[00:00:00] Luigi Prestinenzi: Welcome. This is the sales IQ podcast. My name is Luigi Preston NZ, and I'm on a mission to help salespeople be the best sales professionals they can be each week. We'll bring you a different message from thought leaders around the globe so we can help you master the art of selling.

Coming into 2021 almost February. It's almost a month down of the new calendar year. How have you started, has your pipeline looking? How are you performing against the goals you set for yourself? Either late last year or early? I think it's one of the things when it comes to selling, that's absolutely crucial is really setting up the formula of what will deliver success and building out the goals and understanding the performance metrics that will enable us to achieve the outcome that we're working towards if you haven't already done.

So that's one of the things that I would suggest doing sooner rather than later, because before you know it, the quarter, the month. The wakes the will get away from you. And you've being a reactive position versus a proactive position. And we all know stress comes from when we've reactive, when we're chasing our tail, when we're just not in control of the outcome that we desire.

And this is why I'm really excited to share this week's episode, because we're talking to a practitioner, uh, Leslie, who. Has sold to what I would feel. You know, what I feel is probably one of the hardest buyers to sell to procurement. Right. Um, and so it's a really interesting conversation that we're going to have about the tactics and strategies that Lezlie has.

Yeah, executed to successfully engage and build relationships with procurement to help get her sales over the line. And it doesn't matter if you're selling to procurement or not the tactics and strategies that she shares are things that every seller can use to improve the sales process. So I'm really looking forward to diving into this episode with her, but, you know, before we get into today's episode, I really want you to think about, and I said this on mindset Monday.

Um, earlier this week, if you haven't had a chance to listen. It's only short five or six minutes. Get on there to hear it because it's all about kind of planning. It's all around planning. It's all about setting the foundation of success. You've heard me talk about this time in and time again, that sales isn't a result of just getting that outcome because you go well magic.

There it is. There's a magic number that I want it to get. It's a combination of the mindset, the way in which we show up, it's a relentless focus on building a sustainable pipeline and then the magic happens. The number, you know, we'd get our sale number. We might not, but ultimately if we're doing the hard work for showing up every day with that right intent, that right mindset, and we're spending the time building a sustainable pipeline, growing, nurturing relationships, filling the relationship funnel, not just filling the sales funnel, we're going to enable that.

To have the best chance of achieving success. So really want you to think about that as we progress into the latter half of January, because again, you don't want to be chasing your tail. You don't want to be in a point of being reactive because that can just cause you know, just unwanted stress. And we've had enough stress from 2020 2021 is about breaking the shackles and going above and beyond.

You know, things that we might not have achieved in 2020. So yeah. Enjoy this episode. This is a really good episode. We're going to talk about some of those tactics and strategies that you can use a media. To enhance the relationships across every element of the operation or the organization that you're chasing this episode is brought to you by video video, the online video tool for sales professionals.

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So buckle up, enjoy the episode because I know I took a lot away from this.

Welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I really excited to have you on. And, uh, before we get stuck into today's topic and I don't know where this is going to go, so this could go anywhere, but I would love to learn a little bit more about you and how you started in the world of sales.

[00:04:50] Leslie Venetz: You're keeping me on my toes, Luigi.

It's a good start. I love it. Um, how did I start in sales? I think it's a really common. Story. I absolutely just stumbled into sales. Um, wasn't the career, the profession. I, I pictured myself being in, um, you know, in university or even, um, moving to Chicago, but I moved from Montana. To Chicago, without a job applied for a ton of different positions in marketing and nonprofit management and events.

And finally took a position with a British business intelligence and events company. With the guys, it was a sales position, but I took it very much with the guys that like, I'll just wait it out in the sales position until an event position opens up and then I'll get them to transfer me to, to that department.

But within a couple of weeks I realized sales was it. I loved it. And you know, here we are over a decade later.

[00:05:50] Luigi Prestinenzi: Wow. And what's been sort of the biggest learning of the journey so far?

