Gross sales Pipeline Radio, Episode 345: Q & A with Manny Medina | Heinz Advertising and marketing | Digital Noch

By Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Advertising and marketing

In case you’re not already subscribed to Gross sales Pipeline Radio or listening stay Thursdays at 11:30 am PT on LinkedIn (additionally on demand) you’ll find the transcription and recording right here on the weblog each Monday morning.  The present is lower than half-hour, fast-paced and filled with actionable recommendation, greatest practices and extra for B2B gross sales and advertising professionals.

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This week’s present is entitled, “Why AI Will Redefine the Office, for the Higher“.  My visitor is Manny Medina, CEO at Outreach.

Tune in to learn to:

• Embrace Change and Prioritize for Success: In 2023, adaptability and disciplined focus are key to thriving. Prioritize properly, because the period of overinvestment and development in any respect prices has developed.
• Shift Focus from Duties to Jobs: Disassociate duties from gross sales jobs. AI can deal with routine duties, liberating salespeople to give attention to constructing relationships, fixing issues, and creating worth.
• Enhance Productiveness with AI: Gross sales leaders should harness AI to extend workforce productiveness. Decrease the “swivel chair tax” and put money into significant buyer interactions to remain forward of the competitors.

Watch the LinkedIn and YouTube video, pay attention in under and/or learn the transcript under.

Matt:

All proper. Welcome everybody to a different episode of Gross sales Pipeline Radio. I’m your host, Matt Heinz. Excited to have you ever right here for our first episode of September. I dunno the place the 12 months’s gone. Manny, my daughter, my oldest little one simply began highschool. I want time to decelerate for a wide range of causes, however comfortable to be right here on one other Thursday. It’s for these of you who’re becoming a member of us on Gross sales Platform Radio stay from LinkedIn or YouTube. Tremendous excited to have you ever right here in the midst of your workday and workweek. If you wish to be part of the present, you are able to do so stay. Make a remark in case you can have a query, a remark, a rebuttal. It’s just a little little bit of a household present, so preserve it secure and the sane. However we are able to make you a part of the present. We will ask your query stay, provide you with a shout out right here on the present. So if you wish to take part, please do. In case you’re watching and listening on demand, thanks a lot for downloading and subscribing each episode of Gross sales Pipeline Radio all the best way again, all 345 plus now, all out there on demand at www.salespipelineradio.com. It is a actual deal with. Very excited to have with us in the present day, the founder and CEO of Outreach, Manny Medina. Manny, the way you doing?

Manny:

I’m glorious, man. Pleased to be right here.

Matt):

We had been simply joking earlier than we acquired began right here that as we document this in early September of 2023, I used to be speaking to a different CEO that you just and I do know, and he requested me the way it’s going. I’m like, not my favourite 12 months of all of the years, and I believe lots of people can resonate with that. However you made a great level about sharpening the metal proper now and realizing that you just get by this, they’re going to be higher, however realizing the place to give attention to issues proper now and I’d like to have you ever share a few of that.

Manny:

Yeah, I believe that this can be a 12 months wherein we come from a world wherein we are going to do all the things. We’ll do one in all every. We’ll tackle as many initiatives as we might, and our portfolio was very massive and really broad with the hope that a lot of these issues pays out, and now we’re pressured to prioritize. In case you don’t have one or two issues that you just’re engaged on and also you’re placing all of your assets behind, you’ll be doing it fallacious. The urge for food for overinvestment, the urge for food for waste, the urge for food for development in any respect prices has gone out the window. So now it’s important to be very formidable of creating certain that each greenback lasts and that the chance of issues paying out is increased than common. So I just like the self-discipline, I just like the thought that this can be a world wherein it’s important to make your investments flip into money in a really brief time frame. And constraints really free you to be extra inventive. The creativity and the constraints is much extra thrilling than the time wherein you don’t know what to do with the money. You probably did all the things. So it’s not bitter grape argument, simply to be clear. It’s extra of a, this can be a totally different world, however a world that rewards those that are prepared for it.

Matt:

I actually respect what you simply mentioned. I believe a pal of mine who I labored with at numerous startups who’s really working enterprise gross sales at Smartsheet now, after we labored collectively, he had a saying on the prime of his whiteboard that mentioned, startups sometimes don’t starve. They drown. Proper? They tackle too many issues. You attempt to do too many issues. And a giant a part of technique is selecting. And earlier than we get into that, I need to discuss gross sales platforms and AI and the issues we have a tendency to speak about, however I really like this subject. I believe in case you are prioritizing, in case you are selecting the issues to prioritize, by definition, you’re leaving issues on the desk and another person in your organization in your world cares about these issues, you’re not prioritizing and they’re going to remind you of that, proper? And that’s an anxiousness spiral that helps nobody. As an entrepreneur, as a frontrunner, I’ve simply been so impressed at the way you’ve constructed tradition and pushed the workforce and the expansion at Outreach. How do you encourage your workforce to not solely prioritize, however settle for generally the ramifications of the issues that you just’re not doing?

