BTM Event Video: Salesloft CEO Kyle Porter – What is the makeup of a modern sales organization?

Building the Sales Machine (BTM) Event Series: we post clips of the best questions that where answered during our live events, so you can take the best ideas back to your teams and companies for further discussion.

BTM: What is the makeup of a modern sales organization?

Kyle Porter:

I like using this term. You hear inside sales a lot, you hear sales development, we hear a lot about specialization. But what I like to say is that you either have a modern sales organization or you don’t. That’s what it boils down to, ARE YOU MODERN?

Are you driving to do things in a better way? Are you looking to use the best technologies and processes that exist today?

We spoke about this question previously, but then I met 4 high-growing saas companies today, and I learned that most of you already know this stuff, with websites such as https://fastspring.com/solutions/selling-software-online/ being used for selling this type of software on an eCommerce platform. Everyone in NYC is on top of all of these best practices, so I don’t know if there’s that much for me to add. These Saas companies that keep growing are doing so because they keep focus and implement core strategies. They may check out websites like https://www.expedition.co/blog/best-saas-websites to see how they can keep their game up, it would not surprise me.

What I did learn, and what I keep learning is that there are stages inside of each of these sales organizations. We went through the same thing as Salesloft, when we started out we had this hot product that everyone wanted. We were able to reach out to virtually anybody with a soft touch, and we were able to get them to pay attention. A lot of successful companies have the same experience where they sell a hot new technology, and as they blast the universe with their new message, they get buy-in and early customers. They’re able to hit some numbers and get to some early milestones. But eventually, you come to this point where you need to re-calibrate.

You know who your customer is, you want to go deeper, you’ve got to start building real relationships with that set of people. You’ve got to ask yourself; if you’ve got a sales process and its’ working, but it doesn’t require significant sales skills, then you should be skeptical. The whole idea is that you’re out there sending emails and people are responding, but your’e not really connecting with these buyers and solving their problems. You need to be going deep as a consultative sales person with your clients, and if you’re not the gig will eventually dry up.

That was the big lesson I learned about the modern sales organizations. These modern sales companies, they figure out how to solve problems for their buyers. They do it by getting really personal and real custom with the people they are interacting with over time.