[00:05:56] Leslie Venetz: Well, the biggest learning. Wow. I think something that has really stuck with me because I got it so wrong early on in my career was the importance of.

Your personal brand and separating that from your company's brand and, and just really protecting your integrity at all costs. Um, I, I don't think that I, I got that right straight out of college. I don't think I put. Uh, priority on that and certainly harmed my reputation, um, in, in the early years of my career.

So I think that's maybe been the most important learning and, and something that I am just very thoughtful and intentional about now.

[00:06:46] Luigi Prestinenzi: Okay. So brand personal brand is something that if you could go back and do it again, it may be approach that a little bit different. I

[00:06:55] Leslie Venetz: would, yeah, I think, I mean, I I've always like had a lot of pride in, in my integrity in sales, but I think I would have, I think I would've made some choices differently and I may not have towed the company line as closely as I did.

[00:07:15] Luigi Prestinenzi: Oh. I think we've all been there. Right. I think we learn, we learn through experience. So, um, you know, I'm not the sales professional and today. With high integrity and ethics, um, that I'll Wallace. You know, when I first started, um, there was always that gray line and I was always comfortable pushing that gray line thinking while I'm getting the outcome that I want.

But I quickly learned that, you know what, you're making a sale, not a customer. You know, and you've got to go through that process. You got to go through that process of, you know, of learning. Um, so, you know, fast forward today. And one of the things that I, I I'm finding interesting is that you're working in a, in a role where you're actively selling and then you're also consulting and coaching salespeople to be the best they can be.

So that's a, quite an interesting sort of environment that you've created for your.

[00:08:04] Leslie Venetz: No. I like to keep myself busy, but, uh, yeah, I, I have a day job, uh, selling to two procurement, which I think is just interesting in and of itself. Um, and then I have, uh, Side gig, um, with a sales consulting company, I started called sales team builder, but that's really, for me, just about helping people, like you said, a achieve their personal best and, uh, you know, that that's more of a feel good kind of side gig.

[00:08:37] Luigi Prestinenzi: And will that, would that feel good ever become the day?

[00:08:42] Leslie Venetz: Yeah. It's so interesting that you asked that. So I was talking to one of my mentors, a guy called Josh Braun. I don't know if you're

[00:08:49] Luigi Prestinenzi: with him on the email. He's like an email podcasts. Actually. People keep telling me, people keep telling me how good I follow a lot of his content.

Yeah. Okay.

[00:09:00] Leslie Venetz: I love Josh Braun. He's amazing. He's an amazing mentor. Uh, but you know, we were talking about where I see myself and why I do this consulting and why I've lost my dang mind. And I've started this, this sales tips talk on, on take talk, and I'm working on some other side projects as well. And you know, at the end of the day, I would say my goal is for.

The freedom to do the type of work I want with the type of people I want when I want, where I want. I'm not sure if that's going to be through sales team builder or through something else. But I do know for now, at least the Weegee that I love working in a corporate structure, I love having a team. I love having people.

I can bounce ideas off of. I, I really. For, at least the foreseeable future, um, love striking the balance between that, that very normal day job with a team with teammates, and then still being able to explore new, different ways of working and, and, um, opportunities to support people through that, that side

gig.

[00:10:11] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah. That's really interesting. So you've got a very clear picture on why. Your why is, and what the role will enable you to achieve, but you've also got some, some key needs of what the corporate structure delivers

[00:10:27] Leslie Venetz: and some balance, right. And I mean, no organization is perfect. And, you know, I think for me, I, I kind of gave up on that concept that I'm going to find the perfect job, the perfect company that's going to fulfill all of my needs.

And instead I, I, you know, have this great job for a great company. I take it for what it's worth and, you know, use things like my side gig, or even like volunteering that fulfill some of those other needs for me, that, that create the full, the full picture.

