talking tenets: Recent Episodes
Jonjo O'Hara
In each episode we look to dissect the tenets, or principles of Australia's top sales performers and business leaders.
We'll ask each quest, what is success? What drives success?
Expect to hear actionable insights and tools for growth in career and personal development.
Jeff Chan, Global Enablement Sales Onboarding Lead for APAC at Salesforce, discusses the importance of onboarding and enablement in sales organizations. He emphasizes the need for sales reps to have a strong foundation in product and technical knowledge, negotiation skills, and deal mechanics. Jeff also highlights the significance of building rapport and trust with customers, as well as the value of teamwork and collaboration. He shares insights on the onboarding program at Salesforce and provides advice for startups on creating their own enablement function. Jeff concludes by discussing the qualities of successful salespeople, including their ability to see around the corner and provide unique insights to customers.
Nathan Schubert, a go-to-market expert in the Australian SaaS industry, discusses his experience and insights on scaling SaaS startups. He highlights the different phases of growth that startups go through and the various roles he has held in sales and go-to-market leadership. Nathan emphasizes the importance of adaptability and being entrepreneurial in the early stages of a startup. He also discusses the shift in buyer behavior and the need for a more holistic approach to go-to-market, including marketing, customer success, and revenue operations. Nathan suggests analyzing acquisition spend, focusing on right-fit customers, and aligning sales productivity and efficiency. He also emphasizes the role of revenue operations in driving go-to-market strategies and the potential for automation and AI to improve efficiency in the sales process. The conversation explores the changing dynamics of sales in the SaaS industry and the need for a more unified go-to-market approach, and the implications for Salespeople and Sales Leaders.
The latest episode of GrowthPulse The B2B Sales Podcast is now live, featuring the insightful Jonjo O'Hara! 🏆
Join me Daniel Bartels and Simon Peterson as they dive into the essential traits that define top-performing sales professionals. In this episode titled "Be the Sales Rep Every VP Wants to Hire" you will learn:
💪 The Importance of Resilience: Discover how resilience helps sales professionals bounce back from setbacks and continuously improve.
🔥 Harnessing Competitiveness: Understand how a competitive spirit can push your team to exceed their targets and innovate.
🎯 Effective Hiring Strategies: Get actionable tips on identifying and recruiting top talent with the foundational traits needed for success.
Tune in to gain valuable insights and practical advice that can elevate your sales game to the next level. Whether you're a sales leader, an aspiring salesperson, or just passionate about B2B sales, this episode is packed with nuggets of wisdom you can implement right away.
Tom Karemacher shares his experience as former APAC Head of Procore, scaling the business from founding team to +180 staff over five years. He shares the challenges and rewards of fatherhood, the impact of mentorship, and the ingredients for high-performance career. He also discusses the future of green tech/ climate tech and the potential application of the traditional SaaS model to drive growth to 'net zero 2050'.
Vijay talks about his experiences at NetSuite, AirWallex and BlackLine, emphasizing the importance of hiring for character and resilience. He discusses the different approaches to building go-to-market sales organizations and the cultural aspects that contribute to a high-performance sales culture. Vijay explores the generational shifts in the sales industry and the changing motivations of younger sales professionals. The conversation explores the changing landscape of sales and the characteristics of the next generation of sales professionals. It emphasizes the importance of passion, ethics, and a focus on personal development in sales. The discussion also touches on the impact of societal changes on the sales industry, such as shifting life ambitions and the desire for more immediate experiences. The conversation concludes with insights on how to attract and nurture the new generation of salespeople, including creating a culture of making a positive difference and providing opportunities for growth and learning.
In this episode, Jonjo and Carl provide an update on hiring trends and compensation in the SaaS go-to-market industry. They discuss the state of the market, the areas of opportunities, the demand for leadership roles and customer success, the resilience of new business reps, and the impact on salary conditions. They also offer advice for candidates and hiring managers. The episode concludes with a mention of a compensation and hiring trends report available to listeners.
Luke Power is Managing Director Australia of Trellix. Trellix is a global cybersecurity company, formed as a merger between FireEye and McAfee Enterprise. He’s also previously held Managing Director roles at tech businesses including Cisco, and Avaya.
Luke shares his journey into the tech sector, starting from a young age and building his skills through hands-on experience. He emphasizes the importance of mentors and the value of learning and self-training in the fast-paced tech industry. Luke also discusses the path to sales leadership. He encourages individuals to own their own careers and work backwards from their desired end result. Luke also shares his personal experience of being diagnosed with cancer and how it shaped his perspective on leadership and resilience.
I'm joined by Keith Payne, Vice President, Nintex (Former insightsoftware, SAP Concur) on the latest episode – ‘A winning sales culture’.
In sport and sales I’ve always been fascinated by culture. How do you instil a culture when you take on leadership of a new organisation?
Keith brings over a decade of experience as a Sales Leader, and somebody who thinks about this question a lot,
A big Man City fan, I ask him about Pep Guardiola and how he was able to impact the culture of a club in such a significant way. And how this translates in the corporate world.
