Episode Summary
Tools play a crucial role in sales, and they allow sales professionals to close more deals, outperform their peers, and make their jobs much easier. But if you’re a salesperson, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel; you can just lean into what’s already out there to boost your efficiency.
In this episode of the Slice and Dice podcast, our host Brett McGrath welcomes Jonathan Gandolf, the founder and CEO of The Juice. They talk about the importance of leveraging the right technology in sales, how to use technology tools to streamline the sales process, and why sales tools are not just for salespeople.
Guest Profile
- Name: Jonathan Gandolf
- What he does: He's the founder and CEO of The Juice.
- Company: The Juice
- Noteworthy: Jonathan calls himself a left-brain marketer with a right-brain problem. His interests, experience, and expertise are deeply rooted in data and analytics, but he is curious and is motivated by chasing and executing innovative ideas.
Key Insights
- Everybody is in sales. You don't need to hold the title of a salesperson to be a salesperson. The truth is that everyone is in sales, whether you're a marketing executive or a startup founder. Sales is, and always will be, an indispensable part of every business, no matter your role. Jonathan explains, "I've got a COO from a previous company that I worked at; she would always say everybody is in sales — and it was a hundred-person company, and that just goes through my head. I think, at the end of the day, the entire business's job is sales; so, that's one piece of this. I also think of myself as a founder, CEO, entrepreneur; I think early-stage businesses, everything is sales. Yes, there's literal founder-led sales, but you're selling the business and the vision to the early employees, the early investors, the early customers; even before you have a product, you have to sell them on the vision."
- Sales professionals need the right tools to help them close more deals. In today's day and age, technology touches every aspect of our jobs. And sales is no exception. Salespeople need the right sales tools to help them do their jobs more efficiently and effectively. Jonathan explains, "Sales professionals are ruthless in prioritization. All they care about is closing deals, and every second they spend away from closing deals is not an efficient use of their time. And now I'm oversimplifying that. I know there's a lot more to sales than just closing deals. But if you think about how they can be more efficient in closing deals, it's giving them the tools to do that. They don't want to spend time creating something new, or creating a new tool, or thinking through something from scratch. Anytime they can find a template or a toolkit and just plug their information into it, it's going to help them close more deals."
- Lean into existing sales resources. There are so many sales tools available on the market that you really don't have to reinvent the wheel and create them yourself. Instead, you can lean into what's already out there. Jonathan says, "If you're a sales professional, I would say don't reinvent the wheel. There are thousands, literally — probably tens of thousands — of templates and toolkits that work that are accessible to you. And if you're spending a lot of time doing something from scratch or doing something inefficiently, I'd encourage you to go out there and search, and I'd encourage you to use The Juice to do that for a template that can make your life easier, make you more efficient in your role, make you more effective in your role, and save you a ton of time."
Episode Highlights
Empathy is vital
“I think that is something, whether it’s the pandemic impact or kind of the macroeconomic impact, there’s this empathy that sales reps are trying to find and trying to strike the right balance with their audience, and they’re trying to find content to help them strike that empathy.”
Engage your audience, no matter your role
“We all love stories regardless of role, and I think that’s so important that even if you’re presenting templates or toolkits or speaking to an audience who’s focused on efficiency, you don’t want to just make it so dry; the goal of good content should be to educate and entertain. And I think that’s important to remember — that storytelling is such a critical piece of that, no matter your audience.”
Sales tools are not just for sales professionals
“I wouldn’t think just of sales activity as for sales reps. Whether you’re a marketer, a product person, the goal for all of us is to make our sales team more effective. So I would encourage you to explore sales content, understand the challenges that they’re facing, what they’re thinking, and think about how your own role can impact sales.”
Salespeople know exactly what they want
“I think it’s pretty unsurprising that sales reps may be wired a little bit more transactionally than the typical audience; so, they want to know exactly what they’re getting into and exactly what they’re going to get out of it when they approach the piece of content. And some of our most popular pieces showed that. And the other thing is, I think if they’re out of that mode, they want the exact opposite mode, which is high empathy and fun storytelling that they can empathize with. And I think that, again, is what we saw in our data.”