[00:10:59] Luigi Prestinenzi: So when we look at the world of selling, right, I think this is what I really liking about this conversation is, like I said, you got that picture of what, of, what the future needs to look like for you.

Right. And, um, and what you're doing now is a vehicle for you to get there in your opinion. Like when you look at selling, how important is it for sales professionals to really uncover that, why that motivation that sits underneath, like you're talking to procurement leaders all the time who could be described as quite analysts.

No emotion, you know, they, they're looking at Excel spreadsheets and comparing providers. And basically at the end of the day, we're looking at price. How do you go in there and actually try to help them look past the Excel sheet and find that in.

[00:11:45] Leslie Venetz: Yeah, that is such a great question. And I think, you know, for, for almost my entire career, I've managed people.

And one of the things I realized very early on that was counter intuitive for me is that it's rare that a sales person's top motivation is money. I'm sure that you've probably uncovered that in your own life or. Read reports on, on that. And so when I realized that money, wasn't the number one, motivator.

It, it made me have a hard look at what does motivate people. Is it recognition? Is it appreciation? Is it, um, you know, being able to provide for their family? Is it money, but by way of, I want to go on this vacation. I dreamed of my whole life. So, you know, I, I think we all have these, um, sub motivators, these internal motivators and, uh, you know, just like anybody.

Procurement leaders, procurement officers put their pants on one leg at a time and they have those motivations. So, you know, I think that it's, it's too often that we view them as being hugely analytical. And that's not to say that we don't need to give them hard data on the ROI to base decisions on they are making commercial decisions, but we need to understand.

What motivator set behind that. And is it, um, you know, risk aversion? Is it fear of missing out? Um, is it just being able to save time and make a better decision so they can use that time to go home and hang out with their kids, but, uh, Yeah, procurement folks are an interesting bunch, but they're certainly not like the one dimensional analytical group that just slams our deal, slammed the brakes on our deals at the end of the road that we think they are,

[00:13:32] Luigi Prestinenzi: because I think we've all been, look, I definitely have been there.

Right. I've been there where I've worked tirelessly on a larger deal. So not necessarily such a small deal. Right. But have worked tirelessly and to my mistake, I didn't try to research or didn't find out what to procurement policy of that organization was. And then I got to a point of, you know, of acceptance.

And then at the last minute it was, well, hang on a second. Our internal procurement policy says, we need to now go to tender because it's over a certain amount of value, right. To this saying it's triggered something. And, you know, from my perspective, that was my fault. Not knowing that, that I should have prepared for that.

But, um, and so often you kind of forget. The procurement process, or if, forget about the fact that there's somebody else that's going to be part of the decision making process. I mean, from your perspective, um, given that you sell to procurement all the time, do you bring them on the journey earlier in the process and risk them kind of, you know, having a, having a very, uh, very, you know, uh, what's the word I'm looking for?

[00:14:41] Leslie Venetz: Um, singular view.

I, I think that the short answer is yes. So, you know, I'm very lucky in my job that I, you know, on a weekly basis, get to talk to 10, 12, 15 chief procurement officers from the fortune 1000. And, and I can tell you Luigi, that something that I hear from them as a pain point in almost every conversation.

Is that they just want to get closer to their business partners. So our customers, and they just want to be involved earlier in the process. Procurement is they're eager to help. They're eager to understand the needs of their, their business partners. And what I think we, as salespeople fail to recognize is that procurement sits in the business in a way that they have sort of that 360 degree view.

Nobody else really marketing doesn't have a 360 degree view of the business. Neither does sales, neither does legal or HR. You know, you name the function. Um, so procurement is able. To lend insights and to create sort of cross-functional ties in ways that other groups camp that our customers probably can't.

So the short answer is yes. Get them involved at the beginning. And I think the longer answer is get them involved in a way that is meaningful. Not by just giving them a seat at the table, but by giving them a seat at the table and then saying, what can you tell us that we wouldn't know otherwise?

Yeah.