Manny:

Yeah, it’s a actually good query as a result of there’s no silver bullet for it. And the entire disagreeing commit solely works so many instances the disagreeing commit is you may have a cookie jar and also you solely have so many cookies within the cookie jar. When you’ll be able to have anyone disagreeing commit earlier than they’re like, alright, you’re simply telling me what to do with out promoting me. And I believe that one of many issues that we did very well by having 4 co-founders as supposed to make use of one is that I couldn’t get my co-founders to do something as a result of see, I’m the CEO as a result of the CEO was the one job not taken, after we began the corporate, everyone else would decide a lane and the CEO was a lane that wasn’t picked. So the job for me to get something going was to need to promote the concept.

So we acquired very used to promoting to one another. So we couldn’t simply say, we’re going to go do X, we’re going to need to, for me to persuade my co-founders to do X or Y, I’ve to go promote them to the X and the Y, and I’ve to herald proof and I’ve to cope with the counter arguments and now we have to spend time on this rock tumbling. And the tumbling and the friction of the concepts made the rock shinier over time. So we acquired actually used to promoting arguments versus making arguments, promoting concepts and promoting propositions versus forcing a proposition by.

On this time wherein it’s important to go away issues on the desk, it’s really higher than that. You need to go away issues on the desk that different persons are very hooked up to it and that your rivals are going to select up and run with it. So not solely are you going to get the noise internally from saying, Hey, I need to do this, it’s on the desk, however your competitor goes to run and go together with it. After which whoever had the concept, it was hooked up to the concept on the desk’s going to say, take a look at the competitor is working with it. See, I informed you,

And I imply, it’s important to be okay with that. You need to be, sure, it’s on the desk. Yeah, I do know you prefer it. Yeah, I do know anyone else fallacious with it. Our guess continues to be this one, and the rationale it’s nonetheless good is due to X, Y, and Z. And it’s okay to resell the concept. It’s sort of like rekindling the love along with your accomplice. You need to do each occasionally, in any other case it goes stale. So it’s okay to resell the concept, however now we have to be aligned. The one factor that isn’t a sacrificable factor is alignment. You need to be aligned. You possibly can’t be doing this one factor in anyone else doing one other. That’s the case of that. That’s the way you die rapidly.

Matt:

That’s so good. In case you haven’t learn, and I need to transfer on to a few of these different matters we needed cowl, however I can’t keep in mind the precise title of it, however there’s an article, go Google like Legos on the desk. Principally this idea of as you develop what you are promoting, there’s one million issues you’ll be able to give attention to, prioritize what you need, go away the remainder of the Legos on the desk. Another person could decide them up and resolve that’s a precedence. And people issues, in case you prioritize effectively as a workforce, as a person, can transfer what you are promoting ahead. However I really like the idea of simply focus, be prepared to form of say, there’s solely so many instances you’ll be able to disagree and commit and shout out to Jill Richards who’s mentioned right here within the feedback that saying not more than sure. That’s what focus is. Discovering the issues, saying no extra usually, saying sure to a small variety of issues, shifting it ahead.

Suppose just a little bit to one in all our different matters in the present day is that this complete thought of AI within the office, and I do know I need to discuss what that suggests round having a platform mentality in your gross sales tech stack as effectively. I really feel like we’re on this second the place all over the place you flip, you learn concerning the emergence of AI and the significance of AI and the way forward for ai. But on the similar time, I discover so many individuals that simply need to have their head within the sand which might be like, I don’t know what that is. I’m going to disregard it. I’m going to faux it’s not going to occur. We’re very early days on this, however that juxtaposition is admittedly fascinating to me. Now that mentioned, AI has been in a number of instruments we’ve had effectively earlier than chatGPT. I do know that ai, this isn’t a gross sales pitch, however I’m a cheerful Outreach buyer. I do know, and I’m grateful that there’s AI within the platform that I exploit and our workforce makes use of for gross sales engagement. However in case you’re a gross sales and advertising chief watching, listening to this proper now, how do you have to be desirous about AI within the office and why does that matter?

