BTM Event: Yext VP of Sales Bryan Rutcofsky – How did you validate your sales model?

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: How did you validate your sales model? How did you know you where on the right track?

Bryan Rutcofsky:

• We figured out which markets to go after by scanning the yellow pages.
• We did some market testing by buying key words and sending them to
• We quickly realized there where vertical markets we couldn’t sell into.
  • For example: Restaurants, they don’t buy leads.
• We eventually evolved into selling phone calls, and billing for calls that where related to new business.
• We created the term “pay per action” phone call.
• In terms of testing the market, I locked my self in a room with a spreadsheet and smiled and dialed.
• We learned that different segments of the market think differently about their business and clients.
  • Example: Vets didn’t care as much about making money, they cared about animals.
  • Example: Chiropractors, they have a mind for marketing and driving new business
• It was a lot of trial and error and having conversations with business owners.
• The decision on whether or not to roll out a sales team was based on whether or not I could get people to give me a credit card over the phone without a product.
• If I could do that on my own, then we believed we could teach a sales team to do it.

Bryan Rutcofsky serves as Yext’s Vice President of Sales. He is responsible for managing the sales team as well as the grassroots growth of our industry sites. Bryan joined Yext from FDN Communications, a Florida based telecom company, where he was a top sales performer and served as a Sales Trainer and Sales Manager. His expertise in sales and mentoring new sales professionals has been a key part of the success of Yext.  You can find him on Linkedin here, or on Twitter here.