[00:16:16] Luigi Prestinenzi: So you talk about your meaningful seat at the table. What have you done when you've been faced with a procurement leader? That's really only looking at the spreadsheet and not the, you know, the business outcomes that this can lead to.

[00:16:34] Leslie Venetz: How are you just describing my Q4?

[00:16:39] Luigi Prestinenzi: Because I think that's the child and that's not just the challenge is procurement, right? It's a challenge that when there's multiple stakeholders. Cause obviously if you're, if you're saying. Into procurement, then that means your deal value is quite high. Is that correct? So you're selling larger based deals.

Um, and I think for most larger based deals, you're not selling to one single decision maker. There's multiple people involved in the decision making process. Yes. Some would call them influences strategic coaches, all that stuff. Right. There's all these tips, but ultimately there's a, there's a little committee and not always on that committee.

Everybody's going to be on your side. And somebody is looking at it with the lens of a spreadsheet or a number, not looking at the outcome because they're not emotionally connected to the project. What are you do in that situation? When you've got somebody there that isn't emotionally connected and they are purely looking at the bottom.

[00:17:35] Leslie Venetz: Yeah. Two things popped into my head straight away. One is that it could be really useful to understand who procurement's executive sponsor is. If you're getting procurement involved in your, your deals. Um, because they don't often report to the CEO, they usually report to either a CEO or a CFO. So that's going to tell you a lot about procurement's motivations and clearly if the reporting line is to a CFO, they're going to be much more done.

And since focused. So, you know, that might be something to uncover and research very early on in your sales process, because it could change how you're communicating value to, you know, to your customer, to the broader stakeholders. Um, but in, in thinking about your question, when we do, when you run into a specific individual that is just a blocker to still a challenge or phrase, um, I.

You know, if they're really a blocker, like there is nothing that I'm going to be able to tell them that that's going to change the way they perceive the value. I'm not going to waste my time. What I do see is that salespeople will think they've encountered a blocker when they're actually just encountering a cynic.

That's asking tough questions. So differentiating between a blocker and a cynic is so important because if you have a cynic in brace, that person have them ask those hard questions, get out all of those objections. It's, it's just going to make this the sales process stronger. And it's going to allow you to build more value in the long run.

[00:19:13] Luigi Prestinenzi: You know what? I never thought about a lot. That's really interesting. So cynic versus. Cynic, they just questioning what's happening. So they've got some information that they need before they can come on board and actually accept the journey. And a blocker truly has another ulterior motive sitting behind that we haven't uncovered.

Right. And that's the reason why they're blocking. So that's really interesting. So first the term between the cynic and the blocker, um, and what other strategies do you use? Because obviously if you're selling larger, that based on. You've got multiple stakeholders. What other strategies do you use to encourage other stakeholders to get involved in the sales process?

[00:19:52] Leslie Venetz: Um, you know, a lot of things I would say. I'm really active on LinkedIn. I know you are as well. I find LinkedIn to be an extraordinarily valuable tour because if you were waiting to get influencers involved, when it's a sales process, I'm using air quotes. They're like it's almost too late. You know, you want to, to have those individuals interacting with you, interacting with your brand, your product before there is a sales process to be had.

I think that's, that's really important. A work in progress on that. I think we can, can always do better in terms of leading with, you know, meaningful insights leading with actionable awareness, but that is, that's something I'm very focused on, um, related to LinkedIn. I am very intentional about multithreading.

I don't know if that's a phrase that folks are familiar with, but it generally just means reaching out to all of the influencers. So, you know, multithreading account. If, if you know, company X is somebody that's on my top 100 campaign list or it's somebody, I know my SDRs are going after, or maybe a meeting's already been set now I, you know, I see it hit my calendar.

I'm going to take the time to go to LinkedIn or, or go to the sales nav. You know, whatever, uh, tools you're using and find everybody else that I think is going to influence the decision and send them an invite to connect. And it's not an ask for anything. I'm not asking for their feedback. I'm not asking them to get on a call with me at this point.

