Mistakes and Lessons in Building a Sales Organization with Zvi Guterman

06/07/22 • 40 min

Here's the reality: you'll make mistakes at every stage of building a company, especially when building a sales organization. But it's what you do with your mistakes that will determine your success. Entrepreneurs who catch the error, identify the problem, and correct it quickly are those who go on to build profitable, long-lasting businesses. Making mistakes—and learning lessons from them—is part of building a successful sales organization. And we're going to dive into that more in this episode with Zvi Guterman, CEO of CloudShare, an online platform that helps software vendors deliver virtual sales experiences.

In this interview, Zvi is upfront about the mistakes he's made as he's built the sales organization at CloudShare since 2007. He also reflects on the lessons he's learned from these mistakes that have helped build a strong sales team over time. We talk about many common mistakes that entrepreneurs make when building a sales organization, including growing too fast, hiring the wrong people, underestimating the importance of marketing, and overcomplicating things. For each example, you'll learn how Zvi has navigated the challenges and learned valuable lessons along the way. His insights will help your own journey as you build sales in your company, so check out the podcast now!

Highlights

4:55 Validating the business idea

9:24 Finding the right salespeople and helping them succeed

15:39 The mistake of moving too fast

21:53 The importance of marketing to strengthen sales

25:21 Navigating the different phases of the CEO's journey

35:49 Final advice for CEOs

Quote

"You may have the best technology, but nothing beats hearing your potential customers."

Connect with Zvi Guterman in the links below:

Website: https://www.cloudshare.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zviguterman/

You can learn more about and connect with Alice Heiman in the links below:

Website: https://AliceHeiman.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceheiman/

Highlights

4:55 Validating the business idea

9:24 Finding the right salespeople and helping them succeed

15:39 The mistake of moving too fast

21:53 The importance of marketing to strengthen sales

25:21 Navigating the different phases of the CEO's journey

35:49 Final advice for CEOs

Quote

"You may have the best technology, but nothing beats hearing your potential customers."

Connect with Zvi Guterman in the links below:

Website: https://www.cloudshare.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zviguterman/

You can learn more about and connect with Alice Heiman in the links below:

Website: https://AliceHeiman.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceheiman/

Previous Episode

How to Use Story as Rocket Fuel for Sales with Expert Park Howell

Every salesperson today wants to have more sales conversations. But they're difficult to get because it's become so hard to get the buyer's attention. Want to break through the noise? Try storytelling. Learning how to effectively use story in your messaging can dramatically increase the number of sales conversations and conversions. This is a big topic, and I know CEOs are eager to learn more about using story to boost their business. That's why I invited Park Howell, author of Brand Bewitchery and host of the Business of Story podcast, as the guest for this special episode in my Experts Series.

During our conversation, Park dives into the who, what, and why of using story as a business strategy. He explains what CEOs should understand about storytelling and why it's so effective. We discuss the 'how to' of good storytelling, including the ‘and-but-therefore’ (ABT) framework, and how to get your sales team actively involved in storytelling. Finally, you'll get several examples of companies that found great success when they started using story in their message.

I can personally attest to the power of storytelling because I've seen incredible results from it in my own business. If you're a CEO interested in using story in your messaging, get started today by listening to this podcast.

Highlights

2:32 What CEOs should understand about storytelling

5:56 How CEOs can use story to help sales

8:30 Future-based storytelling

11:37 The power of the founder's story

16:54 The ‘and-but-therefore’ (ABT) framework for storytelling

24:15 Training your sales team in storytelling

31:34 Real examples of how story can boost sales

Quote

“The number one rule is you are not the center of your story. Your customer is. It's all about them. The number two rule is your story is not about what you make. Because nobody actually cares about what you make. Your story is always about what you make happen in their lives.”

Connect with Park Howell in the links below:

Website: https://businessofstory.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkhowell/

You can learn more about and connect with Alice Heiman in the links below:

Website: https://AliceHeiman.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceheiman/

Next Episode

Building a Powerful Go-to-Market Machine with Jonathan Siddharth

Jonathan Siddharth is the CEO of Turing, an AI-backed Intelligent Talent Cloud that helps companies source, vet, match and manage software developers remotely. There are currently 1.5 million software developers on Turing, and the platform is used by huge companies like Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi, Dell, Disney, Coinbase, and more. The reason for Turing's wild success? Jonathan has strategically built a powerful go-to-market machine! And he's joining Sales Talk for CEOs to discuss exactly how he did it.

During our conversation, Jonathan explains how he waited to hire his sales team until he had two important things in place: a playbook and clear evidence of product-market fit. He then describes how he set up his go-to-market machine to be an engine that feeds qualified leads to his sales team so they can do what they do best – have sales conversations, close initial deals, and work on account expansion. If you're experiencing challenges with your go-to-market setup and could use some advice, you'll want to listen to this podcast episode!

Highlights

1:33 Three difficulties with finding and managing remote engineering teams

5:27 A shift in strategy saves a company

14:02 Product market fit + playbook = time to build sales

19:16 Building a go-to-market machine

26:12 Understanding the customer journey

32:39 Challenges caused by rapid growth

41:00 Advice for building demand, product-market fit, and exponential growth

45:30 Book recommendations for CEOs to learn more about sales

Quote

"When you have product-market fit, it feels different. It's more of the market pulling what you have rather than you pushing what you have."