Manny:

The primary in instantiation of AI is to do a survey of your instruments of no matter you’re utilizing and determining the place is AI serving to, who is definitely embracing and the way is it displaying up within the type of taking a process away or changing a workflow with one thing else that was not accomplished earlier than? So as an example, in the midst of Outreach, in case you take a look at a process of constructing sequences, so our first instantiation of AI is in fact the degenerative providing of writing the emails for you. That’s par for the course proper now. However as you’ll be able to see the development of AI, you will notice that Outreach will write your individual sequences, so that you don’t have to fret about that. It should routinely generate your AB testing. Within the case of Kaya, it should generate your playing cards. And one of many issues that we’re about to launch is scoring.

So there’s a scoring of the calls, however the scoring of the calls solely occurs submit facto by a supervisor, and it must be handbook when actuality doesn’t must be. You already know what a fantastic name appears like. So why don’t we create an AI scoring mechanism that really helps to rep a rating higher throughout the name so she doesn’t have to attain after the decision and the way a name went. It might probably really enhance as the decision goes by and enhance the rating of the dialog primarily based on the outcomes that you just count on within the dialog. So the very first thing you do is make it possible for each one in all your suppliers or your distributors, your companions are embracing AI themselves in a approach that’s extra significant than the apparent. That’s primary. And that they’re doing a responsibly, proper? They’re not exposing your information.

They’re not simply connecting to ChatGPT and throwing your information on the market as a result of that turns into a part of the general public area, et cetera. So make it possible for that’s occurring. In order that’s go do now. The second side of it’s, look, the attractive a part of the AI and the scary a part of the AI is it may be no matter you need it to be. And that creates a number of both for individuals who are early adopters and innovators leaning ahead and being like, alright, what can I make or not it’s? And for individuals who are just a little bit extra on the pragmatic facet, they’re like, present me first earlier than I soar in too early. And after we go discuss to our personal buyer base, it’s just a little bit divided, some folks will likely be like, yeah, give me all, give me now, give me quick, give me flying automobiles.

And a few others are saying, no, no, no, no, no. I heard that AI hallucinates, AI makes it up. AI does these different issues and I don’t need to be a part of that equation. So what all of us have to do as an trade is proceed to promote the imaginative and prescient of no matter that imaginative and prescient is or because the imaginative and prescient is. There isn’t any world wherein there’s a common AI assistant for reps and managers. Proper now the best way it reveals up is within the process, proper? You’re going to do a name, you’re going to do a deal inspection, you’re going to do a forecast, and AI is helping all these issues. However panacea or the world that we think about is one wherein you get up and your AI tells you, Matt, in the present day you bought two offers to shut. You bought three offers that acquired pushed out and the shopper went chilly.

So it is advisable reengage that dialog. You’re brief on pipeline for subsequent quarter and you’ve got a QBR on the finish of the week that it is advisable put together for. Would you wish to e book your calendar filled with these actions and manage your day accordingly in order that your day is the best? After which when you go into every of these duties, there’s yet one more AI who’s guiding you thru be optimized round making a deck or working a gathering or working your name or getting ready in your QBR. So that you just see that there’s a nesting of AI, one that’s generalized in your day or the context of what you’re making an attempt to do. And that’s very process particular and issues are going into that path and it’s very encouraging. So all of us have to A). transfer in that path, and B). ask our distributors to start out shifting in that path too so we are able to get probably the most productiveness out of the functions that we purchase.

Matt:

So one of many variety of methods I’ve tried to get folks extra comfy and extra out of the worry cycle of AI is to speak about like, Hey, pay attention, let’s assume for a second you’re not going to lose your job. Let’s assume for a second you’re going to have the ability to nonetheless pay your mortgage. You’re going to have one thing to do. We separate this concept of duties and jobs. The job of selling in 1960 is just a little totally different than what it was 40 years later versus the place it’s now. The duties are totally different. The job, the result continues to be the identical. So if you consider a process, a job, after which the physique of labor to get there, in case you are in gross sales, your job is to not write emails. Your job is to not comply with a sequence. Your job is to not shoehorn your approach into somebody’s calendar. The job within the physique of labor is to construct a relationship, create a win-win situation right here. So discuss just a little bit concerning the context of AI and in addition, I imply this sort of speaks to the significance of kind having a constant strategy to all these totally different duties and jobs to do the physique of labor effectively.