If you’re interested in sales, sport this is a really fascinating conversation. And, a unique insight in to a VP Sales first 90 days in a new organisation.
A brilliant chat with Adam Hobbs, VP Global Sales at HammerTech. Founded in Melbourne, the business supports 80% of the top 100 Building Companies in Australia, including +100,000 users. Adam has since helped launch in the US, Canada, UK, and New Zealand. Residing between California and Melbourne, Adam travels constantly and shares best practices in managing health and productivity in transit. Including how he makes a 10k run in each new city he visits!
We talk elite performance, and the demands, challenges, and joys of scaling internationally.
I was joined by elite Leader, Matthew Hanmer for a candid account of life as a VP Sales in the competitive and rewarding industry of technology sales.
Currently Vice President and Managing Director, APJ at Anomali, Matt has spent more than 19 years APJC experience as a Senior Executive in IT and Cyber Security. With a track record if driving growth, I was curious to understand the secret to building high-performance teams.
I was intrigued by Matt’s approach to commercial success, but also a thoughtful and balanced philosophy to work and life. We discussed:
- The state of sales in 2023/24
- Building high-performing teams
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Balancing stakeholder, corporate and employee value and expectations + much more.
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The views and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the opinions of Anomali.
Alistair is a former Australian Pro Golfer one one of the country's most recognised elite players. He competed at the US Open, the PGA Championship and Masters Tournament. Since retiring from the professional game he's transitioned to a career in technology sales, finding early success with Oracle and Mpower MSL. We discuss his entry to professional sport and the tenets that led to his journey to the very elite level of professional golf. We also talk about his transition to the corporate sector, and the skills and experiences that have translated to the sales profession.
With a sales and leadership career spanning + 15 years, Allie has worked with some of the world's most prominent technology brands including Salesforce, Adobe, NetSuite, and now Zendesk. Passionate about building high-performance teams, we discuss the current state of 'outbound' + much more.
About a year ago, I posted about an impressive chap. A teacher, he called and asked if I could help him get in to tech sales. There was a great community response and we ultimately crowd-sourced an intro to one of the best firms in the business.
The rest was down to him. As expected, he's been a fantastic addition to Salesforce and a consistent high performer.
I have so much time for Vinodh Narasimhan so was really pleased to have him on this week's podcast.
We talked through his first 12 months as 'high-performing teacher' turned 'high-performing tech BDR'.
Meri Kukkonen is a former elite athlete and Sales Leader, currently AU Country Manager with US HQ'd Software firm, MitraTech. Meri took an early interest in leadership and has spent almost 10 years manahing high performing teams in the software industry. She shares her journey in to leadership, career development, and the traits she looks for when building a team.
Elite performance in SaaS sales?
I ask Ankesh Chopra who's led some of the most disruptive, high performing SaaS firms in APAC (AppDynamics, ZScaler and now ClickUp).
We discuss:
What makes a great rep?
Can reps go from good to great?
The roots of success?
Coaching for greatness + much more.
Roxy is a sales professional with + 15 years' experience. A proven elite performer, Roxy has been a serial start-up seller having helped launch Similarweb and now Bynder in APAC as first-on-ground sales rep. We talk through the unique skills and motivation required to be successful within a start up in APAC. We also discuss the state of diversity in APAC technology sales, career trajectory in sales, and how other reps can 'level up' right now.
Special Guest Episode.
Jamal Reimer is an author, coach, and former Enteprise seller who spent over 20 years in software sales. His book, Mega Deals Secrets published in 2021 documents the art of closing his first $50m deal whilst working for Oracle. He went on to land multiple +$50m deals and ranked in the top 1% of peformers. He now offers his insights to aspiring Enterprise Sellers and has coaches reps from businesses including Salesforce, Oracle, VMware, Outreach, Cisco, Seismic, DocuSign, Dynatrace and Gartner.
He joins us to talk about the Enterprise Selling landscape in Australian technology. And, what Sellers can do right now to reach the pinnacle of the profession.
Nick Hultink brings an unparalleled tenure of achievement with a remarkable 167% average attainment across 11 years at Salesforce.
He shares his foundations in sales, built upon an inhererited approach to life from his immigrant family background.
We also discuss his extraodrindary career with Salesforce, and his biggest learnings for career trajectory and success. Expect to hear insights on strategy, activity and mindset to level up your won carere trajectory.
Finally Nick talks us through his recent decision to join Databricks, and plans for the future.
Michael James is a Senior Enterprise AE with HubSpot.
Few career trajectories beat Michael’s. He’s spent 8 years with HubSpot, as a consistent Presidents Club Recipient and Top Performer. Alongside quota attainment his experience now lends itself to providing subject matter expertise and mentorship to new hires.
Whilst we often see Reps move to different SaaS businesses to ‘move upwards’ in career development. Michael has a unique tenure and record of promotion (no less than 7 promotions in his 8 years from BDR to Senior Enterprise).
His journey has by no means been easy and he shares wisdom on how other reps can navigate promotion and career development.
