Strong Contributors to Sales Success with Jon Ferrara

09/09/21 • 43 min

Sales Talk for CEOs

HIGHLIGHTS

2:00 From Goldmine to Nimble, Jon’s entrepreneurial journey
8:20 Be present for your family's growth. Don't let your career get in the way of being with your loved ones.
18:17 The secret sauce to making connections and closing sales - listening more and being human
29:24 Integrating more and more communication systems into Nimble
33:04 Making it easy for the buyer to buy from you

QUOTES

2:02 “It really starts with our first company that I co-founded called GoldMine. I started that company out of a personal need, I struggled as a sales person.”
8:20 “I came to the conclusion that I’m on this planet to grow my soul and the best way to grow my soul is to be present with people who love me and help them grow. So I decided to dedicate that time to being a present father, husband, and member of my community”
15:55 If you share content... those influencers will start conversations with you and you have to reel them in to do one on one face to face”
16:10 "You don't want to start talking about yourself and your products. What you want to do is prepare for the meeting, learn about them... ask some questions and shut the F up and listen... "
23:10 “You just have to be thoughtful, share what you believe in, interact with the people that you want to interact with you then it starts to work.” “You have to be human...”
34:14 “I encourage every CEO listening today to go be their own customer, to go try to buy from their own company... pretend you’re your own customer and evaluate yourself from that perspective... many of you will be shocked.”

Connect with Jon Ferrara:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jon_Ferrara

Website: http://www.nimble.com/

Blog: www.nimble.com/blog

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

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

2:00 From Goldmine to Nimble, Jon’s entrepreneurial journey
8:20 Be present for your family's growth. Don't let your career get in the way of being with your loved ones.
18:17 The secret sauce to making connections and closing sales - listening more and being human
29:24 Integrating more and more communication systems into Nimble
33:04 Making it easy for the buyer to buy from you

QUOTES

2:02 “It really starts with our first company that I co-founded called GoldMine. I started that company out of a personal need, I struggled as a sales person.”
8:20 “I came to the conclusion that I’m on this planet to grow my soul and the best way to grow my soul is to be present with people who love me and help them grow. So I decided to dedicate that time to being a present father, husband, and member of my community”
15:55 If you share content... those influencers will start conversations with you and you have to reel them in to do one on one face to face”
16:10 "You don't want to start talking about yourself and your products. What you want to do is prepare for the meeting, learn about them... ask some questions and shut the F up and listen... "
23:10 “You just have to be thoughtful, share what you believe in, interact with the people that you want to interact with you then it starts to work.” “You have to be human...”
34:14 “I encourage every CEO listening today to go be their own customer, to go try to buy from their own company... pretend you’re your own customer and evaluate yourself from that perspective... many of you will be shocked.”

Connect with Jon Ferrara:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jon_Ferrara

Website: http://www.nimble.com/

Blog: www.nimble.com/blog

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

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

Directing Sales Profitability with Transparency with Ganesh Shankar

HIGHLIGHTS

01:46 Starting RFPIO and helping companies respond to RFPs more efficiently

10:07 Ganesh's sales experience was a natural progression to CEO

14:01 Trial and error: Changing company goals to figure out behavior

19:21 Celebrate sales milestones and recognize the efforts of every team member

23:15 Filling the organization structure with the right people at the stages

31:45 Future forecast for RFPIO and success with an onboarding specialist

38:46 Sales tips for fellow CEOs

QUOTES

08:27 "We realized salespeople never logged into those system. They have accounts already working on. They don't want to log in. So go with cheaper solution."

14:26 "Compensation drives behavior. The second one is, time kills deals. Two things it is always in my mind. When we started scaling, we as an organization were looking at what is that year 1, what is the behavior that we want?"

19:34 "We as a company celebrated every small milestone the sales team brought in. Everybody from top to bottom, even an intern who's on the engineering team was made part of the sales team."

25:21 "My entire sales team knows it will change. Either the quotas will change, the territories will change, the industries will change, but not in between."

39:07 "Make sure you're not creating a conflicting competition plan. Make it clean and simple, easy for sales team to understand, and go after it. It'll make your life so much easier."

Connect with Ganesh Shankar in the link below.

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

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

The Importance of Understanding Sales with Steve Benson

HIGHLIGHTS

[3:06] Being a business owner with a sales background

[6:59] Getting people onboard in your company - what you can do as CEO

[10:50] Building the sales organization in your company

[20:41] Supporting sales and the CEO's growing role

[25:51] Making your customer feel important, secure and happy

[31:00] Hiring outside help to communicate more freely in the office

QUOTES

[6:30] “It's really useful to have a sales background starting a company, at first you are not just selling a product, you're selling for people to join a company”

[7:00] "If you're a CEO you better be good at sales and telling your stories if you want others to come to your company right now"

[12:56] "You do need to have experience with hiring sales people and it's definitely a skill"

[20:43] "If I keep my toe on the water too much, it hurts the company from a sales perspective because I'm spread too thin... you see this a lot in companies, whatever the CEO is really great at is what their company is weak at"

[24:46] "Talking to your sales people is a great way to keep your fingers on the pulse of the business"

Connect with Steve Benson in the link below:

Website: https://www.badgermapping.com/

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

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/