Manny:

Begins, I believe I stole this from anyone else, it’s mindset, software, skillset. So it all the time start with a mindset, and that is the issue, is that in case you affiliate your value, your self-worth with the duties that you just do, you then’re in hassle. So in case you are a fantastic e-mail author, in case you are a fantastic follow-upper you already know what I imply? If you’re a fantastic preparer for conferences, these issues are going to go away. It’s like I really like washing dishes, however I’m not higher than the dishwasher. I’m really extra wasteful. You see what I imply? I discover washing dishes as a zen second, however the machine is approach higher than me and extra environment friendly, and that’s all kinds of issues. So we have to disassociate ourselves from the duties that we do and affiliate ourselves with the targets that we’re making an attempt to realize as a complete.

In order a gross sales rep, your aim is to unravel an issue, establish the issue, remedy the issue in a approach that’s win-win, construct that relationship so you may get permission to unravel the following downside. You see what I imply? And there’s no AI that can ever exchange that as a result of there’s a lot that could be very human to human communication that’s form of like fifth sense degree stuff that we are able to’t code that received’t get replaced. So get good at doing that. So repair your mindset into an expansive approach of seeing alternatives versus seeing threats. Whenever you purchase a automotive, in case you purchase a Subaru, swiftly you begin seeing Subarus all over the place. So in case you repair your thoughts and saying, look, AI is a risk, you’re going to see risk all over the place and also you’re going to see nothing however threats.

However in case you repair it in your thoughts and saying, look, AI is a chance, you then begin seeing alternatives all over the place. So it is advisable begin fixing your thoughts. It’s like, what are you able to do for me and the way can I establish extra alternatives? Then the second factor is that you just’re repair it in your course of. Should make it a part of your course of so you’ll be able to be ok with doing it. So it turns into chopped wooden carry water sort of stuff versus being all, what’s it going to do for me? Is it hallucinate? Is it going to do one thing bizarre? And the third half is it must be a part of in case you’re a supervisor otherwise you’re a part of a company, it must be a part of the organizational tradition in that it’s okay so that you can disrupt your job to discover a higher strategy to do it. That must be culturally acceptable that I’m going to interrupt this course of to give you a greater course of as a result of a greater course of will get into the result sooner. So I’m going to cease there and see,

Matt:

No, it’s actually good. We’re speaking in the present day on Gross sales Pipeline Radio with Manny Medina, he’s the founder and CEO of Outreach. And I discover it fascinating that a number of the similar those who fear that the BDR operate goes away due to AI are additionally the identical ones who complain that their gross sales workforce doesn’t spend sufficient time actively promoting that they spend all their time doing administrative duties and writing new emails, and you bought 14 totally different tabs open with 14 totally different instruments to do 14 totally different elements of the method. And so it simply appears to me like if we wish the artists, the craftsmen, that our salespeople to do what they do greatest, if we wish extra lively promoting time, if we wish the humanity and gross sales to be nearly all of what they do, there’s a lean in second there for AI, but additionally a lean in round actually bettering the method and never having 14 tabs open anymore.

Manny:

Completely. And I believe anyone at Verizon referred to as this the swivel chair tax. There’s an actual tax of going from an utility to the person expertise is totally different. You’re making an attempt to recollect the place issues we’re at. And the true impetus for all of us leaders is to determine how one can reduce the swivel chair tax and take duties away from our reps in order that they will give attention to fixing anyone else’s downside. See, the attractive factor about gross sales is that your job is to get into anyone else’s thoughts and see the phrases and never being spoken. And to learn between the strains is to get your self into this hyper empathetic perspective the place you’re actually understanding out of your buyer perspective what the issues are so you’ll be able to really craft an answer.

And the extra time it’s important to do this, the higher off you’re going to be. So I simply don’t see a world wherein we proceed to do that nonsense of 20 level options to the 5 jobs as a result of that’s simply not the place the world goes. You see what I imply? So the result that we’re seeing is an AI that works on the again of a single platform the place you are able to do your prospecting job, your deal qualifying job, your forecasting job, you run your conferences, you construct your account plans, meet your motion plans, and the AI simply learns from all that and form of continues to get higher in serving to you at your complete job, not simply every of the duties.

Matt:

Yeah, I had actually earlier in the present day, I had with a CMO who was simply actually battling getting their BDR operate to work and achieve success. And over the course of the decision, I spotted a pair issues. To start with, they had been centered on BDR because the operate. I mentioned, that’s not the technique. That could be a tactic. That could be a channel that could be a part of what’s a much bigger technique, which of their case is like an outbound movement for goal accounts. And I mentioned in case you’re setting it as much as automate it and simply do it routinely, you’re going to ship a bunch of crap spam to a bunch of individuals that isn’t going to land effectively, versus saying, what’s our technique for participating in constructing worth with this viewers? We leverage machines and robots and instruments and information to inform us who to name subsequent.