I'm just connecting with them. So I can be in the space where my customers and my influencers are, so I can hear what they're talking

about. So just on that, Like, even if you haven't met them yet, but you know, they're going to become part of the sales process. You go and proactively engage with them for.

Yep. 100%. That's great. Do you tell them war

it's great or creepy? Depends on your sake. I said it worked really well for me. No, I don't tell them why.

[00:21:56] Luigi Prestinenzi: Like contextualized, Octa customize and say, Hey, John, you know, want to connect because I be in C or would you just send a, a random connection with.

[00:22:07] Leslie Venetz: I generally send a request.

That's pretty similar across the board, which is something along the lines of, um, you know, Luigi. Hi, I saw X. So something personal about you. I saw you comment on X or I saw on your profile this something to make it kind of relevant, but not overly personalized. And then I say, you know, I frequently share procurement research and insights that I know you'll find valuable.

It would be good to have you in my network.

[00:22:37] Luigi Prestinenzi: That's pretty cool. That's um, I liked the, the start, there was like a Josh Braun special. That's pretty cool. Okay. So, so you connect with them. So you're proactively reaching out to them even before you start to engage with them in the sales process. So that, that way they can start seeing the content that you share and your brand, or the point of view that you've got will help elevate.

You in their eyes so that when they finally do encounter you or they finally do engage with you in the sales process, there's a form of connection there already.

[00:23:12] Leslie Venetz: Yep. Yeah. That's exactly what my hope is. Have you interacted with my brand? Have we built some credibility, some emotional attachment before I asked you for anything?

Yeah.

[00:23:22] Luigi Prestinenzi: That's pretty cool. Yeah. So, and you do that for pretty much all your deals. Yeah. Okay. That's it. You know, it's a great, a really good strategy. It's it's funny, you know, like, uh, I kind of, I kind of flip on that. Sometimes I do invite people beforehand. Um, sometimes I kind of get. You know, I, I try not to put too much tension on the sales process early.

I try to allow it to build its own momentum. Um, and then sometimes I try to slow it down if I feel that it's going too fast. Um, and it just needs a bit more time for, for, you know, in some cases it's really interesting. So, um, and what are some of the other strategies that you've learned when it comes to, you know, landing strategic accounts that.

I mean, if it all, let me actually flip this. What is the deal that you lost in your career? What's the one that got away that if you could go back and do it again, did you know you would actually have made that wine? Because we've all got that.

[00:24:20] Leslie Venetz: Yeah. There's one that I lost this year and I mean, it was like stage seven and sales for like, oh, we were forecasting this, it was 90%.

It was, it was, yeah, it was, it was happening, huge company, you know, 10, 10 billion plus, um, paper and packaging companies. So I was like, they, you know, they have the money. It's pandemic. Isn't affecting them. They're pumping out all this corrugated paper. Like I got this and what I failed to do two things.

One, they were using a compass. And I failed to really make sure that they understood that the pain of same was greater than the pain of change. Um, they, you know, they were, were not unhappy with it. They weren't happy with the status quo, but they weren't unhappy. And I just did not do. Uh, enough to, to create that sort of risk aversion or that aversion to the status quo.

That was one thing in, in retrospect that I should have done more of. And the other area that I made a mistake was that I, I was wounded. By a talker. I was, I was wooed by a guy who I thought was a mobilizer. Yup. Cause he said all the right things and he had all the right answers to my questions. And if I'm being honest, I just really liked him.

Um, and because of that, I just, I didn't push him harder. And I just, I did not follow up with enough clarity around the expectations of, of where the sales process needed to be going. Um, and so when it came down to the decision, The entire time he told me that he had been chatting. It was, it was not the CPO.

That was sort of my, my mobilizer or who I thought was my mobilizer. Uh, and the entire time he had told me that he was, you know, talking weekly with the CPO about XYZ things and everybody was on the same page. And then it, it got to that final call with the CPO, for the decision. And absolutely nothing had been related back to him and he'd decided to stay with the competitor.

