and trust while delivering on business outcomes for his clients. Prior to joining NTT DATA, Prasoon held leadership positions with Dell Services and Wipro Limited.

Prasoon shared a Business Head's perspective on what is required for sellers to be successful in today's market and also how a sales leader should help motivate, inspire and build the right sales team for the long run. Prasoon shared many great insights, highly relevant for both the individual contributors and the sales heads, focused on selling to enterprises.

Please share your feedback at zia@sellingtoenterprises.com. Thanks for listening.

Hiring alert: Prasoon has many sales positions available... please check out the podcast to learn more. If you are interested,  please send me an email.