I imply, regardless of how difficult this all will get account-based motions, no matter. Each gross sales rep I do know simply has the identical questions. Who do I name subsequent and what ought to I discuss with them about? Proper? And the very last thing you need to do is go spend, I keep in mind again within the day spending 45 minutes doing analysis to depart a 30 second voicemail. That doesn’t sound very environment friendly. And but folks nonetheless do this. So I take into consideration the machines, I take into consideration the instruments, I take into consideration the info that may shorten that point that inform me not solely assist me make a greater name and higher dialog, however to quick observe that info to me for me to go have extra time in entrance of my clients versus extra time in entrance of my CRM and that swivel chair mentality,

Manny:

Proper? No, what’s actually fascinating, I hear this lots, proper? Is the BDR job going to go away? Is the SER job going to go away? New applied sciences do that, show some issues and there’s extra. The previous expertise finally ends up discovering new makes use of. So as an example, we nonetheless see SDRs being productive while you’re making an attempt to crack into new markets when no person is aware of you, the place a individual to individual dialog about what the hell is that you just do and the way I may help me within the common sense of my group is effective. So having a dialog at that degree is tremendous useful in new clients. Or I additionally see SDRs and BDRs being useful in enlargement place. So there’s a place wherein you deploy it, however the common statements of like, oh, it’s working or it’s not working, lacks the context. What trade are you in? Is it oversaturated? Are you already a winner and everyone is aware of you? So the SDR incremental code shouldn’t be going to assist. So this common statements are simply madening as a result of that is the issue of social media that the pithy arguments wins the day and it lacks the consistency and the nuances that we as organizational leaders want to truly decide.

Matt:

The final query I’ve for you is, and we’re September, proper? And persons are already beginning to consider subsequent 12 months, which is sensible, I believe have a tendency to think about This fall. In case you’re a calendar fiscal 12 months, Q 4 is quarter zero is the time. You must form of get your thoughts proper, as we talked about earlier, strategize and put a few of these issues in place. What are some productive issues and sensible issues that gross sales leaders needs to be desirous about in prioritizing for his or her groups utilizing expertise and AI into 2024?

Manny:

If you’re not actively desirous about making your reps extra productive and minimizing that swivel chair tax your competitor is. We’re in a world proper now that as a result of everyone seems to be to a point frozen, it’s important to overinvest in that buyer relationship. The winner in this sort of setting is establishment. So it’s important to work out what’s your key, your strategy into that buyer dialog that can unseat on establishment and get the dialog open, not even in your product, however simply the dialog going. That might be an overinvestment in SEs, that might be extra overlay reps. It might be numerous issues. However for you to have the ability to make that funding, it’s important to get effectivity out of some other place. You received’t be capable to simply add headcount and name it good. You need to get your reps from being out on 50 to 60% participation to love 70, 80, 90% participation. And in case you’re not planning for it, anyone else will. So it’s important to get your thoughts proper, and it’s important to lean in and to make productiveness beneficial properties in an effort to put money into your gross sales cycle in a approach that is sensible.

Matt:

Nicely, while you say rivals, I take into consideration that two methods. I believe one, your direct rivals making an attempt to promote to the identical clients are adopting this expertise, making it simpler in your prospects to purchase, creating a greater expertise with their gross sales workforce than your gross sales workforce, your different rivals, the opposite startup down the road that wishes to rent salespeople, proper? Proper. And so dude, that 45 minutes simply to depart a voicemail. That hurts, proper? Since you’ve been there. In case you’ve been vendor, you’ve been there. In case you’re doing all of your homework and doing it proper, if another firm can provide you a chance to offer the best software set to be simply as profitable or profitable to do extra of the job that you just love, that’s going to be a aggressive differentiator within the hiring market, not to mention your aggressive market in your go-to-market technique.

Manny:

After all. And in case you don’t have excessive performing reps, it’s simply as dangerous as not having expertise. This isn’t a static recreation. The sport doesn’t finish with expertise or go to market. You need to have all of it play properly in sync.

Matt:

Manny, I understand how busy you’re. I actually respect you taking the time in the present day to do that. Everybody, take a look at Outreach.io. They’ve acquired a convention developing right here in Seattle. I’m tremendous excited to get out for that one and simply take a look at their content material as effectively. Tremendous good things, Manny. Thanks a lot.

Manny:

Thanks. And are available to Unleash. See you all later.

Matt:

All proper, we’ll see you at Unleash. Thanks everybody for becoming a member of us in the present day. We’ll see you subsequent week on one other episode of Gross sales Pipeline Radio. Take care.

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