So two big mistakes,

[00:26:41] Luigi Prestinenzi: you got single stakeholder sensitive account and the expectations on the sales process weren't explicit enough so that it didn't create enough clarity on next steps.

[00:26:55] Leslie Venetz: Yep. Yeah, I think I did not. The entire time I should have, uh, you know, I, I think Ben asking, okay. You know, person mobilizer that I'm talking to, you said that you talked to CPO about this.

What specific feedback did the CPO give you? What specific questions did the CPO ask you? I really should have probed deeper and pushed harder and not just taken this gentleman's word for it because in the end. He had been lying the entire

time. What do you think was it to get a better deal from his current provider?

Was it to get some insight into, to help him with his approach? Cause I know that, you know, one of the things that I hate about, you know, what we do is some companies think it's okay. To extract information from sellers before they buy from them. Right. And it's, you know, they, they, they forget that their time is variable, which is funny because they're paying a Salesforce usually that are doing the same thing.

And I think there is a little bit of a lack of respect. Sometimes we think we can kind of extract. Stuff. Pre-sales which part of it. I'm okay with I'm okay. About giving stuff before people buy, because that's how, that's one of the reasons why we build such great relationships. But I think, um, some companies do it with the intent where they know they're actually not going to buy, but the using it as a mechanism, whether it's.

You know what I need to get a quote from you. And I need to get some information from you because I need to validate this purchase that I've already got, that I'm already confirmed with, but I need to go to you anyway, but I know I meant intentionally going to waste your time. Um, that's happened to me a few times.

I don't know if it's happened to you, but you get called into a process. You start the process and then you realize, mate, we never had a chance at this because I had already made a decision with somebody else. And as part of the procurement process was they needed to develop that three prices. Oh, I've just got off a tangent there.

Right. But if we can, but if we take it back to that particular deal, do you think, did he ever another motive sitting behind that?

Yeah, I think, yeah, I can get two motives. I think one was just the, like the feeling of impatient. He, you know, he, he wasn't even a direct report to the CPO. He was, he was minus two.

And so I think he felt important that he was asked to, to be in charge of this. And he liked having me on the line, listening to everything. And really soaking it up and doing the oohs and the off, you know, I think part of it was, was that he, he wasn't talker and he liked having an audience. And then to your point, Luigi, he absolutely used my contract to go back to his current provider and get a better price because he told me he did.

Oh, well just, just told me she did.

[00:29:49] Luigi Prestinenzi: So when does that contract come up for renewal? And the next year now. So will you be going over his head straight to the CPO?

[00:29:57] Leslie Venetz: I have them, I have them all in a nurture cadence right now. I have, I have both of them. And then I have a couple of the other decision-makers that I was in touch with.

Um, but yes, definitely. I will. And I, I mean, I think at that point it's, it's okay to say being candid with you last year, I had many, many conversations with mobilizer. And at the end of the day, I realized that much of that discussion was not making it to you. And ultimately, this is your decision and ultimately this is your team.

So I'm either going to have the dialogue with you or, or this just isn't a mutual fit and we're not having the dialogue again because I'm, you know, fool me once, fool me twice sort of thing.

[00:30:39] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah. And, and how do you lead that conversation? Like what type of visit is a product first or outcome? Is it outcome focused?

Hey, Mr.

[00:30:50] Leslie Venetz: Yeah, definitely outcome focused.

[00:30:52] Luigi Prestinenzi: That's really interesting. You know, that's awesome that you thinking about that as going, Hey, I've already got my talk track around how I will position. With that person, if you're going over somebody's head. Cause I think a lot of sales professionals, they fear going over somebody's head or going around somebody that you're dealing with because they come become sensitive.

Then they're only dealing with one person that creates quite a high risk with the account. Um, so I love the way that you're thinking already is, you know, how are you going to go around that person, um, and engage directly with the decision.

