The biggest adjustment for the world of enterprise sales, sales leadership, and sales executives right now is getting back to the basics.
We came out of a marketplace that was cluttered and booming. And it is now bouncing back in a big way. Buyers are more demanding than ever, and sales leaders need to seek to understand their customers.
The key criteria that founders need right now when building their enterprises and hiring leaders are:
- Digging deeper and getting to understand what it means to build an enterprise.
- Understanding the application of how to get to where they want to go, and also understanding the work that is required to get them there.
- People’s stories need to be honest, and the details need to be very specific.
Founders need to get right with themselves in terms of whether or not something is truly an enterprise. Truly understanding your business and the market you’re in speaks louder than anybody else, any podcast you listen to, or any article that you read.
There are many different ways to think about someone who is in a sales role, so people need to know how to look for and how to see the qualities that they require in those they want to hire when they conduct an interview. They need to realize that what people show is a lot more relevant than what they say, and that is why Amy encourages people to think well below the surface when someone makes a big statement at the surface level.
Many companies hide behind the culture, values, and beliefs that they stand for. For Amy, it is far more important to think deeply about what those things truly mean and how important they are when hiring someone.
What the makeup of Amy’s ideal sales leader for a startup or an enterprise to fit the needs of the market right now would look like:
- First and foremost, it has to be about people.
- They need to be able to be a customer-centric leader.
- Sales leaders need to feel very passionate about understanding the other bits and pieces that make up a business. So they need to be able to strategize and collaborate with product folk, executive leadership, customer success, accounting and finance, and marketing.
As an enterprise seller, you need to think about:
- Is your product a market fit?
- If your territory is good, can you spread your wings and fly, and do you have a real opportunity to be successful?
- Are you genuinely interested in what’s going on, and can you genuinely connect with who the buyers are in the journey?
- You don’t have all the answers, and things change, so know that you are never finished learning.
- Do you truly understand the work that you want to be doing?
If you are an employer looking for an enterprise rep, you want:
- Someone who can clearly articulate why they care about sales.
- Someone who has questions to ask at the end of the interview process.
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