Inside The Pipeline: B2B Sales and GTM
00:32:07 · Nick Casale, Tris Tusa
[00:32:07] S1: I bet you the first iPhone you got, you kept the box Yeah. For some amount of time. [00:32:11] S0: I still got it. Yeah. That's I've got the boxes for pretty much all of my Apple products. [00:32:16] S1: It's a bridge to cross as a... As an example. Like, we're in software. There's not necessarily a box. But I think there's an important lesson there in, like, you can you can deliver a memorable experience with your product in a way that stays with people. And it doesn't have to... How much did they pay for those boxes? A buck? [00:32:35] S0: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. That's it. And and I think also given your your past at Sendoso, like the physical Yeah. Yeah. It's it's interesting that you you really understand that. [00:32:45] S1: And you... And I think, like, you can... It's okay to differentiate on the quality of your people [00:32:51] S0: Yeah.
00:32:51 · Tris Tusa, Nick Casale
[00:32:51] S0: Yeah. [00:32:51] S1: Too. And that's... Think, you know, the delivery of the box is an example. Right? But, like, what would a reasonable proxy for that be? It's like onboarding in person. Right? We talked about the in person sale, like that meeting. Right? But, like, onboarding... Go onboard 10 customers in person and call me in a year and tell me if if that if that renewal rate was better, if that... If the Yeah. You know, if the expansion rate on those accounts was better. Right? And it's like, these are obvious. We are not awesome at it. We should do it way more. Right? I think everyone would agree with that. Like, it's an obvious thing, but I think often people were very quick to look for, like, moats and edges. And it's like, sometimes it's as simple as, like, what's the what's the most obvious thing we could... [00:33:30] S0: I've got a couple more questions because I know that we're coming towards the end. It would seem stupid of me to come here and not ask you, what do you think that the sales role looks like in five years? And usually people respond by saying five years is a long time. Yeah. It is. But for the context of this, what do you think it looks like in five years? [00:33:48] S1: I don't know that it changes a ton. That might be a really naive answer. Answer. [00:33:53] S0: This is gonna be like your ChatGPT graph. We're gonna whip it out in five years' time.
00:33:53 · Tris Tusa, Nick Casale
[00:33:53] S0: This is gonna be like your ChatGPT graph. We're gonna whip it out in five years' time. [00:33:57] S1: Exactly. Exactly. I'm I'm gonna get ridiculed for this. No. I mean, look, it depends on what you're talking about. There's definitely gonna be a portion of sales in five years that is... Has been automated away. Yeah. Like, there's already products that, like... If... I'll put it this way. If you're an AE who gets on a call and does a feature dump product harbor tour [00:34:14] S0: Yeah. [00:34:15] S1: That job is going away. [00:34:16] S0: Yeah. [00:34:16] S1: That job is going away a 100%. I think we are gonna see more of the, like, Palantir engagement, really elite engagement coordination [00:34:28] S0: Mhmm. [00:34:28] S1: Where you're deeply understanding the business. Like, in some cases, seeking to understand their business in in the... In... For the purposes of what you're talking about more than they even do. [00:34:38] S0: Like, really
00:34:38 · Tris Tusa, Nick Casale
[00:34:38] S0: Like, really [00:34:39] S1: Bringing them insights that are genuinely valuable, compounded across what you've learned from other from other businesses. I think research and... I think every company is gonna have a sort of like research arm that their leverage... Their sales team is leveraging to go into the customer and deliver insights even earlier... Early and earlier in the sales cycle. Mhmm. You have to be... Like, partner gets thrown around. Right? Yeah. But it's like, what is what is a thought partner? It's like you have to have informational asymmetry. Right? Like, you have to have some... And I think that's what will pull the deal along. Right? If someone knocked on my door and and sort of, you know, in five years and is saying like, hey. I can... You know, this automation can close your deals faster. It's like, I don't believe you. Like, I don't know that that is, like, the thing. But I think coming to me with, you know, a unique set of, like, sales teams are moving... Your sales team can can be moving faster. And I have, you know, I have I have data on sort of what you guys are doing, what sales teams of the same size are doing, and I noticed there's these gaps that I'm noticing even just from the outside. And I think if if you if you could fill in a few of... A few things for me, think we might find a few more, and and you can really, like... It's gonna get just even more consultative, and everything else is gonna be automated. Everything else.
00:35:51 · Tris Tusa
[00:35:51] S0: I love that. Specificity, genuine personalization, and going deep. One final question. If you were to recommend a book that people can read to think like you or a book that was really impactful on you, what would that book be apart from Red Rising... Is it Red Rising?
00:36:08 · Nick Casale
[00:36:08] S1: Apart from Red Rising. Yeah. I think for an AE, like, I still don't think you can beat Challenger Sale. Mhmm. I think Never split the difference is incredible too. I I prefer it though on audio. Like, you gotta hear it and feel it. I think it's an incredible... I think the the premise is... The tools in that are awesome, and I use those. And I think Challenger Sale is is still what I keep, like, going back to innately. For leaders, I think the most underrated is is Trillion Dollar Coach. K. I don't I don't... I haven't... I don't think it's a super popular one. It's about Bill Campbell, the famous coach of Silicon Valley, like coached Steve Jobs and all these incredible leaders. And he was actually a football coach previously. And it's it's... There's... There... It's just stories of him. But there's an... There's just incredible reminders that when push comes to shove, you're you're the coach. Right? Like, you you are the coach, and I think that's... Gets forgotten a lot for for sales leaders. And I think if if... For the AEs, I think the... I I think if you... If you're not selecting your your leader with that... If you're interviewing a company and you're not asking yourself sort of, is this someone who's gonna gonna coach me? Like, will I be able to learn? Is that a draw? Right? Like, think about, you know, sort of athletes picking a team. It's like, that would be such an... Wouldn't that be sort of the most important piece? And I think it's like there's so many so many other things that you you can latch onto with companies where you're like, oh, that... I think, you know, they're growing this fast. There's this and there's that. And it's like, okay. But who's your coach gonna be?