[00:31:24] Leslie Venetz: And, you know, that made me think of something else that, uh, makes multithreading very, very useful.

Prior to having the sales process start or having the meeting set up is that if I am calling you and let's say you are, are not the CPO. Um, but I, you know, I want to do a little phone research. I want to feel things out, but I do not want to allow you to own this process. I, you know, I don't want to hear the dreaded go ahead and send something.

Socialize it at the end, if you start the dialogue by saying, yeah. You know, Louie Jim also talking to, to June and I've had some correspondence with Simon and exchange some emails with Dan, you're starting the conversation by letting them know. That, that you're not coming to them to, to be your champion.

And you're not putting any pressure on them to be your champion. And if that kind of organically happens and that's where it goes, and it makes sense then great. But it takes some of that power away from them and it takes some of that, that pressure away from them at the beginning of the dialogue.

[00:32:23] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah.

That's fantastic. Yeah. I really liked that. And I just want to ask you a quick question about sort of, you know, If you can go back and do it all again. Right. So if you had the opportunity to start your sales career, again, apart from the personal brand element, what's one thing you would do immediately in your new role.

So if you had to start again, starting a new sales role, what's one thing, you know, delivers incredible results every single time.

[00:32:55] Leslie Venetz: Oh my gosh. I don't know if I have an answer for this off the top of my hat. What is one thing that I know delivers incredible cold calling? I do. I have an answer. It's cold calling.

I love cold calling and I just I'm so sick of the, you know, clickbait cold calling is dead. It's not dead. It's never going to be dead. It's people like talking to other people, even if you're not reaching a decision maker, being able to use cold calling to understand who the decision maker is, get different direct dials, uncover what the needs are in the organization.

It is such, such a useful tool. So I don't know if I necessarily would do that differently because I started out on the phones making like, you know, 207 calls a day every day. For, for many years, I was like a proper cold color straight out of college. I, you know, I think that reinforces how useful it is and, you know, it's an incredible skill set that you should flux early and keeping your toolbox throughout your career.

[00:33:53] Luigi Prestinenzi: I'm so aligned with that. And that's why I'm what I'd asked, what you would do again, versus what you would do differently. Right? Because their strategies, we know. That worked quite well. And I think you're right. Clickbait cold calling is far from dead. I saw a report from HubSpot that shows email open rates since the pandemic started bad.

They're horrible. Maybe have more people are sending emails, but less people are opening them. Um, you know, and phone. You find kind of cut through all that. Um, and you're right. You know, I started in the same school, um, boiler room type of contact center, man. We didn't have no dialers. We didn't like we didn't have no chorus or anything like that.

It was literally touching computers. Yeah. I had a rule ruler and on a pain man, and it was touched all and we still, and you know what, we still had to make 150 $200, um, without all the automation. So I think, you know, some of the sales pros today and some of the STRs don't know how good they got it with all this technology stacks.

[00:34:57] Leslie Venetz: I was on a training this morning. I asked my, it was like a SDR prospecting team. And I asked if any of them had ever worked for an organization that didn't have zoom info. And none of them had.

[00:35:09] Luigi Prestinenzi: And it's like, oh

[00:35:10] Leslie Venetz: man,

[00:35:13] Luigi Prestinenzi: you're right. I think that's what we kind of forget. You know, we, we forget today that, and this is in my eyes.

Um, I truly believe the philosophy yourselves hasn't changed. Um, the philosophy of sales is, is always going to be the same. If there's, if there's a value, if somebody needs what you've got and there's value and they can see the value, don't make the investment. And there's relationship with is all that stuff that sits around it.

But the technology in which we use that enable sales professionals in businesses has changed. Right. And you're right. The fact is back in the day, um, we didn't have a person's name. We didn't have a person's phone number. Like now we can get direct dolls, validated data and know that, that mobile, that email address exists on either role have already sped up.

