In a remote-first selling approach, how can sales leaders and sales teams ensure they have the right understanding of their clients and prospects to drive results? Howard Luks, Managing Director, Americas and SVP Global Platforms at Eyeota joins us in this chat to share a few points:
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Hi Howard, welcome to SalesTechStar! We’d love to hear about your journey in tech sales…over these years, and highlights on some of the sales tools you’ve most often relied on?
My journey into technology sales was roughly an eight-year path. I started my career acting as an account manager and running account management teams. During that time, I was responsible for the health and growth of partner relationships. I have since focused on selling software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions and the most important tool I use on a daily basis is active listening. It is critical to get to the root of what problems your partners and/or prospects are trying to solve. Why are you in the room and how can you help? Be inquisitive and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Most people are excited to talk about their business and role as well as to help educate folks on where they see their business going. Really listening and learning from these conversations allow sellers to build out a plan and path toward either a “yes” or a “no.” Another key rule of selling is that a clear NO is as powerful as a YES. I always try to sell to one of those two outcomes to avoid wasting my time or prospective clients’ time.
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In today’s remote-first digital selling environment; what do you think sales leaders should do to equip their teams with the right skills, technologies and training to better meet the needs of today’s prospects?
Training a sales team should not change their core approach to selling. A good salesperson always has and, always will, need to be prepared, understand clients’ and prospects’ needs as well as objectives. Sales leaders need to empower their teams to show more empathy for the individuals to whom they are presenting. We need to be flexible, adaptable and empathic due to the different circumstances people are navigating.
As sales and marketing teams adjust to a new business order, in what ways should the typical Sales / Marketing team structure undergo change?
One of our big focuses has been trying to produce more video interviews with clients and partners that Eyeota uses to drive education on certain topics most important to the industry. We use these videos for both broad communications as well as the distribution of the videos to specific clients who we think would appreciate the content. For example, Eyeota recently did a series of Q&A video sessions on data quality that we have been sharing with various partners.
What do you feel are some of the tools every sales rep should be armed with now to cut through the noise and how can they innovate more when it comes to prospecting?
The shift to virtual has not changed anything for sales professionals. Selling has always been competitive and for more than a decade, sellers have had to depend on LinkedIn and similar tools for prospecting. What has changed is the requirement to be a bit more empathetic and flexible in terms of initial meetings and the amount of time you are taking. The bigger challenge today is simply avoiding video call burnout.
How have you seen the last few months (due to the Covid-19 pandemic) revamp how marketing and sales teams in tech plan their approach?
As virtual conferences continue and show no sign of going away in the near term, our team ensures that we pre-plan for networking during these virtual experiences by outlining which of the attendees we’d like to speak to who could benefit from using our technology. Both pre- and post-events, we seed relevant content to these targeted participants and coordinate individual follow-ups.
As businesses and teams pick up pace for the last quarter of 2020: what top thoughts would you share?
Most businesses and teams rely on data to help guide their decision-making processes. As budgets are tighter as a result of the pandemic, it is more critical than ever that there is quality data at the core of decisions. Quality data-driven decisions have to start with verified quality data.
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Can you tell us a little about your team’s most dependable martech / salestech?
The tools that our team uses the most are Salesforce, HubSpot and LinkedIn premium. All of these tools allow us to streamline internal and external communication along with the required tracking to understand how our efforts are being received across internal teams and prospects.
Eyeota is an audience technology platform that enables the intelligent use of data. The company works with marketers, data owners and research companies to provide distinct, comprehensive and qualified audience data. The Eyeota technology platform transforms audience data so that organizations can make smarter business decisions, understand customers and enrich marketing strategies.
Howard is the Managing Director, Americas and SVP Global Platforms at Eyeota, as MD of the Americas, Howard is responsible for accelerating Eyeota’s growth throughout the US, Canada and Latin America. He leads both the global platforms team and Americas’ agency sales and business development teams. Howard joins Eyeota with more than a decade of experience in the advertising technology and data industry, with a focus on international business strategy, global account management, and team development.
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