Interestingly we talk about the question that every rep faces at some point in their career.
"Should I stay with this business, or is it time to make a move? "
Don’t miss Michael’s framework for success.
Travis Hughes is Account Executive with Conga. He brings an elite background, spending time in the West Point Military Academy in the US. Followed by an apprenticeship in software sales with salesforce before moving on to Conga, where he's recently been crowned number one global sales rep.
This episode is with James Demetrios, Head of Mid Market ANZ at Slack.
James brings an authentic and humble approach which has driven his success. We talk through the principles that drive him.
2:44 Childhood and early foundations (early work ethic)
3:40 Work experience outside of technology
6:00 Taking a non-traditional route outside tertiary education
6:30 What is a growth mindset?
7:46 How is growth mindset being utilised among top performers?
8:23 Why feedback is a gift
9:00 The best reps seek out and accept change
17:00 Is the software industry too binary in how it recruits sales reps?
19:45 How to articulate your experience to land a role in tech sales
20:50 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
32:20 Purpose
25:01 Career identity and authenticity
26:10 What’s the downside of having an identity related to work
28:00 Resilience
30:00 Advice for younger reps going through a rough time
32:20 Nobody likes surprises – communicate early
33:29 The best performers build better relationships internally
35:30 Principles of success (Planning, investing in yourself, craftsmanship (pride in your work), solidarity, empathy, resilience, authenticity (asking for feedback))
38:50 How do you define success?
40:00 What’s your daily routine?
Technology seller - turned philanthropist, Carl Gough shares his extraordinary story. Founder of Meetmagic, Carl has faced much adversity, starting life under tough circumstances. When he founded his company he was 'dead broke, and facing eviction'.
He describes how he found his purpose - creating a sustainable fundraising model for charities and has given almost $1.5 million away.
A business leader with real authenticity, he proves there's much to be gained, in being yourself.
This is a Special Guest Episode with Tatafu Polata-Nau, a decorated Wallabies player who spent 15 years in elite international rugby union at the very top of the game.
Tatafu represented Australia ninety times alongside a revered domestic career.
He’s now forging a career in technology sales with Monday.com. We talk about the journey ahead having recently joined the industry,
Tatafu talks about mindset and the foundations that shaped his career, and how he’s utilising them to reach top performance in his new craft.
The new series of talking tenets brings actionable insights from Australia’s high performers in sales and business. We’ll talk to those consistently performing at the top level in their respective disciplines, and come highly revered by their peers.
Mark Baskin is an APAC Top Rep with SaaS business Hubspot. A 3 x Presidents Club Winner for consecutive years he's also been awarded APAC Top Rep multiple times. Highly revered by his peers for his knowledge in methodology and process, he shares the mindset that has helped him become a professional MMA fighter, and high achiever in the business world.
Topics
Early foundations, MMA
Delayed gratification - Natural or nurtured?
How do you define success?
Principles (tenets) of high performance
What keeps you hungry now you've had some success?
Autonomy and fulfilment in sales
What's been the key to your success as APAC top rep?
Sales coaching
Lessons for sellers entering the industry
A career in technology sales? We often tell job seekers without relevant experience to focus on soft skills (motivation, competitiveness, coachability). All very important things, but often not enough to win a role in tech sales. Start-up founder and Sales Leader, Sean Grealy shares his actionable tips for those looking to transition, or take their first step in technology sales.
You can work harder than anyone else, and by doing that alone you can get into the top bracket of sales performers. But what if you’re already doing that? How do you become Top 10%, Top 5%, Top 1%? How do you reach your full potential?
It’s a topic I’m personally fascinated with so I enjoyed the chat with Cam Elliot of GoodHabitz. Cam brings an extensive career in hiring, coaching and leading salespeople, and has worked with Cam with thousands of sellers. He breaks down his key 3 components for success in sales.
Topics:
Early foundations and attraction to sales
Why are people drawn to sales?
Are salespeople born or nurtured?
What are your tenets for success in work and life?
The two things all great salespeople have in common
Introvert v extrovert
The three components of success in sales
How much can education improve performance?
The best environment for learning
Advice for aspiring tech sales professionals
This week I chat with Raquel Lemon - Operating Partner at Potentia Capital, a specialist tech sector investment house. We'll discuss the potential implications and opportunities for hirers and career movers in the tech talent market ahead.
High performing Enterprise Sales Leader, and former Enterprise Account Director, Kavita shares tips from a career in enterprise selling and scaling hyper-growth start-ups. You'll hear what sets top performers apart, and how to supercharge your own route to enterprise sales.
Former Recruiter turned Software Account Executive, Charlotte shares insights from stepping in to end to end technology sales and how recruitment set her up for success. A fantastic insight for Recruiters and Sales Development Reps keen to know what being an Account Executive is really like!
Sam talks through driving recruitment for an Australian technology giant, and how to devise and execute a talent strategy for a business undertaking significant growth and transformation.
Former professional footballer and Technology Leader, Jordan Barker talks IPO, career growth and his tenets on high performance.