And I think, I think that. Is actually kind of hindered our industry because there's a lot to be learned, finding out, like being curious, looking at reports, um, looking at a company and going, uh, well, this company has somebody on the board of that company and that person, like there's actually a. There's a learning and it enables you to be curious and thinking and, and think differently when you've got to create your list from nothing.

That's how we did it. Right. We had to literally go, right. Whether it was yellow pages or has to go out in the street and drive in industrial parks to see the companies and brought them down. Maybe going, knock on, who do I speak to? You get told to, you know, get lost or that's the person then go back and build my list manually.

You know, that was hardcore. Right. But I think there's a lot to be learned by doing that. It's kind of like the school of hard knocks, but it's enabled to me. I don't know. Well, what do you think, like, do you think we're kind of missing that in, in the, in the modern day sales environment?

[00:37:11] Leslie Venetz: I do. I do. I, I, uh, you know, on the training I led this morning, I probably use the phrase put on your detective cap five times for, for that exact reason.

And, and, you know, you've probably seen on my LinkedIn headline, one of my, you know, phrases or whatever is endlessly curious, uh, because you know, having to. You know, maybe this is a couple of years later, but going to two Google maps and zooming in to say, okay, well, I, uh, you know, I'm going to pitch this company or I'm gonna meet this company.

And here are all the other companies he has around it that maybe I can do that in an impact statement or see them at the same time or. Um, you know, going to a competing event and pulling up their speaker list and understanding how those folks are, maybe, you know, speaking at the same events as other folks that are already members are, have already purchased my product.

So certainly creating those webs and creating those ties to, to have a chance to reach out in a way. That's not just personalized, but relevant and meaningful. I don't think that's lost. And what I find and tell me if you agree. But what I find is that now there are simply too many conversations. There's too much focus on what your sales tech stack looks like.

And there just aren't enough conversations happening about. What your customer needs and, and, uh, you know, I think we've lost our way a bit, but that's okay because that means that the best salespeople, you know, that that cream will still rise to the top. If you care about your customer and you, you, you know, bringing it back to the beginning of our conversation, if you have that, why that drives you?

[00:38:50] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah, you're right. Wrong metrics, tech stacks, you know, things that we kind of forget. It's actually really basic. We've got a buyer. They've got a need. We need to understand them what their motivations are, what they need, what their outcomes, and then just create an experience that's going to enable them to get to that point of.

Um, and we kind of forget, you know, all those tech stacks even completely irrelevant. If we can't create that experience, if we can't create that unique buying experience for them, then all the textbooks do. They're just kind of there for the sake of being there because, um, you know, it's, it's really interesting, but look, we could talk about this topic for hours.

So I've really enjoyed this conversation. I think we've, we've pivoted a few ways in the lot to learn, but, um, before we wrap up, where can our listeners find a bit more about you and connect and engage?

[00:39:41] Leslie Venetz: Absolutely. Well, I just launched my TikTok channel at sales tips talk,

[00:39:50] Luigi Prestinenzi: oh God.

[00:39:52] Leslie Venetz: So please follow me there.

I'm I'm, you know, dropping new content three, four or five times a day every day and people tell me it's good. So I'm fingers crossed and then as always, I am on LinkedIn. So linkedin.com/in/leslie Vanette. So please find me there, send it invite to connect and Luigi, thank you so much for having me.

[00:40:14] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah.

Awesome. I mean, I haven't done the tick tock thing. You are just, I'm slow. I'm slow. I'm slow. I don't know if I can do it. Um, but, uh, I'll, I'll go check your profile out. Um, but look, thanks for coming on to the show. Thanks. The contribution you make, um, really enjoyed this conversation. I know our listeners will get a lot out of this is very tactical and I think there's a lot of learning for both strategic accounts and also, you know, smaller accounts and what people can do to, to, to be the best they can be.

So thanks very much for coming on the sales IQ podcast.

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This episode was digitally transcribed, some errors may be present.